Adolescents Risky Behavior

Who am I, how should I act, what is happening to my body? All of these are questions that adolescences ask of themselves. Being an adolescent is a critical time in cognitive development. This is the time between childhood and adulthood. The body and the brain are undergoing changes that affect psychical growth and the psychological thought process. New experiences, new possibilities, and new demands are being placed on adolescences. The way adolescences perceive themselves and the changes around them will affect their decision making process. All adults have gone through adolescents and have had to experience this fascinating and yet confusing time in human development. A human’s past experiences, health, gender, the relationships they have had, the society in which they live, their spiritual beliefs, and the emotional foundation that has been laid all plays a role into how an individual will perceive, process, and make decisions.
There are many theories of human development. We have Vygotsky’s cognitive theory, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, and Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, Bandura’s social cognitive theory, and many more. While there are lots of theories most agree that humans go through stages of development. Each stage has important fundamental developments that must be meet in order to progress effetely to the next stage. As we progress through these stages there are psychical, hormonal, and mental changes taken place. When making a decision there are two types of theories, the descriptive the study of how most people make decision and normative which is how a decision should be made in order to get the best results.
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...ey become more independent and better decision makers. As they mature and their brains become more developed, they build better psychological process and improve their ability to think more logically. As adolescences become adults they will be able to pull from their past experiences, relationships, their beliefs, and their knowledge of how the world works to improve their perception of themselves and better understand the processes required to make sound decisions.

Works Cited

1) Santrock, J. W. (2012). A topical approach to life-span development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
2) Mossler, Ronald (2011). Child & Adolescent Development. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc., Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUPSY104.11.2/sections/copy
3) Tada, J. (2014). Belgium’s Euthanasia Law Doesn’t Protect Children From Themselves. Time. Com, 1.