1/30/08 1 Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 1 Power point slides prepared by Leonard R. Mendola, Ph.D. Touro College Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 2 The Self, Identity, Emotions, and Personality Chapter 4 Outline • The Self – Self-Understanding – Self-Esteem and Self-Concept • Identity – Erikson’s Ideas on Identity – The Four Statuses of Identity – Developmental Changes in Identity – Identity and Social Contexts – Identity and Intimacy Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 3 The Self, Identity, Emotions, and Personality Chapter 4 Outline • Emotional Development – The Emotions of Adolescence – Hormones, Experience, and Emotions – Emotional Competence • Personality Development – Personality – Temperament (Continued from previous slide)1/30/08 2 Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 4 The Self • Self-Understanding – Self-understanding is a social-cognitive construction (Harter, 2006; McLean & Pratt, 2006) – Self-understanding is the individual’s cognitive representation of the self, the substance and content of self-conceptions. Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 5 Dimensions of Self-Understanding • Social Comparison • Self-Consciousness • Self-Protection • Unconscious Self • Self-Integration Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 6 Self-Understanding and Social Contexts • Adolescent’s self-understanding can vary across relationships and social roles • They also can differ depending on whether the adolescent is in the role of student, athlete or employee • Adolescents’ portraits of themselves can differ depending on whether they describe themselves when they are with their mother, father, close friend, romantic partner, or peer • Adolescents might create different selves depending on their ethnic and cultural background and experiences (Lalonde & Chandler, 2004).1/30/08 3 Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 7 What are Self-Esteem and Self-Concept? • Self-esteem – Also referred to as self-worth or self-image – is the global evaluative dimension of the self • For example, an adolescent or emerging adult might perceive that she is not merely a person, but a good person. • Self-concept – Refers to domain-specific evaluations of the self. • For example an adolescent may have a negative academic self-concept because he is not doing well at school, but have a positive athletic self-concept because he is a star swimmer. Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 8 Measuring Self-Esteem and Self-Concept • Susan Harter (1989) developed a measure for adolescents: – the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. – It assesses eight domains: • scholastic competence • athletic competence • social acceptance • physical appearance • behavioral conduct • close friendship • romantic appeal and job competence • plus global self-worth Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 9 Measuring Self-Esteem and Self-Concept Behavioral observations in the assessment of self-esteem Fig. 4.11/30/08 4 Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 10 Self-Esteem: Perception and Reality • Self-esteem reflects perceptions that do not always match reality (Baumeister & others, 2003). • Self-esteem fluctuates across the life span • During and just after many life transitions, individuals’ self-esteem often decreases. Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 11 Self-Esteem: Perception and Reality • Does Self-Esteem Change During Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood? • Is Self-Esteem Linked to Success in School and Initiative? • Are Some Domains More Closely Linked to Self-Esteem Than Others? Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 12 Social Contexts and Self-Esteem • Social contexts such as the family, peers, and schools contribute to the development of an adolescent’s self-esteem (Dusek & McIntyre, 2003; Harter, 2006; Turnage, 2004). • Peer judgments gain increasing importance in adolescence1/30/08 5 Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 13 Social Contexts and Self-Esteem • Consequences of Low Self-Esteem – For most adolescents, the emotional discomfort of low self-esteem is temporary – Low self-esteem has been implicated in depression, suicide, anorexia nervosa, delinquency, and other adjustment problems (Donnellan & others, 2005, 2006; Flory & others, 2004). Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 14 Social Contexts and Self-Esteem • Increasing Adolescents’ Self-Esteem – Four ways to improve adolescents’ and emerging adults’ self-esteem are: (1) Identify the causes of low self-esteem and the domains of competence important to the self (2) Provide emotional support and social approval (3) Foster achievement (4) Help adolescents to cope Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 15 Social Contexts and Self-Esteem • Increasing Adolescents’ Self-Esteem – Self-esteem often increases when adolescents face a problem and try to cope with it rather than avoid it (Dyson & Renk, 2006; Nes & Segerstrom, 2006) – Facing problems realistically, honestly, and non-defensively produces favorable self-evaluative thoughts, which lead to the self-generated approval that raises self-esteem.1/30/08 6 Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 16 Identity • By far the most comprehensive and provocative theory of identity development is that of Erik Erikson Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill 17 Identity • Erikson’s Ideas on Identity – Who am I? – What am I all about? – What am I going to do with my life?