WINTER 2022 – Feb 2nd, 2021
Chapter 11: Lecture Notes
Start of Midterm 2 material!
Lecture Objects of Chapter 11: Human Development
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All the different ways that human change, grow, and decline throughout the lifespan.
Chapter 11 and 12 look at development and personality respectively, and both draw
from all other areas of psychology in order to understand these processes. They look at:
o Physical changes, Changes in cognitive processes, Sociocultural effects,
Psychosexual effects, Psychosocial effects, Attachment, Temperament, Moral
Development, Identify.
Developmental Psychology – Big Questions
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Is development a continuous process (incremental changes), or do we progress through
a series of distinct stages?
Is development largely determined by genetics, or does environment play a role? How
important is Nature vs. Nurture?
How important are early childhood experiences in determining our life outcomes?
Do cultural differences impact the typical developmental pattern?
How do children form relationships? What leads to shyness, aggression, self-esteem, or
healthy relationships?
How do children learn language? Or learn math?
How do we develop a sense of identity – sense of who we are as a person?
What factors protect against cognitive decline as we age?
Human Development
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The pattern of change in human capabilities (cognitive, emotional, social) that begins at
conception and continues throughout the life span (growth and decline).
Development is a complex interaction between biological maturation and environmental
experience.
o E.g., Going through a famine, or intense emotional stress, has an effect on
development.
Development involves Physical development, Cognitive development, and Social and
Emotional development.
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Human Development: Processes
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Physical processes involve changes in an individual’s biological nature (maturation).
o The body itself is changing but so are our physical capabilities. Babies are very
uncoordinated when they are first born, as they haven’t figured out how to move
their muscles properly. Coordination continues to grow.
o The brain continues to change as well. When we are initially born, we have more
brain cells than we need. As we use nerve cells in the brain, they strengthen up, and
ones that are not used prune up.
Cognitive processes involve changes in an individual’s thought patterns, intelligence, and
languages.
o How we think changes. Young people don’t have the same ability to think abstractly
or think critically.
Social and Emotional Processes involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other
people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality.
o We are able to understand a wider variety of emotional experiences and have more
complex social interactions as we develop.
All three are interdependent of each other, meaning they rely on each other during the
course of development. E.g., More complex cognitive thinking pattern requires physical
development of the brain.
How important are early experiences?
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Early-experiences doctrine – there is a relatively short period of early development that is
crucial, where our “self” or our “self” or our personality is largely determined and is “set.”
o This is what old psychology emphasized. Older adulthood is said to be all set by the
shaping that occurred during the beginning of life.
Later-experiences doctrine – early experiences are important, but we (our self and our
personality) are changeable, based on experience, throughout our lifespan. Thus, early
experiences do not dictate how we will be for the rest of our lives.
o This is what modern psychology focuses on. Our physical, cognitive, social, and
emotional processes will continue to change throughout the lifespan.
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Prenatal Development
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Germinal Period (weeks 1 and 2): from conception until zygote attaches to the uterine wall.
Embryonic Period (weeks 3 through 8): organs develop in rudimentary form.
o The beginning of cell differentiation (not present in previous period).
Fetal Period (months 2 through 9): organs mature.
o During this period, things that impact the way cells do their jobs can have an effect
on the person in their life.
Threats to the Fetus
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Teratogen: any agent (e.g., heroin, alcohol, lead) that causes a birth defect.
o Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
A preterm infant: born prior to 38 weeks after conception.
o Baby prematurely leaves development in the womb, leading them to be at greater
risk for developmental problems (e.g., learning difficulties).
Improving Premature Infant Development Through Massage
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Field (1987, 2001, 2002, 2007) – examined the effects of massage on premature infant
development.
o Before her research, it was though that it was best for premature babies to be put in
an incubator, mimicking the environment of the womb. These babies lacked
stimulation and interaction (being bumped around, mother’s heart rate) that would
be present if they were in the womb.
In the study, there are two groups:
o Control condition, where the babies in the incubators were left alone.
o Other group of babies who received regular massages.
Regularly massaging the baby (giving it physical stimulation) resulted in improved weight
gain, more active and alert, and performed better on developmental tests.
o Although non-massaged babies increased their weight, the massaged babies
improved at a faster rate which is necessary for babies born prematurely.
