Generation Me--Revised and Updated

by Jean M. Twenge

  In 1976, 36% of high school seniors: J. M. Twenge, W. K. Campbell, and E. C. Freeman,. “Generational Differences in Young Adults’ Life Goals, Concern for Others, and Civic Orientation, 1966–2009,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102 (2012): 1045–62.

  In 1976, 46% of high school students: Twenge, Campbell, and Carter, “Declines in trust.”

  In a mid-2000s survey of men, 62%: Michele Orecklin, “Stress and the Superdad,” Time, August 23, 2004.

  In an episode of the teen show: Dawson’s Creek, Episode 510: “Appetite for Destruction” airdate December 19, 2001.

  “When I’m alone, I do masturbate a lot”: Maureen O’Connor, “James Franco Is a Chronic Masturbator,” Gawker.com, September 7, 2010.

  “We have sex like Kenyan marathon runners”: “Olivia Wilde: Jason Sudeikis and I Have ‘Sex Like Kenyan Marathon Runners,’ ” US Weekly, October 9, 2012.

  A survey by babycenter.com: http://www.babycenter.com/0_birth-in-america-survey-1-000-women-tell-it-like-it-is_10338347.bc#articlesection7.

  A recent survey found that 28%: J. R. Temple, J. A. Paul, P. vanden Burg, V. D. Le, A. McElhany, and B. W. Temple, “Teen Sexting and Its Association with Sexual Behaviors,” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 166 (2012): 828–33.

  In one episode of the teen soap: The O.C., episode “The Distance,” airdate November 4, 2004.

  When psychologist Bella DePaulo: B. DePaulo, “People Posting Vile, Hateful Comments: What’s That About?,” Psychology Today blog, December 29, 2009, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/living-single/200912/people-posting-vile-hateful-comments-what-s-about.

  The Google Books database proves the point: Google Books Ngram Viewer, American English corpus.

  In December 2013, the movie The Wolf of Wall Street: F. Wickman, “Is Wolf of Wall Street Really the Sweariest Movie of All Time? A Slate Investigation,” Slate.com, January 7, 2014, http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/01/07/wolf_of_wall_street_sets_f_word_record_we_counted_every_last_f_bomb_in_the.html.

  The scale measures a person’s need: D. P. Crowne and D. Marlowe, The Approval Motive (New York: Wiley, 1964), 39.

  follow “conventional, even stereotyped”: Ibid., 85.

  My student Charles Im and I: J. M. Twenge and C. Im, “Changes in the Need for Social Approval, 1958–2001,” Journal of Research in Personality 41 (2007): 171–89.

  Similar results appeared on two other measures: J. M. Twenge, B. Gentile, C. N. DeWall, D. S. Ma, K. Lacefield, and D. R. Schurtz, “Birth Cohort Increases in Psychopathology among Young Americans, 1938–2007: A Cross-Temporal Meta-analysis of the MMPI,” Clinical Psychology Review 30 (2010): 145–54.

  Children ages 9 to 12 showed: Twenge and Im, “Changes in the Need for Social Approval,” 171–89.

  Take the line yippie radical: Jerry Rubin, Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven (New York: Lippincott, 1976), 117.

  2. An Army of One: Me

  O Magazine published “Why Women Have Low Self-Esteem”: Aimee Lee Ball, “Why Women Have Low Self-Esteem: Women and the Negativity Receptor,” O Magazine, August 2008, http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Why-Women-Have-Low-Self-Esteem-How-to-Feel-More-Confident.

  while Parenting offered: Yanick Rice Lamb, “Proud to Be Me!,” Parenting, April 2005.

  October 2011 saw the premier issue: http://www.byoumagazine.com/.

  the American Academy of Pediatrics guide: Steven Shelov, ed., Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 (New York: Bantam, 1998).

  In a 1976 New York magazine article: Tom Wolfe, “The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening,” New York, August 23, 1976.

  When asked what’s next in her life: “Pop Quiz: Kim Basinger,” People, September 27, 2004.

  In answer to the same question: Jeanne Marie Laskas, “Sarah’s New Day,” Ladies’ Home Journal, June 2004.

  Gillon describes Boomers: Steve Gillon, Boomer Nation (New York: Free Press 2004), 263.

  Even food becomes: David Brooks, Bobos in Paradise (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 58.

  In 1967, a whopping 86%: J. M. Twenge, W. K. Campbell, and E. C. Freeman, “Generational Differences in Young Adults’ Life Goals, Concern for Others, and Civic Orientation, 1966–2009,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102 (2012): 1045–62.J.

