Self Image Theory in Male and Female Adolescent Subjects
Self-Image Theory in Male and Female Adolescent Subjects
Dr. Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist wrote Reviving Ophelia to help parents and girls as they go through their Adolescent years. This book focuses on many issues young girls may face during adolescence, family relationships, divorce, developmental issues, depression and drugs and alcohol. Pipher observes the different selves of young girls and their evolving relationships with others.
Adolescence is a time of discovering who you are and it is certainly not an easy task in the world in which we live in today. Girls are constantly focusing on their physical selves and the changing of their bodies. Many times young girls will allow culture and the outside world to define who they are and what they should look like. Young girls as adolescents don’t understand or want to understand that the average woman does not look like the Sports Illustrated model.
Pipher explains to us that girl’s immaturity emotion level makes it hard for them to hold on to their own identity when experiencing peer pressure of adolescence. This is a time when even the smallest things can be overwhelming for young girls and they may deal with their emotions in many different ways. Staying connected with your emotions and being able to sort through the instability will prepare girls to emerge from adolescents and have a good sense of whom they are. Pipher urges parents to guide their daughters through these tough years so they can avoid emotional traps such as eating disorders, depression and suicide.
Most adolescents are unable to think abstractly and this makes it difficult for people to reason with them.
Young girls first entering into adolescents will read to deeply into causal comments and over react to simple glances. We can see and understand why girls find the need to categorize themselves into groups such as preps and geeks. Teenage girls see the world as black and white and believe that everyone is examining even the smallest detail about herself. Teenage girls are only able to focus on them and what they are going through. Many parents see this as being selfish, but it is only a developmental stage that every girl experiences during adolescence.
Schools treat boys and girls extremely different. Boys are more likely to be noticed in the classroom....