Lecture
Adolescence (11/12–16 years) is associated with a restructuring of the child's body – puberty. And although the lines of psychological and physiological development do not run in parallel, the boundaries of this period vary considerably. Beginning with a crisis, the whole period is usually difficult both for the child and for the adults close to him. That is why adolescence is sometimes called a prolonged crisis.
Juvenile age is — (from Latin juvenilis, youthful) a term applied to the age preceding maturity proper (childhood, adolescence, youth).
Children with early development are more adaptive, more self-confident, calmer, and find it easier to build relationships with peers; they evoke
an attitude toward themselves as more grown up. Children with late maturation are more often treated as children, which provokes their protest or irritation;
such children are less popular among peers and more often develop low self-esteem and a feeling of rejection.
E. Spranger (1924) defines the boundaries of adolescence within youth: 13–19 years for girls, 14–21 for boys. The first phase
of this age, adolescence proper, is limited to 14–17 years. It is characterized by a crisis whose content is liberation from childhood dependence. E. Spranger describes three types of development in adolescence:
1) The first type is characterized by a sharp, stormy, crisis-like course, when adolescence is experienced as a second birth, resulting in a new «self».
2) The second type is smooth, slow, gradual growth. The adolescent joins adult life without deep and serious shifts in
his or her own personality.
3) The third type represents a process of development in which the adolescent actively and consciously shapes and educates himself,
overcoming inner anxieties and crises by an effort of will. It is characteristic of people with a high level of self-control and self-discipline.
Functional lines of development
The boundary between childhood and adulthood is defined by the emerging claims to adulthood.
The central new formation of this age is claims to outward adulthood (stage 1 – autonomization, in the periodization
of Yu. N. Karandashev, 1991).
The structure of claims to adulthood
The transition from childhood to adulthood, from dependence to independence, is defined by the emergence of claims to adulthood, often called
the sense of adulthood. The sense of adulthood – the feeling of being an adult – is the central new formation of early
adolescence.
Outward adulthood manifests itself in a striving to imitate adult life, in the adoption and display of the external signs of «male» or
«female» adulthood. Inward adulthood is expressed in the growth of self-awareness, the ability to analyze one's own actions and the surrounding
world, and in the striving to think and act meaningfully (O. I. Pashkevich, 1998).
The leading activity of this period becomes intimate-personal communication. A tendency toward introspection appears. For the first time
self-education becomes possible.
The adolescent develops a variety of images of the «self». By the end of the period these images of the «self» integrate into a single whole, forming, at the border of early
youth, the self-concept, which can be considered the central personal new formation of the whole period.
The main feature of the adolescent is personal instability.
The most important aspect in characterizing the adolescent, his new social position, is the awareness of his «self», which, according to W. James
(W. James, 1991), includes:
• self-concepts, i.e. a person's representation of his own physical, social and psychological characteristics;
• personal identity, i.e. ideas about personal changes, differences from other people, about those characteristics which
allow the person to act independently. The development of personal identity is based on the development of clear, realistic and integrative ideas about oneself, which should
take shape by the end of adolescence.
In adolescence the self-concept is formed – a system
of internally consistent ideas about oneself, images of the «self», comprising three components:
• the cognitive – the image of the «self», or knowledge about oneself;
• the emotional, associated with the attitude toward oneself and one's individual qualities – self-esteem (the sum of particular self-evaluations is defined as
self-acceptance);
• behavioral reactions caused by the image of the «self» and self-attitude. S. Harter (S. Harter, 1990) described the following changes in the cognitive
component of the self-concept that occur at the end of adolescence:
• Self-representations become more abstract. Thus, when answering the question «Who am I?», younger adolescents mainly use concrete
characteristics (height, appearance, group membership, simple emotions – joy, sadness, etc.), while older adolescents use integrative characteristics
(desires, motivation, integrative feelings).
• The self-concept becomes more differentiated. Younger adolescents describe themselves as bearers of a larger number of social roles
than children do. Older adolescents begin to see themselves in each social role in different guises. The adolescent realizes that he behaves differently with different
people, but does not yet understand the reasons for such behavior. According to S. Harter, this lack of understanding is the source of the greatest
anxiety among 14–15-year-old adolescents.
• The ideal and imagined «self» develop. If an adolescent has significant differences between the real and the ideal
«self», he feels unhappy, and disappointment in himself, even depression, is possible. The discrepancies between the real and the ideal «self» are especially great
at 14–15 years of age, since the ideal «self» is often exaggerated during these years.
• The adolescent becomes increasingly introspective. Interest in appearance grows, since, in the adolescent's view, «everyone is looking at me».
Adolescents see themselves as quite different from other people and do not believe that anyone can understand them.
The development of self-awareness and self-attitude is a complex and lengthy process, accompanied in the adolescent by a whole range of specific
experiences (often internally conflicting): adolescents are prone to mood swings, imbalance, and sometimes depression.
At around 11–12 years of age an interest in one's inner world arises. The adolescent discovers his own inner world. A gradual complication and deepening of self-knowledge takes place. The most important feature of the personality becomes the rapid development of self-awareness through reflection on oneself.
The adolescent is not yet a whole, mature personality. His individual traits dissociate, and the combination of different images of the «self» is disharmonious.
D. I. Feldstein (1989) notes a deepening crisis of self-esteem in adolescents, manifested in a predominance of negative self-esteem. Often
the adolescent's self-esteem proves internally contradictory: consciously he perceives himself as a significant, even exceptional, person,
placing himself above other people; at the same time he is beset by doubts, which he tries to keep out of consciousness.
At the end of adolescence, on the border with early youth, ideas about oneself stabilize and form a coherent system – the self-concept.
In adolescence the sense of adulthood is formed – a special form of self-awareness. The adolescent's sense of adulthood is a specific
new formation of self-awareness, the core feature of the personality, its structural center. This feeling expresses a new life position
of the adolescent toward himself, other people and the world, determines the specific direction and content of his social activity, and a system of new
aspirations and affective reactions. This specific social activity manifests itself in a greater receptiveness to the assimilation of the norms, values and
ways of behaving that exist in the adult world.
Thus, adolescence is usually characterized as a turning point, a transitional, critical period. Adolescence is a difficult period of sexual maturation and psychological growing up. Significant changes occur in self-awareness: a sense of adulthood appears – the feeling of being an adult, the central new formation of early adolescence. A passionate desire arises, if not to be, then at least to seem and to be considered an adult.
Besides the striving for emancipation, the adolescent has a strong need for communication with peers. The leading activity of this period becomes intimate-personal communication.
In the words of L. S. Vygotsky, «there is nothing stable, final, or fixed in the structure of the adolescent's personality» (1980). Personal
instability gives rise to contradictory desires and actions: adolescents strive to resemble their peers in everything while also trying to stand out in the group,
they want to earn respect while flaunting their shortcomings, and they demand loyalty while changing friends (I. Yu. Kulagina, 1997).
Thanks to intensive intellectual development, a tendency toward introspection appears; for the first time self-education becomes possible.
The adolescent develops a variety of images of the «self», initially changeable and susceptible to external influences. By the end of the period they
integrate into a single whole, forming, at the border of early youth, the self-concept – a system of internally consistent ideas about oneself,
images of the «self», which can be considered the central new formation of the whole
period.
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