Lecture Notes/Chapter Outine Chapter 10: Adolescence

Chapter 10
Adolescence: Physical & Cognitive Development

I. Adolescent Development in a Cultural and Historical Context

A. RIGHTS OF PASSAGE – symbolic events or rituals to mark life transitions, such as from childhood to adult status.
1. As social circumstances change, adolescents react and adapt to the social relationships and institutions around them.

2. The social context in which development occurs must be considered in understanding adolescence.

B. Adolescence in the United States Today
1. Adolescents are largely age segregated, that is, they interact mostly with other adolescents and much less with younger children or adults.
a. Developmental niche: the interaction of various aspects of development - such as everyday physical & social settings, parenting & family customs & overall environmental context – that determines the unique world of each individual.

b. This separates the adolescent from younger children and thus deprives them of the opportunity to guide and tutor those who are less knowledgeable.

c. This also separates them from adult culture and they lack the chance to learn jobs by working with adults

2. Adolescents are also largely economically dependent on their parents

3. Adolescents are deeply affected by, and develop strong opinions about, the events of the time in which they live.

4. Adolescents are influenced by images projected by the mass media
a. They accept tragedy, sexuality, and brutality in a matter of fact way

b. Adolescents tend to gravitate to the more grizzly, counterculture aspects of media programming.

II. Physical Development and Adaptation

A. Physical Growth and Change
1. The biological hallmarks of adolescence are a marked increase in the rate of growth, rapid development of the reproductive organs, and the appearance of secondary sex characteristics such as body hair, increased body fat and muscle, and enlargement and maturation of genitalia

2. Some changes are the same for both boys and girls – increased size, strength, and stamina

3. Most changes are sex specific

4. The physical changes are largely controlled by HORMONES, which are the bio-chemical substances that are secreted into the bloodstream in very tiny amounts by internal organs called endocrine glands; hormones exert an effect on particular target organs or tissues.
a. ANDROGENS are male sex hormones; TESTOSTERONE is the most important androgen
b. ESTROGEN and PROGESTERONE are both female sex hormones
c. The hypothalamus and the pituitary gland are the two areas of the brain that maintain the balance of hormones.
i. The hypothalamus initiates growth and eventual reproductive capability
ii. The pituitary gland produces both growth hormones and some trophic hormones

5. The increase in hormone output is followed by the ADOLESCENT GROWTH SPURT, a period of rapid growth in physical size and strength, accompanied by changes in body proportion. Especially for girls, the growth spurt is a sign of entry into puberty.

B. PUBERTY is the attainment of sexual maturity in both males and females
1. A SECULAR TREND toward earlier sexual maturation has occurred.
2. Changes in girls
a. Breast development
b. Growth of pubic hair
c. Growth of underarm hair
d. Body growth
e. MENARCHE – the time of the first menstrual period
f. Increased output of oil and sweat producing glands

3. Changes in boys
a. Growth of testes and scrotal sac
b. Growth of pubic hair
c. Growth of facial and underarm hair
d. Body growth
e. Growth of penis
f. Change in voice
g. First ejaculation of semen
h. Increased output of oil and sweat producing glands

C. Body Image and Adjustment
1. MARGINAL GROUP is a group between cultures or on the fringe of a dominant culture that typically exhibits an intensified need to conform
2. Concerns about body image
a. ANOREXIA NERVOSA – an eating disorder in which a person is obsessed by thoughts of an unattainable image of perfect thinness; can result in death
b. BULIMIA NERVOSA – an eating disorder characterized by bingeing and purging
3. Early and late maturers
a. Girls mature on average 2 years earlier than boys
b. Early maturation is rarely a benefit for girls
i. One effect is that they have fewer opportunities to discuss their physical and emotional changes with friends
ii. They are significantly more likely to experience psychological distress over their maturity (e.g. lower self esteem).
c. Late maturation is rarely a benefit for boys.
i. They miss valuable childhood psychological development
ii. May be pressured into early sexual behavior
iii. More likely to experience psychological distress

III. Gender Identity and Sexual Practices
A. Four Decades of Changes in Sexual Practices
1. In the 1950’s and 1960’s most young people felt premarital sex was immoral
2. In the late 1960’s and 1970’s sexual attitudes changed partly because of the development of birth control
3. SEXUAL DOUBLE STANDARD is the view that sexual activity is more permissible for boys than for girls; this became less endorsed in the 1970’s
4. SAME SEX ORIENTATION is the sexual attraction toward members of one’s own sex
5. A sexual revolution was in full swing during the late 1970’s
6. In the 1980’s the revolution in changing sexual norms began to decline. People began to view the sexual attitudes of the 1970’s as irresponsible.
7. The 1990’s ushered in some stability in sexual attitudes.
8. Masturbation, homosexuality, cohabitation, premarital sex, “serial monogamy”, etc.

