Adolescents Identity In The Lost Boys By Janice Crowds

When you were a teen did you feel like nobody knew who you were? Did you feel like you didn’t belong? Most people think they know what teens need because they were one at one point, but most people don’t realize that belonging is the most important part of a teen’s life. Teen’s need a sense of belonging in their friend groups, in their family, and in themselves.

Media has influenced a lot of today’s trends and ideologies. Adolescents, being on the psychological level of self-identification, bring this deceptive notion of fashion and social classes to school. The problem comes when this trend affects the performance of students and their personal lives. We all remember our days back when the talk was “Who are the jocks, the cheerleaders, the rick kids, the geeks, the losers, etcetera?” Believe it or not, the status quo in schools is always composed of them. These cliques have identities exclusive for each. Students who do not look, act, or dress the same as one group are, more often than not, left out. They could be hurt physically and or psychologically with cruel teasing and rumors. Bullying and

In Murray Milner’s: Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids, chapter three mainly talks about conformity and how it really takes place in school, specifically high schools. Throughout the entire chapter Milner talks about what these students do in order to conform with the rest of the “school society”. The basic rules and regulations these teens have to go by in order to really fit in with certain groups. Milner talks about different topics throughout the reading which breaks the entire aspect down for better understanding. He goes from the idea of crowds and their rankings, clothes and the styles that are in demand, speech and different language, all the way down to body language. The status of how a person displays themselves equals the status they are with a specific groups and idea. The idea of a person being broken down

The use of the term adolescenthood as a concept of human development helps us to define adolescence as a distinct entity rather than as a period of transition and change during which a person moves from childhood to adulthood. It is said that as long as adolescence is conceptualized as an in-between stage, it will have no status in its own right. An adolescent can be viewed neither as a child nor as an adult and is apt to be treated as either, neither, or both.

During adolescents, huge changes take place physically, mentally and socially. Physically, adolescents are experiencing puberty and their bodies are changing from that of a child to an adult. Cognitively, adolescents become increasingly egocentric and are developing from Piaget’s concrete operational stage to the formal operational stage of development. In this stage, teenagers are able to grasp abstract concepts and think logically and systematically (Berger, 2001). The greatest change that occurs during adolescents is socially. During this time there is a shift from a teenager’s dependence on their parents for advice and support to forming new and deeper relationships with peers.

Adolescents begin to develop their identity by copying their peers. This is related to the foreclosure status of Marcia’s stages, in which a teen will start to develop their identity by copying the choices of others (1). Peers are an easy influence on identity as they surround them daily. This allows for teens to experiment and be similar to others around them, making it more comfortable. Adolescents desire to fit in plays a role in the copycat game of identity discovery. As part of finding out who one is, teens will copy another to try out different roles and identities, most likely stemming from those they perceive as ‘cool’.

All of this pressure about belonging to the popular group is put on children in grade school, but studies show that even in preschool, cliques are forming too. Michael Thompson’s newest book entitled Best Friends, Worst Enemies, Understanding the Social Lives of Children, tells how children begin to group themselves exclusively as early as preschool and kindergarten. At recess, a few decide they are a club and only certain kids can join. At this stage of development, though, they can’t sustain clique-like behavior; tomorrow, some kids will have forgotten about

Social roles and identities impact our everyday lives in means that often go undetected. Perhaps experiencing social identities has become mundane because of the commonality and predictability of most situations; we are used to experiencing roles in the ways that they are most often presented to us. However, varying environments may produce or favor certain behaviors and identifications over others. Middle school, for example, is a transformative time for many adolescents as they begin to form interests and identities. Adolescents are often heavily influenced by the social pressures and are generally aware of social identities in a broad sense, whether they realize it or not. Observing how adolescents unknowingly participate in these

Adolescence is a time of emotional, cognitive and physical development as the adolescent moves from being a child to an adult (Carr, Eshkevari & Kosky, 1991). Erikson (1968) believed that adolescence is a time of identity crisis. As the adolescent moves from childhood to adulthood they experiment with different identities until they form an identity which is their true self. This is known as identity formation (Becht, Branje, Denissen, Koot, Meeus, Nelemans & Vollebergh, 2016).

The adolescent stage is often challenging as significant physical, mental, and social changes occur during this time. When those changes are desired by the individual and supported by others, they often result in a stronger sense of self and ability to connect with others. If these changes are unwanted or elicit negative responses by those around them, they can have adverse implications on one’s self. During my adolescent years, I experienced many types of changes that impacted my identity. It all began with my family’s move.

Adolescence is about fitting in. This is the stage of life where kids are being judged by the way they dress, how big their house is, and even the amount of money their parents make. People aren’t being accepted into social groups because they are judged by what they look like and how they live, instead of their personality. As Shane Koyczan states, “We were being told that we somehow must become what we are not, sacrificing what we are to inherit the masquerade of what we will be. I was being told to accept the identity that others will give me,” (Koyczan). This personal experience illustrates to us that people who don’t fit in are dealing with problem by ignoring it and allowing people to have control over them. Instead of reaching out to people

During adolescence, teens go through changes that effect the way they interact with family and friends. Some become more developed socially and some go through emotional roller coasters. Every person has their own way of developing and teens need a community to be around while they struggle to stabilize their emotions. Growing up, I struggled to be comfortable with my body, self-confidence, the need to please my parents, facing peer pressure with drugs, drinking, or sex, and differences in friendships with peers.

A study done by Allen et al. (2005) assesses the minds of seventh and eighth graders to understand the effects of popularity. The main question asked is whether popularity in adolescence is a positive or negative influence and how this effects a student over a period of time. This study was conducted because it is rationalized that popularity is always a positive influence on an adolescent. It is explained that popularity amongst peers can be seen as positive or negative. Deviant behavior is said to increase drastically based on the popularity of an adolescent and how their peer groups supports these behaviors. In contrast, it has been said that popularity can help maintain a positive relationship amongst other peers, and hostility towards others decreases when it is disapproved by others in a peer group. Researchers studied three different hypothesis-. First, popularity among adolescents will be associated with a wide variety of different markers in social assimilation. Second, popularity will be constant with peer norms and be strongly influenced. Lastly, popularity will increase minor deviant behavior over a period of time.

Elementary school is designed to be a child 's best road to the real world. They learn how to add and subtract, how to speak in full constructed sentences, and what the world outside of their small community is like, but as school pushes their knowledge outwards, something else happens. Students begin to look inwards, attempting to figure out who they are and where they fit in this grand world opening up before their eyes. Are they artistic, athletic, intelligent, or musical? Are they the top of their class or the fastest on the field? This self-discovery drives children to seek out those similar to them. If they all can play an instrument, then they find comfort in each other; if they can all draw an advanced drawing than they feel an instant connection. I found my friends inside of cub scouts, those that are outgoing, and cooperative with others, and kept that connection with them at school. The reigning clique was of the athletically inclined. They had the highest social standing and the greatest ability to keep it. They got the first pick on the playground, they were the most popular, and if the class had to vote on who the line leader was it was always one of them.

Adolescence is a time when one breaks away from the sheltering they have been accustomed to as a child, and there is a great sense of maturing as they prepare for adulthood. It is during this time, between 12 and 18 years of age, when dynamic changes occur. Adolescents not only experience profound physical change during this period – they also undergo a revolution in the way they think. This essay focuses on the adolescent and their concept of self, with a discussion of the predictable and unpredictable events that they are known to face. Although each adolescent will mature according to their own unique timetable. The following sections will more thoroughly explain and explore each of these developmental areas and discuss the