Exam 4 - Adolescents (Chapter 8 & 9) Flashcards
Puberty
The hormonal and physical changes by which children become sexually mature human beings and reach their adult height.
Puberty Rites
A “coming of age” ritual is held in traditional cultures to celebrate children’s transition to adulthood.
Secular trend in puberty
A decline in the average age at which children reach puberty.
Menarche
first menstruation was the signal for celebrating the entrance into womanhood
Spermarche
male signal of fertility, or first ejaculation of live sperm, is a hidden event
HPG Axis
The main hormonal system that programs puberty;
- involves a triggering hypothalamic hormone that causes the pituitary to secrete its hormones
- which in turn causes the ovaries and testes to develop
- secrete the hormones that produce the major body changes.
Adrenal Androgens
Hormones are produced by the adrenal glands that program puberty.
Puberty rites usually involve feelings of
- anxiety
- awe
- self-efficacy
How has the start of puberty changed from the past to today
-
Today:
- starts at 9 or 10
-
Past:
- The 1860s: Over 17
- The 1960s: dropped to 13
Pregnancy age change
in the past girls were not pregnant until their late teens, now before teens
Menarche used as a benchmark for
charting secular trends
nation’s economic development (SES)
Black menstruation pattern
US African American girls begin menstruating at: close to age 12
Impoverished African Countries begin at: over 16
Puberty programmed by
2 command centers
- System 1 - in adrenal glands
- Begins to release hormones at age 6 - 8
- System 2 - HPG axis: Produces major body changes
- Involves hypothalamus, pituitary, and gonads
Puberty set off by
3 phase chain reaction at Age 9 or 10
- Bursts of hypothalamic hormone stimulate the pituitary gland
- Causes ovaries & testes to secrete several closely related compounds called estrogens and testosterone
- Blood concentrations of estrogens and testosterone float upward and unleash physical transformation
Primary Sexual Characteristic
Physical changes of puberty directly involve the reproductive organs, such as the growth of the penis and the onset of menstruation.
Growth spurt
A dramatic increase in height and weight occurs during puberty.
Secondary Sexual Characteristic
Physical changes of puberty are not directly involved in reproduction, such as female breast development and male facial hair.
Testosterone
The hormone is responsible for the maturation of the male reproductive organs and other signs of puberty in men, and for hair and skin changes and sexual desire in both sexes.
Both girls and boys produce
estrogen and testosterone
Mostly Estrogens = females
All Testosterone = male
Responsible for sexual arousal in females and males
- Testosterone
- Adrenal androgens
What primes the triggering hypothalamic hormone?
- Genetics
- Exposure to light
- Chemicals in water
- Food
- Environmental stress
- Leptin
- Body fat
Weight and puberty delays
- Undernutrition = delays puberty
- Obesity = speeds up puberty
A dramatic early sign of puberty in girls
the growth spurt (speed picks up, then decreases )
Breasts and pubic hairs become visible when
6 months after the growth spurt begins
Menarche occurs
in middle to final stages of breast and pubic hair development
Can girls get pregnant when reaching menarche
yes - but often window of infertility until the system fully gears up.
Does puberty unfold the same way for every girl?
No - hormonal signals complex
Rate of change in girls physical changes
Fully process can range from 2 to 9 years
Internal changes in girls during puberty
- Uterus grows
- Vagina lengthens
- Hips develop a cushion of fat
- Vocal cord longer
- Heart gets bigger
- Red blood cells carry more oxygen
- Stimulate ovaries to produce eggs
External changes in girls
- Breasts grow
- Hips Widened
- Body hair grows
- Taller
After puberty girls become
more stronger
Health-care workers track the growth of the penis, testicles, and pubic hair by
5 Tanner Stages
Why do boys look like children to the outside world for a year or two after body change
organs of reproduction begin developing first
After growth of the testes and penis
- Voice deepens
- Develops body hair
Growth spurt in boys during puberty
average of 8 inches compared to 4 for girls
Why are boys stronger than girls
- The tremendous increase in muscle mass
- Dramatic cardiovascular changes
- Heart increase in weight by more than 1/3rd
- More red blood cells
- Greater capacity for carrying oxygen in their blood
External physical changes in boys
- Big chest
- Wide shoulders
- Muscular frame
After puberty males
boost in gross motor skills that give them
Boys body growth pattern
from feet upward and from out of the body to middle
Boys Crackyl voice produces by
growing larynx
Why do boys have more acne?
