When and how is the self acquired and what characterizes its development and change over the life span? What are the implications of using different methodologies to study the self with different age groups? This book addresses these and related questions.

The authors offer research on early and middle childhood, late childhood and adolescence, and adulthood and old age. Among the issues considered are the relationship between cognitive complexity and self-evaluation in childhood, the pivotal socio-emotional tasks that confront the adolescent, and effects of situational and structural factors on the self-esteem of adolescents and adults, and age and gender differences in the ideal and undesired selves of young and older adults. These contributions illustrate the different theoretical and methodological issues that are associated with differing stages of the life span and provide a summary of the current knowledge base of the self across the life span.

Unlike previous books on study of the self, this one provides a systematic analysis of the theoretical and methodological issues and a selection of several alternative methodologies for studying the self across the life span.