Chapter 6: Adolescence Flashcards
What is adolescence
Period of transition between childhood and adulthood and seen as developmental bridge between being a child and becoming an adult
What physical development takes place during adolescence
Rapid physical growth and sexual maturation initiated by secretions of somatotropin (growth hormone) and gonadotropin (sex hormone).
Somatotropin initiates bodily growth while gonadotropin stimulates the gonads which are testes in males and overvies in females to secrete male and female sex hormones.
The male sex hormone known as androgen where androsterone and testosterone are important while small amount of oestrogen also secreted by male. The female sex hormone is estrogens. Androgen and estrogen are responsible for development of primary and secondary sexual characteristics
Primary sexual characteristics refer to sex organs and secondary sexual characteristics refer to distinguishing Male and female characteristics
What happens during adolescence growth spurt
Growth spurt if girls on AVE begins at 10-13 years and end at 16 yrs or later. Boys begins at 12-15 and ends at 18 yrs or later.
The disproportionate growth tempo of different body parts is known as asynchrony. The first parts to show rapid growth are legs arms hand and foot. The torso then starts to lengthen.
When growth tempo of skeleton starts decreasing body mass and muscle development begin to increase and long legged stage ends. In girls body contours become more rounded whereas boys become more angular.
What is sexual maturation and when does it occur
Sexual maturation known as puberty usually occuring between 16&18 where people react their adult height and become taller than previous called secular trend.
Sexual maturation in girls begin when sex organs such as ovaries uterus vagina labia and clitoris begin to enlarge while secondary sex characteristics start developing. Breasts buds usual first sign following bodily hair and broadening of hips
Most dramatic and symbolic is menarche or first menstruation.
Initiation rite of female circumcisions or female genital mutilation. Clitoridoctomy involves splitting or removal of clitoral hood a fold of skin that surrounds and protects clitoris. Clitoridectomy involves partial or total removal of clitoris. Infibulation refers to partial or total removal of all external genitalia and stitching together of vaginal opening.
Explain sexual maturation in boys
Begins when reproductive system starts developing. Testes and scrotum start to enlarge and later in the penis to. Secondary characteristics like pubic hair develop deepening of voice beard grows.
Symbolic sign of sexual maturation being the spermarche or semenarche which is the first semenal discharge.
Male circumcision involves partial or complete removal of foreskin of penis.
What are the psychological effects of physical development in boys and girls
Those maturing earlier tend to be more self controlled efficient self confident level headed. Have better body image and higher self esteem.
Those maturing later tend to be less attractive less well balanced more tense and anxious with poorer academic achievement. Have greater need for encouragement sympathy from other boys.
Early maturation for boys seems more advantageous while for girls late maturation seems more beneficial.
Girls who mature late usually perceived physically attractive lively and sociable and more popular than those maturing early.
Discuss body image and eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia
Characteristics of anorexia nervosa:
- Body weight below ave usually 15% below ave
- Self induced vomiting self induced purging excessive exercise use of appetite suppressant and diuretics
- Severely distorted body image where patients genuinely view as obese while being very skinny
- Mental condition like depression anxiety and bulimia
- Physical symptoms like excessive growth of fine hair
- Menstrual problems like amenorrhea are common.
Bulimia nervosa characterised by repeated episodes of binge eating during which person consumes excessive amount of food following by compensatory action to prevent weight gain like self induced vomiting and use of laxatives.
Discuss adolescent sexuality
Sexual orientation refers to dominant sexual behaviour pattern of persons specifically a preference for sexual activity with persons of same (homosexuality) or opposite (heterosexuality) sex or both (bi sexuality).
Evaluate adolescent sexual behaviour
Autoerotic behavior refers to self stimulation specifically sexual behaviour that occurs without presence of another person. Masturbation meaning manual stimulation of sex organs is first sexual experience.
Interactive sexual activities # early sexual maturation # peer group pressure # changed values attitudes and media
What is teenage pregnancy and it’s effects
Teen pregnancy is result of high risk sexual behaviour poor parental control family disintegration inadequate sexuality education a tendency to not use contraception and decline in importance society places in sex as a value norm.
Reason for teen pregnancy include
Family disorganisation
Rapid urbanisation and westernisation
Poor socioeconomic situations low educational status and low status of women.
Family and social practices
Poor sexual communication between parents and adolescents
What are possible causes of homosexuality
Children raised by homosexual adoptive parents don’t tend to grow up to be homosexual showing environment in case of modelling doesn’t seem to play role in cases.
In identical twins about 1/3 chance that if one is homosexual the other will be to. In unidentical twins the chance is less than 1/3
Environmental factors associated with homosexuality are sometimes absent but condition still manifests itself.
Abnormal prenatal hormone levels can influence sexual behaviour where testosterone may musculise female behavior and oestrogen may feminise male behavior.
Discuss the cognitive development of adolescence
The continued maturation of the prefrontal cortex is associated with ability to reject irrelevant info formulate complex hypothetical arguments organise an approach to a complex task follow a sequence of steps plan for future imagine impossible and control impulses.
