adolescence
Physiological Needs
In adolescence children start to take these needs into their own hands. While they still rely on parents or others for some of these needs, they are more self reliant than ever. They are making choices of how these needs are met and hopefully they are making the right ones. Water is one of our most basic needs. Teens have a lot of choices when it comes to fluids. Like adults, adolescence should be getting eight, eight ounce servings of water per day. Most schools have pop machines and many other choices besides water so it is important to teach teens to drink enough water. This image shows a teenage girl drinking a glass of water.
Safety Needs
Meeting safety needs effects many aspect of adolescents lives. Parents and society in general want to give children a safe environment to grow up in. Security at schools has become a hot issue in the last decade. No parent wants to wonder about the safety of their child while at school. Schools are supposed to be safe places. Schools are trying to become more security conscious Many districts employ security guards and have programs in place for students to report suspicious behaviors. This picture demonstrates an extreme way to ensure safety needs are met inside the school. It is from Morris High School in New York and it depicts students walking through metal detectors before entering the school. As I said, school safety is a hot topic and this is just one way schools are trying to circumvent violence.
Belonging and Love Needs
One of the social needs that begins to take form during this age period is intimacy. Teens start to feel the need for intimate, romantic, and sometimes sexual relationships. Most teens are just beginning to explore the ins and outs of being in an intimate relationship. There is a lot of trial and error at this age while teens try to sort out new feelings. This age group also starts searching for autonomy from their parents. At school, they start separating themselves from the rest of the crowd. Reference groups, clicks, and "in crowds" are formed.. This picture is demonstrating the intimate, or emotional, relationship need mentioned above.
Esteem Needs
Teens can be very sensitive when it comes to esteem in middle and high school. Popularity reigns supreme when talking about adolescence esteem needs in their school social group. To break it down there are four statuses adolescence can fall in to: popular, controversial, rejected, and neglected are the four statuses. Popular and controversial tend to be on the upper end of the status while the rejected and neglected fall into the lower status. This is important when talking about adolescent esteem. They spend more time with peers at school than with family so most teens place a large importance on how others view them. In fact, when peers treat them and view them as "losers" it will change the way the teen perceives themselves. The picture shows how others perception can have negative effects on your esteem needs.
Self-Actualization
Erikson states that adolescence are going through the identity-versus-identity-confusion stage and from this theory we can get a good grasp of where they are with self-actualization. The term identity-versus-identity-confusion means a period during which teenagers seek to determine what is unique and distinctive about themselves. This is not to say that adolescence are unaware of their capabilities, however, they are still discovering new abilities while trying to decide who they really are. This image is of a girl that went from cheerleader to football quarterback on her quest of trying to figure out who she really was. While usually not this extreme, teens are constantly doing things in an attempt to discover their personal identity..