Psychology

wtfbm69

Ch1112Lecture.pdf

Home >Business & Finance homework help >Management homework help >Psychology

11/3/2016

Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

11/3/2016

Storm and Stress

• Adolescence is a troubling time for teens and parents to endure.

• Originates with the work of G. Stanley Hall – “the father of adolescence”.

• Adolescence is a period of “storm and stress,” a universal and inevitable upheaval triggered by puberty and comprising ages 14 to 24.

Contemporary Perspective of Adolescence

• Adolescence may be stormy and/or stressful for some, it is not typically a developmental problem, nor is it inevitable or universal

11/3/2016

Adolescent Moodiness

• A popular hallmark of adolescence.

• Early in puberty, the rapid increase and fluctuation in hormones causes erratic and powerful shifts in adolescents’ emotions and behaviors.

– However, researchers have found that the relationship between pubertal hormones and adolescent mood is weak and inconsistent.

Puberty

• The biological transition to adulthood.

• Adolescents mature physically and become capable of reproduction.

• Puberty is accompanied by social changes.

– Treated more like adults.

– New roles, expectations, and status.

• Hormonal changes begin in late childhood (age 8 or 9); takes about four years to complete (range 1 to 7 years).

11/3/2016

Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Gonadal Axis (HPG)

• Regulates the hormones that drive puberty, growth, appetite, responses to stress, and sexual response.

Hypothalamus

• Hypothalamus (think homeostasis)

– A region at the base of the brain that is responsible for maintaining basic body functions such as eating, drinking, temperature, and the production of hormones

– Signals the pituitary gland

11/3/2016

Pituitary Gland

• Located adjacent to the hypothalamus.

• Produces hormones that stimulate the adrenal glands.

– The adrenal glands are located above the kidneys and regulate the body’s response to stress via the secretion of epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).

• Releases GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone) which causes the gonads to mature, enlarge, and in turn to begin producing hormones.

Gonads

• Also known as sex glands – Ovaries in females

– Testes in males

• Hormones – Testosterone = responsible for males sex

characteristics (produced a a much higher rate in boys than girls)

– Estrogen = responsible for female sex characteristics (produced at a much higher rate in girls than boys)

11/3/2016

Figure 11.1: Hypothalamus-

Pituitary-Gonadal Axis

Gender Differences in Timing of Puberty

• Boys

– Enter puberty at about 12 years of age (range 9 to 16)

• Girls

– Enter puberty at about 8 to 10 years of age (up to age 14); may show breast and pubic hair growth as early as 6 or 7 years of age

11/3/2016

Ethnic Differences in Puberty

• African American girls tend to be heavier and enter puberty about a year earlier than European American girls

Adolescent Growth Spurt

• A rapid gain in height and weight that generally begins in girls at about age 10 (range 9.5 to 14.5) and in boys at about age 12 (range 10.5 to 16); lasts about two years.

• Girls begin their growth spurt about two years before boys.

• Boys puberty with an extra two years of prepubertal growth on which the adolescent growth spurt builds, leading boys to end up taller than girls.

11/3/2016

Table 11.1: Sequence of Physical Changes With Puberty

Secondary Sex Characteristics

• The body changes that indicate physical maturation but are not directly related to fertility.

– Breast development

– Deepening of the voice

– Growth of body hair

– Changes in the skin

11/3/2016

Primary Sex Characteristics

• The reproductive organs

• Females

– Ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, and vagina

• Males

– Penis, testes, scrotum, seminal vesicles, and prostate gland

Menarche

• The first menstruation in females.

• Occurs toward the end of puberty, after the peak of the height spurt (commonly between the ages of 10 and 14, but as late as 16.5).

• In North America, the average European American girl experiences menarche shortly before turning 13; the average African American girl shortly after turning 12.

11/3/2016

Spermarche

• The first ejaculation in males.

• Occurs at about age 13.

• Typically occurs as a nocturnal emission (wet dream).

Factors Related to Pubertal Timing

• Genes – The age at which a mother experiences menarche is

related to the timing of her daughter’s menarche; identical twins experience menarche at roughly the same time.

• Critical level of body weight – Leptin (a protein found in fat) may stimulate the HPA axis

to increase the production and secretion of hormones.

