Adolescence

1. Term derived from Latin: adolescere- to grow into maturity

2. Views of adolescence. The start of scientific study.

There is essential no scientific study of human behavior, including adolescence, prior to the latter half of the 1800s.

Early philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, comment on the distinction between childhood and adolescence.

Plato comments on the development of “reasoning” during the adolescent period.

Aristotle, in particular, notes that adolescence involves the capacity to make important life choices and to develop self-control—independence and identity will continue to be key themes regarding adolescence for years to come.

In the middle ages the view was that children and adolescents were like adults, only physically smaller.

In the 1700s this view was replaced by beliefs that adolescence was different than adulthood, and was a time when reasoning developed and self-interest was replaced by interest in others.

Prior to Civil War the United States is primarily an agrarian, rural economy. There is little formal schooling for most males, and virtually none for females. Men learn trades by being apprentices and children’s primary social interactions were with other adults not other children.

Between 1890 and 1920 many of the ideas we have today regarding adolescence were developed and a number of factors occur in American society to clearly separate adolescents from adults.

1. In the late 1800s there are migrations from rural to urban areas within the country, and migrations to urban areas from other countries.

2. There are more poor children and they are seen as causing trouble (many are living in slums and doing difficult work)

Starting in the mid 1800s the concept of adolescence undergoes a dramatic redefinition because of two events:

1. compulsory school attendance laws

2. rise of factories and industry that no longer require children workers

Also, first textbook on adolescence published during this period.

G. Stanley Hall, the father of the scientific study of adolescence

Following Darwin, he believed that genes, and to a lesser degree, environment, determine adolescent behavior

Put forth the view the adolescence is a time of “storm and stress” -- a turbulent time charged with emotion, passion, and mood changes. This view was later challenged by anthropologist Margared Mead-- argued that storm and stress does not occur in cultures where there is a smooth transition between childhood and adolescence

From the days of Hall to this day the prevailing view is that adolescents are troubled, disturbed, and problematic. There are generalizations about adolescents, the generalization gap, based on information from a small but very visible group of adolescents. However, data shows that nearly 75% of youth have a healthy self-image and move through adolescence relatively trouble-free. Media are much more likely to show troubled than trouble-free adolescents.

Difficult for today’s adolescent—lack of stability in environment

1. mixed messages from media vs. larger society

2. high rates of divorce and family conflict

3. high drug usage and other escapist mechanisms

4. great pressures to perform academically, sexually, physically

5. more adolescents living in poverty, unwillingness of individuals to pay for resources for children and adolescents via taxes, etc.

Adolescents who develop problems usually have “multiple” issues that require “intervention” by a broad spectrum of “helpers”

A definition: Adolescence is the developmental period of transition between childhood and adulthood; it involves biological or physical changes, cognitive or thinking and reasoning changes, and socioemotional or changes in emotions, interpersonal relationships, and personality.

Adolescence may run from approximately age nine or ten upwards to the late 20s. Early adolescence corresponds to the period when pubertal changes begin to occur—the middle school and junior high years (grades 5 to 9). Late adolescence corresponds to the high school and postsecondary education years in which the focus is on identity, social relationships, and careers. The start of the first full-time job often signals the end of adolescence. Adolescence may begin in biology and end in culture.

The major characteristics of adolescence

1. increasing awareness of self and desire to answer the question, “who am I?” (this often is associated with attempts at experimentation and testing reality)

2. attempts to seek status and independence

a. some societal forces encourage it while others don’t (e.g., encouragement of sexuality v. lack of jobs)

3. the increasing importance of peers and needing peer acceptance

4. the development of new and different relationships with one’s own and the opposite sex; appreciating the varied roles of men and women

5. dealing with changes in physical development

6. increases in thinking, reasoning, and intelligence

a. ability to consider alternatives and perspectives, to use satire and double-meaning

b. to engage in critical thinking and problem-solving

7. to reconsider some parental values

8. to develop social and civic awareness

9. to prepare for the world of work and a first vocation

The major developmental issues

1. Is development more a function of heredity or environment?

a. throughout the course you will be exposed to various contexts that shape adolescent life—the family, peer group, the school, economic factors, neighborhoods, access to media and technology

2. Is development continuous and smooth or discontinuous and proceed in terms of various stages?

3. Is early or later experience more important?

a. an outgrowth of the Western emphasis on critical early learning and periods postulated by Freud and John Bowlby who wrote of the importance of proper early attachment to parents

Most developmentalists are not taking an extreme position on these issues.