pattern persists in most adults to varying degrees, but with progressive maturity, the pattern becomes internalized and self-reward occurs by virtue of the authority of internalized parental figures and standards. With further maturity, the opinions or approval of others diminish in importance and are supplanted by self-approval, and life is then lived according to internalized standards. At a more mature level, although the approval of others is nice, it is not deterministic of behaviors, as expressed in the common dictum, “I have to live with myself.”
