Augusto Palmonari

Identification with peers as a strategy to muddle through the troubles of the adolescent years

This study was designed to explore critical events during adolescence and coping processes as dependent, first, on the relationship with peers, and second, on the type of peer-groups teenagers join. In all, 75 young people, members of four street groups and two religious groups, were given a questionnaire assessing identification with their peers and demographic characteristics, and then interviewed about critical events. The results show that the nature of the group individuals join is of minor importance, whereas the relationship established with peers is crucial: highly identified subjects not only more often join their peers but seem to derive more profit from interactions with people in general, both peers, friends, and parents. The peer-group is important, not to substitute for contacts with the family or other persons, but as a social entity to fill a vacuum during adolescent years.

School experience, relational justice and legitimation of institutional

This study analysis the relationship between perceptions of the justice of teacher’ behaviour and (a) the legitimation of school authority and (b) the legitimation of institutional authorities outside school. 448 adolescent students participated in the study. In questionnaire participants were asked about (a) perceptions of the justice of teachers’ behaviour; (b) evaluation of the school experience; and (c) evaluation of institutional authorities. Results show that the evaluation of the justice of teacher behaviour, in particular relational and procedural justice, have an impact on the legitimation of the authority of teachers and on the evaluation of institutional authorities outside school. Results also show that the legitimacy granted to teachers is a mediator variable between perceptions of justice in school and evaluation of authorities outside school. These results are discussed in the context of the studies on the relationship between school experience and adolescents attitudes towards authorities, and in the framework of the “Relational Model of Authority” and of the “Group Value Model”.RésuméCette recherche analyse les relations entre la perception de justice des comportements des professeurs, la légitimation de l’autorité scolaire et la légitimation des autorités institutionnels en dehors l’école. 448 lycéens ont participé dans cette étude. Les participants on répondu à un questionnaire portant sur (a) les perceptions de justice des comportements des professeurs, (b) l’évaluation de l’expérience scolaire, et (c) l’évaluation des autorités institutionnelles. Les résultats montrent que plus élevé est la perception de justice des comportements des professeurs, plus élevé est aussi la légitimité attribuée aux professeurs et la légitimité attribuée aux autorités en dehors de l’école. Les résultats montrent aussi que la légitimité attribuée aux professeurs est une variable médiatrice entre la perception de justice des comportements des professeurs et l’évaluation des autorités en dehors de l’école. Ces résultats sont discutés dans le cadre des recherches sur la formation des attitudes des adolescents relativement aux autorités institutionnelles et dans le cade du “Modèle de la Valeur du Groupe” (“Group Value Model”) et de “l’approche relationnelle de l’autorité”.

Peergroups and evolution of the self-system in adolescence

This study aims to exploring the importance of peer groups, how belonging to different types of groups affects the actual perception of oneself, the peer group and other groups, and the perception of difficulty in coping with developmental tasks. 600 adolescents from Bologna, Italy filled out a questionnaire, consisting of three parts. The results show that peer groups are important in adolescence lifes. Overall, 90% of the subjects were members of a peer group; most often they belonged to informal or quasi-informal groups.A smaller percentage belonged to formal groups, like to sport or religious groups. The scopes to meet the groups were most often for amusement and also for talking about one’s personal problems.Surprisingly, the differences of descriptions of oneself and the own group, oneself and the self-defined outgroup, oneself and drug abusers, did not differ considerably among informal and formal groups. Also informal and formal groups described the ingroups equally favorably and outgroups equally unfavorably. Moreover the results show that informal and formal groups did not differ in the perception of difficulty in coping with developmental tasks.These results indicate that the type of groups is not a crucial variable in explaining differences in evolution of the self-system in adolescents.RésuméLe but de cette étude est d’explorer l’importance du groupe des pairs à l’adolescence et d’examiner comment l’appartenance à différents types de groupes affecte la perception actuelle de soi, de son propre groupe et des autres groupes, ainsi que la perception de la difficulté à accompli les taches de développement. 600 adolescents de Bologne (Italie) ont rempli un questionnaire divisé en trois parties.Les résultats confirment l’importance des groupes de pairs dans la vie des adolescents. 90% des adolescents étaient membres d’un groupe de pairs, ils appartenaient le plus souvent à des groupes informels ou quasi-informels. Un plus petit pourcentage d’adolescents appartenaient à des groupes formels, par exemple des groupes sportifs ou religieux. Le plus souvent la rencontre en groupe avait pour but l’amusement et la discussion de problèmes personnels. Les groupes formels dédiaient aussi une bonne partie de leur temps à des activités organisées.De manière surprenante, les différences entre soi-même et son propre groupe, entre soi-même et le groupe défini comme hors-groupe, entre soi-même et des consommateurs de drogue étaient pratiquement du même ordre dans les groupes informels et dans les groupes formels. Les groupes informels ont, dans la même mesure, décrit favorablement leur propre groupe et défavorablement l’hors-groupe. En outre, les résultats montrent que les groupes formels et informels ne différaient pas dans leur perception de la difficulté à accomplir les taches de développement.Ces résultats indiquent que le type de groupe d’appartenance ne constitue pas une variable déterminante dans l’explication des différences dans l’évolution de la conception de soi à l’adolescence.

