psychology of yound adults
... the literature and can better understand the meanings of metaphors and allegories. They can form their own conclusions and can integrate what they have learned in the past with the challenges of the present. Mark Twains quote can be closely related to David Elkinds theory of Immature Characteristics of Adolescent Thought. According to Elkind the immaturity of thinking manifests itself in at least six different characteristic ways. 1. Idealism and Criticalness – An adolescents envisions and ideal world and hold their parents account for the real world which falls short by comparison. They are convinced they know better than adults and frequently find faults with their parents. 2. Argumentativeness – adolescents are always looking for ways to show off their newfound formal reasoning abilities according to Elkind. 3. Indecisiveness – they keep many alternatives and because of inexperience they lack strategies for choosing among them. 4. Apparent hypocrisy – they do not recognize the difference between expressing and ideal and making the sacrifices necessary to live up to it. 5. Self-Consciousness – they can think about thinking, their own and others, however they assume everyone is also thinking about the same thing they are thinking about. 6. Specialness and invulnerability – Elkind uses the term personal fable to describe a belief by adolescents that they are special and that their experiences are unique and that they are not subject to the rules that govern the rest of the world. As we can see that the stage of adolescents is quite unique and quite complex. The adolescent child although matures cognitively to a great extent, there are still certain cognitive obstacles and crisis that it must tackle. Brain maturation and environmental stimulation play important parts in attaining this stage. Schooling and culture also play a role. However not all people ...