emotional development in adolescence Flashcards
Why do teenagers make risky decisions, according to Chapter 20?
-increase in emotional factors such as a motivation toward arousing and novel experiences (sensation seeking) paired with contextual factors such as social components (with peer influence)
Adolescents have a disproportionate approach orientation and still-maturing avoidance orientation which leads to more riskier decisions.
Why is adolescence an emotionally challenging time? Describe important parts of the brain that can explain teenager’s emotional development.
Adolescence is an emotionally challenging time for kids because they are navigating a world where they are given more independence, increased decision making, and independent self-regulation but they do not have the experience to make appropriate, independent choices from.
-Ventral striatum - part of the basal ganglia that contributes to decision making behavior through rewards - research shows neural response in the ventral striatum of teenagers is exaggerated
-Prefrontal cortex - higher level cognitive functioning - cognitive control, emotion regulation, decision making, and complex cognitions; maturation takes place through adolescence and adulthood which limits the efficacy of regulating behavior
-Amygdala - important part of processing emotional stimuli like threats and depicting emotional states. The amygdala’s response to info during adolescence is exaggerated and these effects are influenced by puberty development.
Emotional reactivity becomes more variable during adolescence. The culprit may be “developmental timing.” Explain what “developmental timing” means.
Developmental timing means that there is variability among individual differences of adolescents. You cannot say that development happens by age. This limits the actual developmental stage. This is more relative to the onset of puberty and the changes that occur due to puberty (the onset of puberty can vary in individuals as much as 4-5 years). Hormonal and neurodevelopmental changes underlying physical puberty sensitize physiological reactivity to stressors. This means that some affective responding are more dependent on pubertal-dependent mechanisms more than age-dependent mechanisms.
Early puberty can be an antecedent to emotional difficulties, psychosocial difficulties, risk for psychopathology, and delinquent behavior. Developmental timing interacts with emotional functioning in adolescents.
