Adolescence Sexual Development Essay

Dr. Money argued it was possible for a person to change gender successfully through surgery, socialisation and hormone replacement. Unaware Dr. Money had never attempted this before, Bruce’s parents, Ron and Janet Reimer consented. On 3rd July 1967 Bruce was surgically castrated and renamed Brenda.

In this paper I plan to discuss the developmental stages of adolescence. Adolescents are also referred to as "teenagers" or "young adults." Adolescence begins after the childhood stage and ends right before adulthood. The years of adolescence range from 12 years old to 21 years old. The years of adolescence can be quite a roller coaster ride. Young people in this stage encounter a great deal of changes in their life as they prepare for adulthood. I will discuss emotional, intellectual, physiological, and social domains of development and how it relates to adolescents. I will also discuss some helpful tips for teachers to aide in communicating effectively to adolescents and understanding their

Human sexuality is a common phrase for all, and anything, pertaining to the feelings and behaviors of sex for the human race. Sexuality has been a topic that has been discussed and studied for as far back as 1000 years B.C. and is still being studied today. As the discussion of sexuality has progressed through history, theories have been created based on research and experiments that scholars have implemented, based on their own perceptions of human behavior. Out of the many theories that pose to explain sexual behavior, Sexuality Now explained ten that are seemed to be the most overlapped, and built off of theories. Of these theories, two that were discussed in the text were the behavioral and sociological theory. These two theories cover some of the basic ideas of what could possibly influence a person’s sexuality.

This includes both primary sex characteristics such as their reproductive systems and secondary sex characteristics such as height and muscularity. Gender refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female. A person’s sex does not always correspond with his or her gender. Gender is a concept that is created by cultural or the social norm. Sexual orientation is the term used when referring to an individual’s physical or emotional attraction to the same or opposite gender. Examples of sexual orientation are “Gay”, “Lesbian”, “Bisexual” and “Straight” (Huffman,

Through the lessons learned during the previous stages, adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure are the genitals. Interest in the welfare of others grows during this stage as opposed to the earlier stages where the focus was solely on individual needs. It is also the time when the individual tries to come to terms with unresolved residues of the early childhood. Although the focus is again on the genitals, within this stage the energy is expressed with adult sexuality. While in the phallic stage gratification is linked with satisfaction of the primary drives, the ego in the genital stage is well-developed, and so uses secondary process thinking, which allows symbolic gratification. The symbolic gratification may include the formation of love relationships and families, or acceptance of responsibilities associated with adulthood.

From Dr. Money’s perspective, raising Bruce as a girl would allow him to live a “normal” life, if he were to live his life without a penis, he would be seen as an outsider and rejected from society. He also suggested to put Bruce on estrogen, but also surgically give him a cosmetic vagina. Dr. Money explained to Ron and Janet that Bruce/Brenda, would psychologically mature as a woman, and be attracted to men, as well as be able to have sexual intecourse, without a problem. According to Bruce’s parents, there was no reason “that it shouldn’t work” (50). However, they could have thought it out thoroughly, what if Brenda didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin? Would she feel as though something is wrong with her? This is where the topic of

Human sexuality is defined as the capability of individuals to experience their sexuality and be able to express themselves as sexual beings (Hyde & DeLameck, 2006). Our interest in this topic is because with time, there has been a change in rules that control human sexual behaviour. The status quo in our contemporary society is much different as compared to an earlier state of conditions, and the change has, as a result, brought the evolvement in human sexuality. People 's view on virginity has changed greatly with a decrease of importance in regards to its preservation. Sexuality is essential to the economic, cultural, social and political organization of society or country. Our sexuality plays a fundamental role in all our lives regardless of age, sex or race. It forms a basic part of our personality and the decisions we make in what we do. One’s sexuality also consumes much of their time through behaviour or thoughts; at times every aspect of our lives seems to revolve around our sexuality. Studying sexuality is very important since human sexuality majorly contributes to social as well as personal problems. A lingering question concerning this topic is to what extent is virginity determined by the status quo and the rules that control human behaviour?

