Love Actually - Adolescence Love (Week 7) Flashcards
What is adolescence?
-Transition from childhood to adulthood
-Time of integration of many aspects of ourselves which is a lifelong journey
-Pushing away parents to be more independent
-Starts at puberty
Netflix Explained: The Teenage Brain
-Irrational teenage behavior is stereotypically attributed to hormones but it is a lot of other things
-Dopamine spikes in teens are much higher in teens than in adults
-Certain neurons are strengthened and some are lost specializing the brain in one specific skill
-White and gray neurons
-Use it or lose it principle
-A sense that people are always watching us; imagined audience
Health Paradox of Adolescence
Our bodies are at peak physical health but the risk of death is higher
Cause of Death In adolescents
Accidents, suicide, homicide due to peer pressure and the desire for rewards
Four qualities in Adolescent brain
Novelty Seeking
Social Engagement
Increased Emotional Intensity
Creative Exploration
Novelty Seeking
-Increased drive for rewards and new experiences
-Teens might downplay the consequences of their actions and act without thinking (negative)
-More open to change and living life as an adventure; passion for life (positive)
Social Engagement
-Enhanced drive for peer connectedness and friendships
-Need to belong, safety in numbers, etc
-Negative is that teens are surrounded by other teens instead of adults leading to increased risk-taking behavior due to peer pressure
-Positive is that they form healthy friendships
Increased Emotional Intensity
-Enhanced vitality for life
-Negative is that emotions may rule a teen’s life leading to more impulsivity
-Positive is that the experience of life is enhanced and filled with energy
-Lows feel worse highs feel better
-In love: rejections feel worse and small gestures feel better
Creative Exploration
-Developing abstract and new ways of thinking thus questioning status quo; teen activism
-Negative is that searching for the meaning of life may lead to a identity crisis, vulnerability to peer pressure and a lack of purpose
-Positive is that if the brain can consistently see new and exciting ways of looking at life consistently it would enhance our experience of it
Dopamine Spikes in Teens
-Teens experience higher dopamine spikes
-Increased impulsivity and susceptibility to addiction
-They do more reckless things because how good this spike feels
-Risk seeking behavior in teens has more to do with dopamine than with hormones
Hyperrationality
-The rewards is worth it for the risks
-Teens are aware of the risks of their actions but they place more importance on the positive outcomes than potential risks
-Dopamine driven reward seeking way of thinking
-More focus on the outcomes whereas adults focus on the consequences
Gist Thinking
-Moving on from hyperrationality
-Seeing the bigger picture and following our intuitions to aim for positive values that actually we care for
Purpose of Adolescence
-The push away from parents can be seen through an evolutionary lens of teens going out to reproduce preventing inbreeding
-Seeking novelty helps us to adapt to the outside/real world
Adventure and Connection
-Seeking new experience is universal cross species
-Decrease of fear and increase in taking risks
-Moving away from our nests and doing things differently
-Vital to the survival and continuance of our species
Puberty, Sexuality and Identity
-Sexual maturity and romantic interest
-Pursuing romantic interests encompasses all four qualities of adolescents
-Acting to fit in
Hooking up
-Enjoyability depends on each person’s expectations
-Peer pressure to have sex
Romance and First Love
-Deep sense of longing for lover
-Separation and rejections feel like hell
-Three forms of love: friendship, sex, and attachment
We defined self
-Moving the focus from self to others
-Important for the integration of our identity
-Becoming a larger whole
-Collectivism over individualism
Brainstorm by Dan Siegel
-Pushing away parents to be with other teens is universal
-Questioning the old ways of doing things
-This period shapes our adult lives
-Goal oriented behavior (usually for social status)
-Our prefrontal cortex develops lasts contributing to immaturity in teens
Identity vs role confusion
-Who am I? Where am I going?
-The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others; an imaginary audience
-Later in adolescence there is a development in sexual identity
-They ponder their role in the adult world
-We experience an identity crisis as we explore how we fit into society
-Our identity comes from past experiences and we forge it in anticipation for the future
-“Throughout infancy and childhood, a person forms many identifications. But the need for identity in youth is not met by these.
-“This turning point in human development seems to be the reconciliation between ‘the person one has come to be’ and ‘the person society expects one to become’.
Emerging adulthood
-Exploring what adulthood means
-We’re still exploring who we are
-Pushing away family and friends to forge an individual identity
-College years to mid twenties
Identity Formation
-Arises from the selective rejection and mutual assimilation of childhood identifications
-Absorption in a new content (goth, cottage, hip) is dependent on the process by which a society identifies the young individual
Psychosocial moratorium
Being stuck in certain situations because people don’t know what they want to do
Intimacy vs isolation
-Am I loved or am I alone?
-Young adults are still eager to blend their identities with friends, fitting in
-Forming relationships and identities within those relationships
-The idea of being alone and the fear of rejection may led to isolation
-Once people have established their identities, they are ready to make long-term commitments to others
