THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE e J.LEIGH MUDGE THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE By E. LEIGH MUDGE A Textbook in Teacher Training, conforming to the standard, outlined and approved by the Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations. THIRD YEAR SPECIALIZATION SERIES Printed for THE TEACHER TRAINING PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION by THE CAXTON PRESS NEW YORK ' Copyright, 1922, by E. LEIGH MUDGE AGRIG, DEPTt tyrf Printed in the U cited States of America TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGB SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER TRAINING .... 5 A DEVELOPING FIELD OF STUDY n I. THE BACKGROUND OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 13 II. A PERIOD OF TRANSITION 20 III. PHYSICAL CHANGES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 30 IV. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 39 V. INTELLECTUAL PHASES OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE . . 49 VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LIFE OF FEELING 57 VII. ABNORMALITIES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE 64 VIII. WORK AND PLAY ATTITUDES 7 6 IX. MORAL LIFE AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 88 X. THB RELIGIOUS LIFE OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE . . . 100 407548 THIRD YEAR SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER TRAINING Conforming to the Standard and Outlines Approved by the Sunday School Council For Teachers of Beginners A Study of the Little Child. Mary T. Whitley. Story Telling for Teachers of Beginners and Primary Chil- dren. Katherine D. Gather. Methods with Beginners. Frances W. Danielson. For Teachers of Primary Children The Primary Child. Mary T. Whitley. Story Telling for Teachers of Beginners and Primary Chil- dren. Katherine D. Gather. Methods for Primary Teachers. Hazel Lewis. For Teachers of Juniors Junior Department Organization and Administration. Ida M. Koontz. Other units in preparation. For Teachers of Adolescents (Intermediates, Seniors, and Young People.) Psychology of Early Adolescence. E. Leigh Mudge. Community Forces for Religious Education (early adoles- cence). G. Walter Fiske. Community Forces for Religious Education (middle adoles- cence). G. Walter Fiske. Other units in preparation. For Administrative Officers and Teachers of Adults The Psychology of Adult Life. Theodore G. Scares. Principles of Christian Service. Henry F. Cope. The Educational Task of the Local Church. William Clayton Bower. Other units in preparation. SPECIALIZATION COURSES IN TEACHER TRAINING IN religious education, as in other fields of construc- tive endeavor, specialized training is to-day a badge of fitness for service. Effective leadership presup- poses special training. For teachers and administrative officers in the church school a thorough preparation and proper personal equipment have become indis- pensable by reason of the rapid development of the Sunday-school curriculum which has resulted in the widespread introduction and use of graded courses, in the rapid extension of departmental organization, and in greatly improved methods of teaching. Present-day standards and courses in teacher train- ing give evidence of a determination on the part of the religious educational forces of North America to pro- vide an adequate training literature, that is, properly graded and sufficiently thorough courses and text- books to meet the growing need for specialized train- ing in this field. Popular as well as professional inter- est in the matter is reflected in the constantly increas- ing number of training institutes, community and summer training schools, and college chairs and de- partments of religious education. Hundreds of thou- sands of young people and adults, distributed among 5 SPECIALIZATION COURSES all the Protestant Evangelical churches and through- out every state and province, are engaged in serious study, in many cases including supervised practice teaching, with a view to preparing for service as leaders and teachers of religion or of increasing their efficiency in the work in which they are already engaged. Most of these students and student teachers are pursuing some portion of the Standard Course of Teacher Training prepared in outline by the Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations for all the Protestant churches in the United States and Canada. This course calls for a minimum of one hun- dred and twenty lesson periods including in fair edu- cational proportion the following subjects: (a) A survey of Bible material, with special ref- erence to the teaching values of the Bible as meeting the needs of the pupil in successive periods of his development. (&) A study of the pupil in the varied stages of his growing life. (c) The work and methods of the teacher. (d) The Sunday school and its organization and management. The course is intended to cover three years with a minimum of forty lesson periods for each year. Following two years of more general study, provision for specialization is made in the third year, with separate studies for Administrative Officers, and for teachers of each of the following age groups : Begin- 6 SPECIALIZATION COURSES ners (under 6) ; Primary (6-8) ; Junior (9-11) ; Inter- mediate (12-14) ; Senior (15-17) ; Young People (18- 24), and Adults (over 24). A general course on Adolescence covering more briefly the whole period (13-24) is also provided. Thus the Third Year Specialization, of which this textbook is one unit, pro- vides for nine separate courses of forty lesson periods each. Which of these nine courses is to be pursued by any student or group of students will be determined by the particular place each expects to fill as teacher, super- visor, or administrative officer in the church school. Teachers of Juniors will study the four units devoted to the Junior Department. Teachers of young peo- ple's classes will choose between the general course on Adolescence and the course on Later Adolescence. Superintendents and general officers in the school will study the four Administrative units. Many will pur- sue several courses in successive years, thus adding to their specialized equipment each year. On page four of this volume will be found a complete outline of the Specialization Courses arranged by departments. A program of intensive training as complete as that outlined by the Sunday School Council necessarily involves the preparation and publication of an equally complete series of textbooks covering no less than thirty-six separate units. Comparatively few of the denominations represented in the Sunday School Council are able independently to undertake so large a program of textbook production. It was natural, therefore, that the denominations which together had 7 SPECIALIZATION COURSES determined the general outlines of the Standard course should likewise cooperate in the production of the re- quired textbooks. Such cooperation, moreover, was necessary in order to command the best available talent for this important task, and in order to insure the suc- cess of the total enterprise. Thus it came about that the denominations represented in the Sunday School Council, with a few exceptions, united in the syndicate production of the entire series of Specialization units for the Third Year. A little more than two years have been required for the selection of writers, for the careful advance co- ordination of their several tasks, and for the actual production of the first textbooks. A substantial num- ber of these are now available. They will be followed in rapid succession by others until the entire series for each of the nine courses is completed. The preparation of these textbooks has proceeded under the supervision of an editorial committee repre- senting all the cooperating denominations. The pub- lishing arrangements have been made by a similar committee of denominational publishers likewise representing all the cooperating churches. Together the Editors, Educational Secretaries, and Publishers have organized themselves into a voluntary association for the carrying out of this particular task, under the name Teacher Training Publishing Association. The actual publication of the separate textbook units is done by the various denominational Publishing Houses in accordance with assignments made by the Pub- lishers' Committee of the Association. The enterprise 8 SPECIALIZATION COURSES as a whole represents one of the largest and most sig- nificant ventures which has thus far been undertaken in the field of interdenominational cooperation in reli- gious education. The textbooks included in this series, while intended primarily for teacher-training classes in local churches and Sunday schools, are admirably suited for use in interdenominational and community classes and training schools. This volume includes the specialized study of the intermediate pupil. The period of early adolescence, from about 12 to about 14, coincides with the period of the Intermediate Department in our Sunday-school classification and with the junior high-school period in the organization of the public school. While it grows out of the period of later childhood and is closely re- lated to that stage in development, and while it also merges gradually into middle adolescence, the inter- mediate period has some distinct and important char- acteristics and problems. The writer of this book has attempted to set the chief distinguishing marks of early adolescence by themselves, to study the problems in- volved in understanding this distinctly problematic age and to give some suggestions for practical peda- gogy as well as for further study. The field of human genetic psychology is relatively new and untilled. But there is a growing feeling that among the subjects of chief importance for prospective teachers none is more important than a study of the nature of the pupil to be instructed and guided. And as specialization becomes the rule both in the public school and in the church school it is clear that teachers SPECIALIZATION COURSES must study diligently the nature of the pupils they are to teach. Within the past decade a number of very valuable general studies of childhood and adoles- cence have appeared. This series of specialization texts marks an advance step in acquainting the teacher in training with a definite age group of pupils. The student electing this course will study the nature of intermediate boys and girls. It is hoped that this textbook may open the door to a thorough first-hand study that will discover many elements in boy and girl life which cannot be discussed within the limits of a brief textbook. For the Teacher Training Publishing Association, HENRY H. MEYER, Chairman Editorial Committee. 