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CHAPTER TWELVE
SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE
I. THEORIES OF SOCIAL & PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT
• Psychoanalytic theories identify and clarify the
major themes of social and personality
development during adolescence, such as the
teenager’s acquiring a sense of who she is as an
individual
• Cultural perspectives derived from other
disciplines can reveal the important role culture
plays in the adolescent’s transition from child to
adult
A. Psychoanalytic Perspectives
• Freud
– Post-pubertal years are the last stage of personality
development
– Genital stage: the period during which people reach
psychosexual maturity
• Erikson
– During this period the adolescent’s mind is in a kind of
moratorium between childhood and adulthood
– Identity versus role confusion: the stage during which
adolescents attain a sense of who they are
– Identity crisis: the psychological state of emotional turmoil
that arises when an adolescent’s sense of self becomes
“unglued” so that a new, more mature sense of self can be
achieved
B. Marcia's Theory of Identity
Achievement
• James Marcia
– Adolescent identity formation has two key parts: a crisis and
a commitment
• Four different identity statuses are possible:
– Identity achievement: The person has been through a crisis
and has reached a commitment to ideological, occupational,
or other goals
– Moratorium: the identity status of a person who is in a crisis
but who has made no commitment
– Foreclosure: the identity status of a person who has made a
commitment without having gone through a crisis; the
person has simply accepted a parentally or culturally
defined commitment
– Identity diffusion: the identity status of a person who is not
in the midst of a crisis and who has made no commitment
Marcia’s Four Identity Statuses
II. SELF-CONCEPT AND
PERSONALITY
• Thinking becomes more abstract in
adolescence, thus teenagers’ self-concepts are
a lot more complex than those of younger
children
A. Self-Understanding
• Self-definitions becoming more and more abstract
• Physical traits become less dominant in late adolescence,
as most teenagers think of themselves in terms of
enduring traits, beliefs, personal philosophy, and moral
standards
• The adolescent's self-concept becomes more
differentiated as teenagers come to see themselves
somewhat differently in each of several roles: as a
student, with friends, with parents, and in romantic
relationships
• Once self-concepts are formed, they begin to influence
adolescents’ behaviour, in positive and negative ways
How Children and Adolescents
Define Themselves
B. Gender Roles
• Gender-role identity: the gender-related
aspects of the psychological self
• The masculine and feminine types are the
traditional categories; a person in either of
these categories sees himself or herself as
high in one and low in the other
• Androgynous individuals see themselves as
having both masculine and feminine traits
• Undifferentiated individuals describe
themselves as lacking both
Interaction of Dimensions of
Masculinity & Femininity to Produce
4 Types of Gender-Roles
C. Self-Esteem
• Either an androgynous or a masculine genderrole identity is associated with higher selfesteem among both boys and girls
• Cross-cultural research suggests that adoption
of an androgynous or masculine orientation
by a girl can lead to lower self-esteem (gender
roles and gender-role identity are very
strongly tied to culture)
• The overall trend is a rise in self-esteem
through the years of adolescence
D. Ethnic Identity
• Minority teenagers, especially recent immigrant youth,
face the task of creating two identities in adolescence:
– Like other teens, they must develop a sense of individual
identity that they believe sets them apart from others
– In addition, they must develop an ethnic identity that
includes self-identification as a member of their specific
group, commitment to that group and its values and
attitudes, and some attitudes (positive or negative) about
the group to which they belong
– The process of developing an ethnic identity can be at
variance with a social environment that is dominated by
the concerns of the majority
(continued)
Ethnic Identity (continued)
• Ethnic identity tends to strengthen with age and
progresses through phases
– younger children tend not to pay attention to or haven’t
shown much interest in their ethnic identity
– Next, they may start to become acutely aware of the gulf
that lies between the values and attitudes that exist within
the larger culture and their own culture
– Finally they may develop a secure sense of membership and
pride in and commitment to their own ethnic group
• Bi-cultural identity: personal identification and satisfaction
with more than one culture
– adolescents who form a combined identity based on strong
identification and participation in both their own ethnic
culture and the larger culture have the highest self-esteem
and the best outcomes
E. Locus of Control & Other Traits
• Locus of control
– External locus: attributes the causes of experiences to
factors outside himself
• Associated with procrastination and poor academic
performance
• Often accompanies low self-esteem, introversion, and
neuroticism
• Uses avoidant coping when faced with problems
– Internal locus: believes in personal variables, such as ability
and effort, as being responsible for outcomes
• Completes tasks and succeeds in school
• Optimistic outlook
• When external locus is combined with low self-esteem,
introversion, and neuroticism, teens (and adults) have
