Adolescene and Identity Formation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Adolescene and Identity Formation - Essay Example Instead, they cited the development sophisticated cognitive abilities and social-cultural factors as the major contributors of an adolescent’s development of a self-identity (Karpov, 2005 p. 219-221). This discussion focuses on the impact of social-cultural factors by studying an adolescent’s interactions with their parents and peers. Jean Piaget advanced his cognitive development theory in an attempt to describe the systematic unfolding of the thinking processes from infancy to adolescence. He theorized that adolescents developed formal operational thinking, which predisposed them to reason in a logical, rational manner. Larson & Richards (1994) inferred that adolescents’ advanced cognitive abilities enable them to detect latent information within different contexts resulting in frequent re-evaluation of the various facets of their lives (Karpov, 2005 p.223). Concurring with the above presumption, Harter (1999) proposed that adolescents experience discrepancies with regard to their ideal self and their current perception of self (Karpov, 2005 p.223). Consequentially, advanced cognitive abilities account for heightened stress levels and rampant mood fluctuations in adolescence, which in- turn affects an adolescent’s interactions with their parents. An infant’s first interaction with the social environment occurs via the parents. Throughout childhood, parents remain the key agent of socialization imparting societal expectations and cultural traditions, beliefs and values on their children. Pre-adolescent children adhere to their parent’s teachings, as they lack the cognitive ability to question their parents or decipher latent meaning. However, adolescents are very inquisitive questioning their parents’ input especially if the information creates a state of incongruence within them. Psychologist Jean S. Phinney