psychology - Achiever Papers

ASSIGNMENT: Muddiest Point—After reading Chapters 9 &10, write about an issue, concept, or definition presented in the chapters that you find most confusing or difficult to understand (please include the page #). Tell me exactly what you understand and what you do not understand about that issue, concept, or definition.

ESSENTIALS OF LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT, 5e
JOHN W. SANTROCK
Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence
9

Chapter Outline
The nature of adolescence
Physical changes
Adolescent health
Adolescent cognition
Schools

The Nature of Adolescence
Influences on the adolescent
Cultural
Gender
Socioeconomic
Age
Lifestyle differences

Physical Changes
Puberty: A brain-neuroendocrine process that provides stimulation for rapid physical changes that occur in early adolescence
Sexual maturation
Marked weight and height gains
Hormonal changes
Menarche: Girl’s first menstruation

Figure 9.1 – Pubertal Growth Spurt

Physical Changes
Hormones: Chemicals secreted by the endocrine glands and carried throughout the body by the bloodstream
Endocrine system’s role in puberty involves interaction:
Hypothalamus: A structure in the brain that monitors eating and sex
Pituitary gland: An important endocrine gland that controls growth and regulates other glands
Gonads: The testes in males, the ovaries in females
Increases in testosterone and estradiol concentrations in body

Physical Changes
Timing and variations in puberty
Basic genetic program hardwired into species
Nutrition, health, stress, and other environmental factors affect timing
Average age of menarche has declined significantly since mid-19th century
Improved nutrition and health
Pubertal sequence begins:
Boys – 10-13½ years
Girls – Between ages of 9 and 15 years

Physical Changes
Body image
Preoccupation with body image is strong throughout adolescence
Girls are less happy with their bodies and have more negative body images
Both boys’ and girls’ body images become more positive over time

Physical Changes
Early and late maturation
Early-maturing boys view themselves more positively and have more successful peer relations
Late-maturing boys report a stronger sense of identity in their 30s
Early-maturing girls show greater satisfaction early but less satisfaction later
Early maturation predicted a stable higher level of depression for adolescent girls
More likely to smoke, drink, be depressed
More likely to have an eating disorder
More struggle for earlier independence
Have older friends

Figure 9.2 – The Changing Adolescent Brain

Physical Changes
Brain
Context-induced plasticity
Certain brain linkages mature earlier than others
Corpus callosum – fibers connecting left and right brain hemispheres
Thickens in adolescence, improves information processing
Amygdala – seat of emotions
Almost completely developed by early adolescence
Prefrontal cortex, involved in reasoning, decision-making, and self-control
Matures between approximately 18-25 years
Has not matured to the point of controlling strong emotions

Physical Changes
Adolescent sexuality
Developing a sexual identity
Learning to manage sexual feelings
Developing new forms of intimacy
Learning skills to regulate sexual behavior
Sexual identity includes:
Activities
Interests
Styles of behavior
Indication of sexual orientation

Physical Changes
Different developmental pathways for gay and lesbian adolescents
Diverse patterns of initial attractions
Some struggle with same-sex attractions in childhood
Gradual recognition of same-sex sexual orientation
Timing of adolescent sexual behaviors
Becoming sexually active
Role of oral sex
Sexual risk-taking
Many adolescents are not emotionally equipped to handle sexual experiences
Especially in early adolescence
Engage in sports and risky sexual behaviors among males and females

Adolescent Sexuality
Contraceptive use
Two kinds of risks
Unintended, unwanted pregnancy
Sexually transmitted infections
Adolescents are increasing their use of contraceptives
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs): Contracted primarily through sexual contact
Including oral-genital and anal-genital contact

Adolescent Sexuality
Adolescent pregnancy
U.S. has one of the highest rates in the industrialized world
Decline overall in adolescent pregnancy in the United States
Ethnic variations in rates of teenage pregnancy
Health and social risks
Low birth weight, neurological problems, childhood illness
Mothers drop out of school and never catch up economically
Sex education
Abstinence-only or contraceptive knowledge programs
Contraceptive knowledge programs do not increase incidence of sexual intercourse
More likely to reduce adolescent pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections

Figure 9.3 – Birth Rates for U.S. 15- to 19-Year-Old Girls

Adolescent Health
Poor health habits linked to early death in adulthood begin during adolescence
Early formation of healthy eating patterns and exercise can delay or prevent disability and mortality from many diseases
Nutrition and exercise
Increasing numbers of overweight adolescents in recent decades
Individuals become less active as they reach and progress through adolescence
Exercise linked to positive physical outcomes

Adolescent Health
Sleep patterns
Only 31% of U.S. adolescents sleep 8 or more hours a night
Inadequate sleep on school nights
Sleep deficits experienced, try to make up on weekends
Leading causes of death in adolescence
Unintentional injuries
Homicide
Suicide

