Identity and Self Concepts

among Adolescents
Youth Culture
 Identity
• Looking glass self: We interpret who we are by how we
see ourselves judged by others. Our appearance is
validated by others
• Adolescents must first confront the need for relating
gender to sex
• women and men are differentially equipped by nature,
and the differences are translated into differences in
meaning and hence differences in social facts
• The interpretation of what is feminine and masculine
restricts social behaviour, determines prescribed action
and expectation
• The learned behaviour becomes “natural”
 Adolescents’ identity
• Janice Irving identifies nine areas that contribute to
identity building during the adolescent years.
• These are gender relations; sexual identities;
reproductive strategies; sexual language; the role of
the family; non-reproductive sexuality; the purpose of
sex; meaning of the body and sexual violence.
• Identity is also related to race and ethnicity. Both of
them are cultural construct and determined by power
relation
• Communication technology also contributes to the
building of identity. Adolescents and adults are
separated only by computer illiterate or literate.
 Identity and Adolescents
• One determiner of identity is social class. Social class is
influenced by occupation
• Social class is then Achieved status (aspect of social
standing which is attained by such efforts as education, the
accumulation of wealth and, above all, occupation)
• the self-esteem of adolescents, is strongly related to the
social class of their parents and in particular the occupation
of the child’s father
• unemployment, welfare and “bad neighborhood” are all
stigmatized
• children have their own occupation, i.e. student, therefore
children can gain an achieved status by doing well in
school. Such achieved statuses, academic prowess or
scholarly attainment, can give some children a sense of
achievement of their own
 Identity and Adolescents
• Role identity is a link between the self and others.
• Role identities for adolescents and for adults define the self
as demanded by the culture in which the individual lives.
• The culture determines in advance that one kind of
occupation is more prestigious than another, that one
address is worth more than another or that membership in a
club or organization carries great prestige.
• The individual then measures himself against these cultural
assumptions and determines whether he is a success or
failure.
• Therefore, each person develops self-esteem by reflecting
on his self-definition. Positive self-esteem rests on a positive
role identity
 Identity and Adolescents
• role identity and self-esteem within the school setting will
relate to one or several aspects of school life as perceived
by each child.
• Ex: tall and tough bodied student will be likely to be an
athlete.
• School gives numerous possible routes to success and
positive role-identification though it is not true for
everyone
• gender identity is related to grades received in school. Boys
and girls with more feminine gender identities earn higher
grades than boys and girls with more masculine gender
identities
• It shows that people with particular role identities choose
role behaviour which has meaning similar to the meaning
of their identity
 Identity and Adolescents
• Boys will avoid feminine behaviour and conversely,
masculine behaviour is avoided by children with feminine
identities.
• Children recognize what it means to be a boy or girl
because boy or girl behaviour is tied to gender identity.
That meaning is conveyed to everyone by the treatment
they receive from others.
• The school can have either a positive or negative impact on
the identity formation of an adolescent.
• Evidently there are those who receive the adulation of
others, such as football players and basketball heroes.
• Schools value sports highly but discount academic
achievement, it is far more likely that a 15-year-old sports
hero will develop positively than someone perceived as
bookish and academically superior
 Stigma and the Adolescents
• Stigma means the rejection of numerous individuals, and
often entire groups of people, on various grounds. These
include the physically disabled, mentally impaired,
homosexuals, ex-convicts and a host of others who are also
labeled deviant from the expectations of any group
• school attendance is the full time occupation of adolescent
children, the school is most influential in promoting self-
esteem or causing devaluation of the self by others.
• Such devaluation of adolescents occurs first in institutional
settings (orphanage, house for special children).
• In such institutions adolescents are subject to excessive
restrictiveness, arbitrary rules, lack of individual
consideration, insult, and a constant turnover of so-called
caregivers.
• These children will be object of bullying or violence
 Stigma and the Adolescents
• Stigma can also relate to gender identity in adolescents.
• As a consequence of severe emotional distress leading to
“behavioral disorders,” adolescents will become targets of
negative attention in school
• It may result in a wish to be the other sex, leading to
conduct that is incongruous with the expectations of each
sex.
• One phenomenon which this disorder can produce is cross-
dressing.
• Next, a need to play with objects for games normally
associated with the other sex, or to avoid play or games
associated with the same sex.
• Last, a persistent preference for friends of the opposite
gender — not out of romantic inclination, but because that
is the cohort with which the adolescent identifies