unit 1 adolescence, the crisis of personal ......ethical values. 2nd eso. department of philosophy...

Ethical values. 2nd ESO. Department of PhilosophyNicolás Copérnico State secondary school. Parla.

UNIT 1

ADOLESCENCE, THE CRISIS OF PERSONAL IDENTITYAND ETHICAL VALUES

1. ADOLESCENCE: CHARACTERISTICS AND THE CRISIS OFPERSONAL IDENTITY

In this unit we intend to make you reflect on the importance of thetime you're starting to live. It is a time of enormous changes thatare not always easy to accept. A time of great dreams and futureprojects, but also of worries and uncertainties. This is ultimatelywhat we call adolescence. Adolescence is the period that marksthe transition between childhood and adulthood. Although it variesfrom person to person age and duration, usually starts around 12 or13 years –the period so-called “puberty”- and ends around 17 or 18.This period is characterized by a series of physical, mental andsocial profound changes that will transform the body and mind of

the child in an adult with capacity to decide for himself/herself.The fact that at this stage of life and many changes take place sofast and deep, makes talk of the crisis of adolescence. However,this does not mean we have to see adolescence as negative andproblematic. This is a normal maturation process that, depending onthe person and the environment, some live in a more peaceful wayand others in a more stormy way. The truth is that the teenager hasa great need for recognition and acceptance to form a positive self-concept. Intellectual maturation also leads him to question therules and the views of their elders to establish their own rules. Inadolescence we had a psychologically and emotionally dependenceon our parents to strengthen our own personality and becomeautonomous individuals.

We can distinguish three levels to understand adolescence:

Physical level. Adolescence usually begins with puberty ingirls is a bit younger (11-13 years) than boys (12-14 years)

Adolescence is the stage of life in which people pass from childhoodto adulthood through a process of biological, psychological andsocial maturation.

"Adolescence": adolescere comes from Latin and means 'grow,develop'. Thus, adolescence is a process of physical, mental andsocial growth that culminates with the arrival of adulthood.

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During puberty increased weight and height is experiencedand sexual maturation occurs.

Psychological level. You have to learn to live with a "new"body and to channel the large amount of energy they producehormonal changes.

Social level. Relations with parents change: the personality isreaffirmed in front of others, sometimes in conflicting.

Objectives of adolescence

Accept the changes in the body, assuming the sexual andemotional maturity.

Develop an abstract thinking to make decisions and solveproblems independently.

Understand and express their own complex emotions andthose of others.

Form friendships that help consolidate personality Establish key aspects of identity Acquire an own system of values to guide the conduct Increase responsibility and establish different relationships

with adults

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Learning how to behave in a socially responsible way

2. THE PERSONAL LIFE PROJECT BASED ON ETHICAL VALUES.

I review: What are the ethical values?

Through effort and reflection we can become good people andtherefore create our own character based on what are so-called“moral values”. Regardless of our inherited temperament (the traitsof behaviour transmitted through genetics) we can become reallygood people if we want. We all have intelligence to analyze ouractions and will to decide what we think is right.

When we are selfish, deceitful, disloyal, other people value ourbehaviour negatively because we cause evil and suffering to others.However, good people (“virtous” from a moral point of view) basetheir behaviour on solidarity, tolerance, respect, equal rights,loyalty, etc. We call these ideas “moral values”: ideas that supporttheir daily behaviour. We become virtuous repeating actions basedon these ideas. Consequently, virtuous people try to put intopractice the moral values.

This implementation is the result of our freedom. We decide whetherto be good people or, on the contrary, we can decide to follow the"anti-values" (selfishness, inequality, intolerance...) and become badpeople. If we want to live in a happy society we should make theeffort to improve in order to become good people, to create asociety based on moral values. To do this we need to think forourselves and try to be critical of those behaviours that we seearound us and go against moral values. For example, in the mediathrough advertising we see receive every day the message thatwhat makes us happy is to have a lot of money and become richwithout thinking about others, we see how politicians lie or steal tobenefit themselves regardless of the common good, etc. We have tothink about these attitudes and think if they really lead us toindividual and social happiness.