- Increased activity of sweat gland
- Increased enlarged pores
- Increased testosterone
Gonads
The sex organs
the ovaries in girls and the testes in boys
Boys appear to reach puberty
two years later than girls
They don’t really - girls external develop first and boys internally develop first
The real sign of fertility shows boys hit puberty
Puberty hits at 13 about 6 months later than the average age of menarche
Sex differences in puberty timetables can cause
anxiety
Culture and puberty timetables
- Asian Americans = slightly behind others
- African Africans & Hispanics = ahead
What predicts entering puberty earlier for girls
- Having a high BMI during elementary school
- Rapid weight gain in first 9 months of life
- More apt to grow up in a mother-headed household
- Report intense childhood stress
- Mothers’ use of power-assertive discipline during preschool
- Prenatal material stress
What predicts entering puberty earlier for boys
Nothing
Evolutionary Psychology perspective of when family stress is intense
physiological mechanism kicks into acerbate puberty
Unhappy childhood signals the body to expect short life and pushes adult fertility to younger age
Most important force predicting child’s puberty timetable
genetics
Girls in the middle of puberty told most negative stories about
fathers - show body embarrassment at height while child undergoes physical changes.
Children’s reactions to puberty depend on
messages from the wider world
People with upper-middle-class mothers and menstruation
describe getting period as no big deal
People with low-income women and menstruation
describe getting period as feeling “gross, smelly, and disgusting”
Who is trying to change the cultural script to menstruation
Upper-middle-class mothers
When it comes to spermarche boys need to be
secretive
Children typically view their changing bodies as
embarrassing around the parent of the other sex
Early maturing boys are more prone to
- Negatives:
- abuse substances especially are teen prone to impulse control
- Depression if prior personality problems or unhappy family life
- Positives:
- Boosts popularity
- Boosts self-esteem
Maturing Early Can Be a
Problem for Girls
Early-Maturing Girls Are At Risk of
- Developing Externalizing Problems
- Getting Anxious and Depressed
Early-maturing girls gravitate toward
older girls and boy friend groups
- Get involved in “adult activities” at younger ages
- Worse grades
Early-maturing girls in their 20s
serval times less likely to graduate from high-school
The main danger of early-maturing girls
- Unprotected sex
- teen pregnancy
More likely to experience low self-worth
Early-maturing girls
In 4th or 5th grade =risk of being bullied by looks
Early maturing girls size
heavier during elementary, shorter, and stockier
- Poor body image
- Depressed
Late-maturing girls body shape
tall ultra-slim model shape
What saves early maturating girls body image better
when in ethnic groups that have a:
- healthier
- more inclusive ideas about the female body
Sexual Double Standard
A cultural code that gives men greater sexual freedom than women. Specifically, society expects males to want to have intercourse and expects females to remain virgins until they marry and to be more interested in relationships than in having sex.
Strutted highly protective community can
cushion girl from acting on behavioral message her body gives off.
Early-maturing girls and school
special problems after moving to a large middle school
Thin Ideal
The media-driven cultural idea is that females need to be abnormally thin.
Children’s reactions to puberty depend on
the environment in which they physically mature
With daily-maturing girls we should
take social steps to arrange the right body-environment fit
Communication about puberty should be
improved
especially for boys
Developmentalists urge parents to
discuss what is happening with a same-sex child
Parents of early-maturing daughters should
try to get the child involved in positive activities
Importance of schools on puberty
- Provide adequate puberty education
- Carings schools are vital to setting young teens on the right path
Pros and cons of UNESCO global guidelines
- Pro:
- Aimed at teaching young children to respect bodies
- Cons:
- not often used - focus on pubertal damage control
Susan Harter explored
how feeling competent in each of her five “self-worth” dimensions related to teens overall self-esteem
Susan Harter findings
being happy about one’s looks outweighs anything else in determining adolescents generally felt good about themselves. (Not true of US teens)
Rate of female teens with average BMIs that feel too fat
3 out of 4
Underweight girls who want to shed pounds
2 out of 5
Boys typically want to build
up their muscles and work to increase body mass
Body concerns take over a child’s life
at puberty
during early adolescence socially sensitivity
Eating Disorders
A pathological obsession with getting and staying thin. The best-known eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
more like to have eating issues
- Daughters of mothers exposed to intense stress during pregnancy
- Female twin pairs more than fraternal twin girl and boy pair
Testosterone may
dampen a biological tendency for girls to become weight obsessed
The main reason of eating issues from the environment
media
Albert Bandura’s social learning framework showed
Black and Latino girls more insulated from thin ideal
If ethnic minority girl identifies with mainstream western thin ideal
likely to develop eating disorders
Anorexia Nervosa
A potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by pathological dieting (resulting in severe weight loss and, in females, loss of menstruation) and by a distorted body image.
