So what we're going to talk about today
is James Marcia's theory of adolescent
identity development. And the reason that we
talk about it is it's a really good way
to explain to people why they might not
know what they are majoring in in college.
You know most people come to college and 
they say "Oh, I don't know what I'm going
to major in" and they sort of, they're wringing
their hands and they feel bad about
it,  they talk to their parents. And everybody
says "Hey, you're going to college! What
are you going to major in?" It's like "I have
no idea what I'm going to major in!"
And what I'd like to explain is there is
a theory that suggests that you
shouldn't know yet.  And so the theory
is James Marcia's theory and a
really good way to explain it is to draw
it as a four blocker.  And this is
something that I've done for lots of
people. There aren't very many theories
in psychology that I talk about in my
personal life outside because
people have a pretty low tolerance for
that,  but I have drawn this in the sand
at the beach, I've drawn it on a napkin
at a cocktail party.
It's a really useful thing and so I'd
like you to be able to draw it.  It's going
to be on the final exam, so get your
pens out. I don't care how you label
it, you don't have to label it exactly
the same way I do
as long as the intersections of the
things that you draw are correctly
labeled within it.  So across the top
we're going to put "Crisis."
And "crisis" in psychology is not a bad thing. 
So when you think about a crisis it's  like "Oh,
I'm having a crisis"   "Yay, I love
crisis." No, in psychology a crisis is
a period of active exploration. So when
Erikson, for example,  said there was a
crisis of trust versus mistrust, you're
working through something. So Crisis is a
period of active exploration.
And then on this side what you've
got is "Commitment." A commitment to a
particular course of action. So, once you
have committed to something you say "I'm
going to major in engineering." "I'm going
to major in an animal science." That
would be a commitment. So over here
you've got Commitment.
Either of these things can be
high or low. So we'll make it really
simple and we'll say it's low here and
high here.
If Crisis is low,
it means you're not spending any time ...  so
think about a high school senior trying to
decide what to major in, what to do next.
If crisis is low, that student is not
doing anything. They're not thinking
about it. They're laying on the couch, they're
watching TV, they're in the woods behind
the school chatting with their friends. Crisis
is low. They're not ... 
inwardly they might be doing something
but it doesn't look like they're doing
anything. If you ask them, it's like "I
haven't thought about that."
They also haven't committed to anything,
and that identity status is called
Diffusion.  I'm going to give that one
a frowny face because you don't get out
of that. If you're not doing any work and
you're not committing to anything, you're
just going to stay there. You are
stagnant. There's no progress being made.
On the other hand, if Commitment is low - you haven't decided what to do, but
you're spending a lot of time thinking
about it, so this  Crisis period, this
active exploration is high.
"I took some tests, I went
and visited somebody at work,  I've done
all these other things." When Crisis is
high and Commitment is low, that's
something that we call Moratorium. 
Moratorium sounds horrible. It sounds
like something you would find at a
funeral home, but it's actually a really
good place to be. So I'm going to give
that one a smiley face, and the reason
for that is you're working through
things. You're trying things on, and it's
like "Wow, you know I tried this for a
while, I took a couple of classes, it
turns out geology is not my thing. I
thought it was going to be, I thought I
would be a geologist and here I am,
you know, after a couple of courses, I
need to sort of step back and do
something else." Or I'm that high
school student who says "You know what,
I'm just going to do my Gen Ed classes
first and see what speaks to me." So
Moratorium is a really good place to be,
and that's where people should stay as
long as they need to.
So why rush through that? Life is long. You're not ... what's the rush
You're going to be working for decades,
and so you want it to be something that
you like, you know and not ... you don't want
to get to be in your 30s and say "I
don't know if I like this so much."
So that's when Commitment is low and
Crisis is high. When Commitment is high
and Crisis is low,
that's what we call Foreclosure. And
foreclosure means you have foreclosed on
your other options.
So, your mother was a nurse
your father a nurse,
your grandparents were nurses. You'd like to go into the field of
nursing. Or you've got
a family business and it's always been
expected that you would go into the
family business.  Or you come from a long
line of people who do chemical
engineering, or law or, whatever it is. And
you've decided really early in life "That's
what I want to do." That sounds like it
would be fairly rar,e but it's not as
rare as you would think.  You think about
a child ... I know a child who had some
medical difficulties when she was young
and she got really good nursing care.  And
so as a 10-year-old people said
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" "I want to be a nurse!" And as a
fourteen-year-old "What do you want
to be?" "I want to be a nurse!" And
every time you say that, you get a little
bit more of a pat on the back. People say
"Wow, that's great that you know what
you're going to do."
So the idea is, that high school
senior that has a has an answer, like "I'm
going into nursing, I'm looking at
schools that have nursing, I'm going to
major in nursing."
That sounds awesome and that's the thing
that everybody wishes their kid did or
wishes that they were doing, but in
fact that student is going to get to
college and start taking courses like
statistics and chemistry and
biochem. And it's like "Whoa! I got a C
in that, I am in no way going to get
into the nursing program, and I don't
even like those courses!" So your
commitment was high but you foreclosed
other options without doing enough
exploration.
So Foreclosure, I'm going to say it's not
a huge frowny face, it's not quite as bad
as Diffusion
but it's not a great place to be, because
what will happen is you get to be 40
years old and it's like "Wow, I've been doing
this job for 20 years. I never really
liked it,  I have all of my fun after
hours.
Well that's not great. Wouldn't you like to
have fun at your job and say "I love it.
Even on my worst day, I'm still
glad to be there because I'm working
things out, I'm doing things." That's what
you want, and that's where Moratorium
might get you, but Foreclosure won't.
So you foreclosed other options. Not a
great place to be. When Commitment is
high, Crisis has been high and Commitment
is high, that's what we call Identity
Achievement.
And with Identity Achievement, that's
just what it sounds like.  It's like, of
course, that's the ideal. You want to
spend enough time - for some
people that will be a short amount of
time. "I took this course, I loved it, I
want to go into that field and I've
never looked back and I've never been
sorry.
That's great, but they explored other
options and got there from Moratorium,
rather than these other two
options which are not awesome.
Now there's one last thing that I want
to say and that is ... life is long. So
you get to be 40, and just because you
were in Achievement,  and you've got this
great career in,  you know,
underwater basket weaving and it's been
your thing and it's been your jam and
you've loved it for the whole time.   There's a cycle that's called MAMA
that we talk about. Moratorium, Achievement, Moratorium, Achievement and
that's that idea that you went through
moratorium initially, and then you
achieved an identity and you you went
with that. And then at some point you're
40, 45 years old and it's like "You know what, this has been a great run but I've
always also been interested in
architecture.
I'm going to go back into moratorium, I'm
going to explore other options again, I'm
going to think about other things."
Sometimes it looks like a midlife crisis,
but really what is happening is a
midlife review. So a midlife crisis,
actually, in psychology - not a bad thing.
Crisis is not a bad thing. So you go
back, you explore other options. Go back
into moratorium and then you go back to
achievement again.
So that's the ideal. That is James
Marcia's theory of adolescent identity
development.
