Chapter+4+Identity,+emotion,+personality

Teens in Fiction
= **EASY A** =

In the movie Easy A, Olive Penderghast lies to her best friend to get out of a weekend of camping. This then turns into a bigger lie of Olive losing her virginity which is overheard by a zealous Christian and the lie is spread around the school. Olive is approached by a boy who asks Olive to pretend to sleep with him so that he will be accepted by everyone else at school. Boys who usually have no luck with girls in the past begin to give her gift cards and money to say they have had sex with her in order to increase their own popularity. This movie portrays teens seeking peer approval through social comparison with those in their school. While these boys sought their own popularity, Olive increased her reputation as a “bad girl”. This is especially realized when Anson takes her out on a date and gives her gift cards, when Olive asked what the story will be Anson thinks he will actually get sex and tries to kiss her. Olive wants the boys to come clean, but they are too concerned about their popularity to do so. Olive finally tells the truth through a webcam video. (Melanie)

=__ Ghost World __= =__ ﻿ __= =media type="youtube" key="rq6AOc0ATnU" height="390" width="640"= In Ghost World, two recently graduated teens start to deal with the real world where their "unique" approaches to live force them to decide whether to stay original or assimilate into the herd. Enid and Rebecca are two graduates that decide to forgo the college route and explore the world. The movie deals with both of Erikson's adolescent stages, identity vs identity confusion and intimacy vs isolation, through the many experiences that Enid and Rebecca go through. (Brad)

(I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned this one.) In this series of books, written by J.K. Rowling, a young British boy named Harry Potter discovers that he is a wizard, and he attends a school where he meets others like him. The seven novels, each chronicling one year in Harry's life, have been adapted into eight movies. (The last novel is being split into two movies. Part I came out in November, and Part II comes out in July.) The books start out fairly light-hearted, but they get darker as they go on, and Harry's life becomes more dangerous. Growing up is difficult for everybody, but most people don't have to deal with evil wizards trying to kill them with magical powers. Nonetheless, the Harry Potter series has been read by children and adults all over the world. (Zak)



Mean Girls is a movie about cliques and how they have an effect on teens, especially girls. The movie is about a 16 year old girl named Cady Heron who has been homeschooled and now is going to a public high school for the very first time. She learns very quickly about the group called “The Plastics” and, along with her new friends, decides to infiltrate the group and become one of them in order to hurt Regina George, the Queen Bee. In the end Cady finds herself in a mess with everyone, including her real friends, hating her. I picked this movie because the “Queen Bee” reminded me of a narcissist in chapter 4 of our book. She is self-centered, expects others to treat her has the most important. She has friends but she would put herself first; even if it meant hurting her closest friends. When she was embarrassed, she became extremely angry and vengeful. She does not show empathy and would devalue others in order to make herself look good. (LeAnn)

Research Summaries
__Science Daily__ (June 23, 2010) In a study of 116 participants, psychologists discovered that the size of different parts of people's brains correspond to their personalities. The article discusses how personality traits are divided into the "Big Five". These five traits are listed as the following: conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness/intellect. Each participant answered a questionnaire to describe their personality. Each participant then had a brain imaging test that measured the relative size of different parts of the brain. The brain images were compared among participants and links were found between brain size of certain brain regions and personality. The connection between size of brain structures and personality helps provide a scientific approach to understanding how each person is unique. (Kerry Leader)
 * "Brain Structure Corresponds to Personality"**

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__Science Daily (Jan 7, 2011)__ __[|Young People Say Sex, Pay Checks In Second To Self-Esteem]__ In two seperate studies, researchers discovered college students feel the concept of self-esteem is more important to them than any other pleasure activity in their lives. "Self-esteem" is a major concept in Chapter Four of our classroom text __Adolesence__ (Santrock). Brad Bushman, Jennifer Crocker, both from The Ohio State University, along with Scott Moeller of Brookhaven National Labroratory, conducted studies where college students were asked to rate their favorite activities on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely). Of the questions asked the students, __one__ was related to self-esteem building experiences, such as "receiving a good grade or receiving a compliment." The responses related to self-esteem building questions were the highest recorded. (John B.)
 * "Young People Say Sex, Paychecks Come In Second to Self-Esteem"**

The idea of adolescent self esteem is discussed in Santrock chapter four, pages137-142. There is mention of debate as to the implication of low self esteem on adolescents. This study is a longitudinal study. The researchers followed a large sample of adolencents. Self esteem tests were administered at ages 11, 13, and 15. Data was taken again with the participants reached 26. It was found that those will low self esteem as adolescents were more likely to engage in criminal behavior, they economic prospects were lower and these individuals had lower mental and physical health. This study sheds light on the importance of reinforcing self esteem among young adults. (Emily Grace)
 * The Consequences of Low Self Esteem**
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Malinda- A teen's family environment has a lot of influence on their personal identity. Cooper believes that, "...identity formation is enhanced by family relationships that are both individuated" (151). Similarly, in research entitled,"Local Identities in Globalized Regions: Teens,Everyday Life, and Television" by: McMillin, and Fisherkeller, compared urban 14 and 15 year old teens to other urban cities in different countries. The researchers compared their issues of identity with social aspects, cultural, and familial. What I found interesting was that in cultures that had more familial interaction, identity seemed to be less in crisis. In our culture, rich in television, it was found that teens have trouble understanding who they truly are because of the reality that has been created on their favorite shows. It did say that more qualitative research needed to be done to accurately depict how much of a problem the lack of family impacts teens in a negative way, but it is something to think about.

