DEVELOPMENTAL ASSIGNMENT 2

QUESTION: Reflect on your personal journey of your life keeping in mind Marcia’s identity
development theory.
ANSWER:
Erikson (1968) said that there are several phases in the formation of a person's personality. Adolescents
(13–18 years old) who are in the identity vs identity uncertainty stage struggle to develop a cohesive
identity that clarifies their position and function in society. This stage aids people in making important
decisions about their lives and careers and helps them get beyond unique and unexpected obstacles in
their endeavors (Yeager & Bundick, 2009). Expanding on Erikson's theory, Marcia (1966, 2007) stated
that individuals may typically be classified as either engaging in exploration or commitment when
passing through the identity vs identify confusion stage.
In my opinion, exploration entails a person actively considering their objectives, values, and interests
while also assessing their values, worldview, talents, and interests. This is done before determining which
goals, values, and interests to give priority to. Commitment may be defined as choosing a persona and
acting in ways that are consistent with that persona in order to pursue their future goals. According to
Marcia (1966, 2007), a person's identity can be classified into one of four statuses depending on how
much they have explored and/or made specific commitments: diffused status (low/no commitment,
low/no exploration), foreclosure status (high commitment, low/no exploration), moratorium status
(low/no commitment, high exploration), and achievement status (commitment following exploration).
According to my understanding, around age 20 is when most people reach the identity success position.
The majority of preadolescents exhibit identity foreclosure or dispersal. In my current state of identity
dispersion, I am neither researching nor committing to a particular viewpoint. When asked about the
future and job options, students who display diffusion are typically unable to select a profession or
educational path after high school and are more likely to express worry or avoidance. My closest friend,
in contrast, is dedicated to a specific worldview or set of beliefs, which she often got as a student from her
parents without engaging in any inquiry or investigation.
When it comes to job development, my closest friend who has had their identity foreclosed frequently is
able to choose a field that they would want to follow, and usually, the career that she identifies as a
student is one of high prestige (lawyer). She could have trouble describing what they like about a certain
career, though. In the identity moratorium position, which I presume to be my current identity status, I'm
investigating my external potential worldview; in other words, I'm experiencing an identity crisis and am
not firmly committed to any one worldview. I clearly took psychology majors for graduation, and I'm
rather hooked on planning my future job route in that field, but I actually have a number of professional
interests, and I find it challenging to separate them. The identity that my friends have attained has
generally undergone self-examination and has a largely consistent worldview and set of beliefs. After
completing the identity accomplishment process, the individual has advanced past the career exploration
stage and is now in the career decision-making stage, where they are seeking a professional path that is
consistent with their worldview.
Identity commitment is linked to resilient traits including extraversion, emotional stability, positive self-
concept and self-esteem, and supportive familial ties. A variety of indices of mental health and
adjustment, including as low levels of internalizing symptoms and externalizing problem behaviours,
positive wellbeing, life satisfaction, and academic success are all substantially correlated with identity
commitment.
However, identity commitment reconsideration, which entails looking for alternative commitments
because one's current commitments are unsatisfactory, is negatively correlated with self-concept and self-
esteem as well as positive personality traits like agreeableness and extraversion and is a predictor of poor
academic performance. I personally believe that there is a substantial correlation between reconsidering a
commitment and both internal (such as depressive and anxiety symptoms) and exterior (such as engaging
in delinquent activity) psychosocial difficulties.
I think that the identity development of middle school children was positively influenced by their
opinions of their instructors as deserving role models and by their school's dedication to their holistic
development. In my early to mid-adolescent years, I felt that my professors supported my understanding
of my purpose in life and were more likely to have a defined life purpose, be motivated by attaining my
objectives, and have life goals that involve helping others and society.
For the purpose of completing each student's unique student plan, many schools, especially those at the
middle/junior high and high school levels, mandate that school counsellors visit with each student on their
caseload individually once a year. For instance, students in grades 7 through 12 at my school are required
to undergo a yearly evaluation of their academic achievement and future goals. In order to inform
students about careers and education, lessons in the classroom and group activities were typically
conducted in the first half of the school year. In the second half, the school counsellor and students met
one-on-one to process the outcomes of the students' career exploration activities and choose classes that
would support their career and postsecondary goals. This is how and when I landed up taking humanities
and changed my stream from science to art faculty after class 10 board examination. It was through this
student career interaction that my misperceived notions of self-interest career exploration got resolved
from studying science academic books for only biology keen explorer and having my career into being a
cardiologist, I turned my inner understanding of right career choice with my own self efficacy and self-
guidance to attaining doctorate but not in medical stream but rather being a PhD holder or being a
psychiatrist. The school counsellor has the best chance during such one-on-one sessions to evaluate the
student's professional maturity, which is best described as the extent to which the student's chosen career
path is founded on a careful evaluation of the student's job interests, talents, and life objectives. I strongly
advise using Marcia's identity stages to gauge a student's professional maturity since it more thoroughly
considers the whole learner, evaluates the student's psychosocial development, and has more obvious
ramifications for both career and personal/social growth. The majority of career development theories, in
comparison, have a more constrained focus that is restricted to data and choices relating to the individual's
profession and educational choices. The adolescent's formation of an identity is addressed by Marcia's
(2002) theory: "A feeling of who is, based on who one has been, and who one imagines oneself being in
the future."
