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PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE
INTRODUCTION
The term adolescence is derived from the Latin adolescere, "to grow up." Adolescence (from Latin
adolescere, meaning "to grow up") is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human
development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood . Adolescence
describes the teenage years between 13 and 19 and is considered the transitional stage from childhood
to adulthood.
The beginning and end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by
function, and furthermore even within a single nation state or culture there can be different ages at
which an individual is considered (chronologically and legally) mature enough for society to entrust
them with certain privileges and responsibilities.
Milestones such as driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a
jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts, finishing certain levels of
education, and marriage may be achieved at this stage.
Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal
guardians and less supervision as compared to preadolescence.
Adolescent characteristics are attributed to physical changes caused by the raging hormones. In studying
adolescent development, adolescence can be defined:
biologically, as the physical transition marked by the onset of puberty and the termination of
physical growth;
cognitively, as changes in the ability to think abstractly and multi-dimensionally;
socially, as a period of preparation for adult roles.
HISTORY OF ADOLESCENCE PSYCHOLOGY
Throughout most of history, adolescence was unknown as a stage of life. Native societies have
observed RITES OF PASSAGE signifying the emergence of young people from childhood into
adulthood, but no concept of adolescence intervened between the 2 stages.
In the classical world, ARISTOTLE recorded what now is known as adolescent development,
that is, the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics in both males and females, but he
and other ancients recognized only three distinct periods of life: childhood, youth, and old age.
Among Romans the term child (puer) could be applied almost without regard to age, and
through the Middle Ages it served as a demeaning label for any person of low social status.
By the Renaissance, the establishment of schools for a somewhat larger proportion of the
population helped to extend the period of childhood but still did not define a separate stage of
adolescence because neither school attendance nor grade in school was based on age.
Other factors inhibiting the evolution of distinct life stages included the brevity of total life
span, the necessity for almost all people except elites to work, and the rigid social hierarchies
that made most people, regardless of age, dependent on nobility.
,The largely agrarian world of early modern Europe kept young people in a condition of
semidependence, in which economic and personal status involved important contributions to
the family economy but left the individual dependent on parents. Among lower classes in
western (though less frequently in southern) Europe, England, and colonial America, many
boys and girls in their teens were sent from their homes to work as employees for other
families, a practice that served both economic and upbringing functions.
The Formal Study of Adolescence
During the late eighteenth century and through the nineteenth century, biologists and
physicians undertook more formal study of adolescent phenomena. European scientists
researched aspects of physical growth such as the onset of MENARCHE in females and seminal
emission among males. These works provided scientific and philosophical background when,
in the 1890s, psychologists began investigating the abilities, behaviors, and attitudes of young
people between the onset of PUBERTY and marriage. Their work marked the first emergence
of adolescence as a formal concept.
The notion of youth as a time of sexual awakening and rebellion received particular expression
in JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU's philosophical narrative, Émile (1762), which described the
evolution of a noble boy into a civilized man. At age fifteen or sixteen, according to Rousseau, a
boy experiences crisis, and his mind is in such "constant agitation" that he is "almost
unmanageable." With proper care and education, however, he learns to enjoy beauty and
wisdom so that at the end of adolescence he is ready to marry and raise children.
At the same time as scientists and philosophers were developing the concept of adolescence,
the industrialization of Western society placed new pressures on the process of growing up.
Industrial capitalism and its attendant mechanization reduced the participation of children in
the workforce, thereby diminishing the incidence of APPRENTICESHIP that formerly had
characterized the youth of many people. Fewer young persons left home to go to work; more
stayed in their parents' homes, often attending school.
Declining birth rates enabled middle-class families to place new values on children, viewing
their worth in moral and emotional rather than practical and economic terms. Advances in
nutrition and disease control quickened the process of sexual maturation. Urbanization, with
its accompanying employment and entertainment opportunities, was also seen as creating
threatening environments from which children needed to be protected. Girls could be
sheltered at home, where they prepared for domestic adulthood, while boys were confined to
school, where they learned skills needed for professional and community life. As a result, the
semi-dependence that previously had characterized adolescence gave way to even more
dependence.
Reacting to these trends, American psychologist G. STANLEY HALL, a pioneer in the study of
children and their learning processes, gave adolescence its first full definition in Adolescence:
Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion
and Education, published in 1904.
He defined this period to begin at puberty at about 12 or 13 years, and end late, between 22
years to 25 years of age. Hall also described adolescence as a period of Sturm und Drang," --
storm and stress." In German literature, the period of sturm und drang is a literary movement
full of idealism, commitment to a goal, revolution against the old, expression of personal
feelings, passion and suffering. .
