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Explain The Four Statuses Of Identity

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The Crises to Find Commitment
How does a person develop a sense of who they are? Identity crisis, a term created by renowned psychologist Eric Erikson, is a cycle of time used for the analysis of ourselves and searching for our true values and path for our identity. Psychologist James Marcia expanded on Erikson’s self-identity work and “believed that certain situations and events (called "crises") serve as catalysts prompting movement along this continuum and through the various identity statuses” (Oswalt, 2010). But while a fair percentage of individuals go through this process of crisis and self-realization, not every person goes through a crisis or has a set idea of the role they wish to play in their lives. There are four statuses of identity …show more content…
To better explain these statuses, I will use religion as my illustration. Many people face a crisis when it comes to the family values surrounding religion. A large portion of society holds religion to a very high standard and within the family dynamics this can either give a person momentum to follow their families track into religion, or question the meaning for them personally and choose a different path for themselves. Making this decision leads a person to identity achievement within that category of their life. However, a person would fall into the category of identity foreclosure if he or she chooses to follow their family’s choice of religion without question; therefor they have skipped having a crisis and fully committed themselves. A person who is midst of an identity crisis about whether to continue the family’s journey with religion or to discover a path that strays away from it falls into the category of identity moratorium. The final status is identity diffusion. A person who falls into this classification has not made a commitment nor had a crisis of identity. They have stayed very middle of the road by either not questioning enough about their experiences personally, or have not cared to seek other options. Many people, including myself, compartmentalize things within their life; this can lead to being in multiple categories at …show more content…
The first being identity achievement. In most portions of my life, I have found identity achievement through the crises I have faced. I have overcome the choice of career by weighing out the path that was laid out for me through my mother, and the one that broke convention. Ultimately I decided on my mother’s path after weighing how each choice would affect the rest of my life. Another crisis I have overcome to the result of commitment was my choice to get married. Even though I was excited to start my life with my best friend, there was a struggle between who I was, and who I was going to become. I wasn’t sure that the conventional route of marriage, house, and baby was the way I wanted to live. By overcoming this crisis, I have very stable commitment to my life as a wife and have accomplished identity achievement. The second category I place myself in would be identity moratorium. While getting married and obtaining achievement in that specific region seems like a no brainer now, I am now facing a new crisis after having my first child. The struggle to sort out who I am now has been a rough fight. I have to sort out once again the person I was and who I am

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