DEVELOPMENTAL ANALYSIS OF CONFLICT CAUSED BY OPPOSING ATTRIBUTES IN THE ADOLESCENT SELF-PORTRAIT

The differentiation of the self was examined in 7th, 9th, and 11th graders who generated self-descriptors for the following 4 different roles: self in the classroom, with friends, with parents, and in romantic relationships. The findings revealed that the self becomes increasingly differentiated into role-related multiple selves with age. A central focus was on intrapsychic and affective consequences of opposing role-related self-attributes (e.g., outgoing vs. shy, cheerful vs. depressed). Contradictions and conflict were lowest in early adolescence, peaked in middle adolescence, and then began to decline in later adolescence. From a neo-Piagetian perspective, though the young adolescent can construct single abstractions about the self, he or she cannot yet simultaneously compare these abstractions in order to experience opposing attributes. During midadolescence, one develops the ability to compare but not resolve contradictory self-attributes. In later adolescence, the capacity to coordinate, resolve, and normalize seemingly contradictory attributes emerges, reducing the experience of conflict within one's self-theory.