ABSTRACT
During the ‘Competence’ stage children acquire and develop a range of skills and talents, putting these to use to solve problems, draw pictures, write messages and make things. Sporting and creative activities broaden the range of capabilities. Talent recognition and evoked positive feedback from parents and teachers when these talents are demonstrated builds self-confidence and encourages further development. If nascent talents are not recognised and developed, low self-esteem and demotivation results. The phase called ‘Fidelity’ is concerned with establishing a self-identity and identifying which of the vast range of roles one is exposed to fits well with the developing self-image. Thus, this phase is concerned with resolution of one of the major identity crises that one has to deal with. It is a time of major reorganisation of neural networks in the brain with a significant reduction in grey matter through neuronal pruning and a significant increase in interconnecting white matter (Cozolino 2006: 44). Up to this time the brain has remained relatively flexible so that it may be reconfigured quickly to learn new skills and build new internal working models. Starting from the back of the brain and progressing towards the front until about 25 years of age, myelination (encasing neurons in a fatty sheath) takes place to increase the speed of impulse transmission. Frontal lobes retain flexibility for longest. The left and right hemispheres become better connected by thickening of the corpus callosum and links to the hippocampus improve the integration of memory into decision making. Risk-taking behaviour, necessary for exploring new ways of being and moving out from the security of the parental home, tends to peak at around the age of 14–17. Dopamine sensitivity, which is high during this risk-taking phase in order to provide a bigger payoff from risk taking, then reduces. The prosocial hormone oxytocin gains more influence, increasing the importance of social connections. The brain’s reward circuitry is reorganised as rewards come increasingly from friends and new attachment figures and less so from parental influences as the process of becoming more independent gathers pace. Therefore, tensions may be generated within the family of origin, particularly in those turbulent teenage years as internal working models are all changing, leading to confusion and exaggerated behavioural self-expression. Significant relationships associated with these stages include those made at school, peers and role models. This represents a shift in emotional investment from relationships of the past to relationships for the future.
