This chapter describes the interacting forces, understanding the self, identity and emotions. It examines adolescent self and identity, which will serve as a basis for understanding much about the social and emotional world of adolescents. The adolescent years bring with them the long process of departing childhood and emerging into adulthood. Similar to many aspects of development during adolescence that proceed somewhat differently based on gender, males and females differ in the process of self-exploration and identity formation as well. Sexual experimentation is common during adolescence as part of this gender identity struggle. An inability to develop a mature ethnic identity may entail denying one’s culture of origin, whereas a healthy identity process may result in adolescents who are proud of both their culture of origin and the culture they find themselves in currently.