Adolescent Development 2 Flashcards

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1
Q

outline experimental evidence for the ‘self consciousness’ aspect of adolescent development
(Somerville et al., 2013)

A
  • Wanted to see whether teenagers are more self conscious compared to children and adults
  • Used fMRI machine
  • Ppts entered scanner that would record brain activity
  • Ppts told camera was embedded in scanner observing them throughout the time spent
  • Ppts told they were doing this experiment to check whether camera is working
  • camera would cycle through 3 settings
  • off, warming up, on
  • off = resting state
  • warming up = anticipation condition
  • on = evaluation condition
  • when camera was on, ppt told peer of same age and sex was observing camera feed
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2
Q

(Somerville et al., 2013) what were the three camera settings?

A
  • camera would cycle through 3 settings
  • off, warming up, on
  • off = resting state
  • warming up = anticipation condition
  • on = evaluation condition
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3
Q

(Somerville et al., 2013) what were the three ways of measuring self-consciousness?

A
  • brain activity data
  • self-report questionnaire data
    asked ppts how self-conscious they felt in scanner
  • physiological responses
    measuring how much ppts sweated in scanner
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4
Q

(Somerville et al., 2013) what were the findings of this study

A

self-report
- 13-21 reported higher level of self-consciousness/embarrassment compared to adults and children

physiological
- teenagers had heightened levels of physiological response

brain activity
- greater brain activity in areas related to social cognition and emotions

adolescence were more self-conscious compared to other age groups

self-consciousness may be related to age-dependent sensitivity of brain systems

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5
Q

outline experimental evidence for ‘focus on mental life becomes excessive’ aspect of adolescent development
(metacognitive abilities)
(Weil et al., 2013)

A
  • study looks at how metacognitive abilities develop
  • sample = children, adolescents, adults (11-41)
  • asked to perform perceptual task
  • after each trial they were asked to rate how confident they were that they chose right answer in task
  • the test of metacognitive ability comes from how accurate ppts were at judging their own performance

FINDINGS:
- ability to identify how accurate ppt was at perception task increases with age
- meaning metacognitive ability increases with age

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6
Q

How does Weil et al. (2013) findings also suggest that adolescents are more self-conscious?

A

adolescents could be more self-conscious as they have an emergence of these metacognitive abilities and a developing of self-awareness

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7
Q

outline experimental evidence for ‘personal fable’ aspect of adolescent development
(Alberts et al., 2007)

A
  • 119 students (mean age of 13)
  • investigated personal fable and risk-taking
  • believed that there were two dimensions to personal fable
  • invulnerability: able to get away with things others can’t
  • specialty: feeling of being special, not like anyone else

FINDINGS:
- personal fable scores increased with age
- the younger adolescence had lower scores compared to older teenagers

  • significant positive correlation between personal fable and risk-taking
  • suggesting that as they get older, the more they develop this personal fable
  • the more one person thought they were indestructible, the more willing to take risks
  • consistent with Elkind’s adolescent egocentrism
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8
Q

What does the ‘new look’ model suggest about imaginary audience and personal fable?

A

believes that imaginary audience = adaptive coping mechanisms for teenagers to deal with big changes going on in their lives

big changed can include developmental and social changes

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9
Q

What does the imaginary audience theory not account for?

A
  • does not account for sex differences
  • females during adolescence more likely to have stronger social pressures, concerns, extreme focus on appearance
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10
Q

what 2 factors explain why adolescents engage in more risk-taking behaviour than children and adults?

A
  1. social influence
  2. brain development
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11
Q

How does social influence explain why adolescents engage in more risk-taking behaviour than children and adults?
(Knoll et al., 2015)

A
  • 563 ppts (3 groups children, adolescents, adults) were presented with risky scenarios
  • Asked to rate how risky these scenarios were
  • Ppts then shown rating of other people for same scenario
  • Ppts then asked to re-rate the risk scenarios

FINDINGS:

  • Initial rating showed children rated scenarios as more risky compared other age groups
  • Adolescents and adults did not differ in risk ratings
  • After being shown what other peers rated risky scenarios, asked to re-evaluate their rating (these other peer ratings were faked)
  • Found that all age groups were influenced by others’ ratings
  • Children and adults influences more by adult ratings
  • Adolescents were more strongly influenced by other adolescent ratings
  • adolescence understand risk but are willing to change this based on what peers think
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12
Q

How does social influence explain why adolescents engage in more risk-taking behaviour than children and adults?
(Steinberg, 2005)

A
  • Three group (Adolescents, youths and adults)
  • Task involved participating in a driving simulation game
  • Ppts completed this either alone or with presence of peer

FINDINGS:
- Alone = all age groups took similar risks
- Peer was present = adolescents and young people took MORE risks compared to alone
- Adults performance was the same

this is consistent with idea that peer acceptance and fitting in can play crucial role in risk-taking behaviour

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13
Q

How does brain development explain why adolescents engage in more risk-taking behaviour than children and adults?

Limbic System

A
  • adolescence show higher risk behaviour than children and adults
  • adolescence also showed higher sensitivity to reward
  • this may be related to limbic system
  • limbic system hyperactive in adolescence (more than adults)
  • hyperactive limbic system –> high sensitivity to reward
  • high sensitivity to reward may cause adolescent to overlook the risk that comes with engaging in risky behaviour
    e.g.: the pleasure that comes with smoking a cigarette may overshadow the risk involved in this behaviour
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14
Q

What is the limbic system?

A

structure in the brain related to emotion, memory, feelings or pleasure, reward

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15
Q

How does brain development explain why adolescents engage in more risk-taking behaviour than children and adults?

Dual System Model

A
  • dual system model hypothesis suggests prefrontal regions of brain are still developing during adolescence
  • the limbic system = hyperactive
  • imbalance between logical reasoning and reward system leads to risk-taking behaviours
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16
Q

What areas of the prefrontal regions of the brain associated with?

A
  • cognition
  • planning
  • decision making
  • executive functioning
17
Q

What are some issues with the dual-system model?

A
  • over-simplistic
  • not all evidence is consistent with this model