Chapter 7

Life

Cycle: Different stages of man from birth to death

Infancy and adulthood Adolescence Young adulthood

Individual experience are shaped by gender, family background,income ,ethnicity,event in the larger society

These stages vary from culture to culture

Marriage Parenthood Mid-life Old age

 Anthropologist

perspective

Compares adolescence in industrial and pre-industrial societies

Sociologist

perspective

Factors that influence contemporary youth culture, including psychological factors, socialisation and other influence i.e. Television /parenthood
Psychologist

perspective

psychological and social challenges faced by families and society as adults move into old age

 Alcohol

Usage by the young-Using it irresponsibly Issues: Raising the drinking age may result in teen drunkenness and ills associated with it. Learning how to handle alcohol at a young age Shopuld be accepted as a part of normal socialisation process..teens will be able to handle it better.

 Statement:

Every generation of youth seemsto get worse that the last,and as a society we need to accept that our social planning has been wrong and that our society is deeply disordered.
As a society do we prolong the maturation process of young people far too long, cultivating irresponsibility and rebellion? YOUR OPINION?

 Sexual

maturation

A 13 year old boy may be able to father a child, he usually lacks the strength and stamina as well as the mastery of technical and social skills needed to assume the full economic and social responsibilities required of a husband and parent. Transition period

Child

Adult= Adolescence

 Has

not been legally and politically recognized Didnt exist in industralised societies until the late 1890s solely invented for economic purpose.
Reason: Labour force had to shrink as technological innovation took over jobs previously done by teens obsolete. Effect: Teens jobless,got into trouble..social workers and missionaries opened

Reason: Labour force had to shrink as technological innovation took over jobs previously done by teens obsolete.
Effect: Teens jobless, got into trouble..social workers and missionaries opened settlement houses to prevent street kids from becoming criminals.

 Juveniles

were sent to homes-government became surrogate parents. Juvenile Delinquent act 1908-16 year olds were handed punishment to correct bad behavior. Young Offenders Act: Delayed youth justice until the age of 18 Youths were segregated from the accompaniment of their elders considered primitive.

Result: Pieces of legislation entrenched adolescence separated from childhood and adulthood. Effect: The new ideology of adolescence made a new community with a powerful influence on its members lives

Adult concerns : Religion and vocation was not accepted in the new community. They developed their own cultural priority.

 Duration

varies from society to society For Canadian its lasts for 12 years In Africa, woman who reaches puberty has passed through a short coming of age ceremony Children in societies with a short period of adolescence or none are required to mature quickly-taking over their parents roles. Each member of the society accepts accepts adult responsibilities for the betterment of the entire group.

 Accepts

the general terms of coming of age ceremonies. e.g. Canada-parents celebrate sweet-sixteen birthday parties, graduation frm high school,university,engagement,marriage, obtaining drivers license, the right to vote, or drinking alcohol.

 Initiation

rituals to ensure traditions survive and passed on. Ceremonies such as: 1.Symbolic death and rebirth 2.Isolation of the initiate 3.Physical Changes 4.Cleansing 5.Test of endurance, bravery,or competence. 6.Teaching and learning 7.Community and sharing food

 Psychological
-

Factors and Developmental

Trends (Separation Individuation Process)Adolescence pull away from parents and turn to friends to establish their own identities. Developmental Trend: Erik Erickson believes that human has to go through conflicts as they go through the developmental stages of life and figure out who they are ( identity crisis)

 Teens

need to engage in exploration and has to go through many phases exploring new things i.e a) New styles of appearance b) New ideas c) New groups of friends d) New styles of music
Result : After exploration teens commit to an identity

8 stages of development: a) Oral Sensory Stage- birth-12 to 18 months The child needs to develop a trusting relationship with its parents for a healthy development. Muscular-Anal Stage : 18 months to 3yrs Autonomy versus doubt/shame. Child learns toilet training. If properly handled children will learn to develop the skill/abilities.

 Locomotor

Stage :3 to 6 years Initiative versus guilt-if the child learns independence, she will continue to take more initiative. If otherwise, she will be left with guilt feelings. Latency Stage : 6 to 12 years child resolves industry vs. inferiority while dealing with school. If child can handle demand at school, learn new skills, this conflict will be positively resolved or it will result in sense of inferiority, failure and incompetence.

