Week 9 Exam 2 Flashcards
- James Marcia’s adolescent identity statuses:
o Identity achievement
o Moratorium
o Foreclosure
o Identity diffusion (role confusion)
o Identity achievement
By exploring roles and interests, adolescents move toward identity achievement, the realization and commitment to a coherent understanding of themselves and their relationship with society. This is the pivotal psychosocial achievement of adolescence, and it provides adolescents with an initial sense of direction, purpose, and a starting point in the world at large as they enter adulthood.
o Moratorium
In identity moratorium, individuals are actively exploring various identities but not declaring an identity to be fully formed, instead experiencing an “identity crisis.” Meeus (2023) noted that adolescents spend much of their time in identity moratorium, where identity is a work in progress. Although the term makes this sound negative, the moratorium provides the psychological space and motivation to explore.
- More common in emerging adulthood
- A pause in the quest
– Joining the military; working at a temp job, extend education, etc.
o Foreclosure
In Marcia’s concept of identity foreclosure, the developing teen shows an early commitment to an identity, claiming they know who they are and what they stand for, even if there is no evidence they did any exploratory work to reach that conclusion. For example, teens in early and even mid-adolescence will sometimes state their political values—such as by taking a particular stance on climate or immigration or foreign policy—but these values typically match those of their parents, and the adolescent cannot elaborate on any specifics.
- Lumping together traditional roles or values
- All-or-nothing approach: Either accepting or rejecting them all
o Identity diffusion (role confusion)
In identity diffusion, which most closely aligns with Erikson’s role confusion, individuals have low commitment and often feel lost; they do not actively seek an identity. Marcia (1980) described them as lacking a clear sense of where they will fit into society as an adult and at risk of role confusion. This might be an acceptable identity status in early adolescence, but society’s expectation is that all individuals will use these years to explore and pursue interests, abilities, and roles.
- Lacking commitment to goals or values; the opposite of achievement
- Typical in early adolescence, as hormonal surges & abstract thinking abilities trigger questioning
clique
A “close group of three to a dozen or so friends.”
- Teens form their own cliques
- Clique memberships let teens “try on” different identities.
- Some cliques have hierarchies, others are more equal
- More equality = higher within-group agression (there’s competition for leadership)
- Membership in high-status cliques protects against aggression from other cliques
CROWD
- A “large social grouping of many dozens or more members in the social milieu of adolescents.”
- The “social backdrop of adolescence”
- Teens choose to join some crowds
- Other crowds are chosen for them
- Be able to describe Erikson’s fifth stage (“identity versus role confusion”).
o Religious identity
Identifying with their parents’ religion, but questioning.
May reject practice of religion altogether.
o Political identity
Most adolescents reflect their parents’ views
o Racial and ethnic identity
Parents teach children pride in their heritage, ways to deal w/prejudice & bias
o Gender identity
The most difficult identity question for 21st-century adolescents
o Intersectionality
Overlaps of identities add complexity
For example, a teen may be Black, gay, and politically conservative
- Be able to describe James Marcia’s four identity statuses (listed above).
- Beginning around the year 2012, rates of depression and anxiety increased sharply among adolescents. Jonathan Haidt argues that two changes in the lives of children and teenagers (one beginning in the 1990s, the other around 2010) together are to blame.
- Be able to identify these two changes in childhood. How are they connected, according to Haidt? What two basic interventions can parents and schools apply in the 2020s to promote teens’ healthy development?
BEGINNING IN THE 1990s:
“SAFETYISM”
OVER-PROTECTED KIDS & TEENS
Constant adult supervision
Eliminating physical risks from playgrounds
Too little opportunity to learn independence and safety
BEGINNING IN 2010:
SMARTPHONES
NEW SOCIAL PRESSURE & RISKS ON UNPREPARED KIDS & TEENS
Social media
Online predators
Constant distractions
Never out of contact with parents
Almost no opportunity to learn to be alone/with other people, phone-free
- What two basic interventions can parents and schools apply in the 2020s to promote teens’ healthy development?
- Allow children free play and (age-appropriate) risks
- Limit screen time
- Phone-free schools
- No smart phones before high school
- No social media before age 16