• Social contexts – Stress, single-parenting, male presence, father absence,

SES.

11/3/2016

Secular Trend • The lowering of the average age of puberty with each generation

Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty: Early Maturation

• Early maturing girls (before age 8)

– Feel less positive about their bodies, physical appearance, and menstruation; at risk for negative psychosocial outcomes.

• Early maturing boys (before age 9)

– Advantageous because of the physical advantages for athletic activities; seen as athletic, popular with peers, school leaders, and confident.

11/3/2016

Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty: Late Maturation

• Late maturing girls (after age 13) – Protective effect on girls with regard to depression

• Late maturing boys (after age 14) – May experience more social and emotional

difficulties; may be less well liked by their peers and may be more likely than their peers to experience a poor body image, overall body dissatisfaction, and depression during early adolescence

Puberty and Sleep Patterns

• Delayed phase preference

– The change in adolescents’ sleep patterns and preferred sleep schedule

– Triggered by a change in the nightly release of the hormone melatonin (hormone that influences sleep) resulting in an onset of sleep about two hours later for adolescents who have experienced puberty

• Adolescents need about nine hours of sleep each night to support healthy development

11/3/2016

Brain Development in Adolescence

• A second burst of synaptogenesis occurs, resulting in a rapid increase of connections among neurons

• The volume of the cerebral cortex increases (peaking at about 10.5 in girls and 14.5 in boys)

• Neural connections are pruned by experience and synaptic pruning occurs at an accelerated rate during adolescence

• Prefrontal cortex development

Prefrontal Cortex

• Connections between the prefrontal cortex and various brain regions strengthen resulting in:

– Rapid communication between neurons

– Enhanced cognitive functioning

– Greater behavioral control

11/3/2016

Figure 11.3: Developmental Changes in Gray and White Matter Across Adolescence

Leads to steady increases in the brain’s white matter, especially in the prefrontal cortex and the corpus callosum.

Socioemotional Perception

• Adolescents’ brains do not always lead them to accurately assess situations

– Adolescents have difficulty identifying emotions depicted in facial expressions

11/3/2016

Risk Taking

• In early adolescence, the balance of neurotransmitters shifts

– At 9 to 10 years of age, the prefrontal cortex and limbic system experience a marked shift in levels of serotonin and dopamine (neurotransmitters that are associated with impulsivity, novelty seeking, and reward salience)

• Response inhibition is closely associated with risky activity

• Risky activity is thought to decline in late adolescence

Formal Operational Reasoning

• The ability to think abstractly, logically, and systematically – Adolescents reason about ideas, possibilities that

do not exist in reality

• Occurs at about 11 years of age

• Involves hypothetical-deductive reasoning – The ability to consider problems, generate and

systematically test hypotheses, and draw conclusions

11/3/2016

Figure 11.6: Measuring Formal Operations: The

Pendulum Task

Tests children and adolescents’ abilities to use scientific reasoning to solve a problem with multiple solutions.

Information Processing Perspective

• Improvements in attention, memory, knowledge base, and speed

– Selective attention

– Increases in working memory

– Advances in response inhibition

– Metacognition development and scientific reasoning

– Maturation of the prefrontal cortex

– Myelination

11/3/2016

Adolescent Egocentrism • Errors in reasoning and lapses in judgment are

evidenced in the emergence of adolescent egocentrism and changes in decision-making ability

• Imaginary audience

– Adolescents misdirect their own preoccupation about themselves on to others and assume that they are the focus of others’ attention

• Personal fable

– Adolescents’ belief that they are special, unique, and invulnerable

Decision Making

• A rational process in which, when faced with a decision, people follow several steps

1. Identify decision options

2. Identify the potential positive and negative consequences for each option

3. Estimate how likely each potential outcome is

4. Rate how desirable each outcome is

5. Combine all of this information to make a decision

11/3/2016

Figure 11.7: Influences on

Adolescent Decision Making

Postconventional Moral Reasoning

• According to Kohlberg, in adolescence, people become capable of demonstrating the most advanced moral thinking which entails autonomous decision making from moral principles that value respect for individual rights above all else

• Self-chosen principles of fairness and justice may sometimes conflict with the law

• Two stages: Stage 5 and Stage 6

11/3/2016

Stages in Postconventional Reasoning: Stage 5 – Social Contract Orientation

• Individuals view laws and rules as flexible and part of the social contract or agreement meant to further human interests.

