Adolescence
Where we are now…
Adolescence
MARCIA’S DEVELOPMENT OF
ADOLESCENT IDENTITY
• As Erikson noted, the crisis of
adolescence is ego identity versus identity
confusion. The struggle for a sense of
identity is heightened by the ability to think
abstractly, by rapid physical changes and
by a decreasing reliance on parents to
make decisions and to define reality.
According to JAMES MARCIA, there are
four identity orientations that adolescents
adopt to deal with identity formation.
MARCIA’S DEVELOPMENT OF
ADOLESCENT IDENTITY
• Some enter FORECLOSURE, a
premature commitment to an identity
defined by parents, adopting the roles,
values of others, foreclosing their own
struggle.
Marcia
MARCIA’S DEVELOPMENT OF
ADOLESCENT IDENTITY
• Others delay commitment, taking a
MORATORIUM while experimenting with
alternative lifestyles and values. Often
college allows this moratorium which can
be quite valuable in ultimately achieving a
strong personal identity.
Identity Moratorium
MARCIA’S DEVELOPMENT OF
ADOLESCENT IDENTITY
• Some teenagers become apathetic and
refuse to either commit or confront the
challenges of developing an identity and
enter IDENTITY DIFFUSION, making no
commitments.
• (Low Commitment, Low Crisis)
IDENTITY DIFFUSION
MARCIA’S DEVELOPMENT OF
ADOLESCENT IDENTITY
• Others struggle with the multitude of
issues and possible belief systems and
develop a strong personal identity,
IDENTITY ACHIEVEMENT, the
cornerstone for a psychologically healthy
and fulfilling life. Marcia noted that the
struggle for a sense of identity is a
continuing struggle, but is most intense in
adolescence.
IDENTITY ACHIEVEMENT
Marcia
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia
HUMANISTIC THEORIES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• HUMANISTIC THEORISTS believe we are
born with an innate drive to develop our
potential -to actualize the SELF. In a loving
environment in which the parents give
UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD,
unconditional loving respect and
acceptance, the child will SELFACTUALIZE his potential.
HUMANISTIC THEORIES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• Carl Rogers theorized that we all need positive
regard, love, attention, warmth and approval to
develop a positive self-image and feelings of
worth. Given this nurturance, we fulfill our self
and become loving, kind, intelligent and free to
determine our own destiny. If however we
receive CONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD
and CONDITIONS OF WORTH we begin to be
defensive. Criticisms from others make us doubt
our self-worth and we develop a negative selfconcept.
Carl Rogers
HUMANISTIC THEORIES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• Given UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD in
a loving environment we develop a positive
SELF-CONCEPT that enables us to SELFACTUALIZE our potential and become a FULLYFUNCTIONING PERSON who is spontaneous,
open, loving and free.
• Given CONDITIONAL REGARD AND
CONDITIONS OF WORTH in a cold, critical and
unloving environment we become
MALADJUSTED, unsure of ourselves, critical of
ourselves and others.
HUMANISTIC THEORIES OF
DEVELOPMENT
• We develop defenses and masks to
protect ourselves that we hide behind
never fulfilling our potential, losing our
unique identity. As we defend ourselves
and deny our real feelings, we become
incongruent.
Humanism
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL-LEARNING
PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
• BEHAVIORISTS believe we are born into the
world as a "blank slate". We LEARN who we are
from early SOCIALIZATION. We are products of
our conditioning, SHAPED by our early histories
of REINFORCEMENTS. Children "learn what
they live" in their early home ENVIRONMENT.
Hopefully a child will live in an environment of
approval, fairness, encouragement, security and
praise so that he/she will develop trust,
confidence and affection for self and others.
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL-LEARNING
PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
• COOLEY, a prominent social psychologist,
developed the idea that our self-concept is
formed through interactions with others in
our environment. Cooley proposed that we
develop a "LOOKING-GLASS SELF', our
self-concept becoming a mirror of the
reactions of others to our actions. Cooley
stated that all children act in response to
their needs and desires without a strong
sense of self.
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL-LEARNING
PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
• According to the looking-glass theory, when
children ACT, significant others REACT, giving
praise, criticism, encouragement, shame,
approval and other strong personal
REACTIONS. It is on the basis of the
REACTIONS one receives from others that
one's SELF-CONCEPT is formed. Thus we
LEARN how to feel about ourselves, our SELFCONCEPT, from others, and we begin to see
ourselves through the reflections of their
feedback.
