Adolescence. The Transitional Years

501 Pages·31.478 MB·English

by  J. Roy Hopkins (Auth.)

ADOLESCENCE
THE TRANSITIONAL YEARS
J. ROY HOPKINS
St. Mary's College of Maryland
ACADEMIC PRESS
A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
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This book was designed by Edward A. Butler
Cover painting by R.B. Backhaus
Copyright © 1983 by Academic Press, Inc.
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ISBN: 0-12-355580-9
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Number: 82-70971
To my mother . . . to the memory of my father. . . .
PREFACE
Developmental Psychology is the study of changes in psychological
phenomena over the life span, although in practice most develop­
mental psychologists study a narrow age range. Adolescence has re­
ceived attention as a special developmental epoch because of im­
portant changes that occur during this period—changes such as the
physical transformations of puberty, the reorientation of social in­
terests away from parents and toward the peer group, and the in­
creased pressures for heterosexual experimentation. Psychological
studies of adolescence focus attention on the contribution of these
changes to the individual's development between the two great de­
velopmental epochs of childhood and adulthood. Hence, adolescence
can be viewed as a period of psychological transition from one sta­
tus to another.
I wrote this book assuming three major educational goals for
a course in adolescent psychology. The first goal is to familiarize
students with important issues in adolescent psychology, so that
they might understand the importance of the issues and know the
empirical data that bear on them. The second goal is to give stu­
dents an appreciation of the range of methods that have been used
effectively to gain information about adolescent development. The
third goal is to offer some practical implications of the theoretical
and empirical material students will encounter in the field of ado­
lescent psychology.
The ideal textbook, I believe, should go beyond simply re­
porting what others have done; it should also attempt to organize
and integrate the work of others so that an overall picture emerges.
In this textbook, I have attempted to organize as well as to report
in order to achieve both balance and synthesis.
FEATURES OF THE Throughout the text, case studies and examples are used to make
^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ the reading more enjoyable and to show that the subject matter is
about real people. There really are adolescents out there in the real
world, and scientific studies ought not to be reported as if these ad­
olescents are lifeless laboratory subjects.
vii
;;; PREFACE
Adolescence is placed in the context of the human life span.
The book takes the position that adolescence is a distinct period of
human development—a transitional period between the two devel­
opmental epochs of childhood and adulthood. For each of the topics
covered, some discussion of developmental history is included, so
that the reader will know what has gone before and what is likely
to come next.
The material covered in the text is firmly grounded in the dis­
cipline of psychology; but many other disciplines have important
things to say about adolescence. The physical changes at puberty
require a discussion of human biology, and especially of endocrinol­
ogy. A discussion of juvenile delinquency would be incomplete with­
out emphasizing the important contributions of sociology. Through­
out the text, adolescent development is placed in anthropological
perspective in an attempt to avoid a narrow, ethnocentric view. Lit­
erary accounts of the adolescent transition are also discussed as
prototypes of the experiences of real human beings.
THEMES OF HUMAN Themes of change and continuity recur in discussions of human psy­
DEVELOPMENT
chological growth. While this textbook portrays adolescence as a pe­
riod of transition between childhood and adulthood, it does so with
full recognition that the transitions of adolescence occur within a
context of continuity of subjective human experience.
On December 4, 1977, I attended the famous carol service at
New College, Oxford. New College has a boys' choir, composed of
prepubescent boys selected for their pure voices. They sing in the
carol service along with a group of mellow-voiced undergraduates.
As I listened to the carols, it occurred to me that childhood and
adulthood were represented in the choir, but adolescence was miss­
ing. My mind wandered to thoughts of the transition between these
two periods of life: The intricate emotional, physical, and behav­
ioral changes that occur in the life cycle during the years between
childhood and adulthood. This book is about that transition.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I had the good fortune to spend the academic year 1977-1978 on
■^■■^■■^■■^■^■^" sabbatical in Oxford, England, a city of striking contrasts. The
crush of scurrying people and grinding double-decker buses along
High and Cornmarket streets is reminiscent of any busy city. But a
few steps away from these thoroughfares are more than a score of
secluded courtyards and cloisters. The serenity of the setting gives
one a sense of continuity with many generations of scholars. It was
in Oxford that I began writing this book.
PREFACE i
I am indebted to Lincoln College at Oxford for graciously pro­
viding me with accommodations in Bear Lane; and to Patrick Rab-
bitt, who, as Acting Chairman of the Department of Psychology, ar­
ranged for me to use the considerable resources of the Oxford
University library system.
I also wish to thank the Vassar College Faculty Research
Committee for providing a small grant to aid in the preparation of
an early version of the manuscript; and St. Mary's College of Mary­
land, for providing student assistants. I especially appreciate the in­
dulgence and support of John D. Underwood, Chairman of the Di­
vision of Human Development at St. Mary's College.
Several of my students have contributed material to this
manuscript, whether they know it or not. Notable among them are
Gregg Bachman, Michael Grunberg, Ellen Jackson, Linda Lucas,
and Michael Sharp.
Many of my colleagues have graciously read various portions
of the manuscript. I wish to thank them for their helpful comments:
Susan E. Beers, John Bridge, Keven Bridge, Anne Constantinople,
Letitia Anne Peplau, and Henrietta T. Smith. Another colleague,
Laraine Glidden, was a special resource for discussing ideas as I
struggled with the manuscript.
