Unit 9: Autonomy and Identity in Adolescence

Exam 2, Lectures 17 & 18

Self and Identity Development in Adolescence

• Changes in the way we see and feel about ourselves occur throughout the lifespan

• Adolescence marks the first restructuring of one’s sense of self at a time when they can appreciate the significance of these changes

  • During which the individual has enough of other kinds of maturity, especially cognitive maturity, but also peer relationships, that enable one to see it in a different/nuanced/more complex way than is true of earlier in development.

Instigators of Change in Self and Identity

• Physical changes of puberty

  • Appearance

  • Relationships with others

    • People begin to react to these changes in physical appearance 

• Cognitive changes → the ability to do abstract thinking, and thinking about the possibility of selves is a shift in how one sees themselves

  • Imagine possible selves

    • Prospective self→ become pretty salient during adolescent transition, and impact on current behavior

  • Develop a future orientation

• Psychosocial changes (all related but not identical) 

What are the changes in Self & Identity?

1. In self-conceptions - how I think of myself

2. In self-esteem - how I value myself

3. In sense of identity - identity development in the formal sense

Changes in Self-Conceptions

• Self-conception is the way individuals think about and characterize themselves (traits and attributes) → things that are defining for that individual

• For children, an undifferentiated list of characteristics is most common, more heavily physical in younger children (I have brown hair, etc.), but gradually including other characteristics later (I have lots of friends, etc.)

• During adolescence, more complex, abstract self-conceptions develop

• Differentiated self-concept:

  • Actual self - behavioral, but nuanced characteristic (ex: “I’m generally pretty shy, but when I am with my friends, I’m comfortable and can interact”)

    • Becomes more complex, characterizing oneself in a more abstract way

  • Ideal self - liking to see oneself as a particular kind of person, who one aspires to be

  • Feared self - a sense of self differentiated from what one would ideally like to be, and be seen as, versus what one is worried about actually being seen as 

Changes in Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem

  • How an individual feels about him or herself

• Baseline self-esteem is fairly stable over time

  • Baseline self-esteem: The way that adolescents typically feel about themselves overall (e.g., “I am a good person”)

• Adolescents’ feelings about themselves fluctuate day by day

  • Barometric self-esteem: The way that adolescents feel about themselves depending on specific events of that day (e.g., “I feel bad that I was mean to my friend”)

Declines in Self Esteem

• Consistently seen in about 20% of middle or junior high school students

• Special difficulties with stage/environment fit (Eccles et al.)

• Typically at-risk students in a context that has a weak or negative school climate

• Similarly at-risk students in positive school climates often show an increase in self-esteem and performance

• Similar changes in outcomes found for boys and girls

  • Dealing with a highly plastic brain, with a lot of neuroplasticity during the adolescent period. By virtue of being so plastic, it is highly sensitive to experience, with impacts across the board. 

  • Particularly important impact on at risk students, whether it’s a positive or negative school environment 

Changes in Self-Esteem Through Adolescence

• During early adolescence

  • Increased volatility in barometric self-image

  • Different trajectories for different adolescents

• Young adolescents with the most volatile barometric self- esteem report the highest levels of anxiety, tension, psychosomatic symptoms, and irritability

  • Volatility in self-esteem is one manifestation of difficulties in self-regulation

Differences in Self-Esteem

• Gender differences in self-esteem (boys > girls)

  • become smaller over course of adolescence

  • more pronounced among white and Puerto Rican teens

  • less pronounced among African-American teens

• Middle-class > lower SES

  • have higher self-esteem than their less-affluent peers

  • SES discrepancy grows larger over the course of adolescence

    • Shift from structural and systemic patterns of SES, transferring over to the person/individual level, with an ideology that these are all merit based differences, is that process of cooling out  

• African-American girls > white/Hispanic girls

  • Do not feel as negative about appearance

  • Have higher overall self-esteem

  • Show less of a decline in self-esteem over adolescence

Antecedents and Consequences of High Self-Esteem

• Across all socio-demographic groups, self-esteem is related to:

  • Parental approval 

  • Peer support

  • Success in school

• Teens who derive self-esteem mainly from peers, rather than teachers or parents, show more behavioral problems and poorer school achievement

