What roles did you play in your family? In your school? In your outside life? Were you comfortable in those roles? Were you comfortable recognizing that you actually played a number of different roles? How did you feel when your roles were in conflict (e.g., you were a student in school; but you may also have been a teacher in some other setting). To what extent did these roles contribute to your sense of identity?

Test 2

Think back on your life in high school. What roles did you play in your family? In your
school? In your outside life? Were you comfortable in those roles? Were you comfortable
recognizing that you actually played a number of different roles? How did you feel when your
roles were in conflict (e.g., you were a student in school; but you may also have been a teacher
in some other setting). To what extent did these roles contribute to your sense of identity?

As you reflect upon the development of your identity, carefully study and think about the four
aspects of identity formation described in the article about James Marcia, namely:
Identity Achievement
Identity Foreclosure
Identity Moratorium
Identity Diffusion

After having considered all of the above, write your essay following this outline: Define identity and explain how it differs from the specific roles you played.

Describe your own sense of identity at the end of high school.

How has your sense of identity changed since high school?

Consider Marcia’s 4 aspects of identify formation (above).
Then write a brief paragraph for each of Marcia’s phases, describing your personal experience.
For each aspect, pick whichever one of the following facets of your identity that most readily illustrates it.

career/education
religion
political beliefs
sexual orientation
gender identity
character
Finally, can you identify from the list above which aspects of your identity were most
strongly formed by the end of high school and which ones were not fully informed until
later (presumably during the stage of emerging adulthood)?