Physical Development in Childhood
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Reflexes:
o Some persist throughout life
▪ Coughing, blinking, yawning
o Some weaken or disappear by 7 months
▪ Grasping, sucking, stepping, startle
Other skills (motor and perceptual) develop over time
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o Perceptual development is tied to motor development – in that it requires adequate
perception to be able to coordinate movement.
▪ Babies are not fully set up to properly perceive their environment. Everything
is unfocused, where sounds are just unclear noises, and visual images are
blurry.
▪ As we use our sensory systems, the brain’s ability to perceive the information
improves, where blurry images turn into shapes which turn into proper
things.
o As our brain and perceptual skills improve, our motor abilities also improve.
Physical Development in Childhood
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At birth, the brain has minimal connections between neutrons (dendrites are
underdeveloped), the myelin encasing the neutrons in the brain is not yet fully formed, and
there are extra neurons.
o Through the process of development, the dendrites grow to facilitate the
connections between the neurons.
o The myelin (fatty coating of axons for nerve cells that speed up communication)
develops to facilitate neural communication.
o The unused neurons die.
Developmental Accomplishments
Prone, lift head
Prone, heat up, use
arms for support
Roll over
Support some weight
with legs
Sit without support
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0-0.75
Stand with support
months
2-4 months Pull self to stand
2-5ish
months
3-6.5
months
4.5-8
months
Walk using furniture
for support
Stand alone easily
Walk alone easily
5-10
months
6-10
months
7-13
months
10-14
months
11-14
months
Can occur out of order and/or skip some stages.
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Cognitive Development in Childhood
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Jean Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development, setting the groundwork for how
we think about cognitive development.
o He proposes that intelligence unfolds systematically when the environment offers
adequate diversity and support for exploration.
o Brain and stimulation-providing environment contribute to development.
Children actively construct their cognitive world using schemas to make sense of what they
experience.
o Schema is a framework that organizes and interprets information. They are concepts
for things (e.g., university) that helps us understand the context of the situation
(who are these people? What roles are there? How does it work?).
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
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People use Schemas in two ways:
o Assimilation – we use our current schemas to interpret the external world, and we
incorporate new information into existing schemas.
▪ E.g., we understand what a grocery store is and how it works. If we walk into
a grocery store we haven’t been in before, we enact our schema of grocery
stores to interpret the aisles, shelves, how you should behave.
o Accommodation – we create new schemas or adjust old ones after noticing that our
current way of thinking does not capture the environment completely.
▪ E.g., a young kid only has a dog at home, and sees a cat for the first time
when going on a walk. When they see the cat, the kid says “dog” since they
have no existing schema for cats, but they have one for dogs. The child then
creates a schema for cats to understand the new information.
▪ E.g., of changing schemas: a young kid has a large dog and a small cat at
home. When the child goes outside and sees a small dog, the child says “cat,”
because the kid’s current schema for dogs has them labelled as big, therefore
the child must change its schema for dogs to incorporate different sizes.
Piaget proposed that children pass through four stages of cognitive development.
o Children do not just “know less than adults” (a quantitative difference), their
cognitive abilities are less developed (a qualitative difference).
▪ Piaget recognized, correctly, that the nature of cognitive processing is
different in children and at the different stages.
Each of Piaget’s four stages consists of qualitatively different way of thinking.
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Stage 1: Sensorimotor Stage
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Ages 0 to 2 years.
Infants coordinate sensory experiences with motor actions.
The infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action to symbolic thought.
Infants lack the ability to have symbols (mental representations) of different things. E.g.,
Picturing your mother, even though they aren’t in the room.
o “Out of sight, out of mind.” – Since babies cannot see something, it does not exist.
Object permanence is the knowledge that objects, and events, continue to exist even when
they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. It usually develops by 8 months of age.
o When a baby is developing object permanence, peekaboo is very exciting around 6-8
months. They question your existence when you cover your face.
Object Permanence
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Forgetting about an object that is out of sight.
Learning to search for an object that is out of sight (because it is still there).
Watching an object moved from location “A” to location “B” – but then still searching in
location “A” for the object.
o A baby who is figuring out object permanence will do this but after they learn about
it, they no longer will.
Stage 2: Preoperational Stage
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Ages 2 to 7 years.
The child begins to represent the world with words and images.
o Words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection
of sensory information and physical action.
