Adolescent Personality as Self-Other Systems

Properties of the Self-Descriptions There is still something else that can be done with these interesting responses to the question Who am I? There are a number of abstract or content-free characteristics of the personality which can be obtained from these answers. These are in the form of indices based on types, numbers, or ratios of responses. The researchers have developed about 20 of these, of which three might be mentioned as illustrations. One index analyzes the number of responses concerned with the future as contrasted with those referring to the past or the present. This provides a direct appraisal of the relative time orientation of the respondent; whether he is looking forward or backward. A second index is the number of evaluation terms the adolescent uses in describing himself, as contrasted with the use of neutral, nonevaluative terms. Does he say, I am a good student or I am a bad son, as contrasted with, I am a student or I am a son? How preoccupied is he with the adequacy of his behavior? A third example is the number of times one mentions adjective or traits, such as nervous, rather than naming social positions or statuses such as male. A high rate of mention of the latter terms would seem to indicate a greater degree of integration with the existing social order. The self-image is based on major positions in society, rather than consisting of fragments of unrelated personal characteristics. Anne Warbasse, in a Ph.D. study, showed that those subjects having a higher rate of position responses were more stable under conditions of prolonged social isolation-as if it were easier to maintain their identity because of their ties to the social order. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION In conclusion, some of the social structural components of adolescent personality have been reviewed. A fully developed theory of personality incorporating the contributions that the sociologist can make is an ultimate objective. This point of view should be better represented in the arena of competing concepts, hypotheses, and theories about personality. The big question that remains is, of course, the nature of the relationships among the components of personality reviewed here and the others mentioned in passing. The relationships between components in the specific self-other systems, and the relationships between the more generalized components of the personality and the spontaneously given descriptions of one's self, are, to be sure, the major focus of the current study of adolescents. Unfortunately, the interrelations of these materials cannot be reported at this time. Beyond this, one would want to test the predictive value of these ideas against some objective performance criterion, such as academic achievement or types of social participation. The author and his colleagues are taking this step, attempting to predict different degrees of academic achievement among students of similar ability, by reference to differences in these aspects of their personality. And finally, of course, in any complete theory, one must be interested in the antecedents of personality in the actual life histories of the respondents, to be able to use background experiences to explain the development of differences in later personality. The author and his colleagues have not attempted to collect developmental data, being content to undertake this in subsequent research after the concepts are carefully worked out. The current research can be viewed as another step toward a more general, empirically based theory of adolescent personality. JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 162 May 1965 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.149 on Wed, 28 Sep 2016 05:06:39 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Adjective · Big Five personality traits · Index (typography · Linguistics · Order (exchange · Personality · Respondent · Computer Science · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research · Psychology · Social and Behavioral Studies · Social Psychology · Sociopolitical Dynamics in Russia

• Characteristics of interpersonal behavior among adolescent boys

  Open Access•Barbara M Newman•Journal of Youth and Adolescence•1975

  Incluir item

• A Descriptive Study of Internalized Audiences

  Raymond L Schmitt, B R Audas•Sociological Focus•1968

  Incluir item

• Juvenile Delinquency as a Symptom of Alienation

  Open Access•Martin Gold•Journal of Social Issues•1969

  Incluir item

• Differentiation and development of social norms

  Walter Emmerich, Karla S Goldman et al.•Journal of Personality and Social…•1971

  Incluir item