Today’s society and lifestyle inputs were based around the apparent link between culture, society and the influence this can have on youths.
Culture can be defined as the knowledge and traditions shared by members of groups/ societies that reflect their way of life such as language, religion, medical care, food, jokes, manners, celebrations and clothes. Likewise, society can be denoted as the “human relationship from a small group to a large system”, this highlights that citizens can belong to a formal group or informal group and within these group pattern of interaction form, societies/ groups can be small, large or encompass millions of members.
During the lecture, we examined in depth the meaning of youth and the theories within. Youth is the transition between childhood and adulthood which can be split into two segments
· Adolescent
· Adolescence
Youth is a general way of life, during this transitions the age range may be easily identified from the wider society due to culture patterns. The term youth is mainly used in the developing world but the meaning is constantly changing as citizen are taking more responsibilities when young. Adolescence is used to describe youth adulthood (age 18 to mid-thirties) who live independently, but are not married and have no children.
There are many evident connections that can be made to theories, society and youth.
· Piaget
· Erikson
· Kohlberg
· Maslow
Having already explored Piaget theory within literacy and mathematical development of children, I find this insightful that his theory is relevant to the social developments of youth. Piaget theory is based around observing his children cognitive developments, which enabled him to compile developmental stages.
· Stage one- Semi motor period (birth to 2 years) this is when children begin to learn how to learn, developing their language from the people they see and hear, and beginning to acquire an understanding of the world
· Stage two- preoperational (2 years to 7 years) during this period children develop there thought and thinking mechanism, they demonstrate egoism as they only have a sound understanding of their world. They pretend to play but this varies depending of culture and environment.
· Stage three- concrete operational (2 years to 11 years) this is the stage children develop abstract thought, grasping of the world and appreciate family and themselves.
· Stage four- formal operational (11 years) this means cognitive development is ongoing, as adult we still experience and acquire new skills, knowledge and still constructing a sense of the world. Adolescent being to think more abstractly gaining a greater awareness of problem solving, logically and symbolic thinking.
Overall, I found today’s inputs to be considerably insightful and I was able to gain a wider knowledge of the links between culture, society and the evolving impact this can have on youth.
