Adolescence II

Identity

  • Identity
  • Self-concept
  • Self-esteem
  • Adolescents and family
  • Adolescents and peers

Identity Development, Self-Concept and Self-Esteem

Erikson’s Theory of Identity - Key Concepts

  • Ego Identity:
    • Conscious sense of individual uniqueness.
    • (Un)conscious striving for continuity of experience.
  • Identity-Formation Process:
    • The Ego synthesizes and integrates important previous identifications into a new form, uniquely one’s own.
  • Identity Crisis:
    • Critical turning point - facing seemingly unsolvable, „deadlock” situations and questions.
  • Identity vs. Role Confusion:
    • Adolescent (5th) stage of Erikson’s lifespan theory.
    • Psychosocial task = find some resolution between these two poles > virtue: fidelity = remaining faithful and loyal to their choices.
    • Community’s role: recognizing and being recognized by the maturing adolescent.
  • Psychosocial Moratorium:
    • Developmental process in which adolescents experiment with possible adult roles in order to find one that seems to provide a unique fit.

Marcia’s Identity-Status Model

  • How individuals select meaningful personal directions through processes of exploration and commitment:
    • Vocational decision-making.
    • Ideological values.
    • Sense of sexual identity.
  • Identity-achieved:
    • Undertaken explorations of meaningful life directions prior to their commitments.
  • Foreclosed:
    • Formed commitments without significant prior explorations.
    • Commitments are based on parental values with which adolescents have strongly identified.
  • Moratorium:
    • Process of searching for meaningful adult roles and values but have not yet formed firm commitments.
  • Diffusion: Lacking exploration and commitment.

Identity Achieved

  • High levels of achievement motivation and self-esteem.
  • Low levels of shyness, more extroverted.
  • Better ability to function well under conditions of stress.
  • Using more planned, rational, and logical decision-making strategies.
  • Highest levels of intimacy in mutual interpersonal relationships with both close friends and a partner.
  • Genuinely interested in others and willing to reveal themselves to others.
  • Secure pattern of attachment.
  • Parental behaviour: control or regulate but rather encourage free and independent behaviour.
  • Family: emphasizing both individuality and connectedness.

Moratorium

  • Anxiety as a key personality variable.
  • Sceptical about ever knowing anything with certainty.
  • Analytic/philosophical cognitive style.
  • Integrate and analyse information from a variety of perspectives.
  • Information-oriented style to construct a sense of identity.
  • „Pre-intimate” – they are most likely to have established close friendships (characterized by mutual respect, openness) but not yet have committed themselves to a partner.
  • Family: ambivalent, parents emphasize independence in their child-rearing patterns.

Foreclosure

  • High levels of conformity and authoritarianism.
  • Sharing a view that absolute certainty is attainable.
  • Dependent strategies for their decision-making.
  • Least able to integrate ideas and to think analytically.
  • Reduced attention to details > judgement errors.
  • Not open for new experiences.
  • Conforming to the expectations of significant others and are concerned about preserving their existing identity structure.
  • Stereotyped in their styles of intimacy - best friends who are also foreclosed.
  • Family: too close, involved and protective, less reported conflict, anxious or avoidant attachment profiles, parents discouraging the expression of individual opinions among family members -> low levels of identity exploration.

Diffusion

  • Low levels of autonomy and self-esteem (alternating with grandiose self-expression).
  • Low sense of personal integrative continuity over time.
  • Hopelessness.
  • Influenced by peer pressures toward conformity (seducable).
  • Intuitive or dependent styles of decision-making.
  • Absence of systematic approaches to solving problems.
  • Cognitive style: procrastination, defensive avoidance of issues.
  • Isolated or stereotyped in their styles of intimacy with others - no close relationships, or shallow relationships.
  • Family: distant or rejecting caretakers, inconsistent communication patterns (bribes, deception – psychological control tactics).

Five-Dimensional Model of Identity Formation (Luyckx et al., 2008)

The Five Dimensions:

  • Commitment Making (Marcia).
  • Identification with Commitment.
  • Exploration in Breadth (Marcia).
  • Exploration in Depth.
  • Ruminative Exploration.
  • Exploration in depth and identification with commitment: existing commitments are re-evaluated and revised on a continuous basis.
  • Dimensions of Commitment.
  • Dimensions of Exploration.
  • Exploration in breadth:
    • The degree to which adolescents search for different alternatives with respect to their goals, values, and beliefs before making commitments.
    • „I try to find out which lifestyle would be good for me” (Dimension of Identity Development Scale).
  • Exploration in depth:
    • Refers to an in-depth evaluation of one’s existing commitments and choices to ascertain the degree to which these commitments resemble the internal standards upheld by the individual.
    • „I try to find out regularly what other people think about the specific direction I want to take in my life” (Dimension of Identity Development Scale).
  • Identification with commitment:
    • The degree to which adolescents feel certain about, can identify with, and internalize their choices.
    • „My future plans give me self-confidence” (Dimension of Identity Development Scale).
  • Ruminative Exploration:
    • Unendless cycles of exploration; repetitive and passive focus, contributing to a feeling of hopelessness and uncontrollability of the situation at hand.
    • Elevated distress, heightened anxiety, and depressive symptoms -> ruminative, maladaptive exploration > extends moratorium > induces confusion.
    • Moratorium: can be helpful in arriving at developing and forming fully endorsed identity commitments (e.g. university: possible to explore different alternatives without the burden of permanent adult responsibilities) < > Limitless possibilities become intimidating and make the individual more uncertain.

