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ADOLESCENCE IS A NEW BIRTH

   The word “adolescence” literally means “growing up” (from the Latin word adolescere). In theory, it describes a distinct stage between childhood and adulthood, but in practice often simply defines the “teenage” years. In most Western societies, the idea of adolescence was not recognized until the 20th century; childhood ended and adulthood began at a certain age – typically at 18.

   Pioneering psychologist and educator, G. Stanley Hall, in his 1904 book Adolescence, was the first academic to explore the subject.Hall was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, believing that all childhoods, especially with regard to behaviour and early physical development, reflect the course of evolutionary change, and that we each develop in accordance with our “ancestral record”.

   One key influence on Hall was the 18th-century Sturm und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) movement of German writers and musicians, which promoted total freedom of expression. Hall referred to adolescence as “Sturm und Drang”; he considered it a stage of emotional turmoil and rebellion, with behaviour ranging from quiet moodiness to wild risk-taking.

   Adolescence, he stated, “craves strong feelings and new sensations… monotony(单调), routine, and detail are intolerable”. Awareness of self and the environment greatly increases; everything is more keenly felt, and sensation is sought for its own sake.

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"Adolescence is when the very worst and best impulses in the human soul struggle against each other for possession."
                     ——G. Stanley Hall

Modern echoes(回应)

   Many of Hall’s findings are echoed in research today.
Hall believed that adolescents are highly susceptible to depression, and described a “curve of despondency(意志消沉)” that starts at the age of 11, peaks at 15, then falls steadily until the age of 23.Modern research acknowledges a similar pattern.The causes of depression that Hall identified are startlingly familiar: suspicion of being disliked and having seemingly insuperable(不能克服的) character faults, and “the fancy of hopeless love”.

   He believed the self-consciousness of adolescence leads to self-criticism and censoriousness(挑剔) of self and others.This view mirrors later studies, which argue that teenagers’ advanced reasoning skills allow them to “read between the lines”, while also magnifying their sensitivity to situations.

   Even Hall’s claim that criminal activity is more prevalent in the teenage years, peaking around 18, still holds true.But Hall was not totally negative about adolescence. As he wrote in Youth: Its Education, Regiment, and Hygiene(卫生), “Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born”. So, for Hall, adolescence was in fact a necessary beginning of something much better.

MORE TO KNOW…

APPROACH

Human development

BEFORE

• 1905 Sigmund Freud, in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, claims the teenage years are the “genital(生殖的) stage”.

AFTER

• 1928 American anthropologist Margaret Mead, in Coming of Age in Samoa, declares that adolescence is only recognized as a distinct stage of human development in Western society.
• 1950 Erik Erikson, in Childhood and Society, describes adolescence as the stage of “Identity vs. Role Confusion”, coining the term “identity crisis”.
• 1983 In Margaret Mead and Samoa, New Zealand anthropologist Derek Freeman disputes Mead’s claim that adolescence is merely a socially constructed concept.

G. STANLEY HALL

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   Born into a farming family in Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA, Granville Stanley Hall graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1867.His plans to travel were thwarted(挫败) through lack of funds, so he followed his mother’s wish and studied theology(神学) for a year in New York, before moving to Germany.On Hall’s return to America in 1870, he studied with William James for four years at Harvard, gaining the first psychology PhD in the USA.

   He then returned to Germany for two years to work with Wilhelm Wundt in his Leipzig laboratory. In 1882, Hall became a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where he set up the first US laboratory specifically for psychology. He also launched the American Journal of Psychology in 1887, and became the first president of the American Psychological Association in 1892.

Key works

• 1904 Adolescence
• 1906 Youth: Its Education, Regiment, and Hygiene
• 1911 Educational Problems
• 1922 Senescence