- •Preface
- •Approach and Pedagogy
- •Chapter 1
- •Introducing Psychology
- •1.1 Psychology as a Science
- •The Problem of Intuition
- •Research Focus: Unconscious Preferences for the Letters of Our Own Name
- •Why Psychologists Rely on Empirical Methods
- •Levels of Explanation in Psychology
- •The Challenges of Studying Psychology
- •1.2 The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions
- •Early Psychologists
- •Structuralism: Introspection and the Awareness of Subjective Experience
- •Functionalism and Evolutionary Psychology
- •Psychodynamic Psychology
- •Behaviorism and the Question of Free Will
- •Research Focus: Do We Have Free Will?
- •The Cognitive Approach and Cognitive Neuroscience
- •The War of the Ghosts
- •Social-Cultural Psychology
- •The Many Disciplines of Psychology
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: How to Effectively Learn and Remember
- •1.3 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 2
- •Psychological Science
- •Psychological Journals
- •2.1 Psychologists Use the Scientific Method to Guide Their Research
- •The Scientific Method
- •Laws and Theories as Organizing Principles
- •The Research Hypothesis
- •Conducting Ethical Research
- •Characteristics of an Ethical Research Project Using Human Participants
- •Ensuring That Research Is Ethical
- •Research With Animals
- •APA Guidelines on Humane Care and Use of Animals in Research
- •Descriptive Research: Assessing the Current State of Affairs
- •Correlational Research: Seeking Relationships Among Variables
- •Experimental Research: Understanding the Causes of Behavior
- •Research Focus: Video Games and Aggression
- •2.3 You Can Be an Informed Consumer of Psychological Research
- •Threats to the Validity of Research
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Critically Evaluating the Validity of Websites
- •2.4 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 3
- •Brains, Bodies, and Behavior
- •Did a Neurological Disorder Cause a Musician to Compose Boléro and an Artist to Paint It 66 Years Later?
- •3.1 The Neuron Is the Building Block of the Nervous System
- •Neurons Communicate Using Electricity and Chemicals
- •Video Clip: The Electrochemical Action of the Neuron
- •Neurotransmitters: The Body’s Chemical Messengers
- •3.2 Our Brains Control Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior
- •The Old Brain: Wired for Survival
- •The Cerebral Cortex Creates Consciousness and Thinking
- •Functions of the Cortex
- •The Brain Is Flexible: Neuroplasticity
- •Research Focus: Identifying the Unique Functions of the Left and Right Hemispheres Using Split-Brain Patients
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Why Are Some People Left-Handed?
- •3.3 Psychologists Study the Brain Using Many Different Methods
- •Lesions Provide a Picture of What Is Missing
- •Recording Electrical Activity in the Brain
- •Peeking Inside the Brain: Neuroimaging
- •Research Focus: Cyberostracism
- •3.4 Putting It All Together: The Nervous System and the Endocrine System
- •Electrical Control of Behavior: The Nervous System
- •The Body’s Chemicals Help Control Behavior: The Endocrine System
- •3.5 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 4
- •Sensing and Perceiving
- •Misperception by Those Trained to Accurately Perceive a Threat
- •4.1 We Experience Our World Through Sensation
- •Sensory Thresholds: What Can We Experience?
