The adolescent stage is one of the most intriguing phases of development among human beings. Although familiar to many, it implies a crucial life period that requires individuals to make critical decisions amidst various challenges. Some people may misconstrue it as a particular period of development, as any other human growth phases. However, scientific research and evidence-based arguments indicate that this stage has a fundamental role in shaping the individual’s life in several ways. This paper addresses the key concepts of cognitive development during adolescence, including character modification, environmental influence, and personality alignment to the peers.
All behavior is a result of the interaction between one’s genetics and the environment
Although teachers may impart knowledge upon the young ones, the inherited gene make-up defines the teenager’s intelligence quotient. However, during adolescence, children face rapid multiplication and growth of neuron cells. Sometimes they may not be conscious of what happens within their bodies and fail to interpret the implication of the events occurring in their life.
Children become adventurous and curious at the adolescent stage undergoing massive self-reflection
Piaget’s theory highlights that the adolescent phase involves mental expansion and modification. Accordingly, there is massive self-evaluation that takes place during adolescence. At this stage, young adult’s mental capacity shifts in performance and focuses on abstract reasoning. Therefore, every aspect presents an opportunity to explore, and children would always seek to utilize it to help them understand what it entails. The brain responds to what it constantly consumes and sends signals to individual cells to produce cognitive hormones only relevant to the surrounding. Consequently, children tend to learn languages and other studies faster than adults.
Children play both an active and passive role in their development
The way the child responds to the demands around them plays a primary role in depicting the character and rate of development because they are actively involved in learning. In essence, the youngster becomes more engulfed in pursuing pleasure and undergoes several cognitive re-adjustments to seek fulfillment. Essentially, their daily exposures tend to alter the way they perceive life as they become more adventurous on social values and relationships. In practice, it is at this stage that a good child may turn out to become ill-mannered because of the companions. Both family and the learning institutions may help to teach these people how to live a successful life in their societies. However, they have the primary responsibility to take direct actions to conform to the pressure from their peers.
Moreover, development can be both continuous and discontinuous in one’s life. Based on Piaget’s cognitive theory, all the development stages are considered to have unique attributes that only members of the same category can understand. As a continuous process, there is no single step worth skipping if one has to live a healthy life, avoiding stage crisis at a later age. However, as a discontinuous endeavor, each stage portrays a distinctive role in the life of a personality and may not depend on or pre-empt what the other level will look like when they attain it.
To conclude, the development of the teenagers requires a lot of commitment and understanding to help parents and teachers appreciate the values. Technically, all the concepts on child development seem to advocate for a comprehensive analogy of issues affecting them as they grow into normal human beings. These values are attributable to different theories of learning and the healthy growth and may depend on individualistic approaches.