Question 1:
Hall said that adolescence is marked by arguments with parents, mood swings, and risky behavior. I agree with all these and I would also like to add that adolescents have mood swings but their continuous mood seems to mean. I know when I was a teen I was mean. I had friends that were mean and we did not like to interact with people who were unlike us. We thought we were awesome, we weren't the most attractive kids or the smartest, but we thought we were bad ass. We would drive off to west Hollywood and club hop, at sixteen, so that definitely falls into the risky behavior category.
I was the first born and the first girl on my dads side and I was hardly allowed to do anything or go anywhere. I would have to lie in order to go out. I felt like I was so independent and I knew what I was doing and that no one could touch me, I was invincible. I know this is a big part of growing up and spreading our wings, he own the world. Because of these feelings I butted heads with my parents a lot. Mostly with my dad and he being so overprotective. As for mood swings, not so much, I was just continuously irritated with people in general and I thought they were all dumb, especially my parents because they thought they knew better than me, but in fact all parents know more than their kids and kids need to get over it.
Question 2:
traditional cultures are usually more collectivist and their actions are seen as a representation of the family, the good of the family outweighs the good of the individual. I think that there is less strife in adolescence in these cultures because of the fact that bad behavior would shame the family. In industrialized cultures parents work outside of the family, traditional cultures have family businesses and everyone in the family works there, this leaves little breathing room for teens to act out. I think that family members are so intertwined that needs and concerns are addressed and do not have the time to cause strife or conflict within the teen.
I also think that because traditional cultures have the tendency to rely on the family that there is a closeness that is lost in industrialized cultures,
Perhaps its easier to be mean during adolescence? I tend to agree with you that adolescents can be really mean and think they are totally hardcore and bad ass when they really aren't. Sometimes it seems there is nothing that can convince them otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI almost feel like you should show your parents this blog -- I wonder how they would react to your admission that "parents know more than their kids."