Environmental Influence On Adolescence

This paper examines some of the various aspects of adolescence, including substance use and abuse, sexual behaviors, alienation, and body image, from the viewpoint of four predominant adolescent developmental theories. These theories are the “biological, the cognitive, the psychosexual and the social approaches” (Dolgin, 2011, p. 27). Issues of Adolescence and Predominant Psychological Theories
Bernstein, et al., succinctly state in their text Psychology, that “the biological approach to psychology assumes that behaviors and mental processes are largely shaped by biological processes” (Bernstein, Penner, Clarke-Stewart, & Roy, 2012, p. 19). Thus biologists of this school of thought give great weight to the study of the ways in which heredity (via genes and evolutionary history), neurotransmitters, hormones and neural networks contribute to human behaviors (Bernstein, Penner, Clarke-Stewart, & Roy, 2012). Dolgin (2011) further states that “These theorists downplay environmental influences …show more content…
106). Unfortunately, attempts to try to reverse this process by means of a variety media have not met with significant success. Our society seems to continue to promote unattainable visions of the perfect body through both magazines and film. Even photos of supermodels with incredibly thin and/or fit physiques are “air brushed” to make them look even more perfect! Our society has a long way to go if we ever hope to reverse this trend. Though psychodynamic in her orientation, even Catherine Steiner-Adair (1986) states that eating disorders are significantly more likely when there is “a culture with a mythic image of independence that does not include interdependence” and “unempathic, emotionally distant, and simultaneously enmeshed family relationships” (p.