There is always that stage in life that most teens cannot wait to get to, which is adolescence. An adolescent can be defined as "growing to manhood or womanhood; youthful" (Adolescent, 2014, p.1). Becoming a man or a woman is an important stage in life development that each child thrives to get to for many different reasons. The fallowing will take a glance at adolescent development, the differences that take place between females and males during this stage, how this developmental stage has changed over time, and how it may be different for different cultures. .
Adolescence.
"The beginning of adolescence is marked by puberty, a flood of biological events leading to an adult-sized body and sexual maturity" (Berk, 2010, Chapter 11). Puberty can come in many different shapes and sizes from changing voices, sweaty glands, an increase in hormones, increase in hair (in many areas of the body), and much more; these signs make it very clear that one has begun developing from child to adult. The adolescent stage takes place between the ages of eleven and eighteen (Berk, 2010).
During adolescent development children develop their sexuality and also begin to identify with a sexual orientation as well. Adolescence is also known as a stage of experimentations as children grow into adults they typically experiment with things such as alcohol, drugs, and sex; the best way to cope with these types of things is to educate the children. Not only are these physical and social changes taking place but there are also many changes taking place within the brain. The adolescent stage is where children begin to have a deeper thought process, begin to think more logically and reason more, begin to think more scientifically, and hypothesize, and learn to make major decisions on their own (Berk, 2010). Although these large changes happen to just about everyone, they are different in different people including major differences in male and female development.