Adolescent Psychology - Exam 2

What is the stereotype view of adolescence/teenagerhood?

teenagers are extremely irritable, moody, and unmanageable

Explain the notion of a generation gap.

a sharp divide between the value systems and goals of adolescents and adults

What is the actual evidence for a generation gap between adolescents and their parents?

Not much actual evidence because values get passed on from parents to children

supporting: kids and parents have different personal tastes (like music and clothes, and stuff like that)

against: kids end up mimicking their parents core values and beliefs anyways, so there’s not really a generational gap in that case

What is the effect of parents buying into the stereotype of teenagerhood?

Parents are more likely to have negative relationships and conflict with their children.

What do parents and teens fight about?

1. Mundane issues
2. Different perspectives on issues
3. Body ritual

Explain the idea of families as systems, what are the implications of this approach for the study of adolescents

Everybody in the family has an effect on everyone else AND relationships are continually changing
Dyadic relationship in a family can be found through families with more than one child and extended family
The relationship of two people as well as all the possibilities of three + people in the family.

What changes do the parents go through when the children go through adolescence?

Midlife crisis, reevaluation time (spouse, career), health issues, contrasting life perspectives, less restrictive gender roles. Unless parental issues are major adolescents typically don't notice what parents are going through.

Compare the concerns and changes of parents at midlife and teenagers during adolescence.

Parents start to reevaluate their life while adolescents are beginning to choose life, health begins to decline while adolescents are at peak, and they have different views on life

How does mental health of parents change in the 'empty nest' phase of life?

Change in mental health: better when children leave, when there is no empty nest health decline

Who misses the adolescent more?

Dad misses them more, mom are more relived because it less their responsibility

How do family needs and functions change during adolescence?

Adolescents require more economic resources than children with parent starting to save for college at this point

There becomes a growing importance of the peer group for the adolescents and listen/getting advice from friends instead of parents

Changes in family functions - parents go from nurturing kids to guiding them. Instead of doing everything for the kids, they have

Change in balance of power with more emotional perception of conversion and the power shift to more adolescent

How are adolescents' relationships with their mothers and fathers different?

Teens tend to be closer to mothers (more intense relationship)

Father's rely on mothers for information, they are perceived as distant authority figure by teen

Sex of the parent may be a more important influence than the sex of the teen

What were the original 2 dimensions of parenting that Diane Baumrind suggested? How are these 2 dimensions "unpacked" by some researchers? What are the advantages of this "unpacking"?

Parental responsiveness-degree to which parents are sensitive to their children's needs and express love, warmth, and concern for them

Parental demandingness-degree to which parents set down rules and expectations for behavior and require their children to comply with them

What are Baumrind's 4 parenting styles?

Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive, Uninvolved

What are the effects of the 4 parenting styles?

Authoritative-independent, popular, self assured teens
Authoritarian-dependent, passive, weak self esteem
Permissive-immature, irresponsible, influenced by peers
Uninvolved-problematic behavior

What is the 'fifth' parenting style?

Traditional Parenting: heavy emphasis on unquestioned parental authority but with warmth/reliance towards the child

How does the fifth pareting fall on the 'unpacked' dimensions?

Even if parents control children, they give warmth and compassion along with structure/support of autonomy

What is the difference between behavioral and psychological control?

Behavioral Control: Parental rules, restrictions and limits. Incudes having curfew, giving chores, teaching good manners
Psychological Control: Guilt induction, love withdrawal

What are the effects of low behavioral control?

Low behavioral control leads to externalized problems like drugs, alcohol, antisocial behavior

What are the effects of high psychological control?

Psychological Control is linked to anxiety and depression in children. Manipulation through the child's emotions, thoughts, and attachment

What is the difference between shared and nonshared environmental influences?

Nonshared-when influences experienced differently among siblings within the same family (when parents behave differently with their different children) and shared is when you experience it the same

What is attachment in the context of family? Explain the 'internal working model' Towhat extent have the predictions of attachment theorists about the importance of earlyattachment to all later relationships been supported? (see book

attachment theory is the idea that your interactions with a primary caregiver at infancy will form an internal model that predicts how you'll perceive relationships for the rest of your life. The model kind of weighs feelings of trust vs apprehension, and our view of ourselves (our we worthy of relationships or not). The theory kind of works. Studies show that secure attachment to caregivers improve other areas of life in adolescence but there doesn't seem to be a starting point for when in your life it need to occur

How can people end up with different experiences while growing up in the same family?

if you get treated differently (differential parenting) or if for example you go on a family hiking trip and you hate it but sibling loves it

What is the subject matter of behavioral genetics?