The group's influence

Adolescence is a stage where social relations takes on a greaterrole. By this we mean that adolescents, in their need to feelunderstood and accepted, seek to be integrated into a group thatprovides them with security and self-esteem. The group of friendshas an essential role in the emotional development of adolescents.Parents remain being their fundamental support, but with peers with

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whom he begins to discover the exterior world and to practicevalues such as loyalty, empathy and solidarity.

For teens, the group of friends is of great importance since it allowsthem to feel accepted and understood, while helping them to fit intothe world of adults.There are many different groups depending on the main activitycarried out in them: sporting, cultural, recreational, political,educational, religious, etc. However, in all groups of teenagerswe can find some common characteristics:

They have a set of distinctive elements that allow themembers of the group to be identified (dress, own language,meeting place, etc.).

Share the same tastes and interests (music, sports ...). Establish bonding and mutual support offered to overcome the

difficulties of adolescence. They have an internal organization where each member of the

group adopts a role (the leader, the "funny", etc.).

All these features help to unite the group cause members tend tobehave as it is expected of them. In some, cases this "obedience" tothe group may be excessive and then becomes negative, becauseit nullifies the personality of the individual and prevents freelydevelop their skills.

When we speak of social groups we must also distinguish betweengroups of belonging and reference groups. The first of those whoare part: our group of friends, our sports or social club, etc.

Instead, the reference groups are those who we want to belongbecause we consider them important to us. So if we aspire to entera new group of friends or imitate a musical group, these groups areacting as models of reference values.

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How does the group influence over the individual?

Strengths Weaknesses

Provides security in atime of change andcrisis

It acts as a bridgebetween the family andthe outside world

Common interests andproblems are shared

It helps strengthen theidentity because thegroup returns us animage of ourselves

If the group is veryabsorbent, you can limitour autonomy and excesscondition our behaviour

The need for groupidentification can lead toperforming antisocial acts

We need to be autonomous

Although during adolescence we all need to join the group, we needto be ourselves. It is convenient to relate to others, learn fromothers, to help our peers, but we must never stop being what wereally want to be because of fear of being excluded from the group.If it does not accept us with our characteristics, we do not respect usand perhaps the distance is convenient. Adolescence is not only themoment in live when we create our gang of friends, butfundamentally is the time when create ourselves. It is thereforeimportant to think for ourselves about what we really want to be.

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While in adolescence the group has a great influence on ourway of thinking and acting, we must not lose sight of theimportance of preserving our personal autonomy and values.

This means you do not have to do things that go against ourprinciples simply by the fact that the rest do.

The necessary fidelity to the group should never be confusedwith the loss of one's personality.

The word that best defines what we should achieve at the end of ouradolescence is "autonomy". Think for ourselves to make our lifeproject. It is a project that has to be original and unique.

“Autonomy” is a word derived from two ancient Greek words:- “autos”: when a word begins with this prefix it means that

something is done by oneself. - “nomos”: it means “law” or “rule”.

Therefore, “autonomy” means that a person or a community has theability to make his/her own rules (to give himself/herself his/her ownrules of behaviour, without the imposition of other ones). At the same time, it means that people are free to choose how tobehave.

Autonomy, freedom and intelligence

Human beings can be autonomous because they are free, and theyare free because they are intelligent. Intelligence and freedom aretwo linked qualities.

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Why? Because we have the ability to analyse and compare differentsituations, we can choose and make decisions freely. People usuallyassess situations before making a final decision. For example, youwill have to think carefully about your higher education when youfinish the ESO and Bachillerato stage, and later about yourprofession in the future.

But sometimes, we can also make decisions on the spur of themoment, or we just do what other people tell us to do. Then, wemake the wrong decision or just do something we are not really sureof or even is against our principles. Then we are not autonomous.We are heteronomous.

“Heteronomy” is the opposite of “Autonomy”. In ancient Greek“hetero” is a prefix that means that something is done by other andnot by oneself. So being heteronomous means that other peoplemake decisions for us. In other words, it is other people who imposerules on us.

Autonomy and possibilities

However, to be autonomous does not mean to do our will when wefeel like it in every moment. For example, you have decided to finishthe ESO stage and to get this aim you have to pay attention in class,study for your exams and do your homework. Often in the eveningyou feel like playing with your Play Station or watch TV, but youhave to finish your homework if you want to get good marks andmake progress in your learning. Being autonomous means to stickto our decision, to be sensible and to do what we know it is theright thing, although it can mean to give up things we likesometimes.

