final

Question 1

Define and give examples of the four identity statuses identified by James Marcia

Answer 1

-identity achievement: Characterized by commitment to choices made following a crisis, a period spent in exploring alternatives.
more mature and more socially competent than the rest of the stages.

-Foreclosure: A person who has not spent time considering alternatives is committed to other people’s plans for his or her life. (not in crisis)
Happy and self assured

• Moratorium: A person is considering alternatives and seems headed for commitment (in crisis)
  wants to have a girlfriend but has not developed a close relationship.

-Identity diffusion: Characterized by absence of commitment and lack of serious consideration of alternatives. People tend to be unhappy and often lonely.

Question 2

Discuss the findings of Gilligan and others regarding gender differences in identity formation

Answer 2

• the female sense of self develops not so much through achieving a separate identity as through establishing relationships.
• Girls and women judge themselves on their handling of their responsibilities and on their ability to care for others as well as for themselves.

Question 3

Discuss the psychological impact of early and late maturation for girls and boys

Answer 3

-The onset of puberty can vary by as many as 5 years among normal boys and girls.

-Boys tend to mature early and those who do gain self-esteem. more anxious or aggressive, more worried about being liked.
Late maturing boys have been found to feel more inadequate, self conscious, rejected, more dependent, insecure or depressed.

Early Girls: tend to be less sociable, less expressive, and less poised. introverted and shy.
increased risk for anxiety and depression early smoking and drinking, bad body image, eating disorders than girls who mature later.

Question 4

Describe changes in brain structure and function that occur during adolescence.

Answer 4

-Dramatic changes in brain structures involed in emotions, judgment, organization of behavior, and self-control take place between puberty and young adulthood.

• Early adolescents (11-13) use amygdala, that is involved with emotional and instinctual reactions.
• Older adolescents (14-17) showed more adult like patterns, using frontal lobes, which handles planning, reasoning, judgment, emotional regulation, and impulse control to accurate reasoned judgements.

Question 5

Describe the new abilities that emerge in the formal operations stage

Answer 5

-ability to think abstractly.
new, more flexible way to manipulate information.
understand historical time and extraterrestrial space. use symbols for symbols when learning difference levels of math.
Better appreciate metaphor and allegory this can find richer meanings in literature.
Can think in terms of what might be, not just what is.

Question 6

Discuss criticisms of Piaget’s description of the formal operations stage.

Answer 6

-Piaget seemed to overestimated some children’s abilities.
He paid little attention to individual differences, to variations in the same child’s performance on different kinds of tasks, or to social and cultural influences.

Question 7

Explain the typical characteristics of adolescent thinking described by Elkind, including what Elkind calls the imaginary audience and the personal fable, and discuss recent research that questions some of Elkind’s conclusions.

Answer 7

Rude to adults, trouble making up minds, act like whole world revolves around them.
-Behavior stems from adolescents’ inexperienced ventures into formal operational thought.