06/10/15 - 06/11/15 Flashcards
What is Adolscnemse
A transitional period.
About 1/4 of youths
at risk for persistent psychological problems during adolescence.
Beginning of Adolescence
Demarcated by puberty, the process of Sexual Maturation.
Current cultural shift:
Delaying marriage, exclusive sexual relationships, procreation.
No specific year adolescence starts. TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE
Evolutionary Subconscious Drive
To promulgate your genes and ensure the …… of your offspring.
Give youth time to
Acquire new skills Continue brain growth Develop abstract reasoning Learn to navigate relationships Develop independence
H-P system secretes sex specific hormones:
: estrogen for females, testosterone for males.
Onset happening earlier in developed countries because of
Better diets
Better healthcare
Epigenetics?
Only 1 in 50,000 people never experience puberty (IHH). TRUE OR FALSE
True
Puberty actually begins before secondary sex characteristics show up. TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE
*BEFORE EXTERNAL BODY CHANGES
Girls experience:
menstruation, breast growth,
Boy:
genital growth, muscle mass increase, deepening of voice, facial hair, first ejaculation.
Differences or Male and Female Puberty:
Males have a steady linear increase in pubertal development on average.
Girls are typically mostly, if not fully, developed by the 9th grade.
Early matures (relative to peers) less likely to develop
Adequate coping skills
Less experience to navigate complex relationships, more likely to have older peers
Early puberty is also associated with reductions in
synaptic growth and lateralization.
Girls appear to be more affected by early puberty than boys.TRUE or FALSE
TRUE
Accentuation
Means innate traits are amplified during periods of transition
Transition
ambiguous social situation yet to be experienced.
Accentuation reduces
likelihood that what happens during a transition will reduce pre existing problem behavior (ex: foster care).
Effect of Hormones
Hormones lead to a certain amount of Unstable behaviors in pubescent youth.
Girls experience
and interpret stress readily
boys
seek risk and thrills.
Transition of puberty highly variable. Depends on:
What you already bring to the table biologically & the timing of your onset.
Adolescent coping often foreshadows quality and behavior of adult life. True or False
True
Life-course approach:
“knifed off” opportunities. Poor transition, poor academic/drop out, no college, poor job, poor social relationships, etc. cumulative disadvantage .
3-10%
of youth experience Severe Pathology and social failure during adolescence.
Experience, behavior , language, cognition all exert influence
on course of adolescence.
Remember!
Puberty entails more environments and mostly unrestricted ones
Adolescence:
chance to apply social competence to new territory (ex: dating)
Research shows t” hat youth who show “Planned competence”
lead to a path of social capital.
Maturation happens well into the 20s for certain brain areas . TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE
Grey matter density mostly maxed out by puberty.
TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE
Process of neural pruning and myelination occurring constantly.
TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE
Females have what percent more neurons in the grey areas of the brain.
11%
Adolescent Mood Swings
Executive functions not mastered yet.
Decision making more subject to immediate context (fleeting influence)
Explains biological underpinnings of the effectiveness of “peer pressure”
Adolescent Decision Making is Less efficient when:
Hot emotional states
A decision needs to be Immediate
Behavioral restraint is necessary for good outcomes
Cost/benefit estimation favors long-term negative consequences
In the presence of friends
