Essay on Biological and Social Influences in Adolescent Development

This essay delves into the critical importance of biological and social influences during the adolescent developmental period. It examines the profound impact of puberty, hormonal changes, and physical maturation, alongside the significant roles of peers, family, and societal norms. The essay explores how these biological and social factors shape the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development of adolescents, including decision-making processes, career choices, and the formation of values. It highlights the potential for both positive and negative influences, emphasizing the need for understanding and support during this sensitive phase. The conclusion underscores the necessity of analyzing the interplay between individual and societal perspectives to foster healthy adolescent development and ensure successful transitions into adulthood, both on a personal and societal level.

The Individual and
Society

Importance of biological and social influences
during the adolescence’s developmental period
Individual and society has the close relationship among them such as society is basically the set of regularities and
customs along with the ground rules of anti-human behaviour whereas the individual lives in the society and acts within
the society in which the society is nothing without individuals and therefore combination of individuals are the
cooperative effort in the formation of society. So basically individuals have to obey the different types of laws and social
norms which are formulated and implemented for harmony in the society and they are accepted by the community. As
per the research, the individual has the essential role in permitting the society to function and this is because the
individuals have the nature and originate from the natural freedom in order to form the society so that they can establish
and appropriate governance with proper ethics and rules and legislations which must be followed by each and every
individual in a respected manner. The following discussion is in the form of an essay and has a topic of importance of
biological and social influences during the adolescence developmental period. Which means that there is a time period
for phases for the teenagers or adolescence in the society where they develop into either a good human being or a bad
human being. Therefore this discussion can help to gain the knowledge that what can be the biological and social
influences that can positively or negatively affect the adolescent developmental period and what are the importance of
such influences so that the positivity can be encouraged and negativity can be rectified and this is because the dollars and
are the very sensitive and crucial age group where people find their career development and the societal development in
terms of individualism and as a whole group. Hence the biological influences and importance of biological influences
along with the social influences and importance of social influences are discussed in the essay along with the individual
perspective and societal perspective with proper conclusion (Dahl, Allen, Wilbrecht and Suleiman, 2018).

Conti…
Biological influences at the time of adolescent development till period are such that this is a period of
teen years which means that teenagers grow and develop more in adult like physical features and can
also grow suddenly from double their height and weight as well. This is because this is the period
where the biological influences are uncontrollable in nature even by the parents and by the teenager
also. Moreover, biological influences include the sexually mature nature among the adolescence
which includes more than physical changes because there are the large fluctuations in their hormones
and it changes rapidly and this is because it develops new feelings about their bodies along with the
sexuality and intimate relationships. This is also known as the puberty age and there are different
changes in males and females such as in terms of male, their voice gets lower or deeper, penis and
testicles get bigger, growth of hair on the face and chest along with the back, chest and shoulders
become broader. In terms of females, development of breast, hips get wider and body becomes curvy,
starting of the menstrual cycle, change in colour and size of labia. In terms of common biological
influences, people get acne, start sweating more, hair grows under arms, growth of hairs around
genitals which is called the pubic hair and sometimes it also feels pain in the arms and legs at the time
of growth and development (Sawyer, Azzopardi, Wickremarathne and Patton, 2018).

Conti…
At the time of adolescence development period, there are greater health implications which can
affect the adolescence throughout their life and the changes happening during the adolescence
period can impacts the thinking and acting capacity among the people and therefore it is important
to understand the whole process taking place at the time of adolescent development period in order
to contribute positively in their development because adults mind and heart are very sensitive in
nature and therefore taking care is the priority. Importance of biological influences during the
adolescence developmental period are such that if these changes would not happen among the
males and females then they can be estimation that cannot grow and develop and therefore in order
to better grow and develop in their life in physical terms for example height and weight along with
the figure and looks, because people are more conscious about physic and is important to take care
so that they can be physically fit and fine along with the healthy nature. Health of the person is the
most important part in an individual's life so in order to get better health in the adult’s period that is
important to better grow and develop in the adolescence period for the future life because it can
directly e impact the health in a negative manner and that is why biological influences importance
during the adolescence developmental period (Large, Pellicano, Mojzisch and Krug, 2019).

Conti…
Social influences at the time of adolescent development till period are such that the peers and friends
along with family and relatives plays the major role in such influences to adolescence at this period. The
most important is the decision making process because in this age there is a lot of confusion in which the
adolescent has to decide what to do and what not to do because this is the very crucial age where the
important decisions are to be made for better career and personal development. They can also face risky
and maladaptive decisions such as illegal substances as well. Most of the adolescence start smoking and
drinking along with the drugs taking when the state with the society and friends so that they can look
cool and also the reason is the peer pressure which is the most harmful for the adolescence because any
decision making out and the peer pressure is harmful and can spoil the life for the future also. Social
changes are notable in adolescence and they also become autonomous from their parents and thus
spend more time with their peers and begin exploring different types of relationships and sexuality other
than friends and family relationships such as romantic one. Some examples of social influences in
adolescence such as career choices and values along with the morals which are followed by the short-
term choices such as experience and interest. Moreover, obedience and conformity along with the
persuasion and social loafing which is followed by social facilitation and deindividuation along with the
observer effect and bystander effect or peer pressure (Lerner, Lerner, von Eye and Tubman, 2018).

