Psychological characteristics of adolescence

Psychological characteristics of adolescence

Every age is good in its own way. And at the same time, each age has its own characteristics and difficulties. Adolescence is no exception.

Adolescence

is understood as a special period of ontogenetic development of a person, the uniqueness of which lies in its intermediate position between childhood and adulthood.
It covers a fairly long period of life. It begins at the age of 11-12, and ends in different ways: from 15 to 17-18 years.
Vygotsky L.S. proposes to consider adolescence from the point of view of interests

, which determine the structure of the direction of reactions. For example, the behavioral characteristics of adolescents (decline in school performance, deterioration of relationships with parents, etc.) can be explained by a radical restructuring of the entire system of interests at this age.

Elkonin D.B.,

calls adolescence the period of 11-17 years,
based on the criterion of changes in leading forms of activity
. But he divides it into two stages: middle school age (11-15 years), when the leading activity is communication, and high school age (15-17 years), when educational and professional activity becomes the leading one.

It should be noted that L.S. Vygotsky and D.B. Elkonin considered adolescence as normally stable, despite the fact that in reality it can proceed quite violently. The time separating adolescence from primary school and youth, L.S. Vygotsky considered crises to be 13 and 17 years old, respectively. D.B. Elkonin and T.V. Dragunov considers the age of 11-12 years as a transitional period from primary school to adolescence. The crisis separating adolescence from adolescence, D.B. Elkonin considers the crisis to be 15 years old, and the crisis of 17 years separating youth from adulthood.

Boundaries of adolescence

individual
for each teenager .
Along with the concept of “adolescence”, the concept of “transitional age” is used. During this period, the teenager goes through a great path in his development: through internal conflicts with himself and with others, through external breakdowns and ascents, he can gain a sense of personality. In this age period, the foundations of conscious behavior are laid in the child, and a general direction in the formation of moral ideas and social attitudes emerges.
Features of the development of a teenager’s cognitive abilities often cause difficulties in school education: poor academic performance, inappropriate behavior. The success of learning largely depends on the motivation of learning, on the personal meaning that learning has for a teenager. The main condition for any learning is the presence of a desire to acquire knowledge and measure oneself and the student. But in real school life one has to face a situation where a teenager has no need for learning and even actively resists learning.

Knowing the characteristics of a teenager’s cognitive sphere is very important, because when teaching parenting, these characteristics must be taken into account.

Socially useful activities and intimate and personal communication with peers begin to take leading positions.
It is in adolescence that new motives for learning appear, related to the ideal and professional intentions.
Learning takes on a personal meaning for many teenagers. Elements of theoretical thinking begin to form.

Reasoning goes from general to specific. The teenager operates with a hypothesis in solving intellectual problems. This is the most important acquisition in the analysis of reality. Operations such as classification, analysis, and generalization are being developed. Reflective thinking develops. The teenager’s own intellectual operations become the subject of attention and assessment. The teenager acquires adult logic of thinking.

Memory develops in the direction of intellectualization.

It is not the meaning that is used, but mechanical memorization.
A teenager easily picks up irregular or non-standard forms and turns of speech from his teachers and parents, and finds violations of undoubted rules of speech in books, newspapers, and in the speeches of radio and television announcers. A teenager, due to adult characteristics, is able to vary his speech depending on the style of communication and the personality of the interlocutor. For teenagers, the authority of a cultural native speaker is important.
Personal comprehension of language, its meanings and meanings individualizes the teenager’s self-awareness. It is in the individualization of self-awareness through language that the highest meaning of development lies. Perception is an extremely important cognitive process that is closely related to memory

: the peculiarities of perception of the material also determine the peculiarities of its preservation.

Attention

in adolescence
is voluntary
and can be completely organized and controlled by the teenager. Individual fluctuations in attention are caused by individual psychological characteristics (increased excitability or fatigue, decreased attention after somatic diseases, traumatic brain injuries), as well as decreased interest in educational activities.

The connection between memory and mental activity, with intellectual processes in adolescence acquires independent significance. As a teenager develops, the content of his mental activity changes in the direction of a transition to thinking in concepts that more deeply and comprehensively reflect the relationships between the phenomena of reality.

The content of a teenager’s mental development is the development of his self-awareness.

One of the most important features characterizing a teenager’s personality is the emergence of stability of self-esteem and self-image.
An important content of a teenager’s self-awareness is the image of his physical “I” - the idea of ​​his bodily appearance, comparison and assessment of himself from the point of view of the standards of “masculinity” and “femininity”. Features of physical development can cause a decrease in self-esteem and self-esteem in adolescents, leading to a fear of bad evaluation by others.
Defects in appearance (real or imaginary) can be experienced very painfully, to the point of complete non-acceptance of oneself, a persistent feeling of inferiority. A teenager has a strong need to communicate with peers.

