In this video I describe the changes associated with puberty and adolescence, ranging from the physical to the socioemotional. Puberty causes major physical changes in both primary and secondary sex characteristics as adolescents become capable of reproduction. Cognitive changes include gradually increasing capabilities for complex thought and improvements in self-regulation. The socioemotional changes of adolescence make peer relationships more important as teens work to form their own identities.
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Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Michael Corayer and this is Psych Exam Review. In this video, we’ll consider development and the many changes that occur during adolescence. Many of these changes are physical changes that are associated with the onset of puberty and these can be broadly divided into development of primary sex characteristics and secondary sex characteristics. So this distinction is that primary sex characteristics refer specifically to changes in the sex organs themselves, while secondary sex characteristics refer to developments that affect other areas of the body.
So in boys puberty often begins sometime around age 12 and the primary sex characteristics would be growth of the penis and testes, and the beginning of sperm production. Secondary sex characteristics would include things like the growth of facial hair or the growth of pubic and underarm hair, in addition to increases in muscle growth and deepening of the voice. Sometime around age 14 boys will experience spermarche, which refers to their first ejaculation.
In girls puberty often begins a bit earlier, around age 10, and the primary sex characteristics would be changes in the genitals and development of the ovaries. And secondary sex characteristics would include growth of pubic and underarm hair, development of breasts, and widening of the hips. And sometime around age 12 girls will experience menarche, which refers to their first menstrual cycle.
In both boys and girls we see that adolescence is associated with the process of myelination of the frontal lobes and this is a slow process that will continue until about age 25. This myelination of the frontal lobes is associated with increased capacity for self-regulation and for emotional control. And one way of thinking about adolescence is to consider that we have these great increases in sex hormones and new drives and motivations for sexual behavior. And this is happening at a time where we don’t yet have full capacity for regulating our behavior and controlling our emotions. So this might help us to understand the impulsivity and the risk–taking that’s often associated with adolescence.
But this change in our cognitive development is also associated with new capacities for hypothetical thought, for abstract reasoning. This should remind you of Piaget, his theory of cognitive development and the formal operational stage which begins sometime around age 11 or 12. And so adolescents have new capacities in these areas; they’re able to think hypothetically, they’re able to do inferential reasoning that they weren’t doing before. And this might be related to their tendency to challenge beliefs and conventions of their society. They can become more rebellious, but it’s worth noting that this rebelliousness is often in rather minor areas. So there’s often conflict between the conventions of society and what adolescents think, but these conflicts are often associated with things like language use or slang, or hairstyles, or clothing styles, or things like preferences in music. This is also a time where these cognitive changes mean that we have increased capacities for learning and for problem-solving.
And lastly we’ll consider socioemotional changes associated with adolescence. This is a time where teenagers find they have greater independence compared to earlier childhood and this means they also need to rely on themselves more. They have a greater need for self-reliance, they’re less dependent on their parents, and the primary source of socialization also shifts from being mostly parents and family to being more focused on friends and peers. And this means that teenagers find they have new social, romantic, and sexual experiences and opportunities and they have to figure out how they fit in to this new society that they’re in. And this is part of forming of their identity which I mentioned in the video on Erik Erikson, and his idea that the main challenge of adolescence was identity formation versus role confusion. So this is a time where teenagers are trying to figure out, “how do I fit in?” and one way they do this is they may try on different roles. They might think “maybe I’m this kind of person? Maybe I fit in with this group or maybe not?”. So you might see this sort of switching as they work to answer this question; who am I? I hope you found this helpful, if so, please like the video and subscribe to the channel for more. Thanks for watching!
