Self and Identity
Youth Development
Ondřej Bouša
Who am I?
 Try to answer three times to this simple (?)
question.
Self, selfsystem
 „It is much easier feel the self than define what
is the self“ (Allport, 1961).
Two Sides of Self: Me & I
 self as an acting and
experiencing subject
 knower
 I, Ich
 awareness of
psychological presence
 connected with memory
 agency, continuity,
distinctness
 self as a known object
 content of self-reflection
 „object of realizing“
 known
 Me, Self, Selbst
self-reflection
„I“
as an experiencing
subject
Agency
Continuity
Distinctness
„Me“
Self-system, self
cognitive affective executive
Self-system
 The cognitive aspect - self-concept
 includes all self-relevant cognitions, i.e., knowledge
and imaginations of the self
 self-cognitions are organized into a particular whole
(structure) and this is so at various levels of
generality
 The executive aspect
 connected with behavior, self-presentation strategies
Affective aspect
 every piece of knowledge related to the self is
alwaysin connected with some feelings
 in adolescence it is predominantly a result of
interpersonal comparison with peers, parents,
other adult authorities, or group and social
standards (Higgins, 1987)
 self-concept comprises various selfrepresentations
including also some selfassessment
and self-evaluation
Self-esteem
 individuals' more general self-evaluation,
empirically distinguishable from self-concept
 overall feeling from oneself or as global self-
evaluation
 adolescent's self-esteem cannot be always simply
derived from his/her partial self-evaluation; it
implies being aware of one’s value and overall
self-satisfaction. It is related to individual’s
general feelings of worth and competence.
Self-esteem during adolescence
 self-esteem declines in early adolescence and
again increases in the period of late adolescence
and during the period of emerging adulthood
(Arnett, 2010)
 self-esteem remains nearly constant during
adolescence (Baldwin & Hoffman, 2002).
 self-esteem increases moderately during
adolescence and continues to increase more slowly
during young adulthood (Erol & Orth, 2011).
Two approaches
 self-esteem as a static construct
 self-esteem as a dynamic construct
 in cross-sectional research, sufficient attention cannot be
paid to intra-individual changes
 results are usually based on comparing the mean scores
for a particular age cohort
 If self-esteem increases in some adolescents and declines
in others, then the differences cancel out due to the
approach focused on mean scores and hence self-esteem
makes an impression of being static (Hirsch & DuBois,
1991).
Cluster analysis approach
Trajectory A: Permanently high
self-esteem
 a low degree of neuroticism and higher emotional
stability.
 in comparison with other respondents, they have
stable and positive relationships with parents —
they do not have many problems with them and
they trust each other.
 less dependent on the evaluation and opinions of
their peers.
 little self-doubt and are more oriented on their
future perspective than a majority of others (they
exhibit a higher degree of commitments).
Trajectory B: Growing self-
esteem
 a higher degree of neuroticism, self-blame and
alienation at 15 years of age
 lower degree of commitments in relation to their
parents at 17 years of age.
 at 17 years of age, they also showed an overall
higher degree of general commitment (which can be
also interpreted as a clear vision of their own
future).
 In peer relationships, this subgroup does not
significantly differ from other respondents.
Trajectory C: Stable moderate
self-esteem
 the most numerous subgroup
 Stability of self-esteem over time can be expected to
be based especially on relevant personality traits —
in particular on a higher degree of extraversion and
lower degree of neuroticism.
 Otherwise, these respondents are in many ways
similar with the profile of their psychosocial
characteristics to the subgroup with permanently
high self-esteem (trajectory A).
 What makes them different are more problems and
a lower degree of trust in relationships with parents.
Trajectory D: Decreasing self-
esteem
 Lower trust and higher alienation in relationships
with parents, a higher frequency of problems with
parents and self-blame for an interparental conflict.
 More complicated relationship also with peers:
firstly, they often give evidence of problems in
relationships; secondly, they show higher
dependence on peer opinion and emotional
response.
 U-shape trajectory?
Trajectory E: Permanently low
self-esteem
 The permanently low level of self-esteem is related
to the constellation of personality traits: these
respondents have a higher neuroticism score and a
lower extraversion score. Strong impact of
emotional stability/instability (i.e. neuroticism) and
extraversion/introversion on the level of the selfesteem
trajectory highlighted by Erol & Orth
(2011).
 They report a higher degree of problems in
relationships with parents and their peer
relationships are problematical as well.
Self and/or Identity?
 Self and identity are often used interchangeably.
 Some clarity can be attained by considering them as
a series of nested constructs, with self as the most
encompassing term, self-concepts being embedded
within the self, and identities being embedded
within self-concepts ( Leary & Tangney, 2012).
 Identity refers to the traits and characteristics, social
relations, roles, and social group memberships that
define who one is (Leary & Tangney, 2012).
Identity Conceptualization
 The process of identity formation involves the
exploration and testing of alternative ideas, beliefs, and
behaviours, marking this period as one of both
dramatic change and uncertainty for adolescent
development.
 Identity refers to the identification with roles, values,
beliefs, and life styles that mark a person’s individuality.
 Social identity refers to a person’s self-definition in
terms of group belongingness and embedding in social
and cultural systems
Identity Conceptualization
 Identity can be defined as the concept of self
that continues throughout the lifecycle and
correlates strongly with the perception of what
others have of them.
 Identity is thus the continued perception of
self that is made up of the following
components: physical, sexual, social,
occupational, moral, ideology.
Example of different work with
identity (adolescents)
Coat-of-arms(pictures intentionally removed)
 Coat-of-arms no. 1
 Johnny 007 – an example
of personal identity
 Coat-of-arms no. 2
 Vlasta (aka Emo) – an
example of social identity
What is different?(picture intentionally removed)
 T-shirt picture – an example of work on identity
in the field of substitute family care
Identity within Youth
development
 Examples of your own work 
Tom (school age)
Jess (adolescence)
Elizabeth (emerging adulthood)