Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression Running head: ADOLESCENT EGOCENTRISM AND DEPRESSION

Imaginary Audience: An Influence on Adolescent Depression? Meaghan Reilly EDLF 4160 12/8/2009

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression Abstract The purpose of this longitudinal study is to assess the degree to which adolescent egocentrism, specifically in the form of the imaginary audience, has an effect on adolescent depression. Male and female participants are followed from 4th grade to age 30. Two questionnaires are used to

assess the independent variables of self-consciousness, imaginary audience, public individuation, and self-esteem, and the effect they have on the dependent variable of depressive symptomatology. Higher levels of self-consciousness and imaginary audience, and lower levels of public individuation and self-esteem, are hypothesized to be associated with higher levels of depression. Adolescent depression is hypothesized to be specific to adolescents and not due to personality traits present throughout the entire lifespan. Rather, adolescent developmental factors are believed to be the reason for adolescent depression.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression Imaginary Audience: An Influence on Adolescent Depression?

Adolescence is a period of life typically characterized as a time of stressful change and it is common for adolescents to suffer from feelings of depression. In fact, depression is the single most common psychological disturbance experienced by adolescents with 25% feeling depressed on a daily basis (Steinberg, 2008). The etiology of adolescent depression is of peak interest and research revolves around factors such as self-consciousness and self-esteem. While these problems may be present during other periods of life, they are manifested differently and have different effects on the individual during adolescence (Stehouwer, Bultsma, & Blackford, 1985). Heightened adolescent self-consciousness is termed adolescent egocentrism and may be manifested as an imaginary audience, personal fable, or both (Elkind, 1985). The primary interest of my research is to study the relationship between the adolescent constructed imaginary audience and adolescent depression. During adolescence, individuals begin to experience physical, cognitive, and social changes (Santrock, 2008). These developmental changes cause adolescents to behave in new ways. They become more concerned with their body image (Davison & McCabe, 2006), they begin to develop formal operational thinking allowing them to introspect as well as think about what others are thinking (Baron & Hanna, 1986), and following from that development, they become more concerned with how others perceive them (Elkind, 1985). This newfound concern with how others perceive them causes adolescents to behave differently in social situations. Adolescents with low concern about what others think more effectively individuate themselves, have higher self-esteem, and are more accepted by their peers (Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994). On the other hand, if they are highly concerned about what others think about them, they are more

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression likely to conform, have lower self-esteem, and exhibit social anxiety. Social anxiety creates a sense of awkwardness in social interactions that in turn contributes to possible peer rejection. According to Elkind (1985), the imaginary audience is formed because of the cognitive changes during adolescence that produce the emergence of formal operational thinking. Formal operational thinking allows the adolescent to think in more abstract terms, to think about his or her own thinking, and to think about what others are thinking. Elkind found that adolescent egocentrism such as the imaginary audience could be related to adolescent problems such as depression. He theorized that this was because adolescents think that others perceive them in negative ways. The adolescents then begin to regard themselves in the same negative way they believe others to view them in. This leads to lower self-esteem and the perceived loss of

positive regard of the audience which both can elicit depressive symptoms in the adolescent (p. 88). In accordance with Elkinds (1985) description of the emergence of formal operational thinking, adolescents begin to create constructions contrary to fact such as the imaginary audience (Baron & Hanna, 1986, p. 280) This distorted way of thinking in which the adolescent believes the audience views them in a negative light has been associated with adolescent depression. In fact, Baron and Hanna (1986) found that these distortions in the perceptions of others influenced the degree of adolescent depression measured. Their data reflected that participants with higher levels of egocentrism exhibited a significantly higher level of depressive symptomatology. Imaginary audience and other forms of adolescent egocentrism may lead to depression through influence on other developmental factors as well, such as degree of public individuation and identity formation (Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994). The researchers hypothesized that the

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression imaginary audience component of adolescent egocentrism would inhibit public individuation.

