Psychoanalytic theorists focus primarily on psychosexual and object-relational interpretations in the study of adolescent development. Cognitive psychologists in the Piagetian tradition focus on the structural transformations of the abstract adolescent thinker. And, lifespan-developmental researchers are chiefly interested in the adolescent tasks and their resolutions. Although these traditions have yielded considerable insights into the adolescent experience, important questions remain unanswered. What is the organizing principle of the adolescent self? Is there a structural-developmental basis to the developing self? And if so, how do the underlying developmental structures relate to adolescent psychosocial tasks?