We can choose among several possibilities each time we have tomake a decision in our lives. Making these decisions we do thingsbut, at the same time, we create ourselves. The human being is avery special being. He has to create himself, unlike animals that aremostly determined by instincts. We have to create ourselves, wehave to decide what we want to be and then choose the rightoptions to get this aim

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Whenever we make decisions, we must be able to think forourselves, so that we can choose what we want according to ourprinciples. Only when we are autonomous, we can be happy. Even ifwe make mistakes, we can learn from them and do the right thingnext time.

One of the objectives of the philosophers of the Enlightenmentwas that we use all the reason to become autonomous. It is the onlyway to build a society of happy people where the dignity of others,their decisions and life projects are respected.

In the 18th century there was a cultural movement in Europecalled Enlightenment. The protagonists of this movementwere a group of philosophers who sought to improve society,then dominated by absolutism, a system where kings andnobility had all the rights and handled the policy of eachcountry, while ordinary people neither had rights nor couldintervene in politics. If we use reason and let people access toeducation we will be able to build a society of free and happypeople where everyone can participate in the progress ofscience and the organization of a fair and democratic politicalsystem. His goal was the recognition that every individualshould be considered a subject with rights and therefore equalto others. It was important to recognize that people should havethe opportunity to participate in political affairs. They tried,therefore, to change the old regime by a new regime whereeveryone were considered citizens and not subjects. Amongthese philosophers the most important were Rousseau, Voltaire,

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Immanuel Kant: the most important philosopher of the Enlightenment

ACTIVITY 1

Find information about different groups of teenagers, also known as2urban tribes”. With this information you must complete the nexttable:

Group Dress Tastes andhobbies

Ways to think

2. Which of the groups above you identify the most? Explain youranswer. In case you do not identify with anyone describes what arethe characteristics of your own group of friends.

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3. To what extent would you say that your individual behaviouraffects the group to which you belong? Highlight both the positiveand negative aspects.

ACTIVITY 2. CREATING OUR BIOGRAPHY

Read the text and answer the questions:

Biology and Biography

Human beings not only have a fundamental biology, but also a biography.We couldsay that biology is what we have, while biography is what we do with theresources we have, from biological to cultural factors. Human life, eachlife, is not made; each person has to build his life, hence the importance ofthinking about these matters. Being a citizen means being a person, butwe cannot be a person without an identity. Strangely enough, one needsthe other, in other words, we also need other people to achieve a personalidentity. This is why this matter is so important and transcendental.To “write” our biography we need three major elements:

- what we are, our qualities, our aptitudes and abilities- what we aim to be, our life project, our vocation- our circumstances

We all have some resources and possibilities, and this is why we - helpedby education- have to discover our abilities; they might be related tosport, they might be artistic abilities, or a capacity for scientificinvestigation, among others. Thus, it is important to know ourselves and

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value what we have. But it is also important to know what we want to be,in other words how we are going to use our abilities: to know our vocation,what attracts my attention, what my calling is. It is also important to beaware of one’s physical and social circumstances.If some of these factors fail, feelings of frustration and unhappiness arise.

BIOGRPAHYAbilities+Vocation+Circumstances

ACTIVITIES:

1. Of the three factors that make upbiography, which do you think is the mostimportant? Why?

2. If you had to write your biography,what would you say? How would youorganize it? What are your abilities,vocation and circumstances? WRITE IT!

3. MAFALDA AND CRITICISM. CREATE A COMIC.

Mafalda is a comic strip character designed by Quino. Her main featuresare tenderness and criticism. We can also be sensitive critics. Lookcarefully at the two strips below and then answer the following questions:

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1. Describe the comic strips in your own words.

2. Who is Mafalda’s criticism addressed to? Why? What does shewant to show? Is she right? Try to give her more reasons to support her view.If you think she is wrong, how would you criticise her? What are yourobjections to her point of view?

3. Do you dare to create a short comic strip? If so: a) Think about an unfair situation you want to denounce.b) Design some characters and write a short dialogue (... anddraw it!)

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unit 1 adolescence, the crisis of personal ......ethical values. 2nd eso. department of philosophy...

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