Marcia explored different subjects including history, English, and philosophy, and he graduated in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.
[5][6] Marcia began his professional career in 1965 as a professor and director of the psychology clinic at the University at Buffalo.
Although research, teaching, and community psychology were major commitments, he also attended the University of British Columbia School of Music from 1995 to 1998 for performance in trombone.
Evaluating the material provided in this interview by using a scoring manual developed by Marcia and colleagues yields four possible outcomes.
Marcia saw the evidence for the endorsement of authoritarian values by foreclosures as fully commensurate with a view of them as becoming the alter egos of their parents.
As they begin to care more...they move to the moratorium status, or they become so disturbed that they are diagnosed schizophrenic";[18] or may end up adopting a negative and self-destructive identity-role.
[19] Identity moratorium is the status of individuals who are in the midst of a crisis, whose commitments are either absent or are only vaguely defined, but who are actively exploring alternatives.
[20] Marcia notes that "moratoriums...report experiencing more anxiety than do students in any other status...The world for them is not, currently, a highly predictable place; they are vitally engaged in a struggle to make it so".
[18] Despite such anxiety, the postmodern trend has been for more people to spend more time in the status, a phenomenon Gail Sheehy termed Provisional Adulthood.
Marcia found some evidence to support his "theoretical description of Students who have achieved an identity as having developed an internal, as opposed to external, locus of self-definition".
In the case of foreclosures, many will choose to live in an environment that is similar to their childhood experiences so that they may remain unchanged.
[26] In the re-construction process, there is still continuity with previous identity, however, the newer construction is broadened to include new life experiences and commitments.
[28] While Marcia primarily focused on the late adolescent years, his theory is applicable in later adulthood, when identity crises may reoccur.
One study, exploring correlations between the identity statuses of Marcia's model and social behaviors, focused on young adults ranging in age from 19 to 35.