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Adolescence: A Stressful Period of Physical and Psychological Development - Prof. Robert G, Study notes of Psychology

An introduction to adolescence, a period of significant physical and psychological changes. It discusses the stressors of adolescence, including the conflict between physical maturation and social dependence, and the impact of early puberty. The document also explores cognitive development, identity formation, and moral reasoning during adolescence.

Typology: Study notes

Pre 2010

Uploaded on 08/16/2009

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koofers-user-acd 🇺🇸

10 documents

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1 Psychology 105

Dr. Gordon

Module

“Adolescent Development”

2 A. An introduction to adolescent development

    1. Is adolescence a stressful time?
    1. Physical development

3 1. Is adolescence a stressful time?

  • Adolescence can be stressful time period between childhood and adulthood. G. Stanley Hall believed that the conflict between physical maturation and social dependence induced an adolescent “storm and stress.” For the most part, adolescents are their adult equals in physical development, but are unequal to them in social privilege.

4 1. Is adolescence a stressful time

  • According to Myers, he argues that “kids have been getting older younger.” A long these lines, adolescence is becoming a longer period of time. The slide above illustrates two historical perspectives on adolescence. It shows that in 1890 the average time interval between a female’s menarche and her marriage was only 7. years. In contrast, over a hundred years later in 1995, the average interval increased to 12.5 years.

5 1. When does adolescence begin and end?

  • In the United States, psychological conflict in adolescence may stem from the tumultuous road to adulthood. Adolescents often hear the mixed messages of dependency and autonomy. Nevertheless, psychological conflict in adolescence may be more frequent in cultures that emphasize individualism and autonomy. This might explain why teenagers can display unpredictable and intense emotions.

6 2. Physical development

  • A storm and stress is indicated by the number of violent crimes committed by the adolescent age group. According to the FBI studies, violent crime rates climbed steadily through the adolescent years until age 18 and then gradually decline. Adolescents are continually reality testing and breaking laws may be a reflection of this testing.

7 2. Physical development

  • The slide below illustrates the current suicide rates of different age groups. Even though the adolescent group shows the lowest suicide rate, the data shows a steep increase from 1970 to 1990. Recent studies suggest that storm and stress is prevalent in the adolescent society.

8 2. Physical development

  • Most developmental psychologists agree that puberty marks the beginning of adolescence. Puberty is defined as the adolescent having the ability to reproduce the species. Primary sexual characteristics refer to bodily changes that are reproductive in nature (e.g., development of ovaries). Secondary sexual characteristics are bodily changes that distinguish each gender but are not related to reproduction (e.g., growth of pubic hair).

9 2. Physical development

  • What is the psychological experience of the onset of puberty? For young males, typically around 14 years, the onset experience of puberty is the first ejaculation or “wet dream.” As a psychological experience, males usually keep this event to themselves. On the other hand, the female “menarche” is a more memorable experience. In contrast to their male counterparts, the female adolescent often discusses her first puberty experience with her parents, most often the mother.

10 2. Physical development

  • The sequence of physical changes in adolescent physical development is much more predictable than the timing. The slide to the left illustrates what appears to be a predictable trend in physical development. Time Magazine investigated a phenomenon known as “early puberty.” Investigators reported that American girls are reaching physical maturity much sooner compared to previous generations.

11 2. Physical development

  • The slide below provides two possible explanations for early puberty in girls. Exposure to PCB’s and Phthalates have been linked to early puberty. The latter is found in a number of food products including margarines. The research regarding both is still not conclusive.

12 2. Physical development

  • Other possible explanations include hormones in meat and milk, leptin in fat cells and DDE’s. Of these explanations, leptin appears to be a prime candidate. Leptin is a protein released by fat cells. Leptin has several functions including an appetite inhibitor, but one of its primary functions is to stimulate growth hormone.

13 2. Physical development

  • Studies have examined the effects of early puberty as a psychological experience. It would appear that male and female adolescents have different experiences. Male adolescents who mature early tend to be more athletic. They are more popular among their peers, confident and autonomous. They also have more conflicts with their mothers as they often equate physical size with autonomy. Lastly, early maturing boys are more at risk for alcohol use.

