The Trials and Tribulations of Being a Teenager As a teenager, life explodes into a cosmos of complications. You're suddenly allowed to do this, but not that. People expect you to take on a more adult role, yet still treat you as a child. However, it's easy to what teenage society expects of you. Many adults don't fully understand the complexity of teenage society, but who can blame them? It makes complex microbiology look like a lesson in the finer art of tying your shoelaces. Some try to understand by putting teenagers into solid categories such as, "Goths" or "Skaters." Unfortunately they come nowhere close. No child classifies themselves as any particular type. They refuse to do so for fear that they will make immediate enemies; there are no clear cut lines. In this awkward vacuum, the small frightened lambs group together in pack, as they cannot survive by themselves, and rely on the protection of the group. In turn, they give support to any in their group when they see it to be a popular motion. Instead of having to approach these large "categories" of teens, you have to approach each pack or tribe differently. This is one of the reasons why children of this age so fear moving house, and having to somehow approach new tribes, being a complete outcast for a long time. Although the boys will find it difficult, I pity the girls, as everything is even more group intensive, and if you fell out with someone, or become excluded for various reasons in a girl's circle, you'll be isolated and targeted for a long time. Even if you disagree with the "banishment" of a friend, you would not dare voice your opinion, especially not to the current snarling leader of the pack, in case you're next. Therefore, much time in a teenager's life is devoted to making sure you don't offend anyone you shouldn't, and that you don't do anything stupid or strange which would warrant you being disowned from the group. Much time is also spent on making sure you don't lack
Workers who work with adolescents and, especially, parents would enjoy this book since it would bring understanding and the reader could personally relate to the author. As the author evidently strives to effectively raise adults, parents likewise strive. In this endeavor, since this book provided a history of the adolescent’s culture, the current state of the adolescent’s culture, relational qualities to implement while approaching teenagers, and how to practical respond to teenagers’ issues. Overall, this is a beneficial
When life becomes overwhelming during adolescence, a child’s first response is to withdraw from the confinement of what is considered socially correct. Individuality then replaces the desire to meet social expectations, and thus the spiral into social non-conformity begins. During the course of Susanna’s high school career, she is different from the other kids. Susanna:
Thirteen: The Age of Adolescence Adolescence is the stage in life when you are no longer a child, but not yet an adult. There are many things that still need to be explored, learned, and conquered. In the film Thirteen, the main character, Tracy Freeland, is just entering adolescence. While trying to conquer Erikson’s theory of Identity vs. Role confusion, Tracy is affected by many influences, including family and friends, that hinder her development. Many concepts from what we have learned in class can be applied to this character, from identity development, to depression, to adolescent sexuality and more.
Lynda remembered her adolescent years as a time of many changes, “high school was a roller coaster, and I think it is for every teenager. I had so many different clothing and hair styles; even friends moved on frequently, you realize you’re not into the same things.” Peer relationships plays a very important role in this stage of development as the adolescent tries to answer the question “Who am I?” The adolescent is making a search for identity, they are experimenting and they begin to realize things about themselves that help them form an idea of who they are and what they want in life. According to Erikson, healthy resolution of the earlier conflicts now serves as a foundation in the teenager’s search for an identity. A strong sense of self-control and feeling of independence is the result of a positive resolution of this stage. Unsuccessful resolution of this life stage will lead to what Erikson called role confusion; these individuals will lack a feeling of self, they may drift from job to job and jump from one relationship to another, not knowing what they really want in
Adolescents is a time of significant life transitions in which young adults learn to cope with changes that are brought about by physical and emotional maturation (Sands and Howard-Hamilton, 1994). During this time girls begin to become more aware of themselves as females, and learn to identify society’s signals to conform appropriately for their gender (Sands and Howard-Hamilton, 1994). The highschool girls that are present in this writers program are starting to unders...
When growing up, we all face the difficulty of finding who we really are as a person. This can be referred to as Identity Diffusion. Described in Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages, the individual has not yet experienced an identity crisis, nor has he made any commitment to a vocation or set of beliefs. There is also no indication that he or she is actively trying to make a commitment. According to psychologist Erik Erikson, identity diffusion has 4 major stages. Those components include: intimacy, a diffusion of time perspective, diffusion of industry, and negative identity. Even if you may not be aware of it, everyone really does experience these stages when growing up in life. In my life, I have gone through the four stages referred to as intimacy, a diffusion of time perspective, diffusion of industry, and negative identity.
Scientists and researchers continue to evaluate the adolescence timeframe in which all people form the foundation for the rest of their life. The knowledge and understanding required by not only scientists and researchers, but also psychoanalysts create a unique set of principles within the field. A vast understanding of past work done by people such as Erik Erikson and many others, adds to the current, growing knowledge attained by all professionals in the field of identity formation (Brogan 1). Ray Brogan, author of Identity Development understands the processes in which identity development research progresses in terms of past, present and future, as well as understanding the risks in which factors such as suppressive parents, teachers and even friends can pose on a developing adolescent’s personality. “Many development theorists see identity development as a means for an individual to explain the present as a bridge from the past to the future” (1). Brogan takes an interpretative approach to the research completed in past psychoanalysts by further expanding on their findings and interjecting his own throughout the analysis of identity formations processes.
