Running head: ADOLESCENCE ANALYSIS

Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Adolescence Analysis
Melissa L. Lafferty
Wayne State University School of Social Work

ADOLESCENCE ANALYSIS

2
Adolescence Analysis

Introduction
In his book Psychology: Concepts and Applications, Jeffrey S. Nevid (2007) defines
adolescence as, The period of life beginning at puberty and ending with early adulthood (p.
384). Researchers who study adolescence believe that adolescence should be considered in
terms of three periods: early, middle, and late (Kaplan, 2004). I experienced many significant
life events during my adolescence including puberty, self-confidence issues, depression, eating
disorders, self-harming, and the development of an autoimmune disorder. In addition, I faced
common issues with sexuality, drugs, peer pressure, body image, family dynamics, and diversity.
Early and middle adolescence were probably the hardest periods of my life, as I was too old to
play childhood games but too young to drive or make my own life decisions. Theories that relate
to my adolescent period and can be used to explain my behavior include Jean Piagets cognitive
development theory, Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory, Erik Eriksons theory of
psychosocial development, and Lawrence Kohlbergs moral development theory.
Biological Dimension
Biologically, adolescence begins with puberty, or the stage of development at
which an individual becomes physiologically capable of reproducing (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013,
p. 423; Nevid, 2007, p. 385). During my early adolescence, my body went through typical
physical changes, including menarche, gaining weight, and growing about 3 inches taller.
During my middle adolescence, I grew another 2 inches taller and lost about 30 pounds. Since
starting my late adolescence, I was able to get my weight back into a healthy range by eating
more nutritionally balanced meals. During my adolescence, I decided to change my eating habits
dramatically. During early adolescence, I became a vegetarian but continued consuming
unhealthy foods even though I did not eat meat. Additionally, I developed bulimia nervosa at the

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age of 12 and would often binge and purge food. During my middle adolescence, I developed
anorexia nervosa and did not consume enough food, which went into my late adolescent stage. I
also started having headaches when I was about 16-years-old and my sleep patterns changed
dramatically, as I was physically weak from my eating disorder and slept too many hours. This
has had a negative effect on my sleep pattern since, and I still struggle with getting an
appropriate number of hours of sleep each night.
Additionally, during my late adolescence, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, an
autoimmune disorder characterized by widespread chronic pain. I often felt and still feel
fatigued and pain in my joints and pressure points. I also sleep very long hours and often do not
wake up until the late evening. During my junior and senior years of high school, I missed many
days of school due to my pain and fatigue and my GPA dropped from summa cum laude to
magna cum laude status. I also had difficulty participating in extracurricular activities such as
band and dance team, as I did not have very much energy. Throughout the years, the amount of
pain that I have due to my fibromyalgia has varied, and although the pain has not exactly gotten
worse, it has not gotten better either.
According to the American Psychological Association (2013), sexuality is related to an
individual's sex, gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation. During my early
adolescence, I developed feelings toward boys in school and started dating in the middle stage of
adolescence. Although I had strong emotional connections toward several of my close female
friends, I was never sexually attracted to any of them. There were also many women who I
thought were extremely beautiful during my adolescence, such as Alyson Michalka or Geri
Halliwell, but I was never sexually attracted to any women. Although I did not face issues with
my sexual orientation, one of my friends discovered that she was gay during her late

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adolescence, and she is still struggling to find the courage to come out to her family.
According to Piagets cognitive development theory, when a child is transitioning
into adolescence, he or she develops abstract or formal operational thinking. From a biophysical
perspective, this means that the brain physically changes and allows adolescents to process and
understand more complex theories and thinking. The fact that my body was getting taller and the
amount of fat on my body was increasing helps confirm that my brain indeed was physically
changing. Piagets cognitive theory was published in 1952, and research in the development of
the adolescent brain reveals that the brain is still undergoing myelinization and cognitive
functions like problem solving, maturity, and insight are still developing in adolescence (Ashford
& LeCroy, 2013, p. 426). Therefore, Piagets cognitive development theory about adolescence is
more relevant in the psychological dimension than the biophysical.
Psychological Dimension
The psychological dimension of adolescence is complex, as it is the time in a
persons life when he or she develops his or her own thinking and ideology through the process
of assimilation and accommodation (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013, p. 429). During my early
adolescence, I primarily communicated face-to-face with my friends. Although I got a cell
phone at age 12, many of my friends did not have one yet, so I was not texting at this point in my
life. Instant messaging was probably the most popular way that my friends and I communicated
at the start of social networking, and I used website chat rooms to make long-distance friends.
When I was 13-years-old, I started making social network accounts on websites like Myspace
and YouTube, and I primarily used these accounts to communicate with my friends. During
my middle adolescence, communication with my friends via technology exploded, as I now
could text on my phone. Additionally, Facebook became the popular social networking site. I

