Reorganization of self-knowledge and psychological adaptation in adolescence
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Abstract
The reorganization of self-knowledge has been considered one of the most important issues of psychological development in adolescence. Considering self-knowledge as personal theory (or theories) with adaptive functions, these reorganizations can be seen as adaptive movements before a diversity of primary transformations of adolescence. Dispersed in the literature, there are references to adolescents facing physical transformations and a diversity of new social contexts, which require from them the construction of new theories, new personal scrips for their action in the world. Also mentioned in the literature is the emergence of new cognitive skills and the possibility of more sophisticated and flexible cognitive construing. In this work we present a non-systematic review of some of the most important physical, cognitive and social transformations of adolescence and their relationship to changes in self-knowledge. The following issues are addressed: (a) the emergence of genital sexuality and changes in body shape and size, and their importance in building a sexual self-concept and in promoting changes in body image; (b) social expectations for adolescents that contribute to the creation of a sense of personal identity, the circulation through an increasing number of social contexts that favor the construction of a diversity of relational selves (or selves in different social roles), and the influence that social networks have on the construing of a “package self ”; (c) the emergence of abstract cognitive abilities, which enable the differentiation of multiple selves or the growth of self-discrepancies (e.g., Actual - Ideal self), but also give rise to conflicts within the self, before a more coherent self-knowledge can be achieved. The interconnection between these transformations (physical, social and cognitive) in the construction of self-knowledge is also highlight.
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