Genetic Link to Children's Emotional Problems Precipitated by Bullying



A team of researchers from Duke University and Kings College in London have discovered recently that the way adolescents respond to bullying may differ depending on a specific genetic variation. This genetic variation dictates whether those students bullied will develop emotional problems later in life, such as depression. The study, which appeared in the August 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, showed that genetic differences in the Serotonin Transporter Gene are what cause some adolescents to be more distressed by being bullied, Additionally, the strength of such a response influenced by the Serotonin Transporter Gene, is affected by the frequency of the bullying and the adolescent’s home life. (Caitlin)

Elsevier (2010, July 22). Genetic link to children’s emotional problems precipitated by bullying. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from [|http://www.sciencedaily.com]­/releases/2010/07/100722153616.htm

THE RELATION BETWEEN SELF-ESTEEM, SEXUAL ACTIVITY, AND PREGNANCY
[|THE RELATION BETWEEN SELF-ESTEEM, SEXUAL ACTIVITY, AND PREGNANCY] This research is looking for a result of a relationship between sexual behavior and self-esteem in teenagers. There are 141 male participants and 172 participants in the study. The survey has questions relates to self-esteem, pregnancy, fatherhood, and sexual activity. The result shows that there is no different in self-esteem between teens who are pregnant and teens who are not. However, males who have children have lower self-esteem than males who don't have any. The main purpose of the research is to find the way to education both male and female about pregnancy. (Gik)

Web Links
The following web links are from a great website called PECentral.com. I have used the website for my class several times and the website could be helpful to all types of classroom teachers. All three activities below can be used in help increase self-esteem among teens. I have done the paper on the back activity, but I used paper plates, they are a bit more sturdy. (Katie) []

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In this link from today’s msnbc the authors Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell "The Narcissism Epidemic," takes a look at narcissism growing rate in Americas (their self-centeredness) with adolescents and emerging adults. In America at least 1 out of 16 adults have experienced symptoms of narcissism. In a book they wrote the talk about some of the causes, diagnosis’ and prognosis.” They get to the core of narcissism and some of it's behavior. (Miranda H.) []

The following is a link to a BBC news story that correlates low self-esteem with obesity in adults. The data for the study was collected from 6,500 participants who had their height/weight information collected from a school nurse. The same data was collected using a self-reporting method when those individuals turned 30 years old. The data suggested that children who felt less in control of their lives worried more often were more likely to have low self-esteem and gain weight over the next 20 years. Professor David Collier, the research leader, noted that while obesity is usually regarded as a medical metabolic disorder, their are many emotional risk factors at work as well. The article also suggests strategies for curbing low self-esteem that could lead to adult obesity. (Mary)

To Write Love on Her Arms
This is a really cool organization that is combating teen depression and addiction. Often these issues are rooted in low self esteem. This organization focuses on getting teens help and helping build them up. It helps to connect teens with treatment and offers them support. At the center of this group is the story of a 19 year old girl named Rene. She was abused and in great pain. She attempted suicide and was a cocaine addict. Her story has helped other and continues to get teens connected with the help they need. I think their work directly relates to some of the concepts of emotion and self esteem in the chapter this week. I have embedded a video about their work below and a link to their website. Rene's story though is just one example of the difficulties adolescents deal will and how big a role trauma, pain, self esteem and emotion play in their lives. I added this because I think it is a good "real life" example of the fragile states, increased negative feelings and troubles we read about this week.

media type="youtube" key="cJS2yXw8dKo?version=3" height="390" width="640"

http://www.twloha.com/vision/story/

The facts tab on the site has a lot of good information.

(Joel)

**Online Self-Esteem Tests**
There is a myriad of online tests that measure everything from career interests to IQ. While some of these are cheesy and don't begin to assess what they claim to, there are a few that seem relatively reputable. One of these is found at the website www.queendom.com (relax guys). While the website offers many such online tests, the one I looked at measures self-esteem. It's made up of 79+ questions (while number of questions doesn't guarantee reliability, it is a characteristic). This particular self-esteem test is geared more towards adults, but there are plenty that evaluate adolescent self-esteem. While most of us would argue that our self-esteem is fine as adults, in reading some of the questions I found that you really start to re-evaluate the choices you make and the behaviors you exhibit. In fact, I found myself really questioning the hidden meaning behind my actions. Unless you're one who frequently reflects on your actions, tests like this one really brings your subconscious self to light. If you've got an extra 10-15 minutes, it might be interesting to take this test. (Jason)

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