On studying the young

The process of studying youth culture is examined in terms of the consequence of the social and imaginative worlds of young people and those who study them. The impressions of the young, thus found, ultimately reveal to us insights into our own past, the relationship of generations, and the meaning of maturation. The ambivalence demonstrated by so many young people is discussed along with the difficulties this produces for observations of youth. Finally, mention is made of the importance of recognizing that studies of youth accentuate the tentativeness with which the results of social psychological studies must be held, and of resisting the temptation either to dehumanize young people through social scientific inquiries, or to overromanticize them to the extent that they themselves begin to question their own worth.