DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Why is there the misconception that teenagers do not understand love?

Annotated Bibliography Segment

 



Bibliographic Entry:

Montgomery, M. J. (n.d). Psychosocial Intimacy and Identity: From Early Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood. Sage Publications Inc.

 

Terminology/Key Words:

Identity
Adolescence
Romantic relationships
Beliefs
Dating
Intimacy

 

Summary:

Along with cited work from other journal entries over two decades to now the author speaks of age and gender differences "in patterns of behavior and experience, cognitive beliefs, affective involvement, and psychosocial functioning in romantic relationships". The author asserts the argument that high-quality intimate relationships are only capable from the adult mental health as opposed to the adolescents mental health. Along with the use of other journal entries and articles the author uses a case study he conducted of observations of adolescents and adults. The author later comes to the conclusions that emerged adults have "more dating experiences, times in love, passion, identity and intimacy."

 

Reflection:

In a technical point of view, I must say that in a way I do agree with what the author has stated and concluded in his writing. Moreover, I speculated that the author could have used more than one approach to retrieving answers, he could have even looked at different grade levels of those adolescents and emerged adults. Along with journal entries and articles from the 90s to now this well developed thesis and profoundly developed writing provides keen information on the relationships and understanding in relationships compared to those of adolescents and those of emerged adults. However, to be able to further elaborate on this prestigious writing I must read up, using the citations provided throughout the reading. And by doing so I would have a clearer and less bias view on this particular topic.

 

Quotables:

The ability to have high-quality intimate relationships is a keystone of adult mental health and well-being (Noller, Feeney, & Peterson, 2001; Reis, Collins, & Berscheid, 2000).

 

Nevertheless, Erikson (1982) also argued that although other forms of intimacy are part of normal development, it is only possible to experience mature, genuine intimacy with another person after a reasonable sense of identity has been established, because “the condition of twoness is that one must first become oneself” (p. 101).

 

Idealistic relationship beliefs give way to more realistic expectations as adolescents accrue dating experience and as their conceptions of intimacy mature (particularly for young women; Frazier & Esterly, 1990).

 

These explorations in romantic relationships are done within a social context that places a high value on romantic relationships as ideal, positive forces that can overcome great difficulties. Idealistic relationship beliefs give way to more realistic expectations as adolescents accrue dating experience and as their conceptions of intimacy mature (particularly for young women; Frazier & Esterly, 1990)

 

 

 

Bibliographic Entry:

Montgomery, M. J., & Sorell, G. T. (1998). Love and dating experience in early and middle adolescence: Grade and gender comparisons. Journal Of Adolescence, 21(6), 677.

 

Terminology/Key Words:

LOVE
DATING (Social customs)
ADOLESCENT psychology

 

Summary:

Using two-decades worth of tallied research, the author compiles data, research, other works and personal experience into a journal entry depicting the study of love and dating experiences in early and middle adolescence. The author argues that of different ages of adolescents the amount of dating experienced varied and "Being ‘‘in love’’ co-occurred with a reciprocal on-going relationship about half the time." The author reached to this conclusion through the use of a sample study of 186 male adolescents and 199 female adolescents. The author also brings in outside research, work and sources so as to support his claim. Very importantly, the author issued a survey known as "The Adolescent Romantic Relationship Survey" to have a clear standing on their current situations. The author comes to realize that the "being in love" rage happens earlier to boys than it does to girls. Sadly the conclusion that the author comes to is that the adolescent minds have a very "narrow conception" of love.

 

Reflection: 

The author may somewhat be true in his conclusion that teenagers may be very narrow-minded at times when it comes to using the word love, but that's just some, not all. I believe that if the author widened his research basis he would come out with broader and more expanded theses. He wasn't wrong when he entailed that there are stages of development that play a keen part in the understanding of love, but he failed to realize that some teenagers develop faster than others, what about that for a study? I would ask the author where exactly did he conduct this sample study and what questions did he ask to get to this conclusion. I don't understand why the females are more capable of having romantic relationships than the males when in actuality 80% or more of the time those relationships are with males. To have a better understanding of the authors conclusions and data analysis it may aid me to look up journal entries on cross-cultural misunderstandings as well as development differences amongst teenagers.

 

Quotables:

Erikson, on the other hand, argued that true and mutual psychological intimacy (with another person or even with oneself)  can only occur after the establishment of a strong sense of personal identity (Erikson, 1980). He proposed a sequence of stage-specific psychosocial crises which placed the resolution of the intimacy vs. isolation crises in young adulthood, following the resolution of the identity vs. identity diffusion crises of adolescence

 

Most research on adolescent partner relationships has focused on demographic patterns of dating and sexuality (for a review, see Miller and Moore, 1990).

