The self ideal versus the model ideal

A list of 50 ways of perceiving one's personal ideal was constructed and administered to 74 women about to make a lifelong commitment. The mean number of items endorsed was 28. An item analysis yielded discrimination indices for 28 items at better than the .05 level of significance. These attitudes were discussed as less motivativing, and opposite attitudes from the same point of view were grouped under six principles of motivation: dominant relationship, closeness, growth, valuational center, similarity, realism. From these two diametrically opposite perceptual structures of attitudes emerged the self ideal and the model ideal.Daniel Patrick Foley, S.J., is with Xavier University. This report is based on a paper entitled Constellation of Attitudes Toward a Religious Ideal, presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, Hawaii, September, 1972.     

Personal and intergenerational narratives in relation to adolescents' well-being

Narratives of the self are embedded within families in which narrative interaction is a common practice. Especially in adolescence, when issues of identity and emotional regulation become key, narratives provide frameworks for understating self and emotion. The authors' research on family narratives suggests that adolescents' personal narratives are at least partly shaped by intergenerational narratives about their parents' childhoods. Both personal and intergenerational narratives emerge frequently in typical family dinner conversations, and these narratives reflect gendered ways of being in the world. Adolescents who tell intergenerational narratives that are rich in intergenerational connections and perspective-taking show higher levels of well-being. These findings suggest that individual narrative selves are created within families and across generations.     

Barbadian adolescents' views of the "ideal" family

An instrument examining the perceptions of "ideal" family functioning was administered to 536 adolescents aged 12 to 18 yr. in Barbados. Analysis indicated fairly extensive differences between the views of male and female students, somewhat fewer differences in age and type of school attended, and very few differences associated with household composition and religious affiliation.     

Concepts of present self,expected self,and ideal self in vocational preferences and expectations

This study investigated the hypotheses that similarity of ideal self and occupational stereotypes are important in determining the vocational preferences of adolescents, while similarity between expected self and occupational stereotypes is important in determining their occupational expectations. Subjects were 97 male and 88 female high school students. Findings were consistent with the view that ideal self played an important role in determining vocational preferences for males and females. However, contrary to expectations, ideal self was more strongly associated than expected self with vocational expectations for females, though not for males.     

Relational schemas and the developing self: perceptions of mother and of self as joint predictors of early adolescents' self-esteem

This 1-year longitudinal study examined early adolescents' (N=278, age 11-13 years) perceptions of their mother's behavior (affection, knowledge of child's activities, and psychological control) and of how they react to their mother (trust in mother, defiance, and debilitation) as predictors of self-esteem among peers. Perceived maternal affection predicted self-esteem for girls; perceived psychological control forecast lower self-esteem for boys. Perceptions of self as untrusting, defiant, or debilitated led to lower self-esteem. Furthermore, perceived maternal behavior interacted with perceived self-reactions to predict self-esteem: Perceived debilitation led to reduced self-esteem only under high perceived maternal psychological control; perceived defiance predicted lower self-esteem only under low perceived maternal knowledge. The prediction of self-esteem is clearly enhanced when perceived self-reactions are included along with perceived maternal behavior as predictors. Combinations of perceived maternal behavior and perceived self-reactions--relational schemas--warrant increased attention as possible influences on the developing self.     

The ideal self and cognitive development in adolescence

This study investigated the relationship between cognitive development level and the ideal self in adolescence, sampling 223 male and female 12- and 13-, and 15- and 16-year-old working and middle class English comprehensive school students, hypothesizing that maturity of the ideal self would be related to cognitive development. Correlations between cognitive developmental total score and ideal self score were significant for the whole sample and for both age groups. Regression analysis showed cognitive development score to be the major significant predictor of ideal self score at both age levels, with sex contributing additionally at the older age level.     

The Adult Attachment Interview and observed couple interaction: implications for an intergenerational perspective on couple therapy

One of the assumptions of intergenerational family therapy is that how a person thinks and talks about family-of-origin experiences has important implications for current family relationships. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is a measure of attachment security based on how coherently the person can discuss attachment experiences in childhood. This study examined the relationship between attachment security, as measured by the AAI, and couple interaction, as measured by the Georgia Marriage Q-Sort (GMQ), in a sample of 28 couples in therapy for relationship problems. During a conflict resolution discussion, those individuals who were less coherent in discussing their family of origin expressed more negative affect, less respect, less openness, more avoidance, and less willingness to negotiate when interacting with their partner. No evidence of intra-couple effects or "buffering" was found. The findings support a key assumption of intergenerational approaches to family therapy and suggest that applying attachment theory is a promising direction for refining and developing new interventions for couples.     

Future time perspective: adolescents' predictions of their interpersonal lives in the future

This study investigated adolescent future time perspective. The interpersonal subscale of the Future Likelihood Inventory was administered to a sample of adolescents aged 15 to 20 years. Based on the results of this study of interpersonal life projections, it appears that adolescents do not perceive divorce in their future. However, periods of singlehood, widowhood, and nuclear family life are perceived as extremely likely, particularly among female adolescents. Differences in future time perspective were revealed for gender but not age.