10 A DEVELOPING FIELD OF STUDY THE history of a modern science is like the life history of a tree. Each may be said to start as a single stalk, then divide into two or three branches. These develop into still others, until we have a great number of specialized twigs all related to the parent trunk. Thus the study of man is divided into such great branches as physiology and psychology. Psychology is divided into a variety of branches, of which adult psy- chology has long been a chief branch. Child psy- chology is a rather recent development When the writer, as a university student, less than twenty years ago wished to give some attention to child psychology, he was dissuaded with the information that "about all that we know about child psychology is that we know nothing about it." Since that time there have been many students of this subject, most of them including under the head of "child psychology" all discussion of the developmental period. The first major division to grow out of child psy- chology was the psychology of adolescence, which has, in its turn, been treated as a unitary period. Later students divided childhood into two periods, earlier and later, and made a similar division of adolescence. The more recent custom, which we follow in this book, divides childhood into three periods (after infancy) and makes a similar threefold division of adolescence. ii A DEVELOPING FIELD OF STUDY We shall here discuss the earliest of these adolescent periods the pubertal, or early-adolescent period. This volume is based upon the author's experience as a teacher and student of adolescent life both in the Sunday school and in the public school and higher institutions. As a college and normal-school teacher he has been engaged in training young men and women for teaching adolescent boys and girls in grade schools and high schools. Many conclusions in this book are traceable in part to the testimony of college students to their memories of their own early adolescence. Al- though the evidence of one's memory of earlier years must be accepted with discriminating care, the relative nearness of these students to the period investigated adds to the value of their testimony. It is hoped that teachers and students who read this book will not depend on it for all or even the larger part of their knowledge of early adolescence. The function of a textbook is very different from that of a cyclopedia. It should be a suggestive gateway into the problems of the subject studied. This subject should be largely a laboratory study, your laboratory being your own classroom, if you are already a teacher, or in any case some available group of early adolescent boys or girls. Observe them, study them, and seek for a sympathetic contact with their lives and their prob- lems. At the end of each chapter will be found a series of problems or projects to be worked out by the stu- dent and also a selected list of references which will be of value. 12 CHAPTER I THE BACKGROUND OF ADOLESCENCE IT is difficult to describe any developing thing. You may photograph it, analyze it, describe it as it is to- day ; but to-morrow it will be different and will need another description. To make your descriptions of any value you must employ some sort of measure or classification, so as to distinguish between stages of development. Here again there are difficulties, for your scale is likely to be more or less arbitrary and cannot take account of all the actual changes in a constant process of development. When to these diffi- culties is added the exceeding complexity of human life and the human organism, the difficulty of classify- ing the developmental period, from birth to adult life, is clearly seen. DEFINING THE PERIOD This difficulty appears when we attempt to define the period of early adolescence. It is the period when the myriad forces that, within a few years, transform a child into an adult are in their first swirling confusion. It is frequently called the pubertal period, because puberty is its central and characteristic experience. But puberty does not come at a uniform age. It appears earlier in girls than in boys; earlier in warm countries than in cold ; and there are wide individual 13 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE variations in the coming of this epochal physiological change. But, admitting that its characteristic marks may appear earlier in some cases than in others, we may conveniently consider the period of early adoles- cence to include the years from twelve to fourteen or fifteen. Within these years a complex and tumultu- ous multitude of characteristics come into prominence in the developing nature. We shall not have space in this textbook even to name them all, but we shall discuss many of them briefly and refer to books in which others are specially treated. School groups. In terms of Sunday-school and public-school classification early adolescence is the intermediate or junior-high-school age. Middle ado- lescence covers approximately the senior age in the Sunday school or the senior-high-school period fifteen to seventeen. Later adolescence covers the years of the Sunday-school Young People's Department or the col- lege and university years from seventeen or eighteen to about twenty-four. ADOLESCENCE AS READJUSTMENT There are vast differences between childhood and adulthood, and it is not strange that the transition period is a very complicated one. It is a period of conflicting impulses, of stress and strain, of a multi- tude of bewildering characteristics and states. Into the whirlpool of adolescence the impulses of childhood are poured. Up from its depths arise new or greatly modified impulses, and out of it flow the normally strong though relatively placid streams of adult life. BACKGROUND OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE With wide individual variations adolescence represents a readjustment of bodily and mental powers and of social and aesthetic and religious relationships. It should not be supposed, however, that adolescence is merely a riot of new forces in the personality. It is organically connected with childhood and should be studied with constant reference to the period out of which it comes. There are no new laws of thought or emotion in adolescence ; there is only a development, relatively rapid, to be sure, of mental functions already operative. For example, reasoning, submitting all ideas and beliefs to the adjudication of thought, is relatively characteristic of adolescence. That which has previ- ously been accepted as true must satisfy the adolescent idea of reasonableness. But reasoning does not sud- denly spring into being at this point. Thought and logical inference have been developing from very early childhood, and it is important to recognize the roots of this and other phases of the adolescent mind in the preceding periods. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PREADOLESCENT PERIOD Early adolescence is preceded by a period of some years which may be called "later childhood/' We shall need a general knowledge of the characteristics of this period in order to understand the period that grows out of it. The following list of characteristics of later childhood may be supplemented from your own obser- vation and from your study of books on childhood : Physical. Relatively slow physical growth; great immunity to exposure; growing resistance to fatigue. 15 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE Social. Fighting, quarreling, and teasing; individ- ual interest in competitive games ; a developing "gang" tendency; interest in clubs and societies; interest in chums; an apparent sex repulsion; sympathy with individual suffering. Emotional and ethical. Slight but growing control of emotions; vivid daydreams; a developing code of honor ; no clear distinction between truth and imagina- tion; a visual image of God; a relative readiness to believe what older people say about religion; little interest in religion as an inner, personal experience. Intellectual. Vivid imagination ; inventive tend- ency; acute perception; interest in acquiring skills; interest in memorizing ; interest in reading ; interest in relatively isolated facts. Miscellaneous. Interest in biography; adventure interest ; interest in pets ; barter or.temporary exchange of property; indifference of boys to personal appear- ance; 1 the tomboy age in girls; choosing a vocation without a reason. Significance of the preadolescent period. All these elements in the preadolescent period are impor- tant to the student of early adolescence. They are not suddenly superseded at puberty; they develop and change. The significance of education appears in the fact that each period leans upon the one preceding it. What the adolescent boy or girl is depends on the years of childhood. What one teacher does with a child A mother writes of her flfteen-year-old son: "He has just taken to combing his hair without coercion. When we left (two years be- fore), he wept because he had to spend |23 of his money for a suit; yes- terday be was more than happy to spend $36.50." 