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7: Adolescence

  • Page ID
    54372
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    Learning Objectives

    • Adolescence is a period of development that begins at puberty and ends at emerging adulthood: the typical age range is from 12 to 18 years, with some predictable milestones

    • Puberty involves distinctive physiological changes in height, weight, body composition, and sex characteristics that are largely influenced by hormonal activity

    • During puberty the adolescent develops secondary sex characteristics (such as deeper voice in males, and the development of breast and hips in females) as their hormonal balance shifts

    • The adolescent growth spurt involves rapid increases in height and weight as a result of increases in the release of growth hormones, thyroid hormones, androgens and estrogens.

    • Because of the variable rates of development, puberty can be a source of pride or embarrassment

    • Jean Piaget describes adolescence as the stage wherein thoughts start taking more abstract forms, and egocentrism shifts. The adolescent can think and reason with a wider perspective

    • The Constructivist Perspective takes a quantitative state-theory approach, hypothesizing that adolescent cognitive improvements are sudden and drastic.

    • The Information Processing perspective derives from artificial intelligence models, and attempts to explain things in terms of the growth of specific components of the thinking process

    • Improvements in basic thinking abilities generally occur in five areas: attention, memory, processing speed, organization, and metacognition.

    • Metacognition is relevant in social cognition, increasing introspection, self- consciousness and intellectualization. It also encourages adolescents to question rules, assertions and such.

    • Wisdom, or the capacity for insight and judgment, is developing through experience, and increases steadily through age 25... however, young adolescents have an increased tendency to engage in risky behavior

    • The relationships adolescents have with their peers, family and members of their social sphere play a vital role in their development

    • As adolescents work to form their identities they pull away from their parents, and their peer group becomes very important. This may increase conflict with parents

    • Peer groups offer their members the opportunity to develop social skills; however, they can also be a sources of negative influence, such as peer pressure

    • Culture is learned and socially shared, and affects all aspects of an individual's life. Social responsibilities, sexual expression, and belief system development all vary by culture

    • Adolescents develop unique belief systems through their interaction with social, familial and cultural environments. Cultural attitudes may promote positive or negative developmental influences

    Adolescence is a socially constructed concept. In pre‐industrial society children were considered adults when they reached physical maturity; however, today we have an extended time between childhood and adulthood known as adolescence. Adolescence is the period of development that begins at puberty and ends at emerging adulthood; the typical age range is from 12 to 18 years, and this stage of development has some predictable physical milestones.


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