Bulimia Nervosa
An eating disorder characterized by at least biweekly cycles of binging and purging in an obsessive attempt to lose weight.
Binge eating disorder
A newly labeled eating disorder defined by recurrent, out-of-control binging.
Anorexia Nervosa symptoms
- Point of reaching 85% of one’s ideal body weight or less
- Leptin levels too low to support adult fertility
- Girl stops menstruating
- Distorted body image
- Compulsively excessive
Rate of anorexia
8 of 1,000
People who drop to 2/3rd of ideal weight
need to be hospitalized and fed
Bulimia Nervosa can do what to health
seriously compromise health
- Deficiencies of basic nutrients
- Mouth sores
- Ulcers in esophagus
- Loss of tooth enamel
Binge eating disorder tied to
obesity and serious threat to health
Binge eating affects
3 in 100 young women
Causes of Anorexia and bulimia have a strong
- hereditary component
- Shared genetic propensities
- Parents have their own eating issues reinforcing the message
- Worrying excessively
- Depression
- Intense mood fluctuations
When temperamentally vulnerable children are teased about weight and internalize thin ideal
eating disorders flare-up.
Common eating disorder symptoms
- Insecure attachments
- Extreme need for approval
- Perfectionists
- Prone to intensely low self-worth
- Low self-efficacy
Improving Teenagers’ Body Image
- Dialectic behavior therapy - teaches meditation and promote self-efficacy
- Exposing women to video images of themselves to see real body size
- Keeping girl’s body temperature warm
- Training girl inappropriate amount to eat via a scale under a plate
Over years # of seniors who chose to have sex
shot up from minority to more than 70%
Age 10 (4th grade) - output of adrenal androgens rise
When sexual desire begins
How to prime initial feelings of desire
we need threshold androgen levels than signals from environment feedback to heighten sex interest
Physical changes of puberty + How outsiders react to changes =
uses us into our lives as sexual human beings
The average age of 1st intercourse in the US
1 in 8 sexual debuts by age 15
- Women = 17.8
- Men = 18
Factors that predict earlier transition to intercourse
- Biological - being on an earlier puberty timetable
- Ethnicity
- Socioeconomic status
-
Personality -
- more impulsive
- externalizing tendencies
- High risk-taking
- Low social self-worth
- Pre-intercourse activities at age 12
- Less religious parents
- Older partner
- Peers choices
- Watching heavy diet of programs with sexually-oriented talk
Most US teens (70% of girls & 56% of boys)
first sex with a steady partner
1 in 5 intercourse outside of the committed relationship
Teens sex with nonromantic sexual encounters had sex with
3 of 4 person they knew well
High school student physically hurt by a romantic partner
1 in 10
Middle schooler that witnessed violence among dating peers
1 in 3
Teens today and sexuality
- more confident about the sexual path
- Most occur in committed love relationships
- The Decision to have sex is not taken lightly
- Girls are more in control than society thinks
From the late 1990s to the early 21st-century teen pregnancy in the US
dropped more than 5 to 4 per 1,000 girls
“Storm and stress”
G. Stanley Hall’s phrase for the intense moodiness, emotional sensitivity, and risk-taking tendencies that characterize the life stage he labeled adolescence.
Formal Operational Stage
Jean Piaget’s fourth and final stage of cognitive development reached at around age 12 and was characterized by teenagers’ ability to reason at an abstract, scientific level.
Conventional Thought
In Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the intermediate level of moral reasoning, in which people respond to ethical issues by discussing the need to uphold social norms.
Post-Conventional Thought
In Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the highest level of moral reasoning, in which people respond to ethical issues by applying their own moral guidelines apart from society’s rules.
Pre-conventional Thought
In Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the lowest level of moral reasoning, in which people approach ethical issues by only considering the personal punishments or rewards of their actions.
