Maureen Gillespie
PSY 206 – Dr. Greenspan
Montgomery County Community College
April 15, 2013
Assignment #2

Adolescence is defined as the transition between childhood and adulthood. Many changes happen at this stage. Adolescence involves things such as puberty, greater independence, and a time when someone begins to construct their identity. Identity means their life value and goals including a secure sense of who they are in terms of sexual, vocational, and moral ethics. In the next few paragraphs I will be discussing my Virtual Child, Maeve as she went through adolescence (ages 11- 16). I am going to delve into the different changes I saw in her and how they relate to theories proposed by Piaget, Erikson, Marcia, and Gardner. Each
Marcia yielded from this, four “identity statuses.” These four statuses are: identity achievement, identity moratorium, identity foreclosure, and identity diffusion. Identity moratorium is exploration without commitment to value, foreclosure is commitment in the absence of exploration, and diffusion is an apathetic state where you don’t commit or explore. The following example shows how Maeve does not fit into either of these categories. As you know from previous examples, Maeve explored many social and behavioral changes in her adolescence. One conversation sits with me the most. I had a conversation once with Maeve after she was off the school bus in about 10th grade. She described a situation where she had a conversation with a good friend, heard her friend’s values, didn’t agree, and respectfully listened while providing feedback as necessary. She came home to tell me all about her values and how she didn’t openly or rudely oppose her friend just because her friend thought differently than she did. She also didn’t change her own values because of this. This is a perfect example of identity achievement which is defined as a commitment to values, beliefs, and goals, following a period of exploration. Maeve stayed true with these beliefs, stayed on track with her goals in life, and is all set to go to the college of her dreams, because that is what she values.

In looking at adolescence it is important to look at how they develop their intelligence.