Transcript Chapter 11: Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years) Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years) • Chapter Objectives – To examine the concept of autonomy.

Chapter 11:
Later Adolescence
(18 – 24 Years)
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Chapter Objectives
– To examine the concept of autonomy from
parents and the conditions under which it is
likely to be achieved
– To trace the development of gender identity in
later adolescence, including a discussion of
how the components of gender role
identification that were relevant during the
early-school-age period are revised and
expanded
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Chapter Objectives (cont.)
– To describe the maturation of morality in later
adolescence with special focus on the role of
new cognitive capacities that influence moral
judgments and the various value orientations
that underlie moral reasoning
– To analyze the process of career choice, with
attention to education and gender-role
socialization as two major influential factors
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Chapter Objectives (cont.)
– To describe the psychosocial crisis of later
adolescence (individual identity versus
identity confusion) the central process through
which this crisis is resolved (role
experimentation) the prime adaptive ego
quality of fidelity to values and ideals, and the
core pathology of repudiation
– To examine some of the challenges of social
life in later adolescence that may result in
high-risk behaviors
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Autonomy from Parents
– Autonomy is a multidimensional task that is
accomplished gradually over the course of
later adolescence and early adulthood
– Autonomy is an ability regulate one’s own
behavior with undue control from or
dependence on one’s parents
– Autonomy requires independence of thoughts,
emotions, and actions
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Autonomy from Parents (cont.)
– Beyond these physical requirements,
autonomy involves a psychological sense of
confidence about one’s unique point of view
and an ability to express opinions and beliefs
that may differ from those of one’s parents
– Differentiation is the extent to which the
family-system encourages intimacy while
supporting the expression of differences
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Autonomy from Parents: Leaving Home
– Living away form one’s parent’s household
may be a symbol of independence; however ,
it is not as readily achievable in the age range
18 to 24 as it was in the past
– Parents and adolescent children have
different views about the age at which
children are expected to leave home
– Economic factors and social norms play a
significant role in the timing of leaving home
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Autonomy from Parents: The College
Experience
– Going away to college is an intermediate step
between living at home and establishing a
permanent residence before marriage
– College freshman express a variety of
attitudes that suggest different views about
their desire to be independent from their
family
– The experience of entering college focuses
new attention on one’s attachment
relationships, specifically the revision of
attachment to parents
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Autonomy from Parents: Self Sufficiency
– For students who live on campus,
preoccupation with thoughts and concerns
about their parents tend to diminish over the
course of the first semester, while new
relationships form and a new confidence in
their independent decision making builds
– Making independent decisions, taking
responsibility for one’s actions, and achieving
some degree of financial independence is part
of establishing a sense of self-sufficiency
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: The Role of Culture
– Acquisition of a set of beliefs, attitudes, and
values about oneself as a man or a woman in
many areas of social life, including intimate
relationship, family, work, community, and
religion
– All cultures construct gender-differentiated
roles, and people expect one another to
behave in certain ways because they are
male or female
– In the United States, many people argue that
gender-based role distinctions are
inappropriate, at least as part of public life
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: The Role of Culture (cont.)
– Others ague that men and women should be
considered equal, but that they should be
treated in ways that take into account
differences in their needs and capacities
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Reevaluating Gender
Constancy
– Later adolescents can appreciate that the use
of gender labels is a social convention and
that, apart form the genital basis of this label,
there are wide individual differences within
gender groups in most traits and abilities
– Later adolescents may realize that gender is
not quite as fixed and constant as they may
have believed
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Reevaluating Gender
Constancy (cont.)
– As later adolescents learn about cultural,
institutional, interpersonal, and individual level
gender-role expectations, they must integrate
and synthesize them with their assessments
of their personal needs and goals
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Reevaluating Earlier GenderRole Standards and Learning New Ones
– In later adolescence, young men and women
begin to develop an analysis of what it takes
to “get ahead”: in their social world, whether
success is defined as finding a mate, getting a
good job, being a good parent, or being
popular
– The knowledge base regarding the
implications and consequences of gender for
each individual broadens as new
understanding about adult roles is acquired
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Reevaluating Earlier GenderRole Standards and Learning New Ones (cont.)
