Cognitive Development:
Very noticeable changes in intellectual development take place during adolescence. The adolescent becomes able to think in more abstract and logical terms. The quality of thinking in terms of great ideals also emerges during the period. They can now understand abstract concepts and think in terms of probabilities as well. They develop the capacity to think both inductively and deductively. They can also reflect, analyze, judge, hypothesize and discuss various points of views. Adolescents' own opinion about an issue becomes very important to them. This often gets the adolescents into hot arguments with parents, teachers and friends. Adolescents begin to question every thing like an experimenter. They draw conclusions only when they are convinced. They also tend to defend their point of view very rigidly. There is a noticeable increment in their vocabulary. Adolescents can attend to several intellectual tasks simultaneously making this a very promising stage of intellectual development.
The three main characteristics of adolescent thought are as follows:
Emotional Changes:
The onset of puberty brings physical changes among the adolescents. These changes are often accompanied by emotional tensions. The adolescent is exposed to new social situations, patterns of behavior and societal expectations, which bring a sense of insecurity. It has been found that there is increase in the incidence of depression. The adolescents show the tendency of impulsive urge to take immediate action, which often leads to risk taking behavior. The peer group support emphasizes the decision of risk taking behavior.
Social Development:
In the social sphere, adolescents undergo a lot of changes in their interpersonal relationships and they also begin to understand society and its diverse influences. The dependence on parents noted during childhood gets transformed into dependence on friends and peers. In fact, friendship becomes very important for the adolescents and most of them like to spend more time with their friends than with family. Being recognized as a popular member of a peer group is an important adolescent need. Attraction towards members of the opposite sex is another prominent characteristic of the adolescent. This is natural and occurs mainly because of the sexual maturity taking place among the adolescents. The adolescents also begin to acquire beliefs, opinions, attitudes and stereotypes about society based upon their own understanding. Media becomes a very powerful source of influence in this stage, especially music and television. These provide adolescents with role models like, Politicians, great athletes, etc., whom they try to emulate. Such models help the adolescents realize their fantasies and dreams. Body image becomes a very important concern for the adolescents. Having an appropriate figure in fact is almost a teenage obsession. In addition, fashion and glamour reflected in the style of dressing, sporting, make-up, having the right hairstyle etc. become very important in their lives. These are associated with the social roles that the adolescents want to develop and to experiment with.
Moral Development:
In the moral sphere, too, the adolescents undergo very significant changes. They now develop a firm ethical sense or an understanding of what is right and wrong. The ideas are based not only on what the parents and elders have taught but also on adolescents' own experience. They begin to question the social and moral codes prevalent in society and accept only those, which they are convinced of. The eagerness to be a nice-boy/nice girl and to please others ceases to be important now. It gets replaced by a questioning mind and conviction about adolescents own stand on the issues. During this stage, adolescence begins to understand the importance of law in maintaining order in the society. Further, they begin to evolve a set of personal values, which become guiding principles in life.
Feeling of Guidance:
The feeling of ensuring right understanding and feelings in the other (my relative) is called guidance. We understand the need of self (āIā) for right understanding and feelings. We also understand that the other is similar to me in his/her faculty of natural acceptance, desire of wanting continuous happiness and the program of living in harmony at all the four levels. The other is also similar to me in the potential of desire, thoughts and expectation.
Feeling of Glory:
Glory is the feeling for someone who has made efforts for excellence. We find that there have been people in the history, or even around us, who are investing their time, energy and their belongings to achieve excellence (to understand and to live in harmony at all levels of living ensuring continuity of happiness), to make others excellent. This gives us a feeling of glory for them.
Feeling of Gratitude:
Gratitude is the feeling of acceptance for those who have made efforts for my excellence. Gratitude is an emotion that occurs after people receive help, depending on how they interpret the situation. Specifically, gratitude is experienced if people perceive the help they receive as:
(a) Valuable to them
(b) Costly to their benefactor and
(c) Given by the benefactor with benevolent intentions.