• +
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL-LEARNING
PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
• SOCIAL-LEARNING THEORISTS also
stress the importance of LEARNING in
child development. They emphasize the
importance of the processes of
MODELING and IMITATION in
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING. Children
not only model and imitate their parents
but other models represented through
television, movies, games, sports and
other early childhood experiences.
Bandura: Social Learning Theory
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL-LEARNING
PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
• They question the practice of allowing the
television to be a baby-sitter six to eight
hours a day and place some blame for the
amount of violence and aggression and
maladjustment in the society today on
aggressive, power-oriented television
models that children imitate.
Alfred Adler
ADLER’S PSYCHOANALYTIC
IDEAS ON DEVELOPMENT
• ALFRED ADLER observed that there was an
innate "drive for power and superiority" that was
evidenced in sibling rivalry. He suggested that
many of our traits were developed as we
struggled for attention and power in our earliest
social setting, the family. First-born gained
approval from parents for achieving and taking
responsibility. Being the oldest they were able to
wield power over siblings through overt power
and dominance.
First Born
ADLER’S PSYCHOANALYTIC
IDEAS ON DEVELOPMENT
• Middle children often feel defeated and
inferior in attempts to complete with and
surpass the older sibling. They may strive
to achieve affection from parents by
developing different "superior" qualities but
may often feel anxious that they are not as
loved as the first born.
Middle Child
ADLER’S PSYCHOANALYTIC
IDEAS ON DEVELOPMENT
• Adler noted that the youngest child is often
spoiled and allowed to be immature and
irresponsible as older children were already
responsible for household chores. Love
showered on the last-born does allow the child
to be secure, confident, spontaneous and happy.
Although these are generalities, Adler felt the
early childhood family dynamics held the key for
the development of very specific ways of
achieving attention and power and basic
personality styles of interacting with others in the
world.
Youngest Child
BAUMRIND’S PARENTING
STYLES
• DIANE BAUMRIND also thought that
parenting styles were important to the
development of the child. She researched
styles of socialization between parent and
child and noticed that parents tended to be
either PERMISSIVE toward their children,
AUTHORITARIAN and dominating or
AUTHORITATIVE, teaching children skills
and rules while allowing them to make
their own important decisions.
AUTHORITARIAN
Permissive
BAUMRIND’S PARENTING
STYLES
• Her research clearly showed that
AUTHORITATIVE PARENTS tended to
have more competent and cooperative
children who were happy with themselves
and others.
AUTHORITATIVE
HARRY HARLOW’S
ATTACHMENT IN MONKEYS
• HARRY HARLOW also researched the nature of
the parental relationship in his classic research
with monkeys. Monkeys raised with mother love,
warmth and physiological contact called
CONTACT COMFORT were found to be normal,
happy and able to engage in fulfilling peer love
and became excellent mothers. Monkeys raised
with "mother surrogates", wire monkeys who
provided food and water but no contact comfort,
were emotionally deprived and developed
hostile, aggressive tendencies toward peers or
withdrew completely.
Harry Harlow
HARRY HARLOW’S
ATTACHMENT IN MONKEYS
• These distressed monkeys developed
maladaptive tendencies as parents, biting
off ears of their young or totally depriving
them of warmth, contact and motherly
love.
HARRY HARLOW’S
ATTACHMENT IN MONKEYS
• From this important classic research we found
that motherhood is not instinctual, but
LEARNED. We began to understand the cycles
of abuse seen in mother-child relationships as
learned and we developed treatment programs
that incorporated this new understanding. We
began to understand the importance of
CONTACT COMFORT and human touch upon
BONDING. If one did not feel this warm human
bond of attachment to a caring person early in
life one could turn uncaring, cold and commit
"inhuman" aggressive acts.
Adolescence
• Research on human development gives us
pause to consider the deep abiding effects
of early childhood experience on the adult
personality - on health, happiness, sanity,
achievement, intelligence, self-confidence,
friendliness, inner security and our ability
to enter into nourishing relationships with
others in our lives.
In Conclusion
• Adolescence may be a time of confusion,
but the clues are there for success.