That is, the quality of being overly concerned with others perceptions of the self indicates higher self-consciousness. Higher self-consciousness reflects less willingness to stand out and a greater likelihood of conformity. Conformity contributes to the feeling that the adolescent is not good enough just being themselves which lowers their self-esteem and inhibits the formation of a solid identity. Not only has higher self-consciousness and lower self-esteem been found to contribute to depression (Lewinsohn, Gotlib, & Seeley, 1997), it is presumable that the lack of a concrete identity contributes to a weak self-concept and thus an even greater likelihood of exhibiting depressive symptoms (Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994). Self-consciousness and self-esteem appear to play major roles in the development of adolescent depression. For example, when adolescent egocentrism has a negative effect on selfesteem, it is likely that the adolescent will develop symptoms typical of depression (Rosenberg, Schooler, & Schoenbach, 1989). Figure 1 illustrates how different influences can affect adolescent self-esteem and adjustment in positive or negative ways (Dubois & Tevendale, 1999). For example, heightened self-consciousness, imaginary audience, and social interactions can serve as influences on self-esteem outcomes and further adaptive functioning. Thus, if the adolescent suffers from high levels of self-consciousness, this will affect their self-esteem negatively because of low feelings of self-worth and negative self-evaluations. This then interacts with other moderating influences from the environment such as poor social interactions. These combine to produce poor adolescent functioning in that adolescents with lower self-esteem will exhibit more anxiety or depression. In his book, Rosenberg (1986), validates the previous findings by indicating three primary principles related to the positive or negative formation of adolescent self-esteem. These

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression principles include social comparison, self-attribution, and reflected appraisals. Reflected appraisals refer to the thoughts that people perceive others to have of them. Reflected appraisal, as well as the other two principals, act as influences on the development of adolescent self-

esteem. The outcomes of their influences are either positive or negative self-esteem. The level of self-esteem then affects the adolescents psychological and social functioning in the way depicted in Figure 1 (Dubois & Tevendale, 1999), as studies by Rosenberg, Schooler, and Schoenbach (1989) have supported. Further investigations have demonstrated how self-definitions influence identity formation and self-esteem (Liu, Kaplan, & Riser, 1992). Definitions of the self are gradually shaped and molded by interactions the adolescent has in the social world. If they receive positive reactions from their relationships they will continue to act in specific ways whereas if they receive negative reactions they will be in constant confusion of who they should be and how they should behave. To summarize, self-esteem affects how people act in social situations. Low selfesteem will lead to poor social interactions because they think people think negatively of them. Low self-regard and decreased social interaction, caused by poor social interactions, lead to social withdrawal and rejection, correlating to depression. The importance of studying adolescents social skills is something to be considered when studying adolescent depression. One developmental characteristic of adolescence, the imaginary audience, has been associated with poor social skills as illustrated by a significant positive correlation between level of depression and scores on Elkinds Imaginary Audience Scale (Schonert-Reichl, 1994). A high score on the Imaginary Audience Scale is indicative of a high level of egocentrism. As covered in studies previously discussed, higher egocentrism is related to more negative perceptions of the self. These negative self-perceptions contribute to social

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression anxiety, more negative interpersonal interactions, lower self-esteem, and depressive symptomatology. Another factor thought to be associated with adolescent depression is body image. Davison and McCabe (2006) were interested in whether ones own negative views of their body affect their daily functioning and interaction with others during early adolescence. Because adolescent development is characterized by heightened self-consciousness and worries of what others think of them, especially their appearance, it makes sense that if they had a poor body image it would hamper their interactions with others. The main question is however, is it the factor of body image or self-esteem that contributes to symptoms of depression? A strong association was found between negative body image and low self-esteem for both genders (Davison & McCabe, 2006). In accordance with the imaginary audience, it is apparent that adolescents value their appearance because that is what they believe other people judge them by. If they believe they do not look good, they think others think the same, which contributes to low self-esteem. We have already acknowledged how self-esteem contributes to negative affect like depression. This study originally found that body image did significantly correlate with depression, however once self-esteem was controlled for there was no longer an effect. Therefore, it is the factor of self-esteem, not body image, that has been found to correlate with depression. However, it is important to acknowledge that a negative body image may have an affect on lowering self-esteem.

