Adolescence its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology sex, crime, religion and education, Vol. I.

Abstract

THIS book is based on the author's Psychology, now in preparation, which should logically have been published first. The standpoint of the latter is roughly and provisionally indicated in Chapter X, with which it is hoped any reader with philosophic interests will begin. This point of view is further set forth in the last part of Chapter XVI, and some of its implications appear in Chapter XII, which should follow. That, recognizing fully all that has hitherto been done in this direction, the gen^kL ideast of the soul which pervadg^ this work are new in both matter and method, and that if true thev mark aa^^^xtensJon o£ evolution^Jjita. the ps.ydiic.«fi£id^ of the utmost importance, is the conviction of the author. Although most of even his ablest philosophical contemporaries, both American and European, must regard all such conceptions much as Agassiz did Darwinism, he believes that they open up the only possible line of advance for psychic studies, if they are ever to escape from their present dishonorable capitivity to epistemology, which has to-day all the aridity, unprogressiveness, and barrenness of Greek sophism and medieval scholasticism, without standing, as did these, in vital relations to the problems of their age.Idealism, metaphysics, and religion spring from basal needs of the human soul, and are indispensable in some form to every sound and comprehensive view of it, as well as necessary to a complete science. But these are now volatilized for both theory and practise by the present lust for theories of the nature of knowledge, which have become a veritable and multiform psychosis. To a psychology broad enough to include all the philosophic disciplines, this extravasation of thought, especially in a practical land like ours, presents a challenging problem. In academic isolation from the throbbing life of the great world, with but faint interest in or PREFACE XI I have tried to suggest a far broader application than the Stagirite could see in his day.These nativistic and more or less feral instincts can and should be fed and formed. The deep and strong cravings in the individual to revive the ancestral experiences and occupations of the race can and must be met, at least in a secondary and vicarious way, by tales of the heroic virtues the child can appreciate, and these proxy experiences should make up by variety and extent what they lack in intensity. The teacher art should so vivify all that the resources of literature, tradition, history, can supply which represents the crude, rank virtues of the world's childhood that, with his almost yisual imagination, reenforced by psychonomic recapitulatorj" impulses, the child can enter upon his full heritage, live out each stage of his life to the fullest, and realize in himself all its manifold tendencies. Echoes only of the vaster, richer life of the remote past of the race they must remain, but just these are the murmurings of the only muse that can. save from the omnipresent dangers of precocity^ Thus we not only rescue from the danger of loss, but utili...

Determinants of risky sexual behaviours among secondary school students in Delta State Nigeria

“…Practices such as homosexuality, lesbianism, and sexual orgies are indulged in just for the reason of experimentation and peer influences, owing to a wealth of uncensored information they are exposed to, through an intensifying wave of westernisation, the Internet, and electronic media. Perhaps this explains why adolescence has also been described as a time of 'storm and stress' (Hall, 1904). In his review, Dahl (2004) indicated that the dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality during this period of life is not attributable to illness or infection, but rather to 'difficulties in the control of behaviour and emotion'.…”

Loneliness and Drug Use in Young Adults

“…Intuitively then, we can expect a positive correlation between age and the Growth and discovery scores. Arnett (1999) in a meta analysis of the research on adolescence, noted that this "storm and stress" period, as Hall (1904) referred to it-"is not a myth that has captured the popular imagination but a real part of life for many adolescents and their parents in contemporary America" (p. 324). Arnett contends that going through a period which is rife with conflicts with parents, mood disruptions, engaging in risk behaviour and establishing one's identity, adolescence does indeed appear -at least in North America-to be a stressful, uneasy, conflictual period.…”

A Solution to the Middle School Problem

“…Teachers who propose to work with this selected group of students require the following: (1) A thorough knowledge of the developmental growth characteristics of boys and girls in the middle school.…”