Contents
Adolescence is the transitional period from childhood to adulthood. Its age limits are not strictly defined, but approximately it lasts from 12 to 17-19 years, when physical growth practically ends. During this period, a young man or girl reaches puberty and begins to recognize himself as a person separate from the family.
sexual development
Puberty, or puberty, when a child turns into a biologically mature adult capable of sexual reproduction, lasts 3-4 years. It begins with very rapid physical growth (the adolescent growth spurt) followed by the gradual development of reproductive organs and secondary sex characteristics (breast development in girls, facial hair in boys, and pubic hair in both sexes).
Menarche — the first menstrual period — occurs relatively late in puberty, about 18 months after the girl’s growth spurt reaches its maximum speed. The first menstrual cycles are usually irregular, and ovulation (the release of a mature egg) usually begins about a year after menarche. In boys, the first ejaculation usually occurs about 2 years after the start of the growth spurt. The first seminal fluid does not contain sperm; gradually the amount of sperm and its maturity increase.
The time of onset of puberty and its speed vary greatly. For some girls, menarche occurs when they are only 11 years old, and for some, when they are already 17; the average term is 12 years 9 months.
In boys, the growth spurt and maturation begins on average 2 years later than in girls. They begin to ejaculate seminal fluid with live sperm somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age; the average age is 14,5 years. In the 7th and 8th grades, the wide variation in pubertal times is particularly striking. Some girls look like mature women with fully developed breasts and rounded hips, and some still have the size and shape of little girls. Some boys already look like lanky teenagers, and some still look like 9-10 years old (for a discussion of hormonal changes during puberty, see Chapter 10).
The impact of puberty on the psyche
In everyday life, there is an opinion that adolescence is a stormy and stressful time, accompanied by despondency, internal disorder and rebellion. But research does not support these pessimistic views. In one study, more than 300 teenagers were tracked as they progressed from 6th to 8th grade; they and their parents were assessed twice a year through interviews and psychological testing. The assessment was repeated during the last year of high school (Petersen, 1989). Most adolescents survived this period without serious discord. The findings show, however, that puberty significantly affects body shape, self-esteem, moods, and relationships with parents and members of the opposite sex.
Some of these influences are directly related to hormonal changes during maturation (detailed in: Buchanan, Eccles & Becker, 1992), but most of them are consequences of physical changes in the body and, more importantly, how they occur over time. . Early or late maturation (one year earlier or later relative to the average period) affects the satisfaction of adolescents with their appearance and body shape. In general, boys in grades 7 and 8 who entered puberty were more likely to be in a positive mood than their male peers who had not yet reached it, and they were more satisfied with their weight and general appearance than boys with later maturation, which is an illustration of how important strength and physical superiority are for men in our society. But early-onset boys also had lower self-control and emotional resilience compared to later-onset boys; they were more likely to smoke, drink, use drugs, and were in trouble with the law (Duncan et al., 1985). By contrast, late-maturing boys were at their worst in 7th grade but tended to be among the healthiest in their last year of high school (Petersen, 1989).
Early maturation has the opposite effect on girls’ self-esteem. Compared with later maturing girls, precocious girls were more depressed and anxious (Brooks & Ruble, 1983), had low self-esteem (Simmons & Blyth, 1988), and were generally less satisfied with their weight and appearance. They were confused by the fact that their body shapes were more feminine than those of their classmates, especially when the new standard of female attractiveness began to be promoted in the media, emphasizing thinness. Although early puberty brings earlier popularity, this is partly because such girls seem to be sexually precocious. They are also more likely to have conflicts with parents, drop out of school, and emotional and behavioral problems (Caspi & Moffitt, 1991; Stattin & Magnusson, 1990).
However, it is again important to emphasize here that in a large-scale, long-term study, more than half of the observed early adolescents of both sexes were relatively unproblematic. Approximately 30% of this group had problems only occasionally. And only 15% fell into a «downward spiral of difficulties and turmoil»; Emotional and academic problems that were prominent in the 8th grade continued or worsened in the 12th grade (Petersen, 1989).
