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The Development of Multiple Role-Related Selves During Adolescence

The Development of Multiple Role-Related Selves During Adolescence. By Jessica, Joe and Nicole. Introduction. Research focus shifted from a global self to the multidimensional self The self becomes more defined by role and grows throughout adolescence

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The Development of Multiple Role-Related Selves During Adolescence

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  1. The Development of Multiple Role-Related Selves During Adolescence By Jessica, Joe and Nicole

  2. Introduction

  3. Research focus shifted from a global self to the multidimensional self • The self becomes more defined by role and grows throughout adolescence • Multiple roles may cause conflict in growing adolescents… But, how much conflict is too much?

  4. Research

  5. Three Main Questions • To what extent do opposing role-related attributes provoke conflict in the developing adolescent? • Are more contradictions found across or within roles? • How do multiple roles develop throughout adolescence?

  6. Participants • Groups of adolescents at several age levels. For example: 7th, 9th, and 11th grade

  7. Methods • Participants generate a list of self descriptors for different roles/ interpersonal relationships • For example: self with parents, teachers, romantic interests, best friends and peers • Place attributes in concentric circles • Identify traits that oppose each other and pairs that conflict and clash • For example: cheerful vs. depressed, rowdy vs. calm, studious vs. lazy

  8. Results

  9. Attributes identified as contradictory and experienced as conflicting • did not appear with great frequency among young adolescents. • peaked for those in mid-adolescence • slightly declined for older adolescents. • “That’s a stupid question, • I don’t fight with myself!” • -A young adolescent, • when asked why opposing attributes did not bother her

  10. Across-role opposing attributes were more frequent than were within-role opposites. “You can’t always be the same person and probably shouldn’t be.” - Older Adolescent

  11. The conflict of opposing attributes come from adolescents’ perception of “true self” vs. “false self” • A person displays a “false self” when their behavior violates the perception of who s/he is or wants to be. FACT False self behavior was highest with fathers lower in school and with mothers lowest with close friends

  12. Discussion

  13. Why “the self” becomes more differentiated and conflicted in adolescence • Piaget sees adolescence as one cognitive stage “formal operations,” the time of abstract reasoning

  14. Neo-Piagetians identify three stages through adolescence • Early adolescence: can construct abstract self-descriptions but not compare them. “…I guess I just think about one thing about myself at a time and don’t think about the other until the next day.” -A young adol. self-Identitfied as both nice and mean

  15. Neo-Piagetian Stages • Mid-adolescence: can compare single abstractions but cannot integrate opposing attributes; this can lead to internal conflict. “It’s not right, it should all fit together into one piece!” - 9th grader, observing the self-portrait she made

  16. Neo-Piagetian Stages • Late adolescence: can integrate or resolve contradictions within self-theory; can also normalize and find value in inconsistencies. “Sometimes I’m really happy and sometimes I get depressed, I’m just a moody person.” -Older Adolescent

  17. Three reasons for conflict cited by participants • A behavior violated the adolescent’s perception of who he/she was or wanted to be. “I really think I am a happy person and I want to be that way with everyone but I get depressed with my family and it really bugs me because that’s not what I want to be like.” - 14 year old

  18. Three Reasons for Conflict • In some opposing attributes, each member of the pair represents true self-behavior. “I’m close with my family and fun-loving with my friends, but sometimes these work against each other.”

  19. Three Reasons for Conflict • Different contexts and people expect or elicit different behavior. “My teachers expect me to be serious but my friends want me to be rowdy.” “On a date I get withdrawn and self-conscious and the opposite, very sarcastic, with my friends… but I don’t like being either way, it’s not me.”

  20. Pathological Implications • Largest spread of opposing traits found with young feminine girls in public arenas and small minority youths. • Minorities deal with the spread between cultures in three ways. • With ease, with difficulty, adopt bicultural stance

  21. Excessive conflict, low self-esteem and high expression of false selves: • correlates with more depressive symptoms, low energy and hopelessness. • is associated with lower levels of social support

  22. DiscussionQuestions

  23. What further changes might you expect in emerging adulthood? • Reflection of handouts: • How conflicting do you find your opposing traits? • How indicative do you think our results are of emerging adults in general?

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