Social and Personality Development in Adolescence

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Chapter 16

• Social and Personality Development in Adolescence

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Moral Development in Girls Carol Gilligans
theory of moral development

• Carol Gilligan suggests that the way boys and
  girls are raised in our own society leads to
  differences in moral reasoning.
• Kohlberg's theory is inadequate and places girls'
  moral reasoning at a lower level than boys'.
• Boys view morality primarily in terms of justice
  and fairness.
• Girls see morality in terms of responsibility and
  compassion toward individuals and a willingness
  to sacrifice for relationships.

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Carol Gilligan
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• ? Gilligan sees morality in girls developing in 3
  stages.
• Orientation toward individual survival - where
  females concentrate on what is practical and best
  for them.
• Goodness as self-sacrifice - where females think
  they must sacrifice their own wishes to what
  others want.
• Morality of nonviolence - women come to see
  hurting anyone as immoral, including themselves.
• The highest levels of morality are represented
  by compassionate concern for the welfare of
  others

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Criticisms of Gilligans theory

• Theory is based on moral decisions in an actual
  real life situation. Findings may not apply in
  ALL situations.
• Data was collected on women ONLY.
• Gilligan also never published her data in
  peer-reviewed journals.

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Identity

• Self-concept characterizing the self
  (understanding who you are warts all)
• Self-esteem evaluating the self
• Knowing who you are and liking who you are two
  different things

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Identity Formation

• Eriksons Identity vs. Identity Confusion the
  period during which teenagers seek to determine
  what is unique and distinctive about themselves
• Adolescents increasingly rely on their friends
  and peers as sources of information about their
  identity.
• Psychological moratorium a period during which
  adolescents take time off from the upcoming
  responsibilities of adulthood and explore various
  roles and possibilities

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Identity DevelopmentMarcias Approach Updating
Erikson

• Identity achievement the status of adolescents
  who commit to a particular identity following a
  period of crisis, during which they consider
  various alternatives
• Identity foreclosure the status of adolescents
  who prematurely commit to an identity without
  adequately exploring alternatives accepting
  others decisions about whats best for them
• Moratorium the status of adolescents who may
  have explored various identity alternatives to
  some degrees but have not yet committed
  themselves
• Identity diffusion the status of adolescents
  who neither explore nor commit to consider
  various identity alternatives flighty, shifting
  from one thing to the next

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Depression and Suicide

• 2035 of boys and 2540 of girls experience
  occasional episodes of depression during
  adolescence
• 3 experience major depression
• One teenage suicide occurs every 90 minutes for
  an annual rate of 12.2 suicides per 100,000
  adolescents.
• Cluster suicide a situation in which one
  suicide leads to attempts by others to kill
  themselves

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Common Adolescent Stressors Difficulties
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Relationships Family and Friends

• Autonomy having independence and a sense of
  control over ones life
• Generation gap a deep divide between parents
  and adolescents in attitudes, values,
  aspirations, and worldviews
• The number one deterrent from adolescent drug use
  is having dinner with their families around the
  table!

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Parental Conflict in Adolescence

• Parents and teens may hold similar attitudes
  about social and political issues, but often hold
  different views on matters of personal taste
  (music preferences, style of dress)
• Teens from collectivist cultures tend to have
  fewer conflicts with parents than teens from
  individualist cultures do.

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Relationships with Peers

• Reference group any group of people with whom
  one compares oneself
• Cliques groups of 2 to 12 people whose members
  have frequent social interactions with one
  another
• Crowds larger groups than cliques, composed of
  individuals who share particular characteristics
  but who may not interact with one another
  (jocks)
• Sex cleavage sex segregation in which boys
  interact primarily with boys and girls primarily
  with girls

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The Social World Of AdolescencePopularity is
related to differences in status, behavior and
adjustment
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Popularity and Rejection

• Controversial adolescents teenagers who are
  liked by some peers and disliked by others
• Rejected adolescents teenagers who are
  uniformly disliked and whose peers may react to
  them in an obviously negative manner
• Neglected adolescents teenagers who are neither
  liked nor disliked forgotten students

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• Peer pressure the influence of ones peers to
  conform to their behavior and attitudes
• Undersocialized delinquents adolescents who are
  raised with little discipline or with harsh,
  uncaring parental supervision
• Socialized delinquents adolescents who know and
  subscribe to the norms of society and who are
  fairly normal psychologically

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Dating and Sexual Behavior

• Dating -a way to establish intimacy with others
  can also provide entertainment and prestige
• Masturbation -by age 15yrs, 80 of boys and 20
  of girls report they have engaged in solitary,
  sexual self-stimulation
• Sexual intercourse -begins for about 50 of all
  adolescents in the 1518yrs age range. At least
  80 of adolescents have sex before the age of
  20yrs.
• Heterosexuality sexual attraction behavior
  directed to the opposite sex
• Homosexuality sexual attraction behavior
  directed to members of the same sex
• Bisexuality sexual attraction behavior
  directed to members of both sexes

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Teenage Pregnancy