Lecture 1 Flashcards
Adolescent ages
Early adolscence: 10-14
Late adolescence: 15-18
Emerging adulthood: 18-25 (full of responsibilites)
Changes in adolescence
- cognition: abstract and third person thinking
- brain: pre frontal development: abstract thinking and self control
- hormones: body changes
- identity exploration: study, friendships, romantic relationships, risk taking
- optimism: many future directions possible
- emotional instability: fluctuations in mood
- focus on self: learn independence, less family ties, not yet own family
- feeling in between: not a child and not an adult
- increased importance of peers and less of parents
Storm and stress (Hall)
- data shows increased conflict with parents, increased mood fluctuations and risk behaviour (Hall believed these were the key aspects of storm and stress in this period of life)
- this was some re-enactment of human evolution
- we do not pass on genes, we pass on experiences
- in the past people would have had conflicts with parents so now teens have conflict with their parents
- but not in pathological range!
Storm and stress (Anna Freud)
- conflict with parents, mood fluctuations and risk behaviour are normal and healthy
- we practice skills for future life
- risk behaviour helps explore possibilities
- conflict with parents help encourage independence
- fluctuations in mood help you to practice dealing with emotions
Storm and stress (Mead)
- conflict with parents, mood fluctuations and risk behaviour are not universal (cultural perspectives)
- in some cultures, independence is less emphasized, so there is less conflict with parents, there is also less need to explore possibilities with future cuz you will likely do what your parents did
Fluctuations in mood
- increased emotional impulses but yet still insufficient control
- rewards are overvalued during adolscence
- but cognitive control increases gradually (imbalance between reward processing and cognitive control)
- not having practice yet handling emotions - many changes during this period: school, friends, romantic partners
- these changes may cause mood fluctuations
Parenting styles
- authoritataive is the best for teens
- stimulates autonomy but also self regulation
- positive developmental outcomes
- not always protecting child, allowing them to have negative feelings so they learn how to cope with them
Family Context
- complex interactions between family and teen
- no simple cause and effect model
- reciprocal interactions between parents and children
Parent-adolescent context
- increase in conflict during early adolescence
- more abstract thinking -> better arguments
- new degree of autonomy
- certain topics are more difficult (sexuality, drug use)
- decrease in conflict during later adolescence
- parents and adolescents also agree on many subjects
The self
- self concept: who am I?
- self esteem: what am I worth?
- identity: how do my capacities fit opportunities?
Self concept
- becomes more abstract and complex due to cognitive development
- culture shapes -> independent vs interdependent
- actual and possible selves (ideal and feared)
- discrepancy ideal and actual self (depression, period of possibilities, optimism)
- false self (you sometimes try to appear differently than you really are)
Self esteem
- decreases in early adolescence
- capcity to imagine how others see and judge you develops
- focus on peer evaluations
- peers can be very harsh at this age
- increases later
- better acceptance by peers
- less conflicts with family
- control own contexts: seek those you get along with well
Self esteem cross culturally
- self esteem is not valued in every culture (more so in African American people than Asian American people)
Types of self-esteem
Baseline: stable
Barometric: fluctuating
- assessed by experience sampling method (ESM)
- fluctuations decrease during adolescence
- better social relationships increase stability
Harter self perception profile
- 8 domains
- general self esteem only impacted by domains considered important
- often physical appearance and acceptance by peers
- appearance was mainly for girls: weight gain while the norm is to be thin, important aspect in evaluation of romantic partners
Causes of self esteem
- feeling accepted by parents, peers and teachers
- in school: self esteem and performance are mutually reinforcing
- praise alone does not help
Identity
- how do my capacities fit opportunities
- who am I and how do i fit the world
- crisis: healthy path (identity) or unhealthy path (identity confusion)
- explore in: love (partners), work (school, work) and ideology (politics, religion)
Phases of Identity - Identity status model
Moratorium: explore but no adult responsibilities, do not commit (not universal cross culturally)
Achievement: do explore, do commit
Diffusion: do not explore, do not commit (negative identitiy)
Foreclosure: do not explore, do commit (conformity)
- explore in: love (partners), work (school, work) and ideology (politics, religion)
Critiques of Identity status model
- identity may change across contexts (post-modern identity), so it is less stable
- biased towards male development: females constrain exploration to maintain relationships
- exploration not possible or valued in every context
Ethnic identity
- bicultural: high identification with ethnic group and majority culture
- separated
- marginal
- assimilated
- also third culture youth (im not sure her definition is correct lol but look it up)
- you grew up in country A, then moved to country B, but exist in country C which is the international environment????
School Identity
- unintentional: selection, teaching strategy, teacher strategy and expectations, peer norms
- intentional: teacher may promote broad or in depth exploration, self reflection
- conditions for effective exploration: align with students’ interests to motivate identity exploration, supportive classroom (allowed to make mistakes)
Sexual Identity Study
- whether sexual identity fluctuates during adolescence
- studied teens over 3 years in low income schools in the Southern part of US
- looked at: identity, attraction, behaviour
- all may vary over time (fluidity) -> more females than males had a fluid identity and attraction but still seen in males
The big 5
Openness: inventive and curious
Conscientiousness: efficient and organized
Extraversion: outgoing and energetic
Agreeableness: friendly and compassionate
Neuroticism: sensitive and nervous
- ## development originates in gene x environment interactions
Study of personality development
- is there a mean level of change in big 5 traits in adolescence -> yes for most traits, but also temporal dips
- what is the rank order stability of traits -> increasingly stable until middle adulthood
- is there codevelopment of traits in dyadic friendships? -> no
Relation to personality disorders
- extreme ends of traits +
- unfavorable circumstances
- other individual differences (i.e. personal narratives)
paper:
- con: compulsivity vs impulsivity and irresponsibility
- extra: exhibitionism, detachment
-neuro: lability, poor coping, psychopathy
Why is moderate loneliness good
- help self reflect
- help learn to cope with emotions
Social vs emotional loneliness
maturity principle and disruption hypothesis
