CH 12 Personality Development in Adolescence

Identity vs. Identity confusion

Erik Erikson’s stage, where adolescents seek to determine what is unique and distinctive about themselves

-There are a lot of social pressures to achieve a secure identity (or at least have clear

career or major goals).

-Now, adolescents rely more on friends and peers than adults.

-Erikson suggests that adolescents have a psychological moratorium to let go of

responsibilities for a while and explore new roles and possibilities

James Marcia’s Approach to Identity Development

crisis (adolescent consciously chooses between various alternatives and makes decisions) or commitment (adolescent makes a psychological investment in a course of action or an ideology)

4 distinct statuses: Identity achievement, Identity Foreclosure, Identity Diffusion, Moratorium

Identity Achievement

commitment to a particular identity following a period of crisis which they consider various alternatives

Identity foreclosure

the status of adolescents who prematurely commit to an identity w/o adequately exploring alternatives

Moratorium

explored various identity alternatives, but haven’t yet committed 

Identity diffusion

never commit to one option or never even consider identity options in a conscious way

Leads to increases in self esteem

High SES and Strong Racial Identity

Emerging Adulthood

period beginning in late teens and extending to mid 20s (start to have to do adult things like book your own doctors appointments)

Spirituality

sense of attachment to some higher power

Individuative-reflective stage-reflecting stage of faith (typically following/toward end of adolescence), typically begin to explore multiple views of God

Conjunctive stage-develops a broad, inclusive view of religion and humanity

Cultural Assimilation Model

holds that individual cultural identities should be assimilated

into a unified culture (melting pot model)

Pluralistic society model

suggests that U.S. society is made up of diverse, coequal

cultural groups that should preserve their individual cultural features.

Bicultural identity

suggests that adolescents can draw from their own culture and

integrate themselves into the dominant culture

Anxiety disorders

develop when anxiety occurs without external justification, and it

impacts normal, everyday functioning

major depressive disorder

a full-blown psychological disorder in which depression is severe and lingers for long periods

How do girls react to stress compared to boys?

Girls turn inward vs Boys turn outward

Suicide males vs females

More girls attempt but less succeed than boys because boys tend to use more violent means

Cluster suicide

occurs when one suicide leads to attempts by others to kill

themselves

Autonomy

independence and a sense of control over one’s life, changes parent child relation from an asymmetrical one to a more balanced one

Generation gap

a divide between parents’ and adolescents’ attitudes, values, aspirations, and world views, is mostly a myth; adolescents and their parents tend to share the same major values.

Peers

allow for social comparison

Cliques

are 2 to 12 people who have frequent interaction (group of people that are active memebers in a club)

Crowds

are larger groups where people share some characteristic but often don’t

interact with each other (ex: nerds)

Sex Cleavage/Sex Segregation

characteristic of early adolescence, where girls play with girls,

boys with boys, ends during adolescence

Controversial Adolescents

liked by some peers and disliked by others

Rejected Adolescents

are actively disliked, and peers may react to them in an

obviously negative manner

Neglected Adolescents

receive relatively little attention from their peers in the form of either positive or negative interactions

Popular Adolescents

Those that are the most well liked

Peer Pressure

the influence of one’s peers to conform to their behavior and attitudes

under socialized delinquents

raised with little parental supervision or discipline: they have not been appropriately socialized (often characterized by antisocial personality disorder as adults)

socialized delinquents

are adolescent delinquents who know and subscribe to the norms of society and are fairly normal psychologically, usually influenced by a group and crime is committed in a group

Mastrubation

sexual self-stimulation, is the initiation into sexuality for most

adolescents

How has the standard of sex changed?

old double standard, in which premarital sex was considered permissible for males

but not for females, has largely been supplanted by a new norm—permissiveness with affection, where premarital intercourse is viewed as permissible for both men and women if it occurs in the context of a long-term, committed, or loving relationship.

gender identity

gender a person believes they are psychologically

Drop in teenage pregnancy due to:

1)awareness of the risks of unprotected sex

2)Rates of sex going down for adolescents

3)use of effective contraceptive methods

4)Substitutes for sexual intercourse more present

5)Social norms and attitudes discouraging teenage pregnancy

WHAT HAS NOT HELPED→virginity pledges, abstinence only education