Everyone undergoes puberty where it is a transition from children to adults. During puberty, there are a number of physical changes such as changes in voice and posture.
Not only physical changes like hormonal change and brain development, there are also psychological changes. So, no wonder why teenagers are usually unstable and emotional in facing their daily problems.
If you want to know more about psychological changes during puberty, you are able to read about it below where the source is from the Kampus Psikologi site.
- Perspective Change To Body Image
When puberty, there are physical changes experienced by teenagers and it makes them think much about their body image. The change in their perspective about their body image may happen until the end of their adolescence. However, it will be more drastic in the puberty phase where teenagers are usually not satisfied with their body image (Santrock, 2018).
In the puberty phase, teenagers will often look in the mirror to find out something different from their body. And then, they will give comments about their appearance in front of the mirror. It is normal to happen in the puberty phase, but if it happens until they are adults, it can have a bad effect on their mental health.
- Searching For Identity
When someone is in puberty phase, he or she will look for who he or she is. Not only that, she or he will also ask about what he or she will be in the future.
Here are several questions that may appear in forming identity:
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- “What can I do?”
- “What will I be in the future?”
- Starting to be Interested in Romantic Relationship
When teenagers are in puberty, they do not only build their relationship with their friends and parents, but also with their girlfriend or boyfriend. At these ages, they will start to like someone and it is normal.
Uniquely, this feeling is often shared or told to their friends, mainly with their same genders (Santrock, 2018). If there is romantic dating, usually it is set by their friends.
- Having Conflict with Parents Frequently
In the beginning of puberty, conflict with parents often happens, but usually the conflict is about daily life. For example, parents forbid their child to hang out with their friends at night and then it makes the child who is in puberty disappointed and then conflict appears.
This kind of conflict happens because of various factors such as the ability of logic of the teenagers who are developing, social effect, to expectations from parents and the child which is different (Santrock, 2018). Teenagers usually will compare their parents with the ones that they think ideal to be their parents and then they will criticize their parents. Meanwhile, their parents will view that their child has changed.
- Emotional Change
When teenagers are in puberty, they will be moody and it is normal. Sometimes they are moody, sometimes they are excited. Their emotions change often. Teenagers who are able to go through the drastic phase of this emotional change well will be competent adults later (Santrock, 2018).
You may wonder why teenagers who are in puberty have unstable emotions. It is because there is hormonal change and there is also the development of brain sections that manage emotion which has been perfect in the beginning of their puberty. However, the problem is that the teenagers have not been able to control themselves yet.
- Strengthening Friendship
Making friends is done by teenagers to fulfill their social needs. Friends who are at the same age can have a strong effect on the lifestyle of a teenager. Not only that, relationships with friends at the same age can also affect their psychological well-being (Santrock, 2018).
A teenager will feel bored and stressed if his or her friendship environment is not fun. However, if they fail in building friendship, they will also feel lonely.
- Their Moral Understanding Increases
When teenagers enter puberty, their morals will develop where they will understand more that in this life there are rules and standards. They will see that those things have been set by the environment where they live, especially parents or the authorities.
In building this moral understanding, teenagers really appreciate belief and concern for others so that teenagers who have a good understanding about morals will try to be a good child in front of their parents or in society. They also understand that there are rules applied to organize social order, obligation, and justice in daily life.
Puberty is a crucial phase in someone’s life because in this phase there are a lot of changes physically and psychologically. They will also have a strong will to explore many things. The most important thing is that when someone is in puberty, they need accompaniment.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
