Development Beyond Childhood: Adolescence & Adulthood

Question 1

What are the physical changes in adolescence and puberty?

Answer 1

• Sexual maturity
• Growth spurt

Question 2

What are the brain development changes in adolescence and puberty?

Answer 2

• “remodelling of the brain” including areas affecting emotional regulation, response inhibition, planning
• Increase white matter, decrease grey matter
• Greater plasticity in the brain
• All of this is influenced by the sort of inputs that the brain is getting

Question 3

What are the psychological changes changes in adolescence and puberty?

Answer 3

• Risk-taking (prefrontal cortex and EF isn’t fully developed yet); Personal autonomy is developing
• Moodiness, aggression?
• Transition from childhood to adulthood

Question 4

Explain Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Answer 4

• Different “conflict” at each stage of development which needs to be resolved successfully
• In adolescence, it is working out this identity crisis

Question 5

What is an identity?

Answer 5

(1) A subjective sense and observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, (2) paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image

Question 6

What is the psychosocial moratorium?

Answer 6

A stage wherein you are just trying to figure out what this personhood or this identity is

Question 7

Explain Marcia’s (1966) study

Answer 7

Interview technique to assess stage of identity crisis (occupational role, beliefs & values, sexuality)

Identified 4 identity ‘stasuses’
- Diffusion: haven’t started thinking about it seriously (no identity crisis or commitment)
- Foreclosure: formed commitment without having explored possibilities (kind of u=just going off of what is expected of you)
- Moratorium: considering alternatives and possibilities
- Achievement of identity: been through a crisis and reached a solution

Question 8

Explain the Storm and Stress concept

Answer 8

• Adolescence traditionally viewed as a period of turbulence
• ex. Conflict with parents, risky behaviour, mood disruptions
• Socrates: youth inclined to “contradict their parents” & “tyrannize their teachers”
• However, recent empirical evidence suggests a modified view because this is not experienced by all adolescents and it can be over-exaggerated

Question 9

Explain the conflict with parents, during adolescence

Answer 9

• Conflicts increase in early adolescence, intensity peaks in middle adolescence
• Conflicts may not be as high as expected (only 1/6 of parents and 1/3 of adolescence)
• Even in conflict situations, often the concern are mundane matters
• Core values and attachment are typically maintained, which possibly helps develop autonomy in safe environment

Question 10

What are the evidences for mood disruption in adolescents?

Answer 10

• Adolescents do report more mood disruptions than children or adults
• Buchanan et al (1992) showed that some longitudinal studies report negative affect
• However, this adolescent turmoil could just be overexaggerated because only 1/5 reported mood disruption (Rutter et al, 1976)

Question 11

Give an overview of young adulthood (20-40), and the Erikson’s conflict

Answer 11

• Acquisition & utilisation of knowledge at its peak
• Achieve maturity
• Erikson’s conflict: intimacy vs isolation

Question 12

Give an overview of middle adulthood (40-64), and the Erikson’s conflict

Answer 12

• Some decline but also intellectual stability maintains quite well
• Peak of career achievement; Can help the new generation below them
• Erikson’s conflict: generativity vs longevity

Question 13

Give an overview of late adulthood (65+), and the Erikson’s conflict

Answer 13

• Memory and other abilities decline, some might remain stable
• Erikson’s conflict: integrity vs despair (either you’re reflecting on your life and feeling satisfied or feeling unfulfilled and hopeless)

Question 14

Explain the cognitive gains in adolescence/young adulthood

(+ Piaget and its criticisms)

Answer 14

• Information Processing
• Social cognition

Piaget’s Formal Operations
- 11+ yo
- Logic, inferential reasoning, planning, ability to think about abstract concepts, hypothetical situations
- Criticisms: limited to straightforward situations, not complexities & vagaries of real-life situations

Question 15

Explain the cognitive gains in young to middle adulthood

Answer 15

• General stability in cognitive abilities (some slight decreases (but minimal)
• Inductive reasoning, vocabulary, verbal memory & spatial orientation peak from 40-60yrs

Question 16

Explain the cognitive gains in middle to late adulthood

Answer 16

• General decline in cognitive ability
• Largest difference in perceptual speed
• Possibly least decline in verbal recall
• Terminal decline (cognitive functions often lower several years prior to death)
• But some abilities might remain intact
• Little evidence of relation between age & functioning in society
• Experience helps retain function (ex. for pilots, experience is a more significant determinant factor than aging)

Question 17

What affects cognitive decline?

Answer 17

• Different abilities affected more
• Relationship between physical health and cognitive ability
• Type of job
• Genetic influence; genes

Question 18

How do genetic factors influence cognitive ability retention?

Answer 18

• How much do genetics contribute to change in intelligence differences
  -Estimated at 24% (from 11yo to 50/70/79yo)
• Longitudinal study employed, 2000 participants