  “Instead of seeking”: Jerry Rubin, Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven (New York: Lippincott, 1976), 175.

  Aleta St. James, a 57-year-old woman: Jonathan Schienberg, “New Age Mystic to Become Mom at 57,” cnn.com. November 9, 2004.

  In Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis: Alexandra Robbins, Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis (New York: Perigee, 2004), 51–52.

  Even a brief frolic through the Google Books database: Google Books Ngram Viewer, American English corpus; J. M. Twenge, W. K. Campbell, and B. Gentile, “Increases in Individualistic Words and Phrases in American Books, 1960–2008,” PLoS ONE 7 (2012): e40181.

  Dr. Phil, the ultimate in plainspoken: Today, NBC, December 27, 2004.

  Psychologist Martin Seligman says: M. E. P. Seligman, “Boomer Blues,” Psychology Today, October 1988, 50–53.

  In 2013, the Oxford English Dictionary’s: T. Barrineau, “ ‘Selfie’ Named Word of the Year for 2013: We Like Taking Pictures of Ourselves, and It Shows,” USA Today, December 5, 2013, http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/11/18/selfie-named-word-of-the-year-2013/3634727/.

  Even the pronouns we use have changed: J. M. Twenge, W. K. Campbell, and B. Gentile, “Changes in Pronoun Use in American Books and the Rise of Individualism, 1960–2008,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 44 (2013): 406–15.

  In an initial study, W. Keith Campbell and I examined: J. M. Twenge and W. K. Campbell, “Age and Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem: A Cross-Temporal Meta-analysis,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 5 (2001): 321–44.

  For her master’s thesis with me, Brittany Gentile: B. Gentile, J. M. Twenge, and W. K. Campbell, “Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem, 1988–2008: A Cross-Temporal Meta-analysis,” Review of General Psychology 14 (2010): 261–68.

  GenMe high school students anticipate: J. M. Twenge and W. K. Campbell, “Increases in Positive Self-Views among High School Students: Birth Cohort Changes in Anticipated Performance, Self-Satisfaction, Self-Liking, and Self-Competence,” Psychological Science 19 (2008): 1082–86; and updates from the Monitoring the Future datafiles.

  When asked to compare themselves: J. M. Twenge, W. K. Campbell, and B. Gentile, “Generational Increases in Agentic Self-Evaluations among American College Students, 1966–2009,” Self and Identity 11 (2012): 409–27; and updates from the American Freshman Survey reports.

  We examined the responses: Twenge and Campbell, “Age and Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem.”

  In a later analysis of the self-esteem scores: Gentile, Twenge, and Campbell, “Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem, 1988–2008.”

  Research on programs to boost: Twenge and Campbell, “Age and Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem.”.

  Journal articles on self-esteem: John Hewitt, The Myth of Self-Esteem (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), 51.

  One children’s book: Diane Loomans, The Lovables in the Kingdom of Self-Esteem (New York: H. J. Kramer, 1991).

  One program is called: Maureen Stout, The Feel-Good Curriculum (Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 2000), 131.

  Another program, called “Pumsy in Pursuit of Excellence”: “Teaching Self-Image Stirs Furor,” New York Times, October 13, 1993.

  The Magic Circle exercise: http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=573; and M. L. Summerlin, V. L. Hammett,; and M. L. Payne, “The Effect of Magic Circle Participation on a Child’s Self-Concept,” School Counselor 31 (1983): 49–52.

  One Austin, Texas, father: William Swann, Self-Traps: The Elusive Quest for Higher Self-Esteem (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1996), 4.

  When self-esteem programs: Hewitt, Myth of Self-Esteem, 84–85.

  In one program, teachers: Lauren Murphy Payn
e and Claudia Rolhing, A Leader’s Guide to Just Because I Am: A Child’s Book of Affirmation (Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, 1994); and Hewitt, Myth of Self-Esteem.

  children are asked to finish: Hewitt, Myth of Self-Esteem, 79.

  A sign on the wall: Rita Kramer, Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America’s Teachers (New York: Free Press, 1991), 33.

  Perhaps as a result, 60% of teachers: C. G. Scott, “Student Self-Esteem and the School System: Perceptions and Implications,” Journal of Educational Research 89 (1996): 292–97.

  A veteran second-grade teacher: Nancy Gibbs, “Parents Behaving Badly,” Time, February 21, 2005.

  For example, the popular Christian: Max Lucado, You Are Special (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997).

  In an article in Ladies’ Home Journal, Christian author: Rick Warren, “Learn to Love Yourself!,” Ladies’ Home Journal, March 2005.