- •Link
- •Measuring Sensation
- •Research Focus: Influence without Awareness
- •4.2 Seeing
- •The Sensing Eye and the Perceiving Visual Cortex
- •Perceiving Color
- •Perceiving Form
- •Perceiving Depth
- •Perceiving Motion
- •Beta Effect and Phi Phenomenon
- •4.3 Hearing
- •Hearing Loss
- •4.4 Tasting, Smelling, and Touching
- •Tasting
- •Smelling
- •Touching
- •Experiencing Pain
- •4.5 Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Perception
- •How the Perceptual System Interprets the Environment
- •Video Clip: The McGurk Effect
- •Video Clip: Selective Attention
- •Illusions
- •The Important Role of Expectations in Perception
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: How Understanding Sensation and Perception Can Save Lives
- •4.6 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 5
- •States of Consciousness
- •An Unconscious Killing
- •5.1 Sleeping and Dreaming Revitalize Us for Action
- •Research Focus: Circadian Rhythms Influence the Use of Stereotypes in Social Judgments
- •Sleep Stages: Moving Through the Night
- •Sleep Disorders: Problems in Sleeping
- •The Heavy Costs of Not Sleeping
- •Dreams and Dreaming
- •5.2 Altering Consciousness With Psychoactive Drugs
- •Speeding Up the Brain With Stimulants: Caffeine, Nicotine, Cocaine, and Amphetamines
- •Slowing Down the Brain With Depressants: Alcohol, Barbiturates and Benzodiazepines, and Toxic Inhalants
- •Opioids: Opium, Morphine, Heroin, and Codeine
- •Hallucinogens: Cannabis, Mescaline, and LSD
- •Why We Use Psychoactive Drugs
- •Research Focus: Risk Tolerance Predicts Cigarette Use
- •5.3 Altering Consciousness Without Drugs
- •Changing Behavior Through Suggestion: The Power of Hypnosis
- •Reducing Sensation to Alter Consciousness: Sensory Deprivation
- •Meditation
- •Video Clip: Try Meditation
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: The Need to Escape Everyday Consciousness
- •5.4 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 6
- •Growing and Developing
- •The Repository for Germinal Choice
- •6.1 Conception and Prenatal Development
- •The Zygote
- •The Embryo
- •The Fetus
- •How the Environment Can Affect the Vulnerable Fetus
- •6.2 Infancy and Childhood: Exploring and Learning
- •The Newborn Arrives With Many Behaviors Intact
- •Research Focus: Using the Habituation Technique to Study What Infants Know
- •Cognitive Development During Childhood
- •Video Clip: Object Permanence
- •Social Development During Childhood
- •Knowing the Self: The Development of the Self-Concept
- •Video Clip: The Harlows’ Monkeys
- •Video Clip: The Strange Situation
- •Research Focus: Using a Longitudinal Research Design to Assess the Stability of Attachment
- •6.3 Adolescence: Developing Independence and Identity
- •Physical Changes in Adolescence
- •Cognitive Development in Adolescence
- •Social Development in Adolescence
- •Developing Moral Reasoning: Kohlberg’s Theory
- •Video Clip: People Being Interviewed About Kohlberg’s Stages
- •6.4 Early and Middle Adulthood: Building Effective Lives
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: What Makes a Good Parent?
- •Physical and Cognitive Changes in Early and Middle Adulthood
- •Menopause
- •Social Changes in Early and Middle Adulthood
- •6.5 Late Adulthood: Aging, Retiring, and Bereavement
- •Cognitive Changes During Aging
- •Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
- •Social Changes During Aging: Retiring Effectively
- •Death, Dying, and Bereavement
- •6.6 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 7
- •Learning
- •My Story of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
- •7.1 Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning
- •Pavlov Demonstrates Conditioning in Dogs
- •The Persistence and Extinction of Conditioning
- •The Role of Nature in Classical Conditioning
- •How Reinforcement and Punishment Influence Behavior: The Research of Thorndike and Skinner
- •Video Clip: Thorndike’s Puzzle Box
- •Creating Complex Behaviors Through Operant Conditioning
- •7.3 Learning by Insight and Observation
- •Observational Learning: Learning by Watching
- •Video Clip: Bandura Discussing Clips From His Modeling Studies
- •Research Focus: The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression
- •7.4 Using the Principles of Learning to Understand Everyday Behavior
- •Using Classical Conditioning in Advertising
- •Video Clip: Television Ads
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Operant Conditioning in the Classroom
- •Reinforcement in Social Dilemmas
- •7.5 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 8
- •Remembering and Judging
- •She Was Certain, but She Was Wrong
- •Differences between Brains and Computers
- •Video Clip: Kim Peek
- •8.1 Memories as Types and Stages
- •Explicit Memory
- •Implicit Memory
- •Research Focus: Priming Outside Awareness Influences Behavior
- •Stages of Memory: Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory
- •Sensory Memory
- •Short-Term Memory
- •8.2 How We Remember: Cues to Improving Memory
- •Encoding and Storage: How Our Perceptions Become Memories
- •Research Focus: Elaboration and Memory
- •Using the Contributions of Hermann Ebbinghaus to Improve Your Memory
- •Retrieval
- •Retrieval Demonstration
- •States and Capital Cities
- •The Structure of LTM: Categories, Prototypes, and Schemas
- •The Biology of Memory
- •8.3 Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition
- •Source Monitoring: Did It Really Happen?