In the past teens were seen as
- hotheaded
- out-of-control
G. Stanley Hall life stage characterized by “storm and stress”
adolescent
When did adolescence become a distinct stage of life in the US
20th century
when going to Highschool became routine (Baby Boomers)
Adolescents in formal operations can
- manipulate concepts in their minds
- reason about concepts that may not be real
When teens reach the formal operational stage what can they do
- Join debate team and argue both sides - famous for debating everything
- Comprehend chemistry
Do all adolescents reach formal operations?
No mainly in scientifically oriented Western cultures
Does cognition ever change during adolescence in the way Piaget predicts?
Yes - formal operational skills used when teens plan future
Developmentalists Lawrence Kohlberg view
during adolescence, we develop a moral code that guides our life.
- Used the Heinz Dilemma to prove
Kohlberg’s 3 levels of moral reasoning
-
Preconventional thought:
- a person operates in a will I be punished or rewarded mentality
-
Conventional thought:
- Morality centers on the need to obey society’s rules
-
Postconverntional thought:
- Personal moral code transcends society’s rules
Preconventional answers are universal at
age 13
Adolescent Egocentrism
David Elkind’s term for the tendency of young teenagers to feel that their actions are at the center of everyone else’s consciousness.
Imaginary Audience
David Elkind’s term for the tendency of young teenagers to feel that everyone is watching their every action; a component of adolescent egocentrism.
Personal Fable
David Elkind’s term for young teenagers’ tendency to believe that their lives are special and heroic; a component of adolescent egocentrism.
Conventional answers appear of most around the world at
age 15 or 16 - for many this is the final stop
Criticism of Kohlberg
- Children can go beyond punishment-and reward mentality
- Carol Gilligan - Women’s morality revolves around concrete caring-oriented criteria
- Kohlberg’s scale is not valid
- Way one talks about morality don’t necessarily reflect the behavior
What produces the emotional storm and stress of teenage life
ability to step back and see the world as it should be rather than it is
David Elkins conclusion on Piaget’s formal operations
When children make the transition to formal operational thought at 12
they see beneath the surface of adults rules
Elkind why teens are sensitive to what others think
when attuned to other’s flaws the feelings turn inward and become obsessed with what others think about their own personal flaws
imaginary audience and personal fable can lead to
- intense self-consciousness and egocentrism
- Personal fables may lead to tragic acts - others can get hurt but not me
Adolescents usually hypersensitive to
other’s emotions
Because: reward region of cortex spike when teens make risky decisions only when friends watch
Age of maximum risky-decision making for both sexes
puberty
- male danger zone extends through teens
Teens and risk-taking trends
- Drugs: most don’t use
- More encounters with police in recent years - 1 in 6 males arrested by 18
- Drinking: 2 in 10
When are people most likely to die of preventable accidents
teen years - especially males
Experience-sampling technique
A research procedure designed to capture moment-to-moment experiences by having people carry pagers and take notes describing their activities and emotions whenever the signal sounds.
Nonsuicidal Self-injury
Acts of self-mutilation, such as cutting or burning one’s body, to cope with stress.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & Reed Larson procedure
experience-sampling technique
Experience sampling technique showed
adolescents live life on the intense emotional plane but have a reason
Most teens emotions are
not emotionally disturbed
Most adolescents around the world and the future
- hopeful
- confident
Teens considered taking their lives
1 in 6 high school
Teen who made a minor suicide attempt
1 in 12
Nonsuicidal self-injury rates
worldwide epidemic
Self-mutilation episodes rise from
intense stress
cutting can preserve soil sense of self
Patterns of depression
- Women twice as susceptible to depression
- As Externalizing tendencies become more common during adolescence so does depression rates rising
Depression rates may rise during adolescence because
hormonal change of puberty makes the brain more sensitive to stress
What test can strongly predict adolescent storms
executive functions
Examples of prior emotion regulation problems and can foreshadow adolescent storm
- Externalizing tendencies in elementary school
- Children rejected
Examples of poor family relationships that can predict adolescent storms
Alienated from parents - insecure attachment
Environment factors and adolescent storms
- Often repeat what you see other family and friends do
- Live in a disorganized community
- Low-efficacy community
Which teens get into serious trouble?
- Have prior emotion regulation
- Have poor family relationships
- Live in a risk-taking environment
Youth Development Programs
Any afterschool program or structured activity outside of the school day that is devoted to promoting flourishing in teenagers.
Life-Course Difficulties
Antisocial behavior that, for a fraction of adolescents, persists into adult life.
Adolescence-limited turmoil
Antisocial behavior that, for most teens, is specific to adolescence and does not persist into adult life.
