Developmental Psychology and Adolescent

¶ … Adolescent Physical Development

The following study appreciates the differences in during the growth and development of an individual because of their gender. With the focus on the changes that occur in males and females at puberty, the study looks at how the changes influence their self-esteem and peer acceptance. For every adolescent, there is a dissimilarity or asynchrony when it comes to the growth rates of their different body parts (McNeely, & Blanchard, 2010). Therefore, the puberty stages for both males and females adolescence are critical focal points. The focus will be on the body parts like hips, muscles, trunk, feet, arms, hands, face or skin. The changes on the identified body parts may affect the self-esteem and peer acceptance levels of these individuals either positively or negatively.

Hips

Females are known to have a curvier body due to the widening of their hipbones. During this changes, the woman starts to get a womanly body shape and this will entail them doing regular exercise and eating healthy foods. The boys do not develop any hips because they need to have a masculine figure at the end of their adolescence development (Shaffern & Kipp, 2013).

Muscles

The female muscles will get bigger and stronger although they remain invisible. On the other hand, they experience higher body fat increase. For the male counterparts, their muscles get stronger, bigger and show up. Moreover, their muscles grow faster than that of the females. For such changes, they contribute to an increased strength and tolerance for exercise. Males have shorter legs as compared to the females (Van der Graaff, et al. (2014).

Trunk

Prior to the puberty stage, boys have longer trunks and their legs are shorter than that of girls. In boys, the ratio of their trunk increases at a slower rate where the subcutaneous fat on their extremities is decreased. The change experienced in girls is only slight because the trunk and extremity with regard to subcutaneous fat increases at a similar rate, which implies that the ratio is stable (McNeely, & Blanchard, 2010). For both boys and girls, increase during adolescence does coincide with the growth of their burst in the length of their trunk and that of the arm that influences their level of reach.

Feet, Arms, and Hands

Puberty for girls causes them to go through a growth spurt that results in having them grow at an average rate of 3.5 inches yearly. Their hands and feet are the first things that will grow then later the arms and feet. The females may also experience hair growth under their arms and on their legs. The body size of the girl's increases and this results in the growth of their feet, arms, legs, and hands. During this time, the adolescent girl may experience times where she feels clumsy (Shaffern & Kipp, 2013).

Face/skin

The skin of the adolescent girl may be oily and sweaty due to the hormones that are increased during her puberty. Therefore, the girl needs to wash her face and body daily. Acne may also develop on her face that lowers the self-esteem of many girls. Some boys develop pimples on their face as a sign of them reaching their puberty stage (Van der Graaff, et al. (2014).