16 BACKGROUND OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE modifies the work of all succeeding teachers. The pre- adolescent period may be described as a time of prep- aration, of the slow but steady development of reserve energy that will be needed in the storm and stress of adolescence, of the forming and fixing of habits that should be well established by the time the currents of new and strange forces come sweeping into adolescent experience. Throughout this period the development of habits of right conduct and religious observance and the stimulation of worthy ideals are of high importance. The safety of our boys and girls in adolescence is largely in these preestablished ideals and habits. ADJUSTMENTS TO BE MADE A comparison of an eleven-year-old child with an adult will show vividly what adjustments must be made by the intervening processes of adolescence. A typical eleven-year-old boy is impulsive, noisy, careless about personal habits, holds girls in contempt (or, at least, affects to do so), is interested in concrete situations but not in abstractions, fights for his personal rights, enjoys games that reward individual prowess, has strong emotions but weak self-control. There are many changes and developments to be made before he has the very different characteristics of manhood. A girl of the same age is just as widely different from a mature woman. The changes which must take place are the work of adolescence. Most of these adjust- ments are of slower growth than some have supposed, their development continuing into the later teens or 17 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE early twenties ; but in many cases their most vigorous and rapid growth is in early adolescence. It is sometimes difficult to mark their adolescent flowering, because neither the boys and girls themselves nor their adult observers understand the meaning of impulses when they first appear. Indeed, many of the impulses of early adolescence are vague and in- definite, apparently meaningless, and hence sometimes perplexing and distressing to those who experience them. It is the work of adolescence to develop out of a child's body, mind, moral attitudes, and aesthetic ap- preciations the vastly different corresponding qualities of an adult. Habits and skills that cannot be fully de- veloped in childhood must be perfected. Instincts that have been but slightly manifest in childhood must be brought into full functioning. Some of the instincts and emotions have been relatively unchecked in child- hood, while others have been repressed or have not appeared with any degree of energy. These must be harmonized and wrought into a unity. There are three ways in which an instinct may be modified. It may be facilitated or encouraged ; it may be inhibited or repressed; or it may be sublimated or changed in its expression. It is the work of education consciously to effect such modifications. There are certain modifica- tions of instincts which the processes of adolescence seem to effect without our aid. Thus, the social im- pulses are normally facilitated in early adolescence, but emotional expression is relatively inhibited. Thus, the impulse of fear undergoes sublimation, being in great 18 BACKGROUND OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE degree modified from the original tendency to flight or terror until it becomes a chief element in the feelings of awe and reverence. The teacher should be familiar with these normal adjustments and should know how to influence his pupils so as to effect other desirable modifications of their impulses. The important part assumed by early adolescence in making the adjust- ments needed between childhood and adult life will be shown in succeeding chapters. PROBLEMS 1. Write a careful description of some preadolescent boy or girl whom you know. Then parallel this by indicating the changes that must take place before he or she is a normally developed adult. 2. The period beginning about the fifteenth year and ending about the seventeenth is called "middle adolescence/' With definite boys and girls in mind make a list of characteristics of this period, showing wherein it differs from early adolescence. REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING The High-School Age, King, Chapter V. Seven Ages of Childhood, Cabot, Chapters I to IV. Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapters II and III. Adolescence, Hall, two volumes. Youth, Hall. The Psychology of Childhood, Nors worthy and Whitley. Introduction to Child Psychology, Waddle. CHAPTER II A PERIOD OF TRANSITION To UNDERSTAND any period it is necessary not only to know its characteristics and to know something of the period out of which it comes, but also to have some understanding of the period into which it develops. Hence, we should constantly view early adolescence against the background of the whole developmental period of childhood and youth. THE PROBLEM OF ADOLESCENCE The study of adolescence is difficult because of the relatively rapid changes, physical and mental, which are occurring. These changes are not clear and distinct successive states, but a veritable whirlpool of new forces that enter the life of boy or girl to the great bewilderment of everyone, including these young peo- ple themselves. There is a paradoxical blend of new and old impulses, of mutually contradictory impulses, so that in early adolescence many impulses are vague and perplexing. "I don't understand Mary," says her mother. "She has the keenest mind of any of my chil- dren, but her Sunday-school teacher says she is restless and mischievous in class and never joins in the dis- cussions or answers a question." "John, why do you act this way ?" asks his puzzled father, when John 20 A PERIOD OF TRANSITION moodily refuses to wear the hat he has long been ask- ing for, and will not give any explanation for his refusal. John and Mary themselves do not understand the reason for the queer impulses and unreasonable be- havior that make them such a problem to older peo- ple. They often feel a vague sense of estrangement. Susan Dorsey tells of a young girl who said to another after a speaker had urged the junior high-school girls to spend more time at home, "Wasn't it strange for Mrs. to tell us to get acquainted with our mothers? I know my mother." "Well," replied the other girl, "maybe you do, but I don't know my mother, and I can't get acquainted with her." A complex period. The whirlpool of adolescent impulses is not a chaos, however; it has its dominant currents, which, after a time, emerge from the swirl of new feelings, emotions, and ideas, become more and more regular, dependable, and clear, until they assume the relatively even flow of adult life. Human life is never simple. There are unmeasured complexities in the life of the newborn babe or the mature man, but the period of adolescence is one of unusual com- plexity, at least to superficial observation. Percy R. Hayward tells of a group of boys who unanimously agreed to attend a contest with groups from other churches. Only two of the boys appeared. A month later, when a similar competition was held, the boys came in full force and entered enthusiastically into the contest. Were they insincere in promising to attend the first contest? No, but they experienced a char- acteristic adolescent change of feeling. They became 21 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE self-conscious, afraid of failure in the competition. It is this sort of paradoxical, complex behavior which puzzles and worries many parents and teachers. POSSIBLE OVEREMPHASIS ON CLASSIFICATION The student should be aware of the constant danger of overemphasizing the various divisions into periods. We are dealing with organisms, bodies and minds, which are constantly changing, and with periods that merge into one another as do the various life stages of an oak tree. But, since the development is not a steady, dead-level progress, we may aid our study by dis- tinguishing certain stages. We may divide adolescence into three periods early, middle, and later adoles- cence. COMPARISON OF EARLY WITH MIDDLE ADOLESCENCE It is natural that the perplexing vagaries of currents and counter-currents should be most noticeable in the earlier stages of adolescence. Early adolescence is in the grip of relatively unknown forces and is conse- quently bewildered, awkward, self-conscious. The boy of this period doesn't know what to do with his hands or his feet, and this may symbolize his relation to many things with which he has to deal. He does not know how to use his enlarging muscles, his lengthening bones, his changing physical impulses, his new feelings and motives, and the new ideas that accompany these other changes. So he amazes his parents by strange antics, loud laughter, unconventional behavior, and a queer blend of half-mature, half-childish ideas. 22 A PERIOD OF TRANSITION A higher development. Middle adolescence is be- ginning to get used to the newer life forces. The large fundamental muscles are under better control and skill in the finer muscular coordinations is developing. The body is normally becoming more symmetrical and less angular. Awkwardness is giving way to more graceful movements. And with the physical refinements a better mental balance is being attained. Despite the self-distrust that often still appears there is a distinct self-confidence, often unreasonably exaggerated. The fits of sulkiness which characterized the earlier period have led to a characteristic melancholy, which alter- nates with periods of joy and cheerfulness. An ex- amination of the precocious poems written by our notable poets in middle adolescence or a little later shows clearly this characteristic melancholy. Some- times it appears in early adolescence, but it is usually a middle-adolescent trait. Aesthetic appreciation. Middle adolescence wit- nesses the normal flowering of the love of beauty. ^Esthetic appreciation has been growing through early adolescence, but has still much of the childish love of bright colors, loud sounds, vivid sensory experiences. There is no sudden leap into full appreciation, but beauty seems to make a much deeper appeal in the midst of the middle-adolescent years than ever before. Sex relations. How large a part of the incipient courtship of early adolescence is due to the unduly stimulating suggestions of older persons is hard to determine. There is evidently a new attitude of inter- est in the opposite sex in the boy or girl of this period, 23 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE though the time to expect the budding of individual romance is normally the later period. Middle adoles- cence is usually the period of the first definite love interest, and very real though frequently short-lived courtships may be expected at this time. There is a notable development of social attitudes that aids in the differentiation of middle from early adolescence. Early adolescence is the climax of the gang period the time when boys or girls form naturally in rather small groups and also are interested in chums of the same sex. In middle adolescence there are perhaps fewer chums but a tendency of