 

Early romantic experiences are believed to play a central role in the development of the adolescent’s self-identity and capacity for intimacy ( Sullivan, 1953; Erikson, 1968).

 

There is also some debate about when boys and girls first experience romantic feelings.

Some researchers who have studied children and their sexual development have expressed

skepticism about the existence of a latency phase, instead finding evidence that children

tend to be in touch with sexual and romantic feelings throughout childhood (e.g.

Goldman and Goldman, 1982). Broderick (1972)

 

 

Bibliographic Entry:

 Shulman, Shmuel. (2001, June).  Adolescent romantic relationships: a look from the future. Journal of Adolescence, 24(3), 337-351.

 

Terminology/Key Words:

Adolescent

Romantic Relationships

Companionship

Stability

 

Summary:

The author talks about adolescent relationships and the timespan of those relationships. The author argues that adolescent romance is described more as a form of companionship. To arrive at this claim the author used a particular research method known as sampling. This particular sample consisted of 40 adolescent romantic couples, at least one of which the partners had a romantic relationship that lasted for 2 months minimum when they were aged of 15 or 16 years old. These subjects were interviewed individually and asked varying questions about their partners and their romantic relationships. These questions and their answers later led to a 5 point rating scale based on idealization of the relationship, friendship, enjoyment, relationship problems, trust, disagreement, support and stability. All of this lead up the overall conclusion that adolescents view on love was that of companionship and enjoyment as opposed to a mature adults view on love which was more on trust and support.

 

Reflection:

The author is less bias in his writing, he shows more of an understanding or shall I say commitment to understanding teen love. I must say that he could have possibly asked more questions pertaining to oneself in his individual interviews so as to see how one feels as opposed to their partners and their feelings of each other in a comparative way. I do not particularly understand his 5-point scale or where he would us reference to it. I may need to just look up a 5-point scale overview so as to understand his logic better and use of it. From here on out it would do me great benefit if I read some more articles on teenage relationships and where they started and how long some of them lasted etc.

 

Quotables:

Enjoyment: the pleasure derived from partner’s company, or from shared good times. ‘‘Being together makes my heart full.’’

 

One of the reasons for the dearth in research on adolescent romance is that early relationships with romantic partners are casual, less intense, and short-lived (Feiring, 1996). Young adolescents focus more on who they are, how attractive they are, how they should interact with the opposite sex, and how this interaction will be accepted by their peers (Brown, 1997).

 

Moreover, we know that adolescents are involved in cross-gender interactions or

friendships (Leaper and Anderson, 1997), but we do not know when and how a friendship

turns into a romantic relationship or is considered as such

 

Such romantic encounters may lack psychological and social depth, be difficult to define and investigate (Brown et al., 1999), and be unclear regarding the ‘‘unit of analysis’’, namely if it is a relationship, a cognition, or a fantasy.

 

Results consistently showed that with age the importance of romantic relationships as providers of support and targets of intimacy increases, though friends and family members remain

important figures in the life of teenagers throughout adolescence.

 

Application of concepts that are relevant to adult love relations may not capture the unique nature of adolescent romance.

 

Furman and Wehner (1997) suggested that interaction experience may also affect the quality of a romantic relationship: ‘‘As individuals grow older and acquire more experience in various romantic relationships, they may be more likely to turn to a partner to fulfill these functions than when they were younger and less experienced’’ (p. 23)

 

 

Bibliographic Entry:

Furman, W. W. (2002). The Emerging Field of Adolescent Romantic Relationships. Current Directions In Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell), 11(5), 177-180.

 

Terminology/Key Words:

Adolescent adjustment
attachment
friendships
love
romantic relationships

 

Summary:

The author uses empirical research consisting of descriptive studies "the frequency of dating or other romantic behaviors" amongst adolescents. The author argues that there is a link between relationships with parents and romantic relationships. The author speaks of teenagers viewing their romantic relationships as just a more intensified friendships. The author uses review of literature and basic research knowledge to compile his article. The author comes to the conclusion that most of the works of literature that I have read came to, that of teenage romantic relationships being one dependent on companionship and mutual intimacy.

 

Reflection:

I feel like that author could have used a more interactional way of gathering data, for example participant observation or even just interviews or surveys. This article links to other sources because it portrays basically the same idea and same point of view. I would ask the author why he didn’t actually contact adolescents and try to construe his own idea based on information he gathered from them. I don't understand why he felt like having actual data wasn't relevant. There isn't much more I need to read in reference to this particular article.

 

Quotables:

Accordingly, we proposed that adolescents’ experiences with friends and expectations concerning these relationships influence their expectations of romantic relationships

 

Moreover, they suggested that experiences with parents affect individuals’ expectations of romantic relationships.

 

Adolescents vary widely in when they become interested in romantic relationships, and the experiences they have once they begin dating.

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.