In today’s society things are being expressed and experienced at younger ages, than ever before in our time. Children and teenagers are discovering their sexuality at very early ages. Sexuality is the discovering of who you are and what makes you different from everybody else.

1. Chapter 9, “Adolescence” Body and Mind,” section Puberty explains the physical and mental changes that teenagers go through, it’s the state in which they transition from children to young adults, incapable of completely just one or the other (Berger, 315). The first changes of puberty, physically-wise, begins around the ages of 9 – 13 years’ old for both boys and girls, which include facial and body hair, deepening of the voice, and of course body growth; such as the hands, feet, face, and private parts. Although genetics do play a role of the timing of these body changes, environmental, emotional, and cultural factors can also affect the time and age when puberty happens. Sometimes it’s delayed, other times the process is quicker than norm. “About two thirds of the variation of age of puberty is genetic, evident not only in families, but also in ethnic groups…precocious puberty is genetic, but the cause of the increase is largely unknown – perhaps childhood obesity or new chemicals in the environment” (Berger, 320-321). Among puberty, adolescents’ nutrition become poor due to body image…In addition, there eating disorders that teenagers discover during their transition, they are more “vulnerable to unhealthy eating,” and unlike childhood, “eating disorders increase drastically during puberty” (Berger, 325). This part of the chapter explains two major and serious types of eating disorders. Anorexia Nervosa is a voluntarily starvation in which a person will starve him or

Adolescence is a stage of maturation between childhood and adulthood that denotes the period from the beginning of puberty to maturity. However, many conflicting opinions are raised about weather such a stage of childhood is influenced by stress, depression, and suicide rate. Some people support the optimistic view that says that adolescence is not a period of storm and stress. Others, including me, support an opposite pessimistic view which characterizes adolescence as a period of stress and inner turmoil. Unfortunately, it has been recently proved that depression is a growing problem in today 's society and a major contributing factor for a multitude of adolescent problems. This is because , as research indicates, adolescent depression

Just as other interpersonal themes, sexual themes in film are often depictions of sexual themes that exist in real life relationships. For this very reason, it is very easy for a person to compare his relationships with that of a relationship shown in media or film. Some relationships are total train wrecks from the start while others are not necessarily ideal, but healthy. Although not seen very often, ideal couples in film are attributed with characteristics that are seen by society as desirable; youthful, attractive people who are hyper-sexual and affectionate. As cliché as it sounds, sometimes relationships are simply “complicated”. Such is the case in the film It’s Complicated.

The purpose of this issue paper is to compare and contrast two different articles one written by L.E. Berk in 2010 that explores lifespan development. The other article was written by the staff and research team at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford in 2012 that addresses what cognitive development is and the progress of adolescence cognitive development. Cognitive development begins from the moment of birth and continues throughout life. However, this student finds the cognitive abilities are more complex during the adolescent years. Therefore, the issue this paper will address is adolescence cognitive development.

Adolescence is a period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity. The adolescent is no longer a child, but they haven’t yet reached adulthood. Adolescence is considered people between the ages of 13 and 21. Puberty is the physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual reproduction. Puberty is important to adolescence because when a child hits puberty, that’s when the child is becoming an adolescent. Puberty is a big part of an adolescent’s life.

Middle childhood, is a very exciting time for young children from the ages of seven to twelve years old. It’s known as the school years and new social and cognitive traits are being learned at home and at school. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory found this to be the latentcy period in which no much happens. He described this because children at this age sexual and aggressive urges are repressed ("Stages of Growth Development," 1898-1987). This paper will also discuss the changes from middle childhood to adolescence, the affects of parents and peers and the affects they have on developing children.

Adolescence is the period of development from ages 10-21, it is the period between childhood and adulthood (McGraw Hill Education, 2015) It is a time of confusion and exploration. This stage continues until a person is holding a full time job, economic independence, and taking responsibility to oneself (Santrock, 2011, p. 344). As a 16 year old female I am in the midst of all these changes and can relate many themes to myself and my own experiences.