such friendships to be more permanent, while the general social interest extends to larger groups. COMPARISON WITH LATER ADOLESCENCE The term "later adolescence" has been used for the period from about seventeen years to perhaps twenty- four. This includes the college years for one fortunate group and the years when life is settling down to its pace of permanent service and adult interests. These are the years when the various and often inharmonious impulses of adolescence are resolved into some sort of balance; when habits of acting and feeling and think- ing are approaching a relative fixity. Some of the differences between this period and early adolescence may be indicated by a study made by the author with the assistance of nearly two hundred college and university students. These students, themselves in the midst of the period of later adolescence, were asked to recall their experiences, impulses, and interests of 24 A PERIOD OF TRANSITION the age of fifteen and compare them with their present experiences as to their relative strength or vividness. Obviously this involves the uncertainty of memory, and the recorded judgments should not be taken as positive and conclusive evidence by themselves. Their testimony is of value, however, as contributory evi- dence. The following statements appear to be war- ranted by this study : Contrasting interests. In later adolescence there is greater interest than in early adolescence in business matters, machinery, love stories, visual art, music, literature, newspapers, politics, and social functions. There is less interest in later adolescence than in early adolescence in pets, collections, adventure stories, puzzles, and active games. This does not necessarily mean that these interests disappear in later adolescence. Indeed, the author's study of girls' collections 1 shows that there is a wide variety of collection interests ex- tending into the college years. Other characteristics of later adolescence, accord- ing to this study, are ease of controlling emotions, will- ingness to accept authority, feelings of responsibility, ability to concentrate, concrete planning for the future. In early adolescence, however, quick anger, daydream- ing and vivid night dreams appear characteristic. EARLY ADOLESCENCE A TRANSITION PERIOD Transition periods, in the life of an individual or of a social group, are likely to be marked by irregular ^Pedagogical Seminary, Volume XXV, Number 3, September, 1918, page 319. 25 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE progress, a mixture of tendencies and counter-tend- encies, and a considerable degree of noise and disturb- ance, all of which are disconcerting to a mature individ- ual or a developed social state. Early adolescence is such a period. It is essential that the child become an adult, and this cannot be accomplished by any instan- taneous transformation. There must be a process of growth, and this necessitates many adjustments and readjustments. One must learn how to use larger and stronger muscles, how to control a changing system of nervous responses, feelings, and emotions, how to maintain a mental balance in the midst of experiences impossible before. As new forces and influences ap- pear in the life of the adolescent boy, the world itself, for him, becomes changed. He lives in one world in childhood ; now he must adjust himself to a very differ- ent world; and in so doing he is being prepared for the adult world which lies beyond. He becomes con- scious of many elements in human life which he has not known. His social outlook widens and he becomes conscious of new social relationships into which he must enter. He becomes self-conscious and awkward and shy. He is attracted toward new social relation- ships and also is afraid of them. He wants to join the crowd, but he is bashful. He is anxious to please and afraid of offending, and still may feel a wild delight in shocking people. He has a new social con- sciousness, but has not outgrown the self-regard of childhood. Being neither a child nor a man, but hav- ing a mixture of the traits of childhood and manhood, he is a complex of contradictions. At times, and some- 26 A PERIOD OF TRANSITION times almost simultaneously, he is bold and timid, self- assertive and self-reproachful, careless and particular, sensitive and apparently callous, ill-humored and cheer- ful, irascible and meek. WHY THEY ARE MISUNDERSTOOD It is not strange that boys and girls of this age are misunderstood by older people. Still less should they be expected to understand themselves. Until we know that such complexities and self-contradictory traits as are mentioned above are normal and natural we are not prepared to deal sympathetically with early adoles- cence. The blind blundering of parents and teachers and law-enforcement officers has done vast harm to many boys and girls who might have been saved from lives of vice and crime had they been treated intelli- gently and sympathetically. If you have in your class a "bad" boy or the girl whom the teachers call the "terror" of the school you have a problem to be solved not by severity and sarcasm, but by a patient study of the nature, needs, and interests of this individual pupil. The runaway tendency. The often-observed tend- ency of boys or girls of this period to run away from home is due in part to the native ^vanderlust that most of us feel to some extent and which has appeared be- fore in the running away of childhood; but another contributing cause is that parents frequently get out of touch with the boys and girls whose impulses and motives they do not understand. A frequent ground of misunderstanding is the indolence of which active parents often complain. Boys and girls who have been 27 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE energetic and alert often puzzle older people by their laziness in early adolescence. This is frequently due to rapid bodily growth and the increasing strain upon heart, lungs, and other visceral organs. The adrenal glands, whose function it is to stimulate and "tone up' 1 the muscular system, become easily exhausted in this period when rapid growth puts new demands upon them. Frequently there is energy coming in spurts followed by periods of lassitude. The indolence of early adolescence should be met with sympathy rather than unqualified disapproval. The boys and girls are aware of this characteristic laziness, but they do not understand its cause. Understanding and helpful teachers are greatly needed. Many boys and girls who have been blamed for indolence in early adolescence have become active and energetic in later years. Special consideration should be shown the girls at this time, when important life functions are being established. PEDAGOGICAL HINTS Our boys and girls are puzzling enough at best, but they are less perplexing to us as teachers if we recognize that shifting moods and contradictory traits are normal. Do not expect that John will come to Sunday school every Sunday in the same mood, or that Mary's be- havior can always be predicted. But do not make the mistake of treating them as children. They are not children and will resent being included in that category. They should have as distinct a place in the church school as in the junior high school. 28 A PERIOD OF TRANSITION PROBLEMS 1. Write a list of characteristics of (a) middle adolescence; (&) later adolescence. 2. Recall your own early adolescence and describe the impulses that were stronger then than now. 3. Make a list of books of fiction which describe adolescent life and locate the characters as to whether they are in early, middle, or later adolescence. BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING The Pupil and the Teacher, Weigle, Chapters VI and VII. The High-School Age, King, Chapters VIII and IX. Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Parts III and IV. The Pupil, Barclay, Chapter IX. 29 CHAPTER III PHYSICAL CHANGES IN EARLY ADOLES- CENCE GENERAL GROWTH ALL the physical developments of early adolescence are vitally related to the wonderful process which we call puberty. The preceding period has been one of relatively slow growth, although there has been a dis- tinct lengthening of the arms and legs. It has been called the "angular age." After the first premonitory symptoms of puberty there is relatively rapid growth, both in height and weight, continuing until toward the end of middle adolescence, when the rate of growth decreases. The following table gives the average heights and weights of boys and girls through later childhood and into middle adolescence : TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND HEIGHTS AGE WEIGHT HEIGHT 10 years Male 66.6 72.4 79.8 88.3 99.3 110.8 123.7 Female 64.1 70.3 81.4 91.2 100.3 108.4 113.0 Male 52.2 54.0 55.8 58.2 61.0 63.0 65.6 Female 51.8 53.8 57.1 58.7 60.3 61.4 61.7 11 years 12 years 13 years 14 years 15 years 16 years 30 PHYSICAL CHANGES RELATION OF GROWTH TO PUBERTY It will be noticed that at about twelve to fourteen years the average girl exceeds the average boy in both height and weight, although at all other times boys are taller and heavier than girls. The explanation of this is in the close relation of early adolescent growth to puberty, the girl attaining the puberty maturity a year or so earlier than the boy. Irving King, in The High- School Age, which is one of the most important books for your reference shelf, shows the close relation be- tween early adolescent growth and puberty. The maturing of the sex function is of course central in all these physical changes, and the rapid increase in stature is so nearly coincident with the change of puberty that it may ordinarily be taken as a proof that that change has taken place. It should be said, how- ever, that the period of most rapid growth is usually well toward completion at the appearance of puberty. Muscular growth. During early adolescence there is a relatively rapid development of the large muscles both in length and thickness. This is closely related with the "muscle hunger" (the impulse to activity of the larger muscles) which is characteristic of the period. The finer developments of smaller muscles come later. Now the boy or girl is occupied with the larger bodily movements and is not so skillful in the use of small muscles. This muscular growth is less pronounced in girls than in boys, while