ADOLESCENCE AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY: An introduction
BY MARISEN MWALE
Some analytical considerations
Adolescent psychology is an entity of a major branch of psychology- Developmental psychology which also constitutes Child and Adult psychology. Any concise definition of adolescence falls short of a comprehensive description of the term because every definition reveals the bias or major interest of the author. Often a technical term is invented in order to create a social condition and a social fact and such has been true with respect to the term, ‘Adolescence’.
As defined by the Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary [1977], adolescence refers to the, ‘process of growing up’ or to the ‘period of life from puberty to maturity’. Linguistically as well the word is a Latin word meaning ‘to grow up’ or to ‘come to maturity.’ If we start at the beginning as it were and set out to define the term adolescence from a psychological perspective, then immediately two aspects become apparent.
· First – that adolescence as a period cannot even be defined in a way that makes it a period of development independent or immune of human judgment.
In other words the question is as to whether adolescence is a
social construction.
· Second – that it usually has to be defined with the sort of ambiguity that has left the door open for rival theories of adolescence [Vaness, 1960].
Taking for example, Buhler’s [1954] definition which has most likely reached general acceptance among developmental psychologists:
Adolescence is an in-between period beginning with the achievement of physiological maturity and ending with the assumption of social maturity- that is with the assumption of social, sexual, economic and legal rights and duties of the adult. The definition is biological at the outset, but except for the word ‘sexual’, its termination is entirely in social terms. In other words, the termination of adolescence is subject to the particular customs of the culture- it is cultural specific. Adolescence is thus subject to human judgment. It has the implication that adults can willfully prolong adolescence by decisions about what defines the termination of it.
Adolescence as a concept is said to have appeared in literature in the 15th century. Prior to that during the Middle Ages children were treated as miniature adults. Children and adolescents were believed to entertain the same interests as adults and, since they were simply miniature adults, they were treated as such, with strict, harsh discipline. In the Middle Ages neither the adolescent nor the child was given status apart from the adult [Muuss, 1989].
During the 18th century Jean Jacques Rousseau offered a more enlightened view of adolescence. Rousseau, a French philosopher, did more than any other individual to restore the belief that a child is not the same as an adult.
In Emile [1762], Rousseau argued that treating the child like a miniature adult is not appropriate and is potentially harmful. He believed that children up to the age of 12 or so should be free of adult restrictions and allowed to experience their world naturally, rather than having rigid regulations imposed on them. Social and historical conditions have led a number of writers to argue that adolescence has been ‘invented’ [Finley, 1985; Hill, 1980; Lapsley, 1988]. While adolescence clearly has biological foundations, nonetheless social and historical occurrences have contributed to the acceptance of adolescence as a transitional time between childhood and adulthood. This is denoted the Inventionist View of adolescence.
Adolescence is marked by two significant changes in physical development.
· First – physiological changes or dramatic change in size and shape.
· Second – the inception of puberty.
According to G. Stanley Hall [1904], adolescence starts at the age of 12 or 13. In principle, at least, the outset of adolescence can be determined objectively, for example, by the presence of the gonadotropin hormone in the urine. It lasts until anything from 22 to 25 [Kalat, 1990].In other words, its termination is determined by the achievement of the society’s criteria of psychological maturity. And so we have a biological definition of the beginning of adolescence and a sociological definition of its termination.
A South African psychologist Nsamenang [1996], argues that adolescent psychology has since been a Eurocentric enterprise. This implies, regrettably, that research efforts have so far failed to capture what adolescence truly is in its global context. Instead, scholars have tended to create, or more accurately, to recast, the African or other non-western images of adolescence in the shadow of Euro-American adolescence.
Other authorities have more explicitly endeavored to define adolescence:
Stone and Church, 1973; Bandura, 1970; Ingersoll, 1981; Sisson, Hersen and Van Hasselt, 1987; Sprinthall and Collins 1988 state that,
· Adolescence is a stage in a person’s life between childhood and adulthood.
Crider, Goethais, Kavanaugh and Solomon [1983] state that,
· Adolescence is usually defined as the period that begins with the onset of puberty and ends somewhere around age eighteen or nineteen.
· Adolescence is the period of rapid growth between childhood and adulthood, including psychological and social development.
· Defines adolescence as the period between childhood and adulthood with much personal growth- physical, psychological and social—that gives the period its special place within the field of developmental psychology.
Santrock [1993],
· Defines adolescence as, the developmental period of transition between childhood and adulthood that involves biological, cognitive and social changes.
In this context,
· Biological changes involve physical development.
· Cognitive changes involve thought, intelligence, and language.
· Social changes involve relationships with other people in emotions, in personality and in the social context.
BOUNDARIES OF ADOLESCENCE
Adolescence has been described as a transitional stage with uncertain boundaries. In other words, it is difficult to tell exactly at what ages adolescence begins or ends—its inception and termination is difficult to determine. Basically boundaries of adolescence mark the beginning and ending of key factors of development.
· Biological: in this perspective adolescence begins at puberty and ends with the attainment of physical and sexual maturity.
· Emotional: in this perspective adolescence begins at the beginning of autonomy or independence from parents and ends with the attainment of self-revised personal identity and emotional autonomy.
· Cognitive: in this perspective adolescence begins with the emergence of logical reasoning, problem solving and decision making skills and ends after attaining adult logical reasoning and autonomous decision making.
· Interpersonal: in this perspective adolescence begins with the shift from parents to peer orientation and ends with increased capacity for intimacy with peers and adults.
· Social: in this perspective adolescence begins with entry into personal, family and work roles and ends with the attainment of adult privileges and responsibilities.
· Educational: in this perspective adolescence begins with entry into secondary school and ends with the completion of college education.
· Religious: in this perspective adolescence begins with preparation for confirmation and adult baptism and ends with the attainment of adult status in a religious community.
· Chronological: in this perspective adolescence begins with the attainment of a given age associated with adolescence e.g. teen years and ends with the attainment of a given age associated with adulthood e.g. twenties.
· Legal: in this perspective adolescence begins with the attainment of juvenile status and ends with the attainment of legal status.
· Cultural: in this perspective adolescence begins with the training for preparation for ceremonial rites of passage and ends with the ceremonial rites of passage.
For practical purposes the beginning of adolescence remains closely associated with the beginning of puberty although it is no longer synonymous with it. It is however difficult to determine its ending since it merges into early adulthood.
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