- •Schematic Processing: Distortions Based on Expectations
- •Misinformation Effects: How Information That Comes Later Can Distort Memory
- •Overconfidence
- •Heuristic Processing: Availability and Representativeness
- •Salience and Cognitive Accessibility
- •Counterfactual Thinking
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Cognitive Biases in the Real World
- •8.4 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 9
- •Intelligence and Language
- •How We Talk (or Do Not Talk) about Intelligence
- •9.1 Defining and Measuring Intelligence
- •General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences
- •Measuring Intelligence: Standardization and the Intelligence Quotient
- •The Biology of Intelligence
- •Is Intelligence Nature or Nurture?
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Emotional Intelligence
- •9.2 The Social, Cultural, and Political Aspects of Intelligence
- •Extremes of Intelligence: Retardation and Giftedness
- •Extremely Low Intelligence
- •Extremely High Intelligence
- •Sex Differences in Intelligence
- •Racial Differences in Intelligence
- •Research Focus: Stereotype Threat
- •9.3 Communicating With Others: The Development and Use of Language
- •The Components of Language
- •Examples in Which Syntax Is Correct but the Interpretation Can Be Ambiguous
- •The Biology and Development of Language
- •Research Focus: When Can We Best Learn Language? Testing the Critical Period Hypothesis
- •Learning Language
- •How Children Learn Language: Theories of Language Acquisition
- •Bilingualism and Cognitive Development
- •Can Animals Learn Language?
- •Video Clip: Language Recognition in Bonobos
- •Language and Perception
- •9.4 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 10
- •Emotions and Motivations
- •Captain Sullenberger Conquers His Emotions
- •10.1 The Experience of Emotion
- •Video Clip: The Basic Emotions
- •The Cannon-Bard and James-Lange Theories of Emotion
- •Research Focus: Misattributing Arousal
- •Communicating Emotion
- •10.2 Stress: The Unseen Killer
- •The Negative Effects of Stress
- •Stressors in Our Everyday Lives
- •Responses to Stress
- •Managing Stress
- •Emotion Regulation
- •Research Focus: Emotion Regulation Takes Effort
- •10.3 Positive Emotions: The Power of Happiness
- •Finding Happiness Through Our Connections With Others
- •What Makes Us Happy?
- •10.4 Two Fundamental Human Motivations: Eating and Mating
- •Eating: Healthy Choices Make Healthy Lives
- •Obesity
- •Sex: The Most Important Human Behavior
- •The Experience of Sex
- •The Many Varieties of Sexual Behavior
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Regulating Emotions to Improve Our Health
- •10.5 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 11
- •Personality
- •Identical Twins Reunited after 35 Years
- •11.1 Personality and Behavior: Approaches and Measurement
- •Personality as Traits
- •Example of a Trait Measure
- •Situational Influences on Personality
- •The MMPI and Projective Tests
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Leaders and Leadership
- •11.2 The Origins of Personality
- •Psychodynamic Theories of Personality: The Role of the Unconscious
- •Id, Ego, and Superego
- •Research Focus: How the Fear of Death Causes Aggressive Behavior
- •Strengths and Limitations of Freudian and Neo-Freudian Approaches
- •Focusing on the Self: Humanism and Self-Actualization
- •Research Focus: Self-Discrepancies, Anxiety, and Depression
- •Studying Personality Using Behavioral Genetics
- •Studying Personality Using Molecular Genetics
- •Reviewing the Literature: Is Our Genetics Our Destiny?
- •11.4 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 12
- •Defining Psychological Disorders
- •When Minor Body Imperfections Lead to Suicide
- •12.1 Psychological Disorder: What Makes a Behavior “Abnormal”?
