Chapter 9

Question 1

Adolescence

Answer 1

Period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult
• One hundred years ago, adolescence began around age 15 and lasted a few months.
• Now adolescence lasts a decade or more.

Question 2

Emerging adulthood
(Adolescence)

Answer 2

A separate period from adolescence called emerging adulthood has been identified.
– Social sciences

Question 3

Puberty

Answer 3

the time in life when a boy or girl becomes sexually mature.
• Is the time between the first onrush of hormones and full adult physical development
• Usually lasting three to five years
• Many more years are required to achieve psychosocial maturity.

Question 4

Average ages and changes

Puberty

Answer 4

Usually between ages 10 and 14 for girls and ages 12 and 16 for boys.

Question 5

Menarche

Puberty

Answer 5

Girl’s first menstrual period, signaling that she has begun ovulation

• Pregnancy is biologically possible but ovulation and menstruation are often irregular for years after menarche.
• Average age—about 12.5 years for normal-weight girls

Question 6

Spermarche

Puberty

Answer 6

Boy’s first ejaculation of sperm

• Erections can occur as early as infancy, but ejaculation
signals sperm production
• Average age—just under 13 years

Question 7

Hormones

Puberty

Answer 7

Body chemicals produced by the body to regulate many
biological processes.

• Various hormones influence thoughts, urges, emotions, and behavior.
• Hormones may underlie differences in psychopathology.

Question 8

Gonads

Puberty Begins

Answer 8

Paired sex glands (ovaries in females, testicles in males).

• Gonads produce hormones and gametes.

Question 9

Estradiol

Puberty Begins

Answer 9

Sex hormone, considered the chief estrogen. Females produce more estradiol than males do.

Question 10

Testosterone

Puberty Begins

Answer 10

Sex hormone, the best known of the androgens (male hormones). Secreted in far greater amounts by males than by females.

Question 11

Circadian rhythm

Body Rhythms

Answer 11

Day-night cycle of biological activity occurs approximately every 24 hours (circadian means “about a day”).
• Hormones cause a phase delay in sleep-wake cycles.
• Biology (circadian rhythms) and culture (parties and technology) work to make teenagers increasingly sleep-deprived with each year of high school.

Question 12

Genes and gender

Reasons for Variations

Answer 12

About two-thirds of the variation in age of puberty is genetic.

• Genes on the sex chromosomes have a marked effect on age of puberty
onset.
• Girls generally develop ahead of boys.

Question 13

Fat

Reasons for Variations

Answer 13

Children who have a relatively large proportion of body fat experience puberty sooner than do their thin contemporaries.

• Hormone affects appetite and is believed to be involved in the onset of puberty.
• In both sexes, chronic malnutrition delays puberty.

Question 14

Stress

Reasons for Variations

Answer 14

Stress hastens (speeds up) the hormonal onset of puberty.
• Sick, drug-addicted, or divorced parents
• Violent and impoverished neighborhood
• Sexual abuse
• High level of family conflict
• International adoption at later age

Question 15

Too early, too late

Puberty Begins

Answer 15

• Early-maturing GIRLS tend to have lower self-esteem, more depression, and poorer body image than later-maturing girls.
• Early-maturing BOYS are more aggressive, law-breaking, and alcohol-abusing than later- maturing boys.
• Slow developing boys tend to be more anxious, depressed, and afraid of sex.

Question 16

Growth spurt

Becoming a Grown-Up

Answer 16

The rapid and intense increase in the rate of growth in height and weight that occurs during the adolescent stage of the human life cycle.
– Growth spurt is noted in the long bones of the body and most other skeletal systems
– Height spurt follows the increase in body fat, and then a muscle spurt occurs.

Question 17

Growth spurt: Physical Changes

Becoming a Grown-Up

Answer 17

• Lungs triple in weight; consequently, adolescents breathe more deeply and slowly.
• Heart doubles in size and the heartbeat slows, decreasing the pulse rate while increasing blood pressure.

Question 18

Skin and hair

Becoming a Grown-Up

Answer 18

• Skin becomes oilier, sweatier, and more prone to acne.
• Hair on the head and limbs becomes coarser and darker.
• New hair grows under arms, on faces, and over external sex organs.
– In many ways, hair is more than a growth characteristic; it becomes a display of sexuality

Question 19

Primary sex characteristics

Sexual Maturation

Answer 19

Parts of the body that are directly involved in reproduction, including the vagina, uterus, ovaries, testicles, and penis.

Question 20

Secondary sex characteristics

Sexual Maturation

Answer 20

Observable physical traits that are not directly involved in reproduction but that indicate sexual maturity, such as a man’s beard and a woman’s breasts.

