Navigating Emotional Growth: Insights into Adolescent Development (Ages 15-20)

Abstract

Emotional Development Research Question: How do People Develop Emotionally from Ages 15-20 Years Introduction Human growth and development is a gradual process that consists of various developmental stages. The infancy stage comprises neonatal to one year kids whose primary care has nothing to do with their abilities but relies on their parents and guardians for everything. The toddler stage is more advanced than infancy as it consists of children aged from one year to five years. In this stage, most children can express their potential in response to their social interaction with families and those around them. Children also learn how to speak, eat, crawl, walk, and run; independence also becomes defined with some children enrolling in junior schools. In the early and middle childhood stage, children have now advanced in speech, cognitive performance, and emotionally. It is a stage that consists of children from 5 to 11 years. The adolescence stage knocks from 12 to 18 and, to some extent, 20 years and proves an exciting and challenging stage as the child transit from childhood to adulthood. Analyzing physical, sociological, and hormonal changes experienced during this stage will help understand the significant factors that foster emotional development in adolescents. Adolescence is an exciting development stage as it defines the physical and hormonal changes within the teenager, which justifies the reason behind selecting this age group as the topic of study. It is a gradual period that proves uncomfortable and irritating to many teens, thus the need for proper analysis to understand the best guidance that can enhance a smooth transition (Moshman, 2019). While paying close attention to adolescents aged between 15 to 20 years, one can argue that their developmental milestone involves changes in how they think, interact with others, feel, and physical development of their bodies (Balasundaram and darshini Avulakunta, 2021). It is an age bracket whose most members have completed puberty. However, some boys might still be maturing and thus mentally concerned about their adult being, which comes with the establishment of defined potentials in various performances. Unfortunately, an eating disorder can be common among girls, adversely affecting their self-esteem attributed to changes in their physical appearances. Though the relationship with friends is crucial during this period, some teens express other interests after developing unique personalities and opinions. It is a development stage that enables its members to generate a clearer sense of who they are and prepare for more responsibility and independence, thus understanding how such development occurs. The prefrontal cortex is the brain's rational part that adults use to think and reason things out as fully developed (Sakurai and Gamo, 2019). When a person is between 15 and 20 years old, the brain is still developing, limiting such people's ability to employ the prefrontal cortex in their reasoning and thinking. On the contrary, teenagers within this age bracket rely on the amygdala brain to make decisions and solve problems, which hinders their ability to reason out the consequences of any made decision. Amygdala is associated with impulses, aggression, emotion, and instinctive behavior (Tottenham and Galván 2016). To this effect, teenagers between 15 to 17 years cannot reason better or develop control over impulses and judgments attributed to the continuous growth of the prefrontal cortex. An inability makes many people within this age bracket remain emotional as hormone levels begin to surge in these areas, like the brain's amygdala that manages emotions (Tottenham and Galván 2016). The teen becomes uncontrollable as such hormones affect their moods, emotion, and impulses resulting in mood swings attributed to fluctuations of progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen sex hormones (Moshman, 2019). Since the thinking abilities remain well affected during this period, the teenager might end up engaging in an emotionally driven activity to balance their fears with their happiness. Thinking for a person between 15 and 17 is more theoretical than for a person between 10 to 14 years but may still go back to concrete thinking under stress. Though this population understands the results of their action, they remain very absorbed, attributed to the development of the prefrontal cortex limiting them from expressing independence in their steps, leading to emotional swifts in most instances. It is imperative to note that the rise in negative emotional experiences during this age bracket emerges in conjunction with the capacity for abstract thinking (Del Piero, Saxbe, and Margolin 2016). These adolescents often experience emotional distress attributed to ambiguous and imagined romantic exchanges. Their capacity to experience diverse and complex emotions further enhances the development of theoretical thinking. In case of uncontrollable stress, they shift back into concrete consideration, ending in peer-group engagements as the only viable option in emotional management (Mónaco, Schoeps, and Montoya-Castilla, 2019). However, it is a period that plays a significant role in shaping emotional potentials within members as they cope with the hormonal imbalances attributed to the physical and hormonal changes experienced from time to time. At the age of 18-20 years, the prefrontal cortex has fully developed, allowing young adults to express great cognitive performances (Sakurai...