personality is by affecting an air of disdain toward those who
presume to treat him as a child. This swagger is more likely to be
put on when there is a third person present. It is therefore always
safer to reserve your discussions and corrections to the time when
you are alone with your girl or boy, and can place your conversation
on an intimate basis.

Hand in hand with spells of most irritating self-assertiveness, the
adolescent is subject to spells of most depressing humility and
self-abnegation. Indeed, at every point this period is marked by the
most violent contrasts and alterations of mood. Hours or days of
seeming indifference to all interests and activities will be
followed by keen excitement and enthusiasm. A fit of doubt in his
own ability and worthiness will be followed by almost ludicrous
self-confidence. A feverish desire for constant companionship will
follow a dull and moody search for seclusion and solitude. In
general it is perhaps wisest to ignore these changing moods, except
where they find their outlet in offensive or vicious conduct. We
must remember that it is just as trying to the young person as it is
to the older ones; and, while we may not be prepared to yield our
comfort and our standards to the whims of the girl or boy, we should
seek for adjustment through sympathetic exchange of ideas and
sentiments, and not through arbitrary rules. In any case, these
changing moods need not in themselves be considered occasions for
misgivings and worry about the future development, for they are part
and parcel of the rapid changes in the nervous system.

So complex is the character of this stage that volumes have been
written about it; it has been recorded in song and in literature,
and has been celebrated in religious ceremonials from ancient times.