Establishing a personal identity -
a sense of an integrated, coherent, goal-directed self.
Achieving a new level of closeness and trust
with peers.
Acquiring a new status in the family.
Moving toward a more autonomous stance toward
the larger world (schoolwork, employment, financial independence, future
roles, career choices).
The Social World of Adolescence: An Overview
How Stormy Is Adolescence?
Psychologists have disagreed about the extent
of adolescent stress and conflict. It now appears that conflict with parents
varies across age, issue, and individual, with most adolescents getting
along well with their parents. Families that functioned well before pubertal
onset usually continue to function well.
Early adolescence is marked by more turmoil
for the adolescent and their families than middle and late adolescence.
Three patterns of development for boys
have been identified (and a similar range has been identified for girls,
with early adolescence being more difficult for self-esteem):
Tumultuous growth (25%) - filled
with conflict and crisis.
Surgent growth (33%) - periods
of reasonably smooth adjustment interspersed with negative periods (anger,
defiance, immaturity).
Continuous growth (25%) - self-assurance,
sense of purpose, mutual respect between parents and child.
Mundane issues are the main sources of
conflict between adolescents and parents.
A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Adolescence The turmoil experienced by adolescents
in Western nations is partly due to the demands of modern society, with
their relatively long and unclear transition to adulthood. In contrast,
the transition to adulthood in many non-Western cultures is clearly marked
by puberty rites, or rites of passage, to mark entry into
new adult roles. Children anticipate these rites for years in advance
and know exactly when they will be considered adults.
Development of the Self
The Self-Concept During Adolescence
During adolescence, the self becomes more
integrated, past and future roles begin to be connected, and self-reflection
becomes possible.
Changes from Middle Childhood to Adolescence
During adolescence, self-concepts become
more differentiated.
Self-concepts become more individuated.
Adolescents begin to focus on how they
interact with others, focusing more on traits that define their place
and manner of operating in the social network.
View the self as more self-reflective.
Think of the self as a coherent system
made up of diverse but integrated parts.
Table 14.1 illustrates some of these
changes in the self-concept.
Changes from Early to Late Adolescence
Older adolescents have a more sophisticated
understanding of self than do younger adolescents.
Older adolescents can unify or integrate
contradictory aspects of the self. As self-understanding becomes more
complex, self-consciousness wanes.
The Declining Fragility of the Self
Young adolescents' sense of self is
often fragile. They are unsure of the validity of the new self and become
more protective of self.
This is linked to other beliefs and
behaviors of early adolescents, such as the imaginary audience
and personal fable.
Fragility is linked to conformity of
dress issues in adolescence, helping to hide their fragile sense of
individual uniqueness while expressing belongingness to a group.
Fragility underlies the young adolescent's
tendency to fantasize different roles.
The decline in self-consciousness is
accompanied by a growing ability for accurate self-appraisal, including
one's personal weaknesses as well as one's strengths.
The Concept of Personal Identity
Establishing a personal identity involves
personally discovering a structure of abilities, beliefs, and past experiences
regarding the self. The process of identity formation typically includes
selecting and preparing for a career, reevaluating religious and moral beliefs,
working out a political ideology, and adopting social roles, including those
related to sexuality, marriage, and parenthood.
James Marcia states that identity refers
to a structure of abilities, beliefs, and past experiences regarding
the self. The less developed the structure, the more the confusion experienced.
Identity formation builds upon self-concept
development, and is related to changes in cognitive abilities experienced
during adolescence.
The social construction of identity
formation emphasizes the role of interpersonal relationships in the development
of a personal identity.
Erikson called the difficulty that adolescents
encounter in establishing a personal identity an identity crisis.
Adolescents are caught in the middle of two changing systems: the biological
system and the social system.
Individual Differences in Identity Formation
Marcia identified four patterns of
identity status.
Identity diffusion - not engaged
in active exploration of roles and values, no serious commitments to
an adult identity
Foreclosure - commitment to
a set of roles and values without going through a period of crisis.
Moratorium - in the midst of
actively exploring options for a personal identity, but have not made
commitments yet.
Identity achievement - occurs
when a person commits to a particular set of roles and values following
a period of active exploration. Identity achievement is seldom reached
before late adolescence or early adulthood.
Across the adolescent years, there
is a fairly steady increase in the percentage of young people who can
be classified as identity achievers and a decrease in the percentage
who are in a state of identity diffusion.
Identity achievers tend to have the
highest self-esteem, followed by those in moratorium, those who adopt
foreclosure, and those in identity diffusion. Achievers are more goal-oriented,
choose more demanding college majors, show greater cognitive sophistication,
and take more personal responsibility for their actions.
For Erikson, two sets of ingredients
are needed to consolidate an optimal sense of personal identity: 1)
must carry forward an inner confidence about competence and ability
to master new tasks (prior stage resolutions) and 2) have ample opportunity
to experiment with new roles, both in fantasy and in practice, coupled
with support from parents and other adults.