B. Factors that Influence Early Sexual Relationships
1. The age at which a person first becomes sexually active varies by both gender and ethnicity.
2. Sexual activity is also associated with the adolescent’s family situation
a. Adolescents from two parent families have less and later sexual experience than those from single parent families
b. Overly restrictive and overly permissive parenting are associated with earlier sexual activity
c. Education is also positively correlated with the age sexual activity occurs

C. Consequences of Adolescent Sexual Behavior
1. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
a. One of the most serious problems of adolescent sexual activity
b. About 20% of sexually active teenagers have an STD
2. Why teenagers become pregnant
a. 8% of teenaged girls become pregnant
b. 75% of girls and 82% of boys do not use contraception at first intercourse
c. Adolescents feel uncomfortable making demands of their partner in times of high excitement
d. Pregnancy rates have been decreasing in the last decade

3. The Effects of Early Parenthood
a. For the mother
i. Less likely to marry the father of their first child
ii. More likely to become divorced
iii. More likely to spend twice as much time as a single parent prior to age 30
iv. More likely to drop out of school
v. Less likely to earn a high school diploma by age 30
vi. More likely to work more hours at a lower rate of pay
b. For the father
i. Less likely to earn a high school diploma
ii. More likely to work in a blue collar ocupation
iii. More likely to experience lower income levels
iv. More likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behaviors
c. For the Child
i. More likely to be born premature and of low birth weight
ii. More likely to experience serious or life threatening medical conditions at birth
iii. Less likely to receive quality medical care and nutrition
iv. Less likely to receive necessary emotional support and cognitive stimulation
v. More likely to drop out of school
vi. More likely to become involved in delinquent and criminal behaviors
vii. More likely to have children before marriage
d. For society
i. Increased financial burden to taxpayers and extended families
ii. Additional strain on the resources of governmental programs and systems

IV. Cognitive Changes in Adolescence
A. Brain Development in Adolescence
1. Brain Imaging
a. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technologies are providing researchers a clearer look at how brain cells develop
b. Children’s brains contain more nerve cells than the adult brain will retain
c. Important changes continue to occur within the brain long past childhood, adolescence and perhaps even into early adulthood
2. Changes in the Adolescent Brain
a. Gray matter levels at the age of 25
b. White matter increases until about the age of 40
c. The processes of pruning and increasing myelinization first start in the back of the brain and then occur in brain areas responsible for coordination and end in areas that control decision making and problem solving
3. The Influence of Hormones on the Brain
a. Hormones tend to target areas of the brain related to emotional regulation such as the amygdale
i. When the amygdale is triggered, emotions become volatile
ii. Stimulus seeking behavior and risk seeking tendencies also occur
b. The emotional outbursts and overly emotional responses seen in teen behavior are the result of the pace with which different regions of the brain mature
c. Changes in how adolescents experience emotion, make judgments about risky behavior and actually think are associated with changes in the brain

B. Piaget’s Period of Formal Operations
1. Formal Operational Thought
a. FORMAL OPERATIONS – the final stage of cognitive development that is characterized by the ability to reason hypothetically and think about abstract concepts
b. Adolescents also show an increasing ability to plan and to think ahead
2. Expanding Piaget’s View
a. Information processing functions also occur because they involve the development of increasingly effective strategies for thought
b. Not all individuals attain the abilities associated with formal thought
c. Moreover those who attain it do not use it consistently.

C. The Scope and Content of Adolescent Thought
1. Examining the World and the Family
a. Adolescents contrast their ideal parent with the real parent and the real parents have a difficult time meeting the adolescent’s expectations, therefore, bickering tends to escalate during early adolescence (“The Foundling Fable”)
b. Teens tend to battle for their independence through means of negotiation
c. Research indicates that those with parents who offered guidance but allowed their children to develop their own points of view, had the strongest sense of themselves as individuals
2. Adolescent Egocentrism
a. The self centered view assumes that other people are as fascinated with them as they are with themselves
b. IMAGINARY AUDIENCE – adolescents’ assumption that others are focusing a great deal of critical attention on them
c. PERSONAL FABLE – adolescents’ belief that they are so special that they should be exempt from the laws of nature, that nothing bad can happen to them, and they will live forever
3. Moral Development in Adolescence
a. Cognitive changes that occur during adolescence contribute to moral development as well
b. Some of the decisions have complex consequences, but the adolescent may not have the moral framework to deal with the pressures until well into adolescence or even early adulthood
c. Kohlberg specified that the ability to reason through moral dilemmas proceeds developmentally, from preconventional, through conventional, to postconventional thinking
d. Presenting a child with increasingly complex moral issues creates disequilibrium forcing the child to resolve contradictions