Image Is Everything
Enabling the Teenage Brain – Blog 8?
Book: Coming of Age – How Adolescence Shapes Us (Lucy Foulkes)?
Chapter: Image is Everything??
When I hit my teenage years, my hair went from completely straight to curly.? Once it was curly it wasn’t a problem, the issue was that it didn’t do so overnight, it took 2-3 years, right through my early teens when, like all teenagers,? I was very image conscious.? “What you look like as a teenager powerfully shapes people’s understanding of who you are, and this leads teenagers to do some extreme things in an attempt to change the narrative.”???
So, what did I do, I threw myself totally into sport.? I was playing some form of sport every day, overwhelmingly because I loved it but also because I was so incredibly shy and not ready for the image obsessed teen phase.? By playing so much sport I was placed into a specific group of sports obsessed people that were “allowed” by the popular/cool group to look messy, disheveled, to have no sense of hair style- that suited me.?
That all said occasional comments about my dress sense (lack of) did leak out and to this day leave me with a perception that “I don’t know how to dress with style” (thank goodness my partner does ??).??
The process of forming an identity is a must happen event for teenagers and is almost an automatic process.? What is the impact on your developing identity if you struggle everyday with learning, the school you find yourself in, and/or with completing homework.? Or perhaps you identify with a group that likes to “muck about”, “have fun”, and/or initiate pranks.? Your sense of social identity in this rule breaking and boundary pushing group is one of connection, belonging and commitment. You have found your tribe!? Even though the collective behaviour of the group leads to punishments (detention, isolation, suspension, etc) your allegiance to the group and belonging is so strong your rule breaking behaviour persists.? Even if you are expelled from the school, you still belong and align with the group.???
Even if you are the only person in the school who breaks the rules, bucks the trend, is punished and the teacher tells you “don’t fall into the delinquent group” you instantly align with the intangible group, purely based on your belief you now know where you belong and that feels so good, it feels like your social identity.?
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This chapter led me to recall the work of Henri Tajfel and his Social Identity Theory.? Tajfel termed the phrase? the “Minimal Group Paradigm” and the following YouTube videos are a useful introduction as to what he found:?
A useful exercise that all tutor teams could experiment with next year is an intergroup clean/tidy up.? As the first half-week group could tidy and prepare the room for the next group.? When the second half-week group attends let them know what the first half week did and perhaps leave a thank you note on a whiteboard or flip chart.? It could be interesting to see what transpires.?
#imageiseverything #comingofage #adolescence #youngpeople #rulebreaking #socialidentity Penguin Random House UK
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