• Laws and rules are to be followed as they bring good to people, but laws can be changed if they are inconsistent with the needs and rights of the majority.

• Sometimes, if laws are unjust (harm more people than they protect), they can be broken.

Stages in Postconventional Reasoning: Stage 6 – Universal Ethical Principles

• The most advanced moral reasoning

• Abstract ethical principles that are universal, valid for all people regardless of law, such as equality and respect for human dignity

• Concerns about human rights take precedence over laws and social rules

11/3/2016

Factors That Influence Moral Reasoning

• High-quality parent-child relationships predict advanced moral reasoning

• Reasoning advances when adolescents have opportunities to engage in discussions involving mutual perspective taking

• Children’s reasoning advances when parents encourage their children to take different points of view

• Close friendships in which they engage in deep conversations impacts advanced moral reasoning

Moral Reasoning and Behavior

• Reasoning is only moderately related with behavior. – People often behave in ways they know they should

not.

• Advances in moral reasoning result in adolescents behaving in ways that are in line with their beliefs. – Higher levels of moral reasoning = more likely to share

with and help others; less likely to engage in antisocial behaviors such as cheating, aggression, or delinquency.

11/3/2016

School Transitions

• Today’s students make more school changes, transitions, than ever before

• Middle schools are designed to provide more flexibility and autonomy than elementary schools while encouraging strong ties to adults

• In middle schools, active learning take advantage of and stimulates young adolescents’ emerging capacities for abstract reasoning

Impact of School Transitions

• Academic motivation and achievement often suffers during school transitions

– For most students, these adjustment difficulties are temporary

• School transitions are often experienced as stressful because environments, teachers, standards, support, and peers shift with each transition

11/3/2016

Stage-Environment Fit

• Negative effects of school transitions occur when there is little stage-environment fit

– The organization and characteristics of middle school often do not fit young adolescents’ needs

Parenting and Academic Competence

• Close parent-adolescent relationships serve as an important buffer to academic motivation and performance from childhood through adolescence for young people at all levels of socioeconomic status.

• Authoritarian parenting style and permissive parenting style are associated with poor academic performance.

• Adolescents with uninvolved parents tend to show the most poor school grades.

11/3/2016

Impact of Authoritative Parenting on Academic Achievement

• Adolescents feel valued, respected, and encouraged to think for themselves

• Parents can promote high academic achievement in middle and high school students by being active and involved

– Knowing their teens’ teachers

– Monitoring progress

– Ensuring that their teens are taking challenging and appropriate classes

– Expressing high expectations

11/3/2016

Socioemotional Development in Adolescence

The Changing Self

• Self-Concept

– Major developmental task of adolescence: Construct a more complex, differentiated, and organized self-concept.

– Adolescents learn that they can describe themselves in multiple ways that often are contradictory and that they show different aspects of themselves to different people.

11/3/2016

The Changing Self

• Self-Concept

– Ideal Self: The self that adolescents aspire to be, which is characterized by traits that they value.

– Actual Self: Adolescents’ personal characteristics.

• Mismatches between ideal and actual selves are associated academic and socioemotional difficulties.

The Changing Self

• Self-Concept

– Self-concept is influenced by experiences in the home, school, and community.

– A strong connection to one’s ethnic group is also important.

11/3/2016

The Changing Self

• Self-Esteem

– Global self-esteem: An overall evaluation of self- worth.

• Tends to decline at about 11 years of age, reaching its lowest point at about 12 or 13 and then rises.

• Declines are associated with school transitions.

The Changing Self

• Self-Esteem

– Adolescents develop a positive sense of self- esteem when they evaluate themselves favorably in the areas that they view as important.

• Sports

• Physical appearance

• Academics

11/3/2016

The Changing Self

• Self-Esteem

– Why is self-esteem in adolescence important?

• Favorable self-evaluations: positive adjustment and sociability in adolescents of all SES and ethnic groups.

• Low self-esteem: adjustment difficulties and depression, outcomes that can persist into adulthood.

