
Teens Define Themselves in Terms of Positive Traits, Adults More by Social Roles - laurex
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/05/28/teenagers-define-themselves-mostly-in-terms-of-their-traits-adults-more-in-terms-of-their-social-roles
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dmos62
Well a teen today doesn't have a social role, except as a vehicle for future
potential, to put it dryly. My grandfather took care of domestic animals while
they were grazing (not sure what that's called) before he was 10, so
economically that's a different world to what I was doing when I was that age.
So a teen today can't really define himself in terms of social roles. We also
have a culture of performance-based social-worth, so kids will be openly
evaluated "you're good at riding that bike" or "throwing that ball" or "doing
schoolwork", and the child's inner dialogue will be like that as well: "Joe is
better at this competitive thing", "I am better at this", etc. The only thing
that kind of baffles me is that the article says that teenagers mostly define
themselves in positive traits, as if it's implied that they're being honest:
it's quite counter-cultural to bad mouth yourself. I dispute that we have a
significant bias toward defining the self positively, examples are too banal
to list.

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NikkiA
> My grandfather took care of domestic animals while they were grazing (not
> sure what that's called) before he was 10

'husbandry' probably.

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kosievdmerwe
Nope "shepherd" (EDIT: shepherding is only for sheep, herding is the general
term via maxerikson). I've never seen husbandry used for individuals,
shepherding however is a part of animal husbandry.

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NeedMoreTea
Herdsman or stockman and there's an old English name that completely eludes me
at the moment.

Then also the species variations of shepherd: goatherd, swineherd and cowherd.

Edit: Most herdsmen in the UK had their own number system - 123: yan, tan,
teddera etc. I wonder if that's the case elsewhere.

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ipsi
It looks like it was a slightly different system in various regions of the UK:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Tan_Tethera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Tan_Tethera)

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NeedMoreTea
Wow, I knew it varied widely across the country, but not between places only a
dozen miles apart. Nor that it tracks back 1,500 years or more - which
presumably explains the many variations!

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superkuh
Adults sink most of their lives into work and raising children. There's not
much time for hobbies to define them, relatively. So they define themselves by
their work.

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parentheses
My experience aligns with this. It makes total sense too. When we were young,
much of our focus was on the "me", so we define the self using language
oriented that way. As we grow collaboration, relationships, etc. become more
important and even the focus of our lives.

Late bloomers also are late to this shift in my experience.

The differences between girls and boys is especially interesting and does make
sense. I wonder hows much is nature vs nurture. Anyone have insightful papers
on this subject?

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iamwil
I thought teenagers defined themselves in terms of their music tastes.

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jandrese
Or arbitrary social conventions? Jock, nerd, goth, rebel, etc... in Breakfast
Club style.

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bilbo0s
There's no such thing as jock, nerd, goth, rebel etc anymore. Today's teens
are actually pretty different than the generations that came before. Some
things don't change though. There is still such a thing as asshole and
douchebag.

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agumonkey
It seems in all history roles were a foundational concepts. Can social groups
build on traits alone ?

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inawarminister
It's more likely for traits to get imprinted in roles, for example priesthoods
(shamans), excluded "dirty" social groups (Dalit, burakumin, European
Gypsies), and nobles. But these are all big societies.

Perhaps early society, or small enough social groups, can have non-explicit
assigned roles and can remember/recognise each other's traits. So who are
brave, who are smart/knowledgeable, who are ambitious, who are hardworking,
who cheats/lie/snitch to other groups etc.. I think I just described
schoolchildren and prison inmates.

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supernova87a
Well, duh of course they do -- teenagers ain't done jack squat in life yet,
what else are they going to define themselves in terms of?

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tuesdayrain
Im surprised that "defining yourself" is even a thing that so many people seem
to care about. It seems pretty unnecessary. I'm just ..me. If I was required
to give a description of myself for some hypothetical reason then whether that
description includes social roles, personality traits, or whatever would
depend on the reason I'm being asked.

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Falling3
> It seems pretty unnecessary.

Most of the things we spend most of our time on are, strictly speaking,
unnecessary.

