Developing Career Identity with young people: Marcia's Identity Status Theory

I've found a new theory! Well, it isn't new as such, just new to me. 

Marcia's Identity Status Theory is about identity development in adolescents, and  Kolbert, Hilt, Crothers and Nice have written a really useful paper which links the theory very neatly with career development and offers some suggestions for career practice - I've linked to the paper in the reference list below if you want to delve deeper. The theory draws together some of the things that I've been wrangling with lately, in particular the links between career decision making and anxiety. 

Marcia's Identity Status Theory (2002) draws on and develops the ideas of Erikson who did a lot of interesting work on identity development in the 1970s, but Marcia articulates the process of developing identity, I think, in a more usable way. Marcia's theory talks about identity confusion as an inevitable part of adolescent identity development, and acknowledges that identities aren't usually formed till someone is at least 20. This proves a clear challenge for our young people in the UK, who often have to make career choices by the time they are 17.

The theory considers two dimensions of identity development: identity commitment, which is akin to career decidedness - the degree to which someone has made a choice and feels confident that this is what they want; and exploration, which is the process of self-questioning, as an individual considers their own values, attributes and world-view, and tries out different identities before crystallising their own goals. I would also argue that this process of exploration, for career development, also needs to include exploration of the world of work - career options and the labour market too. 

These two dimensions then give us four identity status positions:

Identity Diffusion is low commitment and low exploration. Students whose identity development is in this quadrant don't know what they want to do, and can't confidently name a path they want to pursue after their current course. But although they have no real plans, they aren't doing anything to help explore options. These students are often in a state of career anxiety - knowing that they need to make a choice, but anxious about how to do it, and they often end up being avoidant - refusing to engage with any useful activities because they know that engaging with career exploration will highlight their confusion and exacerbate their emotional disequilibrium. 

Identity Foreclosure: this is a state of high commitment but low exploration. These students feel committed to one particular job or pathway, but when you ask them to explain what it is and why they are drawn to it, they can't really articulate their own position. The jobs they choose are often high status (doctor, lawyer, engineer) and the student is often highly influenced by their families, friends or school. These can be tricky students to work with because they may not realise that there is more work to be done before they are in a position to make a good choice. 

Identity Moratorium:  in this state, students are exploring but have not yet committed to one particular path. Despite its rather grim sounding name, this is really where young people should be, as it is only by passing through this state that they can reach the identity achievement they need. But we also know that the very process of exploring oneself and one's career options leads to anxiety, and anxiety can lead to avoidance - thus pushing students back into the diffusion or foreclosure states (Crocetii et al., 2016; Pisarik et al., 2017).

Identity Achievement: This is where we are hoping that students will end up: high on commitment and high on exploration, and with a clear sense of their own career identity and where they want to end up, and a plan that aligns with their own values, interests and strengths. 

There seems to be some solid empirical evidence backing up this theory, with Kroger et al (2010) offering support for this path of identity development in adolescents, and other scholars showing that a crystallised identity brings all sorts of psychological rewards including resilience, emotional stability and self-esteem, as well as life satisfaction, academic achievement and positive well-being (Karas et al., 2015; Morsunbel et al., 2014; Pop et al., 2016; Sugimura et al., 2015).

Using this in practice

This framework can be used to help you understand your students current identity state. This can help you to manage career conversations or offer exercises that are likely to be pitched correctly and are therefore more likely to be effective. For example:

Identity Diffusion: Possible selves is a great exercise to try at this stage as it allows students to work with their identities and helps them to set goals. 

Identity Foreclosure: Students in this quadrant need to be encouraged to think very critically about their choices, so asking them more about why they think their dad wants them to be an engineer, or inviting them to question what they might not like about the work of a doctor is useful.

Identity Moratorium: The kind of exploration that students are engaging with at this stage inevitably involves some degree uncertainty which often (perhaps usually) leads to some anxiety, so alongside techniques to help students analyse themselves and the options available, some focus on normalising this anxiety and offering students some techniques to help is useful.

Identity Achievement: the support you can offer here is really about the application process, identifying suitable opportunities, help with CVs, application forms and interview skills.

As well as being a framework to help you to plan your own input, I think the framework could be really useful to share explicitly with students. Sharing this explicitly might help to normalise the anxiety associated with career choices, could encourage students to watch out for avoidant behaviour and could offer a pathway out, as students see that further exploration, although it might be painful, is a way through. 

I am drawn to this model because it is holistic, embracing the idea of identity, and acknowledging, explicitly, the emotional states that are so often associated with career development and which so often stand in the way of students' progressing. 

References

Crocetti, E., Beyers, W., & Cok, F. (2016). Shedding light on the dark side of identity: Introduction the special issue. Journal of Adolescence, 47, 104-108. https://doi.10/1016/j.adolescence.2016.01.002

Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. Norton. 

Kaplan, A., & Flum, H. (2012). Identity formation in educational settings: A critical focus for education in the 21st century. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 37(3), 171-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2012.01.005

Kroger, J., Martinussen, M., & Marcia, J. (2010). Identity status change during adolescence and young adulthood: A meta-analysis. Journal of Adolescence, 33(5), 683–698. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.11.002  

Kolbert, J., Hilt, D., Crothers, L. & Nice,M.  (2021) School Counselors’ Use of Marcia’s Identity Status Theory for Career Advisement and Consultation and Collaboration. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Nice-2/publication/357062271_School_Counselors'_Use_of_Marcia's_Identity_Status_Theory_for_Career_Advisement_and_Consultation_and_Collaboration/links/61ccad3ce669ee0f5c7189a3/School-Counselors-Use-of-Marcias-Identity-Status-Theory-for-Career-Advisement-and-Consultation-and-Collaboration.pdf

Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551-558. https://doi.10.1037/h0023281 Marcia, J. E. (2002). Adolescence, identity, and the Bernardone family. Family, Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 2(3), 199-209. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532706XID0203_01

Morsunbul, U., Crocetti, E., Cok, F., & Meeus, W. (2014). Brief report: The UtrechtManagement of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS): Gender and age measurement invariance and convergent validity of the Turkish version. Journal of Adolescence, 37(6), 799-805

Pisarik, C. T., Rowell, P. C., & Thompson, L. K. (2017). A phenomenological study of career anxiety among college students. The Career Development Quarterly, 65(4), 339-352. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12112 

Pop, E., Negru-Subtirica, O., Crocetti, E., Opre, A., & Meeus, W. (2016). On the interplay between academic achievement and educational identity: A longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence, 47, 135-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.11.004

Sugimura, K., Niwa, T., Takahashi, A., Sugiura, Y., Jinno, M., & Crocetti, E. (2015). Cultural self-construction and identity formation in emerging adulthood: A study on Japanese university students and workers. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(10), 1326-1346. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2015.1039964