摘要：The most important questions of human existence and development – Who am I. What am I like. – concerned every thinking human in all cultural-historical ages. These questions remain timely even in our rapidly changing postmodern society. The goal of our research is the examination of adolescents' self -characterization, the outlining of the self-image components age characteristics, th e establishment of differences resulting from their environ ment. Our examination is part of the 2 005/2006 school year evaluation (Pletl, 2011) regarding Transylvanian students' composition skills. In the present research we have analyzed a total of 1602 self-characterization of Transylvanian Hungarian students. Results show that fifth grade students have dichotomous thinking that becomes more sophisticated by the time they get into the eighth grade. Eighth grade students referr ed significantly more often to the categories Emotions, Satisfaction, Social attitudes, School achievement, Special interests and mentioned more personality traits. In the comparison by location, more similarities and fewer differences were outlined. However, urban students referred significantly more often to emotions and satisfaction, while rural students mentioned more frequently characteristics like good -hearted and diligent. The study also outlin ed two major deficiencies. No significant differen ce was found between the two grades in naming abilities, and referring to Science and Language. We strongly believe that school should be more than simply a place for traditional teaching; effective education and personal development should spread to new areas lik e the develop ment of self-reflective think ing, the shaping of personal competence and the operation of Career and Vocational Counseling
