Changing Self from Childhood to Adolescence
Think back to when you were four years old. What did you want to be when you
grew up? Perhaps you wanted to be a famous actor or a ballerina. Chances are, your
sense of self at four years old was different from who you are now. This is because
the sense of self is a dynamic developmental process.
James Marcia
In this lesson, we will be discussing James Marcia's theory of identity in relation to
the sense of self changing from childhood to adolescence. According to Marcia, it is
the adolescent stage that is critical in the development of the self for two reasons.
First, it is the transitional zone between childhood and adulthood. The childhood
values no longer work for teenagers, and the values of adults do not quite fit into
their reality. It is during the teenage years that the adolescent literally needs to revisit
childhood values and ideas and determine if those ideas will continue to serve them
as they grow into adulthood.
The second reason that adolescence is a critical developmental stage is because the
sense of self that is formed during this stage will linger into adulthood. This is the
period of time where the teenager emerges as a new person. It is when they decide
who they want to be and what they want to do with their lives.
Marcia's Four Identities
According to Marcia, there are four ways a teenager can navigate through the
transition of childhood to adolescent. The four ways are diffusion, foreclosure,
moratorium, and achievement.
Diffusion
Identity diffusion can be thought of as 'the undecided.' The diffusion stage of
identity development occurs when people don't really know what choices are out
there, and they aren't ready to figure out who they are as a person yet. In the
diffusion stage, the person doesn't have any strong opinions. He isn't thinking,
'Maybe I'll be a doctor,' or 'Maybe I'll be a lawyer.' Instead, he's thinking, 'I don't
know what I'll be when I grow up. Nothing sounds very interesting to me!'
Foreclosure
Identity foreclosure can be thought of as 'a done deal.' Foreclosure is the first stage
of self-development and occurs during the childhood up into the teenage years. If
the child is in the foreclosure stage of self-identity, he or she becomes a mini-me of
the parental figure and is inflexible of changing. They have learned their parent's
ideas and values, and they do not question those family norms. For example, 'My
father is a Buddhist auto mechanic, and that is who I am, and that is what I'm going
to do.'
Moratorium
Identity moratorium can be thought of as 'the audition.' It is in this stage that the
teenager is no longer a child, yet he or she is not quite an adult. It is during this
stage where teenagers try out many different identities. One week they like rap music,
and the following week they like country music. During this process, they are trying
out a variety of different beliefs and values.
The important thing about the moratorium stage is that people want to commit to
being a certain person, but they just don't know which choices to commit to. For
example, a teenager might think to himself, 'I would probably enjoy being a doctor,
but maybe I want to be a lawyer or even a teacher. I wish I could decide!'
Remember how in the diffusion stage we said that a teenager might have trouble
figuring out what career they should choose and they just don't really want to
choose? Moratorium may look a lot like diffusion at first. For example, someone
might not know what they want to be when they grow up, but in the diffusion stage,
the person doesn't have any strong opinions. In the moratorium stage, he has several
strong opinions about different things.
Achievement
Identity achievement can be thought of as 'the declaration.' The achievement stage
of self-identity occurs when the teenager has decided what does work for him or her
and what does not work for them. The outcome of this stage is that the teenager
commitments to who he or she is and relinquishes the old ideas from childhood that
no longer serve his or her new sense of self.