Symbolic thought is increasing but still hampered by egocentrism and lack of logical thought
as evidenced by the inability to solve conservation tasks or undefined reversibility (doing an
operation in reverse).
o Egocentrism is the inability to see past your own perspective.
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Tests for the Preoperational Stage
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Egocentrism and Three Mountains:
o Child seated at position “A” and asked to identify the photo of the mountains as it
would look from position “B”, a perspective that they cannot see.
o To correctly identify the photo, the child has to take the perspective of a person
sitting at spot B.
o A child who thinks in a Preoperational way cannot performance as they will choose
the picture from their perspective.
▪ A child who has mastered egocentrism will be able to correctly identify the
vantage point of the other position.
o When playing hide and seek, a child who is yet to have mastered egocentrism will
hide in places where they cannot see the seeker, which doesn’t mean that the
seeker cannot see them (e.g., behind the curtain).
Preoperational Stage
o Conservation – the knowledge that certain physical characteristics of objects remain
the same, even when their outward appearance changes.
▪ Their understand of the world is characterized by “centration” – focusing on
one aspect of a situation while neglecting other important features.
o Example:
▪ Can recognize that glasses A and B hold the same amount of water. When
the water of B is poured into C, the height of the water goes up. Because a
child has focused on centration through the height of the water, they will not
be able to recognize that A and C have the same amount of water.
Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage
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Ages 7-11 years.
The child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different
sets.
o Abstract thinking (using logic about abstract ideas or numbers) has not yet
developed.
o Can only solve 2+2 in terms of concrete objects such as apples.
Able to focus on more than one aspect of a problem to draw conclusions.
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Testing Conservation
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At the concrete operational stage, the child will be able to pass this.
Initial presentation – two identical balls of clay are shown to the child. The child agrees that
they are equal.
o The researcher then changes the shape of one of the balls and asks whether they
still contain equal amounts of clay.
o Preoperational child says no. Concrete Operational child says yes because they can
focus on more than one dimension at a time (past centration) and can handle
reversibility.
Testing Classification
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At the concrete operational stage, the child will be able to pass this.
The child will be able to describe relations between family members at different levels of
the family tree – and will be able to distinguish that particular individual will have multiple
roles.
o A child before the stage will not be able to recognize the relation between their
mother and grandmother. They won’t be able to get past that their mother can be a
mom and daughter.
Stage 4: Formal Operational Stage
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Ages 11 to 15 years.
Thinking becomes more idealistic, abstract, and logical.
o Can solve 2+2 and does not need the association with apples (or other objects).
Adolescents begin to use hypothetical-deductive reasoning, the ability to develop
hypotheses and systematically solve problems.
Is Piaget Correct?
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To a large extent, yes. There is a lot of modern cognitive psychology that expands off of his
theories.
Piaget acknowledges that he has only laid down a conceptual framework, a rough sketch of
human cognitive development.
Some cognitive abilities emerge earlier than predicted.
o Infants as young as four months begin to show signs of objects permanence.
o Memory and other forms of symbolic activity occur by at least six months.
Some cognitive abilities emerge later than predicted.
o Many adolescents and even adults do not reason as logically as Piaget proposed
(struggle with abstract thinking).
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Contrary to Piaget’s prediction, culture and education play important roles in cognitive
development (Piaget emphasized the biological side of cognitive development).
Sociocultural Theory
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Sociocultural View
o Piaget did not believe that culture and education play important roles in cognitive
development.
o But environmental experiences (education and culture) seem to impact the
development (timing) of some cognitive functions.
Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory:
o Also believed that children are active seekers of knowledge but emphasized that
social and cultural contexts affect their thinking.
o Infants are endowed with basic perceptual, attention and memory capacities – but
with the development of the ability to communicate via language, children are able
to participate in dialogue with more knowledgeable individuals who encourage them
to master culturally important tasks.
o Children’s learning and development tasks place within the “Zone of Proximal
Development” – a range of tasks that are too difficult for the child to do alone but
possible with the help of adults and more skilled peers.
▪ Zone of Achieved Development – tasks that we have mastered and can do
on our own.
• E.g., two-year-old can pick up a block and hold onto it.
▪ Zone of Proximal Development – capable of doing but requires assistance.
• E.g., a two-year-old completing the shape-fitting puzzle with the
guidance of someone else.
