Page 124 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

adolescence 9

now in a position to demand more power and more priv-
ileges can be predicted to create certain universal tensions
between teenagers and their elders. With regard to the
society at large, the senior generation is likely to resist sur-
rendering its authority to the younger generation. Regard-
less of time or place, conflict between parents and
adolescents can be expected to escalate as teenagers
become less dependent on parents and increasingly capa-
ble of challenging parental authority.

Historical and
Geographic Variations
Although the universal process of puberty may inevitably
produce certain outcomes regardless of historical time or
place, variations in the environmental context in which
the adolescent lives can affect how adolescence is played
out. Such variations can increase or decrease the degree
to which emotional upheaval and interpersonal tensions
will characterize the adolescent experience.
Young people at fair in India enjoying and
Managing the Adolescent
powering a ferris wheel.
Identity Redefinition
Many societies historically have responded to the
ioral traits that we associate with adolescence, including inevitable fact of puberty by instituting initiation cere-
increased emotionality, a thirst for adventure and novelty, monies of some sort that publicly recognize the changing
antisocial behavior, and increased conflict with parents. status of maturing youth. For boys such ceremonies may
Because puberty is a universal feature of the human include public circumcision as well as hazing and other
condition, all teenagers can be expected to manifest to at psychological and physical challenges. For girls such cer-
least some degree the expected physical, motivational, emonies are often associated with menarche, the onset of
and behavioral outcomes produced by hormonal and menstruation. Often a ceremonial rite culminates in an
brain changes associated with puberty. explicit ceremony conferring adult status on the initiate.
Developmental psychologists have also long noted Initiation ceremonies, then, represent a public recognition
that pubertal changes are likely to create secondary effects that the young person is maturing physically and can be
that, because they are the result of the universal process expected to begin to engage in adult behaviors. As such,
of puberty, can also be expected to be universal.The first initiation ceremonies provide community support for
of these effects concerns how young people undergoing the adolescent’s attempts at redefinition of self and pub-
puberty now view themselves. The assumption is that licly confirm that the adolescent is becoming an adult.
puberty inevitably requires a new self-definition in light The upheaval associated with image redefinition in such
of the dramatic physical and motivational changes that societies is likely to be relatively mild.
the adolescent is experiencing and that this identity revi- Initiation ceremonies have become less common or
sion must result in some amount of internal emotional have been stripped of much of their original meaning in
upheaval.The equally inevitable fact that adolescents are contemporary cultures, especially in complex hetero-