Erikson's Initiative Vs. Guilt

It is also hypothesised that Neil would have faced crisis in the stage of “Initiative Vs Guilt”, where a child’s social radius increases due to developments in language and locomotor. The child’s field of imagination increases and thereby, he starts associating himself with different. Initiative, may also rise out of the individual’s curiosity and if this curiosity is curtailed or is punished for, it will lead to increased feeling of guilt. A sense of initiative is achieved when a child resolves a crisis at this stage, which leads to having a better opinion of oneself. It is assumed that Neil could have adopted the dystonic ability of guilt at this. He could have been forced to take engage in activities that his parents wanted him to, therefore

According to Marcia (1966), there are four stages of ego (self) development, or identity statuses that related to certain aspects of one’s personality (as cited in Papalia, Olds & Feldman, 2004). In his study, he theorised four identity status: identity achievement, foreclosure, moratorium and identity diffusion. These four categories differ according to the presence or absence of crisis or commitment, which he extrapolated from Erikson’s theory of identity formation. The term ‘crisis’ in Marcia’s theory is the process of decision- making, where an individual explores the multiple alternatives in his/ her life. Commitment, in this theory refers to act of choosing an alternative and following through with them (Schwartz, 2001). Therefore, depending on the levels of crises and commitment, Marcia arrived at the identity statuses. In contrast to Erikson’s theory, Marcia’s theory is as describing character types instead of

Identity achievement, is an identity status where there is commitment to choices that will help in one’s identity formation, after going through a brief period of crisis or exploration of alternatives (Papalia et al., 2004). This status is a mature status because it is associated thinking, decision making and deep interpersonal relationships (Schwartz, 2001). Foreclosure is an identity status where, an individual who has not spent time considering alternatives or has not been in crisis is committed to other people’s plans (Papalia et al., 2004). Individuals with this identity status are seen as being conflict- free and have idealized relationship with parents (Schwartz, 2001). Moratorium on the other hand, is an identity status where the individual is currently considering alternatives for identity formation or are in crisis, and are seen as heading towards commitment to selected alternatives. Individuals with identity status are noted to be open- minded who are facing stresses in their life. Identity diffusion, is where the individuals are characterized by absence of commitment and crisis. Individuals with this status are seen as being directionless and remain unconcerned about their lack of commitment to make choices that will lead to identity formation (Schwartz et al.,