Identity development
(In Russian psychology such terms as «self-determination», «self-knowledge» are accepted. — Approx. ed.). Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson believed that the main task facing the teenager is to develop a sense of identity and find answers to the questions «Who am I?» and «Where am I going?» Although the term «identity crisis» was coined by Erickson to refer to an active process of self-determination, he considered it an integral part of healthy psychosocial development. Similarly, most developmental psychologists believe that adolescence should be a period of «role experimentation,» when young people can try different behaviors, show different interests, and adopt different ideologies. In striving to develop a holistic view of yourself, you can “try out”, change or discard many beliefs, roles and behaviors.
From these values and assessments, adolescents try to synthesize an internally consistent picture. If the values projected by parents, teachers, and peers are consistent with each other, the search for identity is facilitated. In a simple society, where there are few patterns for identification and a limited number of social roles, the task of forming an identity is relatively easy. In a society as complex as ours, this is a difficult task for most teenagers. An almost limitless space of possibilities opens up before them as to how to behave and what to do in life. As a result, adolescents differ significantly in how they develop their identity. In addition, the identity of each individual adolescent in different areas of life (sexual, professional, ideological) may be at different stages of development.
Ideally, the identity crisis should be resolved by the age of 21-25, so that the individual can move on to other life tasks. If this process is successful, the individual is said to have achieved an identity; usually this means that he has come to understand his gender identity, professional orientation and ideological worldview — despite the fact that they can and should remain open to changes in subsequent development.
Until the identity crisis is resolved, the individual does not have a concrete understanding of himself or a set of internal standards for self-esteem in major areas of life. Erickson called this unfortunate result a blurry identity.
Erickson’s theory of adolescent identity development was tested and further developed by James Marcia (1980,1966, XNUMX). Based on semi-structural, open-ended interviews, Marcia concluded that there are four identity statuses, or positions, on the Ericksonian continuum of identity formation, which differ depending on whether the person perceives the problem of identity and has arrived at a solution to it:
- Identity achieved. Those in this status have gone through an identity crisis, a period of active questioning and self-determination. They took the ideological positions that they had worked out for themselves and chose their occupation. They begin to think of themselves as a future doctor, rather than as a student taking a chemistry course prior to studying medicine. They rethought the religious and political beliefs of their family and discarded what they felt was inappropriate for their identity.
- Predestination. Those in this status have also taken certain professional and ideological positions, but they have no signs that they have ever gone through an identity crisis. They accepted the religion of their family without question. When asked about their political views, they often say they never really thought much about it. Some of them seem ideological and ready to cooperate, some just seem adamant, dogmatic and conformist. One gets the impression that these views will simply disappear if some event suddenly occurs — so important that it calls into question the rules and values uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthat they did not comprehend.
- Moratorium (here — in the sense of a temporary delay in the final decision. — Approx. Transl.). These are young people in the midst of an identity crisis. They are actively looking for answers, but so far they find only conflicts between their parents’ plans for themselves and their own unsatisfied interests. They may for some time defend a number of political and religious beliefs only to abandon them after some deliberation. At best, they are sensitive, ethical, open-minded; at worst, anxious, complacent, and indecisive (Scarr, Weinberg & Levine, 1986).
- Diffuse identity. This is Marcia’s term for the Ericksonian category of vague identity. Some in this category have had an identity crisis in the past, some have not. But neither one nor the other still has a holistic sense of themselves. They say it would be «interesting» to go to law school or go into business, but they don’t take any steps in either direction. They say they are not interested in religion or politics. Some of them are cynical (“All politicians are just crap”), some are superficial and absent-minded. Of course, some are still too young to reach the adolescent level of identity development.
How much do parents influence the development of their children?
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Introduction to psychology. Consciousness
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