III. The progression from rapprochement to adolescence.

thinking allows the adolescent to concern himself with the past and future as well as the present. The self-concept is no longer limited to concrete images. The capacity to construct and test hypotheses expands the scope of the self-concept. The adolescent can generate options and explore them systematically. The adolescent can imagine possible selves which are more future oriented, idealistic, and related to worlds less personal and realitybound. The self concept is time-oriented rather than merely present-oriented. Of course, self-esteem regulation still depends on current perception as well as anticipated worth. In the same way, self-esteem regulation is influenced by qualitative differences in the contents of the superego and ego ideal. Hypothetical idealized selves are evaluated alongside the adolescent’s current self. (p. 54) At least one part of this process has to do with separation of the sense of self from involvement with the parents—and one vehicle for this dynamic is laying claim to one’s own body and THE GENESIS OF THE SELF: III. 283 possessing it as one’s own. The pubertal and postpubertal changes of adolescence involve not only changes of the physical body with regard to genital maturation and secondary sexual characteristics, but also significant changes in body image (Laufer, 1989). This maturation of the body self as integral component of the self-as-agent and consolidation of the body image as integral part of the self-as-object (Meissner, 1997) significantly modify the adolescent’s self-experience, and this especially, if not primarily, in sexual terms. Separation from parental dependence and influence and self-possession is facilitated by establishing a secure sexual identity and/or consolidation of one’s gender identity as component aspects of the sense of personal identity. Whether the resolution is ultimately heterosexual or homosexual, however this developmental dynamic can be accomplished, resolution in either term may also have interpersonal and social consequences of a different order that can, but need not, complicate the achievement of a meaningful personal identity. In all this, the dialectic of attachment and separation continues to play out (Blatt & Levy, 2003). Recent findings from longitudinal study of childhood and early adolescence indicate that attachment statuses established in infancy and childhood tend to remain relatively stable during adolescence, with greater stability in individuals characterized by dismissing and secure attachment states and greater variability in those with preoccupied and unresolved states of mind (Ammaniti, van Ijzendoorn, Speranza, & Tarnbelli, 2000; Sroufe et al., 2005). Persistence of conflictual or contradictory internal mental models can be reflected in contradictory self-concepts and difficulties in identity formation (Ammaniti & Sergi, 2003). Writing from the perspective of attachment theory, Ammaniti and Sergi delineate the major changes in adolescence as the following: (1) Body and sexual puberty transformations that deeply influence the perception of the self and of others . . . , (2) Affective changes due to the progressive detachment from the attachment figures . . . . (3) Cognitive changes with the advent of more mature functioning, such as the formal operations, the ability to reflect on one’s own cognitive processes (i.e., metacognition, self-reflective function, and the ability to understand and explain ambivalence). . . .