Question 21

Nutrients missing

Nutrition

Answer 21

• Only 16% of high school seniors eat recommended vegetable servings creating deficiency in intake of necessary vitamins or minerals.
• Menstruation and intensive physical labor or sports participation may deplete iron (iron-deficiency anemia).

Question 22

Body image

Body Dissatisfaction

Answer 22

Person’s idea of how his or her body looks
– Girls diet partly because boys tend to prefer to date thin girls.
– Boys want to look taller and stronger partly because girls value well-developed muscles in males.

Question 23

Self-acceptance

Body Dissatisfaction

Answer 23

•  Self-acceptance is difficult
•  New changes may contribute to: 
–  Distorted body image
–  Food obsession
–  Depression
–  Unhealthy consequences

Question 24

Obesity

Eating Disorders

Answer 24

• Disorder at every age
• Rates falling in childhood but increasing in adolescence
• 2013: 15% of high school students in 22 states were obese.

Question 25

Dieting

Eating Disorders

Answer 25

• Erratic eating or ingesting drugs (especially diet pills) to lose weight
• Taking steroids to increase muscle mass

Question 26

Anorexia nervosa

Eating Disorders

Answer 26

Eating disorder characterized by self-starvation.
• Affected individuals voluntarily under-eat and often
over-exercise, depriving their vital organs of nutrition.
• Anorexia can be fatal.

Question 27

Bulimia nervosa

Eating Disorders

Answer 27

Eating disorder characterized by binge eating and subsequent purging, usually by induced vomiting and/or use of laxatives.
• In 2013, within previous 6-month period, 6.6% of U.S. high school girls and 2.2% of boys vomited or took laxatives for weight loss.

Question 28

Binge eating disorder

Eating Disorders

Answer 28

Eating disorder characterized by periodic and compulsive
overeating until stomach hurts
• Eating done secretly at least weekly for months; no purging
• Sufferer feels out of control, distressed, and depressed.

Question 29

Formal operational thought: Piaget

Cognitive Development

Answer 29

Fourth and final stage of cognitive development

• Characterized by more systematic logic and the ability to think about abstract ideas

Question 30

Adolescent egocentrism
(Thinking About Oneself: Assumptions that have no relation to reality)

Answer 30

A characteristic of adolescent thinking that leads young people to believe in their own uniqueness and to imagine that other people are also focused on them.

Question 31

Personal fable

Thinking About Oneself: Assumptions that have no relation to reality

Answer 31

Aspect of adolescent egocentrism characterized by an adolescent’s belief that his or her thoughts, feelings, or experiences are unique, more wonderful or awful than anyone else’s.

Question 32

Invincibility fable

Thinking About Oneself: Assumptions that have no relation to reality

Answer 32

Adolescent’s egocentric conviction that he or she cannot be overcome or even harmed by anything that might defeat a normal mortal, such as unprotected sex, drug abuse, or high-speed driving.

Question 33

Imaginary audience

Thinking About Oneself: Assumptions that have no relation to reality

Answer 33

Other people who, in an adolescent’s egocentric belief, are watching and taking note of his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior. This belief makes many teenagers self-conscious.

Question 34

Deductive reasoning

Cognitive Development

Answer 34

Reasoning from a general statement, premise, or principle, through logical steps, to figure out (deduce)
– Sometimes called top-down reasoning

Question 35

Inductive reasoning

Cognitive Development

Answer 35

Reasoning from one or more specific experiences or facts to a general conclusion; may be less cognitively advanced than deduction
– Sometimes called bottom-up reasoning

Question 36

Hypothetical thought

Cognitive Development

Answer 36

Reasoning that includes

propositions and possibilities that may not reflect reality

Question 37

Dual-process model

Two Modes of Thinking

Answer 37

The idea that two modes of thinking exist within the human brain, one for intuitive emotional responses and one for analytical reasoning

Question 38

Intuitive thought

Cognitive Development

Answer 38

Thought that arises from an emotion or a hunch, beyond rational explanation, and is influenced by past experiences and cultural assumptions

Question 39

Analytic thought

Cognitive Development

Answer 39

• Thought that results from analysis, such as a systematic ranking of pros and cons, risks and consequences, possibilities and facts
• Analytic thought depends on logic and rationality.

Question 40

Sexting

Answer 40

• Involves sending sexual photographs

– Estimated 30 percent of adolescents have sent sexual photographs.

Question 41

Dangers

Sexting

Answer 41

– Forwarding pictures without sender’s knowledge

– Experiencing depression if the reaction is negative