JAMES E MARCIA

Biography

Born in the year of 1864, James E. Marcia was a socio-

emotional theorist, clinical and developmental Canadian
psychologist who was prominent in social psychology of
development. Marcia was a professor in several US and Canadian
universities; before he died, he was also an emeritus professor
of Psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia,
Canada. Furthermore, he completed his PhD at Ohio State
University while he finished his BA at Wittenberg University in
Springfield, Ohio.

Inspired from Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory, Marcia

developed a concept focusing on adolescent psychosocial
development. To explore the ideology of identity, he suggested
four stages in developing the way people know themselves by
conducting a series of identity status interviews with adolescent
individuals, particularly, identity diffusion, identity
foreclosure, identity moratorium, and identity achievement.
Generally, his research and writings were about adolescent
development.

James Marcia’s Identity Status

The theory of identity status states that there are two

parts that forms the adolescent identity: crisis/exploration and
commitment. A crisis is the time where old values are being re-
examined, and this crisis leads to a commitment to a certain
value or role. Marcia suggests that individuals construct their
identities during childhood and will develop during their
adolescence and early adulthood.

James Marcia extended the work of Eric Ericson by developing

four statuses that can describe the person’s process in making it
through a stage in Ericson’s theory. He developed the identity
status interview, a method of semi-structured interview for
identity research, and proposed the identity statuses of
psychological identity development. Marcia came up with four (4)
major identity statuses based on his interviews with adolescent
individuals: Identity Diffusion, Identity Foreclosure, Identity
Moratorium, and Identity Achievement.

Identity Diffusion is the status in which a young person is

not currently going through a crisis and has not made any
commitment yet. This occurs at the age of 12 up to 18 or beyond.
During this time, the person has a low commitment to an identity,
as well as low exploration. Adolescents may have not considered
their identity and haven’t established any life goals. Their
primary motivation is the avoidance of discomfort and acquisition
of pleasure.

Identity Foreclosure is the status where a young person has

made commitment without having gone through a crisis. It involves
committing to an identity prematurely without having a choice.
This mostly occurs when parents hand their traditions,
commitments, beliefs, values, and culture to the child. In this
stage, the person has not yet experienced an identity crisis but
has made commitments to definite goals, values, and beliefs.

Third, the Identity Moratorium, or the status where the

young person is currently in a crisis but has not made any
commitment. This is the stage of active exploration and low
commitment to an identity. It occurs at the point of early to
late adolescence. Here, they have not made any final decisions as
to which beliefs and values are important to them.

The last status is the Identity Achievement where the person

has gone through a crisis and has already made a commitment to a
certain value or role. This is where the person have already
decided what values or goals are important to them, and also what
purpose or mission will direct their life. In this identity, the
person has gone through the process of crisis but has resolved
the issues on his/her own.

References:

Biography of James Marcia. (2020). Retrieved 21 March 2020, from

https://prezi.com/p/08wit1d0t6le/biography-of-james-marcia/

James Marcia. (2020). Retrieved 21 March 2020, from

https://socioemotional.weebly.com/james-marcia.html
James Marcia. (2020). Retrieved 21 March 2020, from
https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/James_Marcia

Pschology identity status by james marcia ppt. (2020). Retrieved

21 March 2020, from
https://www.slideshare.net/manubujji/pschology-identity-status-
by-james-marcia-ppt-133888786