Human Growth
and
Development
Chapter Sixteen
Adolescence:
Psychosocial Development
PowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont College
Revised by Jenni Fauchier, Metropolitan Community College
The Self and Identity
• Who am I?
• Identity—consistent definition of
one’s self as a unique individual in
terms of roles, attitudes, beliefs. and
aspirations
Multiple Selves
• Possible selves—various ideas of who
one might be or become, each of
which is typically acted out and
considered as a possible identity
• False self—set of behaviors that is
adopted by a person to combat
rejection, please others, or try out as
a possible self
Multiple Selves, cont.
• Three Types of False Selves
– acceptable false self. Adopted to be
accepted; arises from feelings of
worthlessness, depression; low selfunderstanding
– pleasing false self. Arises from wish to
impress or please others; medium selfunderstanding
– experimental false self. Adolescent tries
out a self to see how it feels; high selfunderstanding
Identity Status
• Erikson’s identity versus role
confusion
• Identity achievement—attainment of
identity: self-understanding in accord
with past experiences and future
plans
– willing to reconsider values and
goals of parents and culture,
accepting some, rejecting others
• Identity Foreclosure
– adopts values and goals of parents
and culture without questioning
• closes out process before it begins
• Identity Diffusion
– has few commitments to goals or values, and
apathetic about taking on any role
• Identity Moratorium
– experiments with alternative identities in
order to try them out; not ready to make
commitment to particular future goal
Status Versus Process
• Developmentalists asked a series of
questions to measure identity status
– can a person achieve identity in one
domain but still be searching in
another domain?
• answer: yes
– is identity formed from within or
from without?
• answer: both
Gender and Ethnic
Identity
• Gender identity—identification of
self as either male or female with
acceptance of all roles and behaviors
that society assigns to that sex
– adolescents make a multitude of
decisions about sexual behavior and
select from many gender roles
Gender and Ethnic Identity, cont.
• Gender identity is often connected to
ethnic identity
• Ethnic Identity
– often questioning of ethnic identity
and dominant American identity
– As teens grow older, the need to be
proud of general heritage grows
greater
Sadness and Anger
• Adolescents can feel despondent and
depressed, overwhelmed by the world
and their own inadequacies, as well as
on top of the world, destined for
great accomplishment
Sadness and Anger, cont.
• Emotional problems are categorized in
two ways
– internalizing problems: problems
are manifested inward to inflict
harm on self
– externalizing problems: problems
are “acted out” by injuring others,
destroying property, or defying
authority
The Usual Dip
• General trend in mood is more downward
than upward
– In U.S., both boys and girls feel less and
less confident in math, language arts, and
sports
– self-esteem drops at around age 12
– adolescents without support from family,
friends, or school more vulnerable to selfesteem dip
• loss of self-esteem may push toward depression
Depression
• Rate of clinical depression more than
doubles in puberty (15%)
• depression affects 1 to 5 teenage
girls, and 1 to 10 teenage boys
– hormonal changes may explain this,
coupled with psychic stress of
school, friends, sexual drives, and
identity crises
Adolescent Suicide
• Suicidal Ideation
– thinking about suicide common
among adolescents
Adolescent Suicide, cont.
• Five reasons for erroneous belief
that suicide is an adolescent problem
– rate is triple the rate of 40 years ago
– adolescents lumped together with young
adults as one statistical category
- adolescent suicide is shocking and grabs
attention
- social prejudice considers teenagers as
problems
- suicide attempts are more common in
adolescence
Parasuicide
• Parasuicide—deliberate act of selfdestruction that does not end in
death
• Parasuicide and suicide depend on
five factors
–
–
–
–
–
availability of lethal means, especially guns
lack of parental supervision
alcohol and other drugs
gender
cultural attitudes
Gender, Ethnic and
National Differences in
Suicide
• Worldwide, parasuicide is higher for
females; completed suicide is higher
for males
– except in China, where females
complete suicide more than males
• Cluster suicides occur when several
suicides are committed within the
same group in a short time
Adolescent Rebellion
• Many psychologists believe that
rebellion for adolescent boys may be
normal
Breaking the Law
• Breaking the law is the most
dramatic example of rebellion
• Worldwide, arrests rise rapidly at
about age 12 and peak at about age
16
– 44% of all U.S. arrests for
serious crimes involve persons
aged 10 to 20
Breaking the Law, cont.
• Incidence—how often a behavior
occurs
• Prevalence—how widespread a behavior
is
• Adolescent males are 3 times more
likely to be arrested than females
Breaking the Law, cont.
• African-Americans are 3 times more
likely to be arrested than are EuropeanAmericans, who are 3 times more likely
as Asian-Americans to be arrested
Limiting the Damage
• Adolescent-limited offender—person
who becomes law abiding as an adult
• Life-course persistent offender—
juvenile delinquent who continues
patterns of lawbreaking throughout
life; career criminal
Family and Friends
• Family and peer support helps
adolescents through good and bad
times
• Support provides
–
–
–
–
–
sustenance
provisions
directions
ballast for stability
safe harbor or anchor
Parents
• Generation gap—distance between
generations in values, behaviors, and
knowledge—and understanding
– adolescents often loosen ties to family
– adolescents need to become
psychologically separate
• Generational stake—each generation
needs to see family from its own
perspective
Parent-Adolescent
Conflict
• Typically, emerges in early
adolescence, especially with
daughters
• Bickering—petty, peevish arguing,
ongoing and repeated
• Adolescents believe they should have
privileges of adult status
Parent-Adolescent Conflict, cont.
• Timing of problems is cultural
– in general, for teens, bickering
peaks in early to middle
adolescence
– For Chinese-, Korean-, and
Mexican-American teens, parental
conflict surfaces in late
adolescence
Other Family
Characteristics
•
•
•
•
Communication
Support
Connectiveness
Control
– parental monitoring
Peers
• They’re more crucial in early teens
– self-help group
– help “bridge the gap between
childhood and adulthood”
– help to define who they are not
(identity formation)
– Can encourage socially desirable
behaviors.
Peer Pressure Unmasked
• Pressure to conform is strong—up to age
14
• Peers help to bridge gap between
childhood and adulthood
• Peer pressure can be especially negative
in times of uncertainty, but is not usually
a corrupting influence on good
adolescents
• Most peer-induced misbehavior is shortlived
Peer Group for
Immigrants
• Bicultural Conflict
– caught between strict family traditions
and generational push for autonomy
• May give in to parental control (girls)
• May join a delinquent group (boys)
• Establishing ethnic identity is not
easy
Romantic Attraction
• Sequence of Heterosexual Attraction
– friendships of one sex or the other
– loose association of girls’ group and boys’
group
– smaller mixed-sex group formed from
larger group
– true intimacy; peeling off from group
into couples, with private intimacies
Homosexual Youth
• Complications of this life style usually
slow down romantic attachments
– many reluctant to admit
homosexuality
– may mask feelings
– depression and suicide higher for
these youth
Conclusion
• No other period is full of such
multifactoral and compelling
biological changes
• Fascinating and confusing social
and intellectual transitions
• Most adolescents and their
families survive fairly well
Conclusion, cont.
• Most have some difficulties and some
may have several
– many problems stem from earlier
development
– even considering that, adolescents are
open to new patterns, goals, and
lifestyles
• plasticity
– young people can find a path that leads
to adulthood and its challenges