Chapter 6 Definitions: Adolescence

Question 1

Menarche

Answer 1

The start of menstruation

• Most obvious sign of puberty in girls
• Wealthier countries = earlier menstruation

Question 2

Secular Trend

Answer 2

A pattern of change occurring over several generations

• e.g: early start of puberty because nutrition has improved over centuries
• Occurs when physical characteristic changes over the course of several generations

Question 3

Primary Sex Characteristics:

Answer 3

characteristics associated with the development of the organs and structures of the body that directly relate to reproduction
- e.g in girls: changes in the vagina and uterus

Question 4

Secondary Sex Characteristics:

Answer 4

The visual signs of sexual maturity that do not directly involve the sex organs
- e.g in girls: development of breasts and pubic hair

Question 5

Timining of Puberty: Early Maturation

Answer 5

• For boys large plus
• more successful athlete because of larger size
• more popular and more positive self concept
• DOWNSIDE:
• Sturggle more in school
• get into or try more drugs
• more responsible in adulthood but lack humour
• Negative for girls (body changes makes them feel uncomfortable)
• although popularity enhances

Question 6

Timing of puberty: Late Maturation

Answer 6

• Boys fare worse than girls
• Boys considered less attractive because of body size, at a disadvantage in sports activities. Might suffer socially
• Grow up insertive and insightful

Girls: suffer fewer emotional problems

Question 7

Anorexia Nervosa

Answer 7

A severe eating disorder in which individuals refuse to eat, while denial that they behaviour and appearance may be out of the ordinary (skeletal)
- have a distorted image of themselves

Question 8

Bulimia

Answer 8

And eating disorder characterized by binges on large quantities of food, followed by purges of the for through throwing up or laxatives

Question 9

Addictive Drugs:

Answer 9

Drugs that produce a biological or psychological dependence in users, leading to increasingly powerful cravings for them
- body cannot function in its absence once addiction occurs, causes physical changes in nervous system

Question 10

Signs of drug abuse:

Answer 10

1. Identification with drug culture (collection of beer cans
2. Signs of physical deterioration ( bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils)
3. Dramatic Changes in school performance (mark downturn in grades)
4. Changes in behaviour (change in friends and money)

Question 11

Piagets Formal Operational Stage:

Answer 11

The stage where people develop the ability to think abstractly

• use formal principles of logic for abstract rather than concrete thoughts
• Formal reasoning
• use PROPOSITIONAL THOUGHT: Reasoning that uses abstract logic in the absence of concrete examples
• e.g: all men are mortals
• —-> Socrates is a man
• —-> therefor socrates is mortal (conclusion)

Question 12

Consequences of cults using Formal Operations:

Answer 12

• The ability to reason abstractly changes adolescence daily behaviour
• Before they may have blindly accepted rules and order by parents, where now their increased reasoned abilities can lead to strenuous questioning.
• Become more argumentative

Question 13

Information Processing Perspective:

Answer 13

The model that seeks to identify the way that individuals take in, use, and store information
- One of the main reasons for adolescents advances in mental abilities is the growth of metacognition

Question 14

Metacognition:

Answer 14

Knowledge people have about their own thinking processes, and their ability to monitor their cognition
- Adolescence can better gauge how long they need to memorize given material for a test

Question 15

Adolescent Egocentrism:

Answer 15

A state of self absorption in which the world is viewed from ones own point of view

• Quick to find faults with others behaviours
• World is seen as focused on ones self

Question 16

Imaginary Audience:

Answer 16

An adolescents belief that his or her own behaviour is a primary focus of others attention and concerns
- Other people pay as much attention to them as they do themselves

Question 17

Identity-versus- identity-confusion stage

Answer 17

• The period during which teenagers seek to determine what is unique and distinctive about themselves
• Erikson
• “trying on” different roles

Question 18

Marcia’s 4 categories of identity

Answer 18

1. Identity Achievement
2. Identity Foreclosure
3. Moratorium
4. Identity Diffusion

Question 19

1. Identity Achievement

Answer 19

• The status of adolescents who commit to a particular identity following a period of crisis during which they consider various alternatives
• Successfully explored and thought through what they want to do
• committed to a particular identity
• Psychologically healthier
• Higher in a achievement

Question 20

2. Identity Foreclosure

Answer 20

• The status of adolescents who prematurely commit to an identity without adequately exploring alternatives
• Accepted others decisions about what is best for them (going into the family business)
• Not necessarily happy
• Have rigid strength

Question 21

3. Moratorium

Answer 21

• The status of adolescence who have done a lot of exploring alternative but have not yet committed themselves.
• Experience high anxiety and experience psychological conflict
• Tend to settle on an identity only after a struggle.

Question 22

4. Identity Diffusion

Answer 22

• Status of adolescence who consider various identity alternatives, but never commit to one or never even consider identity options in any conscious way
• Neither explore nor commit
• Shift from one thing to the next
• Lack of commitment impairs ability to form a close relationship

Question 23

MAMA

Answer 23

Moving between moratorium and identity achievement -> selecting a career without much thought in early adolescence and then reassess

Question 24

Autonomy

Answer 24

Having an independence and a sense of control over ones life

- Normal part of adolescence

Question 25

Generation Gap:

Answer 25

A divide between parents and adolescence in attitudes, values, aspirations and world views
- Parents and teenagers often see things differently

Question 26

Reference group:

Answer 26

Groups of people with whom one compares oneself

• Teenagers compare themselves to other teenagers like them
• Set of norms or standards

Question 27

Clique

Answer 27

Groups of from 2 - 12 people whose members have frequent social interactions with one another
-e.g: fine 9

Question 28

Crowds

Answer 28

Larger groups than cliques, composed of individuals who share particular characteristics but who might not interact with one another
- e.g: Nerds or Jocks in high school

Question 29

Sex Cleavage:

Answer 29

Sex segregation in which boys interact primarily with boys and girls primarily with girls
- As children enter adolescence, their social groups are composed almost universally of same sex friends

Question 30

Controversial adolescents

Answer 30

• Children who are likes by some peers and are disliked by others
• High popular with some groups and not so much with others

Question 31

Rejected Adolescents

Answer 31

Children who are actively disliked, and who’s peers may react to them in an obviously negative manner

Question 32

Neglected Adolescence

Answer 32

Children who receive relatively little attention from their peers in the form of either positive or negative interactions

Question 33

Peer Pressure:

Answer 33

The influence of ones peers to conform to their behaviour and attitudes

Question 34

Undersocialized Deliquesce

Answer 34

• Adolescent delinquents who are raised with little disciplines or with harsh uncaring parental supervision
• Weren’t reached proper social behaviour

Question 35

Socialized Deliquence

Answer 35

• Adolescent delinquents who know and subscribe to the norms of society and who are fairly normal psychologically