How genes & environment interact:
same gene/diff env -identical twin different home
same gene/same env-identical twins same home
diff gene/diff env-fraternal twins different home
diff gene/same env-fraternal twin same home

Explain the differences between passive, evocative and active genotype-environment correlations

Passive- you get your genes from your parent but your parent also create your environment
Evocative -behavior it evocate in it environment (happy kids get treated different than grumpy kids)
Active-the kids evoke an environment so much as much as look for one, they good at something like music even though they parent have not past experience in it so they may ask for music lesson

What are the effects of parents' differential treatment of their children?

it can lead to sibling wanting to deidentify and create conflict among sibling.

What is sibling deidentification?

them wanting to be different from the rest of their siblings

Different type of patterns in sibling relationship

Caregiver-foreign race
Buddy relationship-twins
Critical relationship-get in way, have regular fights
Rival relationship-actual conflict & competing
Casual relationship-not close, just a sibing

CBCRC

Which two groups were studied with respect to the effects of geographical mobility?

people who parent were in the military.
children who were in miliary.

What were the effects on these groups of geographical mobility?

geographic mobility doesn't seem like a big thing for middle-class citizen (military-could be they were going to school with peers who understood them) —> more empathetic in joining new peer groups

while it can contribute to negative kids in poverty giving them anxiety and behavioral effect

people of parents in military value family relationships more since that was a constant in their life

What were the two ways of classifying sibling relationships that we talked about in class?
What is the difference?

Conflictual - can be a type of rival relationship.
Warmth- they have a low and casual relationship.

How do sibling relationships develop during adolescence?

it become more equal, distant and less emotionally intense

Describe the trend in divorce rates for the US.

The divorce rate rose dramatically between 1960 and 1980
40% of American children experience parent divorced
College educate people are less likely to be divorced than high school educated people

What can be generally said about the effects of divorce?

Quality of relationships in teen's life matters(not # of parents in house)

process of going through divorce matters most (not resulting family structure)

How does the quality of adolescents' relationships affect the impact that divorce has?

Adolescents are wary when they enter into marriage because of their expectations

What is it about divorce that seems to affect their mental health?

parent who went to a good divorce and do not bad mouth each have kids that can adjust well.
Parent who bad mouth and fight a lot can negativity impact the adolescent mental health because they in the middle of it.

What are some of the general factors that adversely influence youngsters whose parents divorce?

parenting changes, financial strain

What are the long-term effects of divorce on children whose parents divorced during pre-adolescence and adolescence?

Sleeper effect (delinquency, sex, drugs and alcohol issues)

What are suggested to be the reasons for 'sleeper' effects of divorce?

Having a delayed reaction to divorce because they want their parents to think they are ok

What is the effect of remarriage on adolescents?

Adolescents growing up in stepfamilies: often more problems than their peers

What factors contribute to this effect of remarriage in adolescent ?

girls get closer to moms and feel like the relationship is being interrupted

family system is interrupted

aware of the sexual relations, makes them feel uncomfortable.

What is the effect on adolescents of having a mother that work works? How are these effects different by gender

• Effect are mixed girls who mom works have higher self esteem
Boy have more conflict with their parent and have lower grade when their mom works

How does financial strain affect the family system? What is the effect of poverty on parenting?

Parents under financial stress are harsher, more inconsistent, less involved

Adolsecent are at greater risk of psychological diffculites and problem behaiors

What is a peer group?

-Group of people that is roughly the same age, social status, or level of functioning.

What is age segregation?

-Segregation based on age, including schools, community sports, workplace.
-Not exposed to enough adults today

What is age grading? When did age grading become common, why then?

-Children placed in grade within 12 month period

-1930s? Needed to keep children off the streets

What was the composition of the peer group now

-Today, based on age, social class, or level of functioning

What was the composition of the peer group in the 19th century?

-In 19th century, many of different ages

What changes in the workplace are related to the rise of adolescent peer groups?

-Child labor laws kept children away from work

-Parents work so children turn to peers

Explain what the baby boom had to do with the rise of adolescent peer groups.

-Baby Boom created adolescent boom in 1960s-1970s
people could market to teens who could spend money
-Adolescents comprised over 10% of population; Now only 7%

-Creates competition for jobs

How do time spent with peers as opposed to with family or alone change with adolescence over preadolescence?