The concept of imaginary audience is closely related to the belief of personal uniqueness, both of which again have been found to be associated with negative socio-behavioral effects and symptoms of depression (Aalsma, Lapsley, & Flannery, 2006). Specifically, results from this study indicated an association between personal uniqueness and depression and suicidal ideation.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression An interesting finding was that these symptoms of depression and thoughts of suicide increased as the adolescent developed from early to middle stages of adolescence. An explanation for this is that as they age, their formal operational cognitive abilities continue to improve. The

adolescent then thinks more and more about what they perceive others to believe about them. As formal operational thinking becomes more prominent, so does egocentrism and one of its main components imaginary audience. As already mentioned, increases in adolescent imaginary audience lead to negative affect on the basis of reflected appraisals, self-consciousness, social anxiety and self-esteem, among other possible things. Aalsma, Lapsley, and Flannery (2006) also found a gender difference in depressive symptoms. Females presented stronger feelings of personal uniqueness, thus, more symptoms of depression and more numerous thoughts of suicide. I believe this is because females tend to care more about interpersonal relationships and would be more sensitive to the views of others. Therefore, if a female had high egocentrism, she would be even more vulnerable in her interactions with others, putting her at a higher risk of depressive affect. Accordingly, this study found that narcissism, the excessive interest in oneself instead of interest in the thoughts of others, actually enhanced psychological wellbeing (Aalsma, Lapsley, & Flannery). Reviewing the previous research conducted on issues of adolescent development displays that there are no simple answers and that many factors are involved in adolescent problems such as egocentrism and depression. It is important to study these problems to try and better understand them so that we can help adolescents through what can be a challenging developmental time. It is important to understand adolescent depression and its causes like selfconsciousness and self-esteem in order to prevent serious problems such as adolescent suicide. Studies have found that major correlates to adolescent suicide include developmental issues I

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression have reviewed such as depression, social withdrawal and impaired interpersonal interactions (Allberg & Chu, 1990). Egocentrism and imaginary audience are also correlates of adolescent suicide because of their preoccupation with others beliefs about them and the ideas that they think negatively of them.

The purpose of my study is to further investigate if there are any real effects of the degree to which the adolescent experiences the imaginary audience on the level of depression in the adolescent. I intend to differentiate my study from others by selecting a group of pre-adolescent children and following them through adolescence until middle adulthood. This way, I can study the individual personality traits of each participant and determine whether they are selfconscious, have poor social skills, social anxiety, low self-esteem or depression before, during, and after the developmental period of adolescence. This will help to determine whether there is an adolescent-specific depression that differs from childhood and adult depression, and whether depression experienced during adolescence is caused by adolescent developmental factors or is just related to personality traits that are present throughout the entire lifespan. Learning more about the variables involved in adolescent depression may be useful in preventing depression itself as well as unfortunate tragedies caused by it, such as suicide. Previous studies have provided evidence for the association of adolescent depression with many variables during adolescence such as imaginary audience, self-consciousness, public individuation, and self-esteem. I believe that higher levels of self-consciousness, lower levels of self-esteem, and lower levels of public individuation affect imaginary audience. Therefore, I will include those three variables along with imaginary audience in my assessment of adolescent depression. Utilizing a questionnaire that contains subscales for each variable mentioned, I will test my hypotheses about their effects on adolescent depressive affect. I hypothesize that high

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 10 imaginary audience will be associated with low public individuation, high self-consciousness, and low self-esteem. Accordingly, high imaginary audience, low public individuation, high selfconsciousness, and low self-esteem will all be associated with higher levels of depression. I also believe that results from this study will indicate that adolescent depression is indeed specific to adolescence and caused by the adolescent factors of development being studied. I do not believe that depression during adolescence is the same as depression during other periods of life. The results of this study will potentially provide further understanding into the matter of this developmental issue and provide insight into prevention and treatment of adolescent depression. Method Participants Participants for this study are young children, both males and females, from 4th grade classes in elementary schools from the Virginia cities of Charlottesville, Fairfax, Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Lynchburg, as well as Washington D.C.. These students will be followed, with consent from their parents, through adolescence until middle adulthood, which for our purposes is 30 years old. Materials Two different questionnaires will be used in this study depending on the age of the participants. At the beginning of the study, when the participants are in 4th grade, the questionnaire will consist of subscales including the Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI) (Helsel & Matson, 1984), the Self-Consciousness Scale (Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994), the Imaginary Audience Scale (IAS) (Elkind & Bowen, 1979), the Public Individuation Scale (Maslach, Stapp, & Santee, 1985), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994). Once the participants have reached 8th grade, the second questionnaire will be used. This

