DVP - Adolescent Development Lesson

Learning Target:

• Discuss maturational challenges in adolescence, including related family conflicts. 

AP psychology course and exam description, effective fall 2020. (n.d.). https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-psychology-course-and-exam-description.pdf

Adolescent Development

Adolescence marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. It is full of initiation rites and the timing varies by the individual, but it usually starts around 11 or 12 years of age. Physical, social, and cognitive changes take place during adolescence as we move toward more independent adult responsibilities.

During adolescence, you enter puberty, or the period of sexual maturation in which you are capable of reproducing. Psychologist G. Stanley Hall was the first to study adolescence and is famous for saying that it is like studying a caged animal. He mentions how the child during this stage struggles to handle new freedoms.

Physically, adolescence is marked by changes in height, weight, and voice, as well as the development of secondary sexual characteristics. For girls, this means the development of breasts and wider hips. For boys, this means body hair and deepening of the voice. Physical landmarks for this period of development include menarche for girls and spermarche for boys.

Cognitively, adolescence is a time when pruning takes place in the brain. It marks the second of two major growth spurts for the brain, the first being during prenatal development. Cognition is improved through pruning when neural connections that are not used begin to fizzle out.

 

[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION