HOW ADOLESCENTS DEFINE THEMSELVES THROUGH THEIR SOCIAL AND MATERIAL ENVIRONMENT - AN ANALYSIS OF SELF-PHOTOGRAPHS

A theory of symbolic self-definition represents the starting point for questioning how adolescents in the transition from early to late adol escence gain relevant information for self-definition through persons, things, and places which symbolically represent their self-concept. T he subjects were 20 girls and boys aged 10, 14, and 18 years. They wer e given a polaroid camera to take photographs of persons, things, and places which they considered to be a part of their self-concept. The r esults showed significant age effects on the dimensions which are mean ingful for the definition of the self-concept. Moreover, the findings revealed that things at the transition from early to middle adolescenc e are important for self-definition because they mediate or prepare th e social contact to other people which is so significant for the devel oping self-concept.