Positive Youth Development (PYD) Lecture 2

Learning Objectives

Continue our discussion about The Self Concept and Identity
Introduce some research methods used to study PYD
Introduce you to surveys/scales and how they are created & validated
Discuss some of the most influential theories in PYD
Introduce some influential studies (Lerner’s 4-H longitudinal study)

The Self Concept

Self Concept: the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.
Self-Image: how one sees themselves
Self-Esteem: how much value one places in themselves
Ideal self: the person one aspires to be

Self-Image: The self-image refers to how individuals perceive themselves in terms of their physical appearance, abilities, personality traits, and social roles. It is shaped by past experiences, interactions with others, and internalized beliefs about oneself. For example, someone may see themselves as intelligent, athletic, friendly, and capable based on their own observations and feedback from others. However, the self-image is not static and can change over time as individuals acquire new experiences and information about themselves.

Self-Esteem: Self-esteem refers to the overall evaluation or judgment that individuals have about themselves, including their worth, value, and competence. It reflects how individuals feel about themselves and their abilities relative to internal standards or external comparisons with others. High self-esteem is associated with feelings of confidence, self-worth, and self-acceptance, while low self-esteem is characterized by self-doubt, self-criticism, and feelings of inadequacy. Self-esteem is influenced by various factors, including past experiences, social comparisons, cultural norms, and the quality of interpersonal relationships.

Ideal Self: The ideal self represents the person that individuals aspire or strive to be. It is a mental representation of the qualities, characteristics, and achievements that individuals idealize or consider to be their best selves. The ideal self is influenced by societal norms, cultural expectations, personal values, and individual goals. Discrepancies between the actual self (self-image) and the ideal self can motivate individuals to engage in self-improvement efforts and pursue personal growth. However, unrealistic or unattainable ideals can also contribute to feelings of dissatisfaction and self-criticism.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

Humanistic psychologist
Focused on healthy therapeutic relationships
Personality Theory of the Self (The Self Concept)
Self-Actualization
Unconditional positive regard: when parents, significant others, humanist therapists, accept and love a person for who they are, and refrain from any judgement or criticism.
Used to foster positive sense of self-worth in children and adolescents

Carl Rogers’ Theory of Self-Actualization

Self Actualization: to fulfill one’s potential and achieve the highest level of “human-beingness” we can (Rogers, 1959)

So, what does that actually look like? Self-actualization. Well, if we think back a few slides ago to when we talked about the Self Concept, and we saw these venn diagrams where the Self concept is formed by your ideal self, your self image and your self-esteem. Rogers theorized that what explains differences in individuals’ self concepts (or rather, why some people develop a Self concept that is more organized and consistent and positive relative to other people) comes down to this idea of ‘Congruency’.

So, if you look at the figure above, Rogers represented this idea of congruency with the venn diagram whereby different components of the self concept will overlap to greater or lesser extents. When the venn diagram or any two components overlaps more, then those components are more congruent, and vice versa; when they overlap less they are incongruent.

Of course, people aren’t circles that overlap so what does this mean in real behavioural terms. Well, let’s imagine an example where we imagine a person who has a very accurate or balanced or unbiased ‘Self Image’. So, what I mean is let’s assume we have a person who has a self image that is pretty accurate to who they are. If that person has an internalized ‘ideal self’ that is, for example, extremely successful (we could go so far as to say “expecting perfection of themselves”) then there will be lots of room for incongruence between their image of themselves as they are right now and where they are trying to go, their ideal self. However, someone who imagines an ideal self who is happy but probably faces adversity often, and experiences stress, and sometimes fails but really tries to do right by their principles; that is a person who has more in common with the person they already are, and so that would result in a more congruent self-concept.

We can also imagine incongruency in the opposite direction. If you’ve seen the movie “Good Will Hunting” this is the situation with the character played by Matt Damon. This character is very talented, specifically when it comes to maths. But that character has no ambition. He thinks he’s going to do what his other friends are doing and just working as a janitor and hanging around Boston not really making too much of himself. So, his ideal self is incongruent with his self-image, because he knows he’s smart, he is confident about it when he wants to be. He knows he can do hard things with ease. He just thinks that it’s not in the cards for him to acheive.

So, according to Carl Rogers, when the components of an individual’s self concept are congruent (or largely congruent) with one another, that is a situation where a person is able to acheive self-actualization.

Of course, probably nobody in the history of the world has experienced complete congruence between their self concept components. Although, if you are a student of mindfulness or taoism or buddhism, you can perhaps see in this theory some familiar elements. For example, in taoism, there is this idea of not moving, but being moved. This idea of not trying to tell the river which direction it flows, but rather accepting that the river is there to move you and to be as pliable to that change as possible. Putting this metaphor in line with congruency and self-actualization, the taoist would tell you that the way to acheive congruency is to abandon an ideal self, to abandon this idea that you can already know what your life is going to be like. Instead, you should be totally open to life’s

The Self vs. Identity

The Self

Overall perception that an individual has about themselves
beliefs, attitudes, characteristics, values
shaped by experience

Identity

a specific aspect of the self concept
focuses on how individuals define themselves in relation to various social groups or categories
traits, roles, affiliations, characteristics that contribute to a sense of belonging
ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status

The Self Concept

Throughout adolescence, self-concept becomes more complex and abstract
Adolescents start to realise that their behaviours can be contradictory
Adolescents then become concerned with their false self behaviours
The False Self vs. The Real Me distinction

Role of Authenticity in development of the Self Concept

Harter & Monsour (1992) asked 13, 15, & 17 year olds about contradictory behaviours with parents, friends, school, and romantic partners.
Goal: to understand if there are differences in number of contradictions across age groups.
Contradictions in Identity, often described as the “False Self”
False Self: an identity that people adopt to conform to social expectations, norms, or pressures, but is not in line with their true thoughts, feelings, and values.

