Individual Paper
Adolescence (13-20)
The physical, cognitive, social, personality, moral, and faith development of adolescence
Prairie Bible College
SS 212 Lifespan Development
By
Christian Mogler
Date: 04. December 2008
1
Table of Content
Physical:... 3
Issues:... 4
Cognitive:... 5
Issue: ... 7
Personality: ... 7
Social: ... 10
Morality: ... 12
Faith: ... 15
Issues
... 18
Conclusion: ... 18
Appendix I ... 20
Bibliography ... 21
2
Life is marked by developmental changes in every domain of life: physical, cognitive,
social, personality, faith, and moral. Due to great researchers such as Erikson, Kohlberg, Freud,
Piaget, and Fowler we are able to understand the development of each domain more thoroughly
and are consequently almost able to predict the development from a baby to an adult with
accuracy. Each stage of life has its own challenges and key events which have a huge impact on
a person´s life, challenges which can be dealt with successfully or not-successfully. The aim of
this paper is to overview the life stage "adolescence, the last stage of childhood
1
" with its
incorporated challenges, events and characteristics in the domains of a person's physical,
cognitive, social, personality, faith, and moral life. (For a general overview and comparison over
the major theories of human cognitive, physical, social, moral, and faith development please find
the charts in Appendix I.)
Erik Erikson pictures Adolescent as a trapeze artist: like a trapeze artist, the young person
in the middle of vigorous motion must let go of his safe hold on childhood, and reach out for a
firm grasp on adulthood, depending for a breathless interval on the relatedness between the past
and the future, and the reliability of those he must let go of, and those who will receive him.
2
Adolescence is a period of transition during which an individual moves from the relative security
of childhood to the privileges and responsibilities of adulthood.
3
One general observation ahead:
One of the most striking of adolescent development is
the diversity of the various ages each adolescent juggles within himself or herself: A girl with the
chronological age of thirteen may have an intellectual/cognitive age of sixteen, a physical age of
eleven, a social/personality age of ten, and a spiritual age of fifteen. She is academically ahead
and is receiving affirmation for this area of achievement. However, inside she is painfully aware
1
Erik H. Erikson, Identity Youth and Crisis, (New York, W.W. Norton & Company: 1968), 155.
2
James C. Wilhoit, John M. Dettoni, Nurture that is Christian Developmental Perspectives on Christian
Education
, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), 160.
3
Gary Collins, Man in Transition, (Illinois: Creation House, 1971), 100.
3
that among her peers she is the only one who has not started menstruation and breast
development...
4
Physical:
The most obvious change that occurs at adolescence is the physical change.
Physical development during adolescent years is phenomenal. One adolescent may complete
physical development before another one has even begun the sequence. The beginning of the
growth spurt for girls is eleven or twelve, while the average boy begins at thirteen. The change of
the body in size, shape, and sexual characteristics affect the adolescent´s sense of identity.
5
In
the early years of adolescence the pituitary gland, situated in the brain, secretes hormones which
results in such significant physical changes as a rapid growth (growth-spurt) in body size and
maturation of the reproductive system.
6
This process is also called puberty. The physical
"growth-spurt" refers to an accelerated increase both in height and weight. Besides growing, the
body proportions change: the head, which was one-fourth of the body length at birth, becomes
smaller in proportion to the total body length (one eighth of the total body); the facial features
lose their baby look, the legs change in length, etc.
7
The sexual changes can be classified into two categories: primary and secondary.
Primary
sex changes concern the reproductive organs: in boys the penis, testes and other parts of
the reproductive system enlarge in size and mature in function; in females the ovaries, uterus,
and vagina.
8
Females also experience a growth of their breasts and widening of their hips.
Secondary
sex characteristics are those physical features that signal adulthood but are not
directly concerned with the reproductive organs. Both sexes develop pubic hair, and (especially
boys) hair on the face, chest, and other parts of the body. The voice pitch lowers, the skin
4
James C. Wilhoit, John M. Dettoni, Nurture that is Christian, 161.