The Adolescent Identity Crisis

• Erikson’s Theoretical Framework

  • The establishment of a coherent sense of identity is the chief psychosocial crisis of adolescence

    • Modern in the sense that there is a level of mobility that exists, and identity aspirations are achievable as a result → Has grown into a choice question

  • The fifth of eight “crises” across the lifespan - Choice point in adolescence is the identity

• Exploration → if there is a choice, it is only really a choice if you have the ability to explore different identities

• Commitment → relatively stable over time, a stable enough to guide a sense of how you interact with the world

Identity achievement

Psychologically desirable destination; you have gone through a process of exploration and after some period of time, level of experience, and level of maturity, it settles into a sense of an identity achieved

Moratorium

Most characteristic of the adolescent transitional point, exploration is ongoing, but it hasn’t arrived at an endpoint, and is making progress towards identity achievement

Identity foreclosure

Commitment to an identity, but in the absence of any real exploration (accepted identity, or maybe a passed down identity) 

Identity diffusion

Associated with the least desirable outcomes; not exploring possibilities and not making any commitment with any identities; almost always has a substantially problematic developmental history (chaotic attachment, dysfunctional families, and developmental psychopathology)

The Adolescent Identity Crisis: Identity versus Identity Diffusion

• The adolescent’s identity results from a mutual recognition between the young person and society

  • “Psychosocial”stages - internal sense of self and society’s response to me

• The adolescent forges an identity, but at the same time society identifies the adolescent

• Key to resolution lies in social interactions (according to Erikson)

  • Both have to be operative - mutual recognition between the individual and society 

    • In the case of adolescents → peers 

Problems in Identity Development: Identity diffusion

• Identity diffusion → associated with the most problematic outcomes

  • incoherent, disjointed, incomplete sense of self

  • Without resolution, it is associated with a variety of particular psychological problems, and problems navigating the world as well

  • Tends to have a developmental history along the lines of dysfunctional family histories, problems with attachment, etc.  

Problems in Identity Development: Identity Foreclosure

• Identity Foreclosure → no moratorium that has led to it,  it's just there, or has always been presumed to be there. Becomes problematic for individuals, may be successful but not because they arrived at their own commitments. The main risk comes later on, when all of a sudden the person realizes they aren’t happy doing what they are doing. Less life fluidity by this point. 

  • bypassing the period of exploration and experimentation

  • Collective identity: adopting a full set of identifiers as one’s own (“tribal”?)

    • Adopted an identity of a collective

Problems in Identity Development: Negative Identity

• Negative Identity

  • identities that are undesirable to parents or the community

    • Accepting an identity that’s undesirable to parents or to the larger community having been presented with messaged that you are an undesirable 

    • More likely to adopt anti-social behavior/identity 

    • Mutual rejection between individual and society

The Social Context of Identity Development: Secular (History)

• Course of identity development varies by culture and historical era

  • “Identity” is a relatively new feature of “modernity” – not until some level of choice is possible (e.g., not feudal)

  • Many more career options for women than in the past means more complicated choices to make

  • Increased time demands for “preparation”

• The more alternatives that are available, the more difficult it may be to narrow down and establish a sense of identity

• Because of these complications, adolescents may benefit from a “time out” to figure out identity before entering adult roles

The Social Context of Identity Development: Psychosocial Moratorium

• “Time out” from excessive responsibilities and obligations

• Experiment with different roles 

• Luxury of the affluent if introspection interferes with survival

  • A moratorium is a healthy transition in adolescence, but not everybody has that available to them 

Research on Identity Development

• Identity generally not established before age 18, and currently, often later (emerging adulthood; developmental maturity of the brain)

• During college, vocational plans solidify

  • but not religious and political beliefs

• College may prolong psychosocial moratorium

  • especially for political and religious beliefs

• Individuals may move from one identity status to another, particularly during adolescent and young adult years

Gender-Role Development

• Gender Intensification Hypothesis:

  • Sex differences result from societal pressure to act in stereotypically masculine/feminine ways

  • Androgyny is being both masculine and feminine

  • Androgynous females and masculine males report higher self-esteem than do their peers

Autonomy

• Independence

  • An individual’s capacity to behave on his or her own

• Autonomy

  • Emotional components (feeling separate from parents)

  • Behavioral components (the growth of independent decision making)