Zero-tolerance policies
The practice in U.S. public high schools of suspending students after one rule infraction.
School-to-prison pipeline
A term referring to the way school expulsion may provoke criminal behavior and incarceration for at-risk teens.
When do teens flourish
- When have superior executive functions
- Parents reinforce unique strengths
- A mother can be vital
Flourishing teens and risk-taking
can still engage in risk-taking
Developmentlist two distinctions of derailed adolescents
- Adolescence-limited turmoil
- Life-course difficulties
Laurence Steinberg found
Puberty heightens the output of neurotransmitters which provoke passion to take risks
Advice to society and teen risk-taking
- Don’t punish adolescents as if they were mentally just like adults
- Pass laws that are user-friendly to teen mind
- Provide group activities that capitalize on adolescents’ strengths
- Youth development programs
- Change high schools to provide a better adolescent environment fit
Robert Epstein critique of the immature adolescent brain
nature intended us to enter adulthood at puberty parents hold “adults” back from exploring the world
Csikszentmihalyi and Larson found teens most uplifting experiences are with
their families
moments are rare though unhappy emotions outweigh positive ones 10 to 1
Why does family life produce such teenage pain?
When parental limiting function gets into high gear teenage distress becomes acute
What do teens and parents argue about?
Everywhere: independence - especially around early teens
Northern Europe & US: academic issues
Japanese & Chinese: school-related conflicts
Middle East: micromanaging peer relationships
Southern Europe: Dependency & general parent-child acrimony
Parent-adolescent conflict flare up when
the child is in the middle of puberty
An evolutionary perspective on why - a hormonal surge of puberty may propel struggle for autonomy`
Crowds
A relatively large teenage peer group.
Immigrant Paradox
The fact that despite living in poverty, going to substandard schools, and not having parents who speak a nation’s language, immigrant children do far better than we might expect at school.
Cliques
A small peer group composed of roughly six teenagers who have similar attitudes and who share activities.
How does the dance of autonomy unfold?
becoming secretive and distant in early teens
but
parents respond by steadily granting children more freedom beginning after age 15
Why is mid-to later adolescence a crucial period of granting autonomy?
Parents feel children are more mature and child’s priorities shift from rebelling to constructing adult life
Major social makers of independence at 16 or 17
- eliminate family strain
- put distance between parents and teens
Gender difference in parent-child intimacy dance
Boys: Continue secretive and distance as grow up
Girls: After teens reach out to mothers
Individualistic societies parent-child adult relationships
less hierarchical more like friends
Immigrant adolescents impulse to separate from family can
provoke conflict relating to acculturation
Core quality that makes adolescents feel loved worldwide
feeling parents go out of their way to do things that are rare and emotionally hard
Developmentalists 2 teen peer group categories
- Cliques
- Crowds
Cliques and crowd purpose
vehicles that convey teens to relationships with other sex.
Steps of friendships
At entry of middle school = unisex cliques
Late middle school/early high school = crowds
High school = Mixed-sex cliques
Emerging adulthood = romantic partners
Ideal medium to bridge gap between sexes
crowd
because there is safety in numbers
Adolescence doesn’t exist for who
- 50 million children displaced from homes in war-torn
- famine-ridden regions
- Street children
- Females forced into sex trade
- African girls forced into unwanted marriages at 13
Gangs
A close-knit, delinquent peer group. Gangs form mainly in impoverished disorganized communities; they offer their members protection from harm and engage in a variety of criminal activities.
Crowd functions
- Allow teens to connect with people who share their values
- Serve as a roadmap allowing teens to connect with people of their kind in the overwhelming social world
What plays a vital role in programming defined teenage crowds
school’s size
Affluent societies crowd types
- Intellectuals
- Popular kids
- Deviants
- Residual (goth)
Being smart from elementary to high school
being smart no longer made you popular made you less self-confident
Children who ended up in high school deviant peer groups were
unhappy in elementary school as well as adolescent years
Why do bad crowds cause teens to do bad things
- Teens incredibly swayed by peers - model antisocial leader
- When teens compete for status by getting in trouble this creates wilder antisocial modeling and propels group towards increasing risky acts
Medium by which problem behavior gets solidified
peer interactions in early adolescent
The lure of entering antisocial peer groups is strong for at-risk kids because
already feel “it’s me against the world”
Self-identifying as jock is risk for
- abusing alcohol
- having unprotected sex
