The concept of “adolescence” was not recognised in most of the world until the 20th century. Back then, childhood ended abruptly at 18, which marked the starting point of adulthood. However, this particular period they skipped out on is undeniably important, and, although it sounds rather cliché, it is a new birth for those who undergo it.
The word “adolescence” quite literally means “growing up”, as it’s derived from the word in latin “adolescere”, that describes what we all know as “the teenage years”. The first academic to ever study this particular period of our life was psychologist G. Stanley Hall, who considered it a stage of emotional turmoil, rebellion and sensations felt at their strongest. What’s more, teenagers are also prone to depression more than other age groups, and the causes might come across as weirdly familiar: suspicion of being disliked, the fancy of hopeless love, and overall their tendency of feeling everything to the max.
So, why is adolescence such an intriguingly difficult period to undergo? Why are teenagers stereotypically viewed in our everyday society as grumpy, sassy oversized children with a tiresome personality? Well, it seems like they have an excuse for being so, as this period of their life marks a necessary stage of discovering their own true selves, when childhood comes to an end and leaves room for adulthood.
As children, we undergo something called “the cognitive stages”, which are basically a process of familiarising ourselves with the world around us: from birth to about 2 years of age, the Sensorimotor stage takes place, when the infant learns of the world around him/her by kicking, pulling and touching surrounding objects. The Preoperational stage happens up until 7 years of age, when thinking is mostly dominated by perception and things are still rather blurry. Next up, comes the Concrete Operations stage, until around 11. That’s when we can start doing more complex stuff, like logico-mathematical operations! Finally, around the age of 11-12, they enter the final cognitive stage, that of Formal Operations. That’s when we start to think logically, to come up with solutions to our problems, have ideas etc.
Notice how they stop around the age when adolescence starts? That’s one of the overruling reasons of why teens behave the way they do- they have a freshly created thinking process, an ability to look upon their surroundings with logic and reason, and they experience everything more deeply than they did before. They feel extremely happy, but also extremely sad. They start to question everything, from their future to what outfit they want to wear.
To put it simply, adolescence is a gibberish of adult thoughts mixed with child thoughts! It is a period of great change, and while it is beautiful and memorable, it can also be a true roller coaster of emotions and scary experiences!
Bibliography:
50 Psychology Ideas you really need to know- Adrian Furnham
The Psychology book
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