In our image conscious, and conformist society, the word youth teenager’ is usually associated with ‘trouble maker’ The public media of communication are competing to outdo each other in conveying this image to the public.
Most often the ‘positives’ of our youths are ignored or not well represented. Some psychologists think that living room conversations centering on the malpractices of modern-day teenagers help the participants to reduce their own unconscious anxieties.
The aim of this paper is to look at some of the ‘positives’ and creative things that our youths are doing and are capable of contributing if given a chance.
ADOLESCENCE DEFINED.
Dr. Muss, an American psychologist, argues that the word ‘adolescence’ is derived from the Latin verb adolescere meaning ‘to grow up’ or ‘to grow into maturity.”
Sociologists think that adolescence is a transition period from dependent childhood to self-sufficient adulthood. It is a ‘marginal situation’ in which new adjustments have to be made, namely those that distinguish child behavior from adult behavior in a given society.
- Stanley Hall was the’ first psychologist to advance as psychology of adolescence. He describes adolescence as a period of ‘storm and stress’ a period of commitment to a goal, revolution against the old, expression of personal feelings, passion and suffering. The youth’s emotional life was considered as an oscillation between contradictory tendencies.
In his famous book Adolescence, which he wrote about fifty five (55) years ago, Dr. Hall makes the following observations:
“Youth’s energy, exaltation and supernatural activity are followed by indifference, lethargy and loathing.
Laughter and gaiety make place for depression and gloom.
He longs for solitude and seclusion, while he finds himself entangled in crushes and friendships.
‘There is a yearning for idols and authority that does include a revolutionary radicalism directed against any kind of authority.’
‘Otto Rank, another American psychologist, who approaches human development from a more positive point of view, thinks that adolescents’ growth should be viewed more from a creative and productive angle rather than from neurotic and repressed angle.
The youth in the process of growth, develops a ‘will’ a positive guiding force of self, which helps him to take part in creative, productive and humanitarian tasks,
Erickson, a Harvard psychologist, portrays life as consisting of eight periods. Adolescence is the fifth stage of human development.
‘At this stage the youth faces a ‘physiological revolution’ within himself, He also becomes conscious of significant others around him. Hence, he gets preoccupied with how he appears to others compared with what he believes he is.
At this stage the youth struggles to maintain his identity. Sometimes he over identifies with cliques and crowds to the point of losing his identity.
He ‘falls in love’ which is an attempt to define the identity rather than a deep sexual involvement.
Erickson has a word of advice for parents and teachers. The parents/educators should provide meaningful frustrations and involvements to the teenagers. The meaningful frustrations help the youths to develop their meaningful identities; Parents, teachers and other influencing forces should show deep involvement and identification with concerns of the youths rather than just lip sympathies.
Dr. Coleman, who is famous for his widely read book, The Adolescent Society, thinks that because of various reasons more and more of contemporary youths are looking to each other for social recognition rather than to their parents, teachers and religious leaders, This has brought in a ‘generation gap’ a gap in which a teenager subculture flourishes.
Research done by Dr. Coleman points to the fact that, among boys, adolescent society values the athlete, the car owner, and the right family background. Among girls, social success, physical beauty, nice clothes are highly rated.
This social competition generates a great deal of emotional strain. The fear of being ‘out’ and desire of being ‘in’ makes our teenagers go to certain unimaginable extremes,
False Notions about Youths
Researchers in the area of social psychology have found that in our age of science and reason many adults still hold that children are born bad and have to be trained into being good. They also believe that youths have gone to the dogs and violence will cure any youth of anything.
It is also believed that modern day youth is provided adequately to face the hard realities of modem. day ‘unstructured’ life, The present writer feels concern to note that the majority of high school graduates every year do not know where to go after they have graduated,
We must admit that we provide poorly for them,
Sometimes, our youths are also used as scapegoats. They are called lazy, insolent, radical, fun loving and hence responsible for the moral and academic desecration of our society. (The company that sells toothpaste because it produces sex appeal has nothing to do with it!)
The present writer agrees with Dr. E.C. Kelley, the author of the widely read book, In Defense of Youth who argues that present day youth are whole better than they ever did. They read better, spell better and are more sensitive to existential and Christian problems of our present day society. Moreover, the brightest part of the whole growth is that they have stopped seeking comfort in the womb of conformity as most of the adults do. This makes our youths creative, original and self-actualizing.
Dr.H.A Otto and associates working on the Human Potentialities Research Project at the University of Utah have formulated a different image of the Adolescent, They think that when the young says ‘Mother, you are often afraid of life or ‘Father, you are too much of a stick in the mud, he is inviting the adults to participate in human growth experiences. He is bringing freshness and originality when he wants to try new dances and sing new songs.
University of Utah researchers think that adolescents symbolize the human potential activity committed to self-realization.
They also provide us an occasion to reexamine our fixated values by virtue of their capacity to ask searching questions about religion, life and our political commitments.
This helps in social and institutional regeneration; They are not used to accepting the ‘status quo’ ‘One has to explain the usefulness of the status quo, before it can be made meaningful and functional in an adolescent subculture,
In summary, it can be stated that our youths, as a group, are not maladjusted. They are deeply involved and committed to the reexamination of the value structure of our rapidly changing society. They are widely read, especially in the area of social sciences. They ‘want to apply this knowledge to whatever actions adults take. The only way adults can sell their values to the youths is by showing, the pragmatic and realistic aspects of their commitments,
‘The parents/educators can help the youths by developing a deeper insight and sensitivity into the psychodynamics of teenage behavior. We must realize that the Present-day youths are not the Product of deprived thirties. Most of them have seen affluence, leisure time and less deprivation the rein forcers that used to motivate us may not be producing the same desired effects.
If they are different from what we used to be, we have no right to call them maladjusted. They are the product of a different socio-economic environment which has given them a different cognitive and affective style of reacting to events as they happen in our society. We have no right to condition their thought processes because of our own covert anxieties which have no basis.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 10, 1986