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 11 questionnaire will replace the CDI with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) it is better for assessing individuals once they have reached adolescence (Baron & Hanna, 1986). Thus, the second questionnaire will consist of the same subscales mentioned above only substituting the BDI for the CDI. The CDI assesses childhood depression using 27 items measuring factors such as affective behavior, image/ideation, interpersonal relations, and guilt/irritability (Helsel & Matson, 1984). This scale has been found to be useful for measuring depression in children from 7 to 17 years old. For the purpose of this study, this survey will be used for measurements from 4th grade through 8th grade. See Appendix A for the list of the 27 items used to measure depression on the CDI. The BDI is another self-assessment scale of depression particularly used to measure depression in people 13 years or older. Thus, for this study, the BDI will be used to measure depression in participants from 9th grade through age 30. The BDI consists of 21 items intended to assess cognitive, behavioral, affective, and somatic aspects of depression (Baron & Hanna, 1986). See Appendix B to view the items used to assess depression on the BDI (Lindsay & Skene, 2007). The remaining subscales measure self-consciousness, imaginary audience, public individuation and self-esteem all of which I believe are related to adolescent depression. The Self-Consciousness Scale consists of 23 statements that participants respond to on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = extremely uncharacteristic, 4 = extremely characteristic) (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). See Appendix C to read the statements that are used by the Self-Consciousness Scale.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 12 The Imaginary Audience Scale (IAS) is made up of twelve vignettes expressing situations in which the participant is in a potentially vulnerable and self-revealing state, see Appendix D for examples (Elkind & Bowen, 1979). Participants indicate their probable response to the situation and their responses are given a score of either one, two, or three. The scores of all the questions are added up and higher total scores indicate a greater influence of imaginary audience on the adolescents functioning (Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994). The Public Individuation Scale also assesses the degree to which the imaginary audience influences the adolescents functioning in regards to their willingness to publicly separate themselves from others rather than conform (Ryan & Kuczkowski, 1994). This scale uses 12 items with responses on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all willing to do this, 5 = very much willing to do this) (Maslach, Stapp, & Santee, 1985). See Appendix E for the 12 items of the Public Individuation Scale. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale contains 10 items to evaluate the self-esteem of the adolescent and the extent of their self-evaluation (Rosenberg, Schooler, & Schoenbach, 1989). Responses are on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly uncharacteristic, 4 = strongly characteristic). See Appendix F for the 10 items of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Procedure Questionnaires will be sent to the participating schools. Teachers of the 4th grade students will administer the first questionnaire to all of their students. When students have finished responding to the questionnaire, the teacher will collect them and send them back to me for data collection and analysis. This procedure is followed by all of the teachers and participants through 12th grade when the students will presumably graduate from high school. From that point on, the questionnaires will be mailed to the participants every year until they reach 30 years of age.