Identity development in adulthood: A longitudinal study

Identity status interviews involving five domains of life (religious belief s, political ideology, occupational career, intimate relationships, and lif estyle) were conducted with 249 women and men at ages 27 and 36. The result s on overall identity and domain-specific identities confirmed our general hypothesis as to the strengthening of the commitment process: (1) stability was higher in the identity statuses involving commitment (identity achieve ment and foreclosure) than in the statuses not involving commitment (identi ty diffusion and moratorium); (2) an increase in the salience of identity d omains could be attributed to an increase in the commitment process; (3) tr ansitions into identity statuses involving commitment were more frequent th an transitions into statuses not involving commitment: indicating that both identity achievement and foreclosure might be end points of identity devel opment. It was concluded that the results pointed to identity development i n adulthood rather than to a random fluctuation in identity statuses over t ime. (C) 2000 Academic Press.