Adolescent Health
Substance use and abuse
Illicit drug use has declined in recent decades
Marijuana as most widely used drug, use rates on the increase
Alcohol and cigarette consumption has declined
Special concerns for adolescents who begin to use drugs early in adolescence or even childhood
Parents and peers play role in substance use
Educational success as a strong buffer for drug problems

Figure 9.4 – Trends in Drug Use by U.S. Eighth-, Tenth-, and Twelfth-Grade Students

Adolescent Health
Eating disorders
Anorexia nervosa: Relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation
Main characteristics
Weight less than 85% of what is considered normal for a person’s age and height
An intense fear of gaining weight that does not decrease with weight loss
Having a distorted image of their body shape
Amenorrhea
10 times more likely to occur in females than males

Adolescent Health
Bulimia nervosa: Individual consistently follows a binge-and-purge patterns
Preoccupied with food
Intense fear of becoming overweight
Depressed or anxious
Distorted body image
Typically fall within a normal weight range

Adolescent Cognition
Piaget’s Formal Operational stage (ages 11+)
More abstract thought
Make-believe situations, abstract propositions, hypothetical events
Increased verbal problem-solving ability
Think about thought itself
Thoughts of idealism and possibilities
More logical thought
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning: Creating a hypothesis and deducing its implications

Adolescent Cognition
Adolescent egocentrism: Heightened self-consciousness of adolescents
Imaginary audience: Adolescents’ belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are
Attention-getting behaviors
Personal fable: Involves a sense of uniqueness and invincibility

Adolescent Cognition
Information processing
Executive functioning – managing one’s thoughts to engage in goal-directed behavior and exercise self-control
Increased cognitive control
Increased decision making

Schools
Transition to middle or junior high school
Drop in school satisfaction
Occurs simultaneously with a host of other developmental changes
Top-dog phenomenon: Move from the top position in elementary school to the lowest position in middle or junior high school
Positive elements of transition:
Feeling more grown up
More subjects to select from
More opportunities to spend with peers and locate compatible friends
Increased independence from direct parental monitoring
More intellectually challenging work

Schools
Effective schools for young adolescents
Develop smaller communities that lessen impersonality of middle schools
Lower student-counselor ratios to 10-to-1
Involve parents and community leaders
Integrate several disciplines in a flexible curriculum
Boost students’ health and fitness with more programs
Provide public health care

Schools
High schools
Critiques include:
Low expectations for success
Inadequate standards for learning
Lack of pathways to create identity
Graduating without adequate reading, writing, and mathematical skills
Drop out rates

Schools
Service learning
Promotes social responsibility and service to the community
Takes education out into the community
Linked to higher grades, increased goal setting, higher self-esteem, serving as a volunteer in the future

Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

ESSENTIALS OF LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT, 5e
JOHN W. SANTROCK
Socioemotional Development in Adolescence
10

Chapter Outline
Identity
Families
Peers
Culture and adolescent development
Adolescent problems

Identity
Identity is a self-portrait composed of many pieces
Vocation/career
Political views
Religious beliefs
Relationship
Achievement/intellectual
Sexual
Cultural/ethnic
Interests
Personality
Physical

Identity
Erikson’s stages – Identity versus identity confusion
Psychosocial moratorium – Gap between childhood security and adult autonomy
Relatively free from responsibility, able to try on new identities
Experimentation with different roles and personalities
Adolescents who cope with conflicting identities emerge with a new sense of self

Identity
Marcia’s 4 statuses of identity:
Identity crisis
Identity diffusion
Identity foreclosure
Identity moratorium
Identity does not remain stable throughout life
“MAMA” – Repeated cycles of moratorium to achievement
Key changes in identity are more likely to take place in emerging adulthood than in adolescence

Figure 10.1 – Marcia’s Four Stages of Identity

Identity
Ethnic identity: Enduring aspect of the self that includes:
Sense of membership in an ethnic group
Attitudes and feelings related to that membership
Many adolescents develop a bicultural identity
Identify in some ways with their ethnic group and in other ways with majority culture
May consciously confront their ethnicity for the first time as adolescents
Positive ethnic identity is related to positive outcomes for ethnic minority adolescents

Families
Parental monitoring and management
Managerial roles of parents, supervising adolescents’ choice of:
Social settings
Activities
Friends
Academic efforts
Low parental monitoring is associated with negative mental health outcomes, predicts delinquency and substance use
When parents engage in positive parenting practices, adolescents are more likely to disclose information
Higher levels of parental monitoring reduced negative peer influence on adolescent risk-taking
Parental snooping was a relatively infrequent parental monitoring technique and is an indicator of problems in adolescent and family functioning

