Adolescence to early adulthod - Research Paper Example

Psychology Changes in Development from Adolescence to Early Adulthood Adolescence is an intermediary stage, between the ages of puberty to the age where one becomes an adult. Lerner and Steiberg (2009) describe the term adolescence as three stages that young people experience between the ages of 10 to 26. In page 147, Schneider and Bullock (2010) argue that adolescence is a time and stage where there is a crisis, since children engage in too much self-exploitation.Notwithstanding the definition given by different authors, they all agree to one thing; that during the first two stages of adolescence, young people are extremely emotional.

During these stages the minors usually very conflicted. It is not surprising to see the minors more opposed to their parents and associating more closely with their peers. Minors look to their peers for direction on what is right and what amounts to a wrong. In most cases, they group themselves based on their characteristics they share with others in a group and will usually spend most of their time in groupings. Intimacy also increases in friendship during adolescence. Peer relationships can affect an adolescent positively or negatively.

Some positive influences associated with peer relationships include improving of social skills and improving of competency in areas of interest for certain groups of adolescence. Some negative effects as a result of peer relationships at adolescence include; adoption of antisocial behavior and rebellion to authorities.The age period between 19 and 26 is usually considered as the period within which young people emerge from adolescent and gradually become adults. Schneider and Bullock (2010), refer to this period as the period of emerging adulthood.

However, there are critics that consider this as the last stage of adolescence in reference to the three stages of adolescence. People in this age group gradually stop using their peers as a point of reference in their actions. Emerging adults will usually spend most of their time alone as compared to the time they were adolescents (Lerner and Steiberg, 2009). Another change during emerging adulthood stage is that this people of this age group are more likely to engage in high risk behavior, such as too much alcohol intake and having multiple sex partners as they search for the best options in life.

ReferencesLerner, R., & Steinberg, L. (2009). Handbook of Adolescent Psychology, Contextual Influences on Adolescent Development. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Scheneider, W., & Merry, B. (2010). Human Development from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood: Findings from a 20 Year Longitudinal Study. Hove: Psychology Press.