Self and Identity across the Life Span

Abstract

This chapter reviews trends in research and theory on the development of the self across the human life span, as they appear in a wide range of social-science disciplines. The review is organized in terms of three main guises of the self—the self as actor, agent, and author. Features of the self-as-actor emerge first in the life span, as manifested in the young child's observations of his or her own social performances and dispositional traits. With development, features of the self-as-agent—personal goals and plans and their psychological scaffolding—layer over basic dimensions of the actor-self. In emerging adulthood, the self-as-author rises to the fore to address the modern psychosocial challenge of creating a meaningful story, or narrative identity, for one's life.