Self-Concept in Adolescence

  • Contains the most notable personality traits {and lament somewhat about their social lives’ challenges}.
  • Value orientation, or ideological categorizations.
  • Inconsistencies are typical of adolescents (becoming aware that they may not be the same person in all situations).
  • In sum the self-concept is more sophisticated and more reflective:
    • More psychological.
    • More abstract.
    • More of a coherent, integrated self-portrait.

Advent of the life-story - autobiographical reasoning (Habermas & Reese, 2015)

Social-cognitive requirements:

  • Biographical self after the earlier forms of synchronic self-concept.
  • Understanding of calendar time.
  • Knowledge of the cultural concept of a „biography”.
  • Formal operations – epistemological development: knowledge requires interpretation („what happened to me needs to be understood, explained” - integrated into a unifying kind of narrative identity).
  • Being motivated to resolve conflicts between past and present self.
  • Feel the pressure of the social and cultural expectations – develop and shape an individualized adult identity.
  • AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REASONIG > USE OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENTS.

Autobiographical arguments contributing to and indicating life story coherence

  • Arguments contributing to causal-motivational coherence (change).

Self-Esteem in Adolescence

  • Increasingly differentiated.
  • New relationship-oriented dimensions of self-esteem: romantic appeal, quality of close friendships (both contribute to global self-esteem).
  • Relational self-worth: different perception of self-worth in different relational context (e.g. with parents, with teachers, with male classmates, and with female classmates).
  • Perceptions of their competencies in multiple domains such as academics, social acceptance, physical skills/sports, appearance -> decline in self-esteem.
  • General self-esteem declines in early- and middle- but becomes much positive in late adolescence and early adulthood.

Influences on Self-Concept/Self-Esteem Development

  • Pubertal timing (early or late).
  • Two general theories:
    • Deviance hypothesis: being pubertally off time (early or late) causes difficulties for adaptation because it places the adolescent in a socially deviant category, being different is particularly troublesome for adolescents.
    • Developmental stage termination hypothesis: early maturation interrupts acquisition and consolidation of adaptive skills that characterize middle childhood, early maturers are more at risk for developmental difficulties because they are more likely to be involved in roles and activities that they do not yet have the skills/ability to handle.
    • Being early for females (already two years ahead of males): decrease in self-esteem (body image as mediator, isolation and confusion, coping with issues and activities that peers have yet to encounter, inappropriate expectations for psychological maturity).
    • Being early for males: better for self-esteem (more in sync with the physical development of their female peers, being taller and muscular are advantageous).

Influences on Self-Concept/Self-Esteem Development

  • School transitions
    • Decrease in self-esteem:
      • Overload hypothesis: too many changes at one time -> adolescents are bombarded with stressors without adequate coping strategies (e.g. changes in school routines, attending a larger school, meeting a larger number of students).
      • Becoming more cognitively sophisticated, engaging in social comparison -> more realistic view on one’s capabilities.
      • Mismatch hypothesis: more rules and restrictions (e.g. new teacher expectations, more stringent grading criteria, less personal attention from teachers) = more control at a time when adolescents are striving for independence.
    • Mind the variations in educational systems (Asia – Europe – US)!

Influences on Self-Concept/Self-Esteem Development

  • The role of parents and family:
    • Highly warm, supportive, and accepting parents + tolerating and understanding home atmosphere + clear rules, fair punishment, mutual respect between parents and adolescents -> higher self-esteem.
    • Permissive, neglectful parents OR harsh disciplines, parental intrusiveness, guilt-provoking control tactics -> lower/poorer self-esteem.
    • Family circumstances (e.g. family structure: single vs. two parents, step- parent family, families undergoing divorce, etc.).
      • Younger adolescents living with younger mother resulted in lower self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1985).
      • Adolescents from poverty have lower self-esteem (Demo & Savin-Williams, 1983; Bachman & O’Malley, 1986).

Adolescent Development in the Context of Family

Role of Parents in Normative Adolescent Development

  • Responsiveness: encouragement of independence, negotiation through verbal „give and take”, warmth, support.
  • Proper monitoring minimize problem behaviour -> cooperative family process (Online parenting?).
  • Allowing them to take part in family decisions – if the adolescent is perceived to have successfully negotiated this opportunity > parents may be more likely in the future to ask the adolescent for help > adolescents may feel more competent.

