Adolescence Case

There are numerous ways that an adolescent might feel through the constantly changing years. They are learning what, who, how, and why they are the person that they are. Some adolescents will start to have things change within their body while others become envious because their bodies aren't changing. Adolescents are trying to fit into different groups and possibly trying new things good and bad. Adolescents are also learning to be their own person with choices that they make about their life, friends, school, and even with family. An adolescent is learning about their independence in life, they are planning more for their future as well.

Some changes that might be occurring for many adolescents is called puberty. Puberty is the change in a person's body. For females their breasts are beginning to grow and they are developing hair in their armpits and genitals. For males they are beginning to get facial hair, armpit hair, hair on their genitals, their genitals are growing, and their voices are going through changes such as squeaking or getting lower. Not all adolescents are ready for the changes that they are going to go through which in turn can cause low self-esteem and possibly a low self-image of themselves.

During this time in life adolescents are finding new and different friends that can be good and bad. They are learning about fitting in with others and possibly making the wrong choices in order to fit in with others. These poor choices can consist of smoking, drinking, and even drug use. Adolescents are also learning from choices made and how to not repeat choices that they might have made that were wrong. I think that many adolescents are learning about life on a constant basis and with having a positive support group will make the best choices and find the path in life that is best for them.

Adolescence is the time frame in a child's life when a child transitions from childhood to adulthood. During this time a young person will experience many rapid changes that will cause many biological, social, and psychological changes to occur. Puberty is a time in which humans mature sexually and become capable of reproduction. During puberty adolescents will cope with drastic physical changes and increasing sexual awareness. They will develop desires to fit in with peers group, and the desperate need to establish their own personal identity. During this time an adolescent will experience hormonal changes from hormones that are secreted by the endocrine glands to stimulate growth of the sexual organs and help shape the characteristics of the individual. Through puberty there are various physical changes to include growth spurts and development of primary and secondary sex characteristics. There are other physical changes that include hair growth, breast tissue development, female menstruation, voice changes, and changes in skin.

Also during adolescence the brain endures many physical changes in response to new hormonal level imbalance. These changes can result in many behavioral and emotional consequences from the adolescent. According to our text Franzoi explains that hormones attach themselves in the brain and directly influence the "neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, which play a vital role in regulating an individual mood and excitability". An adolescent brain is a constant roller costar ride and is constantly changing. The growth and development of an adolescent is a ride full of emotions of scared uncertainly. The maturity of the child and the environment in which he/she live will all play in the developing of the individual personality (Blakemore & Choudhurry, 2006; Spear 2003).

Understanding personality is the key to unlocking elusive human qualities. Personality traits and thinking styles like leadership, motivation, and empathy are all exercises in self-development that happen in phases, over the course of our entire lives. Adolescence is a period that tends to be the most striking, in regards to individual transitions from a child into adulthood. The biological and psychological changes that take place during this time are indeed profound. Scientific study of the human mind and behaviors note that there are five theoretical perspectives on child development; Psychoanalytic-Theory which is the view of human development as being shaped by unconscious forces, the Learning-Theory which is the view of human development that holds that changes in behavior result from experience or adaptation to the environment, the Cognitive-Theory which is the view that thought processes are central to development, The Contextual-Theory which is the view of child development that sees the individual as inseparable from social context and the Sociobiological -Theory which is the view of human development that focuses on evolutionary and biological bases of Social behavior (Shaw, 2002; Rowland, 2003).

As it explains in the text about understanding human behavior it talks about the common life events that will take place from the time of infancy through the time of later adulthood. There are major changes that occur within these stages. Being an adolescent is the time in which each individual struggle to find their identity. This is because they are moving forward from being a child of innocence and purity into an adult of raging hormones that will affect them greatly, all awhile searching for knowledge of the unknown.

The adolescent should think about each decision that they make beforehand, but in reality most times they do not. This could lead the adolescent going down a path that will produce a consequence that was not expected, experiencing in things that would not be conducive to a bright and rewarding future for themselves. As the adolescents' body changes so does their thought process. Some grow at an alarming rate while others wait to catch up with their peers.

For early bloomers this is not always a good thing as the adolescents' intellectual and emotional maturity level has not balanced