Adolescence is about growing up and not standing out. When you stand out, you give people more room to judge you because they see more of who you really are. When we grew up, we never really thought about being in the ‘in-crowd’ because we were all friends. When I moved up here from Mississippi, people were so fascinated with my accent and everyone loved to talk to me, but when I lost the accent, everyone stopped recognizing me. That is how today’s society is, people like you because you are probably smart or talented and that makes you stand out, but when they are done using you, they throw you away like you are some piece of garbage. If you are a little different from what today’s picture of a perfect person is, then people will never recognize and if they do, they only recognize you for a second.
In this paper, we will be looking at the adolescence stage in the life course. Race/ethnicity, class and gender are related to resources and the well-being of adolescences because….. The social problem we will be looking at is depression and its correlation with shifts in family structure and the effects that both have on adolescences. One of the major shortcomings in analyzing parental absence (is that there have not been many studies that have presented data representing race/ethnicities separately (Amato 545).)
“Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” – Eleanor Roosevelt. These are some very wise and empowering words, I must say. I believe many teenagers in today’s generation are most of the time wearing a mask. A mask that is made up of what the world wants them to be, a mask that they think may protect them from not allowing others in, a mask that was built from peer pressure, a mask that was formed from bullying. There’s always a story behind someone’s mask, as I call it. Most of the time teens nowadays are afraid to be themselves, to be individuals, due to the way they think people will perceive them. I do have to say though, that those that have ripped their masks away are the ones that have truly become individuals. Of course,
The Pressures on Today's Teenagers Today's teenagers are unruly and lack concentration. Their lack of concentration is a result of the plethora of distractions in society. Teenagers should be taught discipline and mobile phones, computer. games etc should be banned from the age of 14 to 16. This would enable all teenagers to fulfil their potential at GCSE level.
Being a teenager isn’t easy. You have a lot of things on your mind, a lot of things to worry about, a lot of things to carry and when I mean carry, I mean both physically and mentally. During the 17 years of my life that I have lived so far, I believe that I have never carried this much before. Part of it I think is because it’s senior year. Actually I think that 's the biggest reason why I feel so much pressure on my shoulders. I’m pretty sure that everyone can agree on this, especially if you’ve been through it before. I’m not talking to the adults of course because I know your lives are difficult and what not, but I’m mostly talking to the teens who are currently going through the same stage of life that I’m in right now. Now I’m not saying my life is difficult in any means because I know that I
Once hormones have revealed themselves, children turn into confused young adults that think they can do everything by themselves and that there will no longer be any need for nurturing from adults. The word “young” from “young adults” is what teenagers completely ignore, when actually they should do the opposite and ignore the “adults” part. Furthermore, this causes infliction between teenagers and adults, especially their parents. Once they have the courage to say “no” with consciousness to what they are ordered to do, they come across a feeling, a feeling of being big and powerful. Because of that, teenagers then only focus on their new discovery of rebelling against adults and are, metaphorically speaking, injected with ego.
However not everyone is as fortunate to be socially popular with tons of friends. And with this comes social discrimination, a higher issue for teens, but that doesn’t leave adults out of the picture. For example in schools, we all either hate or love the popular kids, and/or love or hate the socially awkward kids. But purpose of the situation is that they don’t get along with each other. Also since they don’t get along, it causes drama, and even fights in school leaving a school with no peace. Many of these social discrimination conflicts can lead to school kids being bullied, for who they are and what they like. Most of these conflicts usually end in pain by either the popular kid and/or socially awkward one. They could be going through a rough time with family, health, etc. As for adults, they are just known to be grown children, because just like kids, teens, adolescents, parents will go against each other worse than kids. Humans are always trying to be on top of the food chain, a.k.a. the social ladder. But when things aren’t going their way, it can lead to an uproar that doesn’t point in the direction of
My physical development was not so difficult for me. I experienced the growth spurt when I was10 to 15-years old. I didn’t think it was difficult time for me because my range of growth spurt was not so large. Additionally, I did not belong to sports club, so I did not feel uncomfortable when I move my body. I think I am a late bloomer because I have never had boyfriend. But I think it is advantage for me because I am not a “boy-crazy”. I know some friends who are early bloomer and being “boy-crazy”, I do not want to be like them. I have my own interest and I have something what I want to do besides dating with boys. My physical developments have some effects on my character of today. I think it is because I was taller than others since very young, my friends often said to me “you are like my elder sister.” This phrase makes me think that I need to be like elder sister when I was child. It is related to more about psychological development, but this way of thinking came from my height. One of other physical development related issue that makes me struggle is my period. Every time I am in period, I have pain in stomach and back; I feel sleepy, hungry, and irritating; and I have skin problems. I think there are more people who have more heavy symptoms of period, however, sometimes I cannot endure these. My physical developments have some effects on me, but it was not so difficult for me to pass through.