14 2. Physical development

  • In contrast, early maturing females tend to have a stressful experience. She can be a target of sexual harassment by older male adolescents. The early maturing girl is not as popular as her late maturing counterpart. The early maturing girl tends to engage the “teen scene” sooner than the late maturing girl. She may suffer socially among her own aged peers. 15 B. Cognitive development
    1. A closer examination of formal operations
    1. Moral reasoning

16 1. A closer look at formal operations

  • Cognitive development in the adolescent years has been discussed. Adolescents’ ability to take their logic beyond reality opens up a new world of social and moral understanding. For example, egocentrism in adolescence reflects this abstract thought. Egocentrism takes on two forms in adolescence. These include imaginary audience and personal fable.

17 1. A closer look at formal operations

  • Imaginary audience refers to the adolescent confusing or not differentiating their thoughts from the thoughts of others. This manifests itself in extreme self consciousness. In contrast, personal fable is an “over differentiation” of one’s thoughts from the thoughts of others. That is, the adolescent believes him/herself as being unique. This manifests itself in adolescents not believing their parents understand them.

18 2. Moral reasoning

  • With formal operations, adolescents begin to reason about right and wrong in more abstract terms. Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a theory about how children come to understand what is right and wrong. Kohlberg based his theory on the work of Jean Piaget. That is, moral reasoning follows a similar sequence of cognitive stages. In order to determine what stage of moral development one is, Kohlberg presented moral dilemmas. Kohlberg’s most famous dilemma was the story of Heinz and his wife’s rare disease.

19 2. Moral reasoning

  • In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “no.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? Why?

20 2. Moral reasoning

  • From subjects responses’ on the Heinz Dilemma, Kohlberg deduced different levels and stages of moral reasoning. Three levels included preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.

21 2. Moral reasoning

  • The preconventional reasoning suggests that thinking about right and wrong is based on punishment and reward. At the conventional level, what is right and wrong is based on getting approval from others or societal rules. At the postconventional level, right and wrong is based on fallibility of societal rules or a an

33 2. Intimacy development

  • Intimacy develops long before young adulthood. Females clearly shows signs of intimacy early in life. For example, girls prefer playing with one other female playmate or in small groups. In contrast, boys prefer playing in large groups with minimal verbal interactions. In general, females are more open and responsive to feedback.

34 2. Intimacy development

  • There is significant evidence that females show greater intimacy behavior across cultures. For example, females use conversation to explore relationships, spend more time emailing their friends, buy more greeting cards, are more likely to care for offspring, have more intimate friendships, etc… Among both men and women, they would prefer talking to a woman during a time of crisis. During adolescence, females are less assertive whereas males are more so. This reverses in the late middle adult years.

35 3. Separating from parents

  • The cartoon to the left displays a predictable adolescent social development, parental separation or asserting autonomy. As children move through their adolescent years, conflicts between parents become more intense. Most of these conflicts center around life style issues.

36 3. Separating from parents

  • In general, most adolescents get along with their parents and view family as having a positive influence on their lives. The slide to the left displays percentages of adolescents endorsing different statements about their family relationships. Overall, these data are similar to other studies examining adolescent autonomy.

37 3. Separating from parents

  • Parents come to realize that separation is often peer driven. Nevertheless, research has shown that high school girls who have the most affectionate relationships with their mothers also tend have intimate relationships with girlfriends. In contrast, peer relations can be difficult because of the exclusionary nature of them. Adolescents need friends and when they are rejected psychopathology can result.

38 3. Separating from parents

  • Within our culture, it would appear that the adolescent period is getting longer than previous generations. It is not unusual to see adolescents living at home as in their mid to late twenties. Marriage was once considered the beginning of adulthood is being delayed. Educational pursuits delay the onset of adulthood. Nevertheless, even today, there is no clear social or psychological event that clearly distinguishes adolescence from adulthood.