- Before adolescence, mostly "sex cleavage": same-sex interactions. This starts to break down
-Time spent with peers increases
-Peer groups begin to function without adult supervision

Is there a difference between girls and boys with how they spend time with peer

-Males spend increased amount of time alone
-Females spend increased amount of time with peers (and alone)

Cliques

small groups defined by similar activities or simply friendship. SERVES SOCIAL SKILLS

Crowds

arger, more vaguely defined, based on reputation. SERVES IDENTITY

How does the structure of cliques and crowds change over time?

The structure of cliques and crowds changes over time during adolescence

-Cliques merge and form larger mixed-sex groups

-Crowds become more differentiated, more permeable

-Gives more freedom for adolescents to move between crowd

Crowd Characteristics

Middle School
(Grades 6-8)
-less differentiated (two main groups - the in-crowd and the out-crowd)

Early High School
(Grades 9-10)
-become more differentiated
-more influential

Later High School
(Grades 11-12)
-become yet more differentiated
-more niches for people to "fit into"
-less hierarchical and less influential

What is gained by plotting crowds as a function of involvement?

Crowds help adolescents to define their own identities and the identities of others

Explain how crowds serve as reference groups.

- Crowds contribute to definition of norms (clothes, taste in music)

-Crowd is important influence on behavior, activities, and self concept (identity)

-Crowd status and self esteem (Populars vs delinquents)

-Crowd membership as predictors (breakfast club identities)

-Doing prosocial activities → fewer drugs, higher SE, higher college grad rate
Some schools divide ethnically first then crowds

What is the relationship between the status of the crowd and the self-esteem of an adolescent in that crowd?

Kids involved in prosocial behaviours had higher self-esteem, drug rates, and better graduation from college rates.

Status: Populars, jocks, academics, deviants, others

How does ethnicity affect crowd formation?

Schools divide ethnically then into crowds within those

In what four ways are clique members generally similar?

Age, race, sex, socioeconomic background

What are thought to be the reasons for age segregation in cliques?

Because schools are based on age grading

What reasons were discussed for sex cleavage in cliques in early adolescence?

early adolescence were basically ages 3-4 to early adolescence -> sex cleavage -> girls hang out with girls only and boys hang out with boys only, or early adolescence there are separate cliques, middle adolescence sex segregation breaks and leaders date, late adolescence groups become less important, and the different interests of males and females,

Discuss the common interests among friends that lead to clique formation

Orientation towards school, orientation toward teen culture (dress, apps, etc), involvement with antisocial behavior (smokies and druggies)

What are liaisons and isolates in the context of cliques and peer groups?

Liaisons and isolates in the context of cliques and peer groups are basically liaisons - non-clique member, like in between a clique member and an isolate, interact with people who are members of cliques but are not part of a clique, and isolate

How does susceptibility to peer pressure and parental pressure develop over adolescence? Is there a difference in subjects in which advice is taken from parents and peers?

- Peer pressure higher in early adolescence than middle adolescence

Peers more important in day to day matters + relationship advice (music, clothes)

Teens go to parents for career related topics, grades, etc
Parents more influential regarding long term basic values

What is the big caveat w.r.t. crowd membership - self and others assigning one to crowds?

self and others assigning one to crowds is that basically crowds are a mix between reputation you have and how other people see you in terms of which crowd they would assign you and the way you would think of yourself,

How does parental style modulate susceptibility to peer pressure?

- Those with authoritarian or permissive parents most susceptible especially in antisocial behavior

- Those with authoritative parents less susceptible to antisocial behavior but more likely to be susceptible to positive peer pressure

What is the influence of parents on their children's peer relationships?

Parents predispose children to certain crowds and socialize certain traits

How does the author of your book argue for friend influence over peer pressure?

choices the adolescent has to make, which mainly come from the influence of friends or people they are close to instead of random peers.

Intimacy

-Not necessarily sexual or physical; involves self-disclosure (sharing), trust (daring), concern (caring) about another person

-It is the degree to which two people share personal knowledge, thoughts and feelings

Sexuality

biological sexual development as well as sexual values, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, relationships, and behavior

How does friendship change from childhood through adolescence as far as the characteristics required in friends? How does conflict change?

-People value friends and work hard to fix problems.

-Solve conflict by negotiation and disengagement, not coercion

-Not until adolescence do true intimate relationships occur

-Companionship appears even before adolescence

What are the changes in display of intimacy over adolescence?

- Adolescents more knowledgeable about friends

- Adolescents become more responsive to close friends and less controlling

- Friends become more interpersonally sensitive and show more empathy

- Rated intimacy disclosure falls for parents and rises for friends

What are the gender differences in intimacy during adolescence?