a greater tend- ency to develop fat has been observed in girls. These differences may be partly due to the girl's having less PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE exercise and partly to the adaptation of her body to the later functions of maternity. They certainly indi- cate that wholesomely vigorous exercise is important for girls. Irregular growth. Not infrequently there is a difference in rate of growth between bones and muscles. When the muscle growth is slower, "growing pains" are frequent at this period. A muscular overgrowth may explain the extreme flexibility of joints some- times observed. Muscle growth is not always sym- metrical, and careless habits of posture or movements may result in accentuated distortions, spinal curvatures, etc. Awkwardness. All these changes in bone and muscle have their effects upon behavior. Since the long bones are levers, any rapid changes in their length involve, according to the laws of mechanics, corresponding changes in the force that must be applied in order to move them. As muscles grow, there are changes in the effort involved in their use. The natural result is that this is an age of awkwardness, especially for those whose growth has been most rapid. Much allowance should be given for this fact in judging the behavior of boys and girls who seem heedlessly awk- ward. Walking on stilts is awkward exercise for most people, and this is practically what the boy or girl is doing at the time of the rapid growth about the beginning of adolescence. Resistance to fatigue. Changes in visceral organs and in bones and muscles are closely related with a changing resistance to fatigue. Throughout later child- 32 PHYSICAL CHANGES hood there has been a growing power to resist fatigue, but this increase is noticeably diminished r may give place to an actual decrease in the early pubertal period. The result of this may be indolence, or there may be a muscle intoxication that is a veritable "hunger for fatigue/ 1 CHANGES RELATING TO PUBERTY The fact that puberty, the maturing process of the sex functions, is so clearly related to these and many other physical developments indicates that the nervous and mental and moral and social phenomena related to sex are of great importance not only in adolescence but in all later life. The instincts involved in sex have been called "delayed instincts/' Their full development has been delayed, it is true ; but we can trace the develop- ment of the feelings, attitudes, and sentiments related to sex through the years from early childhood. It is the delicate differences of disposition and attitude and behavior between girl and boy in childhood which lead to the more distinctly recognized sex differences of adolescence. Secondary sex characteristics. With the appear- ance of puberty the boy experiences the change of voice from the childish treble to a deeper resonance. This process is often irregular, and for a time the two types of voice may be oddly mixed. The boy also dis- covers the rudimentary beginnings of a beard. The girl's voice also changes, but so gradually that the modification is less noticeable. There is a decided dif- ference between the child voice and that of the girl in 33 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE middle adolescence. The girl begins to develop the characteristic bodily figure of womanhood with the enlarging of breasts and hips. In both sexes a notice- able factor in pubertal growth is the relative lengthen- ing of the trunk. VISCERAL ORGANS AND GLANDS In infancy and early childhood the necessities of growth demand a proportionally large intestinal capac- ity. The weight of the intestine is at birth 6.7 per cent of the total weight; by adolescence it has been relatively reduced to about 3.3 per cent. The heart, liver, and kidneys are also relatively large in infancy, the rate of growth being less during the succeeding periods of childhood. With the coming of adolescence the heart makes another rapid growth. The adolescent heart is large but relatively weak, while the arteries are proportionally small ; hence, the blood pressure is high. The development of lung capacity is peculiarly vari- able, depending very largely on habits of exercise and outdoor life. There is perhaps no better test for the health and vigor of either children or adolescents than a test of lung capacity. Glands and their secretions. The influence of glands and their secretions upon bodily and mental growth is a subject that merits much attention. The development of the glands of the reproductive system is accompanied by changes in various other glands. Perhaps all of the glands of the body undergo some distinct modification at puberty. Changes have been observed in perspiration and in the secretion of the 34 PHYSICAL CHANGES sebacious glands. The sweat glands and the sebacious glands become more active. The skin becomes more oily. Pimples and skin eruptions are characteristics. The liver and kidneys are relatively large, but the thyroid gland decreases in weight at puberty, the thymus gland having normally atrophied and ceased to function at six or seven. Both these glands have important functions, especially in childhood, in regulat- ing bodily growth and mental development. They be- long to the ductless group, in which are included the adrenals, the pineal, and the pituitary body. The adrenals secrete a substance called adrenin, which acts as a stimulant to the heart and external muscular system, but inhibits the action of the muscles of the digestive apparatus. It is very closely related with the sex glands and plays a major part in the bodily re- actions in all strong emotions. There is a close rela- tion also between the pituitary body and the functions of sex. Indeed, all these glands, whose influence upon body and mind is great, are closely related in their development to the processes of puberty. Nerve and brain development. At puberty the brain has attained nearly its largest size, though there is considerable further growth of the skull. But there is a great development in early adolescence of the con- nection between different parts of the brain. The brain developments of adolescence are hard to describe, but there is a period of transition, development, adjust- ment, in which nervous energy does not find ready modes of response. The result is the nervous insta- bility, the emotional shifts, the frequently changing 35 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE moods, of the adolescent period. The relation to mental abnormalities of this period in nervous develop- ment will be shown in a later chapter. The extent and vital influence of all the foregoing changes upon mind as well as body indicate clearly that teachers should know the physiology of development, should seek for the best hygienic conditions for chil- dren and young people, and should recognize the value of fresh air and suitable food and exercise and a school program adapted to the changing needs of child- hood and adolescence. FOUR KINDS OF AGE The word "age" is used in four different senses, which should be understood by every church-school or public-school teacher : 1. Chronological age. We often make serious mis- takes by overemphasizing, in our grading, promotion, and general treatment of a pupil, the mere number of years and months a boy or girl has lived. 2. Physiological age. Some develop their bodily functions faster than others. One boy of twelve may be as mature physiologically as another boy of four- teen. Physiological age is measured not by years but by physiological development. 3. Mental age. Many who are mature in their gen- eral bodily functions are relatively immature mentally. Some minds develop slowly, others rapidly. Some minds are incapable of development beyond a certain point. Various mental tests have been devised to meas- ure general intelligence and thus determine one's 36 PHYSICAL CHANGES mental age. It is probable that mental age, during the developmental period, is generally related to physiological age. The development of mental ma- turity depends largely on the progress of physical maturing. 1 4. Pedagogical age. The fourth use of the term "age," a somewhat unusual one, is in the sense of school progress as measured by grades. It is important that the teacher shall know the rea- sons for many wide variations between boys and girls of the same chronological age. Puberty works decided changes in the organism and in the mental powers, and these changes involve a relatively rapid shifting of interests and motives and impulses. PROBLEMS 1. In view of the physical development of early adolescence what are the most wholesome types of play for this period? 2. Estimate the heights and weights of a group of children of similar chronological age. How nearly uniform are they? 3. Is chronological age a sufficient basis for Sunday- school grading ? Give reasons for your answer. 4. Should school grades be according to mental age or physiological age or neither ? Why ? REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING Adolescence, Hall, Volume II. The High-School Age, King. Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist, Watson, Chapter V. ^Studies in Child Welfare, Baldwin, page 196. 