- •Defining Disorder
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Combating the Stigma of Abnormal Behavior
- •Diagnosing Disorder: The DSM
- •Diagnosis or Overdiagnosis? ADHD, Autistic Disorder, and Asperger’s Disorder
- •Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- •Autistic Disorder and Asperger’s Disorder
- •12.2 Anxiety and Dissociative Disorders: Fearing the World Around Us
- •Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- •Panic Disorder
- •Phobias
- •Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
- •Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- •Dissociative Disorders: Losing the Self to Avoid Anxiety
- •Dissociative Amnesia and Fugue
- •Dissociative Identity Disorder
- •Explaining Anxiety and Dissociation Disorders
- •12.3 Mood Disorders: Emotions as Illness
- •Behaviors Associated with Depression
- •Dysthymia and Major Depressive Disorder
- •Bipolar Disorder
- •Explaining Mood Disorders
- •Research Focus: Using Molecular Genetics to Unravel the Causes of Depression
- •12.4 Schizophrenia: The Edge of Reality and Consciousness
- •Symptoms of Schizophrenia
- •Explaining Schizophrenia
- •12.5 Personality Disorders
- •Borderline Personality Disorder
- •Research Focus: Affective and Cognitive Deficits in BPD
- •Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)
- •12.6 Somatoform, Factitious, and Sexual Disorders
- •Somatoform and Factitious Disorders
- •Sexual Disorders
- •Disorders of Sexual Function
- •Paraphilias
- •12.7 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 13
- •Treating Psychological Disorders
- •Therapy on Four Legs
- •13.1 Reducing Disorder by Confronting It: Psychotherapy
- •DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Diagnosing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Seeking Treatment for Psychological Difficulties
- •Psychodynamic Therapy
- •Important Characteristics and Experiences in Psychoanalysis
- •Humanistic Therapies
- •Behavioral Aspects of CBT
- •Cognitive Aspects of CBT
- •Combination (Eclectic) Approaches to Therapy
- •13.2 Reducing Disorder Biologically: Drug and Brain Therapy
- •Drug Therapies
- •Using Stimulants to Treat ADHD
- •Antidepressant Medications
- •Antianxiety Medications
- •Antipsychotic Medications
- •Direct Brain Intervention Therapies
- •13.3 Reducing Disorder by Changing the Social Situation
- •Group, Couples, and Family Therapy
- •Self-Help Groups
- •Community Mental Health: Service and Prevention
- •Some Risk Factors for Psychological Disorders
- •Research Focus: The Implicit Association Test as a Behavioral Marker for Suicide
- •13.4 Evaluating Treatment and Prevention: What Works?
- •Effectiveness of Psychological Therapy
- •Research Focus: Meta-Analyzing Clinical Outcomes
- •Effectiveness of Biomedical Therapies
- •Effectiveness of Social-Community Approaches
- •13.5 Chapter Summary
- •Chapter 14
- •Psychology in Our Social Lives
- •Binge Drinking and the Death of a Homecoming Queen
- •14.1 Social Cognition: Making Sense of Ourselvesand Others
- •Perceiving Others
- •Forming Judgments on the Basis of Appearance: Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination
- •Implicit Association Test
- •Research Focus: Forming Judgments of People in Seconds
- •Close Relationships
- •Causal Attribution: Forming Judgments by Observing Behavior
- •Attitudes and Behavior
- •14.2 Interacting With Others: Helping, Hurting, and Conforming
- •Helping Others: Altruism Helps Create Harmonious Relationships
- •Why Are We Altruistic?
- •How the Presence of Others Can Reduce Helping
- •Video Clip: The Case of Kitty Genovese
- •Human Aggression: An Adaptive yet Potentially Damaging Behavior
- •The Ability to Aggress Is Part of Human Nature
- •Negative Experiences Increase Aggression
- •Viewing Violent Media Increases Aggression
- •Video Clip
- •Research Focus: The Culture of Honor
- •Conformity and Obedience: How Social Influence Creates Social Norms
- •Video Clip
- •Do We Always Conform?
- •14.3 Working With Others: The Costs and Benefits of Social Groups
- •Working in Front of Others: Social Facilitation and Social Inhibition
- •Working Together in Groups
- •Psychology in Everyday Life: Do Juries Make Good Decisions?
- •Using Groups Effectively
- •14.4 Chapter Summary
receive financial support from parents, and they may come home on weekends or even to live for extended time periods. Thus the period between puberty and adulthood may well last into the late 20s, merging into adulthood itself. In fact, it is appropriate now to consider the period of adolescence and that of emerging adulthood (the ages between 18 and the middle or late 20s) together.
