What Is the Psychology of Adolescence?

The transition period from child growth to adulthood is generally about 10 to 20 years old. Adolescence is a series of physiological, biochemical, endocrine, psychological, and behavioral mutations that are mainly sexual maturity. Adolescent individuals are at the "second peak of growth and development." Not only have there been significant changes in height, weight, shoulder width, and pelvic width, but also the physiological functions of the nervous, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems have become increasingly complete. All the sexual organs and sexual functions mature rapidly, men's nocturnal emission, women's menstrual cramps, and second sexual signs appear at the same time. Awakening of sexual consciousness due to physiological changes. Generally speaking, women start puberty earlier and end earlier than men. There are great individual differences in the initial age, speed and degree of maturity, and maturity.

Chinese name: puberty
Foreign name: Puberty

Applied discipline: psychology
Application range: Developmental psychology

General characteristics of puberty

The physiological growth with sexual maturity as the main content has a significant impact on the psychological and social aspects of adolescents, forming several important characteristics of this period:

Puberty is a transitional period

Adolescence is the period when an individual transitions from a child to an adult. Usually, people clearly distinguish between adolescence and childhood, and the boundary is sexual maturity. For men, the sign of sexual maturity is nocturnal emission (usually during nighttime sleep); for women, menstruation is the first menstrual period. The physiological development with sexual maturity as the core has made adolescents have significantly different social and psychological characteristics from children. Individuals rely on adults during childhood, and adults constrain and determine the main content and aspects of children's lives and activities; children are not responsible for their own behavior. With the increase of age, the scope of life and the content of activities gradually become more complicated, so that teenagers have different characteristics from children. They gradually have a certain specific intention and sense of responsibility and decide for themselves how certain activities should be carried out. Take certain criminal responsibility for your own behavior, especially for some criminal acts. But juveniles are also different from adults. Although they have some independence, they are not yet completely independent; in many aspects, especially in material life, they still rely on their parents; they have not become fully responsible, and they are not criminally responsible for all their actions. . It can be seen that this transitional status between children and adults makes teenagers become marginalized in sociology. The uncertainty of their status and the uncertainty of the requirements imposed on them by society have caused them Many special mental health issues.

Adolescence is a period of development

Adolescence is the period when human body development is complete. Studies show that in a person's life, there are two stages of rapid body growth and significant changes in the proportions of various parts of the body, one during the prenatal period and the first six months after birth, and the other during adolescence. The rapid growth and development of adolescence is called the rapid growth of adolescence. In fact, this phenomenon begins before or at the same time as sexual maturity and ends half a year to one year after sexual maturity. The rapid growth of men begins at the age of 10.5 to 14.5 years, peaks at the age of 14.5 to 15.5 years, and then gradually slows down. By the age of 18, the height reaches a fully developed level, weight, muscle strength, shoulder width, pelvic width, etc. Both have increased, while sexual function and secondary sexual characteristics have matured. For example, during the external changes of menstruation and secondary sexual characteristics, women's reproductive organs gradually matured, pubic hair began to appear in the vulva, vaginal endocrine began to increase, uterine development became larger, and follicles in the ovarian cortex began to develop at different stages . Everything indicates that the transition to sexual maturity has begun. Due to physical and sexual development, it has a significant impact on the psychological characteristics and social life of adolescents, and a series of mental health problems have also arisen.

Puberty is a period of change

Adolescence is the period when adolescents' physical and mental changes are most rapid and obvious. During this period, men gradually matured from children's characteristics from children's body, appearance, behavior pattern, self-awareness, communication and emotional characteristics, and outlook on life. Closer to adults. These rapid changes can cause mental health problems such as distress, inferiority, anxiety, anxiety, and even bad behavior. During this period, the development of people from children to adults is predictable, but what situations or problems will occur during the development are unpredictable.

Puberty is a period of resistance

Due to the gradual development and maturity of the body and mind, individuals often adopt a negative attitude towards life during this period, negating some of the good natures that have developed before. Such resistance tends to cause other teenagers' requirements, normative resistance attitudes and behaviors towards parents, school, and social life, which may cause mental health problems that are not conducive to their social adaptation.

