A cross-cultural perspective of self-related conceptions in adolescence

Adolescence has been described as a transitional phase of life often involving turbulence, stress and strain in five major problem areas. Osgood et al.'s (1975) Atlas of Affective Meaning provided three basic measures of Evaluation, Potency and Activity for some 620 concepts that are representative of human life experiences in 30 language/culture communities around the world. The ratings of 30 concepts from the Atlas that represent the five major problem areas of adolescence were analyzed with the Three-Mode Multidimensional Scaling with Points-of-View Solution Technique (Tzeng and Landis 1978). The major results included the identification of cross-cultural common concept factors, 12 'idealized' cultural groups, and the factor structures of 12 'private' configurations. The concept structures that emerged from this study accurately recovered the problem areas of adolescence cited in the literature and also revealed unexpected homogeneities and differences in the cultures involved. Implications for government, social planning and education were discussed.