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am currently in the late stage of adolescence, and the way that I communicate is still changing
with technology. I frequently use my laptop, but I also have my smart phone and iPad tablet that
I use daily to connect with Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, and texting. Furthermore, I have
taken multiple courses online in college and use the internet daily.
During my adolescence, I usually surrounded myself with people who were
studious about school, so I did not experiment with any drugs except alcohol during my
adolescence. I had a few friends who did drink alcohol and smoke pot, but I did not participate
in those behaviors and generally avoided parties where that behavior was occurring. I however
had a party at my house when I was 19-years-old while my parents were out of town, and I ended
up in the hospital as my grandparents came over, broke up the party, and I went into the
bathroom to cut myself, as I was extremely distraught.
Psychologically, my sexuality did evolve, especially during my
middle and late stages of adolescence. I had developed a few serious relationships, with all of
them ending in heartbreak. My self-esteem was very intertwined in these relationships, and I
was still recovering from my eating disorders and trying to repair my damaged self-image.
Looking back, I can see how confused and mixed up I was trying to deal with feelings of
inadequacy and self-hatred, yet wanting to feel loved, and I could apply Kohlbergs stages of
moral reasoning to this particular issue. I went from pre-conventional reasoning of wanting to
follow the moral rules to conventional reasoning of wanting to make my boyfriends happy and
finally into the post-conventional reasoning stage in which I realized that I am not a bad person
for being sexual but am the one in control of those decisions. I still am somewhat
uncomfortable, however, with certain elements of sexuality, as I am a private person and do not
like discussing the topic.

The peer pressure that influenced me the most

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psychologically was competing with my perfect friends who had 4.0 GPAs and were thin and
beautiful. I now realize that this was related to my low self-esteem and body image, but in my
early and middle adolescent stages, I thought that I was not smart, pretty, or thin enough. My
anorexia nervosa was starving my body and brain of nutrients, and I was not thinking logically
when it came to making decisions about my health and well-being. The textbook reveals
research that shows that girls interpret their maturing bodies negatively and media exposure has a
negative effect on one's body image. In addition, girls that are unhappy with their body image
are more likely to be depressed than boys are (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013, p. 465).
I struggled with several psychological issues
during my adolescence, including depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, cutting, and
eating disorders. These developed in different ages and stages in my development, and I still
struggle with the impact of these issues today. According to the textbook, self-esteem is at its
lowest point during early adolescence (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013, p. 432). It was during this time
that I began seeing a social worker in therapy. When I was 13-years-old, I was diagnosed with
bulimia nervosa and depression and was hospitalized. Additionally, during the last year in my
early stage of adolescence, I experienced the death of my maternal grandparents whom I was
very close to, and my youngest brother almost died in a near drowning accident while we were
swimming together. After his accident and as I entered middle adolescence, I became anorexic
and severely depressed. I had begun to cut myself, and that escalated whenever my emotional
pain became overwhelming. After several years of therapy and successfully completing a
program at a center for eating disorders, I have managed to beat my eating disorder and have not
self-harmed in over 18 months.
The social cognitive theory views self-regulation as an interaction of personal,

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behavioral, and environmental processes (Zimmerman, 2000, p. 13). My cognitive development

