Editing Adolescence (section)

==Criticism==
The concept of adolescence has been criticized by experts, such as [[Robert Epstein]], who state that an undeveloped brain is not the main cause of teenagers' turmoils.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Epstein |first1=Robert |title=The Myth of the Teen Brain |journal=Scientific American |date=June 2007 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=68–75 |jstor=24939607 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0607-68sp |bibcode=2007SciAm..17...68E |url=https://drrobertepstein.com/pdf/Epstein-THE_MYTH_OF_THE_TEEN_BRAIN-Scientific_American_Mind-4-07.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Romer |first1=Dan |title=Why it's time to lay the stereotype of the 'teen brain' to rest |url=https://theconversation.com/why-its-time-to-lay-the-stereotype-of-the-teen-brain-to-rest-85888 |work=The Conversation |date=29 October 2017 }}</ref> Some have criticized the concept of adolescence because it is a relatively recent phenomenon in human history created by modern society,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199501/the-invention-adolescence|title=The Invention of Adolescence|magazine=Psychology Today|date=June 9, 2016|access-date=February 19, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ482132|title=On the "Invention" of Adolescence.|last=Fasick|first=Frank A.|journal=Journal of Early Adolescence|volume=14|number=1|pages=6–23|date=February 1994|doi=10.1177/0272431694014001002|s2cid=145165641}} "[...] the application of technology to increase productivity, the affluence generated by it, and the related structural changes in society have contributed to the creation of adolescence in the North American urban-industrial society."</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OENf1J45SS0C|title=Teen 2.0: Saving Our Children and Families from the Torment of Adolescence|last=Epstein|first=Robert|publisher=Linden Publishing|date=2010|isbn=978-1-61035-101-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Demos|first1=John|last2=Demos|first2=Virginia|year=1969|title=Adolescence in Historical Perspective|journal=Journal of Marriage and Family|volume=31|pages=632–638|doi=10.2307/349302|jstor=349302|number=4}} "The idea of adolescence is today one of our most widely held and deeply imbedded assumptions about the process of human development. Indeed, most of us treat it not as an idea but as a ''fact''. [...] The concept of adolescence, as generally understood and applied, did not exist before the last two decades of the nineteenth century."</ref> and have been highly critical of what they view as the [[infantilization]] of young adults in American society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://help.fortroubledteens.com/the-danger-of-treating-teens-like-children.html|title=The Danger of Treating Teens Like Children|website=help.fortroubledteens.com}}</ref> In an article for ''[[Scientific American]]'', Robert Epstein and Jennifer Ong state that "American-style teen turmoil is absent in more than 100 cultures around the world, suggesting that such mayhem is not biologically inevitable. Second, the brain itself changes in response to experiences, raising the question of whether adolescent brain characteristics are the cause of teen tumult or rather the result of lifestyle and experiences."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-teens-who-behave-reck/|title=Are the Brains of Reckless Teens More Mature Than Those of Their Prudent Peers?|author1-last=Epstein|author1-first=Robert|author2-last=Ong|author2-first=Jennifer|magazine=Scientific American|date=August 25, 2009|access-date=October 5, 2017}}</ref> David Moshman has also stated in regards to adolescence that brain research "is crucial for a full picture, but it [[Correlation does not imply causation|does not provide an ultimate explanation]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-moshman/adolescents-and-their-tee_b_858360.html|title=The Teenage Brain: Debunking the 5 Biggest Myths|last=Moshman|first=David|date=May 17, 2011|website=HuffPost|access-date=November 20, 2017}}</ref>

Other critics of the concept of adolescence do point at individual differences in brain growth rate, citing that some (though not all) early teens still have infantile undeveloped [[corpus callosum]]s, concluding that "the adult in *every* adolescent" is too generalizing. These people tend to support the notion that a more interconnected brain makes more precise distinctions (citing [[Ivan Pavlov|Pavlov]]'s comparisons of [[conditioned reflex]]es in different species) and that there is a [[critical phenomena|non-arbitrary threshold]] at which distinctions become sufficiently precise to correct assumptions afterward as opposed to being ultimately dependent on exterior assumptions for communication. They argue that this threshold is the one at which an individual is objectively capable of speaking for himself or herself, as opposed to culturally arbitrary measures of "maturity" which often treat this ability as a sign of "immaturity" merely because it leads to questioning of authorities. These people also stress the low probability of the threshold being reached at a birthday, and instead advocate non-chronological emancipation at the threshold of afterward correction of assumptions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Paul|first=Richard W.|year=1988|title=Ethics without Indoctrination.|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ373375|journal=Educational Leadership|volume=45|issue=8|pages=10–19}}</ref> They sometimes cite similarities between "adolescent" behavior and KZ syndrome (inmate behavior in adults in prison camps) such as aggression being explainable by oppression and "immature" financial or other risk behavior being explainable by a way out of captivity being more worth to captive people than any incremental improvement in captivity, and argue that this theory successfully predicted remaining "immature" behavior after reaching the [[age of majority]] by means of longer-term traumatization. In this context, they refer to the [[fallibility]] of official assumptions about what is good or bad for an individual, concluding that [[paternalism|paternalistic]] "rights" may harm the individual. They also argue that since it never took many years to move from one group to another to avoid inbreeding in the [[Paleolithic]], [[evolutionary psychology]] is unable to account for a long period of "immature" risk behavior.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Thinker's Guide to Ethical Reasoning|last1=Paul|first1=Richard W.|last2=Elder|first2=Linda|publisher=Foundation for Critical Thinking|year=2013|isbn=978-0-944583-17-3|edition=2nd|location=Dillon Beach, CA|oclc=51633820}}</ref>