Question

Choose one of the four arenas of identity formation (faith, vocation, politics or gender role). Within the arena you have chosen, describe some circumstances from your adolescence that impacted your journey to identity achievement. Consider James Marcia's four specific coping strategies discussed in the text (role confusion, foreclosure, moratorium or achievement) and describe how they were or were not evident in your experience. Tell whether your faith hindered or helped your journey to identity achievement.

Answer 1

Answer:

The chosen arena was the gender role.

Explanation:

During my adolescence, the gender roles imposed by society influenced and confused the construction of my identity as a whole. This is because gender roles determined that I adopt certain behaviors and put myself into certain activities that were not what I would like to do, but these roles insisted that I would have to commit to this, why these things should be done by everyone people who have the same gender as me. However, they made me unhappy and I wanted to commit myself only to what brought me happiness and not to any obligation. In this phase, we can see that I was experiencing the stage of confusion of roles, within the strategies of James Marcia.

However, due to the pressure of society to mold my personality by myself, I gave in to gender roles and found myself committed to what was right for the gender, which could make me unhappy, but which seemed to be my obligation and I , committed, I worked to achieve and honor these roles. I was in the foreclosure stage, where I showed a high degree of commitment to the roles dictated for my gender, but I did not have any exploration that could actually shape my personality.

Over time and my commitment to gender roles, my happiness and individuality seemed increasingly scarce, which made me dare and try more of the things I really wanted to do, even if those things were not part of of my gender role. My commitment was falling more and more, once I started to experiment and realize what made me happy and what made me sad. At that moment I was in the moratorium stage, where I was discovering myself and beginning to build myself.

Finally, I came to understand what elements and what activities, roles and behaviors I wanted for my life, regardless of everything that was said or shown before. Now I knew what my personality was and how I should go about maintaining it, since it is what makes me feel good about myself and the world around me. At that moment, I debuted at the achievement stage, ending this long journey.