Page - 127 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

Development of thinking 127 To sum up, we can say that adolescent logic constitutes a complex but coherent system that is relatively distinct from child logic. Adolescent logic “constitutes the essence of the logic of cultured adults and even provides the basis of elemen- tary forms of scientific thought” (Piaget 1972b, 6). The transition from adolescent to adult cognitive development has not yet been adequately researched. Piaget writes: “We know as yet very little about the period which separates adolescence from adulthood” (Ibid, 1). Addressing the question of whether every individual in this stage will attain the requisite formal thought operations, Piaget points out that a favorable environ- ment is necessary; when such operations are carried out in common, accompanied by mutual criticism or support, discussion and identification of problems on the basis of information, then the individual’s curiosity can be sparked through cul- tural influences from his social group. Briefly, our first interpretation would mean that in principle all normal indi- viduals are capable of reaching the level of formal structure on the condition that the social environment ad acquired experience provide the subject with the cognitive nourishment and intellectual stimulation necessary for such a construction. (Piaget 1972b, 8) Therefore, Piaget propounds an active form of instruction where adolescents can raise questions and solve problems independently. Group instruction encourages coordinated activities – an important precondition for developing reversible operations. In a group, children and adolescents can discuss their experiences, evaluate them, and draw conclusions from them (see Piaget 1972a). After a certain level of cognitive development, individual aptitudes diverge with increasing age, with individual interests increasingly taking the upper hand over general tendencies of development. One good example is the evolution of drawing skills: up to the point when a child becomes capable of drawing in per- spective, we observe a very general common progress for the test task of “drawing a man”. At the ages of 11 to 13, surprisingly, great differences can be seen, and even greater differences at 19 and 20 years old. Here, the quality of the draw- ing has no longer anything to do with the level of intelligence. This constitutes an important example of one pattern of behavior being subordinated to general evolution at a particular stage – even though from adolescence on, this behavioral pattern has more to do with individual talent and interest. Adolescents discover their talent for mathematics; here, two different types can be distinguished, those with “geometric intuition”, who tend to think more concretely, and the “algebra- ists” or “analysts”, who think in a more abstract manner. A difference can also be distinguished in any field: between adolescents who show talent for physics or for solving logical problems, as opposed to those showing an aptitude for logic or mathematics. The same distinctions could be drawn within linguistics, literature