Teenager Emotions – Some Intriguing Research

Being a teenager is difficult work — both for the teenager and those who surround them. Mixed within this tumultuous life event are their emotions — those effervescent expulsions that can sometimes leave us perplexed as to what just happened. Brain research may have a possible explanation.

Recent research points to the developing teenage brain and its inexperience at recognizing multiple emotions simultaneously as a possible reason for this sometimes bewildering display of fireworks. Learning and the Brain (one of my favourite sites to go looking for neat stuff related to learning) recently posted a blog by Andrew Watson which highlighted this fascinating research on teenager emotions.

Teenager Emotions Can Feel Like a Roller Coaster at Times

At the heart of the study is an analysis of why teenagers are so frustrating at times, especially when they are experiencing multiple emotions simultaneously.

The Amazing Power of Music

Music surrounded me in childhood. My parents encouraged me to include music as part of my educational experience. I took piano lessons; played a band instrument in elementary, junior high and high school; even participated in the chorus of a high school musical (Fiddler on the Roof). In university I had a part-time job teaching in a community marching band.

Music can relax us like few other things can

I found music relaxing — finding that it somehow satisfied an area within me that wasn’t been addressed through my academic studies. I felt calmer when I listened to music, played music or taught music — a different area of my brain was being exercised. And like our sense of smell that has been proven to have an incredibly powerful linkage to our emotions, when I became involved with music I somehow felt better.