Developmental 5.2

Question 1

What is the period of preadolescence?

Answer 1

Time between childhood and adolescence
9-12 years

Question 2

How can adolescence be defined?

Answer 2

A developmental transition involving physical, social, cognitive, and emotional changes
Begins with onset of puberty
Ends when sexual maturity is reached

Question 3

What are the 4 main biological and physical changes that occur in puberty, and at what age?

Answer 3

Girls vs boys
Pubic hair - 6 to 14 vs 12-16
Axillary hair - 2 years after pubic SAME for boys
Changes in voice - 10 to 15 SAME for boys
Changes in skin - same as auxiliary SAME for boys

Question 4

What are the Tanner Stages of Development (Johnson, Moore, Jefferies (1978) and what are the issues?

Answer 4

Only one ethnic group - breast/pubic hair growth patterns vary across ethnicities
Only 200 children used = measurement issues

Question 5

What are two causes of variation in age of pubertal development?

Answer 5

Genetics
Environment - e.g. stress

Question 6

What are the 4 main psychological effects of puberty?

Answer 6

Physical changes
Hormones
Brain development
Cognitive changes

Question 7

What are the effects of physical changes in puberty on adolescence? (3 points)

Answer 7

Awareness of sexual development
Effect of menarche in girls
Culture and psychological effect - symbolic meaning / importance

Question 8

What are the effects of hormonal changes in puberty on adolescence? (5 points)

Answer 8

Effect psychological functioning:
Increased emotional distance from parents
Adolescent autonomy
Parent-child conflict
Moodiness and aggression

Question 9

What are the effects of brain development changes in puberty on adolescence? (4 points)

Answer 9

Effects social and cognitive development
Emotion regulation
Response inhibition
Planning

Question 10

What occurs in the brain during adolescence? (3 points)

Answer 10

Gray matter is pruned out making brain connections more specialized + efficient

Parts of the brain controlling physical movement + vision + senses = mature first

Parts controlling higher thinking = mature in early 20s

Question 11

What are the effects of cognitive changes during adolescence? (3 points)

Answer 11

Childhood egocentrism - unable to distinguish between subjective and objective information
Adolescent egocentrism - having difficult in differentiation one’s own thoughts and feelings from other peoples’
(they are primarily concerned with themselves, presume others are as obsessed)

Question 12

What is the adolescent personal fable? (1 sentence)

Answer 12

The belief that your feelings and experiences are completely unique when compared to the feelings and experiences of others

Question 13

What are the reasons for adolescent (3 points)

Answer 13

Natural progression of cognitive development
Develop greater self-awareness and gain complex sense of identity
Environmental factors - parents and peers

Question 14

What are the gender differences in effects of early and late maturation on adolescents?

Answer 14

Early maturing boys - social advantage
Late maturing boys - less confident

Early maturing girls - more likely to break social norms (not after age 25) + tend to have sex/get married/have children earlier + less likely to be in tertiary education

Question 15

What does Moffitt (1993)’s ‘Maturity Gap’ theory state?

Answer 15

Gap between biological and social maturity in adolescence can lead to adolescence-limited delinquent behaviour

Question 16

At what ages do LGBT adolescents typically go through key stages of disclosure? (3 points)

Answer 16

10 - 15 = aware of attractions
15 = self-labelling
16.5 = disclosure

Question 17

Why did Freud consider adolescence to be a time of acute identity crisis and turmoil?

Answer 17

Freud believed it was a surge of sexual instinctive reawakening old conflicts

Question 18

James Marcia (1966, 1980) developed what technique to assess ‘identity status’, and in how many stages? (name them)

Answer 18

Diffusion - unable to face the necessity of development (little interest/indecision)
Foreclosure - commitment to identity is made without exploring alternatives (parental ideas)
Moratorium - middle of crisis / actively exploring alternatives
Achievement of identity - already experienced crisis + made commitment

Question 19

What did Cote and Levine (1988) think about Marcia (1980)’s categories?

Answer 19

Questioned usefulness of categories
Saw adolescence as development, not disruption

Question 20

Why does adolescent-parent conflict occur? (4 points)

Answer 20

Parents/adolescents actually agree on many things
Areas of disagreement = exaggerated
Conflicts over range of issues
Conflicts of personal autonomy