37 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage, Cannon. The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter III. The Physical Growth of Children From Birth to Maturity, Baldwin. Principles of Secondary Education, Monroe (edi- tor), Chapter VII (by Guy Montrose Whipple). Growth and Education, Tyler. The Glands Regulating Personality, Herman. The last-named book is very valuable for the mass of important facts presented. Many of the applications of these facts are warranted, but some theories may be questioned. CHAPTER IV THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE To THE superficial observer the instinctive tendencies involved in sex seem to appear quite abruptly with adolescence. The relatively rapid development, at this period, of the reproductive organs and the appearance of new attitudes toward the opposite sex make this view seem very natural. But the sex instincts appear long before the maturing of sex functions. In fact, the characteristics, attitudes, and differences of sex appear in infancy and have undergone a long process of development before adolescence begins. Observe the differences in the behavior of girls and boys, even in the tomboy age of the ten-year-olds. Notice, for example, the schoolground tendency to group by sex. While it is possible to overestimate these differences, there are observable comparisons between the sexes throughout life. THE BROADER CONCEPTION OF SEX LIFE Sex includes much more than the impulses leading to physical reproduction. It includes the ideals and senti- ments involved in the attitudes of one half of humanity toward the other. The characteristics of sex are the characteristics of humanity in so far as there are native differences in body or mind between boys and girls and men and women. "The normal woman is essen- 39 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE tially female from head to foot, in bearing and conduct, in sentiment and expression, in feeling, thought, and action, and from the beginning of girlhood -to the end of life. So, also, with the normal man. He is essen- tially and vitally male, throughout the whole range of his being/' 1 The importance of sex. The impulses of sex also appear in a vast number of ideals, sentiments, and emotional attitudes toward nature, art, human society, even toward God, which have been developed through the sublimation of the more primitive sex impulses. Include with the sex tendencies the parental instinct, with its fundamental relation to all human tenderness and sympathy for the weak and helpless, and we have a group of tendencies that have largely determined the progress of human history. Without the tenderness of husband and wife and the unselfishness of father and mother it is doubtful if the human race would ever have learned the lessons of social amity and altruism, upon which our civilization is built. NORMAL SEX RELATIONSHIPS IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE It is the misfortune of many who are dealing with adolescent boys or girls that they lack sympathy with the normal positive expression of the impulses of sex. We have seen so many abnormal, unhealthy develop- ments from the instincts of sex that we often assume a negative or repressive attitude. Adolescent boys and girls were created to say "yes" to life rather than "no," and it is important that we place before them the f The Psychol-oyv of Adolescence, Tracy, page 134, SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE wholesome ideals of sex life that will develop right atti- tudes. Various manifestations of sex. Although love, in its developed form, appears normally in middle or later adolescence, it has its lesser beginnings in the sex atti- tudes of childhood and early adolescence. Interest in the opposite sex in the preadolescent and early adoles- cent periods appears in a variety of forms. (a) Apparent sex-repulsion. Nature seems to have provided a protection against the overstimulation of the developing sex functions in the apparent opposition and incompatibility of the sexes at this time. For some time before puberty the boy seems to feel a natural scorn for all things pertaining to girls of his own age, while the girl is just as vigorous in her apparent dislike of boys. This attitude is not a thorough sex opposition. It is often an attitude of defense against public opinion or criticism. It is really a recognition of a new significance in sex, and may even be the expression in this inverted form of a new interest in the opposite sex. (b) Positive sex-attraction. Even while he seeks his exclusively male gang and expresses his dislike of girls the boy is awakening to a new interest in girls. While assuming an attitude of scorn toward all things feminine he may try in various ways, by gymnastic feats or even by teasing or other rudeness, to gain the attention of some secretly admired girl. To de- scribe the early adolescent attitude as exclusive sex repulsion is to interpret too simply a complex of normal social attitudes. 4* PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE (c) Premature love affairs. The courtships of early adolescence constitute another complicated prob- lem of interpretation. Since there is a decided element of sex attraction even in this period, there may be some elements of a genuine courtship situation. On the other hand, many of these childish affairs are stimulated by suggestions from older persons, from a natural curi- osity concerning sex, and from a natural desire to emulate the experiences of boys and girls a little older. One young woman recalls the following expe- riences of her early adolescence: I found here that my natural companions and friends were much more grown up than I was. They "did their hair up," they had "beaux," they were infinitely "young ladified," even though they were all my own age. They all had a great passion for "going walking." They would start out about six thirty in the evening and walk and walk until it grew dark, when they would meet the boys of their choice. I wished to be with them and I always envied their grown-up ways and their ability to talk to people of all sexes and ages. I myself was very shy, and it was hard for me to carry on a conversation. I had a great fear, however, of being left out of things, and so I always heroically endured the long walks for fear of them thinking I was not a "good sport." But I was always relieved when Friday came, and I could go out to grandma's and play with my little sister. I forgot my Latin and algebra then and joined in with her doll playing on the back porch. The need for sympathy and understanding on the part of parents and teachers is clear. Many a tragedy has grown out of the heartlessness and ignorance of 42 SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE adolescent life that either stimulates childish love affairs or else laughs at them. (d) Rivalries between boys and girls. One phase of the typical sex attitude of this period is the frequent occurrence of rivalries between boys and girls in vari- ous activities. The boy works at his books because he dislikes to be beaten by a girl, while the girl is just as determined to show her prowess in any sort of contest. This spirit of rivalry is perhaps encouraged by the fact that generally in early adolescence the girl is physically the equal or even the superior of the boy. She can run as fast or strike as hard a blow as her brother. The situation is further complicated by the girl's attain- ing the pubertal maturity a year or two earlier than the boy and by the vague turmoil into which adoles- cence precipitates them both. (e) Still another phase of the sex life of early adolescence is seen in certain attitudes of boys and girls toward older persons. Nothing could be finer or more wholesome than these admirations and devotions of adolescents, under normal conditions involving sym- pathetic and helpful adult influences. The hero or the adoree may be of the opposite sex, though this appears to be more characteristic of middle adolescence. It is probably more common in early adolescence to be de- voted to an older person of one's own sex. Especially with girls, but also in some degree with boys, this type of devotion partakes of the nervous and emotional characteristics of a sex reaction. 1 Unless the adoree is M Young Girl's Diary, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul, pages 216 and 278. 43 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE a sensible and high-minded woman, there are subtle dangers in this type of adoration. This situation, which is not uncommon, implies a distinct responsibility for the guidance into wholesome channels of the some- times tumultuous emotions of adolescent life. 2 ABNORMAL ATTITUDES The normal development of the sex life in adoles- cence is a wholesome and beautiful element in the un- folding social nature. Its abnormal development is repulsive. But there are serious facts which must be understood by those who teach our boys and girls. It is not frequently necessary to introduce these facts into our teaching, but we must know them in order to know what more wholesome teachings and attitudes are needed and in order to recognize the occasional need for words of admonition. It is beyond question that a large proportion of sexual immorality begins even before the adolescent development is completed. The majority of prostitutes, for example, are said to enter this career of shame between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, 3 and probably few or none of them actually had their first immoral experiences later than fifteen. The observations of many teachers and others associated with boys or girls unite in the general con- clusion that there are most unwholesome elements in the ideas and attitudes of a large proportion of adoles- cents with regard to sex. 3 The psychic dangers of this type of relationship are viTidly shown in Clemence Dame's novel, Regiment of Women. See also Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, page 106 ff. 9 Adole9cenc6 t Hall, Volume I, page 431. 