INTRODUCTION
Developmental tasks can be taken to mean
a task that an individual is expected to achieve in a particular life stage. It
mediates between an individual’s need and social expectation. In the light of
the above, Egbule and Ugoji (2004), Simply put developmental task to mean appropriate
behavior patterns and essential skills which individuals are expected to acquire
and exhibit at a particular stage of human development. In the same vein, Peretomode and Dittimiya (1994), define developmental tasks as skills, knowledge,
functions or attitudes which an individual must acquire at various stages
during his life time in order to adjust successfully to the more difficult
roles and tasks that lie before him.
From the above definition it can be
inferred that every life stage from birth to old age has a corresponding
developmental task. However, the concern of this discourse is the adolescence
period vis a vis the developmental task that the adolescents need to surmount.
Therefore, the outline below will be followed chronologically in order to have
a good understanding of the topic at stake.
1. The meaning of adolescence
2. Who the adolescent is
3. Certain characteristics of adolescence
4. Developmental tasks of adolescents
5.
Implication of developmental task
MEANING OF
ADOLESCENCE
Adolescence generally is a period that
succeeds childhood and precedes early adulthood in human development. Many
authors of psychology literature posit that it derives from a Latin verb, Adolescere,
which means ‘to grow up” or to grow into
maturity. Based on the above, Mgboro (2004) sees adolescence as a process of
growing into full adulthood. The adolescence period is ushered in by ‘puberty’
which means the period of development when the reproductive organs are gaining
full maturity for procreation.
(Jones 1998), sees adolescence as the
period of life between childhood and maturity which biologically extends from age 10 to 19.
WHO IS THE
ADOLESCENT?
The adolescent is the individual who is
passing through adolescence. He is the emerging adult, who is done with
childhood; He is usually between the
ages of 13 and 19. He is one who has reached and experienced
puberty. He has a variety of interest as well as a number of behavior problems,
which may be physiological, psycho- social or socio- cultural.
CERTAIN
CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENCE:
This stage of human development is
characterized by a variety of developmental changes which include:
1.
The
period is transitional. That is,
transiting from childhood to adulthood.
2.
During
this period the sexuality of the individual begin to mature.
3.
Associated
with rapid changes in attitudes, interest and behavior as well as noticeable
increase in body size, height and weight which psychologists call ‘growth spurt’.
4.
A period of differing opinions, ideas
on certain issues coupled
with much disagreement with
parents and high emotional feelings
5.
A
period that witnesses a number of unrealistic expectations or great ideals.
6.
This
period is characterized by a lot of assumption by the adolescent, he wants to
assume the role of an adult by engaging in adult behavior such as sexual
activities.
The characteristics of the
adolescents incorporate physical,
intellectual, emotional, social and moral dimensions. For instance, physically,
it witnesses a number of hormonal changes, glandular developments, growth spurt
and sexual maturity.
DEVELOPMENTAL
TASKS OF ADOLESCENTS
They are those tasks expected of the adolescents
to be achieved during adolescence in order to be seen as well adjusted.
Dusek (1977) noted that developmental
tasks are acquired through physical, maturational and social fulfillment, as
well as personal efforts. According to Havighurst
(1953) a successful achievement of
developmental task lead to the individuals happiness and
to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness, maladjustments, increased
anxiety and difficulty with their tasks.
Havighurst contributed a lot to the concept
of developmental tasks with regards to the adolescents hence he is taken to be
the father of developmental task in psychology.
Robert
Havighurst identified the following developmental tasks associated
with the adolescent’s transition. It is
important to emphasize here, that, each of the Havighurst tasks, can also be
seen as elements of the overall sense of self that adolescents carry with them
as they move towards and into young adulthood. The tasks include the followings:
1. Adjustment to
a new physical sense of self:
At no other time from birth does an individual undergo such rapid and
profound physical changes as during early adolescence. Puberty is marked by
sudden rapid growth in height and
weight. Also, the young, person experiences the emergence and accentuation
of those physical trait that make him or her a boy or girl. The adolescent
looks more like a child and more likely a physically and sexually mature adult. The
effect of this rapid change is that the young adolescent often becomes focused
on his or her body.
2. The
adolescent must adjust to new
intellectual abilities: In addition to a sudden physical growth spurt, Adolescents
experience a sudden increase in their ability to conceive their world with a new
level of awareness. Before adolescence, children’s thinking was characterized by
a need to have a concrete example for any problem that they solve. Their
thinking was constrained to what is real and physical. During adolescence young
people begin to recognize and understand. The growth in ability to deal with abstractions
accelerates during the middle stages of adolescence.
The adolescent as a matter of fact must
adjust to increased cognitive demands at school. School curricula are
frequently dominated by inclusion of demanding material, regardless of whether the
adolescents have achieved formal thoughts. Since not all adolescents make the
intellectual transition at the same rate, demands for abstract thinking prior
to achievement of that ability may be
frustrating.
3.
The adolescent must develop expanded
verbal skills: As adolescents mature intellectually, as they are faced with
school demands and as they prepare for adult roles, they must develop new
verbal skills to accommodate more complex concepts and tasks. Their limited language of childhood is no more
enough. They may appear less competent because of their inability to express themselves
meaning fully.
4. The
adolescent must develop a personal sense of identity: Prior to adolescence, one’s identity is an extension
of one’s parents. During adolescence
however, the adolescent begins to recognize his or her uniqueness and separation
from parents. As such, one has to restructure the answer to the question, “what does it mean
to be me “or “who am I?”
5.
The
adolescent must establish adult
vocational goals: As part of the process of establishing a personal identity, the adolescents must
also begin the process of focusing on
the question “what do you plan
to be when you grow up?”. Adolescents must identify at least, at a
preliminary level what their adult vocational goals should be and how they
intend to achieve those goals.
