Adolescence & the human individual Essay

During childhood, children basically accept enate authority (Smentana, 1989) and an equilibrium is established in which parents largely determine and determine relationships with their children within a context of acceptance and availability (Steinberg and Silverberg, 1986). However, in the accede of approaching adolescence and especially during puberty, parent-child relationships are trans piddleed in a bout of ways (Collins, 1990).These changes entail increased assertiveness by both parents and children, change magnitude perceptions of acceptance, inhibited communication, increased incidence of conflictive exchanges, decreased expressions of physical affection and confirming feelings among family members, and adjustments in the amount and kind of influence that children exert in family decisiveness making.Difficulties with communication derive in part from sensitivities and embarrassment associated with pubertal changes and this, combine with the adolescents socio-cognitive development and querying of the inequalities in the parent child relationship, much result in tensions and heated exchange (Hill, 1988). Most families, while they take hold close bonds during childrens teen jump on years, experience such an escalation of conflict, particularly during the advance(prenominal) stages of adolescence.Although much of the conflict has been described as mild bickering, disagreements and conflicts over prevalent issues and emotional stress during early adolescence (Smetana, 1988), its effects can be debilitating. The character reference of parents is made more difficult by the licit and shape ambiguity of the adolescent period. In todays society, adolescence is an indeterminate period of spiritual rebirth with no rite of passage to mark the distinction between childhood and adulthood. It has been suggested that this has detracted from the capacity of some young people to function as productive adults (Campbell and Moyers, 1988).There is a lack of clarity in the side and legal rights of adolescents which sends confusing messages to parents and teenagers in their relationships with each other. However, several writers have suggested that these apparent perturbations in relationships may serve the positive function of facilitating adolescents in dependance and diminishing dependence on parents. Via conflicts, family members allow themselves to express distinctive and separate views (Grotevant and Cooper, 1986). It is true that during adolescence, a boy or girl must break, or at least loosen, the ties that bind him or her to home and parents.However, one should not assume that the lie with break with, or indifference towards parents or open conflicts with them are a sign of maturity. Quite the contrary is true. Release from home authority is necessary, precisely revolt is probably not, although a proportion of each adolescent propagation leaves home completely as a result of familial conflicts (Henricson and Roker, 2000). F or the majority of youth, while once dependent upon their parents, adolescents begin to substitute their friends as the nucleus of their lives. The centrality of friends and friendship in the demeanor of adolescents has been frequently stressed.It has been claimed that friendships are the most bragging(a) features of the social landscape during adolescence and acceptance by peers generally, and especially having one or more close friends, may be of crucial importance in a young persons life (Coleman and Hardy, 1990). Friendship among adolescents fulfils master(prenominal) tasks, such as providing much of the social context that allows proper military operation of actions which will be accepted and rewarded by the peer convocation, strengthening the ego and reaffirming its worth and value.Adolescents use the peer group to express their divided feelings and irrational images in accordance with their emotional needs and to reinforce their behaviour as they conform to peer norm s and behaviour styles (Tatar, 1995). Adolescents perceive popularity and attainment of social status among peers as beneficial and positive, reflecting their desirability as a friend. Adolescents also form bigger, more loosely organised groups called crowds. Unlike the more intimate clique, social station into the crowd is based on reputation and stereotype.Whereas the clique serves as the important context for direct interaction, the crowd grants the adolescent an identity within the larger social structure. Adolescents are very aware of the differential social status conferred upon different groups, and this knowledge can affect self-evaluation categorisation of the self as a member of an unpopular or lower status group can be detrimental to feelings of self-worth and self-esteem (Denholm, Horniblow, and Smalley, 1992). Susceptibility to peer hug is reported to peak between the ages of twelve to sixteen years (Tarrant, North, Edridge, Kirk, Smith, and Turner, 2001). associate conformity is a complex process that varies with the adolescents age and need for social approval and with the situation. Adolescents reported that they felt greatest squeeze to conform to the most obvious aspects of peer culture, such as, dressing and breeding like everyone else and participating in social activities. Although peer pressure toward act peaked in early adolescence, it was relatively low compared with other areas (Brown, Lohr, & McClenahan, 1986). collect to their greater concern with what their peers think of them, early adolescents are more probably than younger or older individuals to give in to peer pressure. Although, when parents and peers disagree, plane young adolescents will not consistently rebel against their families. Instead, parents and peers differ in their spheres of greatest influence. Parents have more impact on adolescents basic life values and educational plans, while peers are more influential in short-term, day-today matters, such as type of dress, taste in music, and choice of friends (Berk, 2000).