Features of the self-concept in adolescence. Thesis I - a concept as a factor of personal self-determination in early adolescence Main aspects of life. Love and family
Self-concepts of a person in the process of his life go in several directions. First of all, shifts in the content of the I - the concept and its components - are studied - which qualities are better recognized, how the level and criteria of self-assessments change with age, what importance is attached to appearance, and what mental and moral qualities. Further, the degree of its reliability and objectivity is investigated, the change in the structure of the image of the I as a whole is traced - the degree of its differentiation (cognitive complexity), internal consistency (integrity), stability (stability over time), subjective significance, contrast, as well as the level of self-esteem. For all these indicators, the transitional age differs markedly both from childhood and from adulthood; there is a line in this respect between a teenager and a young man.
In early adolescence, there is a gradual change in the “objective” components of the self - the concept, in particular, the ratio of the bodily and moral-psychological components of one's “self”. The young man gets used to his appearance, forms a relatively stable image of his body, takes on his appearance and, accordingly, stabilizes the level of claims associated with it. Gradually, other properties of "I" now come to the fore - mental abilities, volitional and moral qualities, on which the success of activities and relationships with others depend. The cognitive complexity and differentiation of the elements of the self-image consistently increase from younger to older ages, without noticeable interruptions and crises. Adults discern more qualities in themselves than young men, young men more than adolescents, adolescents more than children.
The integrative tendency, on which the internal consistency depends, the integrity of the self-image intensifies with age, but somewhat later than the ability to abstract. Adolescent and adolescent self-descriptions are better organized and structured than children's self-descriptions, and they are grouped around several central qualities. However, the uncertainty of the level of aspirations and the difficulties of reorientation from external assessment to self-assessment give rise to a number of internal meaningful contradictions of self-awareness, which serve as a source of further development. When adding the phrase “I am in my imagination ...”, many young men emphasize precisely their contradictoriness: “I, in my imagination, am a genius + nothingness”.
The data on the stability of the self-image are not entirely unambiguous. Self-descriptions of adults are less dependent on random, situational circumstances. However, in adolescence and early adolescence, self-esteem sometimes changes dramatically. Moreover, the significance of the elements of self-description and, accordingly, their hierarchy can change depending on the context, life experience of the individual, or simply under the influence of the moment. This kind of self-description is a way to characterize the uniqueness of each personality through the combination of its individual features (2, p. 33). Burns R.W. Self-concept development and education. -M., 1986
As for the contrast, the degree of distinctness of the I image, there is also growth: from childhood to adolescence and from youth to maturity, a person is more clearly aware of his individuality, his differences from others and attaches more importance to them, so that the image of the I becomes one of the central attitudes of the personality with which she relates her behavior. However, with a change in the content of the self-image, the degree of significance of its individual components, on which the personality focuses attention, changes significantly. In early adolescence, the scale of self-assessments is noticeably enlarged: the “internal” qualities are realized later than the “external” ones, but the elders attach more importance to them. An increase in the degree of awareness of their experiences is often accompanied by hypertrophied attention to oneself, egocentrism. In early adolescence, this happens often.
Age-related shifts in human perception include an increase in the number of descriptive categories used, an increase in flexibility and certainty in their use; increasing the level of selectivity, consistency, complexity and consistency of this information; the use of more subtle estimates and connections; increased ability to analyze and explain human behavior; there is concern about the accurate presentation of the material, the desire to make it convincing.
Similar tendencies are observed in the development of self-characteristics, which become more generalized, differentiated and correlate with a large number of “significant persons”. Self-descriptions in early adolescence are much more personal and psychological in nature than at 12-14 years old, and at the same time they more emphasize the differences from other people.
The adolescent's or young man's idea of himself is always correlated with the group image of “we” - a typical peer of his gender, but never completely coincides with this “we”. The images of their own “I” are assessed by high school students much more subtly and more tenderly than the group “we”.
Young men consider themselves less strong, less sociable and cheerful, but more kind and able to understand another person than their peers. Girls ascribe to themselves less sociability, but more sincerity, justice and loyalty.
The exaggeration of their own uniqueness, characteristic of many adolescents, usually goes away with age, but by no means weakening of the individual principle. On the contrary, the older and more developed a person is, the more he finds differences between himself and the “average” peer. Hence - an intense need for psychological intimacy, which would be at the same time self-disclosure and penetration into the inner world of another. The realization of one's dissimilarity from others logically and historically precedes the understanding of one's deep inner connection and unity with the people around.
