Cultural change and the self: The development of the self-concept in two groups of Greek pre-adolescents

This paper reports an investigation on how sociocultural changes in Greece have affected the development of the self-concept in two groups of Greek pre-adolescents, who were living in contexts of differential rates of cultural change. Drawing on cultural psychology, the person’s psychological development was conceptualised as co-constructedby individuals and their social worlds. To explore these co-constructions empirical work was conducted with primary school pupils in two islands geographically very close, but undergoing different rates of cultural change. Life Histories, the Cantril’s Self-Anchoring Scale and the Kinetic Family Drawing Test were used to assess the pupils’ self-concepts. Drawing selectively on data from these different sources we will illustrate the main findings. These indicated that the development of the self-concept of both groups was affected by cultural change and both groups were in a transitional phase. The differential rate of cultural change proved to be an important determinant of the different ways these groups have been adapting to sociocultural change