How does one measure the False Self?

Harter & Monsour (1992) Findings

Contemporary Minds in PYD: Richard Lerner

Leading figure in promoting idea that youth development is about fostering positive outcomes.
Research focuses on identifying strengths and assets of young people
Environmental factors that support health and well-being

Richard Lerner on Positive Youth Development

Lerner’s Big Three Characteristics in programs that aim to support young people

Positive and sustained adult-youth relationships (Mentorship)
Life-skill-building activities (How to pursue one’s purpose)
Opportunities for youth contribution and leadership (Application)

Lerner’s 5C Model of PYD

Competence: Ability to act effectively
Confidence: having a belief in one’s capacity to succeed
Connection: forming positive bonds with people and social institutions
Character: connection to one’s principles and values
Caring/Compassion: sympathy and empathy for others
Development of all 5Cs leads to the 6th C: Positive Contribution.

Lerner’s 4-H Study of PYD

4-H = head, heart, hands, health
Began in 2002, repeated annually for 8 years
Surveyed >7,000 adolescents across the US
Objective of the study was to understand how 4-H programs influenced development of young people
Recruited people from various demographic backgrounds
Longitudinal Study: participants (and their parents) complete tests at multiple time points

Findings from 4-H study

Better outcomes for those with better self-regulation skills (ability to select and reach goals)
School engagement positively related to academic achievement & negatively related to delinquency, depression, substance use.
Those in 4-H programs substantially more likely to make positive contributions to their communities

Methods & Measures in PYD Research

Typical Study designs in PYD research

Longitudinal Studies: Same participants, measured over long period of time
Cross-Sectional Studies: Participants grouped by age
Mixed-Methods Studies: using both quantitative and qualitative research methods
Intervention Studies: Participants randomly assigned to take part in some PYD program (or not) to measure impact of the program on measures of well-being
Case Studies: Qualitative research that delves into highly specific patterns/themes identified by interviews with individuals.

Typical Measures in PYD research: Objective and Subjective

Objective/Observable Measures: income, academic competency, partner status, criminal convictions, number of close friends, etc.
Surveys (also known as Scales): can assess subjective (abstract) psychological constructs

How Surveys are made

Surveys do not exist in nature. They are not discovered. They are made by people.
3 steps of survey creation
4 steps of survey validation/refinement

Survey Creation (3 Steps)

Define the target construct(s)

Philosophical/theoretical work
Need a clear conceptual understanding of the construct you aim to measure

Survey Creation

Conduct thorough review of the literature

Hunt down other surveys been created that measure the same/similar construct

Survey Creation

Generate the items (i.e., make the survey)

an item = individual question or statement that participants will respond to
these items are devised such that differences in responses would correspond to differences in the presence/absence of the target construct
Items should be unambiguous, concise, and relevant to the target audience

Survey Validation (4 Steps)

What it means to Validate a survey: assess the extent to which the survey accurately measures the psychological construct(s) it intends to measure.

Survey Validation

Expert review

Experts review your survey and evaluate it for clarity, relevance, & comprehensiveness

Survey Validation

Pilot Testing

Survey is administered to a sample from the target population
Usually there is also a qualitative component to these pilot studies where participants give open-ended feedback on the items to identify potential misunderstanding

Survey Validation

Large Scale Validation Test

Administer to a larger sample from the target population
Assess Construct Validity: The extent to which a survey accurately measures the theoretical construct or concept it is intended to assess
Convergent Validity: Scores on our new survey should be positively related to scores on previously validated surveys designed to measure the same/similar construct
Divergent Validity: Scores on our new survey should negatively correlate with scores on previously validated surveys designed to measure an opposite construct (or to measure the absence of the construct your survey measures the presence of).

Survey Validation/Refining

Reliability Testing

Evaluate the survey’s Internal Consistency (the extent to which items within the same construct yield correlated responses)
Evaluate the survey’s Test-Retest Reliability (measures the stability of responses over time by administering the survey to the same participants at different time points)

Okay, I did all that. Now What?

You now have a lovely, new, and validated survey that can be used to measure a construct!
Sit back and watch the citations flow your way!:)

Next Lecture (Wednesday, 1 May 2024)

We will talk about some of the ways in which positive youth development differs depending on cultural context
specifically discussing how principles of PYD developed in& for Western society are congruent/incongruent with principles and responsibilities of Rangatahi Māori (i.e., Māori youth)

Positive Youth Development (PYD) Lecture 2

Learning Objectives

The Self Concept

Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

Carl Rogers’ Theory of Self-Actualization

The Self vs. Identity

The Self Concept

Role of Authenticity in development of the Self Concept

How does one measure the False Self?

Harter & Monsour (1992) Findings

Contemporary Minds in PYD: Richard Lerner

Richard Lerner on Positive Youth Development

Lerner’s Big Three Characteristics in programs that aim to support young people

Lerner’s 5C Model of PYD

Lerner’s 4-H Study of PYD

Findings from 4-H study

Methods & Measures in PYD Research

Typical Study designs in PYD research

Typical Measures in PYD research: Objective and Subjective

How Surveys are made

Survey Creation (3 Steps)

Survey Creation

Survey Creation

Survey Validation (4 Steps)

Survey Validation

Survey Validation

Survey Validation

Survey Validation/Refining

Okay, I did all that. Now What?

Next Lecture (Wednesday, 1 May 2024)

Thank you!