Procedures in Research on Identity Status: Some Notes on Method

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to delineate some of the inconsistencies in method found in research on identity status. This construct, operationalized by Marcia in 1964 as a means of testing hypotheses about late adolescent development suggested by Erikson's theory, has generated considerable interest and empirical study. Procedural aspects of the research, such as the numbers, characteristics and training of raters, disagreement among raters, scoring methods, and the use of domain vs global scores are discussed and recommendations are made. It is suggested that more consistent procedures will result in contributions to the literature that are beter integrated and more easily generalizable than current practices warrant.