Adolescent Perceptions Because adolescence is a ti

The main influences upon the perceptions of adolescents are generally considered to be their parents, siblings, peer groups, and mass media. Here, we will not only examine how these particular influences can alter the perceptions and behaviors of adolescents, but also examine how adolescents can bring their perceptual distortions closer to an objective reality.

Mass culture is full of negative stereotypes of adolescence. It seems as though the media has painted an overwhelming picture of adolescent youth as unruly and rebellious; it paints a picture for the general public of a culture full of youths that smoke, use drugs, and have promiscuous sex. In some cases, statistics support these opinions; in others, it seems that the media has painted a much more grim picture than the one that exists in reality. Nevertheless, there have been a few theories proposed in order to begin an understanding of these negative views that society holds towards the adolescent stage in human development.

According to G Stanley Hall, negative stereotypes of adolescents are brought about by a combination of "Storm and Stress" (1904) This theory attempts to explain that young people have these problems due mainly to their developmental stage. Thus, hormonal changes and societal pressures act upon the psychology of the youth and make it difficult to act in a way that would appease those around them. Society sees adolescents as difficult, and this causes them to play up to this image and actual

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quency is by looking closely at the behavior of close friends, because "delinquent acts are typically committed in groups" (1993:177). However, there is much uncertainty about how delinquent groups are formed as well as how much the group members have the power to drive others to delinquent behavior. Some theories propose that peer groups are formed on the basis of performance at school- those who do not perform well have an 'anti-school' attitude and use this as the focus of their peer group (Hargreaves 1980). Thus, rejection at school and lowered self-esteem may have something to do with the behavior of the individual. Patterson (1986) says that adolescents who are short of social skills are likely to be friends, while Parker and Asher (1987) suggest that those who have been rejected by their peers at school are more aggressive and may have criminal involvement in their later lives. But these matters need to be researched more comprehensively because rejection of non-aggressive children compared to those who are aggressive in their behavior is different. Those who are aggressive are more likely to react in more hostile ways and those who aren't will probably become more reclusive. Still, other subcultural theories do not bel

Category: Psychology - A