1-044 - Methodological and Theoretical Innovations in the Study of Adolescents’ Values

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Values play an important role in understanding adolescents' behavioral, social and cognitive development. Values, or the guiding standards of adolescents' lives, shape the way adolescents perceive, understand and operate in their surroundings. This symposium brings together methodologically diverse research from three countries to address questions central to understanding the development of values and the relationship between values and behavioral, social, and cognitive factors.
The first paper discusses the relationship between cognitive-complexity, self-direction values, and need for closure in a large sample of Israeli and German adolescents. It finds that need for closure is negatively related to self-direction values and that cognitive complexity strengthens this association for German adolescents. The second paper discusses the longitudinal relationship between values and aggression. Following Israeli adolescents over three time points, it finds some values predict aggression while others show a reciprocal relationship with aggression across time. In addition, the paper discusses stability and change in value-aggression relations. The third paper takes a person-centered approach to values, relating different value profiles in U.S. and Israeli adolescents’ to their social behaviors and peer status. Results show significant differences between the groups in terms of behavior and social status and highlight the importance of examining values simultaneously, not just individually. Finally, a well-known scholar of social-cognitive development will lead discussion about the three papers.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chairs

• Maya Benish-Weisman, Counseling and Human Development

• Kristina L McDonald, University of Alabama

Discussant

• Tina Malti, University of Toronto

Individual Presentations

• Cognitive Complexity and Personal Value Importance - Presenting Author: Ella Daniel, Tel-Aviv University

• The Interplay between Values and Aggression: A Longitudinal Study Among Israeli Adolescents - Presenting Author: Maya Benish-Weisman, Counseling and Human Development

• Using Value Profiles to Predict Social Behaviors and Peer Status in Adolescents from the U.S. and Israel - Presenting Author: Stephen Ungvary, University of Alabama; Kristina L McDonald, University of Alabama; Maya Benish-Weisman, Counseling and Human Development