Developmental Psych Exam 5 Uark-Alwood

Early Adolescence (11/12–14) This is when puberty really starts hitting. Your body is changing fast — growth spurts, hormones, body hair, voice changes, periods, etc.

Middle Adolescence (14–16) Most of puberty is almost finished. Teens usually care a lot about friends, dating, appearance, and independence during this stage.

Late Adolescence (16–18) The body now looks mostly like an adult body. Teens start acting more like adults too — taking on more responsibility, thinking more maturely, making future plans, jobs, college, relationships, etc.

What are the phases of adolescent growth?

Boys:

-Growth spurt around age 12 1/2

-Proportions: Shoulders broaden longer legs

-Muscle-fat makeup: Gain more muscle, heart, lung capacity increase

Girls:

-Growth spurt around age 10

-Proportions: Hips broaden

-Muscle-fat makeup: Gain more fat

What are the sex differences of adolescent growth?

-Girls: slow and gradual gains in gross motor skills, level by 14

-Boys: dramatic spurt in strength, speed, and endurance (some may use performance enhancing drugs)

Motor development in boys vs. girls

Body starts releasing more hormones:

Growth hormone (GH) → helps the body grow taller and bigger

Thyroxine → helps control growth, energy, and metabolism

- First sign is a growth spurt (rapid increase of height and weight

Adrenarche (6-8yrs): release of adrenal androgens b/w 6 and 8

- This leads to things like body odor, oily skin, pubic underarm hair beginning later on.

Hormone changes in adolescence

Estrogens: main female sex hormone

- They help cause girls growth spurt during puberty

- Develop female sex characteristics: breast development, wider hips

- Help regulate the menstrual cycle

- Work with androgens to increase bone density (stronger bones)

Estrogen = female growth + female body changes + periods

Hormone changes specific to girls

Testosterone: main male sex hormone

- Is released by boys' maturing testes

- Leads to muscle growth

- Body and facial hair, etc.

- Gains in body size

Testosterone = muscle + hair + bigger body

Hormone changes specific to boys

the first menstrual period (the start of menstruation).

- happens around 12 1/2 yrs

- important sign that puberty is progressing in girls

Menarche = first period

menarche

a boy’s first ejaculation.

--Usually happens around 13½ years old

--It is an important sign of sexual maturation in boys

Spermarche = first ejaculation

spermarche

uncontrolled ejaculation during sleep

nocturnal emissions

These are the body changes during puberty that directly involve reproductive organs and the ability to reproduce

--Puberty

---Maturation of the reproductive organs

-Girls: menarche at 12 1/2

-Boys: spermarche 13 1/2 - testes, penis, scrotum enlarge

-- maybegin having nocturnal emissions

Primary sexual characteristics = reproductive organ changes

What are primary sexual characteristics?

These are physical changes during puberty that do not directly involve reproduction, but make the body look more mature.

Called: Pubescence

---Girls: breast buds, voice deepens slightly

---Boys: facial hair, voice depends

---Both: underarm, pubic hair

-----Hair darkens

-----Oil and seat glands more active- BO and acne

What are secondary sexual characteristics?

-Heredity (genetics)

-Nutrition and exercise (good nutrition & body weight can effect when puberty starts (esp. girls))

-Geographical location (where someone lives may affect puberty timing, mechanism not understood)

-SES, early life stress, ethnic group. (Early family experiences (conflict, harsh discipline)...associated with early puberty and anxiety in boys and girls

---Ethnic differences reduce or disappear when account for other factors (stress, nutrition, and SES are considered)

what effects the timing of puberty?

In many industrialized countries, children today are starting puberty at younger ages than people did in the past.

Secular trend = puberty happening earlier over generations

What is the secular trend of early pubertal timing?

- White matter increases: this helps brain communication become faster and more organized

- Gray matter stabilizes: The brain starts keeping important connections and getting ride of weaker ones

---Pruning of unused synapses continues (use it or lose it)

---Synaptogenesis burst in prefrontal and temporal cortexes (brain creates new connections in areas related to decision making, planning, memory, language, and emotions)

---Myelination accelerate through age 15 (faster brain communication)

Brain development in adolescence

makes adolescents, esp. girls, self-conscious and overly sensitive to opinions of others

changes in oxytocin sensitivity

amygdala (during adolescence)

-Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, teenagers might rely on a part of the brain called the _________________ to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do.

-This area of the brain is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behavior.

