The case study under consideration concerns a 20-year-old man living at home with his parents. The man does not attend a college course but has a job that allows him to pay for his car. In addition, the man shows uncertainty as to what he wants to do, noting that he does not view his job at a fast-food restaurant as a career. It can be argued that this case illustrates several issues, including the man being at a lower psychosocial and moral developmental stage and identity points for his age.
From the perspective of psychosocial development, the man fits the criteria for the industry vs. inferiority stage of development. Erikson’s theory suggests that this stage is characterized by children beginning to explore their independence and developing various competencies (Orenstein & Lewis, 2022). If children fail to form the competencies they view as necessary in society, they are likely to develop inertia, or passive stance, are unable to progress to the next stage of development and become industrious. Moreover, it can be suggested that the man is at the interpersonal concordance level, as proposed in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (Hafeez et al., 2020). At this level, a person conforms to the stereotypical image of the natural behavior, in this case, that of his high school friends (Hafeez et al., 2020). In addition, the identity diffusion status as defined by Marcia can be noted. Identity diffusion is a status in which a person fails to commit to a significant goal (Chanu & Maraichelvi, 2021). Thus, the case study shows a cognitively well-developed man with setbacks in moral development and identity formation.
Overall, the man is not in the best position as he enters adulthood. His parents are recommended to increase his autonomy and morality by appealing to him logically and providing him with chances to develop socially acceptable competencies. Such opportunities to form new competencies through various tasks can translate into the man in the case study becoming more industrious and undertaking more responsibilities autonomously. This approach can boost the man’s self-esteem and help him avoid a further identity crisis.
References
Chanu, L. M., & Maraichelvi, K. A. (2021). Identity status of youth. Journal of Scientific Research, 65(4), 50–54. Web.
Hafeez, M., Tahira, F., Abbas Kazmi, Q., & Zahid Hussain, M. (2020). Analysis of moral reasoning of teachers and the students with respect to Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. International Journal of Business Strategy and Social Sciences, 3(1), 11–29. Web.
Orenstein, G. A., & Lewis, L. (2022). Eriksons Stages of Psychosocial Development. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. Web.