Developmental Pattern of Prosocial Motivation A Cross-National Study

Changes in patterns of prosocial motivation between Grades 2 and 12 were examined in five samples from four countrics: West Germany, Poland, Italy,and the United States. The Prosocial Motivation Questionnaire (PSMQ), an instrument based on theoretical elaborations about evaluative standards operative in prosocial action, was used to assess within-subject preference for five prosocial motives: hedonism, self-interest, conformity, task orientation, and other-orientation. Studied were two samples from Berlin (West; average age range, 11-6 to 18-6 years) and one sample each from Warsaw (11-11 to 18-11), Bologna (11-6 to 18-11), and Phoenix, Arizona (8-4 to 13-4). The major results held for all cities studied and confirm the generalizability of earlier national findings. Specifically, the major findings were as follows: (1) extrinsic motives for prosocial acts (hedonism and self-interest) were least preferred, whereas intrinsic motives (task and other-orientation) were most highly valued, and conformity was always in between; (2) preference for hedonism decreased in the younger samples, preference for conformity decreased in the older samples, and age-related increases were found only for task orientation; and (3) gender differences emerged at age 12, thus confirming prior findings that girls prefer intrinsic motives more than boys do.

Increasing group entitativity : Linguistic intergroup discrimination in the minimal group paradigm

Previous research has shown the strength of the linguistic intergroup bias across different intergroup settings. However, there is no evidence of linguistic discrimination within minimal groups. This experiment aimed to shed light on the phenomenon of linguistic intergroup discrimination in a minimal group setting, and to investigate the impact of group entitativity on this bias. Four group entitativity conditions were created by altering the mere categorization condition toward less entitativity and toward more entitativity. Participants were asked to describe the choice allegedly made by another participant in allocating resources to ingroup and outgroup members. Results showed an overall linguistic bias, whereby ingroup behaviors were described more positively and abstractly than outgroup behaviors. Increasing group entitativity resulted in increasingly biased outgroup descriptions, which in the most entitative condition revealed a predominant use of negative abstract terms.

Evolution of the Self Concept in Adolescence and Social Categorization Processes

In Italy, almost all adolescents join one or more peer-groups fairly regularly and are aware of the existence of different types of peer-groups. This chapter reports on several studies on adolescents and the importance of their peer-groups. It reviews investigations of social psychological aspects of adolescents and their peer-groups and, more specifically, of ecological aspects of peer-groups, dynamics of social categorization, and the effects of the relationship between the individual and the group on self-description and the perception of others. As far as social categorization processes are concerned, support was found, in part, for Turners (1981) self-categorization theory, and in part, for Deschamps (1982) co-variation thesis. 1 This article was written while the third author was on leave in Bologna, Italy, invited by the University of Bologna as Professore a Contratto.

Sweet sixteen ... Adolescents’ problems and the peer group as source of support

This survey reports on the coping process of adolescents with three relational problems, two personal problems, and two socio-institutional problems. Overall, 770 Italian adolescent between 14 and 20 years took part. They responded to a questionnaire consisting of four parts: a part querying demographic data, one on the peer group the adolescents join, the third was on life values, and in the final part seven developmental tasks were presented and aspects of the coping process were investigated.The study shows, first, that adolescents who strongly identify with their peers also feel close to their family, their best friend, and their school mates. Thus, identification with the peers does not lead to isolation from the family. Second, the study shows that identification with social entities, in part, is due to the similarity of value the adolescent and the respective entities have. The more similar life values are the more strongly the adolescents identify with the peers, the family, the best friend, or the school mates.Third, effective coping with developmental tasks was found to be dependent on the degree of identification with the peers. The type of group that adolescents join, be it a formal group or an informal street group, had no significant effect on the coping process. Highly identified adolescents more often relied on their family, peers, and other social entities for emotional and instrumental support, and trace more advantages out of a developmental problem for their future.

Work Identity, Well-being and Time Perspective of Typical and Atypical Young Workers

During recent decades, important changes have occurred in the labor market and the spread of fixed-term employment contracts (i.e. atypical jobs) has increased job insecurity (Chirumbolo & Hellgren, 2003). Understanding the psychosocial consequences of this phenomenon is not an easy task because it is complex and multifaceted. For instance, in a qualitative study conducted with Italian young adults with atypical jobs, Sarchielli, Mandrioli, Palmonari and Vecchiato (2006) found evidence for both positive and negative outcomes of atypical employment contracts. Specifically, atypical workers evaluated their work conditions positively, although they complained about their contracts; they received strong support from their close social network (i.e. partner, peers and family), whereas they complained about the lack of adequate support from the trade unions and work services; they emphasized how job insecurity may lead to relational insecurity, by being an obstacle to the formation of a new family and to the possibility of having children; they underlined that atypical contracts may facilitate entrance into the labor market, but they might become a serious threat when the condition of atypical workers becomes chronic.

Images of Work in the Pre-Entry Phase of the Occupational Socialization Process

The pre-work phase may be considered as a crucial moment in the occupational socialization process. In this period young people try to create new meanings or develop and modify their understanding and definition of the work situation in order to achieve goals or to solve their own particular problems.