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 13 Participants will respond and mail the responses back to me. Some loss of participants is expected from high school dropout or lack of response in older adolescence and young adulthood. Responses from the questionnaires will be analyzed to identify whether there are any correlations between the factors of depression, self-consciousness, imaginary audience, public individuation, and self-esteem. Since the study is longitudinal, one should be able to notice changes in degrees of certain qualities as the individual progresses through different developmental stages. For example, levels of self-consciousness are predicted to be low during childhood at the beginning of the study and rise to higher levels as the participant ages into adolescence. From this data, we should be able to determine whether adolescent depression is correlated with adolescent egocentrism in the form of imaginary audience. Also, we will be able to determine whether this phenomenon is specific to the adolescent age group, or is due to traits possessed by the participants throughout the lifespan.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 14 References Aalsma, M., Lapsley, D., & Flannery, D. (2006). Personal fables, narcissism, and adolescent adjustment. Psychology in the Schools, 43, 481-491. Allberg, W., & Chu, L. (1990). Understanding adolescent suicide: Correlates in a developmental perspective. School Counselor, 37, 343-350. Baron, P., & Hanna, J. (1990). Egocentrism and depressive symptomatology in adolescents. Social Behavior and Personality, 18, 279-286. Davison, T., & McCabe, M. (2006). Adolescent body image and psychosocial functioning. The Journal of Social Psychology, 146, 15-30. Dubois, D., & Tevendale, H. (1999). Self-esteem in childhood and adolescence: Vaccine or epiphenomenon? Applied & Preventative Psychology, 8, 103-117. Elkind, D. (1985). Cognitive development and adolescent disabilities. Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 6, 84-89. Elkind, D., & Bowen, R. (1979). Imaginary audience behavior in children and adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 15, 38-44. Fenigstein, A., Scheier, M., & Buss, A. (1975). Public and private self-consciousness: Assessment and theory. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43, 522-527. Helsel, W., & Matson, J. (1984). The assessment of depression in children: The internal structure of the child depression inventory (CDI). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 22, 289-298. Lewinsohn, P., Gotlib, I., & Seeley, J. (1997). Depression-related psychosocial variables: Are they specific to depression in adolescents? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 365375.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 15 Liu, X., Kaplan, H., & Risser, W. (1992). Decomposing the reciprocal relationships between academic achievement and general self-esteem. Youth and Society, 24, 123-148. Maslach, C., Stapp, J., & Santee, R. (1985). Individuation: Conceptual analysis and assessment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 729-738. Rosenberg, M. (1986). Conceiving the self. Malabar, Fl: Kreiger Publishing Co. Rosenberg, M., Schooler, C., & Schoenbach, C. (1989). Self-esteem and adolescent problems: Modeling reciprocal effects. American Sociological Review, 54, 1004-1018. Ryan, R., & Kuczkowski, R. (1994). The imaginary audience, self-consciousness, and public individuation in adolescence. Journal of Personality, 62, 219-238. Santrock, J. (2008). Essentials of Life-Span Development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Schonert-Reichl, K. (1994). Gender differences in depressive symptomatology and egocentrism in adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 14, 49-65. Stehouwer, R., Bultsma, C., & Blackford, I. (1985). Developmental differences in depression: Cognitive-perceptual distortion in adolescent versus adult female depressives. Adolescence, 20, 291-299. Steinberg, L. (2008). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lindsay, W., & Skene, D. (2007). The Beck Depression Inventory II and the Beck Anxiety Inventory in people with intellectual disabilities: Factor analyses and group data. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 20, 401-408.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 16 Appendix A The 27 items of the Childrens Depression Inventory. 1. Frequent Sadness 2. Hopelessness 3. Cant do anything right/incompetent 4. Anhedonia 5. Sees self as bad 6. Worries that bad things are going to happen to self 7. Self-hatred 8. Guilt 9. Wants to kill him/herself 10. Frequent crying 11. Bothered by things 12. Doesnt want to be bothered 13. Indecisive 14. Feels ugly 15. School motivation problems 16. Trouble sleeping 17. Fatigue 18. Poor appetite 19. Concerned about aches and pains 20. Feels lonely 21. Doesnt have fun at school 22. Doesnt have friends 23. School failure 24. Feels inferior to other kids 25. Feels unloved 26. Noncompliant 27. Frequently gets into fights

