1 Psychology and human development1.12 Stages of human development
1.12.13 Development of personal identity
2 min read1 figure
Written by Resident Doctor Committee · Published
Sense of self
Personal or ego identity combines values, commitments, roles and relationships into a sense of self that is continuous over time, coherent and distinct from others.
The rouge (mark) test shows mirror self-recognition, an early marker of a sense of self, when a toddler touches a mark on their own face after seeing it in a mirror.
Erikson: identity versus role confusion
Identity versus role confusion is the fifth of Erikson's eight stages, when the adolescent integrates earlier identifications with parents and teachers into a coherent self.
Its virtue is fidelity, which is commitment to chosen values, people and roles. A secure identity supports the next stage, intimacy versus isolation.
Marcia's identity statuses
Marcia operationalised Erikson's fifth stage by crossing exploration, or crisis, with commitment.
Status | Exploration | Commitment | Presentation |
|---|---|---|---|
Diffusion | No | No | Avoids the issue altogether; little direction, poorer adjustment |
Foreclosure | No | Yes | Takes over values or career from parents or other authority figures |
Moratorium | Active, with a sense of crisis | Not yet | Tries out courses, beliefs and groups |
Achievement | Yes | Yes | Commits after exploration to choices felt as their own |
Foreclosure is the only status combining commitment with absent exploration, so it can look mature.
Diffusion is the status most distant from achievement.
Statuses are not fixed stages: people revisit commitments and may hold different statuses in work, faith and relationships.
Adult development
Levinson's theory describes adult development as a fixed, age-linked sequence of eras and periods in an invariant order.
In Levinson's model, age sets the move to the next period, not completion of a developmental task.
Elliott Jaques introduced the term mid-life crisis, and Levinson popularised it.
Mid-life reappraisal is common, but only a minority report a crisis, which can occur at any age in adulthood, often after redundancy, divorce or bereavement.