Lecture 7 - Adolescence

Question 1

Adolescence

Answer 1

• The period from puberty to adulthood
• the transitoin to assuming an adult role.
• major physical, cog and social change
• not clear cut. if referring to maturation differences, frontal lobe dev into early 20s.

Question 1

Historical view of adolescence

Answer 1

• Hall - time of ‘storm and stress’ 3 aspects: conflict with parents, mood disruptions, risky behaviour.
• recent research emphasises indiv difs (not all adolescents experience storm and stress) and cross-cultural difs (less storm and stress in traditional cultures)
• Erikson: puberty is period of identity crisis. primary interaction with peers & consolidation of self-image. adolescence = physical growth, sexual maturation, integrating ideas of ourselves and what others think of us.
• Marcia (1966) - identity crisis: extent to which one has explored and committed to an identity (politics, occupation, religion, intimate relationships, friendships, gender roles). crisis leads to commitment to one of the alts. many peer influenced.
• psychological problems: Rutter et al. (1976) 1 in 4 felt miserable/depressed, suicide rates inc when social media emerged (2004)
  > inc in SZ, depression & exaccerbated by environ factors
  > emotional distance from parents & less support
  > inc risk taking

Question 2

puberty & LHRH

Answer 2

• gradual inc in leutenising-hormone-releasing hormone & freq of release before & after puberty
  > inc LHRH in hyp which controls activity of pituitary which stim adrenal cortex & goands which produce sex hormones whic develop primary & secondary sexual characteristics (feedback loop) & not in control of emotions

Question 3

brain development

Answer 3

1. synaptic pruning towards adult levels
   - later in pfc than visual/auditory cortex. prune at 14 years. pfc matures later.
2. WM inc throughout adolescence
   - WM vol & density inc and gradually taper off, inc espec in pfc during adolescence reflecting myelination or possible changes in axonal diameter which improves their efficience
3. GM changes
   - GM peaks and drops back down. age corresponds to puberty onset suggesting interaction with hormones. GM pruning in pfc ore and early adolescence.
4. PFC last to mature
   - changes in GM density from MRI. pruning = dec density.
   - implicates cog development (planning, reasoning, cog flexibility)

Question 4

cognitive development - executive functions

Answer 4

• McGivern et al (2002) - match to sample task: answer Y/N whether each stimulus is same as previous one
• temp dec in performance at onset of puberty then inc after. interpreted as inefficiency related to wave of synaptic proliferation in frontal lobes at puberty onset
• Paus (2005) - most studies show steady improvement in EF throughout adolescent years
• gradualy inc in stroop test then worse then better again. shows inhibition

Question 5

adolescents - emotion perception

Answer 5

• adoelscence does not play strong role in emotion perception. by 9y can perceive emotions
• delinquency not due to inability to recognise emotions but due to internal changes.
• but when recognising emotion from voice, can only hear an adult level ability of perceiving emotions from voices at 15y - something in auditory cortex about perceiving emotions?
• happiness detection good at 4y but fear bad until 12y.
• perhaps not yet experienced fear

Question 6

fMRI work - body activation areas

Answer 6

• can show images of people moving which gets lots of activation in visual areas and areas associated with body movement. subtracting activation from watching object from watching body shows body activation areas
• adults and children show activation in same areas (STS, EBA and FFA) but more active in adults. in rpSTS get lots of activation when looking at bodys = specialised in body motion
• get more activation inc through adolescence and adulthood. experience?
• for angry bodys > neutral, difs between children adolescents and adults disappear = very adultlike when looking at emotional bodies.

Question 7

cognitive development - risk taking

Answer 7

• adolescents take more risks e.g. car crashes, binge drinking, contraceptive use, crime. 2 explanations:
  1. cog factors - EF
  2. social factors - peers
• not mutually exclusive
• cog processes relevant to risk taking are: judging how risky an activity is, judging vulnerability, judging seriousness of consequences
• % choosing risky options in lab task decline with age (Reyna & Mattson 1994)
• Iowa gambling task - 6-9y with disadvantageous strategy then advantageous takes over. at 15y also go nack to advantageous strategies when losing money as do 18-25y. no pattern of choosing bad decks for adolescence.
• assessing likely consequences of real-life behaviours: similar responses for adolescents & adults.
• do adoelscents underestimate risks? Reyna & Farley (2006) - adolescents in one study overestimates risk of disease so may still be rational.
• ratioanl decision making is trade off between risks and benefits & perceived benefits may be higher

Question 8

cognitive and social development: risk taking

Answer 8

• logical reasoning is fine but psychosocial maturity, impulse control, resist peer influence & gratification influences overweighing benefits
• Steinberg - adolescents inclination to engage in risky behaviour is product of logical reasoning & psychosocial factors.
  > logical reasoning mature by 15y but psychosocial capacities mature into adulthood
• when with friends, the benefit of trying to look cool outweighs game decisions.

Question 9

cognitive and social development in the brain

Answer 9

• frontal areas involved in cognitive/EF as well as emotional regulation
• brain areas mediating emotional experience change more rapidly than those mediating cognitive regulation - have logical reasoning ability but not psychosocial ability
• remodelling of dopaminergic systems at puberty inc reward seeking
• these neural changes = greater self-focus in adolescence, greater risk-taking etc