Tracy Reed
HWS 334
Personal Project Paper
Developmental Stages of Adolescent Girls
Adolescence represents one of the most critical developmental periods in life. In this paper I plan to discuss the developmental stages of adolescence I hope you extend the discussion beyond this to develop a position or thesis statement than you then argue. Reporting on the stages won’t quite meet the assignment’s objectives. Adolescence is a time of profound changes on all levels, this is the time when the individuals develops an identity and at the same time an individual faces difficult identity crises. During this period, teens have to cope with changes in their bodies and conforming to higher social expectations from adults and peers. Adolescence is defined as the period between childhood and adulthood when personal growth takes place (Hopkins, 1983) where is your full reference list? . Adolescence is also characterized as the period of experimentation, strong identification with certain people and groups, active fantasy lives, and probing into various philosophies, vocations, and the self (Liebert & Wicks-Nelson, 1981). A definition of adolescence is as follows: “Adolescence is a period in life that begins with biological maturation, during which individuals accomplish certain developmental tasks, and that ends when they achieve a self-sufficient state of adulthood as defied by society” One of the commonly accepted definition of adolescence created by psychologist Erik Erikson, (1968) describes the process of adolescence as a period during which young people grapple with the question of who they will become as well as who they are. While adolescence with all of its variations and applications attempts to simplify the process of youth development it is limited in the way that it addresses the constructs of race and gender (Brown and Gilligan, 1992; Buckley and Carter, 2005). So far, you haven’t come around to articulating a female specific thesis statement- be...