Learning Styles And Sociocultural Influences On Child And Adolescent Development

Discuss the concept of adolescence as a social construct and its validity for different cultures.

1. In the article Denaturalizing Adolescence, Lesko defines adolescence in reference to teens between the ages of 12-17 (p. 156). She talks about the characteristics of adolescence; that we have framed within our society. They are seen as "hormonally driven, peer-oriented, and identity seeking" by the majority of adults (Lesko, 140). According to her adolescence was created in the 19th century during industrialization. Adolescents were ‘coming of age' into this "important, powerful, uncontrollable change" (Lesko, 148) and they needed to be disciplined. It was believed that the characteristics of adulthood were a direct reflection of the society around them; as teens couldn't make a decision for themselves.

According to Erikson’s description of developmental eras in the human life cycle, during adolescence children

He argues that past research has been centering only on rationality and maturity of adolescence by just looking at the brain itself. The author notes that psychological sidestepping research on cognition and behavior, brain study vaguely attributes conceptualized social incidents to any age-related trend and statistical pattern in neuro-processing. Furthermore, it is noted in this article that psychological research is in contrast to the proposition which asserts that risk taking among adolescents is a special occurrence. Everybody takes risks and always has a right to take these

Adolescence are the years spent morphing from child to adult start with the physical beginnings of sexual maturity and with the social achievement of independent Adult status (Myers, 2014). G Stanley Hall believe that tension between biological maturity and social dependence creates a period of storm and stress. A adolescent physical development starts with puberty which is the period of sexual maturation which a person become capable of reproducing. As they start to mature they are able to better communicate and are able to make that better judgement. Many times this is the time I don’t miss your help people feel about them and are usually all about self. Piaget believed that children’s moral judgements build on their cognitive development.

In the field of development psychology, we have been exposed to plenty of development theorists and idea during this class. One of the theorists, whose theories I found very fascinating was Erik Erikson, especially his eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. However, as I had to pick a theorist who was not covered in class, I researched the four given theorists to choose from, I chose James E. Marcia. He refined and extended Erikson’s work. His main focus was on adolescence development.

Sociocultural influences shape the mind and behavior of an individual in the form of nurture. Children who were breastfed as a child score higher on an IQ test than formula fed infants. When children hit the school age years it is very important to insure class attendance to enhance the knowledge being provided by teachers. The socioeconomic status a child is raised is important of the education he or she will receive. Children in a higher middle class area will have up to date books, computers, and music lessons. Parents of these children will also be more help with homework. Low-income adolescents are more likely to live in neighborhoods that lack extracurricular opportunities such as parks and recreational facilities. There are also

Erikson highlights that society sanctions teenagers a specific timeframe to get themselves and their parts as grown-ups called

Adolescence is a time where physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional changes are all involved in the transition. Risk taking is important in shaping the adolescence’s identity, use their new found decision-making skills, and access themselves, others, and the world around them. (American Psychological Association, 2015).

Adolescence: The period between 10 and 19 years, the biological changes of puberty give rise to psychological responses; the adolescent is separated progressively family and the issue of identity arises. "Identity" is defined by Erikson as the sense of continuity and stability of the person along the time. The sense of identity translates into decisions at the end of adolescence regarding vocational and marital choices. If this consolidation is not achieved, Erikson speaks of

Adolescence is a transitional time for youth, and parents as well, the brain is developing, making new neural connections, allowing the teen to think in new ways. It is also a time on emotional storm, with hormones surging, and identity forming, the teen, and parents can find themselves in a state of frustration. Fiore (2011) States “Adolescence is a complex process of growth and change” (p.191). This is also a time of vulnerability; As with any developing organism, damage can happen, and change the intended outcome. If all goes well the final result will be a normal, healthy adult ready to live and independent, and, or interdependent prosperous life.

Blue’s Clues is a children’s television series that was aired in 1996 and remained popular in the young generations and their parents until the final episode aired in 2006. In this television series Steve and his friend Blue play a game every show that involves finding Blue’s paw prints and solving the clues to find out what Blue wants. Along the way they play interactive games that involve counting, identifying colors, identifying animals and so much more. This educational program is consistent with current developmental theories and has been successful at educating young children before and during the early school years.

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." -William Arthur Ward. Every teacher is different and teaches differently, but when it comes to academic success of students, how do the teaching styles affect the overall outcome of the student success. Although teaching styles and learning styles have a massive role to play and academic success, so does cultural location. Teaching styles will form students learning behavior and how they see their future. Teaching styles meshed with learning style of an individual student is the biggest predictor of students academic success in all cultural locations.

Erikson found that each stage of development occurs and is a building block for the next stage of development. Out of eight distinctly defined stages of development, five stages happen before the age of 18. “Erikson assumes that a crisis occurs at each stage of development” (Simplypsychology.org). If one stage of development is hindered, the next stage is likely to falter, resulting in major difficulties later in life. Erikson emphasizes that much of the psychological development in one’s life occurs during adolescents, and that personality is greatly shaped through the social experiences that occur during that time.

A student of Anna Freud (daughter to Sigmund Freud), Erik Erikson saw human development as continuing throughout the life span. This is in contrast to Freudian theory, that posits that development is mostly completed by adolescence. Erikson built onto the Freudian model of and extended it throughout the entire life span, into older adulthood. Erikson appears to attempt a linkage between individual development and the broader context of society. His early stages are linked to those of Sigmund Freud, but they are formulated on very different lines of thinking. Erikson focuses more on ego qualities that emerge from each stage and less on sexual modes and their consequences (as Freud’s theory does).