1. Adolescence

2. What is Adolescence? What time frame?
What constitutes the end of adolescence?
What are the most significant aspects or events in adolescence?

3. When Does Adolescence begin and end?
Perspective
When adolescence begins
When adolescence ends
Biological
Onset of puberty
Becoming capable of sexual reproduction
Emotional
Beginning of detachment from parents
Attainment of separate sense of identity
Cognitive
Emergence of more advanced reasoning abilities
Consolidation of advanced reasoning abilities
Interpersonal
Beginning of shift in interest from parental to peer relations
Development of capacity for intimacy with peers
Social
Beginning of training for adult work, family, and citizen roles
Full attainment of adult status and privileges
Educational
Entrance into junior high school
Completion of formal schooling
Legal
Attainment of juvenile status
Attainment of majority status
Chronological
Attainment of designated age of adolescence (e.g., 10 years)
Attainment of designated age of adulthood (e.g., 21 years)
Cultural
Entrance into period of training for ceremonial rite of passage
Completion of ceremonial rite of passage

4. Stages of Adolescence Early Adolescence (10-13 years)
Middle Adolescence (14-17 years)
Late Adolescence (18-21 years)

5. Some of the transitions we will be studying
Biological – how changes influence psychological development
Cognitive-how thought processes change and become more mature
Social-how adolescents change in their friendships and relationships at home

6. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model

7. Theoretical perspectives on how adolescents ‘evolve’
Biosocial theories
Hall’s theory of recapitulation
Organismic theories
Freudian Theory
Eriksonian Theory
Piagetian Theory
Learning theories
Behaviorism
Social Learning theories
Sociological theories
Adolescent marginality
Intergenerational conflict
Historical and Anthropological Theories
Adolescence as an Invention
Anthropological perspectives

8. Biosocial Theories Hall’s Theory of Recapitulation
Adolescence is when a person becomes civilized
Says adolescence is a period of ‘storm and stress’
Said hormonal changes were not productive for teen or those around them – upheaval

9. Organismic theories (combination of biological and contextual theories)
1. Freudian theory
Child comes out of the latency period into the genital period
Oedipal complex revived but different
Saw adolescence as a period of upheaval

10. Organismic theories 2. Eriksonian theories Identity vs. role confusion
Changes in adolescence due to puberty and society’s demands on an adolescence

11. Organismic theories 3. Piagetian theory Formal operational thought
Abstract, hypothetical thinking
Biological changes (esp in brain) affect cognitive abilities

12. Learning theories 1. Behaviorism John Watson Operant conditioning
Reinforcements
Punishments

13. Learning theories 2. Social Learning Theory Albert Bandura
Interested in the ways in that adolescents learn to behave
Through modeling
Observational learning

14. Sociological Theories
1. Adolescent marginality
Treated like ‘second-class’ citizens
Aren’t given meaningful job opportunities
Need to spend more time with adults in order to better transition to adulthood

15. Socological Theories 2. Intergenerational conflict
Tension between adults and adolescents results from different attitudes and beliefs
Some see adolescents as being hostile to the ‘culture’ of adults

16. Historical and Anthropological Theories
1. Adolescence as an invention
Compulsory education created the concept of adolescence
Prior to this, teen girls got married/had children and boys went to work

17. Historical and Anthropological Theories
2. Anthropological perspectives
Says in ‘continuous’ societies, the transition from adolescence to adulthood is smooth
In ‘discontinuous’ societies, the transition to adulthood is abrupt – harder to deal with