ADOLESCENCE AND INTIMACYPsychology of adolescence

WHAT IS INTIMACY?

•Relationship where two or more people reveal personal thoughts and information about each other

•Comfort•Support•Physical closeness•Hugging and touching•Deeper level connection

YOUR ADOLESCENT FRIEND

•Where did you meet?

•What was special about that relationship?

•What was special about him/her?

•What things did you share?

•How did you feel when you were together?

WHAT IS INTIMACY?

•Why does intimacy develops in adolescence?

•Safer to reveal things to peers

•Rebellious towards adults seek approval

•Individuals with similar backgrounds

WHAT IS INTIMACY?

•Sullivan by sharing teens increase their self-steem

•Identity formation

•Attributes that makes each of them unique

•Deeper understanding of the self and others

WHAT IS INTIMACY?

•Mechanic extensive sharing of personal feelings leads to heightened introspection

psychological problems

•Close friendships away from introspection free from the “stressors” of growing up

INTIMACY AND ROMANCE

•Older adolescents they learn from being intimate

•Romance = complications

•Sex and sexual preferences

•Learn through sharing

Sullivan and Erikson

•Intimacy in adolescence is essential to reach a “healthy sense of identity”

•Identity vs. role confusion first acquire a sense of identity, then intimacy

BOYS AND GIRLS

•Girls = bond through feelings and thought

•Boys = bond through actions and deeds

VALIDATION OF SELF WORTH

BOYS AND GIRLS

•Girls = caring, soothing, sharing, “emotional”

•Boys: sharing activities, “not caring much”

BOYS AND GIRLS

•Girls = make less but good friends

•Boys: make friends easier than girls = bigger groups

•Keep friends if you don’t change school

INTIMACY AND FAMILY

•Studies have shown…

•Boys having a “close” relationship with their fathers have closer, longer friendships

•Single-parents home affects relationships if teens don’t have contact with adults father-absent homes

INTIMACY AND SOCIAL CLASS

•Middle and upper classes = more rewarding, closer intimacy than lower classes. Inside and outside the house.

•Levels of intimacy = workers earlier sexual experiences and more accepting of sexual intimacy

SIBLINGS AND INTIMACY

•Do you have brothers or sister?

•How did this affect your relationships?

•Siblings + & - influence

PARENTS AND INTIMACY

•Temporal decline in parent-teen intimacy

•Teens closer to mother because fathers are the authority figure

•Recent study has shown that intimacy with fathers increase during early adolescence

Dunphy's five-stage theory•Stage 1: Pre-crowd stage. Isolated unisexual

cliques. •Stage 2: The beginning of the crowd.

Unisexual cliques in group-to-group interaction.

•Stage 3: The crowd in structural transition. Unisexual cliques with upper status members forming a heterosexual clique.

•  Stage 4: The fully developed crowd. Heterosexual cliques in close association.

•Stage 5: Beginning of crowd disintegration. Loosely associated groups of couples.

DIFFICULT SITUATIONS

•Dating violence•Who’s to blame?•Why does violence persist?•1 in 4 adolescents have been involved in violent relationships.