During adolescence, the child continues to grow physically, cognitively, and emotionally, changing from a child into an adult. The body grows rapidly in size and the sexual and reproductive organs become fully functional. At the same time, as adolescents develop more advanced patterns of reasoning and a stronger sense of self, they seek to forge their own identities, developing important attachments with people other than their parents. Particularly in Western societies, where the need to forge a new independence is critical (Baumeister & Tice, 1986; Twenge, 2006), [1] this period can be stressful for many children, as it involves new emotions, the need to develop new social relationships, and an increasing sense of responsibility and independence.
Although adolescence can be a time of stress for many teenagers, most of them weather the trials and tribulations successfully. For example, the majority of adolescents experiment with alcohol sometime before high school graduation. Although many will have been drunk at least once, relatively few teenagers will develop long-lasting drinking problems or permit alcohol to adversely affect their school or personal relationships. Similarly, a great many teenagers break the law during adolescence, but very few young people develop criminal careers (Farrington, 1995). [2] These facts do not, however, mean that using drugs or alcohol is a good idea. The use of recreational drugs can have substantial negative consequences, and the likelihood of these problems (including dependence, addiction, and even brain damage) is significantly greater for young adults who begin using drugs at an early age.
Physical Changes in Adolescence
Adolescence begins with the onset of puberty, a developmental period in which hormonal changes cause rapid physical alterations in the body, culminating in sexual maturity. Although the timing varies to some degree across cultures, the average age range for reaching puberty is
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between 9 and 14 years for girls and between 10 and 17 years for boys (Marshall & Tanner, 1986).[3]
Puberty begins when the pituitary gland begins to stimulate the production of the male sex hormone testosterone in boys and the female sex hormonesestrogen and progesterone in girls. The release of these sex hormones triggers the development of
the primary sex characteristics, the sex organs concerned with reproduction (Figure 6.9 "Sex Characteristics"). These changes include the enlargement of the testicles and the penis in boys and the development of the ovaries, uterus, and vagina in girls. In addition,
secondary sex characteristics (features that distinguish the two sexes from each other but are not involved in reproduction) are also developing, such as an enlarged Adam’s apple, a deeper voice, and pubic and underarm hair in boys and enlargement of the breasts, hips, and the appearance of pubic and underarm hair in girls (Figure 6.9 "Sex Characteristics"). The enlargement of breasts is usually the first sign of puberty in girls and, on average, occurs between ages 10 and 12 (Marshall & Tanner, 1986). [4] Boys typically begin to grow facial hair between ages 14 and 16, and both boys and girls experience a rapid growth spurt during this stage. The growth spurt for girls usually occurs earlier than that for boys, with some boys continuing to grow into their 20s.
Figure 6.9 Sex Characteristics
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Puberty brings dramatic changes in the body, including the development of primary and secondary sex
characteristics.
A major milestone in puberty for girls is menarche, the first menstrual period, typically experienced at around 12 or 13 years of age (Anderson, Dannal, & Must, 2003). [5] The age of menarche varies substantially and is determined by genetics, as well as by diet and lifestyle, since a certain amount of body fat is needed to attain menarche. Girls who are very slim, who engage in strenuous athletic activities, or who are malnourished may begin to menstruate later. Even after menstruation begins, girls whose level of body fat drops below the critical level may stop having their periods. The sequence of events for puberty is more predictable than the age at which they occur. Some girls may begin to grow pubic hair at age 10 but not attain menarche until age 15. In boys, facial hair may not appear until 10 years after the initial onset of puberty.
