What is meant by secular trends in relation to the study of adolescence? How hav

Question

What is meant by secular trends in relation to the study of adolescence? How have these trends changed in recent history? What is the average age for the beginning of the growth spurt in girls? For boys? At what age does the average girl experience the peak of pubertal change? The average boy? Describe the role of body image in the adolescent mind set. What does research show about the influence of hormones on adolescents' behavior? What are some concerns about early maturation for adolescents ? What are the three leading causes of death for adolescents and emerging adults? Summarize the research that has discovered how adolescent brains differ from those of adults in relation to the processing of emotional information. What are the major concerns about the health of American adolescents today? Describe David Elkind's concept of adolescent egocentrism, including the concepts of imaginary audience and personal fable. adolescence adolescent generalization gap early adolescence late adolescence emerging adulthood resilience eclectic theoretical orientation naturalistic observation gender bias ethnic gloss neurons myelination synapses prefrontal cortex amygdala Piaget formal operational stage hypothetical-deductive reasoning Vygotsky's theory zone of proximal development

Explanation / Answer

Health concerns of American adolescets today:

Adolescents who fall under the age group of 10 to 19 years and young adults of age ranging from 20 to 24 make up 21 percent of the population of the United States. The change in behavioural patterns that are prominent during this stage reflects on some of their health status.

Research throughout the last several decades has shown a consistent pattern of rising anxiety, depression, suicide, and suicide attempts among American adolescents.

More than 36 percent of teenaged girls in America are depressed or have suffered a recent major depressive episode, according to a study published in Translational Psychiatry.

Most of the cronic dieseases start developing during this age also the body is well developed and build during this age as the body undergoes lots of harmone changes which is responsible for growth and development of the body.

The body undergoes tremdous physical, emotional, psychological changes and imbalance of any of these causes the following:

The behaviour and personlaity of an adolescent depends on his or her environment they live in. Techers, parents , siblings, peer groups have greater influence over them. As said, adolescent period is a transition period, they are very sensitive to all kinds of stimulus and response they observe and receive from the environment and society including media.

Adolescents growing up in distressed neighborhoods characterized by concentrated poverty are at risk for a variety of negative outcomes, including poor physical and mental health, delinquency, and risky sexual behavior.

Adolescents who are exposed to media portrayals of violence, sexual content, smoking, and drinking are at risk for adopting these behaviors.

Key facts

HIV: More than 2 million adolescents are living with HIV. Although the overall number of HIV-related deaths is down 30% since the peak in 2006 estimates suggest that HIV deaths among adolescents are rising.

Mental health: Depression is the third leading cause of illness and disability among adolescents, and suicide is the third leading cause of death in older adolescents (15–19 years). Violence, poverty, humiliation and feeling devalued can increase the risk of developing mental health problems.

Malnutrition and obesity: Many boys and girls in developing countries enter adolescence undernourished, making them more vulnerable to disease and early death. At the other end of the spectrum, the number of adolescents who are overweight or obese is increasing in low, middle and high-income countries.

Exercise and nutrition: Iron deficiency anaemia is the leading cause of years lost to death and disability in 2015. Iron and folic acid supplements are a solution that also helps to promote health before adolescents become parents. Regular deworming in areas where intestinal helminths such as hookworm are common is recommended to prevent micronutrient (including iron) deficiencies.

Leading causes of deaths among adolescents 15-19 years of age:

Emotional information processing: How adolescent brain differs from adults?

Adolescence has been romanticized throughout human history. The impulsiveness of teenagers has been both hated and praised, because of their emotional unpredictability.Research from neurology says that, adolescent's brian differs from adults.

Once they attain puberty, their chemical reactins in the body includiong harmonal changes makes them vigourous in emotional response. They are more impulse than adults and thus involved in hyper activities, sexual exploration, risky behaviours etc.

Sufficient sleep is very important during this age as harmones are released during sleep for growth and development. If this is disturbed, they turn wild, irritating and impulsive.

The prefrontal cortex which is responsible for decision making start to develop dring adolescent period and going till they mature as adults.Therefore this creates lots of confusions in decision making process leading to hasty or bad decisions.The neurons which are insulated by "Myelin Sheath' increases the speed of transmission of information, thus teenagers experience frequent mood changes. They sometimes develop bipolar disorders.

It is the best time to turn thier hobbis into talents or they may remain as couch potatoes. It is during this age that, the connections in the brain which are not used much start losing. This is called synaptic pruning.Adults use prefrontal brain to read expressions, while the teenagers use amygdala which functions as inducing emotions but ot logic and rational reasoning.

If prefrontal and amygdala are not connected effectively they end up with confusins, anger, frustraion. Studies say that, if teenagers are gfted with rewards for their achievments, they feel encouraged more than children or adults do, but in case the rewards are small, they get upset or hardly pay any attention or care for.So they are in need of such psychological support and recognition, else they are ready to get into risky behaviours such as use of substance-drugs etc.

And finally, the impact of peer pressure is more among teenagers than adults. It is very important for them to have peer approvals and form groups of their choice.

David Elkind's concept of adolescent's ego centrism: Imaginary audience and personal fable:

Adolescent egocentrism:

Adolescent egocentrism is teens' and older tweens' belief that others are highly attentive to their behavior and appearance. That is, egocentric adolescents believe that all eyes are on them all the time. Adolescent egocentrism is a developmentally normal cognitive limitation.

Psychologist David Elkind argued that adolescents go through a stage of self-absorption that leads to only being able to see the world through one's own perspective. He called this stage egocentrism.

Another aspect of egocentrism that many adolescents experience is that of an imaginary audience, or believing that they are the center of everyone else's attention. For example, Charlotte gets very self-conscious whenever she's around others. She believes that they are watching and judging her, even if they don't give any indication that they are. Her egocentrism has led to her having an imaginary audience.

As part of the imaginary audience, Mary also overanalyzes what others say and do. For example, the other day, she accidentally bumped into a cute guy in the hallway at school. She apologized, and he said, 'Don't worry about it.'

For hours afterward, Mary thought about what he said. Did he mean that she shouldn't worry about it because he was OK or because he was actually glad to have an excuse to talk to her? Or was he being sarcastic? Did he think she bumped into him on purpose or that she was just clumsy?

She meets her friends, and discusses with them spending hours together to understand what he really meant because she thinks she is always being watched by others.

All tweens and teens naturally experience some degree of adolescent egocentrism as part of their cognitive development. In turn, being egocentric may support their personal development and growth. Egocentric thinking may encourage adolescents to break away from their family and to form unique identities, a process called individuation. This is important because individuation is one of the primary goals.

The personal fable is an adolescent's belief that he is special and unique. It aids individuation by encouraging the child to think of himself as a separate entity instead of as a member of the family unit. This acute self-awareness makes the adolescent focus on himself as a distinct, autonomous being.

Do be aware that problem behaviors may arise from egocentric thinking - including substance use, risk taking, eating disorders, self-esteem issues, and vandalism - and be prepared to intervene if necessary, and always be the parent your child needs you to be.

Personal Fable is the term Elkind created to describe this notion, which is the complement of the construction of imaginary audience. Since an adolescent usually fails to differentiate his focus on his own perceptions and that of others, he tends to believe that he is of importance to so many people (the imaginary audiences) that he comes to regard his feelings as something special and unique.

This belief in personal uniqueness and invincibility becomes an illusion that he can be above some of the rules, disciplines and laws that apply to other people; even consequences such as death.

Due to the existence of personal fable at some point, an adolescent tends to substitute the roles of an idol, a hero or even a god with his own image.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.