▪ Zone of “no can do” – cannot do even with assistance.
• E.g., a two-year-old CANNOT do differential calculus, even with help.
o Collaborative learning through interaction with skilled others allows children to
complete tasks that are in their zone of proximal development.
Theories of Development
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Sigmund Freud – Psychosexual theory of development.
Children move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between
biological drives and social expectations. We are trying to find a balance in situations
such as the need to go pee vs. Parent’s expectations that you wait for a bathroom.
o The way these conflicts are resolved determines the person’s ability to learn, to
get along with others, and to cope with anxiety.
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o Failure to resolve a conflict at a particular stage can cause development to
become “fixated” at that stage.
▪ The kid is said to be psychically stuck but goes onto other stages. As the
child grows up into adulthood, they carry these emotion problems with
them, affecting their personality.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
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Oral – birth to 1 year.
o The ego directs the baby’s sucking activities toward breast/bottle.
▪ Focus on getting fed and biological drives. This is stage is concerned with
meeting oral needs (hunger – mouth).
o If oral needs are not met appropriately, the individual may develop habits such
as: Thumb sucking, fingernail biting, pencil chewing, overeating, smoking.
Anal – 1 to 3 years.
o Young toddlers enjoy holding/releasing urine and feces.
o Toilet training becomes a major life task. If parents insist before child is ready
(too much control – anal retentive), or make too few demands (too little control
– anal expressive), conflicts about anal control may appear in the form of
extreme orderliness and cleanliness or messing and disorder.
Phallic – 3 to 6 years.
o Id impulses transfer to the genitals and the child finds pleasure in genital
stimulation.
o Young children feel free attraction to other-sex parent (oedipus complex). To
avoid punishment, they adopt same-sex parent’s characteristics/values.
▪ Young boy is attracted to mom, and young girl is attracted to dad. The
children realize they are in competition with their same-sex parent for
the affection of their other-sex parent.
▪ Since the young child cannot compete with the same-sex parent, they
become more like their same-sex parent to avoid punishment, eventually
growing up to be like the same-sex parent to try and attract a spouse that
is the same their other-sex parent.
Latency – 6 to 11 years.
o Sexual instincts subside.
o The child acquires new social values from adults outside the family and from play
with same-sex peers.
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Genital – during adolescence.
o Puberty causes the sexual impulses of the phallic stage to reappear.
▪ No real conflict at this stage, after puberty you are now an adult.
▪ Freudian theories are based on the early-experience doctrine, where
these early experience shape our lives.
o If development has been successful during the early stages, it leads to mature
sexuality, marriage, and family responsibilities.
▪ Any fixations caused by unsuccessful stages can be managed through
therapy according to Freud.
Theories of Development
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Erik Erickson – Psychosocial stages of development
Development occurs throughout the lifespan.
Eight stages, where a psychosocial conflict must be resolved.
o Successful resolution leads the individual along the path to health life outcomes.
o Failure to resolve the conflict (or a negative outcome) moves the individual
toward maladaptive outcomes.
Similar to Freud in the sense that there are stages of development and fixations that
occur if you don’t successfully resolve the conflicts.
Different from Freud in that some stages last the entire lifespan and the conflicts are
social.
Erikson’s Psychological Stages
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Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1.5 years)
o Infant needs to learn to trust their parents.
o From warm, responsive care, infants gain a sense of trust and confidence that
the world is good. Mistrust occurs when infants have to wait too long for
comfort or are handled harshly.
▪ Mistrust further in your life leaves you wondering what people’s
intentions are, making it harder to form trusting relationships.
Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (1.5-3 years)
o Using new mental and motor skills, children want to choose and decide for
themselves. Autonomy is fostered when parents permit reasonable free choice
and do not force or shame the child.
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When the child is controlled too much, they develop doubt and the belief
that they cannot do something.
Initiative vs. Guilty (early childhood, 3-5 years)
o Through make-believe play, children experiment with the kind of person they
can become (nurse, superhero, parent, etc). Initiative (a sense of ambition and
responsibility) develops when parents support their child’s new sense of
purpose. The danger is that parents will demand too much self-control, which
leads to over control, meaning too much guilty.
▪ Guilt is this anxious feeling that you should not do something or should
have done something differently.
Industry vs. Inferiority (middle and late childhood)
o At school, children develop the capacity to work and cooperate with others.
