Reading Exercise: Developmental milestones of typical adolescence

B. Adolescents must adapt to a new physical identity. Never before since birth does an individual undergo such profound physical changes as during early adolescence. Puberty is characterized by sudden, rapid growth in height and weight. Additionally, adolescents experience the emergence and accentuation of physical characteristics that define them as male or female. They start resembling less like children and more like physically mature adults. This rapid transformation causes adolescents in the middle phase to become more self-conscious about their bodies, and their concerns often revolve around their peers of the opposite sex. 

C. Adolescents must adapt to new intellectual capacities. In addition to the sudden spurt in physical growth, adolescents undergo a sudden increase in their cognitive abilities. As a natural part of maturation, they gain the ability to think about a wider range of subjects. Moreover, they start to comprehend abstract concepts about their surroundings. Prior to adolescence, children’s thought processes are mainly focused on practical examples to solve problems, and their thinking is confined to what is tangible and physical. During adolescence, young individuals begin to acknowledge and understand abstract ideas. The development in their ability to deal with abstract concepts accelerates during the middle stages of adolescence. 

D. Adolescents must cope with greater cognitive demands at school. Adults perceive high school as a place where adolescents prepare for adult roles and responsibilities, as well as for further education. School curricula often emphasize more abstract and challenging material, regardless of whether adolescents have attained formal reasoning abilities. Because not all adolescents make the intellectual transition at the same pace, the demand for abstract thinking before achieving this ability can be frustrating. 

E. Adolescents must embrace a personal system of values. During adolescence, as teens develop increasingly complex cognitive structures, they also adopt an integrated set of moral and ethical values. In early stages of moral development, parents impart a structured framework of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. Eventually, adolescents must critically evaluate parental values amidst differing values expressed by peers and other societal groups. To resolve these conflicts, adolescents reconfigure these beliefs into a personalized ideology.

F. Adolescents must enhance their verbal skills to handle more intricate concepts and tasks. Their limited childhood language is no longer sufficient. As their cognitive development advances faster than their verbal skills, adolescents may appear less proficient than they actually are.

G. Adolescents must formulate adult career aspirations. As they establish their personal identity, adolescents must also begin to contemplate the question, 'What do you want to become in the future?' In mid-adolescence, they must identify, at least preliminarily, their vocational aspirations and outline how they plan to achieve them.

H. Adolescents must develop a distinct sense of personal identity. Before adolescence, one’s identity mirrors that of their parents. During early adolescence, individuals begin to recognize their uniqueness and assert themselves as autonomous individuals, separate from their parents. Consequently, they must redefine answers to questions such as 'What does it mean to be me?' or 'Who am I?'

I. Adolescents must attain emotional and psychological independence from their parents. Childhood is characterized by strong dependence on parents. Adolescents may desire to maintain a secure, supportive, and dependent relationship. However, adulthood entails independence, autonomy, and self-identity. In asserting their need for independence and individuality, adolescents may display behaviors that seem hostile or uncooperative.

K. Adolescents must cultivate stable and constructive peer relationships. While peer interaction is not exclusive to adolescence, it appears most crucial during early adolescence. By late adolescence or early adulthood, the need for peer approval typically wanes. However, the ability of an adolescent to form friendships and belong to a supportive peer group remains a significant indicator of their overall social and psychological adjustment. Early adolescence is also marked by a strong inclination towards conforming to peers. 'Fitting in,' avoiding being different, and gaining acceptance seem particularly important to this age group. For young teens, being perceived as different by peers is often seen as the worst possible outcome.

L. Adolescents must develop enhanced impulse control and behavioral maturity. As they transition into adulthood, many young people engage in behaviors that pose physical, social, or educational risks. Risky behaviors are common enough among adolescents to suggest that risk-taking may be a normal part of middle adolescence development. Over time, adolescents develop a set of self-regulatory behaviors through which they evaluate which behaviors are appropriate and adult-like.

Questions 1-6

Classify the following developments as characterizing

• A early adolescence
• B middle adolescence
• C late adolescence

Write the correct letter, A, B, or C, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet

• 1
  becoming interested in people of the other gender
• 2 beginning to choose a future career
• 3 needing to feel the same as one’s friends
• 4 beginning to form a self-image separate from the family context
• 5 having less need for the good opinion of friends
• 6 exposing oneself to dangers

Questions 7-10

Fill in each sentence with one of the options, A-E, provided below.

Record the appropriate letter, A-E, in boxes 7-10 on your answer form.

7 Havighurst proposed a set of tasks which

8 A course of study at high school

9 The speed of development of thinking ability during adolescence

10 Adolescence is a time when the young person

A mirrors a teenager's developing self-image.

B faces difficulty in solving a problem without an example.

C is structured to present increasing difficulty.

D develops a personal system of ethical principles and ideals.

E varies depending on each person's unique circumstances.

Questions 11-13

Are the following statements consistent with the information provided in the Reading Passage?

On your answer sheet, write in boxes 1-5

TRUE if the statement matches the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this

11 Most preadolescent children are capable of abstract thought.

12 Adolescents ‘limited skills’ with words may give a false impression of their ability.

13 Whether or not an adolescent is accepted by their age-group is an important clue to other aspects of their social adjustment.

Answers:

1. B (Đoạn 2, “The effect of this rapid change is that mid-adolescents are body-conscious, and their concerns are directed towards their opposite-sexed peers.”)

2. B (Đoạn 7, “Mid-adolescents must identify, at least at a preliminary level, what their adult vocational goals are and how they intend to achieve them.”)

3. A (Đoạn 10, “Early adolescence is also a period of intense conformity to peers.”)

4. A (Đoạn 8, “During the early adolescent years a young person begins to recognise their uniqueness and to establish themselves as separate individuals, independent of their parents.”)

5. C (Đoạn 10, “Certainly by late adolescence or early adulthood the need for peer approval has diminished”)

6. B (Đoạn 11, “Risky behaviours are sufficiently pervasive among adolescents to suggest that risk-taking may be a normal developmental process of middle adolescence.”)

7. A (Đoạn 1, “He identified ten developmental tasks associated with the adolescent transition. Each of the Havighurst tasks can also be seen as elements of the overall sense of self…”)

8. C (Đoạn 4, “ School curricula are frequently dominated by the inclusion of more abstract, demanding material, regardless of whether the adolescents have achieved formal thought.”)

9. E (Đoạn 4, “Since not all adolescents make the intellectual transition at the same rate, demands for abstract thinking prior to the achievement of that ability may be frustrating.”)

10. D (Đoạn 5, “To reconcile differences, the adolescent restructures those beliefs into a personal ideology.”)

11. FALSE (Đoạn 3, “The adolescent must adjust to new intellectual abilities.”)

12. TRUE (Đoạn 6, “As their conceptual development may outstrip their verbal development, adolescents may appear less competent than they really are.”)