The Changing Self

• Identity – Identity achievement represents the successful

resolution of this process, establishing a coherent sense of self after exploring a range of possibilities.

– In establishing a sense of identity, individuals must consider their past and future, and come to a sense of their values, beliefs, and goals with regard to vocation, politics, religion, and sexuality.

11/3/2016

Table 12.1: Identity Status

The Changing Self

• Identity

– Identity statuses reflect different ways of viewing and responding to the world.

• Foreclosed: Tend to be inflexible and view the world in black and white, right and wrong, terms.

• Diffusion: Pervasive uncertainty.

• Moratorium: Exploration, which tends to increase during adolescence, peaks at about age 19, and then declines.

11/3/2016

The Changing Self

• Identity

– Outcomes

• Achievement and Moratorium: positive functioning, mature sense of self, prosocial behavior, and capacity for romantic attachments. – Moratorium can also be associated with anxiety.

The Changing Self

• Identity

– Outcomes

• Foreclosed and Diffused: associated with passivity and maladaptive long-term outcomes. – Diffused is the least mature form of identity.

11/3/2016

The Changing Self • Identity

– A strong sense of ethnic identity helps young people to reject negative views of their culture that are based on stereotypes.

– Ethnic minority adolescents often face challenges to the development of identity, with many finding it difficult to develop a feeling of cultural belonging and personal goals.

– Discrimination also affects ethnic minority adolescents.

– Identity achievement, parental encouragement, and peer acceptance predicts favorable outcomes.

Adolescents and Their Families

• Parent-Adolescent Conflict

– Rises in early adolescence and peaks in middle adolescence.

• Generally declines in late adolescence.

• Conflict is normal and the majority of adolescents and parents remain close.

– Most conflict centers on mundane matters, such as household responsibilities, privileges and relationships.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Families

• Parent-Adolescent Conflict

– Although conflict is a natural part of development, relationships that are very high in conflict and low in acceptance are harmful to adolescent development.

• In most cases of severe conflict, the parent-child relationship difficulties began in childhood.

• Elevated rates of conflict are linked poor developmental outcomes.

Adolescents and Their Families

• Parenting Style and Monitoring

– Across ethnic and socioeconomic groups, authoritative parenting contributes to favorable outcomes.

• In some cultures, authoritarian parenting is associated with positive outcomes.

– Permissive or lax parenting interferes with the development of self-regulatory skills.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Families

• Parenting Style and Monitoring

– Parent-child relationships develop within the context of routine family activities.

– Parental monitoring is associated with academic achievement, overall well-being, and reduced sexual activity, and deters delinquent activity and substance use in youth of all ethnicities.

Adolescents and Their Peers

• In early adolescence, time with parents declines as time spent with friends increases.

– Unsupervised time with peers increases throughout adolescence.

• Each week adolescents spend up to one-third of their waking, non-school hours with friends.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Friendships

– The typical adolescent has 4-6 close friends.

– Friendships are characterized by intimacy, self- disclosure, and trust.

– Cooperation, sharing, and affirmation are also important.

– Close, stable friendships aid adolescent adjustment.

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Friendships

– Gender Differences

• Boys: engage in joint activities, such as sports and competitive games.

• Girls: thrive in dyadic interactions and often spend time talking, sharing thoughts and feelings, and supporting each other.

• Close friendships can fuel relational aggression, which is especially common among girls.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Friendships

– In early adolescence, friendships can be unstable, with young people regularly losing friends and making new friendships.

– High quality friendships characterized by sharing, intimacy, and open communication tend to endure over time.

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Friendships

– Other sex friendships become more common in adolescence, increasing gradually in early adolescence and continuing through high school.

– Friends tend to be similar in demographics, psychological, and developmental characteristics.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Cliques and Crowds

– Cliques: tightly knit peer groups, of about 5-7 members who are close friends.

• Tend to be similar in demographics and attitudes.

• Cliques establish norms that derive from interactions among group members.

• By mid-adolescence, cliques become mixed and form the basis for dating.

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Cliques and Crowds

– Crowds: Adolescents classify their peers based on perceived similarities in characteristics, interests, and reputation.

