Adolescence

1)Age Range :
The most salient physical change during adolescence is puberty. Puberty marks the onset of the
capability of reproduction. In the United States, the average age for girls to begin menstruating is
12.5 years, with European American girls typically starting a bit later than African American
girls, Most girls (95% of the population) reach puberty between the ages of 9 and 16. Boys lag
behind girls by a few years; boys' average age for reaching sexual maturity is 14 years. Most
boys (95% of the population) enter puberty between the ages of 10 and 19.

The ways in which puberty impacts adolescent behavior are related, in part, to the reactions of
others. Once a child looks physically mature, he or she may be assumed to have greater mental
and emotional maturity too, regardless of whether or not this is true. The timing of puberty—
whether one matures early, late, or on time with respect to peers—has been shown to play an
important role in whether pubertal changes are a positive or negative force in adolescents' lives.
For boys, maturing early has some social benefits. Early-maturing boys are perceived as adult
like and may be given more leadership roles. In addition, their increased strength and speed are
valued by their peers in athletic arenas. Still, research has demonstrated psychological costs for
early-maturing boys in terms of depression, anxiety, and feelings of hostility.

For girls, maturing early seems to carry more substantial costs. These girls often report feeling
awkward around their peers, tend to hang out with an older crowd, begin dating earlier than their
peers, and may be pressured into sexual experiences before they are ready. Boys who mature
later than their peers might find that situation to be personally challenging, but research has not
revealed any long-term negative effects. Maturing late may actually be advantageous for girls in
terms of protecting them from negative body image issues associated with the naturally
occurring weight gain of puberty.

Historically speaking, the average age for reaching puberty is decreasing. This secular trend may
be due to better nutrition, sanitation, and control of infectious disease. Although the average age
for girls to begin menstruating is unlikely to dip far below 12 years, a significant minority of
girls may show one or more signs of puberty by age seven. Therefore, the effects of puberty may
begin well before adolescence, often to the surprise of parents, teachers, peers, and the child
herself.

2)Physical Change:

The physical changes of puberty are triggered by

hormones, chemical substances in the body that act on

specific organs and tissues. In boys a major change is

the increased production of testosterone, a male sex

hormone, while girls experience increased production of

the female hormone estrogen. In both sexes, a rise in

growth hormone produces the adolescent growth spurt, the

pronounced increase in height and weight that marks the

first half of puberty.

Perhaps the most dramatic changes of puberty involve

sexuality. Internally, through the development of primary

sexual characteristics, adolescents become capable of

sexual reproduction. Externally, as secondary sexual

characteristics appear, girls and boys begin to look like

mature women and men. In boys primary and secondary

sexual characteristics usually emerge in a predictable

order, with rapid growth of the testes and scrotum,

accompanied by the appearance of pubic hair. About a year

later, when the growth spurt begins, the penis also grows

larger, and pubic hair becomes coarser, thicker, and

darker. Later still comes the growth of facial and body

hair, and a gradual lowering of the voice. Around mid-

adolescence internal changes begin making a boy capable

of producing and ejaculating sperm.

In girls, sexual characteristics develop in a less

regular sequence. Usually, the first sign of puberty is a

slight elevation of the breasts, but sometimes this is

preceded by the appearance of pubic hair. Pubic hair

changes from sparse and downy to denser and coarser.

Concurrent with these changes is further breast

development. In teenage girls, internal sexual changes

include maturation of the uterus, vagina, and other parts

of the reproductive system. Menarche, the first menstrual

period, happens relatively late, not at the start of

puberty as many people believe. Regular ovulation and the

ability to carry a baby to full term usually follow

menarche by several years.

For many years, psychologists believed that puberty was

stressful for young people. We now know that any

difficulties associated with adjusting to puberty are

minimized if adolescents know what changes to expect and

have positive attitudes toward them. Although the

immediate impact of puberty on the adolescent's self-

image and mood may be very modest, the timing of physical

maturation does affect the teen's social and emotional

development in important ways. Early-maturing boys tend

to be more popular, to have more positive self-

conceptions, and to be more self-assured than their

later-maturing peers, whereas early-maturing girls may

feel awkward and self-conscious.

3)Cognitive Change:

cocgintive changes occur during adolescence, both because students assimilate

knowledge about previously unstudied phenomena and because ideas are replaced by
more predictive, abstract, or robust notions. We look at cognitive change by focusing
broadly on conceptual change, examining increases in understanding as well as the
process of abandoning one view for another. We examine the powerful influence of the
social context in which learning occurs. This social context gains importance during
adolescence in conjunction with increased awareness of social relationships and social
influences. We discuss the implications of this research for education and make
suggestions concerning future research on instruction and conceptual change. We note
two key trends. First, students construct understanding by integrating observations and
activities into intuitions following a process similar to that followed by scientists. We call
on educators to support and encourage this process rather than labeling these
conceptual attainments "misconceptions." Second, we note that learners often
overcompartmentalize knowledge into "domains" and therefore fail to recognize
parallels in similar situations. If educators foster the constructive process and the
broadening of domains they will also encourage conceptual change. In conclusion, we
argue that recent interest in complex conceptual change has implications for
researchers concerned with all aspects of cognitive change. In particular, we call on
those concerned with cognition to test their ideas in the context of complex conceptual
change.

. Compared to children, adolescents

think in ways that are more advanced, more efficient, and

generally more complex. This can be seen in five ways.

First, during adolescence individuals become better able

than children to think about what is possible, instead of

limiting their thought to what is real. Whereas

children's thinking is oriented to the here and now—that

is, to things and events that they can observe directly,

adolescents are able to consider what they observe

against a backdrop of what is possible—they can think

hypothetically.

Second, during the passage into adolescence, individuals

become better able to think about abstract ideas. For

example, adolescents find it easier than children to

comprehend the sorts of higher-order, abstract logic

inherent in puns, proverbs, metaphors, and analogies. The

adolescent's greater facility with abstract thinking also

permits the application of advanced reasoning and logical

processes to social and ideological matters. This is

clearly seen in the adolescent's increased facility and

interest in thinking about interpersonal relationships,

politics, philosophy, religion, and morality—topics that

involve such abstract concepts as friendship, faith,

democracy, fairness, and honesty.

Third, during adolescence individuals begin thinking more

often about the process of thinking itself, or

metacognition. As a result, adolescents may display

increased introspection and self-consciousness. Although

improvements in metacognitive abilities provide important

intellectual advantages, one potentially negative

byproduct of these advances is the tendency for

adolescents to develop a sort of egocentrism, or intense

preoccupation with the self. Acute adolescent egocentrism

sometimes leads teenagers to believe that others are

constantly watching and evaluating them, much as an

audience glues its attention to an actor on a stage.

Psychologists refer to this as the imaginary audience.

A fourth change in cognition is that thinking tends to

become multidimensional, rather than limited to a single

issue. Whereas children tend to think about things one

aspect at a time, adolescents can see things through more

complicated lenses. Adolescents describe themselves and

others in more differentiated and complicated terms and

find it easier to look at problems from multiple

perspectives. Being able to understand that people's

personalities are not one-sided, or that social

situations can have different interpretations, depending

on one's point of view, permits the adolescent to have

far more sophisticated—and complicated—relationships with

other people.