- It becomes a more effective “executive” of the brain

- meaning it gets better at controlling thoughts, emotions, and behavior

- Neurons become more sensitive to excitatory neurotransmitters (NTs)

- This increases brain activity and communication

prefrontal cortex during adolescence

develops faster than the prefrontal cortex (the brain’s control center).

limbic controls-

- emotions

- rewards

- excitement

- risk-taking

limbic system during adolescence

Boys that develop earlier than other boys

- age 9

- Popular

•Confident, independent

•Positive body image

•Psychological distress

•Problem behaviors

Early Maturing Boys

- develop earlier than peers

- 8 yrs old

-Unpopular, withdrawn

-Low confidence, negative body image

-More involved in deviant behavior

-Earlier sex, substance abuse

Early Maturing Girls

- develop later than peers

- 14 yrs old

-Unpopular

-Transient emotional difficulties until they catch up physically with peers

Late Maturing Boys

- Develop later than peers

-13 yrs old

- Unpopular, Withdrawn

• Low confidence, negative body image

• More involved in deviant behavior

   (earlier sex, substance use)

Late Maturing Girls

Still need 9 hours

- Delayed phase preference- go to bed later/wake up earlier

Biological changes

- melatonin releases later at night (around 11pm), so teens do not get tired as early

Social habits, use of screen media

- Phones, social media, TV, and other screen use also keep teens awake longer.

- Because of this, later school start times may help adolescents get more sleep.

what does sleep look like in adolescence?

-Affects performance on cognitive tasks.

-May lead to anxiety and depressed mood

-Is associated with high-risk behaviors and accidents

Effects of sleep deprivation?

Starvation

2 types

- Binge eating: over eating when stressed, sad, or cannot regulate emotions (food is comfort)

- Restrictive: not eating or excessively exercising

- Characterized by extreme loss of body weight

-Individual, family, and cultural factors contribute

-Serious health consequences such as bone loss, kidney failure, hearing and brain damage, and even death, can occur

anorexia nervosa

person eats a large amount of food and rids the body of that before I can be absorbed

-Strongly associated with a lack of self-control in many areas

-Feelings of guilt and depression are typical

-Binge at least 1 per week, may then purge, restrict, excessive exercise

-Weight is either normal or overweight-weight fluctuates

bulimia nervosa

- Leads to weight gain and obesity

- do not purge

- feel guilt and shame

binge eating disorder

-Suicide

-unintentional poisoning

-homicide

-firearms- leading cause of death

-sports related injuries (concussion)

How are adolescents being injured?

Automobile accidents WERE the leading killer

----Firearms now the leading cause of unintentional death

What is the major cause of death in adolescence?

-North America: relatively restrictive attitude

-Parents give limited information about sex

-Most learn about sex from friends, books, magazines, movies, TV, and the internet

---42% of 10- to 17-year-olds viewed pornographic websites in the last year

---66%- found images accidentally.

Effect of culture on sexual activity

Parent-child conservations about sex and contraception reduce sexual risk taking!

where should adolescents learn information about sex?

-Is associated with reduced sexual risk-taking in adolescents

-Is associated with warm parent communication on sex and contraception

-More likely to use birth control

-Mothers tend to have more success

Talking about sex with adolescents:

-They teach techniques for handling sexual situations (peer pressure)

---No means no and it is a full sentence.

-They deliver clear, accurate messages

-Long-term process

-They provide information and access to contraception

-Abstinence programs have little to no impact!

Key element of effective teen pregnancy prevention programs:

-About 5% of US high school students identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual

-Another 2-3% are unsure of their sexual orientation

-An unknown number experience same-sex attraction but have not come out to friends or family

-Genetic an prenatal biological influences (prenatal hormones) appear to be largely responsible for homosexuality

---Origins of bisexuality are not yet known

What does sexual orientation look like in adolescence?

-Feeling different:

---Ages 6-12

---Sexual questioning by age 10

-Confusion:

---Boys: aware they are gay around ages 10-15

---Girls: aware they are lesbian around ages 13-18

-Self-acceptance:

---By end of adolescence

---Promoted by parental understanding

What is the sequence of coming out?

-Adolescent contraceptive use has increased in recent years

-However, 18% of sexually active US teens do NOT use contraception consistently

---Rarely use barrier methods for oral sex

Condom usage among teens

STIs and teen pregnancy become a higher risk with decreased condom use

What are some issues surrounding condom use in teens?