I owe a special debt of thanks to the reviewers who provided
thoughtful criticisms of the manuscript:
Arnold R. Bruhn
George Washington University
Judith Gallatin
Helppie & Gallatin, Inc.
Philip Graham
Institute of Child Health, London
Martin Herbert
University of Leicester, England
Robert Hogan
Johns Hopkins University
Raymond Montemayor
University of Utah
Nora Newcombe
Temple University
Toni E. Santmire
University of Nebraska—Lincoln
Douglas B. Sawin
University of Texas
PREFACE
X-
Karen Maitlandt Schilling
Miami University
Dee Shepherd-Look
California State University
Glenn W. Thompson
Allegheny College
Douglas K. Uselding
University of South Dakota
I hope that they recognize some of their suggestions in the final
product.
I have used the resources of several libraries in preparing this
textbook, and I would like to publicly thank their staffs: Bodleian
Library, Oxford; Graduate Library, University of California at Los
Angeles; The Library of Congress; Lincoln College Library, Oxford;
McKeldin Library, University of Maryland at College Park; Rad-
cliffe Science Library, Oxford; Rhodes House Library, Oxford; St.
Mary's College of Maryland Library; Thompson Library, Vassar Col­
lege; and Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
I appreciate the assistance of students who helped me to
gather library material in the preparation of the manuscript, nota­
bly Phoebe Carson, Cindy Rhodes, and Loretta Womer. I also appre­
ciate the assistance of Kathy Bush-Schlemann, Mildred Fitzpatrick,
Karen Garner, Cathy Loftis, Elaine Ormond, Sarah Ball Teslik, and
Susan Wolfe, who helped with typing. Kennan Teslik contributed
several hyphens.
Finally, I am indebted to three very fine editors in the College
Department at Academic Press—Joan Goldstein, James D. Anker,
and Heidi Udell—and to my excellent Project Editor, Richard Chris­
topher.
J. Roy Hopkins
St. Mary's City, Maryland
August 1982
OUTLINE
THE NATURE OF ADOLESCENCE
The Onset of Adolescence
The End of Adolescence
Adolescence as Western Invention
THEMES OF ADOLESCENCE
Searching for an Identity
Establishing Autonomy
Decision-Making about Life Goals
APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF ADOLESCENCE
Literary Accounts
Case Studies
Observational Studies
Interview and Questionnaire Studies
Hypothesis-Testing Studies
AGE EFFECTS AND COHORT EFFECTS
Cross-sectional Research
Longitudinal Research
SUMMARY
1
ISSUES IN THE STUDY
Ä
W OF ADOLESCENCE
Frankie Addams is 12 years old and she is not a " member"
of anything. Her father has told her that she is too big to
sleep in the same bed with him and has banished her to the
sleeping porch. She is no longer interested in childish
things; she has given away her doll. She is experiencing a
time of transition.
It was a summer of fear, for Frankie, and there was one fear
that could be figured in arithmetic with paper and pencil at
the table. This August she was twelve and five-sixths years old.
She was five feet five and three-quarter inches tall, and she
wore a number seven shoe. In the past year she had grown
four inches, or at least that was what she judged. If she
reached her height on her eighteenth birthday, she had five
and one-sixth growing years ahead of her. Therefore, accord
ing to mathematics and unless she could somehow stop her
self, she would grow to be over nine feet tall.
Even though her arithmetic is faulty, Frankie has expressed
a fundamental concern of adolescence. It can be a fearsome
time, and the emotion and pathos are often captured better
by the poet than by the academic. Frankie Addams is the
creation of Carson McCullers in her novel The Member of
the Wedding.
Frankie is afraid. She is not sure who she is, and her sepa-
rateness, her nonmembership, frightens and mystifies her.
Listen. What I've been trying to say is this. Doesn't it strike
you as strange that I am I, and you are you? And we can look
at each other, and touch each other, and stay together year in
and year out in the same room. Yet always I am I, and you
are you. And I cant ever be anything else but me, and you
cant ever be anything else but you. Have you ever thought of
that? And does it seem to you strange?
1
2 ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF ADOLESCENCE
In her 13th summer, the adolescent in Frankie seized upon the idea
of getting away from her childhood, from all it represented. In her
mind she became F. Jasmine Addams, Esq., "member of the wed­
ding." It was her brother's wedding, and F. Jasmine decided she
would accompany the couple on their honeymoon, and travel to
adventure.
Boyoman! Manoboy! When we leave Winter Hill we're going to more places
that you ever thought about or ever knew existed. Alaska, China, Iceland,
South America. And talking of things happening. Things will happen so fast
we wont hardly have time to realize them.
The adolescent's nonmembership in either the child or adult
world often leads to overwhelming humiliations. For Frankie, such
an event occurred at the wedding, when her brother mistook her for
a child. "Frankie the lankie the alaga fankie, the tee-legged toe-
legged bow-legged Frankie." Her desperate pleas to join the wed­
ding party were rebuffed, and she was relegated, kicking and
screaming, back to childhood. She was not a member of the wed­
ding after all. Frankie learned, during that summer, what it feels
like to be in transition, to be a nonmember. Her transition contin­
ued as Frances Addams the teenager, who joined her adolescent
peer group, represented by Mary Littlejohn. "They read poets like
Tennyson together; and Mary was going to be a great painter and
Frances a great poet—or else the foremost authority on radar."
Frankie Addams is, of course, a fictitious young girl. The anx­
ieties and hopes that she expresses are, however, typical of those of
real adolescents, male and female. They are not less real for their
expression through the medium of fiction. Frankie's story illustrates
some of the themes of the transition from childhood to adulthood.
This book is designed to survey the contributions of psychology to
understanding that transition, and it is the purpose of this chapter
of provide an overview to the study of adolescence.
THE NATURE OF A stark definition of adolescence states that it is the period between
ADOLESCENCE
childhood and adulthood. It is a period when much personal growth
takes place; and it is this growth—physical, psychological, and so­
cial—that gives the period its special place within the field of devel­
opmental psychology.
Historically, adolescence as we know it is a recent phenome­
non. According to Philippe Aries, in his social history of the family,