James Marcia's Four Identity Statuses Of Psychological Identity Development

Refining Erik Erikson’s work, James Marcia came up with four identity statuses of psychological identity development that differ depending on whether the person perceives the issue of identity and whether it came to its decision. Also, he believed in two characteristics for identity- crisis and commitment that can be either present or absent (Feldman, 2017). A crisis is a time when adolescents consciously choosing between various alternatives in regard to identity. A commitment is defined as a time when adolescents have made a psychological investment in a course of action or ideology (Feldman, 2017). The one statement that Marcia made about crisis and commitment is that both these terms go together by contributing to the achievement of adolescent identity.

The first stage of identity development is identity achievement. In this case, both crisis and commitment are present. A person that is at this stage has passed through the identity crisis, a period of active questioning and self-determination (Feldman, 2017). The identity took ideological positions, which has developed and chosen an occupation. He/she begins to think of yourself as a future doctor, not as a student of chemistry before
In this category, crisis is absent and commitment is present (Feldman, 2017). According to Marcia, the following identity also took certain professional and ideological positions, but he/she has no indication that he/she ever went through an identity crisis (Feldman, 2017). This person accepts without question the religion of own family. When asking about political views, this individual often says that he/she actually never really thought about it. Some of these identities are ideological and are ready to cooperate, some just seem adamant dogmatists and conformists. It appears that these views will just disappear if something happens some event so important that it will put into question their senseless rules and values (Feldman,