The universal of identity has been approached in many different ways.

The universal of identity has been approached in many different ways. Several theorists have proposeed developmental models of identity, eg Erik H Erikson, Jane Loevinger, and Peter Blo (Kroger 1996) The not past nor future study of adolescent identity is based forward the Marcia ego identity status paradigm (Marcia, 1996 1993a). Since the universal of identity status was introduced in 1966 Marcia's ideas have generated a great number of studies (Kroger 2000) Researchers from different countries have studied identity status in populations, ranging from early adolescence to late adulthood (Marcia, 1993a). Various [i]modus operandi[/i]s and instruments have been used in identity status research, unless the instrument used in the current study is the most perform the operations indicated ined and validated questionnaire for measuring identity status: the widened Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status II (EOM-EIS-II) (Adams, Bennion, & Huh 1989; Marcia, 1993a).

Marcia's ideas spring from Erikson's theory of psychosocial progressive growth Erikson (1959) described eight psychosocial stages of disclosure each stage consisting of the two physical and psychological development place in a social context. Each stage personates different developomental tasks that we all face during a lifetime, with identity as the primary different developmental tasks that we all face during a lifetime, with identity as the primary psychosocial task of adolescence (Erikson, 1959 1969) Erikson viewed identity as built on the subject of childhood identifications but as being more than the amount of these. He describes the proces of identity formation as being built about the childhood processes of introjection and identification--that during childhood we incorporate the image of our parents (or other significant relations) and their characters values, and beliefs. According to Erikson our events to come identity formation requires such introjects and identifications. However, it is not until the individual is able to pick out some of those childhood identifications, and discard others, based upon her or his interests and values, that identify formation can begin. Erikson stresse that all the necessary ingredients for an identity are not ready until adolescence. At that point in life, great physioslogical and cognitive changes coincide with growing social expectations. Identity, for Erikson, is the individual's personal organization of experiences of biological and psychological exhibition in relation to the recognitions and regulations the individual receives in the social context

Marcia unraveled the identity status paradigm in an effort to operationally define and empirically investigate Erikson's organize of identity. In interview studies, Marcia lay the foundation of that the participants had different ways of arriving at an identity, and that they displayed diverse results of identity formation (Marcia, 1993a, 1994) The differences lay the foundation of could be explained with regard to two important processes involved in the formation of an identity, namely exploration and commitment. Based concerning the criteria of these processe Marcia formulated four different identity statuses that describe different ways of forming an identity: Identity Achievement, Moratorium, Foreclosure, and Identity Diffusion. athwart the years much information about significant behavioral, cognitive, affective, and attitudinal traits associated with the different identity statuses have been gathered. The following brief description of each status is based forward findings reported in Ego Identity--A Handbook of Psychosocial Research (Marcia, 1993c) Identity-achieved individuals have gone from one side a period of exploration and have made identity-defining commitments. They are assumed to have favorably resolved the psychosocial task of adolescence. In interviews identity-achieved adolescents assume thoughtful and introspective, and able to articulate by what means they have made their choices and wherefore From experimental studies we know that identity-achieved individuals perform well subordinate to stress, reason at high plains of moral development, and score high forward measures of autonomy. No significant differences in intelligence have been determined between the identity statuses, yet identity-achieved individuals are shown to be more creative and rational than other statuses. Moratoriums are popularly in the process of exploration and commitments are either vague or absent. These individuals actively contend to arrive at commitments. However, moratoriums' try to achieve identity is an ambivalent the same They alternate between rebellion and conformity. Empirical studies have shown that moratoriums are more anxious than the achieved or foreclosed individuals. Foreclosures are, upon the other hand, the least anxious of the statuses. In interviews they strike single as goal-directed and well behaved, although inflexible and defensive. They are eagerly committed, but their commitments are not the accrue of exploration. Foreclosed persons have adopted goals, values, and beliefs from parents or other authority figures without to a great degree critical thought. It has been experimentally determined that foreclosures are authoritarian, approval-seeking, and somewhat rigid in their notion processes. The fourth identity status is diffusion. Marcia (1994) explains that there are subtype of all identity statuses. However, the diffusions have proven to be the mostly heterogeneous group. Identity-diffused individuals may have undergone one explorations, but they seem to be meandering more than actively exploring. Lack of commitment is characteristic of these individuals. a certain number of diffusions have a "playboy/playgirl" attitude to life; they pretend to drift aimlessly and carefree. Others may indicate severe psychopathology exemplified by social isolation and unhappiness. Interviews with diffusions note carefully to be short. Unlike the other statuses they do not have a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of to say about the bring under rules in an identity status interview. in succession experimental measures, identity-diffused individuals have the mostly difficulty thinking when under stres and use les complexus cognitive styles than do moratoriums and achievements. Research forward identity status has repeatedly shown that human frames who have undergone the exploration-commitment proces are more relationally incident and mature than those who have not (Marcia, 1993b) The identity statuses are generally regarded as representing different plains of sophistication. Diffusion is considered the least advanced of the statuses, followed through foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achievement (Adams et al., 1989) Furthermore, the developmental assumptions are that the amount of identity achieved by way of individuals increases with age, and that relatively not many late adolescents should be diffused (Adams et al., 1989; Waterman, 1993a).