DEVELEOPMENT OF ADOLESCENCE (High School Learners- 13-18 years)

PHYSICAL COGNITIVE SOCIO-EMOTIONAL

 Growth Spurt- intense period of growth of an adolescent
triggered by increased in hormone level of
TESTOSTERONE for boys and ESTROGEN for girls.
 Often times, increase in height is the sign of being in the
puberty stage
 Puberty- refers to physical transition
 A time of rapid development. There are active brain
interactions with increased in experiences, knowledge &
changes in social demands.
 For Piaget, adolescents’ cognitive dev’t is on the
FORMAL OPERATIONAL level and has capability to do
abstract thinking
 Formal Operational – ability to understand abstract
principles which have no physical reference. ex. love,
freedom, faith, etc.
 IDENTITY vs ROLE CONFUSION -
Psychosocial Stage by Erick Erikson
 A period of personal & social identity
 Identity- all of the beliefs, ideals, and
values that help shape and guide a
person's behavior.
 in Erikson’s view, an adolescent’s main
questions are “Who am I?” and “Who do
I want to be?”
 According to Erikson, our identity
constantly changes due to new
experiences and information we acquire in
our daily interactions with others.
 As adolescents work to form their
identities, they pull away from their
parents, and the peer group becomes
very important; despite this,
relationships with parents still play a
significant role in identity formation.
 TWO MAIN ASPECTS OF IDENTITY
DEVELOPMENT:
o Self-concept- who we think we are;
the picture of ourselves; the picture
we think others have of us
o Self-esteem- a person’s subjective
evaluation of his/her own worth

BOYS GIRLS
Onset of Puberty  Starts at 12,  Starts at 11, Cognitive Abilities of Adolescents
ends at 20 ends at 18 1. Abstract Thinking – has to do with being able to
Primary Sex  enlargement of  Pubic hair
Characteristics the testes,  Menarche (1st think about abstract ideas. They consider possible
penis, prostate menstruation) outcomes, which include out-of-the-box ideas to
gland (produces solve problems. This skill is useful for long term
fluid for sperm),
planning.
seminal
vesicles (gives 2. Deductive Logic - being able to think in broader
mobility to sperms). terms. Children at this stage can come up with
Secondary Sex  Voice quality,  enlarged solutions to problems using logic and general
Characteristics facial hair, breasts, wider principles. This skill is useful in Science and Math. 
broader hips 3. Hypothetical Deductive Reasoning- think about
shoulders what-ifs and attempt to formulate various solutions
to solve them.  Developing hypotheses based on
what might logically occur
4. Metacognition – can think about thinking itself.
Capable of doing introspection (examination of one’s
own mental & emotional processes)
 Question: Does everyone reach formal operations?
PIAGET’S TESTS:
1) Physical Conceptualization
Piaget used the concept of balance. Children from different age were asked
to balance a scale. Here’s the outcome:

13 years old made a hypothesis on where to

place the balance
10 years old did trial & error
7 years old placed weights on each side of the
scale but did not consider the
placement of the weights
below 7 years old Were not able to finish the task
because they had no concept of
 balance

2) Abstraction of Thought
Piaget asked them on where they’re going to put a third eye if given one.

Younger Children Middle of their foreheads

Adolescents At the back of their heads

JAMES MARCIA’S IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT/STATUSES

CRISIS / ACTIVE EXPLORATION

LOW HIGH

C Diffusion Moratorium
O L  the adolescents neither explore nor  the adolescents are actively
O commits to any identities exploring options but have not
M W  yet made commitments
doing nothing to know his/her
M identity
I
T
H Foreclosure Achievement
M I  an individual commits to an identity  adolescents who have
E G without exploring options explored different options,
N H  ex. family of doctors so he/she will discovered their purpose, and
T take up meds automatically) have made identity
commitments