Is Marcia's Theory Of Four Identity Statuses Still Effective?

Is Marcia’s Theory of Four Identity Statuses Still Effective in Today’s Culture The concept of identity is a heavily discussed and constantly changing idea. Some say it comes in stages and others believe it to be a gradual, continuous development. This paper is examining James Marcia’s theory of identity statuses by surveying adolescents and emerging adults between the ages of 13 and 25 about their career identity development. I expect to see my results come to a different conclusion than Marcia described, with younger participants presenting in more adult statuses more so while the adults showed more variety in their status than the younger. I support this because from what I have witnessed, it appears to be accurate for most people. James Marcia proposed a theory consisting of four statuses based on Erikson’s theory of identity. Marcia theorized that both adolescents and emerging adults go through distinct stages of crisis and commitment and depending on which is present shows which stage the individual is at. In this case, crisis means that the individual has explored meaningful alternatives to the current choice, not that one
When this theory was developed, it was not unheard of for young adults to wait to decide on their career future until closer to adulthood or focus on careers the family had chosen for them. Today, adolescents are being encouraged to consider their futures at a much younger age. For example, in middle school students are encouraged to research their intended careers, thus putting them into a crisis much sooner. This could also allow for more uncertainty in the older adolescents and emerging adults. By finding their career earlier, they may feel that they must be committed to the field and thus once they reach adulthood and start entering the field they may find that they are not suited to the field and must go through diffusion again until they reach a conclusion of what they are suited