Inferiority develops when negative experiences at home, at school, or with peers
lead to feelings of incompetence.
Identity vs. Identity Confusion (Adolescence)
o The adolescent tries to answer the question “Who am I, and what is my place in
society?” Self-chosen values and vocational goals lead to a lasting personal
identity. The negative outcome is confusion about future adult roles.
Intimacy vs. Isolation (emerging adulthood)
o Young people work on establishing intimate ties to others. Because of earlier
disappointments, some individuals cannot form close relationships and remained
isolated.
▪ Intimacy can be through a significant other or close friendships.
Generativity vs. Stagnation (adulthood)
o Generativity means giving to the next generation through child rearing, caring
for other people, or productive work. The person who fails in these ways feels an
absence of meaningful accomplishment (Stagnation).
Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood)
o Individuals reflect on the kind of person they have been. Integrity results from
feeling that life was worth living as it happened. Old people who are dissatisfied
with their lives fear death.
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Attachment
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Attachment is the close emotional bond between an infant and its caregiver (different
from adult attachment which is shaped by attachment in earlier life).
o Freud believed that infants become attached to whoever feeds them.
Harlow (1958) tested Freud’s hypothesis with monkeys.
o Monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth and given access to two
artificial mothers.
▪ Wire, or wire covered with cloth.
o Each artificial mother could be outfitted with a bottle with food and Harlow
manipulated where the food could come with and observed who the monkeys
were attached to.
o Results:
▪ The monkeys were attached to the cloth mother whether she had the
food or not. If the wire mother had the food, the monkey would go to it
for food but then would go back to the cloth mother.
▪ This proved Freud’s hypothesis to be incorrect.
John Bowlby – described the process of attachment in human infants.
Mary Ainsworth – further developed ideas of attachment and developed laboratory
technique for measuring attachment in infants -called the “strange situation”
o Infants brought into a room with caregiver are allowed to play. Caregiver leaves
and returns. Infant is observed throughout.
▪ The child could be upset or not care when the mother leaves. When the
mother comes back, is the child happy or do they not care? The child was
also observed when a stranger walked into the room and if they went to
mom for comfort.
Attachment Theory
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We have an innate attachment behavioural system that motivates us to seek proximity
to significant others (attachment figures).
Research suggests three patterns of behaviour related to attachment with the mother:
o Securely attached – infant uses parent as secure base. When parent leaves, may
cry, but only because they prefer parent to stranger. When parent returns, they
actively seek contact and crying ceases. Developed a sense of trust.
o Avoidantly attached – unresponsive to parent. When parent leaves, they are not
distressed because they don’t view the parent as need fulfilling. When parent
returns, they are slow to greet the parent, and often fail to cling.
▪ When stressed, they don’t seek support from the parent.
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o Anxious/ambivalently attached – show confused or contradictory behaviours.
Crying when parent leaves and continued crying when parent returns – clinging
and hitting.
▪ Sees parent could be there for them but has distrust and feels like the
parent could not be there. A love, hate relationship
Textbook adds a disoriented attachment but was not initially in Ainsworth’s approach.
Adult Attachment
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The attachment style developed in childhood influences adult attachment.
These early experiences and reactions of the infant to the parents become ‘working models’
for late adult relationships. These working models are internalized in the form of
unconscious expectations about relationships.
o Secure: Feel comfortable getting close to others; don’t worry about becoming overly
dependent; don’t worry about being abandoned.
o Anxious: Desperately want to have a close relationship but have difficulty trusting
and are fearful of abandonment; become jealous and possessive.
o Avoidant: Less interested in close relationship and are less invested in the
relationships.
Attachment styles are fairly stable across different relationships (parents, siblings, friends,
and significant others, etc.)
Temperament
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Temperament – an overall behavioural and emotional style.
o Attachment refers to the relationship between two individuals.
The easy child – generally in a positive mood, has regular routines, adapts easily.
o Can be upset and cry, but their resting state is to be in a happy mood.
o If child has to stay and grandparents, they adapt easily to it.
The difficult child – reacts negatively, cries frequently, irregular routine, does not adapt.
o Wake up at different times, sleep at different times, eat at different times.
o If child has to stay and grandparents, they are very upset and uncooperative.