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 17 Appendix B The 21 items of the Beck Depression Inventory. 1. Sadness 2. Hopelessness 3. Sense of failure 4. Loss of pleasure 5. Feeling guilty 6. Self-dislike/disgust 7. Self-criticism 8. Suicidal thoughts 9. Crying 10. Agitation 11. Loss of interest 12. Indecisiveness 13. Feeling worthless 14. Loss of energy 15. Change in sleep 16. Change in appetite 17. Loss of concentration 18. Feeling tired 19. Loss of libido 20. Irritability 21. Feeling punished

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 18 Appendix C Items of the Self-Consciousness Scale. 1. Im always trying to figure myself out. 2. Im concerned about my style of doing things. 3. Generally, Im very aware of myself. 4. It takes me time to overcome my shyness in new situations. 5. I reflect about myself a lot. 6. Im concerned about the way I present myself. 7. Im often the subject of my own fantasies. 8. I have trouble working when someone is watching me. 9. I constantly scrutinize myself. 10. I get embarrassed very easily. 11. Im self-conscious about the way I look. 12. I find it hard to talk to strangers. 13. Im generally attentive to my inner feelings. 14. I usually worry about making a good impression. 15. Im constantly examining my motives. 16. I feel anxious when I speak in front of a large group. 17. One of the last things I do before I leave the house is look in the mirror. 18. I sometimes have the feeling that Im off somewhere watching myself. 19. Im concerned about what other people think of me. 20. Im alert to changes in my mood. 21. Im usually aware of my appearance.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 19 22. Im aware of the way my mind works when I work through a problem. 23. Large groups make me nervous.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 20 Appendix D Instructions: Please read the following stories carefully and assume that the events actually happened to you. Place a check next to the answer that best describes what you would do or feel in the real situation. 1. You have looked forward to the most exciting dress up party of the year. You arrive after an hours drive from home. Just as the party is beginning, you notice a grease spot on your trousers or skirt. (There is no way to borrow clothes from anyone.) Would you stay or go home? ___ Go home. ___ Stay, even though Id feel uncomfortable. ___ Stay, because the grease spot wouldnt bother me. 2. Lets say some adult visitors came to your school and you were asked to tell them a little bit about yourself. ___ I would like that. ___ I would not like that. ___ I wouldnt care. 3. It is Friday afternoon and you have just had your hair cut in preparation for the wedding of a relative that weekend. The barber or hairdresser did a terrible job and your hair looks awful. To make it worse, that night is the important basketball game of the season and you really want to see it, but there is no way you can keep your head covered without people asking questions. Would you stay home or go to the game anyway? ___ Go to the game and not worry about my hair. ___ Go to the game and sit where people wont notice me very much. ___ Stay home. 4. If you went to a party where you did not know most of the kids, would you wonder what they were thinking about you? ___ I wouldnt think about it. ___ I would wonder about that a lot. ___ I would wonder about that a little. 5. You are sitting in class and have discovered that your jeans have a small but noticeable split along the side seam. Your teacher has offered extra credit toward his/her course grade to anyone who can write the correct answer to a question on the blackboard. Would you get up in front of the class and go to the blackboard, or would you remain seated? ___ Go to the blackboard as though nothing has happened. ___ Go to the blackboard and try to hide the split. ___ Remain seated.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 21 6. When someone watches me work ___ I get very nervous. ___ I dont mind at all. ___ I get a little nervous. 7. Your class is supposed to have their picture taken, but you fell the day before an scraped your face. You would like to be in the picture but your cheek is red and swollen. Would you have your picture taken anyway or stay out of the picture? ___ Get your picture taken even though youd be embarrassed. ___ Stay out of the picture. ___ Get your picture taken and not worry about it. 8. One young person said, When Im with people I get nervous because I worry about how much they like me. ___ I feel like this often. ___ I never feel like this. ___ I feel like this sometimes. 9. You have been looking forward to your friends party for weeks, but just before you leave for the party your mother tells you she accidentally washed all you good clothes with a red shirt. Now all your jeans are pink in spots. The only thing left to wear are your jeans that are too big and too baggy. Would you go to the party or would you stay home? ___ Go to the party, but buy a new pair of jeans to wear. ___ Stay home. ___ Go to the party in either the pink or baggy jeans. 10. Suppose you went to a party that you thought was a costume party but when you got there you were the only person wearing a costume. Youd like to stay and have fun with your friends but your costume is very noticeable. Would you stay or go home? ___ Go home. ___ Stay and have fun joking about your costume. ___ Stay, but try to borrow some clothes to wear. 11. Lets say you wrote a story for an assignment your teacher gave you, and she asked you to read it aloud to the rest of the class. ___ I would not like that at all. ___ I would like that but I would be nervous. ___ I would like that. 12. If you were asked to get up in front of the class and talk a little bit about your hobby ___ I wouldnt be nervous at all. ___ I would be a little nervous. ___ I would be very nervous.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 22 Appendix E Items of the Public Individuation Scale. 1. Give a lecture to a large audience. 2. Raise your hand to ask a question in a meeting or lecture. 3. Volunteer to head a committee for a group of people you do not know very well. 4. Tell a person that you like him/her. 5. Publicly challenge a speaker whose position clashes with your own. 6. Accept a nomination to be a leader of a group. 7. Present a personal opinion on a controversial issue, to a group of strangers. 8. When asked to introduce yourself, say something more personal about yourself than just your name or occupation. 9. Give an informal talk in front of a small group of classmates or colleagues. 10. Speak up about your ideas even though you are uncertain of whether you are correct. 11. Perform on a stage before a large audience. 12. Give your opinion on a controversial issue, even though no one has asked for it.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 23 Appendix F Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale Instructions: Circle whether you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with each of these statements. Please answer all questions. 1. I feel that Im a person of worth at least on an equal plane with others. 2. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself. 3. I wish I could have more respect for myself. 4. I certainly feel useless at times. 5. At times I think I am no good at all. 6. I feel that I have a number of good qualities. 7. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure. 8. I am able to do things as well as most other people. 9. I feel that I do not have much to be proud of. 10. I take a positive attitude toward myself.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 24

Figure 1. A proposed model of the role of self-esteem in adolescent adjustment. The development of adolescent self-esteem and its outcomes can be affected by influences such as imaginary audience and reflected appraisals.

Imaginary Audience & Adolescent Depression 25 On my honor as a student I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.