Running head: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE DURING ADOLESCENCE 1

Personal Experience During Adolescence

University of The People

EDUC-5420-AY2020-T4

Week#1-Written assignment

14th April, 2020

Dr. Dan McCollum (Instructor)

Personal Experience During Adolescence

Adolescence is a challenging period in life and youths are influenced by "certain

attitudes, behaviours, and physical milestones tend to occur at certain ages" ( Normal,

Developmental, n.d.,para.1). This paper shortly discusses the writer's personal experiences

during adolescence development. The paper will focus on female developmental experiences

while connecting them to the theories and educational implications as an educator based on the

reading provided.

"Adolescence is divided into three stages: early (12 to 14 years), middle (15 to 17 years),

and late (18 to 20 years)" (Normal Development, n.d.para,1). As adolescence is the transition

between childhood and adulthood, different stages of growth can bring different changes in them

(Adolescent development, n.d., para,1); thus, all the educators must know historical perspectives

and theories regarding adolescent development in order to teach them efficiently. My

adolescence experiences were simple, I was brought up in a big middle-class family with eight

siblings. My family belongs to the Nepali or Gurkha community which is quite conservative.

There exist many different authoritative dos and don'ts for families to practice in daily life. My

family strictly follows the cultural, ethnic and religious norms and all the children were supposed

to follow them too. Females have more stringent rules to follow compare to males. As being a

female, I had to follow strict ethnic and cultural rituals at home. I think it has a significant

influence on my personality, my social skill and academic performances during the year of

growth. Among peers at school, I was more traditional, timid, shy and self-restraint. I have had a

straightforward living lifestyle in my adolescence years. The relationship with family was strict

but respectful and adorable as we can see in a typical family. I was taught to be religious, to
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respect elders, to behave nice, to speak descent and to wear descent while to avoid any boorish

behavior and to utter bad languages.

When I was 12, my menstruation cycle started, and it was the biggest challenge I have

overcome as a female in my adolescence year. Everything started as a new phase after that, and

there were immense changes in my physical and emotional being. Before the menstruation, I

used to be playful and lively at home but suddenly they all came to a pause after menstruation,

and I could find a new person in me. I became a tranquil and shy person struggling with new

experiences and feelings. I had suffered intense hormonal changes and also struggled with acne

problem. At the age of 15 -16, kind of worries started to stress me out about the future for how

things are going to be later in life and what I will do in life. Different thoughts and crisis

happening within me and I was totally in the phase of uncertainty. At the age of 18, I started my

university and my interest moved towards appearance as most female do. My interest on fashion

and beauty was at the peak at that time and I wanted myself to be the best looking among the

group of peers. I started dieting, exercising and following fashion trends.

On the other hand, in the classroom, I did not have many negative experiences as I used

to have healthy relationship with friends especially with female, but I avoided male friends as it

was against my culture to have male as friends. I hardly used to talk with any male peers in the

classroom. Academically, I used to be a hard-working student; however, I used to be weak in

Math. My goal for life at that time was quite unclear, and I was experiencing life as it was going.

As being brought up in a strict family, I had had minimal choices for life except from following

the family norms. Higher education was my biggest dream and my family was not affordable to

send their kids to a high ranking school. These are my adolescence experiences in different

phases of life from different dimensions.

In this section, I am discussing on the theories and factors associated with adolescent

development and analyzing them according to my experiences. McGraw-Hill (1945) explanation

on physical changes aligns to my status as he postulated that adolescents are uncertain about how

to cope with the challenges of physical and emotional changes (7:00) which was a significant

influence on me as well. Not only that, but it also has an impact on my social status and

personality. The concept of Freud(1905) explained by Mcleod(2008) states that adolescent

development is highly connected to sexual maturity in terms of hormones and physical

development of the body which takes place with "a series of fixed psychosexual stages: oral,

anal, phallic, latency, and genital". According to the concept, it can be claimed that the result of a

healthy personality is associated with how the stages are resolved. Mcleod (2008) also pressed

that during the latent stage, sexual energy are eliminated by indulging in other activities such as

"school work, hobbies, and friendships" (p.4, para.8). I agree with this fact because throughout

my psychosexual stages, much of my energy was channelled into following strict family rules,

learning cultural norms, going to school, and I used to have minimal time for exploring my

developing desire on sexuality.

Another theory which influenced me is Erikson's (1970) subject of identity crisis. He

stresses the idea that in the stage of identity crisis adolescent try to investigate his or her self by

pursuing different ways for different goals and interest such as starting a new hobby like singing,

joining the gym and following a diet plan (Erikson's Theory.n.d.). Moreover, this is the stage

which identifies their personality to become healthy or become confused with who they are and

what they want out of life (Erikson's Theory.n.d.). I agree with Erikson (1970) when he states

"facing of reality" (p.26,para.2) and accepting "actuality" (p.26,para.2) can worsen identity crisis

even among smart and intelligent people.F rom my perspectives, adolescent need consistent
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guidance, facilitation, understanding, and caring from parents, teachers. Recognition from peers

from can also have tremendous impact as I have also experienced that some of my male cousins

became smoker, drinker, and some even left the family in search for their personal identity or

following their peers. In my opinion, it happens in almost all of the family with inconsistent

parental involvement for adolescence issues or a family with busy parents who cannot give

enough time for their children. Now, I also came to realized or recognized that many adult life

struggles can be extensions of adolescence problems

On the other hand, Vygotsky (1978) sociocultural theory reminds educators and

caregivers that learning is a social process which happens at its best when their learning is

supported by "parents, caregivers, peers and the wider society and culture plays a crucial role in

the development of higher psychological functions" (Williams, 2019). Learning all these theories

opens up my eyes on how I should build my mindset on teaching adolescent, how I should

support their emotional and moral stances, how I should effectively address their problems and

how I should scaffold teaching and reach their zone of proximal development for effective

teaching.

In conclusion, I would like to end my writing acknowledging the concept of Piaget who

reminds caregivers and educators that if youths are overtly authorized by organized society, it

"can limit and slow them down or sometimes even rouses them to revolt" (p.164,para.6). Thus, to

avoid negative consequences, it is vital that educators implement strategies to understand not

only the outer behaviors of adolescent but also the inner behaviors because it is the crucial and

difficult time of their life which shapes them to become either a healthy being or a demoralized

individual. It is also important to remember that the problems which adolescent display can bare

many hidden reasons beyond them.

References

Adolescent Development. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7060-adolescent-development

Erikson, E. H. (1970). Autobiographic notes on the identity crisis. Daedalus, 99, 730-759.

Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20023973.pdf?

Erikson's Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://developmentalstandardsedpsy251.weebly.com/eriksons-theory.html

McGraw-Hill (1954). Meaning of Adolescence. Film. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/GGEdIUShEU4

McLeod, S. (2008). Psychosexual stages. Simply Psychology, pp. 1-5. Retrieved

from https://www.simplypsychology.org/simplypsychology.org-Psychosexual-Stages.pdf

Normal Development:  Middle Adolescence. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.wsupgdocs.org/family-medicine/WayneStateContentPage.aspx?nd=1603

Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood. Human Development, 15.

1-12. Retrieved

from http://www.fondationjeanpiaget.ch/fjp/site/textes/VE/JP70_Evolut_Intellect_Adoles

_Adulte.pdf

Vygotsky, L. (1978) Interaction between learning and development. In Vygotsky, L, Mind in

Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved

from https://medinaa.archolda.com/mei/a6589cd862231ed3.pdf
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Williams, D. (2019, October 2). Child Development Theories: Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from

https://www.firstdiscoverers.co.uk/lev-vygotsky-child-development-theories/

p.164