Puberty and Adolescence

Puberty and Adolescence

• a period of “storm and stress” when young people feel entitled and embittered towards authority

Child Labor Laws

an event in history which gave prominence to gave rise to puberty and adolescence as a cultural phenomenon

Industrial Revolution

period in which child labor laws were introduced

Puberty

• Most important marker of the beginning of adolescence

• Period of rapid physical maturation involving hormonal and bodily changes that occurs primarily during early adolescence

Pubesent Growth Spurt

• Second most dramatic period of biological change

• Rapid changes in body size and proportions + sexual maturation where they become physiologically capable of sexual reproduction

Sequence of Physical changes for Girls

1. Breasts develop

2. Pubic hair appears

3. Growth spurt: wider hips than shoulders

4. Menarche (first menstruation)

5. Armpit hair appears; acne may develop

2 years

How many years are girls typically ahead of boys in terms of maturity

10-14Y

what age does a girl experience menarche?

8.8Y

Average age of breast growth for African Americans

9.2Y

Average age of breast growth for Asians, Hispanics, or Caucasians

15Y

age of meanrche 100 years ago

10Y

Current age of menarche

breast cancer, heart disease, and depression

Early puberty increases the risks of these health conditions for women.

Sequence of Physical changes for Boys

1. Enlargement of the scrotum and testes

2. Pubic hair appears

3. Body size will increase

4. Penis growth; voice changes

5. Spermarche

6. Armpit hair and facial hair; acne may develop

Spemarche

When sperm develops

Masturbation or nocturnal emissions

First ejaculation may occur through

12-16Y

age in which boys experience puberty

12%

rate of overweight adolescenrs since 2003

Corpus callous

part of the brain that thickens during puberty, which improves processing of information

Amygdala

where emotion is processed in the brain, also matures by early adolescence

Mid to late 20s

age in which the prefrontal cortex develops

Formal Operational Stage

• Able to comprehend complex and abstract materials, including math, philosophy, politics

• Able to imagine an infinite variety of options to generate hypotheses and solve problems, including setting long term goals

• Metacognition

• Abstract games (such as computer simulations) attract adolescents as they require high-level logic and consideration of multiple combinations of problems

Metacognition

ability to examine and evaluate one’s own thought process

2M

Number of out of school children in the Philippines in 2015

18.6%

rate of out of school children in 2023

Reasons for not being in school

• Completion of schooling

• Employment

• Lack of personal interest

• Marriage

• Financial constraints or high educaiton costs

Risk-taking

• Changes in decision making during adolescence may be due to the asynchronous development of the affective, reward-focused processing system and the deliberative, reasoned processing system

Leading cause of death during adolescence

• Violent and non-violent crime

• Driving crashes and fatalities

• Unprotected sex

• Attempted suicide

• Accidental drownings

9-10 hours of sleep

• how many hours of sleep should teenagers get

Self-concept

• feelings and perception of one’s identity

• consists of stable values, beliefs and abilities

Self-esteem

• multifaceted

• includes self-acceptance

girls

have significantly lower self esteem in middle school years

13

age that self esteem increases until adolescence and adulthood

prefrontal cortex

• last region of brain to mature

• responsible for skills such as planning, prioritizing, and controlling impulses

• teens are more likely to engage in risky behaviors without considering consequences

Identity vs. Role Confusion

• adolescent identifies a personal ideology which influences their role

• resolves identity crisis

Ego Diffusion

• result of failure to resolve identity vs. role confusion

Identity Formation

• optimal outcome of resolving identity vs role confusion

• a critical task of adolescence because it is the stage where one thinks about their future self

• identifying spiritual beliefs, intellectual, social, and political interests, and career path

• relationships and sexual orientation

parental support

• are your parents supportive of the identity you’re building

established sense of industry

• the feeling that you are doing something, you are making a change

able to take a self-reflective stance toward the future

• reflecting on yourself, do i want to do this?

identity diffusion

• low commitment, low exploration

• have not yet experienced a crisis or made any commitments

• undecided about choices, with little interest

• no interest in exploring options

• lower self-esteem

identity foreclosure

• high commitment, low exploration

• made a commitment but have not experienced a crisis

• parents hand down commitments before adolescent had the chance to explore

• approval-seeking behaviors

identity moratorium

• low commitment, high exploration

• in the midst of a crisis but whose commitments are absent

• openly explore alternatives

• leads to confusion

• can cause anxiety, self-consciousness, and depression

• need guardian figures for this stage

identity achievement

• high commitment, high exploration

• undergone crisis and have made a commitment

• explored different options and undergone a crisis of decision

• made a commitment to their chosen identity and values

family conflict, parental separation, divorce

• what are factors that undermine attachment stability

Being popular, smaller friendships

• what motivates peer groups in adolescents?

intimacy

Girls’ friendships focus

power and excitement

Boys’ friendships

Entry into romantic attractions and affiliations

• 11-13

• intense interest in crushes

• group dates

Exploring romantic relationships

• 14-16

• casual dating and group dating

• third party as a facilitator

Consolidating dyadic romantic bonds

• 17-19

• more serious romantic relationships

Early bloomers

• 11-13

• more externalized problems

• older male partners have higher depressive symptoms and problems at home and school

Late bloomers

• 17-19

• no experience with romantic relationships and/or those who have not engaged in any romantic relationships that lasted more than 4 months

sexual orientation

• individual’s pattern of physical and emotional arousal towards other persons of either the opposite or same sex

• Awareness of sexual orientation generally occurs during adolescence

1 in 10

• rate of teenage pregnancy

Reality and Possibility

At this stage, teenagers usually ask these questions:

• How are things going?

• What can my future be?

Abstract Reasoning

Involves analogies, systemic problem solving, thinking of multiple steps to get to a certain goal.

Multidimensional

Generating positive and negative effects.

Egocentrism

Believing that your perspective is the right perspective.

Pseudostupidity

Overthinking to the point that you get stuck.

Social Cognition

seeing the interactions inside/outside a group or population