Adolescence Flashcards
Is what developmental period are 12-20 year olds?
Adolescence
Hormones produced by the adrenal glands that program various aspects of puberty, such as growth of body hair, skin changes, and sexual desire.
Androgens
When is formal operations established?
Late adolescence
What are the stages of conventional morality?
Stage 3: Interpersonal relationships (social norms)
Stage 4: Maintaining social order (law and order morality)
Define
Formal operational
Jean Piaget’s fourth and final stage of cognitive development, reached at around age 12, and characterized by teenagers’ ability to reason at an abstract, scientific level.
Jean Piaget’s fourth and final stage of cognitive development, reached at around age 12, and characterized by teenagers’ ability to reason at an abstract, scientific level.
Formal operational
What happens to the brain during puberty?
- Oversupply of grey matter that is later pruned
- Contributes to the growing cognitive abilities
- Prefrontal cortex undergoes considerable development
- Increasingly efficient in communicating with other parts of the brain
- Still immature in adolescence, developing into early adulthood
Imagine you are a college debater. Use your formal operational skills to argue first for and then against the proposition that society should try teens as adults.
Trying teens as adults. Pro arguments: Kohlberg’s theory clearly implies teens know right from wrong, so if teens knowingly do the crime, they should “do the time.” Actually, the critical dimension in deciding on adult punishment should be a person’s culpability—premeditation, seriousness of the infraction, and so on, not age. Con arguments: The research in this chapter shows that teens are indeed biologically and behaviorally different, so it is cruel to judge their behavior by adult standards. Moreover, if the U.S. bars young people from voting or serving in the military until age 18, and won’t let people buy alcohol until age 21, it’s unfair to put teens in adult prisons.
What are the pros of Piaget’s approach?
- Catalyst for much research
- Accounts for many changes observed during adolescence
- Help explain
- Developmental differences
- Multidimensionality
- Metacognition
When does formal operations emerge?
Early adolescence
What signals the start of adolescence?
Onset of pubertal maturation
Define
Primary sexual characteristics
Physical changes of puberty that directly involve the organs of reproduction, such as the growth of the penis and the onset of menstruation.
Define
Immigrant paradox
The fact that despite living in poverty, going to substandard schools, and not having parents who speak the language, many immigrant children do far better than we might expect in school.
In contrast to earlier times, give the main reason why our culture can’t celebrate puberty today?
Today, puberty occurs a decade or more before we can fully reach adult life.
Define
Growth spurt
A dramatic increase in height and weight that occurs during puberty.
In Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the intermediate level of moral reasoning, in which people respond to ethical issues by considering the need to uphold social norms.
Conventional morality
What signals the end of adolescence?
Change in social role and responsibilities, just after teenage years
The timing of puberty can have implications for social functioning. Examples of these in female who have early onset include:
- Physical bodily changes (e.g. breast development) may lead to feeling uncomfortable and different from peers
- Might experience ridicule from less mature peers
- Tend to be sought after more as potential dates, and popularity may enhance their self-concepts
Antisocial behavior that, for most teens, is specific to adolescence and does not persist into adult life.
Adolescence-limited turmoil
What is the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex responsible for?
Medial = Social cognition
Lateral = Cognitive control
Which of Piaget’s cognitive development stages are reached during adolescence?
Formal operational
By, adolescence, the individual has reached ____________ Piaget’s stage of development, and the consider cases in terms of broader issues e.g. “stealing may be acceptable if you are following your own conscience and do the right thing”
By, adolescence, the individual has reached formal operational Piaget’s stage of development, and the consider cases in terms of broader issues e.g. “stealing may be acceptable if you are following your own conscience and do the right thing”
What biological event occurs that signals the beginning of puberty?
When the pituitary gland signals other glands in the body to begin producing sex hormones at adult levels
Based on their cognitive capacities school-aged children tend to think in terms of what regarding morals?
- Concrete unvarying rules e.g. “it is always wrong to steal” and “I’ll be punished if I steal”
- Rules of society e.g. “good people don’t steal” and “what if everyone stole?”
the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult
Adolescence
A small peer group composed of roughly six teenagers who have similar attitudes and who share activities.
Cliques
A boy’s first ejaculation of live sperm.
Spermarche
any of a group of steroid hormones which promote the development and maintenance of female characteristics of the body.
Estrogens
Define
Life-course difficulties
Antisocial behavior that, for a fraction of adolescents, persists into adult life.
Antisocial behavior that, for a fraction of adolescents, persists into adult life.
Life-course difficulties
A girl’s first menstruation.
Menarche
The fact that despite living in poverty, going to substandard schools, and not having parents who speak the language, many immigrant children do far better than we might expect in school.
Immigrant paradox
Based simply on knowing a child’s puberty timetable, spell out who is most at risk of getting into trouble (e.g., with drugs or having unprotected sex) as a teen.
An early maturing girl
In Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the lowest level of moral reasoning, in which people approach ethical issues by considering the personal punishments or rewards of taking a particular action.
Preconventional morality
Define
Adolescent egocentrism
David Elkind’s term for the tendency of young teenagers to feel that their actions are at the center of everyone else’s consciousness.
The sex organs—the ovaries in girls and the testes in boys.
Gonads
Define
Propositional logic
the branch of logic that studies ways of joining and/or modifying entire propositions, statements or sentences to form more complicated propositions, statements or sentences, as well as the logical relationships and properties that are derived from these methods of combining or altering statements
What are the three levels of Kholberg’s moral reasoning?
Preconventional morality
Conventional morality
Postconventional morality
The timing of puberty can have implications for social functioning. Examples of these in males who have late onset include:
- Tend to be viewed as less attractive
- Disadvantage when it comes to sports and social activities
- Decline in self-concept
- They are more insightful and assertive,
- They are more creatively playful than early maturers
The main hormonal system programming puberty; it involves a triggering hypothalamic hormone that causes the pituitary gland to secrete its hormones, which in turn cause the ovaries and testes to develop and secrete the hormones that produce major body changes.
HPG axis
Define
Personal fables
David Elkind’s term for the tendency of young teenagers to believe that their lives are special and heroic; a component of adolescent egocentrism.
Define
Conventional morality
In Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the intermediate level of moral reasoning, in which people respond to ethical issues by considering the need to uphold social norms.
There has been a rise in teenage crimes in your town, and you are at a community meeting to explore solutions. Given what you know about the teenage mind, which two interventions should you definitely support?
a) Push the state legislature to punish teenage offenders as adults. Let them pay for their crimes!
b) Encourage the local high school to expand its menu of arts classes.
c) Think about postponing the beginning of the school day to 10 a.m.
b and c
You are on an international advisory committee charged with developing programs to help children cope emotionally with puberty. What recommendations might you make?
Possible recommendations: Pay special attention to providing nurturing schools in sixth and seventh grade. Push for more adequate, “honest” puberty education at a younger age, possibly in a format—such as on-line—where children can talk anonymously about their concerns. Institute a public awareness program encouraging parents to talk about puberty with a same-sex child. Encourage mothers to speak positively about menstruation and have dads discuss events such as spermarche with sons. Make everyone alert to the dangers associated with being an early-maturing girl and develop formal interventions targeted to this “at-risk” group. Institute sensitive, school-based “respect your body” discussions—based on the UNESCO guidelines—for children beginning in the early elementary school years.
A century-long decline in the average age at which children reach puberty in the developed world.
Secular trend in puberty
In Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the highest level of moral reasoning, in which people respond to ethical issues by applying their own moral guidelines apart from society’s rules.
Postconventional morality