  • Cognitive components (developing personal beliefs and values)

Contrasting Contemporary Trends

• Today’s teens spend much more time away from the direct supervision of adults than prior generations

• But today’s teens also have become more economically reliant on their families than prior generations

Types of Autonomy

1. Emotional Autonomy

   1. Gaining emotional independence in relationships with others, especially parents

2. Behavioral Autonomy

   1. Making independent decisions and following through on them

3. Value Autonomy

   1. Developing an independent set of beliefs and principles, resisting peer and parental pressures

Development of Emotional Autonomy

• Measuring emotional autonomy by examining: 

  • Extent to which teens de idealize parents

  • Extent to which teens see parents as people

  • Non-dependency (the extent to which adolescents depend principally on themselves, rather than on parents)

    • External → internal self-regulation in the emotional domain; co-regulation still exists

    • Taking ownership of one’s own emotions is a huge component of emotional development/autonomy 

  • Extent to which the adolescent feels individuated within the relationship with his/her parents → emotionally connected to them but not reliant or dependent on them for the stability and progress of their emotional life; important to have emotional support as well

Development of Emotional Autonomy: Individuation Triggers

• Changes in a teen's appearance provoke changes in how teens view themselves and how parents view teens. This alters parent-adolescent interactions

  • Healthy individuation is fostered by close rather than distance family relationships → emotionally close, but not determinitive

  • Social-cognitive development stimulates movement toward individuation

  • Special, ideal state of emotional autonomy that has healthy relationships and supportive functional attachment relationships

Development of Emotional Autonomy: Emotional Autonomy and Parenting Practices

• Healthy individuation and positive mental health are fostered by close, not distant, family relationships

• Conditions that encourage both individuation and emotional closeness facilitate autonomy

Development of Behavioral Autonomy

• Changes in susceptibility to influence

• Conformity to peers is higher during early and middle adolescence

  • Parents are more influential regarding long-term issues, basic values

  • Peers’ opinions are more influential for day-to-day matters (music tastes or clothing style)

Development of Behavioral Autonomy: Parenting Styles

• Adolescents whose parents are authoritarian or permissive are most easily influenced by peers, especially in antisocial situations

• Adolescents from authoritative homes are less susceptible to antisocial peer pressure but more so to positive peers

The Development of Value Autonomy

• Moral Reasoning Development

  • How individuals think about moral dilemmas and make moral judgments

• Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory

  • Used morally challenging stories (Heinz)

  • More interested in the reasoning behind people’s explanations than whether the answer was right or wrong

The Development of Value Autonomy: Kohlberg’s Three Stages Of Moral Reasoning

1. Preconventional Moral Reasoning (worrying about punishment/reward)

   1. Egocentric reasoning

2. Conventional Moral Reasoning (following societal rules and norms)

   1. Pressure to follow rules/norms

3. Postconventional Moral Reasoning (most abstract and advanced)

   1. Deep discussions about the obligations under social contracts and how social contracts are constructed at that point

The Development of Value Autonomy: Moral Development during Adolescence

• Moral Development during Adolescence

  • Research has shown that moral behavior does not always match moral reasoning

    • Often make the choice first, and use moral reasoning after to justify it

    • It's not how you get to the decision that drives the decision, it’s how do you reconcile the decision after you’ve already made it on other grounds

  • Contextual factors influence how a person acts when facing moral dilemmas in the real world

• Carol Gilligan

  • Argues against Kohlberg, says his theory is gender-biased

    • Women may use a care orientation to moral dilemmas

    • Men may use a justice orientation

  • Research has not supported Gilligan’s argument about a different form of moral reasoning, but does suggest a gender difference in the focus of moral reasoning.

The Development of Value Autonomy: Political Thinking

• Becomes more abstract

• Becomes less authoritarian and less rigid

• Becomes more principled (an increase in a consistent set of attitudes; an ideology)

• May be context specific – ideology in authoritarian societies

The Development of Value Autonomy: Religious Beliefs

• Become more abstract, more principled, and more independent during the adolescent years

• The stated importance of religion—and participation in an organized religion—declines somewhat during the adolescent years

• Distinction: spirituality, religiosity

• Belonging to a congregation buffers some adversity, but source is unclear (purpose, value system, community support, other)