– Gender role standards may change within
one’s lifetime
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Revising One’s Childhood
Identifications
– The component of parental identifications that
contributes to gender identity is also reviewed
and revised in later adolescence
– During this time, young people begin to
encounter a wide range of possible targets for
identification
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Adding a Sexual Dimension to
Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
– Later adolescents add a sexual dimension to
their gender identity that did not play much or
a role in their child gender-role identifications
– Physical attractiveness become more salient
during this time
– Maturation of the hormonal system, which
influence emotional arousal as well as sexual
urges, contributes to one’s gender identity
– Research on sexual orientation suggests that
later adolescence is a common time for the
emergence of a homosexual identity
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Integrating One’s Gender-Role
Identity
– If later adolescents become aware that their
gender prevents them from having access to
resources, influence, and decision-making
authority, they are likely to experience a
decline in their gender-role preference
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Gender Identity: Integrating One’s Gender-Role
Identity (cont.)
– If later adolescents perceive that, apart from
real differences in ability, one gender group is
treated with greater respect, given more
opportunities, and responded to with more
attention or greater rewards, then their
gender-role preferences are likely to be
recalibrated
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Internalized Morality: New Cognitive Capacities
& Experiences that Promote Moral Reasoning
– Later adolescents explore the distinction
between social conventions and moral issues
– Later adolescents bring new cognitive
capacities to the arena of moral decision
making
– Later adolescents are able to consider the
multiple perspectives that are possible in a
moral situation
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Internalized Morality: New Cognitive Capacities
& Experiences that Promote Moral Reasoning
(cont.)
– They are increasingly aware of the rights and
needs of others, and they are able to step
outside the situation in order to examine how
an action may satisfy their own needs but
harm others
– Through participation in thought-provoking
discussions or challenging life experiences,
moral reasoning can advance to the next
higher level
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Internalized Morality: New Cognitive Capacities
& Experiences that Promote Moral Reasoning
(cont.)
– Exposure to a diversity of information,
relationships, and worldviews stimulates
moral reasoning
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Internalized Morality: Stages of Moral
Development
– Preconventional Level, Stage I: From age 4 to
10, children judge an action as morally
justifiable based on the immediate
consequences of the behavior and the
approval of powerful authority figures
– Conventional Level, Stage II: From age 10 to
18, reflects a concern about the maintenance
of the existing rules and laws, and a respect
for legitimate authority
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Internalized Morality: Stages of Moral
Development (cont.)
– Postconventional Level, Stage III: From age
18 into adulthood, brings an awareness of
social, cultural, and political processes that
result in the formulation of rules and laws
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Internalized Morality: Expansions to Kohlberg’s
View of Moral Reasoning
– Moral reasoning is based on a specific
method, one in which individuals are asked to
reach judgments about a particular type of
moral dilemma
– Moral reasoning is influenced largely by the
situational context in which the dilemma is
posed
– Field of moral reasoning focuses on whether
women and men approach ethical decision
making differently
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
Figure 11.1 Factors Affecting the Gender Role Socialization and
Career Decision-Making Process
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
Figure 11.2 Seven Phases of Career Decision Making
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• The Psychosocial Crisis: Individual Identity
Versus Identity Confusion
• The Private and The Public Faces of Identity
– The private self is a sense of self, which refers
to one’s uniqueness and unity, a subjective
experience of being self-reflective
– The public self includes the many roles one
plays and the expectations of others
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• The Content and Evaluation Components of
Identity
– The significance one places on various
aspects of the identity content
– The assessment of the importance of certain
content areas in relation to others influences
the use of resources, the direction of certain
decisions, and the kinds of experiences that
may be perceived as most personally
rewarding or threatening
– Both the content and evaluation components
of identity may change over the life course
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Case Study: Houston A. Baker, JR.