– Membership is based on an adolescents’ image or reputation among peers; members may or may not interact with one another.

– Decline in late adolescence.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Applying Developmental Science: Popularity

– Popular children: Receive many peer nominations of likeability and experience high levels of peer acceptance.

• Have a variety of positive characteristics.

• Perceived popularity: Peer ratings of an adolescent’s social status—social dominance, influence, and prestige in the peer group.

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Applying Developmental Science: Popularity

– Perceived popular teens demonstrate both positive and negative qualities.

• Can be some of the most aggressive members of the peer group.

• Linked to high-risk behaviors, such as alcohol use and sexual activity.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Peer Conformity

– The pressure to conform to peers rises in early adolescence, peaks at about age 14 and declines through age 18 and after.

– U.S. teens tend to feel greatest pressure from peers to conform to day to day activities and personal choices such as choice of clothes and music, appearance.

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Peer Conformity

– Although peers pressure friends into risky activities, they also pressure their friends to engage in prosocial, positive behaviors.

– Adolescents often show more deviant behavior as a group than as individuals.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Factors that Contribute to Peer Pressure

– Age

– Personal characteristics

– Parenting

– Context

Figure 12.1: Age Differences in Resistance to Peer Influence

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Lives in Context: Cyber Bullying – Cyber bullying: Aggressive acts against a victim by

using electronic means.

– Between 5%-20% of teens experience cyber bullying during a school year.

– Unique challenges: • Difficulty of escape

• Large audience

• Invisible

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Lives in Context: Cyber Bullying

– Up to 25% of adolescents engage in cyber bullying.

– The majority of victims of cyber bullying also experience bullying at school.

– Most victims do not tell adults; only 1/3 tell friends.

– Consequences include: distress, anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem, social withdrawal, and poor academic achievement.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Dating

– Most young people have at least one romantic relationship by middle adolescence; by age 18, 80% of young people have some dating experience.

– Early relationships (ages 12-14) tend to be brief.

– By age 16, the average relationship continues for nearly 2 years.

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Dating

– Varies by culture and influenced by earlier interactions with parents and peers.

– Purpose of dating changes with age, beginning with the desire for popularity and later for the fulfillment of needs for intimacy, support, and affection.

– Early dating is associated with risky behaviors.

11/3/2016

Adolescents and Their Peers

• Lives in Context: Adolescent Dating Violence

– Dating violence: Actual or threatened physical or sexual violence or psychological abuse directed toward a current or former boyfriend/girlfriend or dating partner.

• Between 10%-60% of high school students have been victimized by dating violence. – Both males and females perpetuate dating violence at roughly

equal rates.

Adolescent Sexuality

• Sexuality: Feelings about oneself, appraisals of the self, attitudes and behaviors

• Sexual Activity – Declining among U.S. teens.

– 34% of high school students reported being sexually active within the last 3 months. • African-American high school students are more likely

to be sexually active than their White and Hispanic counterparts.

11/3/2016

Figure 12.3: Percent of High School Students who are Sexually Active

Adolescent Sexuality

• Most young people have sexual intercourse for the first time at about age 17.

• Adolescents are about as likely to engage in oral sex as vaginal intercourse.

• Early sexual activity (before age 15) is associated with a diverse range of negative outcomes.

11/3/2016

Figure 12.2: Sexual Initiation During Adolescence

Adolescent Sexuality

• Risk Factors for Early Sexual Activity – Early pubertal maturation

– Poor parental monitoring

– Poor parent-adolescent communication

– Poor school performance

– Perceived parental attitudes as permissive toward sexual activity

– Sexually active peers • Many warning signs appear in early and middle childhood.

11/3/2016

Adolescent Sexuality

• Preventing Early Sexual Activity

– Parent-child communication about sex

– Authoritative parenting

– Regularly shared family activities

– Parental monitoring and knowledge

– Having friends who are not yet sexually active

– Limited exposure to sexual media and other sexual content

Adolescent Sexuality

• Sexting is becoming increasingly common, with an estimated 7-15% of adolescents sharing naked photos or videos of themselves.

– Higher rates among females and older youth.

– Associated with risky sexual activity, substance use, depression, and low self-esteem.

11/3/2016

Adolescent Sexuality