I've discovered that exploring one's own objectives and professional alternatives is linked to anxiety, and
that those who are more anxious are more inclined to stop exploring careers in order to avoid the
potentially dangerous task of selecting a choice. As a teenager who is not exploring, my school counsellor
has always helped me understand how to control the anxiety that comes with such exploration and, in
turn, ideas for helping kids to control their worry.
For students with identity diffusion like myself, the goal is to support the beginning of career- and self-
exploration by engaging in exploration of various alternatives (also known as exploration in breadth) or
by concentrating on in-depth investigation of one alternative (also known as exploration in depth)
(Marcia, 1966). My school counsellor always used to encourage this kind of self-awareness when offering
advice by analyzing the results of career interest inventories, asking me to describe my ideal self in ten
years, asking me what strengths I believe I have that others do not see in me, looking into what classes or
extracurricular activities tend to interest me as a student, and looking into the ideas for how to obtain
additional experiences. I recall my school counsellor asking me things like, "What do you believe your
friends think that you really excel in?" and, if I agreed, "Are you aware of any prospective jobs that would
correspond with your strengths?" What professions have you ever found appealing or that you'd like to
learn more about?
On the advice of my school counsellor, my parents also encouraged me to explore a variety of field trips
that interested me, including job shadowing, trips to nearby universities, and visits to career technical
centres, in order to better understand my prospective post-secondary interests. Additionally, my school
counsellor worked hard to determine my strengths and the strengths of other students so that they could
be encouraged to enroll in advanced courses. This was done because the rigor of academic course
selection is strongly associated with postsecondary planning and success, especially for underprivileged
youth. I've gained the ability to make crucial judgments regarding my future as a result of a mix of these
actions and debate.
It is hoped that middle/junior high and high school students are in a state of identity moratorium,
considering different career paths as they learn more about themselves and are working to distinguish
their worldview from that of their parents and peers while still being able to stay in touch with them.
Counselors in schools may aid kids in understanding conflicting ideas and beliefs so that they can better
explore their own identities and potential careers. Uncertainty and worry that arise throughout the
discovery phase may cause the student to seek out others who will make important life decisions for them
in order to avoid taking on that responsibility. School counsellors should refrain from pressuring children
to make significant life decisions until they have given it serious thought. Parents and other primary
caregivers may help students manage their anxiety by discussing strategies for balancing self-exploration
and controlling the anxiety that comes with it, much as it was in my own school days, with the help of the
school counselors. When a student considers the person, they want to become, they are also considering
their future as they explore their professional options. The student might also be prompted to consider
how they can switch between thinking about the present and keeping their attention on the present
through extracurricular activities, exercise, relaxation techniques, mindfulness, etc. For instance, my
school counsellor questioned me about what it was like to enjoy high school while simultaneously
worrying about the future. How do you manage the pressure of worrying about the future while still
having fun?
Students that display these traits have explored their careers and selves, and they are devoted to a set of
personal beliefs and at the very least, a general professional path. Information collecting is the kind of
support that people seeking identity seek. Identity accomplishment kids are likely to request particular
advice from school counsellors about choosing academic courses, extracurricular opportunities (like
internships), and career and postsecondary possibilities (e.g., prestigious and competitive programs). The
school counsellor would probably focus primarily on supplying information about finances (such as the
Free Application for Federal Student Aid, tuition), deadlines for postsecondary options, and other matters
related to the future because this type of student has already decided on significant questions about their
future (e.g., college, career technical schools).
