Context Mapping
Context Mapping is a way in which we understand the different identities that make up a person. A context map maps the behaviors that one encounters on a weekly, or monthly basis.
My context map looks something like this:
Social:
RI Sports Club
Swimming
Running races
Work friends
School:
Youth Development major
Friends/students
Central Falls HS students/teachers
Home:
Parents
Cousins
Grandparents
Neighbors
For this weeks blogpost, we were asked to answer a few questions on the chapter, Identity in Context in Understanding Youth by Michael J. Nakkula and Eric Toshalis.
In this chapter, Mitch asked Julian to list, on a piece of paper, all the spaces that come into play in his daily life. He also asks Julian to name what all those spaces or people expect of him. Lastly, Mitch asked Julian to pay close attention to how he feels when he is in those different spaces.
Identity statues as opposed to developmental stages, "are not necessarily linear. They describe the dominant issues, concerns, or developmental experiences during a particular era in one's life". (2006)
The four identities described in this chapter are:
Achieved Identity: When an individual has committed to one identity and is no longer exploring others.
Foreclosed Identity: When an individual has committed to a direction in life but has not fully explored or experimented with other directions
Moratorium: When an individual actively explores different roles and beliefs but does not make a commitment to just one.
Diffuse Identity: When one has not actively explored, considered or committed psychologically to an identity.
I think that I am somewhere between Moratorium and Achieved Identity. I have a sense of what I want to do with my life and where I want to end up, but I am also still open to exploring other areas. Right now I am still not sure where life will lead me or where I will end up. And sometimes there is something exciting about that.
Jess I am in the same boat as you with my own identity. I have discovered most of myself and who I am and where I want to go. I think I still have so much learning though and it is exciting, also scary, but exciting too!
ReplyDeleteJess I like ya blog =P. I enjoyed where your identity has brought you. I feel many of us in college have found that something that makes us but we still are unsure what is to come next. I feel like acknowledging that we are getting older will help us find our identity. With Youth we need to guide them by letting them explore their identity and help them map their context map/path.
ReplyDeleteI too feel as if I am in the Moratorium/ Identity Achieved phase. I also agree with both Mackenzie and Anthony. Though we have identified ourselves under certain categories, I feel that as we go on about our lives, we will change our identities to fit the molds we find ourselves in. Change is a lifelong process, and it is both exciting and scary to see where we will end up in our lives.
ReplyDelete"Right now I am still not sure where life will lead me or where I will end up. And sometimes there is something exciting about that." Very exciting and I agree with Nina, scary and anxiety producing sometimes. It's great to have communities to hold you/support you as you are exploring who and where and how you are/ want to be.
ReplyDelete