adolescence was first considered a period of development in 1904.
when was adolescence first considered a period of development?
1904
the formal study of adolescent psychology began with the publication of g. stanley hall's "adolescence in 1904". hall, who was the first president of the american psychological association, viewed adolescence primarily as a time of internal turmoil and upheaval ("sturm und drang"). this understanding of youth was based on two then new ways of understanding human behavior: darwin's evolutionary theory and freud's psychodynamic theory. he believed that adolescence was a representation of our human ancestors' phylogenetic shift from being primitive to being civilized. hall's assertions stood relatively uncontested until the 1950s when psychologists such as erik erikson and anna freud started to formulate their theories about adolescence. freud believed that the psychological disturbances associated with youth were biologically based and culturally universal while erikson focused on the dichotomy between identity formation and role fulfillment. even with their different theories, these three psychologists agreed that adolescence was inherently a time of disturbance and psychological confusion. the less turbulent aspects of adolescence, such as peer relations and cultural influence, were left largely ignored until the 1980s. from the '50s until the '80s, the focus of the field was mainly on describing patterns of behavior as opposed to explaining them.
adolescence
the trends seen in adulthood are different from trends seen in childhood and adolescence. some research suggests that during adolescence rank-order change does occur and therefore personality is highly unstable. gender differences are also shown before adulthood. conscientiousness drops from late childhood to adolescence, but then picks back up from adolescence into adulthood. agreeableness also drops from late childhood to adolescence, but then picks back up from adolescence into adulthood. neuroticism shows a different trend for males and females in childhood and adolescence. for females, neuroticism increases from childhood to adolescence. then neuroticism levels from adolescence into adulthood and continues the adult trend of decreasing. males however, tend to gradually decrease in neuroticism from childhood to adolescence into adulthood. extraversion drops from childhood to adolescence and then does not significantly change. openness to experience also shows a different trend for different genders. females tend to decrease in openness to experience from childhood to early adulthood and then gradually increases all throughout adulthood. males tend to decrease in openness to experience from childhood to adolescence, then it tends to increase through adulthood. in adulthood, neuroticism tends to decrease, while conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to increase. extraversion and openness to experience do not seem to change much during adulthood. these trends seen in adulthood are different from trends seen in childhood and adolescence. cross-cultural research shows that german, british, czech, and turkish people show similar trends of these personality traits.
personality changes