| Summary: | "In spite of the numerous authoritative and comprehensive books on adolescence, one most important area of adolescence has been neglected: the ways in which adolescents perceive themselves and their world. This is so important because the concepts which adolescents form of themselves and of the world in relation to themselves exert a strong influence on their behavior. Even if an adolescent's perception is faulty, i.e., does not accord with the way adults perceive him, it is nonetheless real; it produces real results. Individuals respond to the situation-as-they-perceive-it. The extensive original data in this book consist of adolescents' own statements of their attitudes and values, their activities and relationships, their problems of growing up. These detailed original descriptions and comments show how adolescents perceive themselves, the world in which they live, the future, and other matters related to their development. They serve as convincing evidence of individuality; they represent the thoughts and feelings of many individual adolescents. These original data are supplemented and interpreted by information gained from previous research and by insights from psychological literature. Against this background, the uniqueness of each adolescent, as he perceives himself, as well as common characteristics, becomes evident. The focus of this book is on the manifold ways in which adolescents perceive themselves in the psychological, social, and physical setting in which they are growing up. In other words, this book attempts to describe the unique transitional stage between childhood and adulthood largely through the eyes of young people themselves: how they view themselves and their world, the developmental tasks to be accomplished during this period, and the kind of learning conditions and guidance they would like to have"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
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