Paths to Identity

1
Paths to Identity

• The four identity categories, or identity
  statuses are
• Identity achievement-individuals have explored
  and committed themselves to self-chosen values
  and occupational goals.
• Moratorium-individuals who are exploring
  alternatives in an effort to find values and
  goals to guide their life.
• Identity foreclosure-individuals who have
  accepted ready-made values and goals that
  authority figures have chosen for them.
• Identity diffusion-individuals who do not have
  firm commitments to values and goals and are not
  actively trying to reach them.

2
Paths to Identity cont.

• Some adolescents remain in one status, whereas
  others experience many status transitions.
• College students make more progress toward
  formulating an identity than they did in high
  school.
• Those who find it difficult to realize their
  occupational goals due to lack of training or
  choices are at risk for long-term identity
  foreclosure or diffusion.
• Girls show more sophisticated reasoning in
  identity areas related to intimacy. Otherwise,
  the process and timing of identity formation is
  the same for boys and girls.

3
Identity Status and Psychological Well-Being

• Young people who are identity achieved or
  actively exploring have a higher sense of
  self-esteem, are more likely to engage in
  abstract and critical thinking, report greater
  similarity between their ideal self and their
  real self, and are more advanced in moral
  reasoning.
• Foreclosed individuals tend to be dogmatic,
  inflexible, and intolerant.
• Long-term diffused teenagers typically entrust
  themselves to luck or fate, tend to passively go
  along with whatever is happening at the moment,
  and are more likely to use and abuse drugs.

4
Influences on Identity Development

• Personality
• Personality characteristics are both cause and
  consequence of identity development.
• A flexible, open-minded approach to grappling
  with competing beliefs and values is important.
• Family
• When the family serves as a secure base from
  which teenagers can confidently move out into the
  wider world, identity development is enhanced.
• Foreclosed teenagers have bonds with parents, but
  lack opportunities for healthy separation.
  Diffused adolescents report the lowest levels of
  warm, open communication at home.

5
Influences on Identity Development cont.

• Peers
• As adolescents interact with a diversity of
  peers, their exposure to ideas and values
  expands.
• Close friends help young people explore options
  by providing emotional support, assistance, and
  role models of identity development.
• School and Community
• Classrooms that promote high-level thinking,
  extracurricular and community activities, and
  vocational training programs foster identity
  achievement.
• Between ages 13 and 17, exploration increases
  among Australian adolescents living in urban
  environments, whereas it decreases among youths
  in rural areas.

6
Influences on Identity Development cont.

• Larger Society
• Among modern adolescents, exploration and
  commitment take place earlier in the domains of
  vocational choice and gender-role preference than
  in religious and political values.
• Societal forces are also linked to the special
  problems that gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths
  and ethnic minority adolescents face in forming a
  secure identity.