Adolescent Development

Question 1

What is adolescence?

Answer 1

Period between childhood and adulthood

Period of physical changes related to general maturity

Period of sexual, cognitive, social and emotional maturity

Question 2

What is puberty?

Answer 2

Period of sexual maturity

Question 3

When is adolescence?

Answer 3

Age between 10-19 according to WHO

Different answer depending on time and culture

Question 4

Why is adolescence considered a distinct biological stage?

Answer 4

Specific behaviours universal across cultures (risk taking, self-consciousness, peer influence, self-regulation)

Adolescent period in non-human animals (animals exhibit similar behaviours to human adolescents)

Evident across history

Question 5

What does it mean that in adolescence there is a move to formal operational thinking?

Answer 5

Ability to engage in abstract thinking, recognise other people’s mental stages and perspectives

Emerging ability to conceptualise thought of self others

Question 6

Which psychologist came up with the theory of adolescent egocentrism?

Answer 6

Elkind (1966)

Question 7

What is childhood egocentrism?

Answer 7

Oblivious to other people’s views

Question 8

What is adolescence egocentrism?

Answer 8

Aware of other people’s view but assume own views are universal, assume that what’s interesting to them is interesting to everyone

Question 9

What are the characteristics of adolescence egocentrism?

Answer 9

Focus on mental life becomes excessive

Imaginary audience

Illusion of transparency

Self-consciousness

Personal fable and private god

Risk-taking

Question 10

What does it mean that the focus of mental life becomes excessive?

Answer 10

Awareness that can reflect upon thoughts and feelings (i.e. metacognition)

Become more aware of one’s own inner world

Extreme preoccupation with one’s thoughts and feeling

Question 11

What is the imaginary audience?

Answer 11

False belief others scrutinising and observing everything about you the way you do

Negative and/or positive

Adolescent = centre of attention

Relate to physical and physiological transformation

Question 12

What is the illusion of transparency?

Answer 12

Feeling that everyone knows what you’re thinking or feeling

Overestimate degree that others can “read” you

Illusion that inner states and feelings “leak out” and can easily be detected

Stressful

Question 13

What is the self-consciousness in adolesence?

Answer 13

Imaginary audience responsible

Feel shame or seek privacy due to constant feeling of being observed and criticised

Question 14

What is the personal fable and private god?

Answer 14

Inflated notion of self-importance arising from false assumption that they are everyone’s centre of attention

Belief that one’s special or chosen so indestructible

Feeling placed on earth to fulfil special mission

Preferential relationship with private god that will protect them from harm

Question 15

What is risk-taking in adolescence?

Answer 15

Involved in risk-taking behaviours (substance abuse, dangerous activities, unprotected sex) and assume that can’t be harmed as have special status (and protected by divine force)

Question 16

How is adolescent egocentrism developed?

Answer 16

Become more aware of one’s own inner world

Realisation that thoughts are thoughts not reflection of reality

Thoughts come into focus as object of reflection

Excessive focus on one’s own mental life

Question 17

How does an adolescence move to adulthood?

Answer 17

Compare themselves to reality and realise not same

Experience stands in contrast with “theory” - that people are overly interested in us, etc

Clash between inner beliefs or predictions and reality

Question 18

What was the method of Somerville et al’s (2013) study into self-consciousness?

Answer 18

69 participants (8-22 years) completed fMRI scanning

During the scan, participants told that a camera was embedded in scanner

Didn’t complete any tasks

Camera cycled through three states
- OFF = resting state
- warming up = anticipation condition
- ON = evaluation condition

When camera was “on”, participants told peer of same age and sex was monitoring camera feed

Self-report questionnaire, brain activity and skin conductance measured

Question 19

What were the results of Somerville et al’s (2013) study into self-consciousness?

Answer 19

When thought they were observed, adolescents

Reported greater feelings of embarrassment compared to children and adults

Heightened levels of physiological response (skin conductance)

Greater brain activation in areas thought to be related to social cognition and emotion evaluation in adolescents (MPFC)

Adolescents were more self-conscious compared to other age groups
- self-consciousness related to age-depended sensitivity of brain systems

Question 20

What was the method of Weil et al’s (2013) study into the focus on mental life?

