1. H236: Adolescent Development
Self & Identity
H236: Adolescent Development

2. The Plan… Why Self and Identity in Adolescence?
Why and for whom is the self important?
Independent/interdependent cultures
Developing and Socializing Identity

3. IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT The Making of ME!! TALENT/ ETHNIC/ INTERESTS
RACIAL
NATIONAL
RELIGIOUS
GENDER
SEXUAL
The Making of ME!!

4. Identity: The Hallmark of Adolescence
Assumed identification with parents declines
Identity created by modeling
Friends Family Media
Not imitating, but integrating behaviors, beliefs & attitudes into themselves
Identification with parents

5. Why during Adolescence?
Perspective Taking:
Can imagine what others think
Personal Fable:
Need to be unique (but accepted)
Ability to think abstractly about self and be planful about interactions

6. Increased Self-reflection
What kind of person am I? What am I good at?
How do other people see me?
What kind of life will I have in 20 years?....
Having enhanced cognitive capacity & metacognition means…
…adolescents change in their self-conceptions, self-esteem, and their emotional understanding.
…they can shape how others view them

7. More Complex in Self Reflections
There are contradictions in my personality….
Which is the REAL me???
I’m shy around my relatives, but outgoing with my friends….
I’m aware that I sometimes show a FALSE self to others that isn’t really me or the way I think and feel

8. What do we mean by “Self”
A sense of awareness and agency that guides action
Reflects one’s engagement with the world in patterned ways (the adoption, expression of societal patterns).
It’s dynamic and changes based on context
Provides an organizing function to makes sense of the vast stimuli and schemas provided by one’s context
Develops as one attunes themselves to contexts that give meaning to their existence and experience

9. Why and for Whom is Self Important?
Self in an Independent Culture
“The Squeaky Wheel gets the Grease”
One’s own thoughts and feelings are referent
Reflecting on self as an individual is encouraged
Self esteem becomes increasingly important
Self definition and affirmation are encouraged
Confidence in self expression is encouraged
Self in an Interdependent Culture
“The nail that sticks out is likely to be hammered down”
Thoughts and feelings of others are the referent
Thinking about self and high self esteem is not encouraged
Resist the focus on self and consider interests & needs of others
By adolescence, self is thought of as in relation to the group
A Emphasis on Group Identity

10. Goals for developing self
Independent
Interdependent
Sense of self as separate
Individual preferences goals
Unique contributions
Individual achievement/ attribution
Sense of self in relation to others
Encouraging fitting in
Taking perspective of others
The self includes others

11. How does identity develop?
In stages
Individually driven
Identification with roles, beliefs and lifestyles
Group belongingness and embeddedness
Shaped by context,
which is shaped by families, schools, and society
“the person and the person’s social world co-author identity.” McAdams (2001)

12. Four Identity Statuses (Marcia, 1966)
Example
Diffusion
“I’m not worried about what to do after school… who cares.”
Moratorium
“I want to be a marine biologist… no, a lawyer… no, a hairdresser like my best friends’ mom.”
Foreclosure
“I never had to think about what to do; I’m taking over the farm from Dad.”
Achievement
“After studying in Peru, I realize I cannot work for a large corporation; I am going to be a nurse.”
Primacy of exploration is a hallmark of Western or Individualistic cultures
Early Identity theories based on American Majority Culture Males—very individual
So individualistic, that Western Psychology assumed identity was developed alone
Identity “crisis,” “encounter,” “event,” or “awakening”
Not Marcia’s

13. Socializing Identity
Self Selecting Communities AND being accepted (and socialized) by that community
Groups become more alike over time
“CULTURE”
Identity Group
Identity & Change

14. Identity formation cycle
Micro-social interactions between the self and the environment produce frames for self –evaluation and self- identity.
Exploration
breadth
Crisis
Commit-ment making
Identification w/
Commitment
Information is assimilated by accumulating “like” information until it becomes a pattern or selectively interpreting information to fit existing ideas
Exploration
Depth
Adolescents may believe they are forming identity on their own. But the structures
are pre-given, pre-imposed by parents

15. For independent selves
Breaking from parents and proscribed identity
Non-imitation of parents’ opinions beliefs
Recognition of parents as fallible
Maintenance of personal private life (keeping secrets from parents)
Remember monitoring and conflict from last week?
Developing self-reliance/sufficiency
Independence from functional and emotional support from parents
Independence from excessive negative feelings
Material and physical independence
RENEGOTIATED RELATIONSHIP
The transfer of authority and seeing responsible behavior permits new relational terms -- MORE EQUAL TERMS
Reliance and self disclosure is possible again

16. Co-Authoring Identity
Identity Agents—those who actively interact with youth to participate in their formation of an identity
Parents who in day to day interactions socialize societal norms to their children and endorse role models and create/select into environments for raising their children
Possess Identity goals
Strategically implement practices to engage their goals
Continuously monitor progress
Reflect and adapt
The challenge of allowing the self expression/rejection without withdrawing support
Teachers/mentors in day to day interactions
affirm, challenge, acknowledge and ignore identity expressions
Create classroom that facilitate identity with the subject matter (or not)

17. In what ways do our American schools promote an individualist self?
Support Interdependent selves?
How can you be an identity agent?