Many of the men I’ve been working with recently have reached a crisis point in their lives. Often there are immediate issues to deal with, but at the same time they are facing some basic questions about their lives, about who they are, and what they want to do with their lives.
A useful frame for thinking about those questions is provided by James Marcia, a Canadian developmental psychologist who taught at Simon Fraser University.
Marcia was interested in the dynamics of the “identity crisis,” a term coined by Erik Erikson in his 1950 book Childhood and Society. Erikson proposed that the central challenge of adolescence is to resolve a tension between identity achievement and identity confusion. Starting in the 1960s, Marcia elaborated on this by suggesting that adolescence is better understood as an opportunity to both explore and commit to an identity, in areas such as intimate relationships, friendships, gender roles, politics, work, and spirituality.
While Marcia’s work focussed primarily on adolescence, it also applies to later life, especially when a person is confronted by other forms of crisis, or circumstances that lead them to question their identity and reassess their life. The men I work with have often experienced separation, loss of loved ones, health challenges, disruptions at work, depression, crises of confidence, loss of purpose, and so on. Marcia described these as states of disequilibrium.
Marcia discusses four identity statuses – Foreclosure, Diffusion, Moratorium and Identity Achievement – and characterizes them by the levels of exploration and commitment present in each, as shown in the chart below.
Here’s a quick overview. You might recognize yourself, now or at different times in your life, in some of these statuses.
Foreclosure (high commitment, low exploration): This is what happens when a person takes on a “ready-made” identity, with little or no exploration of alternatives. For example, a young person will go into the same profession as a parent, or take on their political or religious beliefs. As Marcia put it, “the individual about to become a Methodist, Republican farmer like his Methodist, Republican farmer father, with little or no thought in the matter, certainly cannot be said to have ‘achieved’ an identity, in spite of his commitment.” Marcia also discussed “negative foreclosure,” where a person takes on a fixed identity in direct opposition to what is expected.
Diffusion (low commitment, low exploration): People in this state try to sidestep the whole question of self-definition by avoiding both exploration and commitment. They are amorphous and tend to be socially isolated. They may not experience much anxiety, because they do not care about much; if they begin to care more they will either move towards Moratorium (see below) or become increasingly disturbed, negative and self-destructive.
Moratorium (low commitment, high exploration): These people are actively exploring themselves and their environment, searching for an identity. Marcia says they “report experiencing more anxiety than [others] … The world for them is not currently a highly predictable place; they are vitally engaged in a struggle to make it so.” One thing that people often discover in counselling is an increased "tolerance" for anxiety, since being in this struggle can be a springboard into greater aliveness, courage, and commitment.
Identity Achievement (high exploration, high commitment): These people have experienced a crisis, have explored, and have made commitments. Marcia suggests that they have developed “an internal, as opposed to external, locus of self-definition.” Again, this is something that many people learn in counselling.
Do you recognize yourself in this model, in the ways you have reacted or responded to crises at different stages of your life? Are you facing a crisis right now?
Crisis and disequilibrium are inevitable facts of life. Sadly our attempts to deal with them – perhaps by shutting down or acting out – can often make things worse. Potentially, however, these crises can lead to periods of “reconstruction,” which Marcia called moratorium-achievement-moratorium-achievement or MAMA cycles, a growth process developed through both exploration and commitment.
If you’re interested in resolving and healing crisis in your life and moving into a period of growth, take an important step today and get in touch.