The leading motive for a teenager’s behavior is the desire to find his place among his peers. The lack of such an opportunity very often leads to social maladaptation and crime. The assessments of peers begin to take on greater importance than the assessments of teachers and adults. The teenager is maximally confirmed by the influence of the group and its values; he becomes very anxious if his popularity among his peers is at risk.

Trying to establish himself in a new social position, the teenager tries to go beyond student affairs into another area that has social significance.

Teenagers more often begin to rely on the opinions of their peers. If in younger schoolchildren increased anxiety occurs when contacting unfamiliar adults, then in adolescents tension and anxiety are higher in relationships with parents and peers. The desire to live according to one’s ideals and the development of these patterns of behavior can lead to clashes of views on the lives of adolescents and their parents and create conflict situations. Due to rapid biological development and the desire for independence, adolescents also experience difficulties in relationships with peers.

Stubbornness, negativism, touchiness and aggressiveness of adolescents are most often emotional reactions to self-doubt.

The developmental situation of a teenager (biological, mental, personal and characterological characteristics of a teenager) involves crises, conflicts, and difficulties in adapting to the social environment. A teenager who has not been able to successfully overcome a new stage in the formation of his psycho-social development, who has deviated in his development and behavior from the generally accepted norm, receives the status of “difficult”. This primarily applies to adolescents with antisocial behavior. The risk factors here are:

physical weakness, characteristics of character development, lack of communication skills, emotional immaturity, unfavorable external social environment. Adolescents develop specific behavioral reactions that make up a specific adolescent complex: - the emancipation reaction, which is a type of behavior through which a teenager tries to free himself from the tutelage of adults.

From the above it follows that adolescence is a time of active personality formation

, refraction of social experience through the individual’s own active work to transform his personality, the formation of his “I”. The central new formation of a teenager’s personality during this period is the formation of feelings of adulthood and the development of self-awareness.

Thus, adolescence is a very important period because it often determines a person’s future life. Affirmation of independence, formation of personality, development of plans for the future - all this is formed precisely at this age.

List of used literature:

1. Vygotsky L. S. Pedology of a teenager // Collection. op. in 6 volumes. T. Child Psychology / Edited by D. B. Elkonin. M.: Pedagogika 1984. 132 p.

2. Semenyuk L.M. Reader on developmental psychology: a textbook for students / Ed. DI. Feldstein: 2nd edition, expanded. - Moscow: Institute of Practical Psychology, 1996. 219 p.

3. Petrovsky A.V., Yaroshevsky M.G. “Psychology”, Moscow, 2000.

4. Elkonin D.B. On the problem of periodization of mental development in childhood // Questions of psychology, 1971, No. 4. 6p.

Height and weight standards for children 11 years old

The height and weight standards for girls 11 years old are presented in the table below:

⠀ The height and weight standards for boys 11 years old are presented in the table below:

⠀ You can calculate the body mass index and identify deviations using the formula: BMI = body weight (kg): height (m)2. Below is a table of results:

⠀

Symptoms

Parents can pay attention to suspicious behavioral traits of the child and contact a psychologist. Also, a teenager can independently complain about certain problems.

Early symptoms of disorders:

• isolation, social phobia;
• constant irritability, aggression;
• taking alcohol, drugs;
• insomnia or hypersomnia;
• constant weakness and fatigue;
• conflict behavior;
• sexual promiscuity;
• lack of a critical attitude towards oneself and one’s actions;
• constant fears, worries;
• self-harm, including minor cutting;
• decreased physical activity.

Not all of the above symptoms can be associated with mental illness. Some symptoms may indicate an incorrect diet, hypovitaminosis and the presence of a metabolic disease.

How to help an 11-year-old child develop: attention, memory, speech

A child needs to be developed in three directions: physical, intellectual and creative. When a child goes to clubs and sections, he is in the company of people with similar interests, this improves his communication skills, expands his social circle and worldview. Joint games with parents will be useful. They bring you closer and allow you to build trusting relationships.

Diet and sleep patterns

During the period when the body is undergoing restructuring and intensive development of the skeleton, muscle mass, and vascular system, the child needs a large amount of protein, carbohydrates and calcium. The child's meals should be nutritious and high in calories.

The daily menu must include fermented milk products, fresh vegetables and fruits. Lack of nutrients can lead to fatigue, weakness and serious illness.

To be active, a teenager needs to sleep at least eight hours and adhere to a healthy sleep schedule - falling asleep before 10:00 pm. This is due to the production of the hormone melatonin, which is responsible for the efficiency of the immune system, the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and the brain.

The need for rest and nutrition increases among adolescents involved in sports and intellectual activities.