Adolescence Term paper

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Adolescence

Adolescence is the developmental stage between childhood and adulthood;

it generally refers to a period ranging from age 12 or 13 through age 19 or 21.

Although its beginning is often balanced with the beginning of puberty,

adolescence is characterized by psychological and social stages as well as by

biological changes.

Adolescence can be prolonged, brief, or virtually nonexistent, depending

on the type of culture in which it occurs. In societies that are simple, for

example, the transition from childhood to adulthood tends to occur rather

rapidly, and is marked by traditionally prescribed passage rites. to contrast

this, American and European societies the transition period for young people has

been steadily lengthening over the past 100 years, giving rise to an adolescent

subculture. As a result of this prolonged transitional stage a variety of

problems and concerns specifically associated with this age group have developed.

Psychologists single out four areas that especially touch upon adolescent

behavior and development: physiological change and growth; cognitive, or mental

development; identity, or personality formation; and parent-adolescent

relations.

Physiological Change:

Between the ages of 9 and 15, almost all young people undergo a rapid

series of physiological changes, known as the adolescent growth spurt. These

hormonal changes include an acceleration in the body's growth rate; the

development of pubic hair; the appearance of axillary, or armpit, hair about

two years later. There are changes in the structure and functioning of the

reproductive organs; the mammary glands in girls; and development of the sweat

glands, which often leads to an outbreak of acne. In both sexes, these

physiological changes occur at different times. This period of change can prove

to be very stressful for a pre-teen. For during this stage of life appearance

is very important. An adolescent child who develops very early or extremely

late can take a lot of ridicule from his or her peers. However, the time at

which a girl goes through this stage and a male goes through it are different.

Girls typically begin their growth spurt shortly after age 10. They

tend to reach their peak around the age 12, and tend to finish by age 14. This

spurt occurs almost two years later in boys. Therefore boys go through a

troubling period where girls are taller and heavier than them. This awkward

period occurs from ages ten and one-half to thirteen. Time is not the only

difference in the pubescent period for boys and girls.

In girls, the enlargement of the breasts is usually the first physical

sign of puberty. Actual puberty is marked by the beginning of menstruation, or

menarche. In the United States, 80 percent of all girls reach menarche between

the ages of eleven and one-half and fourteen and one-half, 50 percent between 12

and 14, and 33 percent at or before age 11. The average age at which

menstruation begins for American girls has been dropping about six months every

decade, and today contrasts greatly with the average age of a century ago, which

is between 15 and 17.

Boys typically begin their rapid increase in growth when they reach

about twelve and one-half years of age. They reach their peak slightly after 14,

and slow down by age 16. This period is marked by the enlargement of the testes,

scrotum, and penis; the development of the prostate gland; darkening of the

scrotal skin. The growth of pubic hair and pigmented hair on the legs, arms,

and chest takes place during this period. The enlargement of the larynx,

containing the vocal cords, which leads to a deepening of the voice causes much

stress for a pubescent boy. In this transitional period in his voice tends to

"crack."

Cognitive Development:

Current views on the mental changes that take place during adolescence

have been affected heavily by the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget,

who sees the intellectual capability of adolescents as both "qualitatively and

quantitatively superior to that of younger children." According to Piaget and

the developmentalist school of psychology, the thinking capacity of young people

automatically increases in complexity as a function of age. Developmentalists

find distinct differences between younger and older adolescents in ability to

generalize, to handle abstract ideas, to infer appropriate connections between

cause and effect, and to reason logically and consistently.

Whether these changes in cognitive ability are a result of the

developmental stage, as Piaget suggests, or should be considered the result of

accumulating knowledge that allows for new mental and moral perspectives, an

enlarged capacity for making distinctions, and a greater awareness of and

sensitivity to others, is a question that psychologists continually debate.

Behaviorists such as Harvard's B. F. Skinner did not believe intellectual

development could be divided into distinct stages. He preferred to emphasize the

influence of conditioning experiences on behavior as a result of continuous

punishments and rewards. Trying to prove that intellectual ability in

adolescence differs from that of earlier years, as a result of learning, or

acquiring more appropriate responses through conditioning. Other investigators

have found...

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