Adolescent Analysis Paper

According to Steinberg (2014) adolescents is a time of growing up, of moving from the immaturity of childhood into the maturity of adulthood, of preparation for the future. It is a period of transitions: biological, psychological, and social. Adolescence can begin as early as ten years of age and not end until the adolescent is in their early twenties. It is important to note that adolescent development occurs at different times for each individual. Therefore, students in the same grade that are around the same age may be going through different developmental stages of adolescents. The purpose of this analysis paper is to discuss the different stages of adolescent development, how they affect the maturity of the students and to determine

7). During puberty, adolescents will begin to have an increase in sex drive and sexual activity. They will begin to look at the opposite sex differently. Unfortunately most adolescents are not ready to deal with feelings of sexual interest, so they will react in awkward ways. Adolescents will tease one another about the opposite sex or make up stories about the opposite sex. Until they can understand and be comfortable with these new found feelings, they may have a difficult time talking to the opposite sex. Puberty also causes changes the adolescent’s self-image which will affect how the adolescent behaves. Self-image is dependent upon what changes may take place. Some adolescents begin to feel more mature and will seek out more independence. The final change during puberty is in the adolescents’ appearance which can change how others react to the teenager. An adolescent with acne, a high voice, or breast formation will appear different from their peers. This difference may lead to being made fun of, being ignored, or getting extra

This cognitive change allows adolescents to; think about what is possible, think about the abstract, think about the thinking process, think about things in a multidimensional fashion, and see things as relative. One manifestation of the adolescent’s increased facility with thinking about possibilities is the development of deductive reasoning (Steinberg, 2014). Deductive reasoning leads adolescents to hypothetically thinking, which enables adolescents to plan ahead and look at their future. Abstract thinking increases adolescents’ interest in thinking about interpersonal relationships, politics, philosophy, religion, and mortality (Steinberg, 2014). This type of thinking makes it possible for adolescents to have friendships, look at the fairness of things, and to be honest. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, enables adolescents to make conscious decisions and sometimes it leads to adolescent egocentrism. Adolescent egocentrism is extreme periods of self-absorption and personal fable, which is the belief that everything is centered on you. The development of multidimensional thinking allows adolescents to look at things in a variety of ways. Unfortunately this type of thinking tends to complicate situations for adolescents. Finally seeing things in more relative terms “adolescents are more likely to