The most noticeable changes in the content of self-descriptions, in the image of the I, are found at the age of 15-16. These changes follow the line of greater subjectivity, psychological character of the descriptions. It is known that in the perception of another person, the psychologization of the description increases sharply after 15 years.
A person describes himself, emphasizing the variability, flexibility of his behavior, his dependence on the situation; in the descriptions of the other, on the contrary, indications of stable personality traits prevail, which stably determine his behavior in a wide variety of situations. In other words, an adult is inclined to perceive himself, focusing on the subjective characteristics of dynamism, variability, and the other - as an object with relatively unchanging properties. This “dynamic” perception of oneself occurs during the transition to early adolescence at 14-16 years old.
The formation of a new level of self-awareness in early youth follows the directions identified by L.S. Vygotsky, - integrating the image of oneself, “moving” it “from outside to inside”. In this age period, there is a change from a certain “objectivist” view of oneself “from the outside” to a subjective, dynamic position “from the inside”.
V.F. Safin characterizes this significant difference in the outlook of younger and older adolescents as follows: a teenager is focused primarily on finding an answer, “what is he like among others, how similar he is to them”, an older teenager - “what is he like in the eyes of others, how different is he from others and how similar or close he is to his ideal ”. In the theoretical research of I.I. the specificity of the second is expressed in an attempt to correlate his behavior “with the motivation that he realizes and which determines him.
In the period of transition from adolescence to early adolescence, within the framework of the formation of a new level of self-awareness, a new level of attitude towards oneself also develops. One of the central moments here is the change in the grounds for the criteria for evaluating oneself, one's “I” - they are replaced “from outside to inside”, acquiring qualitatively different forms, in comparison with the criteria for evaluating other people by a person.
The transition from private self-assessments to a general, holistic one (change of grounds) creates conditions for the formation, in the true sense of the word, of one's own attitude towards oneself, quite autonomous from the attitude and assessments of others, private successes and failures, all kinds of situational influences, etc. It is important to note that the assessment of individual qualities, aspects of the personality plays a subordinate role in this own attitude towards oneself, and some general, holistic "self-acceptance", "self-respect" turns out to be the leading one.
It is in early adolescence (15-17 years), based on the development of one's own system of values, that an emotional-value attitude towards oneself is formed, i.e. “Operational self-assessment” begins to be based on the conformity of behavior, one's own views and beliefs, and the results of activity.
At the age of 15-16, the problem of the mismatch of the real I and the ideal I is especially strongly actualized. According to I.S. Kon, this mismatch is quite normal, a natural consequence of cognitive development. In the transition from childhood to adolescence and beyond, self-criticism grows. Most often, in early adolescence, they complain of weakness, instability, susceptibility to influences, etc., as well as such shortcomings as capriciousness, insecurity, resentment.
The discrepancy between I - real and I - ideal images is a function of not only age, but also intellect. In intellectually developed young men, the discrepancy between the real I and the ideal I, i.e. between the properties that the individual ascribes to himself and those that he would like to have, much more than their peers with average intellectual abilities.
From what has been said follows the need for individualization of upbringing and education, breaking the usual stereotypes and standards, focused on the average, average individuals! The student's educational work should be intense, intense and creative. In this case, one must reckon not only with objective individual differences, but also with the subjective world of the emerging personality, self-esteem, self-concept. Appealing to the creative potential of students, we must take care of increasing their self-esteem and self-esteem, see the psychological difficulties and contradictions of growing up and tactfully help to resolve them. A school psychologist could be of great help here.
Adolescence is one of the most confused and contradictory in psychological and pedagogical ideas and theories. The confusion and inconsistency of ideas can be explained (as in adolescence) by the emerging character of the age itself in the history of civilization. According to the hypothesis of D.B. Elkonin (1996) on the historical content of childhood, both adolescence and adolescence are historically young and therefore have not acquired their cultural and historical forms and mechanisms of development.
Adolescence is a period of individual life in which the ability to actively, practically correlate goals, resources and conditions for solving the problems of building one's own life, a perspective characteristic of an adult (solving a professional, production problem; manifestation of a social position; implementation of socially significant deed or action; building your own family, etc.).
Youth not so long ago stood out as an independent period in a person's life, historically referring to the "transitional stage" of maturation, maturation. If in animals the onset of adulthood is closely related to the possibility of independent existence and procreation, then in human society, the criterion for growing up is not just physical maturity, but also the mastery of culture, a system of knowledge, values, norms, social traditions, and readiness to carry out different types of labor.
