Youthful maximalism and its most characteristic manifestations. The publication will provide basic information about a similar phenomenon with recommendations for eliminating problems at this age. Youthful maximalism is an age-related phenomenon that determines the formation of a personality in the adolescent and youthful period of a person's life. It is characterized by a non-standard perception of the surrounding reality and a critical attitude towards oneself.
Description and phases of youthful maximalism
Youthful maximalism is a concept in psychology that implies a complex of qualities of manifestation of oneself as a personality in young people. Experts insist on the fact that it is not formed in every boy or girl. The development of the sounded phenomenon depends on the psychoemotional state, characteristics of the character and temperament of the teenager.
The significance of youthful maximalism also lies in those moral values and lines of behavior in society that the emerging personality has chosen for itself. When assessing this concept, psychologists often use the word “child”, because the time for an active search for oneself in the world around us can begin not only in the late period, but also in early adolescence.
Psychologists insist that the statement about the short-term nature of such a factor is an erroneous statement. In some adolescents, as they grow older, age characteristics are further formed into maximalism, which characterizes their behavior throughout life. At the same time, it will be a mistake to confuse the voiced concept with elementary bad manners and the nasty character of a young person.
Experts do not give a clear age distinction of the sounded phenomenon. However, they created a certain periodization of the experience of youthful maximalism, which looks like this:
- Early phase … Between the ages of 12 and 15, a teenager begins to recognize himself as a separate person. There is a restructuring of the child's consciousness, because the requirements for his behavior are increasing. Such changes can cause protest in a small person, which is characterized by problems at school and conflicts with peers.
- Middle phase … The age of youthful maximalism in this period is determined by the boundaries of 15-18 years. Boys and girls during puberty begin to experience the first disappointments from unrequited love and all manifestations of the emerging jealousy of their chosen one. At the same time, they try to resist the adult world, proving their independence and individuality in the most unexpected ways.
- Late phase … Psychologists refer to this period as young people aged 18-22. Philosophizing, searching for one's place in society, the formation of a worldview and attitude to the surrounding reality are the main indicators of the sounded phase.
Manifestations of youthful maximalism
The described way of self-expression at a tender age in most cases looks like this:
- Testing the strength of family foundations … During this period of maturation of the personality, the son or daughter begins to analyze the principles by which their parents live. Usually, such a study ends with the so-called conflict of "fathers and children" and scandals between the older and younger generations of the family.
- Extreme beliefs … Youthful maximalism does not allow any nuances and indulgences. Categorization in everything is a distinctive feature of this period of personality maturation.
- Search for the ideal … Teens and adolescents tend to strive for the very best. Similar zeal is characteristic of adults, which is not a deviation from moral norms. However, among young people, such searches are often illogical and demonstrative.
- Painful reaction to criticism … All people love when their external data or personal achievements are appreciated. During the manifestation of youthful maximalism, the rebellious little person does not adequately perceive any comments about her behavior.
- Selfishness … Teenagers and young men quite often do not care about other people's problems and experiences. The interests of other people seem insignificant to them against the background of their own problems. They can react to a request for help either indifferently or aggressively towards even a loved one.
- Feeling of maturity … Even yesterday's foolish child begins to amaze parents and teachers with his claims to life experience. In a categorical form, adolescents and young men try to prove to older people that they live wrong.
- Ultimate … If something did not go according to the plan of the young lady or the adults put a ban on the desires of their offspring, then forbidden methods are used on his part. He may defiantly refuse to eat, do homework, or do household chores.
- Obsession … Enthusiasm for something or someone in adolescents or young men sometimes reaches a critical level. They can spend hours not breaking away from computer games or tirelessly hovering in the clouds when they become interested in the opposite sex.
Important! It is extremely dangerous to equate the voiced manifestations of youthful maximalism with the use of profanity and deviant behavior by the younger generation. Even young choleric people are able to control themselves in crisis situations for them, if they were taught this by their parents, teachers and social workers.
How to deal with youthful maximalism
Such reactions are not a pathology or a dangerous disease. However, both the smallest person and his family need to control this process.
Social Behavior Tips for Teenagers
Adults are obliged to coordinate their actions in any situation. Therefore, those children who consider themselves to be successful personalities must adhere to the following rules:
- Introspection … Every self-respecting person should clearly understand for herself what exactly does not allow her to fully enjoy life. The struggle for your place in the sun prevents you from knowing all the delights of childhood and adolescence that will never return. By imposing your point of view on adults and friends, you can eventually finally lose your own “I”.
- Self-control … You cannot justify your aggressive behavior with concepts such as the properties of temperament and youthful maximalism. A strong personality will never allow himself to commit uncivilized acts in society.
- Respect for people … You should always treat all members of society in such a way that you do not feel the same aggression in response. You can stay in splendid loneliness over time if you harass the immediate environment with nagging, criticism and disregard for human feelings.
