W15 Adolescence, emerging adulthood and ageing Flashcards
Why is puberty beginning 3-4 months sooner per decade?
Diet, obesity, father absence and environmental factors
What is moratorium?
Adolescents are actively exploring options but make no commitments. (made no commitment)
What are the effects of puberty on physical, cognition, brain and socially?
Physical: height, pubic hair, etc.
Cognitive: shift from concrete to abstract/complex thinking
Brain: High dopamine: more risk taking and sensation seeking. Later in puberty when pre-frontal cortex develops there is an improvement in self-regulation and delayed gratification.
Social: More autonomy from parents- less time spent with them, more impact of peers, homophily.
What does homophily mean?
Homophily is the tendency of people to seek out or find someone attractive because they are similar to themselves.
What is identity foreclosure?
Individuals commit to an identity without exploring options (decided too soon)
What is identity diffusion?
Adolescents neither explore nor commit to any identities (confused)
What is deviant peer contagion?
The spread of problem behavior within groups, such as reinforcing laughter or other signs of approval. (bullying)
What is identity achievement?
Individuals explored different options and made a commitment (tried then picked)
Explain where when and why a new life stage of emerging adulthood appeared over the past half century
The theory of emerging adulthood has occurred in industrialized countries between the ages of 18-25 because of the postponement of career establishment.
What is Patterson’s early vs late starter model?
Youth aggressive and antisocial behavior during childhood (early) versus adolescents (late)
Early starters are at greater risk for anti-social behavior that extends into adulthood than are later starters.
Later starters who become anti-social during adolescents are theorized to experience poor parental monitoring and supervision. (poor monitoring/supervision contributes to involvement with deviant peers, promoting anti-social behavior)
What are the 5 features of emerging adulthood
1.The age of identity exploration: who you are/what you want out of work, school and love.
2.The age of instability: post high school years, what you choose afterwards.
3.The self-focused age: free of parental control (freedom of what you want)
4.The age of feeling in-between: taking responsibility for oneself but still do not feel like an adult.
5.The age of possibilities: optimism reigns (living a better life than their parents)
What is heterogeneity?
Personal and sub-group differences in level and rate of change over time.
What is life course theories?
Theory of development highlighting social expectations of age-related life events and social roles.
What is intra-individual and inter-individual differences?
Different patterns of development whereby one is between people (inter) and the other is a person measured by different times and places (intra)
How is memory affected with age?
Slower processing speed and impaired recall but not recognition. Similar crystalized intelligence but a decrease in fluid intelligence.
