Wednesday, November 03, 2004

reasons for raising the voting age

I know Kerry supporters of various ages and I think the older ones can handle the loss better. Even those who are very anti-Bush.

The younger ones, though, are looking for something to feel important about - so much of it is just being anti-Bush. However, a lot of them are also trying to break being identified with their parents and want something they can fight against.

But the real reason there will be temper tantrums is because most of these younger ones are at Ericson's Identity vs Identity Confusion development stage and are in the commitment stage of resolving it according to Marcia's identity resolution model. Winning is more to them than just who is President of the country - it's how some of them are measuring their success as individuals.

Add to this the fact that many of them are still at the social concern and conscience stage of morality, while not yet achieving metacognition - which is just a fancy way of saying that they don't recognize when their own actions are not appropriate and hypocritical.

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