many poor social and emotional outcomes
III. MORAL DEVELOPMENT
• The theorist whose work has had the most
powerful impact has been psychologist
Lawrence Kohlberg
• Theories of moral reasoning have been
important in explanations of adolescent
antisocial behaviour
A. Kohlberg's Theory of Moral
Reasoning
• Kohlberg pioneered the practice of assessing moral
reasoning by presenting a subject with a series of
dilemmas in story form, each highlighting a specific moral
issue, such as the value of human life
• After reading the story, the person is asked a series of
questions involving his moral judgments
• Kohlberg concluded that there were three main levels of
moral reasoning, with two sub-stages within each level
• What determines the stage or level of a person's moral
judgment is not the specific moral choice, but the form of
reasoning used to justify that choice
(continued)
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Reasoning
(continued)
• Age and Moral Reasoning
– The stages are loosely correlated with age
– Children usually reason in the first 2 stages
– Stages 2 and 3 are commonly seen in adolescence
(continued)
Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Reasoning
(continued)
• Preconventional Reasoning
– Judgments are based on sources of authority —
usually parents
– Stage 1 – punishment and obedience orientation
– Stage 2 – individualism, instrumental purpose,
and exchange
(continued)
Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Reasoning
(continued)
• Conventional Reasoning
– Judgments are based on rules or norms of a group
to which the individual belongs
– Stage 3 – Mutual interpersonal expectations,
relationships, and interpersonal conformity (the
good boy/nice girl stage)
– Stage 4 – Social system and conscience (law and
order orientation)
(continued)
Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Reasoning
(continued)
• Postconventional Reasoning
– Judgments are based on emergence of a personal
authority
– Stage 5 – Social contract orientation
– Stage 6 – The universal ethical principles
orientation
Percentage of Reasoning Types by Age
B. Causes and Consequences of Moral
Development
• Children must have a firm grasp of concrete operational
thinking before they can develop or use conventional
moral reasoning
• Formal operations appear to be necessary for
advancement to the postconventional level
• The decline of egocentrism is the cognitivedevelopmental variable that matters most in moral
reasoning
• Role-taking: the ability to look at a situation from
another person’s perspective
C. Criticisms of Kohlberg's Theory
• Culture and Moral Reasoning
– Kohlberg’s approach is too narrow to be
considered universal
– Non-Western cultures do not fit well with
Kohlberg’s approach
• Justice is an important moral concept around the world
• Justice does not supersede all other moral
considerations in non-Western cultures
(continued)
Criticisms of Kohlberg's Theory (continued)
• Moral Reasoning and Emotions
– Nancy Eisenberg
• Empathy – the ability to identify with others’ emotions is
both a cause and consequence of moral development
• There are age-related and individual differences in ability to
regulate emotions that should be considered
• Inability to control emotions triggers antisocial behaviours
– Carol Gilligan
• An ethic based on caring is as important as ideas about
justice
• Notes that there are sex differences in moral reasoning
(continued)
Criticisms of Kohlberg's Theory (continued)
• Moral Reasoning and Behaviour
– Theories do not predict the differences between
moral reasoning and moral behaviour
• Neither adolescents nor adults reason the same way in
every situation
• Situational factors may determine actual behaviour
D. Moral Development and Antisocial
Behaviour
• Criminality: antisocial behaviour that includes lawbreaking
– Law breakers are distinguished from those who
participate in other antisocial behaviours
– Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act avoids labelling
youth as criminals and focuses on the person’s actions
that are malleable to change with rehabilitation and
reintegration into society
• Youth who commit offences appear to be behind
their peers in moral reasoning because of deficits in
role-taking skills
(continued)
•
Moral Development and Antisocial
Behaviour (continued)
Subvarieties of youth who commit offences:
1. Childhood-onset
–
–
–
–
–
–
Problems are more serious and more likely to persist into
adulthood
Temperament and personality play a role
Parents who fail at early attempts to control bad behaviour may
worsen the behaviours
Seriously aggressive children can only find support with similar
peers
As adolescents, they may exhibit serious disturbances in
thinking
They likely display an array of other behavioural problems
(continued)
Moral Development and Antisocial
Behaviour (continued)
•
Subvarieties of youth who commit offences:
2. Adolescent-onset:
–
–
–
–
–
Problems are typically milder and more transitory, apparently
more a reflection of peer-group processes or a testing of the
limits of authority than a deeply ingrained behaviour problem
Criminal behaviour is strongly affected by their peers, and
changes with the group
Parents who do not monitor sufficiently contribute to criminality
Friendships are not supportive or intimate
Parental monitoring and support can prevent criminality even if
the youth’s friends engage in criminal behaviour
Development in the Real World:
Youth Criminal Justice
• Since 1991 overall youth crime rate in Canada fell steadily, levelled off in
2000 and rebounded slightly in 2003