Conti…
Importance of social influence during the adolescence developmental period is because it is
characterized by the cognitive and social changes along with the biological changes which are the
most important in the development of adolescence because it helps the people to explore
different relationships to get experience for the future. There are different reasons that why the
people permits social influences in order to affect their behaviour and ideas such that one of the
reason is that it is basic in nature that in the society and the individual confirms to the rules and
norms of the group in order to gain the acceptance of its members and moreover the group
conformity supports the signs of cohesion within a society which is essential for the growth and
development of the adolescence not only professionally but also on the personal basis. Social
influencers have a great effect on teenagers and this is because the adolescence are exposed to
the different kinds of norms and behaviour was along with the thoughts and ideas of others and
they observe and examine the positive results that other people receive from such behaviour and
therefore it is also known as the exposure and learning for the adolescence. Adolescence
internalizes these kinds of social behaviours and norms for future instances so that it can maintain
proper ethics and good behaviour in the society (Foulkes and Blakemore, 2018).

Conti…
Period of adolescence starts with puberty and overs with the transition to adulthood approximately in the ages of 10
to 20 years. Hormones play the major role in physical changes of the adolescent which is associated with puberty. At
the time of adolescence there are many people who experience different types of changes which includes the
physical and behavioural along with the cognitive and emotional social development. In this type of age group,
parents generally offer guidance to the adolescence on how they can take care of their reproductive and sexual
health in a very sensitive and effective manner. There are basically improvements in the thinking abilities of
adolescence such as attention and memory along with the processing speed and Organisation. There are major three
physical changes in the adolescence that is the growth spurt which is an early sign of maturation, primary sex
characteristics which occurs changes related to reproduction and secondary sex characteristics in which the bodily
signs of sexual maturity. There are different theories involved in adolescent development such as the lifespan
perspective and the learning perspective along with the human perspective and the ecological perspective which is
followed by the socio-cultural perspective and the positive youth development perspective (Mendle, Beltz, Carter
and Dorn, 2019). Moreover, along with the body changes adolescence also faces the social perspectives in the society
which is related to the peer pressure and behaviour with the family and relatives along with the friends and also with
the strangers which defines the character, personality, thoughts and ideas along with the career progression and
decision making process of the teenager. All these are the perspectives of individual and social perspectives on the
biological and social influences during the adolescent development period (Harris and McDade, 2018).

Conti…
It is concluded that the essay on the importance of biological and social influences during the adolescence developmental period
is an important concept to learn and study so that it's not it can be applied in the real world matters of individualism and society.
the importance of this study is that the adolescence period is a very imperative period for every human being and everyone has to
pass the stage in their lifetime and the reason behind that why it is very sensitive because this is the stage where people lose and
gain relationships along with their career which helps them in the growth and development of the personality and along with their
profession or occupation. All these influences are in the terms of biological and social because body features change in a very
rapid way along with societal nature also changes suddenly at the time of adolescence. this can affect the adolescence in both the
manner that is positive and negative that is the behaviour of society and biological influences are in the favour of adolescence
then they will grow and develop in a positive manner and if the behaviour of society and biological influences are not in the favour
of adolescence then they will grow and develop in a negative manner which can even spoil and destroy the life. Therefore, it is
important to take care of the people in their adolescence stage developmental period so that they can be successful in their life
not only in terms of individualism but also in terms of society (Parke, Roisman and Rose, 2019). Therefore it is important to analyse
the concept of individual and society along with their relationship, it is essential to analyse the biological influences during the
adolescence development will period, it is necessary to examine the importance of biological influences during adolescence
developmental period, it is significant to gain the knowledge about social influences during the adolescence in developmental
period, it is crucial to assess the importance of social influences during the adolescence developmental period, it is imperative to
investigate about the individual perspective at the time of adolescence developmental period and it is vital to study about the
social perspective at the time of adolescence developmental period. Hence this essay covers all such areas in order to better
understand the conception of individuals and society in terms of importance of biological and social influences during the
adolescence developmental period.

References
Books and journal
• Dahl, R.E., Allen, N.B., Wilbrecht, L. and Suleiman, A.B., 2018. Importance of investing in adolescence from a
developmental science perspective. Nature. 554(7693). pp.441-450.
• Foulkes, L. and Blakemore, S.J., 2018. Studying individual differences in human adolescent brain development. Nature
neuroscience. 21(3). pp.315-323.
• Harris, K.M. and McDade, T.W., 2018. The biosocial approach to human development, behavior, and health across the life
course. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. 4(4). pp.2-26.
• Large, I., Pellicano, E., Mojzisch, A. and Krug, K., 2019. Developmental trajectory of social influence integration into
perceptual decisions in children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116(7). pp.2713-2722.
• Lerner, R.M., Lerner, J.V., von Eye, A. and Tubman, J.G., 2018. Continuity and discontinuity across the transition of early
adolescence: A developmental contextual perspective. In Transitions through adolescence (pp. 3-22). Psychology Press.
• Mendle, J., Beltz, A.M., Carter, R. and Dorn, L.D., 2019. Understanding puberty and its measurement: ideas for research in
a new generation. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 29(1). pp.82-95.
• Parke, R.D., Roisman, G.I. and Rose, A.J., 2019. Social development. John Wiley & Sons.
• Sawyer, S.M., Azzopardi, P.S., Wickremarathne, D. and Patton, G.C., 2018. The age of adolescence. The Lancet Child &
Adolescent Health. 2(3). pp.223-228.