- Work on yourself … To prevent negative thoughts from visiting consciousness, it is necessary to engage in self-realization. Making a scandal and getting into a pose will be problematic in time if you enroll in any section or circle.
- Ability to say no … Adults are not always kind to teenagers. Some antisocial personalities try to make money on children's destinies, mercilessly breaking them. It is necessary to strictly suppress these attempts, turning, if necessary, for help from relatives and friends.
Recommendations for the parents of a rebellious child
It is at this age that the older generation of the family must understand that they can lose control over their son or daughter at any time.
Psychologists advise to calm down your inner resentment about their child's behavior and behave as follows:
- Method "by contradiction" … Instead of hours of morality reading, you need to talk frankly with your children, who show youthful maximalism. It should be made clear to them that their apparent growing up is accepted by family members. However, during the conversation, it is necessary to remind the little rebel that he entered the world that requires him to fulfill certain obligations.
- Provocation … If a teenager considers his peers to be unworthy of attention persons, you must agree with this. In this case, you should categorically forbid your son or daughter to communicate with classmates after the end of the educational process. In this case, the child will have a feeling of internal protest, which will lead him to the desire to spite adults. At the same time, the conflict will be resolved with minimal losses on both sides.
- Psychological impact … If a teenager is addicted to visiting a company that his parents think is dysfunctional, then you can try to restrain him with a refusal. Every child has a place that he dreams of visiting. The whole family should go exactly to those surroundings and not invite the rebellious person with them. In a calm tone, it is necessary to explain to the child that from now on this will always happen, because due to excessive communication with friends, he has no time to go hiking in interesting places.
- Cultivating critical thinking … A person who can reasonably assess his strength will never impose his opinion on others. It is necessary to teach your child to analyze his own actions without projecting them onto other people's errors.
- Expansion of the intellectual base … Children will have no time to engage in nonsense and rowdy, if they are constantly directed in the right direction. Reading relevant literature together and attending educational events will not only help the family to unite, but also give the child an opportunity to learn to control feelings with the mind.
Consequences of youthful maximalism
Each age has its own crisis situations that can be difficult to avoid. During the developmental stage of personality, the following dangerous consequences of growing up can sometimes occur:
- Dysmorphophobia … Many children who have reached adolescence begin to feverishly look for flaws in their appearance and manner of dress. This process of exploring oneself is not a disturbing factor if everything remains within the framework of reason. With a severe form of dysmorphophobia, adults need to be extremely attentive to the behavior of their offspring. In especially difficult cases, their children begin to demand plastic surgery or go on a strict diet. They can also resort to piercings in all parts of the body and tattooing in the most incredible places. Especially often voiced phobia arises when it comes to youthful maximalism in girls. Trying to please the opposite sex, they sometimes end up with anorexia and significant health problems.
- Getting into a sect … The path to such "spiritual" institutions can be very diverse. Sometimes children who have not yet become adults themselves, in any crisis situation, turn to false preachers for help. However, a carefully organized flock does not hesitate to involve a person who is still immature in all respects into their networks. The main factors are the unstable psyche of a teenager, problems with heart-to-heart conversations with parents or simply when communicating with peers.
- Joining informal currents … A protest against the world of adults very often leads to the fact that even yesterday's child will want to taste the forbidden fruit. In this case, I immediately recall the film of the end of the 80s "Accident - the daughter of a cop", where a young girl with youthful maximalism became a young metal worker and a delinquent. This story ended tragically, which once again confirms the danger of adolescents being in such informal groups.
- Asocial actions … Trying to appear fearless and strong personalities, guys and girls can commit illegal acts. Some companies even welcome to steal someone else's speech or physically deal with the offender, walk along the edge of abandoned skyscrapers and test themselves for strength in the most extreme situations. As a result, social services and law enforcement agencies are interested in such persons.
- Teenage alcoholism … It usually starts with an argument with friends about the possibility of drinking a lot of alcohol. Television advertisements also provide some incentive for teenagers to show their adulthood and drink a bottle of beer or low alcohol drink. Such bravado leads to the fact that after a certain time the teenager can no longer do without alcohol.
- Addiction … Among the younger generation, there is an opinion that from one cigarette with marijuana or hemp, a couple of attempts to try harder drugs in the form of injections, there is no addiction to deadly substances. It is beneficial for the distributors of such an infection to influence the immature consciousness of the child, thus increasing the number of drug addicts.
Note! The listed problems of youthful maximalism cease to be childish pranks, because the growing child enters the world of adults. To some extent, he should already be responsible for his actions, which sometimes have negative consequences. What is youthful maximalism - look at the video:
Youthful maximalism does not always need to be viewed as a negative phenomenon. It is necessary to treat this period exclusively in a positive way, because with the proper control of adults over his child, he enters the time of maturation and self-realization.