DEVELOPMENT

THROUGH THE LIFESPAN

Chapter 12
Emotional and Social Development in
Adolescence
ERIKSON’S THEORY:
IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION
Identity
 Defining who you are, what
you value and direction in life
 Commitments to vocation,
personal relationships, sexual
orientation, ethnic group,
ideals
 Exploration, resolution of
Role Confusion
 Lack of direction and
definition of self
 Restricted exploration in
adolescence
 earlier psychosocial conflicts
not resolved
 society restricts choices

“identity crisis”  Unprepared for stages of

adulthood
SELF-CONCEPT IN ADOLESCENCE

Unify separate traits into

larger, abstract ones
May describe contradictory

traits; social situations

Gradually combine traits

into organized system

◦ qualifiers
◦ integrating principles
DigitalVision
SELF-ESTEEM IN ADOLESCENCE
 Continues to differentiate
◦ new dimensions
 Generally rises
◦ temporarily drops at school transitions
◦ 13 nations study
 Individual differences become more stable.
 Self-esteem linked to value of activities,
adjustment
 Influenced by family, culture, and peer
relationships
 Inconsistent or negative feedback from parents
 at best, confusion; at worst, incompetency
and feelings of being unloved  turn to peers
(which is a risk factor for adjustment DigitalVision

difficulties)
 IDENTITY STATUSES

Level of Commitment
High Low
Level of Exploration

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identity
High moratorium
achievement

identity
Low identity diffusion
foreclosure
SELF-ESTEEM IN ADOLESCENCE
 College experience

 Those who start to work right after college

 Most  earlier self-definition
 Some  who experience obstacles for realizing their
occupational goals  at risk for identity foreclosure or
diffusion

 Some girls  more sophisticated reasoning than boys in

identity domains related to intimacy
IDENTITY STATUS
AND COGNITIVE STYLE

Identity achieved
Information-
Moratorium gathering

Foreclosure
Dogmatic, inflexible
Diffusion
Long-term diffusion Diffuse-avoidant
FACTORS THAT AFFECT
IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
Personality
◦ flexible, open-minded
Child-rearing practices
◦ authoritative, attached
Peers,friends
Schools
Communities
Corbis Images

Canadian study (12-20 years olds)

CULTURE AND IDENTITY

View of self-continuity
Cultural-majority adolescents

◦ individualistic view
◦ enduring personal essence
Cultural-minority adolescents
◦ interdependent view
◦ constantly transforming self
◦ bicultural identity

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KOHLBERG’S STAGES OF
MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Stage 1: Punishment and obedience
Preconventional

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Stage 2: Instrumental purpose
level

Stage 3: “Good boy–good girl” (morality

Conventional of interpersonal cooperation)
level
Stage 4: Social-order-maintaining
Postconventional Stage 5: Social contract
or principled Stage 6: Universal ethical principle
level
RESEARCH ON KOHLBERG’S THEORY

Few, if any, people reach postconventional

 morality.

“Conventional” levels may require more

 profound thought than Kohlberg suggested.

In real life, people often reason below levels of

which they are capable.
  situational factors

 emotions
SEX DIFFERENCES IN
MORAL REASONING?

Kohlberg Rights and justice orientation

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Caring for others orientation
Gilligan
 ethic of care

While males and females use both orientations,

females may stress care more.
 greater experience as caregivers
REASONING ABOUT
CARE ISSUES
 COMPETING ISSUES OF MORALITY

Moral
Social-conventional
Personal
personal
rights vs.
community good

Corbis Images
 INFLUENCES ON MORAL REASONING
Child-rearing practices
 caring, supportive
 discuss moral concerns
 Lecture, use threats, or make
sarcastic remarks  little or no
change in moral reasoning over time
Schooling
 Collegestudents in philosophy or
psychology classes  what do you
think? 
Peer interactions
 Bilkentvs. a public university in a
small Eastern city
Culture
 Individualism vs. collectivism
MORAL REASONING AND BEHAVIOR

Modest connection

Behavior influenced by many factors

 emotion
 temperament
 situation,history
 moral self-relevance  the degree to which morality is central to
self-concept
 peers, family
 just educational environments
CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

Knowledge
◦ of political issues
Feelings
◦ of attachment to community
Skills
◦ for achieving civic goals
Influences
◦ family, school, community
RELIGIOUS INVOLVEMENT
AND MORALITY
 Formal religious involvement declines in adolescence.
 Religious involvement linked to:
 more community service
 lower drug and alcohol use
 later sex
 less delinquency

 Can there be disadvantages as well?