Youth is divided into early and late. Early adolescence is the second stage of a person's life, called maturation or transitional age, the content of which is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Let's define the age range of this stage, because the terminology in the field of growing up is somewhat confusing. Within the transition from childhood to adulthood, the boundaries between adolescence and adolescence are conditional and often intersect. No one will call a 13-year-old boy a youth, and an 18-19-year-old boy a teenager, but the age between 14-15 and 16-17 years does not have this certainty and in some cases refers to adolescence, and in others - to the end of adolescence. In the scheme of age periodization of ontogenesis, the boundaries of adolescence are designated between 17-21 years for boys and 16-20 years for girls, but in physiology, its upper limit is often pushed back to 22-23 years for boys and 19-20 years for girls. In connection with the phenomenon of acceleration, the boundaries of adolescence have shifted downward and at present this period of development covers approximately the age from 10-11 to 14-15 years. Accordingly, youth begins earlier. Early adolescence is the senior school age - 15-17 years old. At this time, the growing child is on the verge of real adult life. Late adolescence is considered a period in the life of a young person, which is characterized by independence in solving the problems of building his own life, the perspective characteristic of an adult (solving a professional, production problem; manifestation of a social position; implementation of a socially significant act or action; building his own family, etc.) ). Late adolescence is attributed to 20-23 years.
The boundaries of adolescence are associated with the age of mandatory participation of a person in public life. Youth is the age of compulsory participation in elections of government bodies. In adolescence, a person makes a choice of an internal position and this is a very difficult job. A young person who has turned to the analysis and comparison of universal values and his own inclinations and value orientations will have to consciously destroy or accept the historically conditioned norms and values that determined his behavior in childhood and adolescence. In addition, modern ideas of the state, new ideologues and false prophets are precipitatingly attacking it. He chooses for himself a non-adaptive or adaptive position in life, while he believes that it is the position he has chosen that is the only one acceptable to him and, therefore, the only correct one.
Youth is aimed at finding its place in the world. But no matter how intellectually she is ready to comprehend everything that exists, she does not know much, there is still no experience of real practical and spiritual life among loved ones and other people.
Youth is often considered stormy, uniting it in one period with adolescence. The search for your place in this world, the search for the meaning of life can become especially intense. New needs of an intellectual and social order arise, the satisfaction of which will become possible only in the future. For some, this period may be stressful, while for others, smoothly and gradually move to a turning point in their lives. With a successful course of early adolescence, a high school student is pleased with a calm, orderly way of life, they are not characterized by romantic impulses, they have good relations with parents and teachers. But at the same time, children are less independent, more passive, sometimes more superficial in their attachments and hobbies. In general, it is believed that the searches and doubts characteristic of adolescence lead to the full formation of the personality. Those who have gone through them are usually more independent, creative in their attitude, have more flexible thinking, allowing them to make independent decisions in difficult situations compared to those whose personality formation process took place at that time easily. There are two more options for development. These are, firstly, rapid, abrupt changes, which, due to the high level of self-regulation, are well controlled, without causing sharp emotional breakdowns. High school students define their life goals early and persistently strive to achieve them. However, their reflection and emotional sphere are less developed. Another option is associated with a particularly painful search for their own path. Such children are not confident in themselves, and do not understand themselves well. They have insufficient development of reflection, lack of deep self-knowledge. Such children are impulsive, inconsistent in actions and relationships, not responsible enough. They often reject the values of their parents, but instead are unable to offer anything of their own.
The main psychological acquisition of early adolescence is the discovery of one's inner world. Having acquired the ability to immerse himself in himself, in his experiences, the young man re-opens a whole world of new emotions, the beauty of nature, the sounds of music. He (the young man) begins to perceive and comprehend his emotions no longer as derivatives of some external events, but as a state of his own I. Along with the awareness of his uniqueness, originality, dissimilarity to others comes a feeling of loneliness. The youthful self is still vague, vague, it is often experienced as a vague anxiety or a feeling of inner emptiness that needs to be filled with something. Hence, the need for communication grows and at the same time its selectivity, the need for solitude, increases.
Thus, adolescence is the period of life after adolescence to adulthood, including the age from 16-17 years old to 22-23 years old.
The self-concept in the period of adolescence becomes an increasingly complex and persistent new formation. This is due to the fact that intellectual, physiological and psychological changes occur both in the inner world of a young person and in his appearance. This developmental process of the self-concept of a boy or girl is influenced by various factors that are associated with a change in social roles, the need to make independent decisions, reproaches from adults regarding independent self-sufficiency, the choice of value orientations, friends, profession, self-determination and puberty. Therefore, the behavior of such a person is mostly contradictory.