Puberty is a period of weight bearing

Judging from the problems they have to deal with, adolescence is also a period of heavy burden. Adolescence is a transitional period. Adolescents have to gradually take up some of the work performed by adults. The environment may continue to give them some tasks to be handled by adults, which increases their burden. Without increasing the burden, it will not be possible to mature in the future. They have to cope with various changes and problems caused by height, weight, muscle strength and other developmental maturity, especially sexual development and maturity, and the psychological pressure increases relatively quickly. They must gradually abandon various childish and naive ideas and behavior models while gradually establishing more mature ideas and behavior models that are more in line with social norms. While coping with their tendency to resist, young people must also try their best to maintain and protect the normal relationship with society. In addition, heterosexual interests, heterosexual interactions, heavy learning tasks, etc. also place a great burden on their bodies and minds, and sometimes become major contradictions.

Adolescent physiological characteristics

Adolescent male characteristics

Around the age of twelve, men's testicles and scrotum began to enlarge, the scrotum became red, and the texture of the skin changed. At the age of twelve to thirteen, the penis becomes longer, but the circumference increases less rapidly. The testes and scrotum continue to grow, pubic hair appears, and the prostate begins to move. Fourteen to fifteen years old, the scrotum and penis began to continue to grow, the head and roots of the penis were fully developed, the scrotum was darker in color, the testicles were mature, and there were dreams.

Adolescent female characteristics

Refers to the period from the development of the sexual organs, the emergence of secondary sexual characteristics to the full maturity of reproductive function.

Because the ovaries develop earlier than the testicles, girls develop physically 1-2 years earlier than boys. Girls start and stop at puberty at approximately 9-12 years and 18-20 years.

Height and weight increase rapidly; the functions of all organs of the body are becoming mature; the structure of the nervous system is close to that of an adult; active thinking; ability to respond to things; ability to analyze problems and enhance memory; the endocrine system matures and the adrenal glands begin to secrete estrogen Stimulating hair growth, pubic hair and armpit hair appeared. The hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis system of the reproductive system is mature. The ovaries begin to secrete estrogen, progesterone and a small amount of androgen, which stimulates the body, the vagina begins to secrete fluid, and the external reproductive organs develop. Second sexual characteristics such as breast bulge, Subcutaneous fat is plump, the pelvis is wide, and the voice is high. The menstrual cramps are the most prominent signs of puberty.

Division of adolescence

There is no uniform staging standard for the puberty stage, and some scholars have divided it into:

Early adolescence

The second sexual characteristics began to appear until the girl's menarche and the boy's first spermatorrhea, showing a sudden increase in physical growth, aged about 9-13 years old.

Puberty

The development of sexual organs and secondary sexual characteristics is the main period, with menarche in girls and the first spermogenesis in boys. The period begins with secondary sexual characteristics. Age is about 13-16 years.

Late adolescence

From the development of secondary sexual characteristics to complete maturity of reproductive function and height growth stop, girls begin to have periodic menstruation at this stage, aged about 16-18 years.

Adolescent psychological characteristics

Adolescent needs

Faced with adolescent children, parents will have varying degrees of panic, and even some parents are close to the enemy. The response of parents is normal, because adolescent children always look forward to maturity and nostalgia for childhood. There are always flaws in the pursuit of perfection, and they refuse to inculcate and long for help. Such contradictory psychology makes their behavior so ridiculous and boring in the eyes of adults, but for children, it is of great significance. Because parents do not understand their children, they impose restraints on their children, which makes them conflict with each other and the conflict escalates.

First, we should understand the three major psychological needs of adolescent children.

(1) Reasonable material requirements

Material needs are the eternal theme of life. After children enter puberty, they still need clothing, snacks, toys, and stationery on the surface, but their actual needs are quietly changing. Just entering puberty, fewer children are pursuing personalization, and more are asking for herd. Conformity makes you feel safe and integrated into the circle of your classmates. As they grow older, they become more familiar with their surroundings and the personality of their classmates and friends. The children begin to show their personality and secretly compete in groups. This comparison has a positive meaning. The child gains experience and positions himself in the group.

(Two) the needs of friends

Before and after puberty, it is the beginning of junior high school life. Children are like entering a whole new world, and they are exposed to new faces, new habits, and new ways of learning. This is the change we can see. There is also an invisible change, which is the transfer of thoughts and emotions of children entering adolescence.

