Adolescents continue to refine their sense of self as they relate to others. Adolescents’ main questions are “Who am I?” and “Who do I want to be?” Some adolescents adopt the values and roles that their parents expect of them. Other teens develop identities that align more with the peer groups rather than their parent’s expectations. This is common as adolescents work to form their identities. They pull away from their parents, and the peer group becomes very important (Shanahan, McHale, Osgood, & Crouter, 2007). Despite spending less time with their parents, most teens report positive feelings toward them (Moore, Guzman, Hair, Lippman, & Garrett, 2004). Warm and healthy parent-child relationships have been associated with positive outcomes for adolescents, such as better grades and fewer school behavior problems, in the United States as well as in other countries (Hair et al., 2005).

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

1. Identify the stages of adolescent social, emotional, and moral development.
2. Examine the complex nature of identity development in adolescence.
3. Analyze the impact of caregivers, peers, and environmental influences on adolescent development.

Key Terms

Throughout this chapter, you will be introduced to important key terms that will help deepen your understanding of human development.

• Actual self: who someone perceives themselves to be currently
• Possible self: who someone perceives they can be potentially
• Ideal self: the person that someone wishes to be
• Feared self: the person that someone is afraid of becoming
• Cognitive distortions: patterns of inaccurate negative thinking, such as personalization, overgeneralization, and catastrophizing
• Self-concept: the perception of self, such as one’s traits, values, and beliefs
• Self-esteem: how much a person values themselves
• Deviant peer contagion: the process by which peers reinforce problem behavior by laughing or showing other signs of approval that then increase the likelihood of future problem behavior

Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives

“Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives” by Terese Jones is licensed under CC BY 4.0.