Families
Autonomy and attachment
Adolescents’ competing needs for autonomy and control, independence and connection
Push for autonomy
May puzzle and anger many parents
Ability to attain autonomy is acquired through appropriate adult reactions to desire for control
Adolescents gradually acquire ability to make mature decisions on their own
Boys are granted more autonomy than girls
Role of attachment
Securely attached adolescents are less likely to have emotional difficulties and to engage in problem behaviors

Families
Parent-adolescent conflict
Increases in early adolescence, does not reach tumultuous proportions
Remains somewhat stable during the high school years
Higher level of conflict was linked to higher anxiety, depression, and aggression, and lower self-esteem
Lessens as adolescent reaches 17 to 20 years of age
Everyday conflicts serve a positive developmental function
Old model of parent-adolescent relationships:
Adolescents detach themselves from parents, move into a world of autonomy apart from parents
New model:
Parents as important attachment figures and support systems while adolescents explore a wider, more complex social world

Figure 10.2 – Old and New Models of Parent-Adolescent Relationships

Peers
Friendships
Most teens prefer a smaller number of friendships that are more intense and more intimate
Friends become increasingly important in meeting social needs:
Need for tenderness (secure attachment)
Companionship
Social acceptance
Intimacy
Sexual relations
Positive friendships are related to a host of positive outcomes

Figure 10.3 – Developmental Changes in Self-Disclosing Conversations

Peers
Peer pressure
Young adolescents conform more to peer standards than children do
Boys were more likely to be influenced by peer pressure involving sexual behavior than were girls
Cliques and crowds
Cliques: Small groups averaging 5 or 6 individuals
Usually same age and sex
Engage in similar activities
Crowds: Larger than cliques and less personal
Membership based on reputation
May not spend much time together

Peers
Dating and romantic relationships
Three stages of romantic relationships:
Ages 11-13: Entry into romantic attractions and affiliations
Ages 14-16: Exploring romantic relationships
Ages 17-19: Consolidating dyadic romantic bonds
Variations on three stages include early and late bloomers

Peers
Dating for gay/lesbian youth
May date other-sex peers, which can help clarify their sexual orientation or disguise it from others
Many have same-sex experiences with peers who are “experimenting”
Sociocultural contexts and dating
Values, beliefs, and traditions dictate the age at which dating begins
Dating and adjustment
Romantic experiences linked with measures of adolescent adjustment

Culture and Adolescent Development
Cross-cultural comparisons
Traditions and changes in adolescence around the globe
Health
Gender
Family
Peers
Rite of passage: ceremony that marks an individual’s transition from one status to another
Focus on transition to adult status

Culture and Adolescent Development
Ethnicity
Immigration
High rates of immigration contributing to the growth of U.S. ethnic minorities
Immigrants experience stressors uncommon to longtime residents
Language barriers
Dislocations and separations from support networks
Dual struggle to preserve identity and acculturate
Changes in SES status
Undocumented status

Culture and Adolescent Development
Adolescent media use has increased dramatically in the past decade
Media multitasking
Mobile media
Digitally-mediated communication
Email
Text/instant messaging
Social networking sites
Chat rooms
Video/photo sharing
Multiplayer online games
Virtual worlds

Adolescent Problems
Juvenile delinquency
Adolescent who breaks the law or engages in illegal behavior
Males more likely to engage in delinquency than females
Rates among minority groups and lower-SES youth are especially high
Causes of delinquency
Lower class culture
Parents less skilled in discouraging antisocial behavior
Siblings and delinquent peers
Academic success and delinquency

Adolescent Problems
Depression and suicide
Rates of major depressive disorder range from 15-20% of adolescents
Factors contributing to depression
Genes
Gender differences
Certain family factors
Poor peer relationships
Combination of drug therapy and cognitive behavioral theory effective in treating adolescent depression

Adolescent Problems
Suicide
3rd leading cause of death in 10- to 19-year-olds in the U.S.
More adolescents contemplate or attempt it unsuccessfully than actually commit it
Females are more likely to attempt suicide, but males are more likely to succeed
Suicidal adolescents often have depressive symptoms

Interrelation of Problems and Successful Prevention/Intervention Programs
Four problems that affect the most adolescents:
Drug abuse
Juvenile delinquency
Sexual problems
School-related problems
Problem behaviors are often interrelated
Adolescents at highest risk experience multiple problems

Interrelation of Problems and Successful Prevention/Intervention Programs
Successful intervention programs include:
Intensive individualized attention
Community-wide multiagency collaborative approaches
Early identification and intervention

Turn in your highest-quality paper
Get a qualified writer to help you with

“ psychology ”

Get high-quality paper

NEW! AI matching with writer