Josselson's Theory of Identity Development in Women (Just the Gist):
Josselson based her theory on the work of James Marcia who based his work on the 5th stage of Erikson's identity development over the life-span "identity vs. identity diffusion." Marcia saw this identity vs. identity diffusion as an interplay between crisis and commitment, particularly with regard to politics, religion, occupational choice and sexual decisions. Marcia came up with four stages upon which Josselson built her theory: Diffusion, Foreclosure, Moratorium, and Achievement.
Foreclosure - These women as the type that know what they want and pursue it almost with blinders on with their eyes straight on the goal. According to Josselson, these women commit to their parents' standards without question or crisis.
Achievement - These women break from their childhood identities and form their own. According to Josselson, these women "create identity in their own way after considering who they were in the past and who they want to become in the future" (Evans, Forney & Guido-DiBrito, 1998, p. 58). These women experience an identity crisis but are able to commit to who they are.
Moratorium - These women are in a stage where they are in conflict and are searching for their answers. While it is possible to stay in moratorium, it is possible to regress or to move on to identity achievement.
Diffusion - Josseslson found this group to be quite varied, with four subgroups ranging from those lacking healthy psychological functioning to "drifters" that go through life with neither crisis nor commitment.
Our texts warns us to use caution when applying the results of Josselson's study to students today as much of the research was conducted long ago.
These are what I think are the most important things to take away from the reading:
1) Colleges need to have a type of "safety net" to catch students when they fail in making commitments and "caring environment" to help return them back to health.
2) Professionals should reflect on their own development in order to help the students they serve. (I kind of see this as the "developmental" equivalent having a "philosophy" for your line of work - it's another level of awareness.)
A couple questions if anyone feels like answering...
Josselson found that women:
1) see themselves for who they are and not the decisions they make
2) merge connectedness with autonomy
3) at the most developed stage are able to maintain closeness with those she is individuating from (called "rapprochement")
I'm curious what you think about the above in relation to your gender. Agree? Disagree?
BREAKING NEWS: Students are still bored
3 days ago
What year is this theory from? I previously used marcia's framework but had not heard of this one. But I was also in my grad program 1995-97. LA
ReplyDeleteHey LA! Josselson basically took Marcia's framework and applied it to women (as most of Marcia's work was done on men). Josselson's study was in 1971 (with 60 randomly selected participants - females in their senior year of college between the ages of 20 and 22 - from 4 different institutions (which were of different institutional types). She also did a follow-up with 34 of the participants ten years later - and it sounds like she's doing another follow-up as well. --A very interesting longitudinal study, but one that is generationally specific.
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