The Ideal Self
The concept of the ideal self, the kind of person the adolescent hopes to be, involves questions of standards and comparisons. It involves relating levels of aspiration to levels of ability. It also involves opportunities for self-realization.
When the ideal self is set at an unrealistic level, frustration is increased. When it is set below one's level of ability, motivation may become lacking. The adolescent's level of aspiration tends to go up with success and down with failure. This up-down movement is more exaggerated than that usually found in adults. The ideal self of the adult has evolved slowly through experience. Lacking such experience, the adolescent depends a great deal on identification with 'omeone else as the ideal-an older brother or sister, a parent, or a eacher. This ideal person may stimulate either emulation or resentment, sometimes both.
The concept of self is molded by reward and punishment, praise and blame, and by the feelings of accomplishment that come with solving a problem. During preadolescence, parents and peers both fluence the self concept. This situation changes gradually until the ung person's self-evaluation is determined by what age mates ink. Later, peer groups and other organizations provide a climate of
.fiuence. Finally the adolescent discovers that the self must be etermined individually. He or she has to learn the hard way that achieving identity is a long, difficult process. One learns that such entity comes through thinking, feeling, and decision making. It rives on social interaction. And in the end, the question "Who am " still remains.
