Many changes occur during the adolescent phase of a human’s development. The brain changes, and as they interact with society and acquire knowledge, experience, and social demands, these variables produce unprecedented cognitive development. The changes in the thinking of an adolescent can even exceed the more obvious physical change. The improved cognitive skills and executive functions that enable teenagers to control their behavior and thoughts are generally associated with the development of the prefrontal cortex area of the brain. A conversation with a teenager about general life topics such as politics would reveal their level of cognitive development in the areas of executive thought, intuitive thinking, and systematic thought.
My apartment has a basketball court, but I have never really been interested. Then, three months ago, I passed by, and teenagers were playing; they had not noticed me, but the ball rolled off to my feet. I picked it and playfully made a shot, and since then, we have become friends, and I play with them occasionally. I talked to one of them about general life topics; he is the quiet type, and I should have known it was not permanent.
He was a typical teenager dunking the ball dangerously, and his face would change whenever he got cheered on, showing that it was getting into his head. I asked about his family, and he told me that his parents were in the middle of a fierce divorce, and he did not know how it would end. Interestingly, he knew which parent he wanted to be in the custody of; he preferred his mother because of the father’s alcohol problems that had triggered the divorce.
I also asked him about what he wanted to become in the future. I was surprised to learn that the teenager had not been living a normal life and may have spent time on conspiracy theory websites as he talked about the ‘great reset’ and that there would be no point in deciding on a career. I did not want to ask about dating, but just as we were about to finish the burgers and sodas I had bought at the court, he apologized and told me he had to meet his girl who was coming back from a church youth camp.
The conversation with the teenager revealed fascinating points about teenage development. The boy had developed extremely systematic thought to bring up conspiracy theory subjects such as the great reset, a controversial political issue. He also developed a deep abstract thinking and cognitive flexibility to prefer the parent he wanted to be with (Tyler, 2020). Thinking about hypothetical scenarios about the doom that would befall the world at a future date is the very evidence of cognitive development. His choice of a church-going girlfriend could be interpreted as intuitive thinking, having lived in a broken family (Tyler, 2020). Dunking the ball dangerously is a sign of invincibility fable that they could engage in risky activities. Finally, self-awareness when conducting heroic activities was a sign of adolescent egocentrism.
The adolescent phase in the development of a person is one of the most radical periods. Many changes in a teenager’s brain impart immense abilities, such as abstract thinking, systemic thinking, executive thought, and intuitive thinking. Apart from an increased capacity for thought, adolescence is associated with other cognitive conditions: adolescent egocentrism, invincibility fable, imaginary audience, and personal fable. In this paper, an interview was conducted with a 15-year-old teenage boy who exhibited many of these qualities. The results underscore the critical nature of the adolescent phase in the development of a child.
Reference
Tyler, S. (2020). Cognitive Development in Adolescence. Human Behavior and the Social Environment I. Web.