-Pervasive in industrialized nations

-Substantial decline since mid-1990s

-Rise in marijuana use since late 2000s

-Minimal experimenters are typically psychologically healthy

-A minority of teenagers move from use to abuse (genetic root/earlier start)

What does drug use look like in adolescence?

-Effective school and community programs:

-Promote effective parenting, including monitoring of activities, fix relationship

-Teach skills for resisting peer pressure

-Reduces social acceptability of taking drugs by emphasizing health and safety risks

-Get students to commit to not using drugs

-Teach at-risk skills to handle stress

-Provide appealing substitute activities

how to treat and prevent adolescent substance use and abuse?

Around age 11, young people develop capacity for abstract, logical and systematic, scientific reasoning

Piaget's Theory: The formal Operational Stage

A testable hypothesis is proposed to explain a phenomenon, predictions are deducted from it, and those predictions are tested through experimentation and observation

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning (top-down logic)

1. Hypothesis (general theory)- start with a general theory of all possible factors that might effect the outcome

2. Deduce logical, testable inferences- ("if X is true then we should see Y") use deductive reasoning to predict specific, observable consequences that should occur if the hypothesis is true.

3. Systematically investigate variables (specific conclusions)- design and experiment to test these inferences by isolating and combining variables one b one

What are the steps in hypothetico-deductive reasoning?

The ability to evaluate the logic of verbal statements or propositions without needing to relate them to real-world situations. Adolescents can think abstractly and decide if an argument makes logical sense.

“All men are created equal.”A teenager can discuss whether the statement is logically fair or meaningful even if the real world does not perfectly reflect it.

This is part of Piaget’s formal operational thinking.

Propositional thought

-Abstract thought need extensive guidance and practice

---If no hypothetical problem to solve, then may not display formal operations

-Therefore, culturally transmitted:

---Specific to literate societies

---Taught in school

Do all individuals reach formal operational stage?

The ability to think logically, test ideas with evidence, solve complex problems, and coordinate theories with evidence. Scientific reasoning improves during adolescence as thinking and memory abilities become more advanced.

A teenager thinks, "Students study better with music." Instead of just assuming it is true, they compare test scores with and without music to see what the evidence shows.

What does Scientific Reasoning look like in adolescence?

response inhibition

the suppression of a behavior that is inappropriate or no longer required

-Leads to Adolescent Egocentrism

---Imaginary Audience

---Personal fable leads to feeling invulnerable

-Then to mature Perspective Taking (mutual perspective taking)

---Encouraged by authoritative parenting

Consequences of Cognitive changes: Self-consciousness and self-focus

-The ability to think about possibilities is idealism, which leads to a teenager's development of criticism because they compare the world around them with a vision of a perfect world. This is advantageous in that once they understand people have strengths & weaknesses, they can work for social change & form positive/lasting relationships.

-create a "generation gap".

Consequences of Cognitive changes: Idealism and Criticism

-Improving but...

-Still not as good as adults

---Often rely on intuition

-Adolescents more influences by immediate rewards

---Focus on potential rewards rather than costs or risk

-Often overwhelmed by options and cannot handle spur-of-the-moment decisions

---Resort to: habits, impulse, or putting it off

Consequences of Cognitive changes: Planning and decision making

-No difference in general intelligence but do vary in:

--Reading

--Writing

--Spatial skills

--Verbal abilities

Sex differences in mental abilities

Verbal ability

-Girls score higher on tests of _________ ____________ throughout childhood and adolescence

---Lessens and disappears into adulthood

Math (mathematical abilities)

-Boys are advantaged once ________ concepts become more abstract and spatial

---For mental rotation tasks and spatial perception tasks.

-Vocabulary and Grammar

---Adding abstract words to vocabulary

---Producing grammatically more complex sentences

---Grasping figurative language, proverbs

---More effectively analyzing and correcting grammar

How is language improved and developed at this stage?

-Improving capacity to adapt to societal context

-Use of SLANG as a group belonging shows mastery!

Pragmatics in adolescence

-Grades decline with each transition as a result of:

---Higher academic standards

---Less supportive teaching-learning environment

-Worse with poor stage-environment fit

-Self-esteem drops after transitions

---especially for students moving to school with fewer same-ethnicity peer

Effects of school transitions on teens?

