{"id":504,"date":"2018-09-17T14:14:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T18:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/thescienceofhumanpotential\/?post_type=chapter&p=504"},"modified":"2021-02-13T13:39:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T18:39:27","slug":"adolescence-and-adulthood","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/thescienceofhumanpotential\/chapter\/adolescence-and-adulthood\/","title":{"raw":"Adolescence and Adulthood","rendered":"Adolescence and Adulthood"},"content":{"raw":"

Adolescence: Preparing for Adulthood<\/h2>\r\nAnatomy is destiny.<\/em>\r\n\r\nLove and work... work and love, that's all there is.<\/em>\r\n\r\nSigmund Freud\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\u201cSex, drugs, and rock & roll\u201d\r\n\r\nLife Magazine, 1969\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nCongratulations, your child has made it to Piaget\u2019s formal operations and Kohlberg\u2019s conventional moral stages and is a trusting, independent, guilt-free, industrious teenager. Erikson\u2019s fifth stage takes place during the middle-school and high-school years. This period can include substantial peer-pressure as students compare their physical appearance, school performance, personal characteristics, and personal possessions with others. Erikson is perhaps most famous for coining the term \u201c[pb_glossary id=\"3247\"] identity crisis [\/pb_glossary]\u201d to refer to the characteristic questioning of one\u2019s personal qualities, goals, and social roles during his fifth developmental stage. Parental tensions between the desire to protect one\u2019s child and the need to foster independence can result in an increase in the frequency and intensity of conflicts and arguments during this stage. It is tempting to volunteer suggestions or to impose solutions on a teenager struggling with identity issues. Peers are replacing parents as the primary role models and sources of reinforcement. Personal choices can have significant impacts upon the course of one\u2019s life and pose significant dangers. It is a period marked by experimentation with hobbies, jobs, grooming habits, dress styles, sexual practices, alcohol, drugs, music and media, religious participation, and political beliefs. Negotiating the fine line between helpful guidance (scaffolding) and interference, is difficult for parents as the teenager struggles to attain a unique identity. Non-requested suggestions or attempts to enforce restrictions can result in identity confusion.\r\n\r\nJames Marcia (1966) developed a model addressing Erikson\u2019s identity crisis. Marcia distinguished between [pb_glossary id=\"3253\"] four different identity states [\/pb_glossary] based on two considerations; had exploration occurred and had a commitment been made. The four possibilities are portrayed in the following video:\r\n
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<\/h3>\r\nWatch the following video describing Marcia's stages of identity development:\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a8HIY_bqrVo\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\nIdentity issues could include relationships (friends and\/or romantic partners), gender roles, religion, politics, interest in attending higher education, future vocation, etc. As implied by Erikson, it is desirable that the adolescent be exposed to and permitted to explore various options for each of these issues. Only then, could the adolescent make an informed decision regarding whether to commit to a particular choice, thereby attaining identity achievement. If commitment occurs without the ability to explore options (e.g., a parent\u2019s making the decision regarding a romantic partner or future career) identity foreclosure occurs. Moratorium refers to the continual stage of exploring prior to making a commitment. Identity diffusion occurs when one never addresses identity issues or commits to a specific choice.\r\n\r\nFreud remains current in his observation that the human condition includes the two major developmental tasks of preparing for love and work. The beginning of adolescence is demarcated by the onset of puberty as males and females gradually become physically capable of reproduction. Associated is the development of a new and powerful basic drive. The Nukak have no reason to discourage sexuality or delay child-bearing. As soon as males and females are ready, they pair off and usually form monogamous relationships. Living in the low-density population rainforest means that there are very few available potential mates. This has its advantages (e.g., a relatively simple and low-stress \u201ccourtship\u201d period) and disadvantages (extremely limited choice).\r\n\r\nWe live very different lives than the Nukak as the result of centuries of civilization and available technologies. Industrialization resulted in people moving from predominantly rural, low-density population, agricultural lifestyles to urban, high-density population, manufacturing lifestyles. Many of the jobs created were dangerous and some required advanced intellectual skills. This raised the need and desire for compulsory education toward the end of the 19th century. In 1890, 5% of American 14-17 year-olds were enrolled in high school. By 1970, 90% were enrolled (Tanner, 1972). The requirement to attend school meant delaying becoming independent from one\u2019s parents and starting a family. G. Stanley Hall suggested the need for a new developmental stage to refer to this delay period between childhood and adulthood. He called it [pb_glossary id=\"3248\"] adolescence [\/pb_glossary] (Hall, 1904), derived from the Latin word adolescentem meaning to mature, or grow up.\r\n

