CHAPTER 1: PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE

ADOLESCENCE

• Developmental transition between childhood and adulthood entailing major physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes.

• not a clearly defined physical or biological category—it is a social construction.

PUBERTY

• Process by which a person attains sexual maturity and the ability to reproduce.

  
  

PRIMARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS

PRIMARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS

• Organs directly related to reproduction, which enlarge and mature during adolescence.

SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS

• Physiological signs of sexual maturation (such as breast development and growth of body hair) that do not involve the sex organs.

  
  

ADOLESCENT GROWTH SPURT

• Sharp increase in height and weight that precedes sexual maturity.

SPERMARCHE

• boy’s first ejaculation

MENARCHE

•  girl’s first menstruation.

SECULAR TREND

• Trend that can be seen only by observing several generations, such as the trend toward earlier attainment of adult height and sexual maturity, which began a century ago in some countries.

  
  

BODY IMAGE

• Descriptive and evaluative beliefs about one’s appearance.

  
  

ANOREXIA NERVOSA

• Eating disorder characterized by self-starvation.

• have a distorted body image and, though typically severely underweight, think they are too fat.

  • They are extremely afraid of losing control and becoming overweight.’

    
    

BULIMIA NERVOSA

• Eating disorder in which a person regularly eats huge quantities of food and then purges the body by laxatives, induced vomiting, fasting, or excessive exercise.

  • are usually not overweight, but they are obsessed with their weight and shape.

    
    

BINGE EATING DISORDER

• Eating disorder in which a person loses control over eating and binges huge quantities of food.

  
  

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

• Repeated, harmful use of a substance, usually alcohol or other drugs.

  
  

SUBSTANCE DEPENDENCE

• Addiction (physical, or psychological, or both) to a harmful substance.

BINGE DRINKING

• Consuming 5 or more drinks (for men) or 4 or more drinks (for women) on one occasion.

  
  

FORMAL OPERATIONS

• Piaget’s final stage of cognitive development, characterized by the ability to think abstractly.

  
  

HYPOTHETICAL-DEDUCTIVE REASONING

• Ability to accompany the stage of formal operations, to develop, consider, and test hypotheses.

PRECONVENTIONAL MORALITY

• control is external and rules are obeyed in order to gain rewards or avoid punishment or out of self-interest.

  
  

CONVENTIONAL MORALITY

• People have internalized the standards of authority figures.

  
  

POSTCONVENTIONAL MORALITY

• People recognize conflicts between moral standards and make their own judgments on the basis of principles of right, fairness, and justice. 

  • people follow internally held moral principles and can decide among conflicting moral standards.