related to the psychological dimension of my adolescence was very effected by my inability to
effectively self-regulate. The textbook uses an example of a person witnessing another person
expressing strong feelings and allowing those feelings to determine an inaccurate portrayal of
that person (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013, p. 438). One example from my life that is similar to the
book's is my relationship with my father. I did not get along with my father in my early and
middle stages of adolescence. He has a terrible temper at times, and when he would get angry
with me, he would go into a terrible rage and yell and scream. This led me to think that he was a
daunting person who did not love me and I should fear him. I however realized during my late
adolescence that my father is rarely angry, really does love me, and actually can be a lot of fun.
Social Dimension
The social dimension in an adolescent's life primarily involves relationships between
family, peers, and teachers. I experienced conflicts between my father and myself in particular,
especially in my early adolescent stage. As I have gotten into the later stages of development,
my relationship between my father and me has greatly improved. My father still wants me to
perform certain activities with the family that I do not want to do or participate in, but now he
seems to respect my decision as an adult, although he may not like it. My mother and I have
always gotten along well, although there were times in my early and middle adolescence that we
had conflicts. Our relationship was conflicted especially when my anorexia was at its worst. In
addition, I have two younger brothers, and although we do have conflicts, we have good
relationships. During my early and middle adolescence, I became extremely close with my
youngest brother, Corey, and argued more with my other brother, Erik. As I entered my late
adolescence, Erik and I started getting along better, and I find that we have more interests in

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common now that he is 18 and has started college.

I had a variety of friends throughout middle and high school and have gone through some
of the typical "drama" that seems to go along with being a teenage girl. I was (and still am)
somewhat reserved and introverted, so when I was in early adolescence, I sought out friends who
were "nice" and had similar interests as me. This relates to the textbook's discussion of how
adolescents look for peer groups that are "supportive and compatible with one's interests"
(Ashford & LeCroy, 2013, p. 453). When I was a younger teenager in the early adolescent stage,
I was not interested in name brand clothing and I wore whatever I wanted. I secretly, however,
wanted to wear the name brand, expensive clothes, and when I developed my eating disorder and
started losing weight, I became rather preoccupied with labels and certain brands. This part of
my adolescence reflects Erik Eriksons theory of psychosocial development. Erikson's Identity
versus Role Confusion from 12-18 years of age essentially discusses the adolescent's ability to
develop a sense of personal identity (Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development, 2013). At
about age 14, I really began to struggle with this, as I knew that I wanted to "stay true to myself"
and wear whatever clothes I wanted, but at the same time, I wanted to wear the "nice, expensive"
clothes that my peers were wearing. I conformed and started to wear the same brands, but I also
realized that I really liked the clothes. Today, I still like to wear certain brands over others, and I
have rather expensive tastes as a result.
For the most part, I had good relationships with my teachers in middle and high
school. I missed much of the second half of my junior year in high school and most of my senior
year due to my fibromyalgia, and many of my high school teachers were not very understanding
about me missing school. I kept up with my homework from home, but tests were not always
easy to make up. My fibromyalgia influenced my social life as well; many of my friends from

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high school simply went on with their lives and "forgot about me". They stopped calling,
visiting, and texting, and I honestly did not even care. I still maintained a core group of friends
who for the most part are still in my life now.
I did not struggle with any issues regarding diversity in my adolescence, as I attended a
middle school and high school where there was much diversity, but the majority of students were
white and middle class. There was a large population of students who were Arabic and
Chaldean, and there were many African American, Indian, and Asian students as well. I was
friends with people from different races and cultures, but generally, they were the studious types
who took school very seriously and got good grades; so in that sense, I did not have a very
diverse group of friends. I now am meeting many new, diverse people in college, and my best
friend is someone who suffers from a disfiguring disease and has multiple health issues.
Summation and Conclusion
Early and middle adolescence were very difficult periods of my life. I faced common
turbulence with issues regarding sexuality, drugs, peer pressure, body image, family dynamics,
and diversity. I also experienced many significant life events during my adolescence including
puberty, self-confidence issues, depression, eating disorders, self-harming, and the development
of an autoimmune disorder. Additionally, there are many theories that can be used to explain my
behavior during my adolescence, including Jean Piagets cognitive development theory, Albert
Bandura's social cognitive theory, Erik Eriksons theory of psychosocial development, and
Lawrence Kohlbergs moral development theory. Since my early and middle adolescence, I have
grown biologically, psychologically, and socially, and I continue to experience growth in each of
these dimensions daily.

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10
References

American Psychological Association. (2013). Sexuality [Definition]. Retrieved from

http://www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/index.aspx
Ashford, J. B., & LeCroy, C. W. (2013). Human Behavior in the Social Environment: A
Multidimensional Perspective (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. (2013). Eriksons Psychosocial Stages
Summary Chart. About.com. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/library
/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm
Kaplan, P. S. (2004). Adolescence. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Nevid, J. S. (2007). Psychology: Concepts and Applications (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining Self-regulation: A Social Cognitive Perspective. San
Diego, CA: Academic Press.