Conflict in Parent-Adolescent Relationships

  • Most parents and adolescents maintain a close, affectionate bond during adolescence < > they share less time together and conflicts are inevitable from early adolescence.
    • Rapid nature of changes in multiple domains >>> discrepancies in parents’ and adolescents’ expectations for one another (autonomy, authority, responsibility) >>> behaviour that violate expectations -> conflict and emotional arousal.
  • Family conflict is developmentally functional >> context in which issues of autonomy are negotiated >> adolescents begin to re-evaluate the hierarchy of family roles and work toward egalitarian relationships.
  • Constructive or destructive conflict resolution.

Peer Relationships During Adolescence

Structure of Peer Relationships

  • Dyadic peer relationships (friendship).
  • Clique: small group with circumscribed membership that shares a friendship orientation.
  • Crowds or sets:
    • Established by the same basic image or identity among peers, can be based on residential location, ethnic or socioeconomic background, peer status, or individual abilities and interests, ideological commitments.
    • Membership is determined by reputation.

Dyadic Friendships

  • Growing more stable (advances in cognitive development and relationship management skills).
  • Usually characterized by equality and reciprocity and similarity (same-gender, same-race) and girls displaying more intimacy.
    • More secure attachment with parents -> higher perceived quality of friendships.
  • High quality friendships: protective & risk factor as well >> might promote problem behaviour if adolescents are associating with deviant peers.
  • Individuals usually embedded in network of friendships: feature disparate similarities (e.g. one friend is similar in music taste, other friend is similar in religious beliefs).

Patterns of Influence in Friendships

  • Adolescents’ behaviour most strongly correlated with the behaviour of close friends.
  • Three major modes of influence:
    • Normative regulation: commonly accepted attitudes or behaviour patterns that are expected within the friendship group.
    • Modelling: social learning.
    • Structuring opportunities: e.g. encouraging romantic relationships among members simply by exposing group members to the other sex.

Adolescent Cliques

  • Vary in size from 3 to 10 members, with most having about 5 members.
  • Larger group (such as a class) = specific clique structure.
  • Three different positions within a clique structure:
    • Member: someone whose affiliations lie almost exclusively within one friendship group.
    • Isolate: someone with virtually no ties to a recognized clique.
    • Liaison: who has ties to members of two disparate cliques and serves as a link between the two groups.
  • Group membership is fluid: it is rare for the group membership of a clique to remain unchanged over the course of a school year.

Adolescent Cliques

  • The fluid nature of cliques: Rather than dissolving, most cliques seem to replace old members with new ones.
  • Similarity among members (age, gender, ethnicity).
  • Status hierarchy:
    • Group leaders have the most authority in determining group membership, other members can bring candidates for membership.
    • To enforce group norms: clique leaders ridicule lower-status members, belittle outsiders, cajole/persuade group members to follow him/her in this activity.
  • Macleod’s study (1987) with boys from lower socioeconomic strata:
    • The leader’s role = balance between social support and social control, teasing to keep group member in line with group norms.
    • The clique’s role = member defend each other, provide a comfortable home base.

Crowds

  • Require higher number of young people.
    • To construct a set of labels that venture beyond concrete and thoroughly observable features of peers.
    • Reach consensus on the meaning of these labels.
    • Apply the labels to peers who may not conveniently interact with each other to affirm their similarity.
  • „group identity”.
  • Product of the social context.
  • Crowd labels reflect individual abilities and interests or social standing: e.g. brains, skaters, nerds, etc.

Developmental Changes in Romantic Experiences

Dunphy (1963):

  • First stage: unisexual cliques emerge, 4-6 close friends.
  • Second stage: male cliques and female cliques begin socializing together in a group context.
  • Third stage: larger heterosexual group begins to emerge.
  • Fourth stage: peer crowd is fully developed, several heterosexual cliques closely associate with one another.
  • Fifth stage: males and females begin to develop romantic relationships, crowd begins to disintegrate, leaving loosely associated groups of couples.

Changes in Features of Romantic Relationships Across Adolescence

  • Adolescents differentiate other-sex friendships and heterosexual romantic relationships (passion & commitment).
  • Purpose of romantic relationships: opportunities for recreation, sexual experimentation, status attainment.
  • Early and middle adolescence:
    • Idealized (stereotyped media images of heterosexual/LMBTQ love).
    • „hanging out”, engaging in leisure activities.
    • Providing stimulation, triggering positive emotions.
    • Nature of the romantic interactions themselves are important.
    • Exploring sexual feelings, seeking sexual gratification, ascertaining the kind of sexual activity with which they feel comfortable.
  • Late adolescence and early adulthood:
    • Attachment and caregiving become important in romantic relationships.

Significance of Romantic Experiences in Adolescence

  • Central aspects of most adolescents’ social worlds.
  • Source of support and strong emotions.
  • Influence both intimacy and identity development.
  • May influence the nature of subsequent relationships.
  • Help adolescents successfully establish autonomy as they explore extrafamilial relationships and come to rely less on parents.
  • Risks: teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual victimization, dating violence or aggression