Adolescence
Physical changes and puberty
Puberty begins with hormonal changes, including gonadarche and adrenarche. Girls show breast budding, a growth spurt and menarche; boys show testicular enlargement, voice change, facial hair and spermarche. Timing varies widely; early or late maturation affects body image and social experience.
Cognitive and moral development
Piaget's formal operational stage brings abstract reasoning, hypothetico-deductive thought and metacognition. Egocentrism reappears as imaginary audience and personal fable. Moral reasoning may move to conventional or postconventional levels; Kohlberg's stages are not rigidly tied to age.
Identity formation
Erikson's task is identity versus role confusion. Marcia's statuses are diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium and achievement. Identity includes vocational, gender, ethnic and relational dimensions.
Peer and family relationships
Peer intimacy and cliques increase; romantic interest emerges. Autonomy from parents grows while attachment remains important. Conflict over autonomy is common but not necessarily harmful.
Worked example
A 14-year-old is convinced everyone is staring at a new haircut and believes no one understands her. Reasoning: imaginary audience is the belief in being watched, and personal fable is the belief in uniqueness and invulnerability. These are formal-operational egocentrism, not a disorder; they help explain self-consciousness and risk-taking.
Traps
Do not equate puberty with adolescence; puberty is biological, adolescence is broader. Do not say all adolescents rebel. Do not treat menarche as the start of puberty. Do not apply Kohlberg's postconventional stage to all adults.