• The peak age for crime rate is 15 for females and 17 for males
• Males have a higher crime rate at every age
• Youth are more likely to be victims of crimes committed by other youth
• Females are more likely to be victims of violent crime than males
• Two socializing factors that predict youth crime rates are peer influences
and parenting style
• Canada’s new Youth Criminal Justice Act has three main objectives:
– Prevent crime
– Rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders into society
– Ensure meaningful consequences for offences committed by
young people
IV. SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
• Adolescents’ ideas about other people and
their understanding of social situations are
more complex than those of children
• These advances in interpersonal
understanding lead to changes in family and
peer relationships
A. Relationships with Parents
• An increase in conflict in the great majority of
families with teenagers does not necessarily
signify a major disruption in the quality of the
parent-child relationship
• Teenagers' underlying emotional attachment
to their parents remain strong on average
• A teenager's sense of well-being or happiness
is more strongly correlated with the quality of
her attachment to her parents than with the
quality of her relationships with peers
(continued)
Relationships with Parents (continued)
• Parenting Styles
– Authoritative parenting style is consistently associated
with more positive outcomes
– Parental involvement in education and extracurricular
activities is important for teenagers
• Family Structure
– Adolescents in households including a step-parent are,
on average, somewhat less well-adjusted than those
who live with two biological parents
– Adolescent girls show more distress when parents
divorce than boys show
B. Relationships with Peers
• Friendships
– Shared activities and interests continue to be
important elements in the selection of friends in
adolescence
– A similarity of psychological characteristics and
attitudes takes on new significance
– Teens' friendships are increasingly intimate, in the
sense that adolescent friends share more and more
of their inner feelings and secrets and are more
knowledgeable about each other's feelings
(continued)
B. Relationships with Peers (continued)
• Friendships
– Loyalty and faithfulness become more valued
characteristics of friendship
– Adolescent friendships are more stable than those of
younger children
– Teens often choose friends who are committed to
the same activities they are—e.g. computer and
video games
(continued)
Relationships with Peers (continued)
• Peer groups:
– Peer groups become relatively stable in
adolescence
– If the discrepancy between their own ideas and
those of their friends becomes too great, teens
are more likely to switch to a more compatible
group of friends
– When explicit peer pressure is exerted, it is likely
to be pressure toward positive activities, such as
school involvement, and away from misconduct
– Peer influence is neither all-powerful, nor uniformly
negative
(continued)
Relationships with Peers (continued)
• Changes in Peer Group Structure
– Clique: four to six young people who appear to be strongly
attached to one another
– Crowd: a combination of cliques, which includes both
males and females
– Crowds are organized into a fairly clear, widely understood
pecking order
– By late adolescence, social groups become mixed in gender,
often composed of groups of dating couples
– Mutual friendships and dating pairs become more central
to social interactions in later adolescence than are cliques
or crowds
(continued)
Research Report: The Social Aspects of
Electronic Communication
• Canada’s youth are the first generation to be raised on cable
and satellite television, cell phones with video and mobile
Internet communication – instantaneous access to information
• Cell phones afford teens more independence while providing
increased reassurance to parents about their child’s safety and
whereabouts
• Most home computers were purchased by parents to help teens
keep up with their peers
• Increasingly, students prefer the internet to library books to
gather information (62% of grade 4 students, >90% of grade 9
students)
• Youth show significant use of the internet for social purposes
with this use increasing with age
Relationships with Peers (continued)
• Romantic Relationships:
– Most teens display a gradual progression from
same-sex friendships to heterosexual relationships
– The actual progression toward romantic
relationships happens faster for girls
– Skills gained in relating to opposite-sex peers and in
mixed-gender groups prepare teens for heterosexual
romantic relationships
– Social competence in a variety of relationships
predicts the ease of the progression to romantic
relationships
– Girls seem to want more psychological intimacy
from these early relationships than their partners do
(continued)
Relationships with Peers (continued)
• Romantic Relationships (continued):
– Homosexual teenagers today are more comfortable about
revealing their sexual orientation to their parents and to
their peers than was true in past cohorts
– Homosexual teenagers become aware of same-sex attraction
at around age 11 or 12, which is roughly the same time
when heterosexual peers begin to notice their attraction to
the opposite sex
– Many homosexual teens go through a period of sexual
discovery that begins with experimentation with
heterosexual relationships
– By age 15 or so, most have classified themselves as primarily
heterosexual or committed to a gay, lesbian, or bisexual
orientation