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Psychology vocabulary · Developmental Psychology

Adolescence

Meaning in psychology, with examples

/ˌædəˈlesəns/nounCore term

In psychology, adolescence means: The stage of development between childhood and adulthood, roughly from the start of puberty to the late teens or early twenties, with major physical, cognitive and social changes.

In Turkish: ergenlik, ergenlik dönemi

How it is used

Developmental psychologists divide it into early, middle and late adolescence. The young person is an adolescent (noun or adjective); in everyday speech people say teenager. Puberty refers only to the biological changes.

Example sentences

  1. Peer relationships become especially important in early adolescence.

  2. Many anxiety disorders first appear in childhood or adolescence.

Common collocations

  • early adolescence
  • during adolescence
  • adolescent development
  • adolescent mental health
  • developmental milestoneA skill that most children reach within a typical age range, such as smiling, sitting, walking or saying first words, used to track development.
  • self-esteemA person's overall judgement of their own worth, that is, how much they value, accept and respect themselves.
  • attachmentThe deep emotional bond between a child and a caregiver, and the pattern of relating to others that grows from it and can continue into adulthood.
  • social identityThe part of a person's self-concept that comes from belonging to social groups, such as a nation, profession, team or religion, and from the value attached to that membership.

More terms: Developmental Psychology

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