Adolescent Theories

Adolescent Theories As I began researching the various theorists, and their unique approach towards the development of adolescents, I realized how many different components exist in the study of adolescence, most of which I believe to have credible points. This being said, the theory that makes the most sense in describing the development of adolescents would be the social learning theory, whom Bandura is credited for by many of his works and his abandonment of the psychoanalytic elements of social learning and focusing on the cognitive element along with his beliefs on modeling, observing, and imitating the actions of others. What drew me to this theory more than any of the others was the combination of how environmental and psychological aspects both determine how individuals ultimately will behave. Social learning seems to merge other concepts and ideas on the human behavior which makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t believe there is one single “theory” that is correct or the “only” way to believe. As humans we are dramatically influenced by our environment and what goes on around us from day to day. In a perfect world yes it would be nice if we could pick and choose what influences have an impact on us therefore enabling us filter the negative out and focus only on the positive. However, its not a perfect world and the reality is we are influenced daily by many areas of our society and in my opinion adolescents have it extremely hard with so many added influences due to the massive growth in technology leading to even more barriers to break. It seems as though more so today than ever children’s development in many ways has become dependent on others, friends, school, neighbors, the media to instill in them what behaviors are acceptable leaving me to question what is going on in the homes of today that has made that okay?