A year after Hall's book appeared, SIGMUND FREUD published an essay in which he identified
adolescence as a period when psychosexual conflicts could cause emotional upheaval,
inconsistent behavior, and vulnerability to deviant activity. Freud related much of adolescent
, behavior to genital developments in puberty, which, he said, induced a need among
adolescents to become emotionally independent of parents. This need induced rebellion
accompanied by anxiety, moodiness, and aggressive behavior. Concern over self-image, often
influenced by social interaction, also comprised one of the challenges of adolescence. . Freud
believed that adolescence was a universal phenomenon and included behavioral, social and
emotional changes; not to mention the relationships between the physiological and
psychological changes, and the influences on the self-image. He also stated that the
physiological changes are related to emotional changes, especially an increase in negative
emotions, such as moodiness, anxiety, loathing, tension and other forms of adolescent
behavior.
Anna Freud's Theory of Adolescent Defense Mechanism
Anna Freud assigns greater importance to puberty as a critical factor in character formation.
She also places much emphasis on the relationship between the id, the ego and the superego.
She believes that the physiological process of sexual maturation, beginning with the
functioning of the sexual glands, plays a critical role in influencing the psychological realm.
This interaction results in the instinctual reawakening of the libidinal forces, which, in turn,
can bring about psychological disequilibrium. The painfully established balance between ego
and id during the latency period is disturbed by puberty, and internal conflict results. Thus,
one aspect of puberty, the puberty conflict, is the endeavor to regain equilibrium.
Anna Freud dealt mainly with deviant or pathological development and paid very little
attention to normal sexual adjustment. She described obstacles to normal development: 1) the
id overriding the ego - in which she says no trace will be left of the previous character of the
individual and entrance into adult life will be marked by a riot of uninhibited gratification of
instincts (A. Freud, 1948, p. 163); and, 2) the ego may be victorious over the id and confine it
to a limited area, constantly checked by numerous defense mechanisms.
Otto Rank's Emphasis on the Adolescent Need for Independence
Otto Rank (1884-1939), a follower of the psychoanalytic later developed his own theory and
began to challenge Freud's notions.
During the latency period, the "will" grows stronger, more independent, and expands to the
point where it turns against any authority not of its own choosing. The actual origin of the
"will" goes further back into the oedipal situation. It is here that the individual will encounters
a social will, represented by parents and expressed in a moral code centuries old (Muuss, 1975,
p 47).
In early adolescence, the individual undergoes a basic change in attitude; he begins to oppose
dependency, including both the rule of external environmental factors (parents, teachers, the
law, and so on) and the rule of internal cravings, the newly awakening instinctual urges.
Establishing volitional independence, which society values and requires, becomes an
important but difficult developmental task for the adolescent.
This newly developed need for independence and the struggle for the attainment of
independence lie at the root of many adolescent personal relationships and their
complications. The struggle is one in which the individual's will strives for independence
against domination by biological needs.
PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE
INTRODUCTION
The term adolescence is derived from the Latin adolescere, "to grow up." Adolescence (from Latin
adolescere, meaning "to grow up") is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human
development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood . Adolescence
describes the teenage years between 13 and 19 and is considered the transitional stage from childhood
to adulthood.
The beginning and end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by
function, and furthermore even within a single nation state or culture there can be different ages at
which an individual is considered (chronologically and legally) mature enough for society to entrust
them with certain privileges and responsibilities.
Milestones such as driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a
jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts, finishing certain levels of
education, and marriage may be achieved at this stage.
Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal
guardians and less supervision as compared to preadolescence.
Adolescent characteristics are attributed to physical changes caused by the raging hormones. In studying
adolescent development, adolescence can be defined:
biologically, as the physical transition marked by the onset of puberty and the termination of
physical growth;
cognitively, as changes in the ability to think abstractly and multi-dimensionally;
socially, as a period of preparation for adult roles.
HISTORY OF ADOLESCENCE PSYCHOLOGY
Throughout most of history, adolescence was unknown as a stage of life. Native societies have
observed RITES OF PASSAGE signifying the emergence of young people from childhood into
adulthood, but no concept of adolescence intervened between the 2 stages.
In the classical world, ARISTOTLE recorded what now is known as adolescent development,
that is, the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics in both males and females, but he
and other ancients recognized only three distinct periods of life: childhood, youth, and old age.
Among Romans the term child (puer) could be applied almost without regard to age, and
through the Middle Ages it served as a demeaning label for any person of low social status.
By the Renaissance, the establishment of schools for a somewhat larger proportion of the
population helped to extend the period of childhood but still did not define a separate stage of
adolescence because neither school attendance nor grade in school was based on age.
Other factors inhibiting the evolution of distinct life stages included the brevity of total life
span, the necessity for almost all people except elites to work, and the rigid social hierarchies
that made most people, regardless of age, dependent on nobility.
,The largely agrarian world of early modern Europe kept young people in a condition of
semidependence, in which economic and personal status involved important contributions to
the family economy but left the individual dependent on parents. Among lower classes in
western (though less frequently in southern) Europe, England, and colonial America, many
boys and girls in their teens were sent from their homes to work as employees for other
families, a practice that served both economic and upbringing functions.
