Question

Use the scenario below to frame your answer of the questions that follow

As you join some friends for coffee, they are discussing a group of classmates who seem to have problems with their identity development—some seem to have a rather incoherent, disjointed, incomplete sense of who they are; one seems to have made no exploration at all in any areas of his development and just does what his parents tell him, which he says is fine with him; and a couple of others behave in ways that are obviously contrary to social norms and mores. They turn to you to ask if there are classifications to describe these behaviors and how they might have developed. What do you tell them? Consider the following in your answer:

List and define identity statuses (5 points)

Identify which identity status may reflect what you observed in these friends (see scenario above) (5 points)

Explain what can happen to when an adolescent experiences problems with identity development (10 points)

Answer 1

According to Erikson, an identity crisis is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself. He believed that it was one of the most important conflicts people face in development.There are four identity status-

• Identity achievement occurs when an individual has gone through an exploration of different identities and made a commitment to one.
• Moratorium is the status of a person who is actively involved in exploring different identities, but has not made a commitment.
• Foreclosure status is when a person has made a commitment without attempting identity exploration.
• Identity diffusion occurs when there is neither an identity crisis or commitment.

Researchers have found that those who have made a strong commitment to an identity tend to be happier and healthier than those who have not.

In the first case,the students who show incoherent, disjointed, incomplete sense of who they are basically suffering from identity moratorium – the status in which the adolescent is currently in a crisis, exploring various commitments and is ready to make choices, but has not made a commitment to these choices yet.

In the second case,the students seem to have made no exploration at all in any areas of his development and just does what his parents tell him, which he says is fine with him; may be suffering from identity diffusion where they have no sense of having choices.

In the third case, the students seem to behave in ways that are obviously contrary to social norms and mores. may have suffered from identity achievement – the status in which adolescent has gone through a identity crisis and has made a commitment to a sense of identity (i.e. certain role or value) that he or she has chosen.

According to Erikson,during adolescence the individual begins to sense a feeling of his/her own identity.The activating inner agent in identity formation is the ego in its conscious and unconscious aspects. When an adolescent experiences problems with identity development,

• He can be impulsive.
• anxious
• feel isolated
• indecisive
• lot of self consciousness
• resistant
• can show a lot of embarrassment
• can feel he/she is regressing rather than progressing
• may develop negetive identity,i.e, a sense of possesing a set of potentially bad or unworthy characteristics
• may occur totalism