-Parental involvement

-Monitoring

-Gradual autonomy granting

-Emphasis on mastery vs. grades

-Keep changes based on developmental needs

-Have close friends increases social integration and academic motivation

-Homerooms promote favorable judgement

How can we help teens adjust to transitions

-Authoritative parenting still best

---Joint parent-adolescent decision making

---Need co-regulation

-Peer valuing of and support for high achievement

-Warm, supportive teachers who develop relationships with parents

---Learning activities that encourage high-level thinking

---Active student participation

---Meet academic, social, and emotional needs

-Work-study programs

---Small scale school-to-work projects in the US are attempting to build bridges between learning and working

How to improve school achievement

-Results in:

---Fragments attention span, greatly reducing learning

---Implicit memory use instead of explicit

-Frequent media multitaskers report multiple executive-function difficulties in everyday life

---Problems with attending

Effects of media multitasking

-Supplementary academic instruction and counseling that offer personalized attention

-High-quality vocational education

-Opportunities for participation in extracurricular activities

-Need to start in elementary school and involve parents

What are drop-out prevention tactics?

-Early and middle childhood

- When children begin thinking about jobs and careers mostly through imagination and play.

Fantasy period of vocational development

-Ages 11 to 16

-Evaluate careers in terms of interests, abilities, and values but does not know what a career is really like

Ex. "I like psychology and helping people, so maybe I want to be a therapist."

Tentative period of vocational development

- Late teens and early twenties

- This is when people begin making more serious and realistic career decisions.

- Exploration (exploring different career ideas)

followed by

- Crystallization: focusing on general vocational category, then settling on single career.

Realistic period of vocational development

-Unemployment rate TWICE that of college grads

-Often hold low-paid, unskilled jobs have few alternatives for vocation counseling and job placement

What is the outlook for drop-outs/non-college bound adolescents?

-Small scale school-to-work projects in the US are attempting to build bridges between learning and working

---Do NOT necessarily learn money management, experience affluence without financial responsibility

----Work-study programs have a positive impact... less than 15 hours per week

-National apprenticeship program (like Germany's) would improve transition from high school to work for US non-college-bound young people

---Currently "many" states have programs

---High quality vocational prep is scarce in US

Impact of work study programs?

Pre-conventional: Morality based on personal consequences, such as avoiding punishment or gaining rewards.

Conventional: Morality based on following rules, laws, and social expectations to gain approval and maintain order.

Post-conventional: Morality based on personal ethical principles, justice, and human rights, even when they conflict with laws or rules.

What are Kohlberg's stages of moral development?

Men and women tend to have very different styles of moral decision making

Men- tend to be very justice-oriented

Women- tend to be very compassion oriented

In terms of Kohlberg's stages, women tend to be in lower stages than men because of their compassion orientation.

sex differences with stages of moral development

Personality, child-rearing practices, schooling, peer interaction, and culture.

What influences moral reasoning and behavior?

-Western= justice based valued (focuses on fairness, rules, laws, and equal treatment)

-non-western= care based valued (focuses on relationships, compassion, and helping others.)

----based on culture

what are care and justice orientations?

Erikson's stage during which teenagers and young adults search for and become their true selves

- Teenagers explore their independence, values, and beliefs to develop a lasting sense of self.

identity vs. role confusion

-Major personality attainment of adolescence

---Due to introspection

---Affected by others

-Crucial step towards becoming a productive, content adult

-Involves who you are, what you value, and your direction in life

-Drives choices in life

Identity

-Weak sense of trust, lack of faith in ideals

-Little autonomy or initiative

-Little active exploration during adolescence

-Failure to choose vocation that matches interests and skills

-May appear shallow, directionless

role confusion

During adolescence, teens begin developing a more organized and complex understanding of who they are. They realize they can act differently in different situations and start comparing their “actual self” to their “ideal self.”

Example: A teenager may act outgoing with friends but quiet in class, while also wanting to become a more confident and kind person overall.

Self-Concept in Adolescence

During adolescence, self-esteem becomes more specific and based on different areas of life, such as friendships, romantic relationships, job competence, and social acceptance, while teens still maintain an overall sense of self-worth. Self-esteem usually increases from middle to late adolescence.

Example:A teenager may feel confident socially and in friendships but insecure about appearance or school performance.

Self-Esteem in Adolescence

Identity Achievement = high exploration + high commitment

Moratorium = high exploration + low commitment

Foreclosure = low exploration + high commitment

Identity Diffusion = low exploration + low commitment

What are the 4 Identity statuses established by James Marcia?