Answer 20

Investigated how metacognitive ability (reflect on one’s thoughts and behaviours) develops in adolescence

56 participants (11-41 years) performed a perceptual task (Gabor patches)

After each trial asked participants to rate their performance - how confident they were that they chose the right answer

Question 21

What were the results of Weil et al’s (2013) study into the focus on mental life?

Answer 21

Older participants better at judging own behaviours (adolescents)

In adults, about the same

In adolescents, females better than males at judging own performance

In adults, gender differences even out

Ability to identify accuracy levels in perceptual task (metacognitive ability) increased with age (young adolescents worst compared to late adolescents and adults)

Metacognitive ability may relate to increased egocentricity, sense of self and developing self-awareness

Question 22

What was the method of Alberts et al’s (2007) study into personal fable?

Answer 22

119 students (mean age = 13 years)

Measures = personal fable (invulnerability, speciality) and risk-taking

Questionnaire
- invulnerability = “I know I get away with a lot of stuff other kids get in trouble for”
- speciality = “When my parents or friends tell me that they know how I feel, I don’t believe that they really do”

Question 23

What were the results of Alberts et al’s (2007) study into personal fable?

Answer 23

Personal fable scores increased with age (adolescents scored higher compared to pre-adolescent students)

Males scored higher than females in invulnerability dimension of personal fable

Significant correlation between personal fable and risk-taking

Question 24

What is the “new look” model for the imaginary audience?

Answer 24

Imaginary audience and personal fable are adaptive coping mechanisms used by adolescents in their attempt to deal with stressful developmental aim of separation-individuation

Separating from family unit to become own individual

Galanaki and Christopoulos (2011)

Question 25

Does the imaginary audience account for sex differences?

Answer 25

No

Females might be more likely to have stronger social pressures and concerns, experience objectification, have more extreme focus on appearances and mental health issues

Question 26

What are the two theories for why adolescents engage in more risk-taking behaviours?

Answer 26

Social influence

Brain development

Question 27

What was the method of Knoll et al’s (2015) study on social influence on risk perception?

Answer 27

563 participants (children, adolescents, adults) presented with some risk scenarios and asked to rate how risky they were (crossing the street on a red light)

Participants then shown ratings of other people for same scenarios (teens or adults)

Participants then asked to re-rate scenarios

Question 28

What were the results of Knoll et al’s (2015) study on social influence on risk perception?

Answer 28

Initial ratings
- children rated scenarios as more risky compared to other age groups
- adolescents and adults didn’t differ in risk ratings

Social influence
- all age groups influenced by others’ ratings
- children and adults influenced more adult ratings
- adolescents more strongly influenced by other adolescent ratings

Question 29

What was Gardner and Steinberg’s (2005) study on peer influence on risk taking?

Answer 29

Three groups - adolescents, youths, adults

Task - driving simulation game, participants completed the task alone or in presence of a peer

Alone condition - all age groups took similar risks

Peer condition
- adolescents and young people took more risks compared to alone
- adults’ performance was the same

Findings consistent with the idea that peer acceptance and fitting in (i.e. social factor) may play crucial role in risk-taking behaviour in adolescents

Findings in line with real world data

Adolescents more likely to take risks in “hot contexts”

Question 30

What are “hot contexts”?

Answer 30

Situations where high emotional stakes

Question 31

How have risk-taking and the limbic system been shown to be related?

Answer 31

Adolescents show higher risk-taking behaviours than children and adults

Show higher sensitivity to reward than adults - linked to limbic system

Limbic system hypersensitive in adolescence

Highest sensitivity to reward may overshadow negative consequences - linked to personal fable

Question 32

What is the limbic system?

Answer 32

Collection of structures in brain related to emotion, memory, feelings of pleasure, reward

Question 33

What is the dual-system model?

Answer 33

Prefrontal regions associated with planning, decision-making, inhibitory control and general executive functioning still developing during adolescence

Overactive limbic system and underactive pre-frontal cortex

Hypersensitive limbic system coupled with later maturation of prefrontal cortex may be responsible for adolescent behaviour

Theory assumes adolescent characteristics such as risk-taking, sensation seeking and sensitivity to reward due to these brain development changes

Oversimplistic?