44 SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE The source of these evils. These adolescent evils are very largely the result of ignorance, parental neglect, the social taboo upon the discussion of sex, and all those social and commercial forces which prey upon the weak, the ignorant, and the superstitious. But the basis for the effect of all these influences is in certain instinctive tendencies in the boys and girls themselves tendencies that may be turned into use- ful channels through good educational methods, but which are bound to express themselves in some form. Curiosity is a native tendency appearing even in in- fancy and developing through childhood and adoles- cence. Curiosity concerning matters of sex is normally strong in early adolescence ; but if it is satisfied with information, wholesomely and sympathetically given by parents or other adult advisers, it need occasion no alarm. Sex taboo. With curiosity are closely associated other tendencies, such as the inclination to be inter- ested in new experiences, in secrets, in surreptitiously obtained information. Add to these a love of adven- ture and the actual stress of the adolescent sex im- pulses, and unless there is careful guidance and friendly counsel, the perversions of the sex instinct are well-nigh inevitable. Despite the responsibility that this common situation imposes upon parents and other guardians of young life, the common policy, even to- day, is one of avoiding the discussion of sex problems with our children. This is one of our most serious educational errors. "The assumption that ignorance of self as an animal and of the actual functions of life 45 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE will be a protection against -the vices and the evils of youth and maturity is the most threatening theory in the practice of a generally prudent civilization/* 4 Nervous reactions. Early adolescence is normally a state of emotional susceptibility, nervousness, rest- lessness, and excitement. Even under wholesome con- ditions new information concerning sex may come with a certain emotional shock. Under unwholesome influ- ences such information may affect the nervous balance quite seriously. A thorough study of several cases of hysteria in young women showed that in nearly every case the primary disturbance was traceable to some nervous shock associated with sex experiences at the time of puberty. CORRECTING AND PREVENTING UNWHOLESOME ATTITUDES In our opposition to unwholesome and immoral de- velopments we have the assistance of nature. Among the merciful provisions for this period are characteris- tic tendencies to modesty, shyness, and reticence. The tendency of boys and girls to draw apart in their inter- ests and in their social groupings is a part of this wholesome provision of nature. But this tendency is not all-corrective. In fact, some of the most serious evils arise in the entire separation of boys and girls in boarding schools. We can cooperate with nature in the defense of our boys and girls in several ways : i. We may lead them in an attitude of respect for *Presldent Homer H. Seerley in ao address giyen at Sioux City, Iowa, April 22, 1898. 46 SEX IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE nature. Nature love is very closely akin to religion. Nature is God manifesting himself to us in this world. When your pupils feel the dignity in nature they will recognize the divinity in the natural process of birth. 2. We may encourage wholesome activities and a healthy outlook upon life. You may never have occa- sion to teach your pupils sex hygiene, but you should direct their impulses, many of which are reen forced by the irradiations of sex, into wholesome channels of idealistic service. 3. We may appeal to the noble elements of chivalry in boys and womanliness in girls. It is easy to appeal to these idealizations of worthy attitudes. Boys should have before them the examples of strong men who were chivalrous and true to the finest ideals. Girls should have before them the examples of worthy and noble women, The ideal heroes and heroines for early adolescence are not ascetics but strong, vigorous, con- trolled personalities. The church-school teacher has a splendid opportunity to stimulate a worthy idealism through the stories of the noble characters in the Bible and other historical literature. 4. We may encourage a normal and wholesomely environed association of boys and girls. The normal home, the normal church, the normal school, must contain both. And their social program should in- clude not only parties exclusively for one sex but parties for both, in which we may utilize those social interests which they hold in common. Needless to say, we should not emphasize the sex relations, which will come to attention soon enough in middle adoles- 47 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE cence. Among the common faults of careless people has been the overstimulation of sex interest by sug- gesting sweethearts and courtships to boys and girls who should be good friends, with no more thought of sex relationships than the naturally developing, shy recognition of new meanings in boyhood and girlhood. PROBLEMS 1. What Bible stories are most wholesome in de- veloping worthy sex attitudes in early adolescent boys and girls? 2. What are the arguments for and against coedu- cation ? 3. Observe and record the attitudes of some boy or girl of 12 to 14 toward persons of the same age but of the opposite sex. 4. What elements of value in developing wholesome sex life can you find in the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls? REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING The Boy and the Sunday School, Alexander, Chapter XV. A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe, page 157 ff- The Psychology of Religion, Coe, page 150, Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapter VI and pages 64, 65, 249, 250. The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter X. Seven Ages of Childhood, Cabot, page 249. The High-School Age, King, page 69. Principles of Secondary Education, Inglis, Chapter .XI. Sex Education, Bigelow. Sex for Parents and Teachers, Stowell. 48 CHAPTER V INTELLECTUAL PHASES OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE THERE are two theories of adolescent development: the saltatory theory, according to which the boy or girl attains the adolescent changes by a sudden forward leap, and the theory of gradual development. The preceding chapters have indicated that the author's position is between the extremes of these theories. Adolescent development involves relatively rapid changes, which are, however, part of a gradual growth and which cannot be understood without the back- ground of earlier development. Some who have held an extreme form of the saltatory theory have con- sidered reason a distinctly new development in adoles- cence. The reasoning functions, however, have had an extended development before assuming the more distinct form in which they appear in adolescence. Even in infancy -there are inferences that, though often fallacious, are'based upon implicit judgments. And the power of thought, of abstraction and analysis and classification and generalization, grows throughout childhood. THE NEW EMPHASIS UPON REASON Coming into prominence in early adolescence is a distinct consciousness of one's ability to solve prob- 49 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE lems and a growing insistence upon submitting all things to the test of one's own reason. This is part of the general feeling of self-confidence and self-re- gard, which is now attaining a prominent place. A tendency to insist upon one's own judgment and rea- son increases throughout early and middle adolescence. In childhood many things were accepted upon the authoritative statements of parents or teacher, but in adolescence all authority may be questioned and criticized. Childhood was generally marked by un- questioning belief and acceptance of what was said by parent or teacher or Bible or textbook, but adolescence is an age of doubt. Many parents and teachers are disturbed by this natural appearance of a tendency to question matters that are accepted implicitly by chil- dren and considered authoritative by adults. There is, however, a providence in this adolescent trait. Were it not for the adolescent tendency to criticize and doubt, all would come to adulthood with a fixed confidence in prevailing conditions and beliefs, and progress would be impossible. RELIGIOUS DOUBTS A skeptical attitude toward religious ideas is more characteristic of later periods, but one can find its beginnings in early adolescence. Teachers should not be overalarmed at this, but should be ready to meet it in an attitude of fairness and reason. The religious attitudes and feelings, developed and encouraged in a wholesome social atmosphere in childhood, will have their effect in the transition time of adolescence. In- 50 INTELLECTUAL PHASES telligent and sympathetic guidance is very important, however, in the perplexing period when the founda- tions of belief seem to be crumbling. Dogmatism will not do, nor an appeal to prejudice or precedent. The teacher must himself see clearly the fundamental truths that can be shown to be reasonable, must be sym- pathetic, and must be patient with the intellectual per- versities of this transition period. AN IMPERFECTLY ORGANIZED INTELLIGENCE The mind of early adolescence still has many of the characteristics of the child mind while it is discover- ing some of the modes of adult thinking. It often shifts from one type of thought to another. It insists upon reasons that are themselves prejudices. It places an adult conception upon a background of childish con- ceptions and is constantly bewildered in the attempt to harmonize what it has discovered of the world of adult life with its vital memories of the child world. INTELLECTUAL AWAKENINGS The relatively sudden development of a new inter- est, while more common in middle adolescence, is not infrequent in the earlier period. The boy or girl who has been indifferent to school work gets a new enthu- siasm for it. Those who have found a certain study a drudgery get a new insight into it and become deeply interested in it. Concepts meaningless to childhood acquire significance in adolescence. The size and shape of th earth, though often presented at the beginning 51 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE of geography textbooks, is not interesting to children because it is hardly conceivable. A child will accept the statements and memorize them, but is not able to image such a vast sphere as our earth. In adoles- cence the mind and its concepts undergo expansion. Now the mind that once thought of the moon as near the treetops can begin to grasp its location in space and becomes interested in facts of astronomy and mathematics hitherto incomprehensible. IMAGINATION Imagination has a long history before adolescence. It begins even in infancy, grows rapidly throughout the fairy-tale period of early childhood, grows still more in the vigorous boy and girl days from seven to twelve, and then bursts into a characteristic bloom in early adolescence. Early childhood is the "let's play" period, which Mrs. Cabot calls the dramatic age. Later childhood is the time when the child begins to desert the fairy world because the real world is more inter- esting, when a craving for facts about the world de- velops, when stories of real life, hero tales, adventure tales, biography, nature lore, thrill the soul. The glamour of fairyland is not needed now. The world is a fairyland, the next town is a delightful mystery, all the world is full of the glory of life. What more can adolescence do? It throws over the