5
Ibid., 164
6
Gary Collins, Man in Transition, 71.
7
Ibid..
8
Neil R. Carlson, William Buskist, Psychology The Science Of Behaviour, (Toronto: Pearson, 2005), 334.
4
becomes coarser.
9
The development of the sexual organs also causes the development of the
instinctual sexual drive which usually finds its outlet in heterosexual genital contact. This
findings go in line with Sigmund Freund´s "Genital stage" of his psychosexual theory of
personality development.
10
Issues: First
, the physical growth spurt is sometimes followed by a humiliating
clumsiness while the adolescent gets accustomed to his longer limbs. Pimples and body odors
can all be additional causes of embarrassment. Having non-supporting parents may destroy the
persons self-esteem. Since tall broad shouldered men and petite shapely women seem to be the
ideal in our society, young people who do not meet these standards are often distressed because
for them it is very important to be physically attractive. If they do not have somebody who loves
them for who they are besides their pimples, `too small' shoulders, etc. They may have
difficulties to develop a healthy identity and personality and have consequently a poor self-
concept.
Second
, if a person´s chronological age does not line up with their physical age and/or
social and cognitive age, huge internal tension can arise. Boys, whose physical maturation occurs
later than average, feel inadequate, rejected, dominated, socially awkward, and rebellious. Some
of these feelings may even persist into adulthood. Late maturing girls tend to think less of
themselves, have more worries and, are slower to develop "adornment and display."
11
On the
other side, if a girl develops before her peers, she will appear mature while she is not yet
prepared for the social pressures or the accompanying expectations.
12
Here is an example of a
physically pre-matured girl I once encountered. At a summer-camp I attended, an 12 year old girl
participated that looked like a 16-year or older super model. Since men are mostly driven by the
9
Neil R. Carlson, William Buskist, Psychology The Science Of Behaviour, 334.
10
Ibid., 470.
11
Gary Collins, Man in Transition, 73.
12
James C. Wilhoit, John M. Dettoni, Nurture that is Christian, 164.
5
outward appearance, the older guys were `taking care of her.' At this point of view I did not see
it as a problem since she "looks mature." What I was not aware of is that her social, cognitive,
etc. development may not be in line with her physical development. Consequently it could have
happened that older guys would take advantage of her and take her to bars, discos, have sexual
intercourse (which can lead to teenage pregnancies), etc. Pre-matured guys have a more
advantageous situation and often use their pre-maturity for their benefits, but may also face
expectations of responsibility for which they are unprepared.
Cognitive:
During adolescence, synaptogenesis (overproduction of neutral branches and
connection), and synaptic pruning (use it or lose it) occurs. The grey matter in the brain
decreases and the white matter increases in the four major lobes of the brain (frontal, temporal,
parietal, and occipital) a pattern that is associated with cognitive development. (The decreasing
amount of Grey Matter reflects the process of pruning).
13
According to Jean Piaget, from the age
of around 12 on, children enter the stage of formal operation during which they develop the
capacity for abstract, scientific thinking.
14
This has all different kinds of applications. Whereas
concrete operational children can "operate only on reality," formal operational adolescents can
"operate on operations." They no longer require concrete things and events as objects of
thoughts. Instead, they can come up with new and more general logical rules through internal
reflection.
15
The two major features of it are the following.
First
, Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning. "When faced with a problem, they start with a
general theory of all possible factors that might affect the outcome and deduce from it specific
hypotheses about what might happen and test them in order to see which option may actually
work." This is an ability a concrete operational child is not able to do, they can only reason on
base of `real reality.' Their ability for abstract thinking (or hypothetical thinking) enables them to
13
Neil R. Carlson, William Buskist, Psychology The Science Of Behaviour, 337-338.
14
Laura E. Berk, Development Through the Lifespan, (Boston: Pearson, 2003), 363.
15
Ibid..
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