 Adolescence

: 12 to 18 years Identity vs. role confusion-teenagers deal with relationships with their peers and achieve a personal sense of identity. Young Adulthood : 18 to 25 years intimacy vs. isolation- people need to develop intimate relationships or else suffer feelings of isolation

 Adulthood

: 25 to 65 years genarativity vs.stagnation adults must find ways to satisfy and support the next generation or they will suffer in life. Maturity : 65 years to death must resolve a conflict of ego integrity versus despair. Involves reflection on and acceptance of ones life.

potential outcomes to the identity:

Identity Achievement : A person who has come to a firm sense of self after engaging in a long search full of exploration. He /she tends to have high self-esteem,socially skilled, does well in life Identity diffusion : A person who is not able to identify a sense of identity. Low selfesteem.Have trouble making friends, less successful.

 As

adolescence proceeds, both males and females think more about their relationships outside their immediate families and derive identities from these external relationships.
adolescence, peers replace parents as the most important reference persons.

During

 Socialization

: a process of children being shaped into responsible members of the society. One aspect of self concept is: Gender Identity, identifying the concept of maleness or femaleness. Parent are more protective over female children than males in north American Societies. In Canada, youths were shown favoritismusing the car, curfews were stricter for girls.

 Parental

expectations: Household chores, Parents assign gender appropriate chores and family roles Parents worry the children will be a misfit in the society if they are not trained to function in a gender appropriate manner. Gender specific behavior of their children are nurtured by parents.

 The

media has a huge impact on youth culture. Average Canadian child watches 23 hours of television a week. An average teen would have spent more time watching television than he or she spent in the classroom. Social scientist believe that children and adolescence go through a developmental stage in which they can be easily influenced than adults.

Exposure to violence, inappropriate sexuality, offensive language are more convincing and have a greater impact on youths. Canadian Pediatrics Society (CPS) believes that frequent television watching is a problem as it takes away from other activities i.e. reading, school work and notes that an average teenager views more than 14 000 sexual references annually. Studies show that 2 hours television daily can have negative significance on academic performance, especially reading.

 Real

incidences tend to occur in the society that has increased concern about television violence e.g. Horrendous shooting rampages in high schools .

Contributing factors :
Violence

on television and video games, Lack of positive role models Breakdown of nuclear family Lack of parental supervision in two income households Concern over the general decline in moral values in Western Society.

 Becoming

a parent is a huge change. This change occurs during pregnancy as woman especially anticipate their future child and dream about their babys future. A period of interdependence is created when the mother has a strong attachment created by the physical acts of birth and nursing. For men, the transition of father occurs much later usually following the development of the infant as it becomes older and is less dependent of the mother.

 Although

the joys and challenges of parenthood remain the same from generation to generation, but the nature of parenthood itself does not. Each generation has new beliefs about nutrition, different expectations about permissible and non permissible behaviour and ideas about child rearing. Economic and social factors also combine to change the nature of parenthood from one period to the other.

 Marital

status, family values and religious beliefs and practices have an impact on a persons decisions of when to have children and how many to have. Despite the common-law unions in Canada,2/3 of life births still occur within marriage. The birth rate among married woman is nearly double that of a woman who spent their entire reproductive life in a commonlaw relationship.

 Second

factor that influences decisions about parenthood, is family values. Parents transfer attitudes and behaviour related to child-bearing to their children. Religiousity :refers to a persons religious affiliation and his/her attendance at religious services. E.g. adults who have no children tend to have the smallest average number of children.

 Non-Christians-

Eastern Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim-have a much higher number of children. People who attend regular religious service plan on having larger families. They tend to view marriage and family as very important to their happiness. Dupuiss report : the factors that has the greatest impact on decisions about parenthood was education level. In general the more education woman have, the fewer children they have. The opposite relationship exist for men, men with more education tend to father more children.

 Social

and economic can have an impact on decisions about parenthood. E.g. during the Great Depression 1930,fertility declined and childlessness rose. Many people didnt have enough money to get married or have children. In 1960,birth control allowed more woman control over their fertility, birth rates fell as a result.

 First

Trend: woman tend to postpone their child-bearing until later in life despite the fact that it significantly reduces the chances of them becoming parents. Second Trend: relationship between parenthood and spousal and family commitment. They express doubt about their family stability of their relationship and likely to remain childless.

Education Level

Number of Children