Before puberty, the child relies on the parents. When they enter puberty, they begin to transfer to friends. In late adolescence, they transfer to friends of the opposite sex. Finally, they settle on the opposite sex and start a family. This is the only way for human growth, and it is a force that we cannot resist.

Children begin to make friends. For friends, they can wait at the gate of the school. They can go shopping with their classmates and go to Internet cafes. Friends can stay at school to play basketball or even fight, and don't care about the parents' face when they come home late, even if they invite parents to scold them. What is it that forces children to take risks? Here is the problem of children's psychological needs. [6]

(Three) the need for attention of the opposite sex

The child enters puberty and undergoes subtle changes in contact with the opposite sex. They started quietly focusing on the opposite sex. Attention often just stays on the surface. For example, girls pay attention to handsome tall boys. The girls went together to comment on them, and they felt some freshness and excitement. Boys also pay attention to girls, and occasionally talk about certain girls together in a ridiculous way. Even if there is a slight liking, they know that they are thinking about something. Both boys and girls are very restrained. This is just the initial learning stage for children to get out of the family circle and enter the society to understand the opposite sex. As time goes on, the children are more and more aware of what kind of opposite sex they like and hope to approach him or her. The initial form can be arrogance, simple questions and answers, or a working communication based on class activities. Many children can learn about the opposite sex through such simple communication. Many children know that this is not love, but classmates. They think that the beautiful love they long for has not come, so more people choose to wait and wait for themselves to grow up.

Adolescent problems

Tired of learning

Boredom is when students hate learning and get bored of school. The specific manifestation is that the learning efficiency is low. Although I sometimes work hard, the effect is not good, and I feel that the learning is very boring and has no interest. If parents do not supervise, they rarely take the initiative to learn, do not take the initiative to involve other learning content, feel tired after learning, to complete a certain learning task, parents need to use material incentives, often illusions, how successful they are, do not understand When it comes to problems, I rarely figure out why. I spend more time on TV, computers, and entertainment than studying. I do nt have a clear learning purpose and I do nt plan ahead. Some even have headaches when it comes to learning.

Addiction

Internet addiction is particularly harmful to young people. There are some violent information, pornographic novels and pictures on the Internet. For those elementary and middle school students who lack the ability to identify and control themselves, it is easy to indulge in the Internet all day, contact harmful information, and damage physical and mental health. If children on the Internet are seduced by vulgar content that stimulates their senses all the time, it is just like letting them use drugs or alcohol. Long-term Internet use is harmful to your child's mental health. Using a computer for too long can easily lead to feelings of loneliness, loneliness, and even depression. In addition, sitting in front of a computer all day will make people's thinking mode monotonous, limiting people's thinking flow under certain conditions.

Self-closing

Self-closing is a cognitive psychological barrier formed in the day after tomorrow. It is a kind of psychological abnormal reaction caused by people in the process of socialization. It occurs in childhood, as an adult, and can occur at any stage of adolescent growth. Because they are in the stage of self-consciousness to social development, for normal children, they are willing to make friends, like to share, and try to feel fun in group activities. However, due to the defects of the growth environment, such as loss of parent-child life, neglect or abandonment by parents, foster care in families lacking emotional communication, and the patient's own personality defects such as introversion, timidity, inferiority, depression, etc. Gradually formed a habit of living in isolation, and eventually developed to close themselves, unwilling to contact the society, and increasingly difficult to adapt to society. (A non-congenital developmental disorder due to nervous system disorders)

Learning Disability

There are many manifestations of learning disabilities, such as inattention, troublesome work, headlessness, lack of time concept and sense of task; laziness, procrastination, poor learning transfer ability, easy to form habitual inertia and masturbation. Social adaptation skills are deficient and everything depends on others. Lack of good independent learning habits and learning methods. Slow movements, clumsiness, poor physical coordination, clumsy and naive writing, lack of strokes. Another manifestation of learning disability is lack of interest in learning, lack of curiosity, and lack of interest in people; or the superficial, narrow range of interest in learning, the instability of interest can not be stable and durable, and it is easy to "see things differently" with emotional impact. ^[1]