Chapter 16 Outline

I. The Self and Identity

A. During adolescence, the goal of many teens is to establish an identity.

Identity: A consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of roles, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations.

B. As they try to establish identities, adolescents encounter identity vs role confusion.

Identity vs Role Confusion: Erickson’s 5th stage of development in which the person tries to figure out "Who am I" but is confused as to which of the many roles to adopt.

C. Throughout adolescence, a teen may experience more than one identity status:

Identity Achievement: Erickson’s term for attainment of identity-ideally established by reconsidering the goals and values set by the parents and culture, then accepting some and rejecting others.

Foreclosure: When adolescents accept their parents or society’s roles and values without questioning them or exploring alternatives.

Negative Identity: When adolescents adopt an identity that is opposite what is expected of them. Usually occurs when adolescents feel that the roles their parents and society expect them to fulfill are unattainable or unappealing, yet they cannot find any alternatives that are truly their own.

Identity Diffusion: When an adolescent does not seem to know or care what his identity is. Typically, these teens have few commitments to the goals or values of their parents, peers, or larger society.

Identity Moratorium: Erickson’s term for a pause in identity formation that allows young people to explore alternatives without making final identity choices.

D. Society and Identity

1. Finding an identity is affected by forces outside the individual. The surrounding culture can aid identity formation in 2 major ways:

II. Family and Friends

A. Adolescence is often a time when the values and behaviors of young people are said to become increasingly distant and detached from those of their parents and other adults.

Generation Gap: The distance between generations in values, behaviors, and knowledge.

Generational Stake: The need of each generation to view family interactions from its own perspective, because each has a different investment in the family scenario.

B. Parent-Adolescent Conflict

1.Usually occurs when a young persons drive for independence clashes with the

parents’ traditions of control. Typically emerges in early adolescence particularly with daughters and mothers.

2. Bickering: Petty, Peevish arguing, more like nagging than fighting

C. Other Family Qualities

1. Control: Parental Monitoring: Parental awareness of what one’s children are doing, where and with whom.

- Too much parental interference and control can be a strong predictor of adolescent depression.

D. Relations with peers are vital to the transition from childhood to adulthood.

1. Bradford Brown identified 4 special functions performed by peer relationships.

2. Contrary to Browns 4 constructive functions is Peer Pressure

Peer Pressure: Social pressure to conform with one’s friends or contemporaries in behavior, dress, and attitude; usually considered negative, as when adolescent peers encourage each other to identify adult standards.

3. Conflict between peers and family is likely to arise in ethnic groups that revere closeness to family. This ideal clashes with the peer group emphasis on adolescent freedom and self-determination.

4. Boys and Girls will act on their attraction to each other and come together.

III.Suicide

A. Adolescents think about suicide often- a sign that depression is prevalent during these years.

Suicidal Ideation: Thinking about suicide, usually with some serious emotional and intellectual overtones.

Parasuicide: A deliberate act of self-destruction that does not end in death. Parasuicide can be fleeting, such as a small knife mark on the wrist, or potentially lethal, such as swallowing an entire bottle of pills. Usually carried out in a state of extreme emotional agitation and confusion.

IV. Crime

A. Psychologists believe that adolescent crime is an indication of the emotional stress that adolescents feel.

1. Although incidence data reveals that adolescents have the highest criminal arrest rate, adolescents are actually far less often criminals than adults are. This results because the data does not tell us the prevalence of adolescent crime.

Incidence data: How often a behavior occurs

Prevalence: How widespread within a population a particular behavior is.