6. The adolescent
must establish emotional and psychological independence from his or her parents:
Childhood is marked by strong dependence on ones parents. Adolescents may yearn
to keep that safe, secure, supportive, dependent relationship. Yet to be an adult implies a sense of
independence, autonomy of being one’s own person. Adolescents may vacillate between their
desire for dependence, and their need to be independent. In an attempt to
assert their need for independence and individuality, adolescents may respond
with what appears to be hostility and lack of cooperation.
7. The
adolescent must develop stable and productive peer relationships: In as
much as peer interaction’s is not unique to adolescence, it seems to hit the peak of importance during
early and middle adolescence. The degree
to which an adolescent is able to able to make friends and have an accepting
peer group is a major indicator of how well the adolescent will successfully adjust
in other areas of social and psychological development.
8. The adolescent
must learn to manage his or her sexuality: With their physical and sexual
maturity, adolescents need to incorporate into their personal identity, a set
of attitudes about what it means to be male or female. Their self image must accommodate
their personal sense of masculinity and feminity. Moreso, they must incorporate
values about their sexual behavior
9. The adolescent
must adopt a personal value system: During adolescence, as teens develop
increasingly complex knowledge systems, they also adopt an
integrated set of values and morals. During the early stage of moral
development, parent provide their children with a structured set of roles of what is right and wrong. What is acceptable
and unacceptable. Eventually, the adolescent
must assess the parent’s values as they come into conflict with values
expressed by peers and other segments of the society. To reconcile
differences, the adolescent
restructures those beliefs into a
personal ideology
10. The
adolescent must develop increased impulse
control and behavioural maturity: In their shift to adulthood, most adolescents
engage in one or more behaviours that
place them at physical, social or educational risk. Risky behaviour are
sufficiently pervasive among adolescents
that one
can begin to conclude that risk taking
may be a normal developmental process of adolescence. Risk taking is particularly
evident during early and middle adolescence. Gradually adolescents develop a
set of behavioral self controls through
which they assess which behavior are acceptable and adult like.
As clear as the above may appear, we
should not forget the fact that adolescents do not progress through these
multiple developmental tasks separately.
At any given time, they may be dealing with several. Moreso, the
centrality of specific developmental task varies with early, middle and late periods of
transition.
According to Ingersoll,(N.D)during the early
adolescent years, young people make their first attempts to leave the dependent
secure role of a child and to establish themselves as unique individuals, independent of their
parents. Early adolescence is marked by
rapid physical growth and maturation.
The focus of adolescents self concepts are thus often on their physical
self and their evaluation of their physical acceptability. Early adolescence is also a period of intense
conformity to peers, ‘getting along’,
not being different and being accepted seem
somehow pressing to the early adolescence. The worst possibility from the view of the
early adolescent is to be seen by peers as ‘different.’
Middle adolescence is marked by the
emergence of new thinking skills. The intellectual world of the young person is
suddenly greatly expanded. Although peers still play an important role in the
life of middle adolescents, they are increasingly self–directed. Their concerns
about peers are more directed towards their opposite sexed peers. It is also during this period that the move to
establish psychological independence from one’s parents accelerates. Much of
their psychological energies are directed toward preparing for adult roles and making
preliminary decision about vocational goals.
Despite some delinquent behavior, middle adolescence is a period when
young people are getting the orientation about what is right and proper.
Late adolescence is marked as the final preparations
for adult roles. The developmental demands of late adolescence often extend
into young adulthood. Late adolescents attempts to crystallize their vocational
goals and establish sense of personal identity. Their needs for peer approval
are diminished and they are largely psychologically independent form their
parents. The shift to adulthood is
nearly complete.
IMPLICATION OF
DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OF ADOLESCENTS
Based on the above knowledge of the
developmental tasks facing the adolescents, implications abound for everyone in
the life of the adolescent - parents, teachers, and other significant
people around the adolescent.
Adolescents psychical, cognitive and emotional
development occurs within social institutions such as families, friends and
schools.
Parents and
families: Notion
of adolescence as a time of ‘storm and
stress’ suggests that the period will be marked by rebellious, antisocial attitudes as well as
conflict with parents. Therefore, parents should constantly caution the
adolescent on the need to cut off excesses associated with their behavours
Implication for teachers (School) the notion of
‘struggle” or ‘explorations” and the concomitant emergence of cognitive changes, identity conflict and changing role expectations as adolescents
progress through schools, require that they have open, safe
places in which to test, explore
and discover for themselves their identities. Through school based and
after school activities, interaction with their peers and exploring adult roles
(models and mentors). Therefore the teacher should be knowledgeable and put up appropriate
attitude always. Teachers can help youths manage learning experiences through
active listening, authoritative management style, and helping them feel like they belong to
and have safe places to explore. This is very important because the rate of
school drop out is high in middle adolescence.
The society should as a matter of
importance place emphasis on reward for hard work and other desirable character
of men with high integrity in the
society, so that the adolescents can have a reason to want to
model these individuals in the process of identity formation
CONCLUSION
Conclusively, teachers and parents play
important roles in the lives of adolescents. Knowledge of adolescence equip
them to be sensitive to the diversity in youths experiences and the compelling
forces in their lives. Armed with their knowledge, teachers and parents can
offer safe places for youths to
explore and test their
emerging ideas of who they are and who they want to become.
By and large, adolescents should be
encouraged to seek counseling (personal
–socio, vocational, school placement etc) in order to be well adjusted for
proper functioning in their
societies. Moreso, families of adolescent
are encouraged to seek family counseling and in cases of acute delinquencies, therapies should be sought for.
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