Limbic system involved in processing Social and emotional info develop earlier than prefrontal cortex.
What is the constructive perspective to cognitive development based on Jean Piaget view
Assumes individuals must continually interpret or make sense of all experiences whether desiphering words listening to a conversation. Event believed to remain ambiguous until we respond to them.
Piaget assumed that people not only activity construct what they know of world but also organise this understanding in qualitatively different ways with age.
Children around 11/12 enter formal operational stage which is last stage of development and extends into adulthood where children develop capacity for abstract scientific thinking which have the following characteristics:
Hypothetic deductive reasoning: where adolescents are able to reason from the general to specific when faced with a problem begin with general hypothesis of possible factors that may affect outcome and come to conclusion about what may happen. Then test it. Eg is pendulum problem. Weight height length force. They can apply scientific reasoning.
Propositional thinking: evaluating logic of verbal statement without refering to real life circumstances.
Combinatorial analysis: refers to ability to organise various possible combinations inherent in a problem.
Relativistic thinking: absolute right answers exist for everything called realism. They recognise subjective construction of knowledge and possibility of differences in interpretation of same facts. Thought is relative but change brought by developing ability to take perspective of another by seeing what others see and think.
What 6 conceptual skills emerge from formal operational thinking
1 adolescents can manipulate mentally more than 2 categories of variable at same time.
2 able to think about changes that come with time
3 able to hypothesize about logical sequence of possible events
4 able to anticipate consequences of actions.
5 able to detect logical consistency and inconsistency in a set of statement testing the truth of statement by finding evidence that supports or disproves it
6 can think in relativistic ways about themselves others and world allowing them to accept others views and values realising people are products of societies and culture with different norms and values
What is the componental approach with regards to the information processing view
Refers to breaking down of thinking process into various components. Info processing approach break down thinking into capacities for attention processing storage and retrieval which change as follows:
Attention- better adapted to changing demands of task including selective attention where one focuses on relevant info and it ignores irrelevant info and divided attention where one pays attention to more than one aspect simultaneously.
Processing information: speed capacity and automaticity: adolescent shows increased speed of info processing combined with greater awareness and control of increased knowledge base produces more efficient form of thinking. They can process more info due to structural capacity refering to cognitive abilities and functional capacity refering to making effective use of existing mental abilities like attentional and mnemonic aids.
Knowledge base encoding storing and retrieving: STM and LTM improves and effectiveness enhanced to greater experience and increased knowledge which provides context for assimilating new info increasing likelihood that relevant features will be processed and encoded.
Encoding is process whereby Info changed from one form to another in memory. They better able to recognise important features of a problem and able to attend more features of a problem at same time and organise info more systematically allowing greater flexibility of thought
Metacognition and cognitive self regulation: expand and leads to new insights into effective strategies for acquiring info and solving problems.
What is Robert Sternberg view
Metacomponents: monitor person’s progress including higher order cognitive function that determine info needed and select or construct certain strategy that’s to be used
Performance components: carry out actual procedure selected by metacomponents.
Knowledge acquisition components: acquire new info as needed. Sift through info picking relevant to problem and integrating it with one already knows.
What is the psychometric approach based on intelligence
Intelligence refers to the ability to profit from experience which implies ability to behave adaptively and function successfully in certain environment.
Psychometric approach focuses on individual differences in general abilities that contribute to intelligence.
What multiple intelligences did Howard gardner state
Logical mathematical intrapersonal linguistic spatial bodily kinaesthetic musical interpersonal intrapersonal and naturalist intelligence.
What influence does cognitive development have
Inductive reasoning is where a person reasons from particular to general
Deductive reasoning refers to reasoning from general to particular.
Argumentativeness idealism and criticism may lead to
Adolescence being confronted with several alternative where they want to choose for themselves without parents and increase independence which can lead to conflict if parents don’t take into consideration their children drive towards independence.
Adolescence require parents explain reason for what they expect from them and argue about decision ideas
Adolescence reason beyond real to possible which opens world of ideal and perfection. The disparity between adults and teens is called generation gap and can create tension between child and parent.
What is social cognition
Refers to way we think about other people social relationships and social institutions.
One aspect is perspective taking which is ability to consider a situation from point of view other than ones own. By 10-12 children become capable of mutual perspective taking meaning that early adolescents understand that these interactions are mutual where as u understand another person had a view you also realize other person understand that you have a view different from thiers. By late adolescence social and conventional system perspective taking develop meaning they come to realize social perspective and those of others are influenced not just by interaction but also by roles on wider society.
Making judgement about what other person’s are like and why they behave how they do is referred to as implicit personality theories which Change
Children 6-7 describe others concretely external characteristics and egocentric
Middle childhood children describe others in terms of internal traits and ability
Adolescents description tend to be more abstract describe in terms of abstract personality traits as well as being more complex and reflect awareness of aspects of personality.