Group Differences in Identity Formation
Gay and lesbian adolescents, as a group,
have to contend with more social disapproval than their heterosexual
peers. Openness about homosexuality is related to higher self-esteem.
Identity development proceeds differently
for men and women. Girls' identity and the social domain are intertwined
more than for boys. Girls are more worried about balancing family and
career.
Minority youth are confronted with
two often-conflicting sets of cultural values-those of their ethnic
community and those of the larger society. Minority adolescents appear
more likely to avoid or cut short identity exploration than non-minorities.
Peer Relationships in Adolescence
The cognitive advances of adolescence make
possible a deeper, more mature understanding of others.
Involvement with peers becomes increasingly
critical to progress in self-understanding.
Peer group membership contributes to the
development of personal identity.
Friendships with same-sex peers pave the
way for romantic relationships.
Advances in Understanding Others Advances in self-understanding are accompanied by a growing sense of what others are like. Understanding of others is usually at roughly the same level as self-understanding.
The Nature of Adolescent Friendships
Compared with younger children, adolescents
have a greater capacity for mutual understanding, a stronger desire
for self-disclosure, and an increased capacity for intimacy.
This results in a deeper commitment to friendships. There is a greater
need for and capacity for keeping confidences. Words like trust, faith,
and believe are key in their descriptions of what friendships are about.
Increased intimacy and commitment appear
in early to mid-adolescence. In later adolescence, they are better able
to coordinate a broader range of friends. Friendships no longer need to
be so exclusive. Patterns of friendships come closer to those found among
adults.
Gender Differences
Gender differences in adolescent friendships
include girls' more frequent intimate interactions with same-sex friends
and their more intimate knowledge of their friends.
Compared with boys, girls also report
about twice as many disagreements with friends and longer-lasting negative
feelings following a disagreement. Boys have more conflicts with friends
regarding pressure to do things while girls report more conflicts regarding
betrayal.
Peer Intimacy and Identity
Erikson proposed that identity was
a prerequisite to true intimacy, while Sullivan argued that identity
is a product of intimacy.
Intimacy and identity may continue
to influence each other in a cyclical way, with advances in identity
development promoting deeper intimacy and deeper intimacy leading to
further identity consolidation.
Changes in the Nature of Peer Groups
The importance of being in a group and
conforming to group norms increases in early adolescence.
The two major adolescent group structures
are the clique (a close-knit group of a few friends who are intimately
involved with each other) and the crowd (a larger, less exclusive,
and more loosely organized group). Crowds are identified by the interests,
abilities, attitudes, style of dress, and other personal characteristics
shared by their members. Crowds are made up of cliques.
Older adolescents are more likely to characterize
crowds by their general dispositions or interests, which mostly are based
on reputation than actual behavior.
Membership in cliques peaks in early adolescence.
By late adolescence, the crowd boundaries begin to disintegrate and more
emphasis is placed on romantic relationships and specific friendships.
Dexter and Dunphy in Australia conducted
a classic study on clique and crowd formation. The stages of such formation
are described in Table 14-4 (precrowd stage, loosely formed crowd, mixed-sex
clique, fully developed crowd, loosely linked groups of couples).
Dating and Sexual Activity
Dating and sexual activity are usually
offshoots of crowd activities. 90 % are dating by age 16.
Sexual experimentation usually does not
begin until mid-adolescence. Couples are not usually involved on an emotional
level.
In late adolescence, opposite-sex relationships
become as intimate as same-sex relationships. May facilitate further development
of empathy and prosocial behavior.
Adolescent sexual activity has increased
over the last 40 years, with much of the increase occurring from the 1960s
to the 1980s. For girls the rate quadrupled and for boys the rate doubled
during these decades. The increase was accompanied by an increase in teen
pregnancies.
Rate of sexual intercourse remains relatively
low in early adolescence but increases substantially through middle and
late adolescence (60% report having had sexual intercourse by 12th
grade); rates vary for region and ethnicity.
The Relative Influence of Peers
High school students spend more than twice
as much time with peers as with parents and other adults.
As they become more autonomous of parents,
they become more dependent upon peers, who become important sources of intimacy.
The peak of conformity to peer group beliefs
and behaviors comes in early adolescence, and declines by age 16 or 17,
to no more than seen in middle childhood by ages 19 to 21. This is related
to the imaginary audience phase.
Throughout adolescence, level of conformity
depends on status in the peer group. Middle status peers are more conforming
than low- or high-status adolescents. The source of peer influence also
makes a difference in whether an adolescent conforms (stronger influence
by friends than acquaintances).