The slow-to-warm-up child – somewhat negative, with a low mood intensity, low activity
level, low adaptability.
o When told to do something, they initially react somewhat negatively but eventually
comes around to do something.
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Moral Development
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Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
o Key concept is internalization: the developmental change from behaviour that is
externally controlled to behaviour that is controlled by internal, self-generated
standards, and principles.
▪ Essentially learning the rules of right and wrong, which according to Kohlberg
we have no sense of initially.
o The Preconventional Stage: Moral thinking is based on punishments and rewards
(external authority).
o The Conventional Stage: Moral thinking is based on parental standards or societal
laws (internalized rules).
▪ Beginning to think of what is right and wrong.
o The Postconventional Stage: Moral development is based on self-governing
standards (personal and flexible).
▪ Beginning to realize there are larger principles of morality that are bigger
than the laws of particular society.
Preconventional Stage (no internalization)
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Stage 1: Punishment orientation
o Children only obey because adults tell them to obey.
o Moral decisions are based on fear of punishment.
Stage 2: Reward orientation
o If it gets rewarded, it must be “right.”
o Moral decisions are based on rewards for behaviour.
Conventional Stage (intermediate internalization)
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Stage 3: Interpersonal orientation
o Approval/disapproval from close relationships (beyond just parents)
▪ Realizing that there is a other people besides parents that you want to
please.
o Individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty to others as a basis for moral judgements.
Stage 4: Social system morality orientation
o Moral judgements are based on understanding the social order, law, justice, and
duty.
▪ Realizing that there is a larger society that requires the things above to
create stability.
o These rules must be obeyed by all people at all times.
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Postconventional Stage (full internalization)
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Stage 5: Social contract or utility and individual rights
o Individuals reason that social values (rights and principles) might transcend the law.
o Acknowledging that the law sometime may not apply (i.e., the law can be fallible).
Stage 6: Universal ethical principles
o Moral judgements are based on universal human rights (equality). The law does not
always meet to uphold these universal human rights such as equality.
o Universal ethical principles such as justice and equality transcend social rules or the
law. The law might even be preventing these ethical principles from being achieved.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
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Most adolescents are at stage 3 or 4.
Few people reach stage 6.
Criticism of this theory suggest that parents contribute little to children’s moral thinking
because parent-child relationships are often too power-oriented.
Criticism also states that moral reasoning does not necessarily mean moral behaviour. We
may know the right thing to do but don’t always act on it. E.g., we continue to buy products
that are made by people who are underpaid.
Kohlberg focused on intrapersonal morality (the rights of the individual) and is criticized for
not accounting for an interpersonal morality (caring for others).
o E.g., emphasizing mask wearing and quarantining because of caring for other people
might have resulted in less push-back.
Identity
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One of our “tasks” as adolescents is to develop our sense of “self” (our identity) and this
carries throughout our life span – trying to answer, “Who am I?”
Identity Status – where we currently are with regard to establishing our sense of identity.
James Marcia proposed four identity statuses based on two dimensions:
o Exploration – whether a person is exploring options in life, such as one’s values and
possible careers. E.g., Becoming goth, or starting crafts, etc.
o Commitment – one’s commitment to a specific option (making a decision about a
specific path to follow).
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Combinations of Exploration and Commitment
Exploration
Absent
Commitment
Present
Absent
Identity
Diffusion
Identity
Foreclosure
Present
Identity
Moratorium
Identity
Achievement
The Four Statuses of Identity:
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Identity Diffusion: Both commitment and exploration is absent – not yet explored identity
possibles, and not yet made a commitment to a specific identity.
o Everyone starts here, meaning it is a natural part of the identity process. However, it
is bad to get stuck here.
Identity Foreclosure: Has commitment but no exploration – has made a commitment
without first adequately exploring possibilities.
o E.g., Getting born into a family that owns a business, it’s expected that you take on
the commitment of later running the business without exploring other career paths.
Identity Moratorium: Exploration is present, and Commitment is absent – actively exploring
various identity options and is holding off on making a commitment.
o A very normal and natural part of the process of identity. Similar to diffusion, you
don’t want to be here forever.
Identity Achievement: Both Exploration and Commitment are present – has explored
various possibilities and has then made and educated choice about an identity to pursue.
o This is a big milestone for people in adulthood but is not limited to adulthood.
Different parts of identity happen at different parts in life.
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