My Virtual Teen Life : Analysis

Adolescence is popularly known to be a very tumultuous stage in a person’s life. In the adolescent stage (also coined the identity vs. role confusion stage by theorist Erik Erikson) bodies are changing rapidly, emotions are unfamiliar and unexplainable, and refraining from succumbing to peer pressure is more challenging than ever.

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

Adolescence is defined as the transition between childhood and adulthood. Many changes happen at this stage. Adolescence involves things such as puberty, greater independence, and a time when someone begins to construct their identity. Identity means their life value and goals including a secure sense of who they are in terms of sexual, vocational, and moral ethics. In the next few paragraphs I will be discussing my Virtual Child, Maeve as she went through adolescence (ages 11- 16). I am going to delve into the different changes I saw in her and how they relate to theories proposed by Piaget, Erikson, Marcia, and Gardner. Each

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

Growing up, people are bombarded with societal ideals about how they should look and ways that they should act. Everyday, people are exposed to hundreds of ideas of what people perceive as beautiful as portrayed in television or commercial advertisements, printed ads, billboards, and online. Since people are constantly being exposed to these ideas, it is only natural that after time it will begin to impact people’s lives in some way. While some people feel this pressure more than others, a time in a person’s life where they are especially vulnerable to developing body issues is college. For many people college is the first time where they are away from the home for the first and must make new friends. College students are particularly susceptible to developing issues because of how exciting this new time is in one person’s life. For these young adults, the new independence, increased workload, homesickness, and desire to succeed in their new surroundings puts unsolicited pressure on them that they have never experienced before. Suddenly, the pressure of having a slim hourglass figure, perfectly styled hair, and impeccably manicured nails are influential in ways that one may not have thought before.

1.Since becoming a teenager, my virtual teen has gone through several changes in behavior and attitude towards my partner and me. In the very beginning of adolescence, my teen was more argumentative and much more ‘moody’ around the house. She would spend a lot of time in her room, and cared a lot more about her appearance. For example, in one instance, my teenager came home from school after having a small dispute with one of her friends, stormed up to her room and refused to come out for a couple hours. Or in another, she would try on different styles of clothing, and if I would comment that some of her outfit were a little too revealing, she would get angry at me or my partner, and storm into her room to cool off (My Virtual Teen). This is normal for teenagers in early adolescence, because

The “Coming of Age” has changed since 1967 even though the same challenges remain there are many more new challenges that teens face today. The lifestyle that typical teens grow up in is nothing like Ben’s, however, we still go through emotional mental and physical struggles. There’s are new challenges in college majors, relationships that make things harder to work out today then they were before.

Teen years are the most complicated and overwhelming years of a child's life. Every teen goes through different stages while they are in the transition in becoming into an adolescent. For the Virtual Teen program I had a teen daughter, she was very outgoing and social. She enjoyed trying new things and was very involved in school. She also did well academically, and was part of the gifted program at her school. She lives with both her biological parents and a younger sister. Her relationship with her sister was like any sister relationship, they had little arguments once in a while but where are able to easily resolve on their own. As she transitioned to her teen years, she went through many stages like puberty, school transition and

Are the feelings of having a negative body image, in the pubescent adolescent, caused only by their changing hormones? Do family values and belief systems have an impact on the way the adolescent views their body? Can parents override the negative body image ideas which permeate our digital and print media? While there are many factors which influence the pubescent adolescent, both positively and negatively, it is the images of what is “normal” which are portrayed in the media, that have the most profound negative effect on the development of a positive body image.

　　　Being constantly bombarded with these images of false perfection causes girls to have low self esteem. A persons body image is closely related to their self-esteem (Huebscher, 2014). During adolescence is when girls bodies go through puberty and they gain more body fat (Rierdan, Koff, 1997). During this time the rates of depression in adolescence increase (Rierdan, Koff, 1997). According to Huebscher paper,"concerns about the body have been documented as widespread among female populations, with adolescence considered an especially vulnerable period

The teenage years are full of trials and tribulations for everyone. Adolescents are often forced into learning new social roles, developing new relationships, getting used to the changes in your body, and making decisions about their

There are five characteristics that all adolescents have. These characteristics are biological growth and development, an undefined status, increased decision-making, increased pressures, and the search for self. The brain and the endocrine system control biological growth and development. During the early stages of adolescence, individuals experience growth in height and weight, changes in the body, the development of sexual characteristics, and skin problems. For example, I started getting curves in my body when I hit puberty. My body started to develop changes. Our society’s expectations for children and adults are clear, but for the adolescent, expectations are inexplicit. Some adolescents are treated like children, but some are treated like adults. There is an undefined status. For example, my parents pay for my lunch, but I have to have a job so I can support myself.

Usually, the first theme that arises with the thought of adolescence is puberty, which can be a tumulus time. Puberty is a time of rapid physical maturation including hormonal and bodily changes. These changes include menarche, weight gains, height gains, and hormonal changes (McGraw Hill Education, 2015). Personally, puberty was a time of rapid growth; I went from kids sizes to adult sizes in the matter of a few months. As an early-maturing girl, I was confused and surprised when I started to notice the changes occurring to my body; I started to form breasts and my figure began to change drastically. I no longer had the body types of my friends who were boys. Nevertheless, these changes began to occur and I wasn’t prepared for one of the markers of “womanhood”; my first menstruation. I went through lectures with my mother and she gave me “talks”, but when it came to reality, I wasn’t prepared. However, with a little patience I have survived the most difficult parts of puberty but this isn’t the only thing adolescences have to deal with.