LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT

Life Span Development

Life Span Development

This paper discusses how the adolescent achieves an identity and how the continued advancement of cognition plays a role in this development by utilizing Erik Erikson and Marcia theories of identity development.

Addressing the subject of Erikson's fifth stage, adolescence, Marcia (2000) identified four adolescent identity formations. These formations are related to an adolescent's exploration of available options plus choices he or she makes concerning commitment to a chosen option. Successful completion of this level requires an adolescent to explore and commit to one option. Adolescents who choose to explore and not commit during adolescence, ...