Adolescents: why they can be so obnoxious

This paper describes examples of adolescent behavior which parents and school personnel find obnoxious. It attempts to explain why intelligent, reasonable and well-adjusted teenagers periodically behave in this way, as something that is developmentally inevitable given the uneven development of competencies in several important areas. Adolescent incompetencies in four areas (cognitive, social cognition, moral judgment, and knowledge of the world) are discussed and exemplified by resulting behavior (including the current Cabbage Patch doll fad). Suggestions for dealing positively with the sometimes difficult and exasperating behavior of adolescents are offered.