- Girls more intimate than boys. Girls co-ruminate more

What are thought to be the origins of these differences in intimacy

- Reasons: Girls socialized to chat more? Boys at these ages afraid to appear gay? They just are?

How are sociometric ratings collected? What ratings lead to the five general peer acceptance categories?

-Students asked to pick 3 people they like and 3 they dislike

-Popular: Many likes. STABLE

-Rejected: Many dislikes. STABLE

-Controversial: Half and Half. UNSTABLE:

-Move to average, neglected, rejected

-Neglected: No ratings. UNSTABLE usually move to average

-Average: Very few ratings of like or dislike. STABLE

What is the main determinant of popularity? What is the difference between the popular prosocial and popular antisocial adolescents?

-Chief determinant is social skills: act appropriately, confident but not conceited, meet needs of others

-Popular prosocial: Talkative, funny, STABLE

-Popular antisocial: Cool kid, rebel. Less common as you get older. STABLE, but can drop to controversial

relational aggression

harming someone's relationship or status (Think Mean Girls) big problem among adolescent females gossip, exclusion, ridicule

reactive aggression

performed in response to provocation (e.g. retaliation). aimed to harm another (kicking another child to get back at them for taking your toy).

instrumental aggression

aimed to achieve a certain goal (kicking and screaming to get the candy bar you want or pushing a kid aside to get the toy)
Boys seem more physically aggressive while girls more relationally aggressive

What is hostile attributional bias?

Person has it in their mind that everyone is trying to get them

Recognize some of the types of 'cyberbullying'

Flaming, harassment, sexting, exclusion, cyberstalking

Explain the difference between intimacy and sexuality. What are the three hallmarks of 'true' intimacy according to those who study this?

1. self disclosure (sharing)
2. trust (daring)
3. concern (caring)

How does friendship change from childhood through adolescence as far as the characteristics required in friends? How does conflict change?

goes from common interests to characteristics of person
show more empathy
resolve conflicts by negotiation of disengagement

How do the targets of intimate disclosure change across early, middle and late adolescence?

friends highest until college
parents lowest in early adolescence
SO highest college and after

What gender differences are there in intimacy across adolescence?

females- more intimate friendships
more likely to place higher value on talking together as a friendship component-disclose more, concerned w trust and loyalty RUMINATION

CORUMINATION: males- less intimate friendships
shared activities basis of friendship

GIRLS DISCLOSE MORE BUT BOTH HAVE SAME AMOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE

What are two different ways of measuring 'popularity'?

prosocial, antisocial

How does the sociometric rating method of determining 'popularity' discussed in class work?

ask kids who they like and do not like

What is the main determinant of sociometric popularity? What is the difference between the popular prosocial and popular antisocial adolescents?

Social skills; popular
prosocial-act appropriately, meet needs of others and confident but not conceited
popular antisocial-aggressive and popular

What is the difference between instrumental and reactive aggression?

instrumental(use of aggression to get something), reactive (use of aggression as reaction)

What are physical and relational aggression? What are the gender differences in aggression?

relational- Harming others through purposeful manipulation and damage of their peer relationships;
physical- actually hurting them

What is hostile attributional bias?

When some people think the worst of every interaction (central role in aggressive behavior of rejected adolescent and imagined attacks make them fight back)

Which "peer acceptance" category of kids gets bullied in school? What factor can ameliorate the effects of being in the rejected-withdrawn category of kids? (having a friend)

Rejected; others find them to be excessively aggressive, disruptive and quarrelsome

What are the characteristics of bullying?

Aggression (physical and verbal), Repetition (patterns over time), Power imbalance (bully has higher peer status)

What are thought to be more effective anti-bullying interventions? (see book)

one teach them social skills and how to handle their aggression

What are the cognitive skills and general knowledge gained by taking the subjects discussed in class? Be able to recognize these in vignettes

English Lit
Math
physic
biology
history

How has the amount of time spent in school changed in the past century?

Amount of time increased, 95% of population enrolled now compare to the past

How does time in school differ between America and other countries? (see book)

Americans only use the comprehensive high school. while other developed countries have several different kinds of schools that adolescents may attend.

some of the schools in Europe allows people from 15 to 16 what they doing to do after

How did the comprehensive high school curriculum differ from the curricula before?

in the 1920 educator called for change in social composition in school to move it to more of general education, college preparation and vocational education to make room for the more average people coming to school. Before that time it was for the high socioeconomic elites