GENDER INTENSIFICATION
IN ADOLESCENCE
Increased gender
stereotyping of attitudes
and behavior
Stronger for girls at this
stage
Biological, social,
cognitive factors
More in early adolescence,
declines in middle to late
Sports & Recreation

adolescence
PARENT–CHILD RELATIONSHIPS
IN ADOLESCENCE

Autonomy
 A sense of self as a separate, self-governing
individual
 deidealize parents

 shift from parents to self and peers for guidance

Authoritative parenting
 balances autonomy with monitoring as needed
 extra challenging during adolescence
 Conflicting expectations of parents? 
 Immigrant parents
FAMILY INFLUENCES ON ADOLESCENTS’
ADJUSTMENT
Warm, supportive relationship
with parents
amount of time spent with family
not a factor in conflict
Family circumstances
finances
time
adult relationships
sibling relationships

Absolute Family
CHARACTERISTICS OF
ADOLESCENT FRIENDSHIPS
50 hrs. in US, 45 in Europe, 33 in
East Asia
Fewer “best friends”
Stress intimacy, mutual
understanding, loyalty
 closeness, trust, self-disclosure
Friendsare similar or get
more similar
 identity status
 aspirations
 politics
 deviant behavior
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN
ADOLESCENT FRIENDSHIPS

Girls Boys
Emotional  Achievement, status
closeness,
 Get together for activities
communal concerns
 Intimacy related to gender
Get together to “just identity
talk”  androgynous: more likely
to be intimate friends
self-disclosure
SELF-DISCLOSURE IN RELATIONSHIPS
RISKS OF CLOSE FRIENDSHIPS

 Corumination

 Relational aggression
 girls’ closest friendships shorter
 Victimization from online-only friends

Teens and Young Adults

RISKS OF ONLINE FRIENDSHIPS
BENEFITS OF
ADOLESCENT FRIENDSHIPS

 Opportunities to explore self

 Form deep understanding of another
 Foundation for future intimate
relationships
 Help deal with life stress
 Can improve attitude toward and
involvement in school
 CLIQUES AND CROWDS

Clique
 small group: 5–7
 good friends
 identified by interests, social status

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Crowd
 larger: several cliques
 “Brains”, “populars”, “partyers”,
“nonconformists”, etc.
 Parental influence again
 membership based on
reputation, stereotype
 Mixed  as interest in dating Sports & Recreation
increases
 Decreased influence over time as
individual goals increase in
importance
FROM CLIQUES TO DATING

 Boys’ and girls’ cliques come together.

 Mixed-sex cliques hang out.

 Several couples form and

do things together.
 Individual couples
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Figure 12.4
INCREASE IN ROMANTIC
RELATIONSHIPS
CHANGES IN DATING
DURING ADOLESCENCE
 Goals change throughout adolescence.
 early:recreation, group activities, shallow
intimacy
 gradually look for more intimacy

 Relationswith parents, friends contribute to

internal working models for dating
DATING PROBLEMS

Too-early dating
 drug use, sex, delinquency
 poor academics
 difficult family and peer relationships
For homosexuals
 finding partners
 peer harassment, rejection
PEER CONFORMITY
Pressures to conform to:
dress,grooming, social activities
proadult behavior
misconduct
 rises in early adolescence, but low overall

More conformity in early adolescence

Authoritative parenting helps resist
pressures.
DEPRESSION IN ADOLESCENCE

 Most common psychological problem of adolescence—affects

15–20%
 Twice as many girls as boys
 early-maturing girls
 gender intensification
 adults may not take seriously
 Factors
 Genetics  balance of neurotransmitters, brain regions for
inhibiting negative emotion, hormonal response to stress
 child-rearing practices
 learned helplessness
ADOLESCENT SUICIDE

 A leading (3rd) cause of death for North American youth

 Boys > girls

 Related factors:
 gender
 ethnicity
 family environment
 sexual orientation (3:1)
 mental disorders
 life stress
 Cognitive developments (ability to plan ahead, personal fable)
 personality:
 intelligent, withdrawn
 antisocial, emotional
PREVENTING SUICIDE

Notice warning signs

Provide adult and peer support
Teach coping strategies

Interventions
 medication

 therapy

 remove access to
means
FACTORS IN DELINQUENCY

Widespread in early Gender

teen years Individual differences
 declinesin late  temperament
adolescence  intelligence
Peers  school performance
 rejection
Familycharacteristics
 antisocial peers Neighborhood
TWO ROUTES TO
ADOLESCENT DELINQUENCY
 Early-Onset: behavior begins in
middle childhood
 biological risk factors and child-
rearing practices combine
 Late-Onset:behavior begins
around puberty
 peer influences

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PATH TO CHRONIC
DELINQUENCY