world a new glamour through a new appreciation of /the meaning of the world and nature and human society. It is the age of a new insight, when nature and art acquire a deeper and more intimate significance, when one's re- 52 INTELLECTUAL PHASES lation to society is felt with unique keenness, when new attention is given to moral values, and when religion attains a deeper personal meaning. The fairyland of childhood has faded, leaving sometimes a sense of regretful disillusionment; the world of later childhood has lost much of its mysterious charm; and then the rosy glow of awakening romance colors all things, while it throws the newly discovered valleys into deeper shadow. Daydreams. -Early adolescence is only the first stage in the development described above. It is marked by an exuberant imagination that is not yet under thorough control. The mind is awakening to a deeper intuition into the meanings of things and has not yet learned to check up this insight by the regulations of reason. The years of middle and later adolescence gradually develop the sober consideration that de- stroys some adolescent air castles and puts others on firmer foundations. Early adolescence is the period of daydreams and vaguely extravagant imaginings and hence is peculiarly exasperating to the unsympathetic adult whose youthful visions have long faded. The boy or girl who goes through the day indolently and absent-mindedly may be lost in a maze of daydreams. Of course, we must recall such a one to the realities and problems of life, but it should be done with sym- pathy and. understanding. Many boys and girls, hav- ing been harshly treated, their youthful ideals meeting no sympathetic response from older people, have built up a wall of defensive reserve and behind this have ; lived a dream life quite isolated from the prosaic expe- 53 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE riences of every day. One young woman thus de- scribes an experience of this kind : When about thirteen I had succeeded in building up an " indifferent'' exterior, which concealed my bashful- ness within. People said I was remarkably dignified and reserved. . . . But in my imagination I was a butterfly of fashion. I held whole roomfuls charmed by my wit and vivacity. ... A decided snub from the real world of envious or disgusted schoolmates would 'tear down my "rainbow gleams" and cast me into the deepest despair. Often I wondered if I wouldn't be far happier if I killed myself and saved future trouble. Soon, however, my common sense would come to my rescue, and I would console myself by another daydream. SUGGESTIBILITY G. Stanley Hall, in his monumental work, "Adoles- cence," says two things -that seem at first sight incon- sistent. In one place he says: "The youth who has been amenable to advice and even suggestion now be- comes obstreperous, recalcitrant, filled with a spirit of opposition, and cannot repress a toplofty superiority to the ways and persons of his environment." In another place he says of youth : "It is plastic to every suggestion, tends to do everything that comes into the head, to instantly carry out every impulse; loves nothing more than abandon, and hates nothing so much as restraint. It is the age that can withstand no dare or stump; loves adventure and escapade; tends to let every faculty go to its uttermost." An apparent paradox. These statements, one of 54 INTELLECTUAL PHASES which seems -to affirm, the other to deny the sug- gestibility of adolescence, are in reality in harmony. The adolescent boy or girl is highly suggestible, but sometimes the suggestion from parent or teacher is met by a stronger suggestion from some other source. Young people are frequently autosuggestible or coun- tersuggestible, especially with reference to direct sug- gestion. The skillful teacher will, as far as possible, avoid direct suggestion. When you say, "John, close the door," John may do so, but not very willingly. He does not like to be so addressed. If you say, "John, isn't it rather warm in this room?" John is likely to respond more graciously. Suppose you wish your class to dramatize the story of Ruth. You say : "Mary, take the part of Naomi. Be sure to have it learned by next Sunday." If Mary appears at all she is more likely to do her part grudgingly and listlessly than if you had said: "Who can take the part of Naomi? Mary, I am sure you can do that well." Thoughtful attention to the problem of indirect suggestion will save the teacher many difficulties. The most forceful sug- gestions you can make for the development of courtesy and character to young people are in your own habits and example. No amount of admonition to dress neatly will be so effective as your own personal ap- pearance; no number of lectures on moral acts and attitudes will have such suggestion value as your own acts and attitudes. And you can so plan as definitely to lead the minds of your students through indirect sug- gestion by consulting rather than ordering. It is not an easy task to be a teacher of adolescent boys and girls. 55 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE It is easy to be a boss ; it requires initiative and char- acter to be a leader. PROBLEMS 1. Why should the junior high school be separate from the senior high school? 2. At what age does interest in debating begin? How do the arguments of a high-school debate differ from those in the debates of adults ? 3. Recall your adolescent daydreams. Can you remember any development in them? How did they differ from those of to-day? 4. Recall the teachers who influenced you in early adolescence. Can you explain their influence? REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING Adolescence, Hall, Volume II, Chapter XVI. The High-School Age, King, Chapter IX. The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter VII. The Seven Ages of Childhood, Cabot, Book Four. Principles of Secondary Education, Inglis, Chapter CHAPTER VI THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LIFE OF FEELING IT is doubtless true that psychology is the most com- plex of sciences. The old, conception of the mind as divisible into certain parts, each of which has its separate function or "faculty," is now abandoned. Psychology, according to that theory, was relatively simple ; but now we are learning that there is no such simple separation between mental functions. Memory, for example, is not an isolated mental power but a phase or attribute of the whole mind and the bodily functions that condition the mind. Sensation was formerly separated distinctly from affection, the basic element in feeling and emotion, and we are now dis- covering that 'these two so-called elements are not only closely interwoven with one another, but are in reality of the same nature psychologically. Feeling is con- ditioned by the stimulation of a complex of nerve endings, sometimes widely separated from one another, which are not so localized as to give the relatively clear reactions of sensation. Great numbers of such nerve endings are in the chest and abdomen, and in the more vigorous feeling reactions we can recognize feelings of depression or buoyancy or relaxation or expansion in these parts of the body. 57 PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE THE REASONS FOR THE NERVOUS INSTABILITY OF ADOLESCENCE With the general bodily changes of adolescence and a considerable extension and sensitization of the nerv- ous system the feeling life of youth is exceedingly com- plex and variable. The various glands of the body, in- cluding the ductless glands, which have a very direct influence upon feeling states, are undergoing rapid development, the whole bodily constitution is expe- riencing a variety of shifts and changes that demand readjustment, and the feelings and emotions are normally relatively unstable and shifting. The foregoing discussion of the physiology of feel- ing gives the clue to many of the adolescent reactions that perplex the more completely organized mind of the adult. The boy or girl has frequent changes of mood. Cheerfulness and melancholy, good temper and ill temper, and many other contradictory impulses puzzle us with their alternations. In many cases the adolescent is a puzzle even to himself. He has mysteri- ous impulses whose origin he cannot trace; he has vague impulses whose nature he cannot understand. A college student, recalling her high-school years, says : "Whenever I think of my life in the teens I am re- minded of the meadow across the road from my old home as it appeared on one of those whimsical days in March when bright sunshine and chilly, rainy shadows, like tidal waves, flowed over it." CONTRADICTORY CHARACTERS The presence in the same personality of contra- 58 DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE OF FEELING dictory characters or differing and apparently incom- patible impulses is not an evidence of mental weakness or inferiority. Indeed, it may be maintained that the really great personality is invariably possessed of such contradictory impulses in unusual degree. Thus Luther was at times and sometimes almost simultane- ously possessed by joy and depression, assurance and despair, courage and fear, self-reliance and self- abnegation, sympathy and hatred, superstition and "hard-headedness." 1 Perhaps the greatest number of such opposing characters are found in the life of Jesus, whose impulses were strong and vigorous and were held in the marvelous balance and restraint that mark his majtchless life. Such opposition of impulses appears normally in adolescence with relatively little of the inhibition, the voluntary or habitual restraint, which limits and con- ceals the tendencies of adults. It must be remembered, also, that early adolescence lies close to childhood and still retains many of the characteristics of childhood even while developing the contrasting characteristics of adult life. Life is a seething mixture of childish impulses and adultlike traits, of vague and mysterious impulses, of various tendencies not yet regulated and reduced to order and harmony. To know this element of variation in the nature of adolescence is of the highest importance for a teacher. Many a teacher is discouraged because a boy's behavior is so inconsistent or because a girl is so subject to changes of mood. One element in understanding adolescent boys and girls *P*1/ckologic