• the importance of adolescence;
• the psychological characteristics of adolescent;
• the developmental tasks of adolescent;
• the problems faced by adolescence.

Adolescence is the childhood and adulthood. It starts from years of age and continues through eighteen years of age. This period is marked by rapid physical and psychological transformation of the individual. The sex organs mature, secondary sex characteristics appear and there is increase in the height and weight of the individual.

Increase in height and weight is associated with redistribution of fat in the body and an increase in the proportion of bone and muscle tissues, The growth spurt in boys generally begins about two years later than it does in girls, but, continues for a longer period. There are also changes in body proportions. Girls generally broaden in the hips and the boys mostly in the shoulders. The waist line proportionately drops.

There are also major changes in the secretion of hormones by the various glands in the body. The gonads, or the sex glands begin to function bringing about sexual development. Both boys and girls develop sex characteristics, which are broadly classified as

1. primary, and
2. secondary.

Primary sex characteristics in boys refer to the growth of the main male sex organs which include the Penis, scrotum, testes and vas deferens. For girls the primary sex characteristics refer to the growth of sex organs like uterus, fallopian tubes and breasts, acquisition of body hair, change of voice change in" skin texture etc.

These sex characteristics are acquired over a span of time. The period during the bodily changes occur is called puberty.

Puberty can be divided into three stages :

(i) prepubescent stage

(ii) pubescent stage

(iii) post-pubescent stage

During the pre-pubescent stage, the secondary sex characteristics begin to develop in the child. These are followed by development of the primary sex characteristics in the pubescent stage. The hall mark of this stage in girls ia the commencement of menstruation or menarche and in boys the beginning of wet dreams or nocturnal emissions.

The post pubescent stage is the one when both boys and girls come to full reproductive maturity. Thus puberty itself is a long sequential process which actually launches the child into adolescence.

The adolescent has to attain particular attitudes, habits and skills if he or she has to function effectively as an adult. Havighuisi calls these the developmental tasks of adolescents.

For example, in infancy and childhood, the developmental tasks are learning to take solid food, to achieve physiological stability, and to form simple concepts of social and physical reality.

In middle child-hood, the task are to learn physical skills necessary for games and to learn appropriate sex roles. You have read more about them in the previous lessons.

A developmental task is a task which arises at or about a certain period in the life of the individual, and successful achievement of which leads to happiness and to success in later tasks, while failure leads to UN-happiness in the individual, disapproval by the society and difficulty with later tasks.

Let us now examine the following table which presents the developmental tasks of adolescents.

From the above table it is clear that the adolescent has to develop and acquire a wide range of skills and abilities. These relate to all aspects of development: physical, emotional social, moral and cognitive. A supportive environment at home and school can greatly facilitate the accomplishment of these developmental tasks.

During adolescence, the individual at faces a very wide range and variety of emotions./These include both positive and negative emotions. Happiness is as joy, exuberance exhilaration etc. and sadness depression, unhappiness, anxiety, fear lorry etc. In addition, of anger, rebellion and protest also emerge. Interestingly, patriotism, and sacrifice for the nation also develop.

Each of these emotions is felt very intensely. In fact the strength and intensity of adolescent emotions is one of their prominent characteristics. They tend to express everything in a very exaggerated form. It is common to hear adolescents who like a particular actor or sports person to say, "I love him". Linking or food is also expressed as love-such as"I love ice-cream", " I love cakes", etc. similarly, dislike is expressed as 'hatred'- " I hate that person" or "I hate eating fruits" etc.

He begins to question every thing like an experimenter and forms conclusions only when convinced. He also tends to defend his point of view very rigidly. There is a noticeable expansion in the vocabulary. He can attend to several intellectual tasks, simultaneously making this a very promising stage of intellectual development.

In the moral sphere too, the adolescent undergoes very prominent changes. He now develops a firm sense of ethics or an understanding of what is right and wrong. This is based not only on what his parents and elders have taught him, but on his own experience as well. He also begins to question certain social and moral codes prevalent in society and accepts only those which he is convinced about.

His eagerness to be a nice-boy/nice girl and please others ceases to be important now. It gets replaced by his questioning mind and conviction about what he is doing.

He begins to understand the importance of law in maintaining order in society. Further, the adolescent begins to evolve a set of personal values which become the guiding principles of his life.

To sum up the psychological characteristics, it may be stated that adolescence is the stage of identity crisis, when the individual is neither a child nor an adult With the bodily changes and corresponding psychological changes which take place the individual is forced to reflect on the question, "who am I ?". The answer to this question is not easy to find and it often remains a pre-occupation throughout adolescence. Towards the end of adolescence, however, the individual emerges with a sense of identity,

The physical and psychological characteristics of adolescents and the nature of the developmental tasks which they are expected to achieve often lead to examine these problems. Basically adolescents face problems related to their home, school and society. These constitute the common problems of adolescence. They can be presented in the following table.

The problems listed in the above table are a few representative common problems which adolescents face. more serious problems include drug addiction, alchoholism, smoking, truancy, sexual obsessions, etc. These problems may not appear in all the individuals

Uptill now you have studied about how adolescence is a major transition period for an individual. Whenever we go to a new place we want to of that place. In that case a guide can help us to move smoothly around that place and help us in solving our problems. Adolescence is a phase which makes a enter into the adult world . Growing into from a child makes us experience problems in various domains like;

• personal
• social
• educational

Through guidance and counseling process adolescents can be helped to solve 'these problems. With the help of career counseling and Vocational guidance they can be provided with various career opportunities and educational choices. Personal and social counselling can help them in resolving their problems related to these two domains.

Adolescence is an important stage in human development. It is the bridge between childhood and adulthood.

This period is marked by rapid physical and psychological transformation of the individual.

There are major changes in the secretion of hormones by the various glands in the body .The sex characteristics develop during this phase.

The period during which the bodily changes occur is called puberty .The puberty can be divided into three stages prepubescent, pubescent, postpubescent.

Some of the developmental tasks of adolescents are achieving new and mature relations with mates, achieving achieving masculine/feminine social role, achieving emotional independence etc.

Other than the physical changes, some psychological changes too take place like emotional development, cognitive and moral moral development.

The process of guidance and counseling can help the adolescent for a smooth transition to adulthood.

1. How do adolescents express their emotions ? Give illustrative examples.
2. What are the prominent social characteristics shown by the adolescents.
3. How do adolescents differ from children in their cognition ?
4. What are some of the noticeable changes which adolescents show with regard to moral development?

        b.The physical changer are that there is an increase in the height and weight of the individual, the sex organs              mature and secondary sex characteristics appear.

1. 1. intensely

2. peer
3.formal operations
4.mood swings
5. personal values

2. the areas of psychological changes are emotional .social cognitive and moral.

1. Refer section 15.6.1
2. Refer section 15.6.2
3. Refer section 15.6.3
4. Refer section 15.6.4
5. Refer section 15.5