High level of exploration & high level of identity commitment

Identity achievement:

Psychologically healthy

High level of exploration & low level of identity commitment

Identity moratorium: to experience, may have anxiety

Low level of exploration & high level of identity commitment

Identity foreclosure:

Inflexible, ridged, either/or thinking

Low level of exploration & low level of identity commitment

Identity diffusion:

Apathetic

Yes, factors that affect identity development are:

-Personality

-Family

-Peers

-School, community and culture

Can identity status change? What may affect these changes?

You form an ethnic identity through exploration of your heritage but may come tied to acculturate stress

What is the effect of culture on identity?

sense of ethnic group membership and attitudes, beliefs, and feelings associated with that membership

Ethnic Identity

-psychological distress resulting from conflict between minority and host culture

-associated with decline in self-esteem

Acculturate stress

formed by exploring and adopting values from both one's subculture and dominant culture

Bicultural identity

Young adolescents become more increasingly sensitive to gender stereotypes and so their behavior adheres to ridged gender roles

Gender intensification hypothesis

-Increased gender stereotyping of attitudes and behavior (is changing nowadays)

-Movement away from traditional gender identity

-When evident, Stronger for adolescent girls

-Biological, social, and cognitive factors involved

-Typically declines by late adolescence

What does gender typing look like in adolescence?

Androgynous adolescent especially girls, are more self-confident, better-liked, and identity-achieved

Androgynous means having a mix of both traditionally masculine and feminine traits or characteristics.

what are the benefits of androgynous gender identity?

-Teen value autonomy

-they begin to deidealize their parents (leads to conflict)

What does a parent-child relationship look like in adolescence?

Sense of oneself as separate, self-governing individual

Autonomy

relying more on oneself, less on parents

Emotional autonomy in adolescence

making decisions by weighing one's own judgement and other' suggestions

- ability for adolescents to make their own decisions while still considering advice and opinions from others

Behavioral autonomy in adolescence

-Parenting practices that foster adolescent competence:

-Authoritative

---Project warmth and acceptance, child feels valued and respected ------Promotes: autonomy, self-reliance, self-esteem, + view of work/school

-Monitor activities but balance w/ child's need for autonomy and respect

-Engage in democratic decision making and verbal give-and-take (co-regulation).

-Joint decision making

-Establish firm control and consistent disciplineProvide information and model effective skills

What does effective parenting look like in adolescence?

about 4-6

About how many close friends do adolescents have?

-Intimacy (psychological closeness)

-Self-disclosure

-Trust

-Loyalty

Most important characteristics of friendship are:

-Emotional closeness in more common between girls than boys

-Girls' friendships focus on communal concerns

-Boys' on achievement and status

---Quality of boys' friendship is more variable

-Friendship closeness can lead to corumination (taking on others' problems), triggering anxiety and depression

-Number of other-sex friends increases with age, but same-sex friends remain more common

Gender differences in friendship quality?

-Calling/texting, social networking, and instant messaging support close friendships

---USEFUL, but...Very high social media use is linked to unsatisfying real-world social experiences

---Parents are wise to point out risks of internet communication, including harassment and exploitation

Friendships, cell phones, and the internet?

-Space for personal exploration

-Provide a foundation for future intimate relationships

-Help yon people deal with stresses of adolescence

-Can improve attitudes toward and involvement in school

what are benefits of close adolescent friendships?

-group of 5-6 members who are friends

-Similar in family background, attitudes, values, interests (norms)

-Membership more important to girls

-Provides context for acquiring social skills, experimenting with values and roles

Clique

-larger group made up of several cliques

-Membership based on reputation, stereotype

-Grants adolescents an identity within the social structure of the school

Crowd

-by late adolescence, there is more psychological intimacy with dating partners

-Too-early dating: is correlated w/ drug use, delinquency, and poor academic achievement

---About 10-20% of adolescents experience dating violence

---More common for girls dating early from homes with violence

What is the effect of too-early dating?

-Adolescents feel greatest pressure to conform to dress, grooming, participation in social activities

--Oxytocin sensitivity makes them, esp. girls, self-conscious and overly sensitive to opinions of others!

-Peer pressure to conform to surface traits of peers

-Brain- increases reward-seeking and receptiveness to peer influence, declines with age

What does peer conformity look like in adolescence?