The timing of puberty in both boys and girls can have significant psychological consequences. Boys who mature earlier attain some social advantages because they are taller and stronger and, therefore, often more popular (Lynne, Graber, Nichols, Brooks-Gunn, & Botvin, 2007). [6] At the same time, however, early-maturing boys are at greater risk for delinquency and are more likely than their peers to engage in antisocial behaviors, including drug and alcohol use, truancy, and precocious sexual activity. Girls who mature early may find their maturity stressful, particularly if they experience teasing or sexual harassment (Mendle, Turkheimer, & Emery, 2007; Pescovitz & Walvoord, 2007). [7] Early-maturing girls are also more likely to have emotional problems, a lower self-image, and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and disordered eating than their peers (Ge, Conger, & Elder, 1996). [8]
Cognitive Development in Adolescence
Although the most rapid cognitive changes occur during childhood, the brain continues to develop throughout adolescence, and even into the 20s (Weinberger, Elvevåg, & Giedd,
2005). [9] During adolescence, the brain continues to form new neural connections, but also casts
off unused neurons and connections (Blakemore, 2008). [10] As teenagers mature, the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for reasoning, planning, and problem solving, also continues to develop (Goldberg, 2001). [11] And myelin, the fatty tissue that forms around axons
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and neurons and helps speed transmissions between different regions of the brain, also continues to grow (Rapoport et al., 1999). [12]
Adolescents often seem to act impulsively, rather than thoughtfully, and this may be in part because the development of the prefrontal cortex is, in general, slower than the development of the emotional parts of the brain, including the limbic system (Blakemore,
2008). [13] Furthermore, the hormonal surge that is associated with puberty, which primarily influences emotional responses, may create strong emotions and lead to impulsive behavior. It has been hypothesized that adolescents may engage in risky behavior, such as smoking, drug use, dangerous driving, and unprotected sex in part because they have not yet fully acquired the mental ability to curb impulsive behavior or to make entirely rational judgments (Steinberg, 2007). [14]
The new cognitive abilities that are attained during adolescence may also give rise to new feelings of egocentrism, in which adolescents believe that they can do anything and that they know better than anyone else, including their parents (Elkind, 1978, p. 199). [15] Teenagers are likely to be highly self-conscious, often creating an imaginary audience in which they feel that everyone is constantly watching them (Goossens, Beyers, Emmen, & van Aken,
2002). [16]Because teens think so much about themselves, they mistakenly believe that others
must be thinking about them, too (Rycek, Stuhr, McDermott, Benker, & Swartz, 1998). [17] It is no wonder that everything a teen’s parents do suddenly feels embarrassing to them when they are in public.
Social Development in Adolescence
Some of the most important changes that occur during adolescence involve the further development of the self-concept and the development of new attachments. Whereas young children are most strongly attached to their parents, the important attachments of adolescents move increasingly away from parents and increasingly toward peers (Harris, 1998). [18] As a result, parents’ influence diminishes at this stage.
According to Erikson (Table 6.1 "Challenges of Development as Proposed by Erik Erikson"), the main social task of the adolescent is the search for a unique identity—the ability to answer the
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question, “Who am I?” In the search for identity, the adolescent may experience role confusion in which he or she is balancing or choosing among identities, taking on negative or undesirable identities, or temporarily giving up looking for an identity altogether if things are not going well.
One approach to assessing identity development was proposed by James Marcia (1980). [19] In his approach, adolescents are asked questions regarding their exploration of and commitment to issues related to occupation, politics, religion, and sexual behavior. The responses to the questions allow the researchers to classify the adolescent into one of four identity categories (seeTable 6.4 "James Marcia’s Stages of Identity Development").
Table 6.4 James Marcia’s Stages of Identity Development
Identity-diffusion |
The individual does not have firm commitments regarding the issues in question and is not |
status |
making progress toward them. |
|
|
|
The individual has not engaged in any identity experimentation and has established an identity |
Foreclosure status |
based on the choices or values of others. |
|
|
|
The individual is exploring various choices but has not yet made a clear commitment to any of |
Moratorium status |
them. |
|
|
Identity-achievement |
|
status |
The individual has attained a coherent and committed identity based on personal decisions. |
|
|
Source: Adapted from Marcia, J. (1980). Identity in adolescence. Handbook of adolescent psychology, 5, 145–160.
Studies assessing how teens pass through Marcia’s stages show that, although most teens eventually succeed in developing a stable identity, the path to it is not always easy and there are many routes that can be taken. Some teens may simply adopt the beliefs of their parents or the first role that is offered to them, perhaps at the expense of searching for other, more promising possibilities (foreclosure status). Other teens may spend years trying on different possible identities (moratorium status) before finally choosing one.
To help them work through the process of developing an identity, teenagers may well try out different identities in different social situations. They may maintain one identity at home and a different type of persona when they are with their peers. Eventually, most teenagers do integrate
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