NCJ Number
87358
Journal
Youth and Society Volume: 14 Issue: 2 Dated: (December 1982) Pages: 185-211
Date Published
1982
Length
27 pages
Annotation
The genesis of pervasive self-rejection is a function of the subject's inability to defend against the self-devaluing implications of self-perceptions and self-evaluations of deviance, deviant responses by other group members, and subjectively disvalued life events.
Abstract
The general theory of deviant behavior, as it has been thus far developed, focuses on the reciprocal relationship between self-attitudes and motivated deviant responses. Self-rejecting attitudes are viewed as the outcome of a history of being unable to adapt to, cope with, or defend against membership group experiences that have self-devaluing implications. The resultant self-attitudes influence the adoption of motivated deviant responses, i.e., behaviors that derive from the loss of motivation to conform to the normative expectations of specified membership groups and are consciously or unconsciously intended to reduce the painful experience of self-rejecting attitudes. The inability to meet normative expectations that underlies self-rejection may stem from (1) being unaware of or mistaken about the roles to be fulfilled in relation to significant others, (2) being expected to fulfill roles in conflict with one another, and (3) lacking the resources required to achieve the goals that define personal worth. Directions for research on the reciprocal relationship between self-attitudes and deviant behavior go beyond and yet are continuous with earlier tests of aspects of the general theory of deviant behavior. Graphic theory models are provided, along with 42 references.