[pb_glossary id=\"3255\"]Adulthood[\/pb_glossary]<\/h2>\r\nCongratulations! Thanks to the magic of fast-forward developmental psychology, your pretend child has caught up with you and is a college student. What do you want to be when you grow up? Interestingly, your pretend child catching up with you puts you in a similar situation to your parents. You might be considering what you would like your child to become. Your answers for both yourself and your pretend child probably continue to relate to Freuds\u2019s two major developmental tasks: finding a partner in life; attaining suitable, stimulating, and enjoyable work. Unlike the Nukak, you and your young adult theoretically have an enormous choice of potential life partners and occupations. This is true, even in comparison to relatively recent generations of city dwellers. The internet has introduced globalization to pairing off as well as to the marketplace. We live in a hyper-connected world where geographic distance no longer necessarily limits our opportunities to meet or communicate with others.\r\n\r\nThe same trend observed with high school attendance also applies to college attendance. In 1890, less than 5% of 18-21 year-olds were enrolled in college. By 1990 this number exceeded 60% (Arnett & Taber, 1994). No doubt this percentage will continue to increase in the future and we will observe similar trends in graduate and post-graduate education. Thanks to machinery reducing the need for physical strength and the availability of contraception, anatomy is not necessarily the dominating force in a woman\u2019s destiny that it was in the past. Opportunities for women enormously expanded during the past two generations as we transitioned to an economy based upon service and information. In 1950, the average age of marriage was 23 for men and 20 for women in the United States. By 2000 these ages had increased to 27 and 25, respectively (Arnett, 2000). Due to the educational requirements of many current vocations in technologically-advanced societies, there is usually the need to delay financial independence from one\u2019s parents and starting a family even longer than when Hall proposed the adolescent developmental stage. Arnett (2000) suggested the need to add [pb_glossary id=\"3251\"] emerging adulthood [\/pb_glossary] as another developmental phase between the end of adolescence (e.g., graduation from high school at about the age of 18) and adulthood (financial independence, living apart from one\u2019s parents, starting a family, etc.). Arnett found that many college students report feeling \u201cin between\u201d adolescence and adulthood, consistent with considering emerging adulthood an intermediary stage of development. If you were to define yourself as being in a developmental stage, would you consider yourself an adolescent, adult, or emerging adult? What would you consider your pretend student at the start of the freshman year?\r\n\r\nErikson\u2019s sixth through eighth stages consist of young adulthood, middle adulthood, and maturity (see Figure 8.14). In the rainforest, the major developmental transition occurs when children leave their parents\u2019 home to mate and have children. Life in the developed world is marked by minor transitions from elementary- to middle-school and middle-school to high school. Those who fail to graduate high school tend to fare poorly in the increasingly skills- and education-oriented global economy. Even high school graduates can have difficulty finding jobs when there are downturns in the economy. Taking on the responsibilities of adulthood at about 18 years of age necessarily limits ones career (and associated economic) options. The extent of your education will also probably affect whom you find suitable as a mate and vice-versa. If you are attending college, it is likely that your parents considered these economic and social realities in supporting this goal.\r\n\r\nAs indicated previously, a substantial majority of contemporary high school students go on to college. This almost always results in delaying the start of a career or a family. These students would be considered by Arnett (2000) to be in the emerging adult stage until taking on the responsibilities associated with being an adult. The identity issues characteristic of Erikson\u2019s adolescent stage carry over into emerging adulthood for those attending college and graduate school. Marcia\u2019s (1966) emphasis on the importance of exploring options and making commitments remains appropriate. In addition to being a time to study and advance in your pursuit of a career, it is a time for meeting new potential friends and romantic partners. The commitments you make to a career and romantic partner will have major impacts upon the success and enjoyment you experience during middle adulthood and the likelihood of having disappointments and regrets when you reflect back on your life.\r\n

Putting It All Together: Looking Back<\/h1>\r\nAs an exercise for ending the human development chapter, I would like you to consider how the material helps you understand the factors which made you the unique person you are. Think of the importance each of the following played at different points of your life:\r\n