REFLECTION

1. REFLECTION In your journal, write about how you have changed since you were in elementary school. What is different? Who do you go to when you are feeling down?

2. The Adolescent Searches for Identity

3. Chapter 5 • Every adult has passed through adolescence. • Even though adults had the “eight years of on the job training”, not every adult understands the emotional riptides that mark the transition from childhood to young adulthood.

4. What is an adolescence? • Psychologists agree that adolescence is a state of mind as well as a physical reality. • For some young people, it’s a time of rapid excitement and growth. • The term adolescence comes from the Latin verb: adoloescere which means “to grow up.”

5. What is an adolescence? • Read 2-4 paragraph, • page 136-137

6. What is an adolescence? • Read second-fourth paragraph, page 136-137 • Why do some people seem to coast through adolescence, while other find it a constant struggle just to keep their heads above water? • In truth, the years between 12-18 (our society usually defines adolescence) are a period of tremendous physical, intellectual , and emotional growth. • To make matters ever more complicated, this is also the time when young people often come into direct conflict with their parents over the life-style choices they’re making and the values they’re adopting. • But knowing something about the process of growing up may make it a little easier for you.

7. The Stages of Adolescence • Read second-fourth paragraph, page 136-137 • No one would suggest that the values and experiences of a 12-year old seventh grader are the same as those of an 18 year old high school senior. • Social scientists, therefore have divided adolescence into three stages. • Preadolescence • Adolescence • Young Adulthood

8. STAGE 1: Preadolescence • Childhood ends with a period of rapid physical growth, including the first signs of sexual maturation. • Preadolescence can begin as early as eight or nine, but the typical ages are 10-14 for girls and 12-15 for boys.

9. STAGE 1: Preadolescence • The behavioral changes typical of adolescence begin during these years. • Parents may notice that once happy go-lucky children now seem moody, with drawn and rebellious. • These emotional changes are a normal part of growing up. • They may even intensify after the adolescent has completed puberty

10. STAGE 2: Adolescence • During the years between 15-18, teenagers must complete what psychologists call the developmental tasks of adolescence. • Adolescents need to work toward emotional and economic independence, for example. • They must also come to terms with their own physical development. • And they must find their own individual identity.

11. STAGE 3: Young Adulthood • The passage from adolescence to adulthood begins at 18-19 and extends through the early twenties. By this time, the majority of teenagers have completed their adolescent development. • As young adults, they are ready to accept their new responsibilities for career building, development of long term love relationships, and making a life outside of family homes.

12. STAGE 3: Young Adulthood • If you lived in a simpler, tribal society, you’d have become an adult shortly after puberty. • To mark the occasion you’d have undergone certain ceremonies that social scientists call rites of passage.

13. Rites of Passage • If you are male, you’d have been required to demonstrate your strength, endurance, and courage. • Tribal elders would have taught you special chants and dances. • You might have been sent to hunt dangerous game, such as an elephant or lion.

14. Rites of Passage • If you are female, you’d have had your own rites of passage. • As a woman, you would have learned special dances, and you might even be tattooed to enhance your beauty. • To complete the rites, older women would have introduced you to the mysteries of sex and motherhood in order to prepare you for marriage.

15. Rites of Passage • Adolescents in The United States, by contrast, attain adulthood in a confusing, hit and miss fashion. • You may have reached puberty at 12, but in most states you can’t drive a car until you’re 15-16. • You probably started paying adult prices at the movies were you were 13, but you’re not allowed to see X rated films until you’re 17. • You can voite at 18, but insurance companies charge you “young driver” premiums until you’re 25. It’s not wonder young people often feel confused as to what their status is.

16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR8j_P1O0os&feature=related

17. Contrasting views of Adolescents • To a degree, adolescence is mostly a modern invention. • Only in the 1800s did society begin to set aside a period between childhood and adulthood in which young people were given time to develop their adult personalities. • As adolescence became a reality, social scientists began to look for theories to explain adolescent behavior. • Out of those studies, two significant ideas emerged.

18. The “Storm and Stress” theory • In 1904, psychologists G. Stanley Hall described adolescence as a stormy passage from childhood to adult maturity. • Hall saw this period of “storm and stress” as a natural expression of physical and emotional growth. • Extremes of mood, in which the adolescent swings from joy to gloom, were seen as necessary to growth.

19. The “Storm and Stress” theory • Halls theory claims that the teenager’s rebellious behavior, idealism, and self-interest are normal. • Many social scientists accept this concept as a useful explanation for adolescent behavior.

20. The “Storm and Stress” theory • Halls theory claims that the teenager’s rebellious behavior, idealism, and self-interest are normal. • Many social scientists accept this concept as a useful explanation for adolescent behavior.

21. Adolescence as a self fulfilling prophecy • Other experts say that adolescence need no be a time of “storm and stress.” • Anthropologists Margaret Mead pointed out that adolescence in the traditional Samoan culture is a happy and peaceful time. • She believed that advanced societies contribute to adolescent problems by cutting teenagers off from full participation in adult life.

22. Adolescence as a self fulfilling prophecy • Example: Well meaning parents often try to protect their teenagers by excluding them from important family business. • Adolescents are often the last to learn that their parents are experiencing health or financial problems.

23. Adolescence as a self fulfilling prophecy • Developmental psychologists who agree with Dr. Mead say their research shows that most adolescents pass through the teen years without great difficulty. • These psychologists say that problems develop when society tells adolescents that they are expected to become rebellious, wild, or mixed up. • The expectation can become a self fulfilling prophecy, they say, which creates the very behavior the adult society predicts and dreads.

24. Section Check up • How would you define adolescence? • Why do psychologists believe that it is an important time of life? • What are rites of passage? • Why are they important? • Contrast the “storm and stress” theory of adolescence with that of adolescence as a self fulfilling prophecy.