  Children in some schools: Lynn Sherr, “Me, Myself and I—the Growing Self-Esteem Movement,” 20/20, ABC, March 11, 1994.

  Other students pen: Ibid.

  The children’s museum in Laramie: Sherr. “Me, Myself and I.”.

  In a CBS News poll: CBS News, The Class of 2000 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), ebook, 64.

  The 1997 premier episode: Daria, episode “Esteemsters,” MTV, March 3, 1997.

  Hewitt, who teaches: Hewitt, Myth of Self-Esteem, 1–3.

  In 2002, the Girl Scout Council: www.girlscouts.org/program/program_opportunities/leadership/uniquelyme.asp.

  In 1999, a carefully researched: K. C. Kling et al., “Gender Differences in Self-Esteem: A Meta-analysis,” Psychological Bulletin 125 (1999): 470–500.

  “We may create”: www.news.wisc.edu/wire/i072899/selfesteem.html.

  When Keith Campbell and I did: Twenge and Campbell, “Age and Birth Cohort Differences in Self-Esteem.”

  One popular method tells: Sandra Wilde, “A Proposal for a New Spelling Curriculum,” Elementary School Journal 90 (1989): 275–89.

  Teacher-education courses emphasize: Kramer, Ed School Follies, 116.

  A British teacher proposed: “Teachers Say No One Should ‘Fail,’ ” BBC News, July 20, 2005. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4697461.stm.

  Only 19% of high school graduates boasted: Twenge and Campbell, “Increases in Positive Self-Views”; Twenge, Campbell, and Gentile, “Generational Increases in Agentic Self-Evaluations”; and updates from the Monitoring the Future datafiles and American Freshman Survey datafiles.

  “Each year we think”: Steve Giegerich, “College Freshmen Have Worst Study Habits in Years but Less Likely to Drink, Study Finds,” Associated Press, January 27, 2003, www.detnews.com/2003/schools/0301/27/schools-70002.htm.

  “Teachers want to raise”: Carol Innerst, “Wordsmiths on Wane among US Students,” Washington Times, August 25, 1994.

  As education professor Maureen Stout notes: Stout, Feel-Good Curriculum, 3–4.

  in 2013, 38% of college freshmen: American Freshman Survey datafiles.

  research shows that when people: T. F. Heatherton and K. D. Vohs, “Interpersonal Evaluations Following Threats to Self: Role of Self-Esteem,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78 (2000): 725–36.

  Lippman quotes an e-mail: S. Lippman, R. E. Bulanda, and T. C. Wagenaar, “Student Entitlement: Issues and Strategies for Confronting Entitlement in the Classroom and Beyond,” College Teaching 57, no. 4 (2009): 197–204.

  in a 2008 survey, 66%: E. Greenburger, J. Lessard, C. Chen, and S. P. Farruggia, “Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factors,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 37 (2008): 1193–1204.

  Students “look and act like”: Hewitt, Myth of Self-Esteem, 84.

  A USA Today article concluded: Cindy Perman, “Are Millennials Really the ‘Me’ Generation?,” USA Today, August 24, 2013, http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/24/millenials-time-magazine-generation-y/2678441/.

  There is a small correlation: R. F. Baumeister et al., “Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4 (2003): 1–44; and M. V. Covington, “Self-Esteem and Failure in School,” in The Social Importance of Self-Esteem, ed. A. M. Mecca, N. J. Smelser, and J. Vasconcellos (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 79.

  Which ethnic group in the United States: J. M. Twenge and J. Crocker, “Race and Self-Esteem: Meta-analyses Comparing Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians and Comment on Gray-Little and Hafdahl (2000),” Psychological Bulletin 128 (2002): 371–408.

  Narcissists are not any more successful: For a review, see J. M. Twenge and W. K. Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (New York: Atria Books, 2009).

  Several comprehensive reviews: Ibid.

  Even the book sponsored: N. J. Smelser, “Self-Esteem and Social Problems,” in Social Importance of Self-Esteem, ed. Mecca, Smelser, and Vasconcellos.

  However, Kyung Hee Kim of the College of William: K. H. Kim, “The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking,” Creativity Research Journal 23 (2011): 285–95.

  Psychologist Martin Seligman has criticized: Martin Seligman, The Optimistic Child (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996).

  “It is very questionable”: Roy Baumeister,. “The Lowdown on High Self-Esteem: Thinking You’re Hot Stuff Isn’t the Promised Cure-All,” Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2005.

  “What the self-esteem movement”: Stout, Feel-Good Curriculum, 263.

