Reflections about the empirical access of Erik Erikson’s theory of identity

The text presents an attempt towards the appropriation of Erikson’s theory for identity development, important in the fields of education and psychology. In order to make Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development empirically accessible, James E. Marcia developed the “Identity Interview Status” (ISI), that searches within the topics of “profession”, “relationship/family” and “values/ideology” for the variable “commitment” and “exploration” crises with the final output being the “identity status” of the individual. This paper presents a reflection and further development of the ISI. How is the concept of “identity status” theoretically deduced based on Erikon’s theory in the ISI? Regarding methodology, it is questioned if “identity status” is appropriate for the inquiry of identity and if the ISI is an adequate instrument to investigate this. Are the constructions of the researcher based on the constructions of the person interviewed? How is the perspective of the individual interviewed integrated in the research process? The concerns raised by these questions directed us to find an improvement to the ISI, called the “Modified Identity Status Interview” (MISI) and for the development of a process model of the identity crisis. Keywords: identity; Erik H. Erikson; process model of identity crisis; Identity Status Interview Modified (MISI).