. As you join some friends for coffee, they are discussing a group of classmates
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. As you join some friends for coffee, they are discussing a group of classmates who see to have problems with their identity development some seem to have a rather incoherent, disjointed, incomplete sense of who they are; one seems to have made no exploration at all in any areas of his development and just does what his parents tell him which he says is fine with him; and a couple of others behave in ways that are obviously contrary to social norms and mores. They turn to you to ask if there are classifications to describe these behaviors and how they might have developed. What do you tell them?Explanation / Answer
James Marcia has given the four stages of achieving identity which includes Identity Diffusion which is also otherwise known as Role confusion where adolescents have disorganized thinking and difficulty understanding who they are. They fail to commit to anything.
The second stage is Identity Foreclosure where the teenagers just go with whatever their parents say by just following the norms of the society. They themselves won’t take any decisions at this point of time. The opposite is also true during this stage that teenagers do just the opposite of the social norms and their parents expectations. There are also two other stages until one achieves identity.
The third stage, Identity Moratorium is characterized by exploring options actively and looking for alternatives as well and then enters into the final stage where one achieves identity. Someone at this stage starts to stabilize one’s life by committing to their life goals and progresses steadily without much distraction.
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