Adolescent Egocentrism Essay

In order to illustrate a key stage in the life course, I will be looking at the area of adolescence because I believe that this is one of the most critical life stages, with so many immense transitions young people go through. I have chosen to focus on adolescence because of a commitment to working with these vulnerable individuals aged from 14 to 19. We can no doubt all reflect on wrong choices we felt we made in our adolescence, and how our education and employment prospects may have benefited from good advice at this crucial juncture in life. I want to be able to guide vulnerable adolescents in the right direction and help them make the right choices, by understanding their needs, and supporting them in practical ways to live fulfilling and independent lives. From personal experience, I sincerely believe that with the right kind of guidance and attention, troubled teenagers can get back on track.

Adolescence is a transitional stage of becoming an adult by going through puberty. Hence, an adolescent is an individual going through the stages adolescence. This is a critical stage for physical, emotional, intellectual, and social development. Since the onset of puberty varies, it is difficult to give a specific age range for an adolescent. There is crucial evidence of substance use among boys and girls during this transition. The use of drugs

His views of how children and young people’s minds work and develop have been enormously influential particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation and increasing the capacity to understand their world, they can’t undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. The research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his own, but like many other original investigations his importance comes from his overall vision. Today Piaget’s theories have helped to change how people viewed the child or young person’s world and the way they study them he has inspired many theorist to improve on his studies. Piaget’s ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating, particularly in education. What he didn’t consider was the effect in the

They are going through transitions in intellectual development and the process and transition of primary to secondary education.’ There are various intellectual skills that an adolescent will learn within this life stage. When in the adolescent life stage, the emotional development norms for an individual is to learn their personal identity and they must leant about who they are about how to control their emotions within the change of puberty. Low self-esteem and confidence issue is often something most teenagers struggle with. With adolescence secondary learning occurs, a person’s self-worth can change within this life-stage due to the social situations that an individual had to be within, also their use of clothing, language and religion etc. The introduction of hormones can often change how teenagers see themselves. Adolescent’s independence that they go through can affect their social and emotional development.

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

The typical American teenager goes through many stages of psychosocial change from the ages between 12 and 18. Adolescence is a difficult time for most because it is a huge transition time from being a child to becoming an adult. Many of these changes or challenges are so common that they are experienced by almost everyone. Some are brought on by physical changes in appearance and hormones while others are more psychological. Famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud, believed that a person’s biological activity will motivate their behavior and development. (Life Span page 36) Adolescent teens will most likely have difficulty with social, parental and sexual issues, physical changes to their body, identity confusion, a tendency to participate

Adolescence is a time of stressful transition for teenagers. They are straddling the fence between childhood and adulthood. Changes in their bodies, brains, thinking, values, friends, responsibilities and expectations cause events that are usually a time fraught with turbulence, for both the teen and their parents. This is a normal part of human development, and must be endured in order to come out the other side, hopefully well-adjusted, happy, healthy, and

This group of teenagers were clearly obsessed with themselves and constantly worried about other’s views towards them. The group consisted of four boys and four girls who were obviously interested in each other romantically and sexually. The girls were frequently staring up at me because they immediately noticed that I was looking at them and taking notes. The girls would look up at me and then fix their hair and turn to one of the other girl’s and make a comment. This is an example of egocentrism because the girls thought very highly of themselves and what others think of them. This can be very common amongst teenagers who are anxious, deal with depression or are put into new situation (Berger, 2014, p.430). Watching the group of eight teenagers interact with each other, it was clear that they were trying to figure out who they are in life and what they like in a person. Erikson’s term for the 5th stage of development describes the feeling of not understanding who they are as a teenager. Erikson called this stage the identity versus role confusion stage in which teenagers ask themselves who they are as a person and what they mean in life (Berger, 2014, p. 459). The best part about observing this group of teenagers was when one of the girls spotted me observing them and she decided to comment towards me. I was looking at the group of girls and commented to a friend

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

Adolescence is the transitional period in a persons life time that links childhood and adulthood. The factors that influence development during adolescence include genetic/biological and environmental/social. There are many developmental issues that take place during the transition from an adolescent to a young adult. The issues of emerging adulthood(18-25) are characterized by new experiences, experimentation, exploration as well as new developmental tasks.

Adolescents are faced with a lot of pressure from many different people. They get put under pressure from their parents to their peers. They also get

Children become rule based and listen when spoken to. School plays a large part in this since teacher educate kids to listen, sit down quietly and work in small , in the future will be vital for real life work in adulthood.("Stages of Growth Development," 1898-1987). In this stage of life Piaget’s cognitive theory comes into play. Children in this stage in life are more concrete operational, meaning that they deal with visible, tangible things. They become more systematic. Peer relationships and best friend are crucial at this stage, this helps children have deeper relationships while heading into adolescence and can help determine if they will be able to hold a relationship as adults (Stassen Berger, 2009). Social trend, such as violence, eating disorders and even drug use are seen more readily in ages seven to twelve years old. This increasing pressure in schools to recognize the problem and develop more activities such as sports, music, and social events to help children stay active and away from drug use, this eventually helps in adolescence and young adulthood years.

Adolescence is the distinct transitional stage between childhood and adulthood in human development, extending primarily over the teenage years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached (Rathus, 2014). However in some instances, this biological, cognitive, social and emotional maturity may not be reached until a later stage and may be dictated by gender. Adolescence is characterised by rapidly changing and unpredictable behaviour (Freud, as cited in Rathus 2014), heightened and unstable emotions (Hall, as cited in Rathus 2014), disturbances in identity, the gradual development of one’s moral reasoning (Kohlberg, as cited in Rathus, 2014) and the gradual establishment of one’s independence. Several of these changes may occur at differing phases in adolescent growth. This development is categorized into three separate stages; early adolescence, middle adolescence, and late adolescence. Early Adolescence, commencing from the ages of eleven or twelve until the age of fourteen, comprises of several features such as rapid biological development and maturity, heightened stress levels and limited coping capabilities. On the other hand, middle adolescence, from the approximate age of fourteen to sixteen, involves the gradual cease of biological change, an increase in coping strategies and declined stress levels. Furthermore, late adolescence, commencing from the age of sixteen until the age of eighteen or nineteen, encompasses physical maturity, whereby the

During adolescence is also when Piaget says the idea of egocentrism remerges. This is related to body image problems, imaginary audience and personal fable. A personal fable is when an adolescent believes that their problems are unique and imaginary audience is when adolescents believe everyone is talking about them (McGraw-Hill Education, 2015) . When looking at my life knowing about these ideas I realized just how much I experienced imaginary audience and personal fable. I remember going through an emo phase, which is a phase defined by rebellion and a certain “Goth”, aesthetic in which I thought that “no one understood me”, which I am

Teenage is a fundamental stage of life that each human being passes through. Some people face this period of their life strongly and positively, while others face many problems and difficulties. This depends on the environment these young adults live in, their parents, their friends, their living conditions, their education, and many other factors. Teenagers face many problems such as becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol, being influenced negatively by their peers, self-image and weight, or even arguments with their parents