The Science of Adult Capabilities Flashcards
Certain capabilities are required to succeed in life and support development of the next generation. What do these capabilities help us achieve?
- Get and keep a job - Provide responsive care for children - Manage a household - Contribute productively to the community
When these skills (success skills) have not developed as they should or are compromised by the stresses of poverty or other sources of ongoing adversity who pays the price?
The communities pay the price in population health, education and economic vitality
What are the core capabilities?
Mounting research from neuroscience and psychology tells us that there is a set of underlying core capabilities that adults use to manage life, work and parenting effectively. These include, but are not limited to: planning, focus, self-control, awareness and flexibility
What do these 5 core capabilities fall under?
To scientists the 5 core capabilities fall under the umbrella of self-regulation and executive function
What does self-regulation help us achieve?
- Draw upon the right skills at the right time - Manage our responses to the world - Resist inappropriate responses
What are the two processes of self-regulation in the brain?
Automatic self-regulation and intentional self-regulation
What is Automatic self-regulation?
Automatic self-regulation is our rapid, impulse-directed response (fight or flight) It is needed for urgent or threatening situations
What is Intentional self-regulation?
Intentional self-regulation is our conscious, planful and proactive response needed for achieving goals. Attention serves as the critical gate-keeper for engaging our intentional self-regulation by directing our focus toward specific things within and around us.
What makes intentional self-regulation possible?
Executive function, including inhibitory control, working memory and mental flexibility. Executive function skills help us to remember our goals and the steps needed to reach them, resist distractions along the way and find a plan B when plan A doesn’t work out
How do these core capabilities work together?
Imagine any situation that requires a response—e.g., a knock on the door, a cry from your baby, or a request from a supervisor. First the brain must recognize that the situation requires a response. This launches a rapid-fire cycle of triggers and neurotransmitters in the brain that operate in an intricate, mutually dependent way. The automatic self-regulation system responds first, orienting to where the stimulus is coming from and initiating a response. The attention system alerts the intentional self-regulation system, which must act fast—directing the attention system to what it should focus on and prioritize. It also sends a signal quickly to the automatic self-regulation system as to whether the initial response is the right one, or more careful thought is required. This cycle demonstrates a continuum between reactive or impulsive behavior at one end and proactive or goal-directed behavior at the other. Both reactive and proactive behaviors are important adaptations to the environment in which people develop: quick responses are helpful in the face of immediate threats. But when longer-term goals are more important than immediate concerns, proactive behaviors are required. Having the right balance is an important part of being able to use our core capabilities in life.
How do these core capabilities develop?
We are not born with these skills, but we are born with the capacity to develop them through the right experiences and practice. The foundation is built in early childhood: By age 3, most children are already using executive function skills in simple ways (e.g., remembering and following simple rules). Ages 3-5 show a remarkable burst of improvement in the proficiency of these skills. The orchestration of these skills requires communication between the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions. With time and the right experiences, brain regions devoted to different mental functions connect. These connections allow the regions to communicate with each other; later in childhood and adolescence, the connections become more efficient. Two things are happening in the brain during this time: Increased efficiency within specific regions of the brain; and Faster flow of information among regions, which allows for better integration. The full range of core capabilities, and the neural network that connects them, continues to develop into adolescence and early adulthood, with another significant increase in proficiency occurring between ages 15 and 23. Adults of all ages can continue to learn these skills through coaching and practice, although it’s easier and more effective to build on a strong foundation.
What derails our ability to use these core capabilities?
Serious early adversity and trauma can lead to higher levels of stress, higher risk of stress-related health difficulties and mood disorders, greater difficulty modulating and accurately appraising emotion, and compromised executive function abilities.
Chaotic, threatening, or unpredictable environments that seem beyond our control can lead to poor self-regulatory behaviors and impulse control as well as a low sense of self-efficacy—the belief that one can be an agent in improving one’s life—which is an essential component of executing planful, goal-oriented behaviors.
Highly rewarding stimuli such as food or drugs can hijack the brain’s attention system and cue more automatic responses.
Poverty can overload self-regulation, as a result of a pile-up of stresses associated with trying to survive with inadequate resources.