  As psychologist Jennifer Crocker documents: J. Crocker and L. E. Park, “The Costly Pursuit of Self-Esteem,” Psychological Bulletin 130 (2004): 392–414.

  Don Forsyth and his colleagues decided: D. R. Forsyth, N. K. Lawrence, J. L. Burnette, and R. F. Baumeister, “Attempting to Improve the Academic Performance of Struggling College Students by Bolstering Their Self-Esteem: An Intervention That Backfired,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 26 (2007): 447–59.

  When Asian students find out: S. J. Heine et al.. “Divergent Consequences of Success and Failure in Japan and North America: An Investigation of Self-Improving Motivations and Malleable Selves,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81 (2001): 599–615.

  “There is no self-esteem movement”: Robert Shaw, The Epidemic (New York: Regan Books, 2003), 152.

  are so focused on themselves: W. Keith Campbell, When You Love a Man Who Loves Himself (Chicago: Source Books, 2005). For a review, see Twenge and Campbell, Narcissism Epidemic.

  Narcissists are also more likely: V. S. Helgeson and H. L. Fritz, “Unmitigated Agency and Unmitigated Communion: Distinctions from Agency and Communion,” Journal of Research in Personality 33 (1999): 131–58.

  In the early 1950s, only 12% of teens: C. R. Newsom et al., “Changes in Adolescent Response Patterns on the MMPI/MMPI-A across Four Decades,” Journal of Personality Assessment 81 (2003): 74–84.

  Narcissistic personality is usually measured with: M. Tamborski and R. P. Brown, “The Measurement of Trait Narcissism in Social-Personality Research,” in The Handbook of Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, ed. W. K. Campbell and J. D. Miller (New York: Wiley, 2011).

  My coauthors and I analyzed the responses: J. M. Twenge and J. D. Foster, “Birth Cohort Increases in Narcissistic Personality Traits among American College Students, 1982–2009,” Social Psychological and Personality Science 1 (2010): 99–106; and J. M. Twenge, S. Konrath, J. D. Foster, W. K. Campbell, and B. J. Bushman, “Egos Inflating over Time: A Cross-Temporal Meta-analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory,” Journal of Personality 76 (2008): 875–901.

  samples of 4,152 students from: Twenge and Foster, “Birth Cohort Increases.”

  and among students from Frostburg State University: K. D. Stewart and P. C. Bernhardt, “Comparing Millennials to Pre-1987 Students and with One Another,” North American Journal of Psychology 12 (2010
): 579–602.

  A 2009 study found that Americans: F. S. Stinson et al., “Prevalence, Correlates, Disability, and Comorbidity of DSM-IV Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Results from the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions,” Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 69 (2008): 1033–45.

  a set of other researchers reported: K. H. Trzesniewski, M. B. Donnellan, and R. W. Robins, “Do Today’s Young People Really Think They Are So Extraordinary? An Examination of Secular Changes in Narcissism and Self-Enhancement,” Psychological Science 19 (2008): 181–88.

  The yearly increase among these students: J. M. Twenge and J. D. Foster, “Mapping the Scale of the Narcissism Epidemic: Increases in Narcissism 2002–2007 within Ethnic Groups,” Journal of Research in Personality 42 (2008): 1619–22.

  Another paper by different authors: B. W. Roberts, G. Edmonds, and E. Grijalva, “It Is Developmental Me, Not Generation Me: Developmental Changes Are More Important Than Generational Changes in Narcissism,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 5 (2010): 97–102.

  Josh and I published this analysis: Twenge and Foster, “Birth Cohort Increases in Narcissistic Personality Traits.”

  some—such as Elspeth Reeve in Atlantic Wire in May 2013: Elspeth Reeve, “Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation,” Atlantic Wire, May 9, 2013, http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/05/me-generation-time/65054/.

  Between 1976 and 2012, high school students: Twenge, Campbell, and Freeman, “Generational Differences.”

  In 2013, 82% of college students: Ibid.; and updates based on the American Freshman datafiles.

  In the late 1970s, 22% of high school students: Ibid.

  Nathan and his graduate student Richard Pond: C. N. DeWall, R. S. Pond, W. K. Campbell, and J. M. Twenge, Tuning In to Psychological Change: Linguistic Markers of Psychological Traits and Emotions over Time in Popular US Song Lyrics,” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 5 (2011): 200–207; and J. Tierney, “A Generation’s Vanity, Heard through Lyrics,” New York Times, April 25, 2011.

  Kanye West’s 2013 declaration: R. J. Cubarribia, “Kanye West: ‘I’m the Number One Living and Breathing Rock Star.’ ” Rolling Stone, June 24, 2013.