The Formal Study of Adolescence
During the late eighteenth century and through the nineteenth century, biologists and
physicians undertook more formal study of adolescent phenomena. European scientists
researched aspects of physical growth such as the onset of MENARCHE in females and seminal
emission among males. These works provided scientific and philosophical background when,
in the 1890s, psychologists began investigating the abilities, behaviors, and attitudes of young
people between the onset of PUBERTY and marriage. Their work marked the first emergence
of adolescence as a formal concept.
The notion of youth as a time of sexual awakening and rebellion received particular expression
in JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU's philosophical narrative, Émile (1762), which described the
evolution of a noble boy into a civilized man. At age fifteen or sixteen, according to Rousseau, a
boy experiences crisis, and his mind is in such "constant agitation" that he is "almost
unmanageable." With proper care and education, however, he learns to enjoy beauty and
wisdom so that at the end of adolescence he is ready to marry and raise children.
At the same time as scientists and philosophers were developing the concept of adolescence,
the industrialization of Western society placed new pressures on the process of growing up.
Industrial capitalism and its attendant mechanization reduced the participation of children in
the workforce, thereby diminishing the incidence of APPRENTICESHIP that formerly had
characterized the youth of many people. Fewer young persons left home to go to work; more
stayed in their parents' homes, often attending school.
Declining birth rates enabled middle-class families to place new values on children, viewing
their worth in moral and emotional rather than practical and economic terms. Advances in
nutrition and disease control quickened the process of sexual maturation. Urbanization, with
its accompanying employment and entertainment opportunities, was also seen as creating
threatening environments from which children needed to be protected. Girls could be
sheltered at home, where they prepared for domestic adulthood, while boys were confined to
school, where they learned skills needed for professional and community life. As a result, the
semi-dependence that previously had characterized adolescence gave way to even more
dependence.
Reacting to these trends, American psychologist G. STANLEY HALL, a pioneer in the study of
children and their learning processes, gave adolescence its first full definition in Adolescence:
Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion
and Education, published in 1904.
He defined this period to begin at puberty at about 12 or 13 years, and end late, between 22
years to 25 years of age. Hall also described adolescence as a period of Sturm und Drang," --
storm and stress." In German literature, the period of sturm und drang is a literary movement
full of idealism, commitment to a goal, revolution against the old, expression of personal
feelings, passion and suffering. .
A year after Hall's book appeared, SIGMUND FREUD published an essay in which he identified
adolescence as a period when psychosexual conflicts could cause emotional upheaval,
inconsistent behavior, and vulnerability to deviant activity. Freud related much of adolescent
, behavior to genital developments in puberty, which, he said, induced a need among
adolescents to become emotionally independent of parents. This need induced rebellion
accompanied by anxiety, moodiness, and aggressive behavior. Concern over self-image, often
influenced by social interaction, also comprised one of the challenges of adolescence. . Freud
believed that adolescence was a universal phenomenon and included behavioral, social and
emotional changes; not to mention the relationships between the physiological and
psychological changes, and the influences on the self-image. He also stated that the
physiological changes are related to emotional changes, especially an increase in negative
emotions, such as moodiness, anxiety, loathing, tension and other forms of adolescent
behavior.
Anna Freud's Theory of Adolescent Defense Mechanism
Anna Freud assigns greater importance to puberty as a critical factor in character formation.
She also places much emphasis on the relationship between the id, the ego and the superego.
She believes that the physiological process of sexual maturation, beginning with the
functioning of the sexual glands, plays a critical role in influencing the psychological realm.
This interaction results in the instinctual reawakening of the libidinal forces, which, in turn,
can bring about psychological disequilibrium. The painfully established balance between ego
and id during the latency period is disturbed by puberty, and internal conflict results. Thus,
one aspect of puberty, the puberty conflict, is the endeavor to regain equilibrium.
Anna Freud dealt mainly with deviant or pathological development and paid very little
attention to normal sexual adjustment. She described obstacles to normal development: 1) the
id overriding the ego - in which she says no trace will be left of the previous character of the
individual and entrance into adult life will be marked by a riot of uninhibited gratification of
instincts (A. Freud, 1948, p. 163); and, 2) the ego may be victorious over the id and confine it
to a limited area, constantly checked by numerous defense mechanisms.
Otto Rank's Emphasis on the Adolescent Need for Independence
Otto Rank (1884-1939), a follower of the psychoanalytic later developed his own theory and
began to challenge Freud's notions.
During the latency period, the "will" grows stronger, more independent, and expands to the
point where it turns against any authority not of its own choosing. The actual origin of the
"will" goes further back into the oedipal situation. It is here that the individual will encounters
a social will, represented by parents and expressed in a moral code centuries old (Muuss, 1975,
p 47).
In early adolescence, the individual undergoes a basic change in attitude; he begins to oppose
dependency, including both the rule of external environmental factors (parents, teachers, the
law, and so on) and the rule of internal cravings, the newly awakening instinctual urges.
Establishing volitional independence, which society values and requires, becomes an
important but difficult developmental task for the adolescent.
This newly developed need for independence and the struggle for the attainment of
independence lie at the root of many adolescent personal relationships and their
complications. The struggle is one in which the individual's will strives for independence
against domination by biological needs.