Peer influence does not replace parental
influence; instead, peers and parents seem to influence different aspects
of an adolescent's life. Peers have the greatest influence in matters dealing
with status in the peer group and outweigh parental influence in matters
such as smoking cigarettes and marijuana. Feelings of closeness to family
influences likelihood of conformity.
Family Relationships in Adolescence
The family remains a critical context for
development during adolescence.
The Changing Family Structure
Family roles and interaction patterns must
change to accommodate adolescent development. Hypothetical reasoning skills
usher in the adolescent's push for increased independence and a greater
say in family decisions.
Adolescents have a new understanding of
parent-child relationships and parental authority. By late adolescence,
they see mutual tolerance and respect as the basis of interactions between
themselves and their parents. No longer do they simply accept parents' dictates.
Most parents make appropriate changes in
response to these pressures from their children.
Mothers are closer to their teens than
fathers are.
Changes in patterns of family interaction
with greater symmetry in the parent-child relationship often involve conflict
and stress, especially in early adolescence. Parents' appraisal of the child's
cognitive capacities lags behind the child's development. Later see a more
symmetrical family power structure.
Parents at mid-life may find the changes
of adolescence particularly hard to deal with.
Parental stress is generally low when children
are between the ages of 10 and 12, peaks at ages 14 to 15, and declines
in late adolescence. Parental satisfaction shows a similar trend.
High parent-child conflict in early adolescence
does not indicate a family is not functioning well-it is a normal part of
the family realignment process. Total absence of conflict is actually more
worrisome-might indicate foreclosure in identity development.
Parenting Patterns and Adolescent Development
As power relationships in the family become
more symmetrical, the tasks of parenting change. Parents must respond to
their children's new ways of thinking and new strivings for autonomy, self-expression,
and influence. Parents must give their children increasing responsibility
while still providing guidance and involvement.
Many aspects of parenting style that were
important earlier remain important in adolescence. Authoritative or democratic
style of parenting promotes identity development. A family atmosphere of
support, with an acceptance of conflict and a willingness to compromise,
seems most positive for adolescent development.
Authoritarian parenting is more likely
to be associated with positive outcomes for Asian-American adolescents than
for European-American adolescents.
Adolescents whose parents responded to
their feelings, accepted disagreements, and initiated compromises were more
likely to perform at a relatively high level on 1) exploring alternatives
regarding the self, and 2) perceiving and coordinating different points
of view. Spills over into relationships with peers.
Bidirectional Influences Adolescents have impacts on parents and
family-interaction patterns, as well as being influenced by them. Timing
of puberty influences parent-child conflict, and boys and girls elicit
different parental behavior during adolescence.
The Impact of Divorce on Adolescents
Adolescents from divorced and remarried
families are at increased risk for behavior problems, drug use, early sexual
activity, adolescent pregnancy, and poor school performance, even when income
is controlled for.
Divorce can prompt a sleeper effect.
During adolescence there are continuing
differences in the effects of divorce on males and females, just as during
the childhood years. Girls are more likely to experience academic difficulties,
distress, and dissatisfaction with the family's situation, whereas boys
are more likely to show problem behaviors.
Studies of teenagers in single-parent homes
show that it is not simply the absence of a father that has negative effects,
it is the meaning attached to the loss of the father.
Adolescents in the Broader World
Adolescents at School
Secondary schools give students increasing
responsibility and expose them to greater peer diversity, but the secondary
school environment may also be a negative influence on development due to
the peer culture.
Grades typically drop during adolescence,
especially if students are under stress such as adjustment to a new school.
Adolescents vary in their beliefs about
their own abilities and the role of effort in success or failure. Those
with a strong belief in the importance of their own efforts are said to
have an internal locus of control. Adolescents who believe that nothing
they do will make a difference are said to have an external locus of
control.
Gender also influences achievement at school.
Girls are often socialized away from feelings of instrumental competence
and toward feelings of helplessness when confronted with a challenge. They
are more likely to attribute failure to immutable factors.
Adolescents at Work
Another setting in which adolescents can
experience success or failure is the workplace. About 60% of high school
sophomores and 75% of high school seniors have a part-time job, averaging
16 to 20 hours a week, most in retail or food service. Employment rates
vary by income and ethnic groups.
A job can contribute to adolescents' self-esteem
and personal identity, increase their sense of responsibility, and help
them move further toward independence. However, it can also have negative
impacts on schoolwork and peer relationships.
The Coherence of Development in Adolescence
The various aspects of individual development
fit together in a coherent way. There are close links between the quality
of parent-child relationships, peer relationships, and school functioning.
There is also coherence in the course
of individual development over time, with connections between how well
a youngster functions in adolescence and how well he or she functioned in
earlier developmental periods. During adolescence, some become better adjusted
than they were before, while for others the opposite is true. Developmentalists
see these changes as understandable reactions to changes in the environments
in which the youngsters grow. Most enter adulthood prepared to face the
demands and challenges.
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