– Thought Questions
• What elements of the identity process are evident
in this case?
• What are some of the characteristics of Professor
Watkins that may have made him a target for
identification for Houston Baker?
• What aspects of the college environment are likely
to stimulate the identity process?
• Have you ever had an intellectual experience that
gave you a “new sense of yourself”? What
combination of factors come together to permit that
to happen?
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• The Psychosocial Crisis: Identity Formation for
Males and Females
– Questions have been raised about the
process of identity formation and its outcome
for young men and women in our society
– Some investigators have argued that the
concept of identity as it has been formulated
is a reflection of a male-oriented culture that
focuses heavily on occupation and ideology
rather than on interpersonal commitments
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• The Psychosocial Crisis: Identity Formation for
Males and Females (cont.)
– Other researchers point out that Erikson’s
construct of personal identity is embedded in
relational context
– Men and women appear to handle the
process of role experimentation and identity
achievement somewhat differently
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• The Central Process of Role Experimentation:
Psychosocial Moratorium
– Psychosocial Moratorium is a period of free
experimentation before a final identity is
achieved
– The concept of psychosocial moratorium has
been partially incorporated into some college
programs that permit students to enroll in
pass-fail courses before they select a major
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• The Central Process of Role Experimentation:
Psychosocial Moratorium (cont.)
– As parents observe the process of role
experimentation, they may become
concerned because their adolescent son or
daughter appears to be abandoning the
traditional family value orientation or lifestyle
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
Figure 11.3 Relations Among Identity Status, Level of Exploration, and
Level of Commitment
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Case Study: Turning Points in the Identity
Process
– Thought Questions
• How are turning points different from role
experimentation?
• What might determine whether a turning point
leads to identity achievement or identity confusion?
• What is the difference between the events that
Sullivan experienced, and those that Rachel
experienced? How might the differences in these
two kinds of events relate to subsequent identity
work?
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Case Study: Turning Points in the Identity
Process (cont.)
– Thought Questions (cont.)
• What factors might be necessary to preserve the
focus and sense of purpose that are evoked in
these critical life events? For example, how might
family support, the response of close friends, or
opportunities fro enacting new roles influence
whether these changes are sustained?
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Role Experimentation and Ethnic Identity
– Efforts to understand one’s ethnic identity and
to clarify one’s commitment to particular
ethnic subculture lead to self-definition that
facilitates work on personal identity as well
– A five stage model of ethnic minority identity
development
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Conformity
Dissonance
Resistance and immersion
Introspection
Articulation and awareness
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• The Prime Adaptive Ego Quality and the Core
Pathology
– Fidelity to values and ideologies is the ability
to sustain loyalties freely pledged in spite of
the inevitable contradictions and confusions of
value systems
– Repudiation is the rejection of roles and
values that are viewed as alien to oneself
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Applied Topic: The Challenges of Social Life
– Unwanted Sexual Attention
• Sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking
• These experiences can have negative
consequences for young people, especially if the
attention goes on for a long time and there is no
way to avoid it
• Some young people will confront the person,
especially if they view the behavior as severe, but
generally avoid confrontation if the person is in a
position of authority
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Applied Topic: The Challenges of Social Life
(cont.)
– Binge Drinking
• Has become a socially acceptable activity on many
college campuses
• Many celebrations and rituals are centered around
the performance of unique feats of consumption
Later Adolescence (18 – 24 Years)
• Applied Topic: The Challenges of Social Life
(cont.)
– Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• Include a wide range of bacterial, viral, and yeast
infections that are transmitted through forms of
sexual contact
• Basic practices for preventing STDs include:
limiting the number of sexual partners, consistent
use of condoms during sexual intercourse,
avoiding unprotected contact during any type or
genital activity, and refraining from sexual
intercourse when either you or your partner is
infected