Teenage rebellion

Teenage rebellion is a part of human development in young adults in order for them to develop an identity independent from their parents or family and a capacity for independent decision-making.[1] They may experiment with different roles, behaviors, and ideologies as part of this process of developing an identity.[2] Teenage rebellion has been recognized within psychology as a set of behavioral traits that supersede class, culture, or race;[3] some psychologists, however, have disputed the universality of the phenomenon.[4] According to Terror Management Theory, the child's allegiance to parental authority and worldviews can weaken after the discovery that parents, like themselves and everyone else, are mortal. This unwelcome realization creates an unconscious need for security that is broader than what the parents alone provide. This can lead to new cultural allegiances, in the (sometimes flawed) search for a more enduring sense of meaning. The teenager seeks to perceive him or herself as a valued contributor to aspects of culture that more convincingly outlive or transcend the mortal individual's lifespan. However, since the parents also instill their cultural beliefs onto the child, if the child does not come to associate their parents‘ mortality with their cultural beliefs, the chances of rebellion decrease.[5]

Nature

There remains some debate as to whether the causes of teenage rebellion are completely natural or necessary. Some posit that an adolescent's failure to achieve a sense of identity can result in role confusion and an inability to choose a vocation, and/or that these pressures may develop from being viewed as adults.[6] Indeed, in the Western world the age at which one is considered an adult (in both the cultural and legal sense) has advanced from the early teens in earlier centuries to the late teens – or even, in today's society, one's early twenties. However, simply focusing on contemporary western or western-influenced cultures, cannot answer the question of 'universality'. For example, if our hunter gatherer ancestors or historic agrarian cultures had different patterns of behaviour this would suggest that 'teenage rebellion' is not 'completely natural'.[7]

In Scientific American, however, Harvard psychologist Robert Epstein disparaged the notion of "the immature brain that supposedly causes teen problems" as largely a myth, and wrote that the turbulence often seen as typical of these years is not "a universal developmental phenomenon." Epstein alternatively contends that external factors – notably "treating older and older people as children while also isolating them from adults and passing laws to restrict their behavior" – are more likely responsible for the angst seen among many American teens.[8] Likewise, in an article by Robin Lustig of BBC, academic Cynthia Lightfoot states that what is now considered youth culture was created by the advent of compulsory formal education in the United States, due to the unprecedented separation of younger and older people that resulted from it. Lustig notes that the efflorescence of rebellious attitudes in teenagers of other countries has been concurrent with the introduction of Western culture into those countries.[9]

The socioemotional network

Temple University psychologist Laurence Steinberg suggests that "stopping systems within the brain make adolescents more susceptible to engaging in risky or dangerous behavior."[10] He argues that measures discouraging youth from risky behavior have been largely ineffective. Steinberg also posits that this is because teenage risk-taking is generated by competition between the maturing socioemotional and cognitive-control networks. The socioemotional network, which dictates responses to social and emotional stimulation, develops during puberty whereas the cognitive-control network, which imposes regulatory control over dangerous decision making, develops over across the whole of adolescence.

Steinberg states that "systematic research does not support the stereotype of adolescents as irrational individuals who believe they are invulnerable and who are unaware, inattentive to, or unconcerned about the potential harms of risky behavior."[11] Teenagers have the same ability as adults to evaluate risks and their own vulnerability to them. Increased availability of information and education regarding the consequences of risky behavior have improved adolescents' understanding of the risks. It has done little, however, to change the actual behavior, because the rules that teenagers break when they rebel are based upon the logical system supported by the cognitive-control network. This network is utilized by the adult authority, but is overthrown in adolescents by the stronger socioemotional network. From the point of view of a cognitive psychologist, a large factor in teenage rebellion is the natural earlier development of the socioemotional network.

A Cornell study from 2006 determined that teens are more likely to consider risk while making a decision, and for a longer period of time, than adults. They are more likely to overestimate the risks, in fact. Teens also, however, will take risks because they find the reward (such as instant gratification or peer acceptance) more valuable.[12]

Rebellion against peer norms

While teenage rebellion can involve a violation of the law or other rules, it can be limited to a violation of societal norms, including those established by teenagers themselves. According to Rebecca Schraffenberger, her peers saw her bookishness and shyness "as vulnerability and ... made a game of preying upon it. I wasted a couple of years trying to conform and fit in, to wear the clothes from Benetton and buy the ultra-trendy Guess jeans. By the time I was fifteen, I gave up."[13] Thus, Schraffenberger abandoned societal norms for an alternative minority goth culture. Much of goth culture defies majority teenage norms by its interest in subjects such as death, dark music, depression, and emotional demonstration.

The phenomenon has been categorized by mainstream media and popular culture,[14] and is a very common subject in music and film.

See also

References
  1. "Rebellion and Defiance in Adolescents". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  2. "Teenagers: Why Do They Rebel?". WebMD. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  3. "Teen rebellion marks subconscious separation from parents". USC News. 2015-04-17. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  4. Kapadia, Shagufa; Miller, Joan (March 2005). "Parent–Adolescent Relationships in the Context of Interpersonal Disagreements: View from a Collectivist Culture". Psychology and Developing Societies. 17 (1): 33–50. doi:10.1177/097133360501700103. ISSN 0971-3336.
  5. "(PDF) Thirty Years of Terror Management Theory". ResearchGate.
  6. "6.3 Adolescence: Developing Independence and Identity | Introduction to Psychology". open.lib.umn.edu. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  7. Gray, Peter (March 2011). "The Evolutionary Biology of Education: How Our Hunter-Gatherer Educative Instincts Could Form the Basis for Education Today". Evolution: Education and Outreach. 4 (1): 28–40. doi:10.1007/s12052-010-0306-1. ISSN 1936-6426.
  8. Epstein, Robert (June 1, 2007). "The Myth of the Teen Brain". Retrieved May 31, 2016.
  9. Lustig, Robin (2006-12-06). "Teen rebellion - a Western export?". BBC. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  10. "Teenage Risk-taking: Biological And Inevitable?". Temple University. Science Daily. April 12, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
  11. Temple University (2007). Risk Taking in Adolescence: New Perspectives From Brain and Behavioral Science. Current Directions in Psychological Science pg. 55-59
  12. "Why Teens Do Stupid Things". Cornell University. Science Daily. December 12, 2006. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
  13. Schraffenberger, Rebecca. (2007) "This Modern Goth (Explains Herself)", Goth Undead Subculture. New York: Duke UP, 2007.
  14. Harris, Darryl. B. (1998). "The Logic of Black Urban Rebellions". Journal of Black Studies. 28 (3): 368–385. doi:10.1177/002193479802800306.
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