The time of adolescence is a period of physical maturity and at the same time social immaturity. Relationships with others and introspection of one's inner world become important for this age.
Teenagers learn to see themselves as if from the side, i.e. a mirror self is actively formed in them. Such a change in the individual world of adolescents is associated with the development of their mental abilities and the ability to see the environment through the eyes of others. Pupils of secondary school age are already beginning to understand the importance of social roles, attitudes, motives and their capabilities.
Boys and girls aged 16 to 19 constantly strive to stand out from their peers through their own significant achievements, as well as to demonstrate adulthood in behavior. The main event of adulthood here is gaining a level generativity
As an attempt to perpetuate oneself by introducing something long-term and meaningful into the world around us. Therefore, young people often strive to achieve generativity through early family creation, productive work, purchasing a car, rash actions, etc.
Accordingly, they distinguish psychoanalytic
and socio-psychological factors that make it possible to explain the problematic transitional period of the subject's life during adolescence. The first direction explains the consequences of such behavior through psychosexual maturation, which gives rise to emotionally unbalanced relationships with the family, and the second - with the social life of a teenager, i.e. his role, status in it.
The time of adolescence is the cause of changes in the self-perception of each person of his self-image, self-esteem and behavioral actions. In general, this age, researchers justify the concept of "pubertal", which means puberty. This term is used to characterize the totality of biological changes that appear in the body of a teenager. They affect the process of his perception of himself, the environment.
The main danger on the way to full-fledged development is avoiding the feeling of a "blurred" self in adolescence. The body of young individuals grows rapidly and changes their appearance, their lives are filled with new conflicting experiences, as a result, confusion, pessimism, and apathy often appear.
Adequate identification with loved ones is an important mechanism for the development of His identity. And, even in spite of various teenage disagreements, if parents warmly interacted with their children at their early age, then at the stage of contradictory development of their offspring, they will be able to help him. There is one exception, though: adolescent body image changes sometimes cause internal disagreements in personality, despite good family relationships. This causes certain difficulties on the path of personal adaptation of a young man or girl to the world, in which imbalance, anxiety, low self-esteem, etc. appear.
Reprinted by R. Burns. What is I concept // R. Bern. Self-concept development and education. Moscow, 1986 .-- S. 169-222.
In adolescence, the self-concept, on the one hand, becomes more stable, and on the other, it undergoes certain changes due to a number of reasons. First, the physiological and psychological changes associated with puberty cannot but affect the individual's perception of his external appearance. Secondly, the development of cognitive and intellectual capabilities leads to the complication and differentiation of the self-concept, in particular to the emergence of the ability to distinguish between real and hypothetical possibilities. Finally, thirdly, the requirements emanating from the social environment - parents, teachers, peers - may turn out to be mutually contradictory. Role reversal, the need to make important decisions regarding the profession, value orientations, lifestyle, etc., can cause role conflict and status uncertainty, which also leaves a clear imprint on the self-concept during adolescence.
In addition, adults often respond inadequately to the behavior of adolescents: they reproach them for lack of independence and independence and at the same time demand - sometimes without convincing reasons - obedience and conformity.
In this chapter, we will discuss the theoretical foundations and research findings related to self-concept in early adolescence, as well as the question of the correctness of ideas about the crisis of identity. We will try to trace the changes in body image and role-based self-identification, determined by gender, characteristic of a given age period.
Teenage behavior is often paradoxical. Explicit negativism can be combined with explicit conformity, the desire for independence - with requests for help. Today he is full of enthusiasm and energy, and tomorrow we see that his hands have dropped and he is passively "going with the flow." These sharp, contrasting changes are characteristic features of the transition period from childhood to the moment when society recognizes a person as an adult. This public recognition of adulthood is determined by a number of criteria - the obligation to fully account for one's actions before the law, the opportunity to participate fully in the affairs of society, to marry, etc. In all these cases, age regulation varies from country to country and may change over time.
Under the influence of certain factors - biological, psychological, social - a person often becomes an adult earlier than he or the people around him would like. In other cases, these factors, on the contrary, delay his development, often to his great chagrin. Someone wisely noticed that a person becomes an adult two years earlier than his family would like, and two years later than he himself would like.
Coleman (1980) identifies two types of explanations for transitional problems: psychoanalytic and socio-psychological. The first focus on the psychosexual development of the individual and on emotional relationships in the family. Explanations of the second type are characterized by attention to the social life of the individual, to such categories as role, status, role conflict, role uncertainty, social expectations. ...
