Case Study on an Adolescent

Adolescence is defined in a number of ways, often using age-related benchmarks to define its onset and its various stages of progression. Both Piaget and Erikson avoid assigning specific ages to specific steps of development, recognizing that the process is individual and dependent on the achievement of previous steps. Because the subject of this paper is not typical, having advanced more rapidly than most of his peers through school and having had to assume adult responsibilities early in his life, these two theoretical approaches offer a more valuable means of analyzing his progress than do theories that adhere more closely to specific ages. Both approaches focus on cognitive and psychosocial development benchmarks that, in this case, appear to offer more a effective means of analysis.

The subject is an 18-year-old male, an only child,

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were stimulated by a class in comparative religions and his growing understanding of the uniqueness of his personal situation. For the first time, he was able to think about what his mother's departure had meant to him and how his increased responsibilities at home had affected him. As many of Piaget's critics have noted (Schelhas-Miller, 1999 February 16, Week 4), environmental factors, including education, have a great impact on the individual's ability to progress to this level of cognitive development. The subject's accelerated academic progress may have helped him to make this transition earlier than many of his peers. Erikson's theories are more focused on personality development. He argues that individuals face a series of psychosocial crises that must be resolved successfully in order to progress to the next stage (Shelhas-Miller, 1999 February 18, Week 4). In his approach, the crisis of adolescence is the conflict in the formation of identity. The two essential pitfalls at this stage are the possibility of identity diffusion (forming an incomplete sense of self) and identity foreclosure (premature acceptance of an identity imposed by the outside world). This case offers considerable support for Erikson's theory.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1805
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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