is clear evidence that these children are at increased
risk for later social and emotional maladjustment. A
lack of successful childhood friendships is also related
to academic difficulties and dropping out of high
school. The broad scope of childhood friendships as
potentially a positive or negative developmental in-
fluence for personality is understandable in light of
the amount of time children and adolescents spend
with peers in both school and social settings.
Friendships take on greater importance as chil-
dren grow older, with friendships accounting for an
increasing amount of the child’s time and experience.
For young children, friendships serve to increase ex-
citement during play and allow opportunities for the
child to regulate his excitement. Maintaining friend-
ships in middle childhood (generally considered to be
between the ages of six and twelve) requires children
to learn about behavioral norms and relate to others.
And in adolescents, friendships are particularly im-
portant as the typical adolescent begins to rely on
friendships for social support and as a resource for
self-exploration. In adolescents, friendships provide
an important opportunity for social referencing,
which allows the adolescent to try on different social
roles and ideals that are essential to the development
of a sense of self.
Self-Concept
Related to adolescent friendships and personality
development is an aspect of personality known as self-
concept. Some personality theorists and researchers
contend that the developing and changing view a per-
son holds of herself is an important aspect of individ-
ual differences and is often neglected under the
temperament or trait conceptions of personality.
From this perspective, a person’s self-concept (which
incorporates such features as the individual’s history,
sense of competency, and goals for the future) is an
important behavioral determinant that is more dy-
namic, malleable, and encompassing than tempera-
ment or personality traits.
A critical component in the development of one’s
self-concept is referencing, including temporal refer-
encing, a self-comparison from an earlier time to a
later time, and social referencing, a comparison of
one’s self to others. Temporal and social referencing
yield the type of self-examination that serves to in-
crease the stability of individual differences through
an individual making behavioral and/or environmen-
tal changes to maintain a self-concept. The particular
style of referencing most commonly adopted changes
across the lifespan. Temporal referencing is most
common in childhood and in old age when relatively
rapid physical and cognitive changes are most appar-
ent. Conversely, social referencing is most common in
adolescence and adulthood when individual change
is less appreciable.
For adolescents, it is their emphasis on social ref-
erencing that makes having successful friendships es-
pecially important in the development of self-
concept. Having successful friendships in adolescence
leads to more interactive and positive comparisons
between self and others. Without successful friend-
ships, an adolescent is more isolated and is more like-
ly to make negative comparisons. These negative
comparisons during adolescence set a developmental
trajectory toward low self-esteem and further social
withdrawal in adulthood, making it difficult for such
individuals to learn the social skills necessary to meet
social support needs.
In regard to why some children and adolescents
have more trouble making friends than others, evi-
dence suggests that in some instances early individual
differences in attachment and temperament predict
later friendship problems or successes. For example,
research has shown that children classified as inse-
cure-avoidant are more likely than securely attached
children to exhibit aggression, anger, and hostility in
peer-group settings. Also, insecure-ambivalent chil-
dren in such settings are more likely to exhibit social
inhibition and a low threshold for frustration. These
patterns of social behavior are predictive of peer re-
jection and lack of friendship. Similarly, research in
infant and childhood temperament has revealed a
predictive relation between friendship success and
both overall emotionality and the ability of an infant
or child to self-regulate emotional expression. Infants
and children who are the most temperamentally emo-
tional and the least capable of regulating their ex-
pression of emotion are on average less successful in
developing and maintaining friendships.
In summary, research suggests that some early in-
dividual differences in attachment and temperament
may lead to behavioral styles that ultimately under-
mine an individual’s ability to successfully make and
maintain friendships. The long-term effects of these
individual differences could be harmful for the indi-
vidual. With greater understanding and awareness of
the elements and dynamics involved, however, inter-
ventions may be developed that help deflect the indi-
vidual’s development to more successful and healthy
outcomes.A Biological Perspective on Personality
Development
From a more biological perspective, personality
development is thought to be primarily governed by
the biological maturation of the individual. Even en-
vironmental influences on development are viewed as302 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT