Adolescence and Family Lifespan - Article Example

ADOLESCENCE AS A LIFESPAN STAGE By Student’s name Code + course name Professor’s name University name City, state Date ADOLESCENCE AS A LIFESPAN STAGE Introduction Adolescence is a lifespan development stage ranging from ten to twenty years, beginning with puberty onset. This stage dominates when the adolescents develop their own identity and tend to seek independence from their parents. Therefore, adolescents’ processes of thought are more complex, logical and idealistic compared to a children’s. Individuals, during this development lifespan stage, tend to experience cognitive (development of thinking capacity and language use), psychosocial (development of a sense of self that is coherent and role playing in society) and physical (development of body, hormones and different organs) change (Santrock, J.2007). In this article, the psychosocial, physical and cognitive development changes that adolescents pass through; ways in which adolescents’ family or household inhibit or enhance their experiences of these development changes; how the macro system setting, as from Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model, may inhibit or enhance adolescents’ experiences of these same changes of development (cognitive, psychosocial and physical) are described and analyzed in detail. Cognitive development change in adolescents During this stage, adolescents’ thinking capacity and language use develops. Jean Piaget, a development psychologist, proposes that adolescence is a stage for cognitive development that is much more rapid. He goes on to argue that during adolescence, thoughts of individuals become more abstract, decreasing egocentric thoughts. This therefore allows adolescents to reason and think in a much wider perspective. He further claims that the ideas, concepts and thoughts developed during adolescence largely influence these individuals’ future life, playing the main role in personality and character formation (Toga, AW.; Thompson, PM.; Sowell, ER., 2006). In reference to Santrock, J. W. (2007). Adolescent thinking is of two perspectives: constructivist, which takes an approach of state theory, hypothesizes that the cognitive improvement of adolescents is relatively drastic and sudden, while the perspective of information-processing derives its view from the artificial intelligence study, attempting to analyze cognitive development in specific components’ growth of overall thinking process terms. Improvement in basic abilities of thinking in adolescents takes place in 5 areas: Attention, (individuals start focusing on one stimulus, turning another out in the process), memory (improvements are witnessed in both long –term memory and working memory), processing speed (individuals’ speed of thinking increases), organization (individuals become more aware of their processes of thought, and are able to utilize mnemonic devices to think efficiently) and metacognition ( adolescents think about thinking, through monitoring one’s cognitive activity in the process of thinking. Adolescents’ ability to be wise also increases, and they become risk takers (Tau GZ, 2010). Finally, the Piaget theory of development’s final stage is referred to the “the formal operational stage.” It indicates movement from the ability to reason and think from visible events that are of concrete type, to the ability to be a hypothetical thinker and to develop an approach of doubt in tackling problems. This stage’s cognitive structures can consist of four regulations for content thought manipulation: negation, correlativity, reciprocity and negation. The ability of solving problems is indicated when individuals during the adolescent stage use “trial-and-error” method for problem solving ( Kozulin, Alex; Lev Semenovich Vygotsky , 2012) . Physical development change in adolescents Adolescents tend to experience drastic physical development, which is likely to start during puberty. As much as these individuals tend to experience similar physical changes (according to sex), they will develop physically according to the timetable of their own body. Therefore, because their physical rate of development varies during this stage, it turns up to be a discomfort and difficult source for the adolescent. Due to early development of some teens, they tend to develop a sense of self consciousness concerning their bodies and feel disappointed (Berk, 2009). During this stage, growth in height occurs generally in the process of one period, (growth spurt). Girls normally begin this spurt of growth between 8-13 years of age, drastic growth being between 10-13 years of age. They attain their height of adulthood between 10-16 years of age. On the other hand, boys begin their spurt of growth somehow later as compared to girls. On average, they begin their growth between 10-16 years of age, drastic growth being between 12-15 years of age. They attain their height of adulthood between 13-17 years of age ( Vander Zanden, J. W., Crandell, T. L., Crandell, C. H., 2007). During adolescence, the legs and arms also increase in length, eventually becoming proportional in length and size to the whole body. Adolescents’ body composition also changes. This includes the body fat ratio to lean the mass of muscle. Teen boys’ mass of muscle largely increases in the adolescent stage because of the increasing levels of their hormones e.g. testosterone, which causes muscle mass increase. Generally, the straight and square bodies of boys become more tapered along the waist and broader along the shoulders, forming a triangular-shaped body familiarizes to adult males. Their legs and arms become more bulky and muscular (Berk, 2009). Teen girls develop muscle mass continuously, adding body fat in the process. During adolescence stage, their body fat percentage increases relatively mass of muscle. The remaining fat becomes deposited in the midsection of her body (buttocks, chest and hips). Their previous bodies that were straight-lined and square become broader and wider at the buttocks, chest and hips, forming the adult female shape hour-glass. Psychosocial development change in adolescents Psychosocial development is the development of a sense of self that is coherent and role playing in society. Adolescents develop a sense of self, and try to identify the things that make them become different from others. The sense of self that an individual experiences, and what proves him/her not similar to others is called self-identity. A developing sense belonging to uniqueness and self of an adolescent is a force of motivation in life. Therefore, according to a psychologist, (Erik Erikson), the psychological conflict that occurs during adolescence stage is Identity Versus Confusion. Here, the major question asked is “who am I?” and the basic virtue is fidelity. This is the 5th stage of Erikson’s psychological development theory, after the adolescents having passed through the following stages before they reached the adolescence stage (Trust vs. Mistrust, Anatomy vs. Doubt, Initiative vs. Guilt and Industry vs. Inferiority). As they transit to adulthood, adolescents may start feeling insecure or confused about themselves, having concerns of how they should fit in the society. As they struggle to establish this self sense, adolescents may try experimenting with different behaviors, activities and roles. According to this psychologist, (Erikson), this experimentation is largely important to develop, in life, a direction sense and to form an identity that is strong. Adolescents who receive quality reinforcement and encouragement through exploration of personal kind will automatically result to possessing a self sense that is stronger and a general feeling of control and independence after this particular stage. On the other hand, adolescents who are not sure of their desires and beliefs will feel confused and insecure about the future and themselves in general (Kozulin, Alex; Lev S.etal. 2012). How family/household may enhance or inhibit an adolescent’s experiences of the cognitive, psychosocial and physical changes. Parents and guardians in an adolescent’s family can enhance adolescents to develop a concept of self that is healthy through being a positive role model such as setting of an example that is good by having gratifying and responsible experiences for themselves, and through acceptance that is non-judgmental for their own children. Therefore, parents enhance adolescents’ experiences of psychosocial change through affirming the qualities that are positive that they can identify in the personality of their adolescents and demonstrate in large praise and admiration for these particular qualities. On the other hand, inadequate support and nurturance from these parents and displaying of incorrect behaviors, attitude and values from the patents may inhibit the self concept of adolescents since they will end up acquiring values, attitudes and behaviors that are wrong and not recommended in their future lives (Alegre, 2012). Family/household plays a big role in enhancing or inhibiting the experience that occurs in adolescents during the cognitive development stage. This stage is characterized by development changes in the brain from a less abstract to a more abstract, logic and a decision making brain. Since during this stage adolescents tend to be more flexible in thinking, parents and each character included in a family may enhance cognitive experiences of adolescents through providing relevant counseling and advice in order for them to be able to make good decisions and think straight, thus not ending up to engage in risky behaviors like pre-marital sex, abusing drugs, crime, poor attendance of school e.t.c. On the other hand, characters in a family may inhibit experiences in the cognitive development stage through not offering adequate counseling and support to their children, thus inhibiting good decision-making of their children. Adolescents lacking the appropriate counseling and guidelines will automatically end up engaging in risky behaviors, which will impact negatively to his or her future (Kozulin, Alex; Lev S.etal. 2012). A family/household may enhance physical development experience of an adolescent through informing and familiarizing him/her with the expected changes that occur or will occur in his/her body and providing sufficient knowledge on how different adolescents’ bodies have an individual growth timetable, (everyone grows at his/her own pace). This will largely contribute to the adolescent’s comfortability during the entire period of growth since he or she knows what to expect. On the other hand, parents, elder sisters and brothers in a family may inhibit the experiences during physical development of an adolescent through neglecting and assuming that the adolescent will automatically be familiar with whatever physical growth that is taking place in his/her body. This will impact negatively to that particular adolescent since he or she will experience discomfort, anger and a negative sense of self consciousness concerning his or her body, given that some adolescents experience growth much earlier than others do, whole others experience it later on. (Those who experience growth later on will always feel out of place) (Berk, 2009).How the macro system setting, from Bronfenbrenner’s Model of Ecology may enhance and inhibit adolescents’ experiences in the cognitive, physical and psychosocial development changes . Macrosystem is the final level, and is the most remote and largest set of things and people to an adolescent, but also has a large influence over that adolescent. It therefore includes relative freedoms granted by national government, values of given culture, wars, and economy. These factors therefore can impact both positively and negatively to the cognitive, physical and psychosocial changes that adolescent’s experience (Kozulin, Alex; Lev S.etal. 2012). The macrosystem setting enhances experiences in psychosocial development of adolescents, given that it entails values of culture and beliefs, and through these culture beliefs and values, adolescents are in a better position to establish their self concept and identity since they are able to infer their different roles in the society, for them to fit fully in that particular society. Fitting in their society develops a positive sense of self to the adolescents, and impacts positively to the future. On the other hand, the macrosystem setting may inhibit psychosocial development since not all cultures and customs are similar, and this will create confusion concerning identity and self concept at a time when these adolescents interact with their peers from other different cultures. As a result of this confusion, adolescents will struggle to fit in the society by experimenting with different behaviors, activities and roles, thus inhibiting their psychosocial experience (Santrock, 2007). The macrosystem setting may enhance cognitive experiences in adolescents, in that it is comprised of cultural values to guide and control behavior, and this positively impacts on adolescents since they are in a better position to develop logic and good decision making skills. On the contrary, the macrosystem may as well inhibit experiences in psychosocial development because some societies have values that guide adolescents in a negative way, e.g. some Muslim societies recommend holy wars, and this leads to them killing and assassinating fellow human beings. This therefore, misleads adolescents to an extent that they will grow up knowing the fact that murder is a genuine act, ant this will lead to them engaging into crimes of murder in their entire future Kozulin, Alex; Lev S.etal. (2012). Macrosystem setting enhances experiences in physical development of the adolescents in that the freedom of association granted by national government and culture provides adolescents with an opportunity to interact freely with their peers, thus enabling them to be aware of the expected physical changes that their bodies will undergo and learn that different bodies have a different growing timetable.Macrosystem setting may inhibit experiences during physical development of adolescents because given this freedom to interact with others, some adolescents may feel not in place when they experience physical changes much earlier or later than their peers do. This will lead to discomfort and development of an element of doubt concerning their bodies (Santrock, 2007). Conclusion In conclusion, according to the above article, adolescence is a lifespan stage, and individuals in this stage tend to experience a series of changes, (cognitive, physical and psychosocial). These changes, as discussed above, occur in every adolescent but at a different time. Therefore, the family/household and the macrosystem setting of Bronfenbrenner’s Model of Ecology has a role, both positively and negatively, in enhancing or inhibiting these changes of development that adolescents experience. Bibliography Alegre, A. (2012). "The Relation between the Time Mothers and Children Spent Together and the Children's Trait Emotional Intelligence". Child & Youth Care Forum , 493-508. Berk, L. E. (2009). Child development. Boston:. Pearson Education/Allyn & Bacon , 30-35. Santrock, J. W. (2007). A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. 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