The identity-achieved classmates I had in high school who had shown in-depth research may also be
looking for intentional chances to boost their competitiveness and prepare them for their post-secondary
ambitions. These children have been urged by the school counsellor to look for school- and community-
based initiatives that will match their goals and past experiences. For instance, these kids at my school
were challenged to plan write-in sessions for college applications where students may collaborate to write
their personal essays, ask questions about their portfolios, and get peer criticism. Additionally, outreach
programmes and local institutions might be used to link kids with chances to develop their civic duty
awareness, work-based skills, and critical thinking. Inquiries like "How can I be of service to you," "What
would you like to know more about," and "How is the knowledge you seek linked to your future
aspirations" were pertinent ones the school counsellor posed to the children regarding identity
accomplishment.
Exploring one's personal objectives and career discovery in general are stressful and unpredictable
activities. According to Marcia's hypothesis, students who have identity diffusion, foreclosure, and
moratorium are prone to have anxiety as a major problem. Students with identity ambiguity and closure,
like me, may be more prone to steer clear of the stress associated with job inquiry. I may try to
completely dodge the subject at times. Students with identity closure like my few friends in school may
just accept their parents' or classmates' opinions about who they are and what they should pursue in terms
of a job to manage their anxieties. Identity moratorium kids may demonstrate greater levels of anxiety
when they pursue investigation.
My school counsellor helped to normalize the situation by reiterating that not knowing is both acceptable
and necessary for one's own self-exploration, and that the majority of my peers are going through
something similar. In order to address a student's ambivalence, the school counsellor said that it may be
both exhilarating and frightening to consider one's future job. The school counsellor can investigate the
student's coping mechanisms for anxiety using a solution-focused conceptual perspective.
Finally, my educational institution introduced the notion of mindfulness by having the students do some
common beginner mindfulness exercises like focused breathing or sensory awareness. Practices of
mindfulness were especially beneficial for teenagers like us who displayed ruminative curiosity. Indeed, it
has been discovered that present-mindfulness fosters the emergence of identity throughout the transition
to early adulthood.
Through my own research on the development of egoism, I also think that the capacity of caregivers to
encourage teenagers' ego identity development is related.
A sense of generativity is achieved by caregivers who assist in the "growing" of younger members of
society, as opposed to a sense of stagnation experienced by careers who are ineffective in supporting
newer generations. This possible advising statement suggests that school counsellors should work with
families and/or legal guardians to make sure that students create academic and career plans. In my
opinion, school counsellors might help caregivers meet their psychological need for generativity, which
was present at my academic institution, by aiding caregivers—including parents, legal guardians, and
teachers—as teenagers explore their identities.
Every year before summer break, my learning center would try to inform parents about age-appropriate
strategies to get their kids interested in careers through seminars or reading materials. The transition
towards adolescence is seen to call for a qualitative change in the parent-child relationship, with parents
shifting from a directive approach to one that is more consultative. My parents used to give me a lot of
structure and knowledge when I was a child, but as I got older, they started asking me more questions and
more open-ended ones like, "What do you think about it?" and "Does it connect with how you view
yourself?" Unfortunately, people who are making career decisions in my personal life constantly try to
reduce my anxiety by pressuring me to make a commitment to a course of action. I believe that choosing
a job route may reduce a student's worry temporarily, but it stifles the inquiry that is thought to be
important for comprehending one's values, talents, limits, etc.
By giving guidance, parents might be made aware of their propensity to want to reduce their child's
worry. Additionally, school counsellors may assist parents in recognizing and managing their feelings
when they find that their kid is having anxiety related to professional decision-making and can support
their child in learning to deal with anxiety.
My identity discovery was influenced by the positive school atmosphere, which was shown to be
important since research shows that for children to take psychological risks, they need to feel safe with
their instructors and classmates.
Support from teachers came in the form of genuinely caring connections with me and compliments to
other pupils. Teachers enhance peer support by including students in learning activities that encourage
mutual assistance and by highlighting the similarities between them. It's interesting to note that the
official academic curriculum today lacks a strong integration of the learning activities that helped me
explore my identity. The theory of Marcia (1966, 2007) may be used as a clear framework to teach
instructors how to encourage students' discovery. Teachers used to be able to help students establish
techniques for coping with the anxiety associated with exploration and presumably understand the
developmental requirement for teenagers to explore their academic and vocational interests. Additionally,
having an understanding of the four statuses might help teachers spot children who are delaying self- and
career development.
Although developing a fully-integrated identity has traditionally been seen as the primary work of
adolescence, the importance of school-related environmental elements in promoting young people's
identity development is just beginning to be understood.
I urge school counsellors to adopt Marcia's (1966, 2007) theory to support students' career exploration
because it satisfies the profession's desire to use empirically-supported theories, has clear implications for
advising and consultation, and may serve as a broad framework for helping parents, teachers, and
community members understand the goals and interventions for promoting student success.