Intro to Adolescent Psychology

What is adolescence?

The stage of development that begins with puberty and ends when individuals transition into adult roles (from about age 10 until the early 20s) they become more interested in sex, wiser, and more self-aware

What is the importance & relevance of this development stage?

The brain continues to mature well into the mid-20s. The Supreme Court ruled that adolescents should not be punished as severely as adults.

The Boundaries of Adolescence?

Adolescence used to be limited to the teenage years (13-19) but over the past 100 years, the adolescent period has changed because physical maturation occurs earlier and many delay entering the workforce/marriage.

What are the phases of adolescence?

• Early Adolescence (10-13) Middle School

• Middle Adolescence (14-17) High School, increased independence, exploring identity

• Late Adolescence (18-21) College years, major life decisions

• Emerging Adulthood (18-25) Transition from adolescence to adulthood

Biological Transitions

puberty, physical changes, and the ability to conceive children

Cognitive Transitions

changes to the underlying way people think

• hypotheticals

• abstract ideas

Social Transitions

societies differentiate between children and adults

• changes in rights, privileges, and responsibilities

Ecological Perspective on Human Development (Bronfenbrenner)

we cannot understand development without examining the environment in which it occurs

contexts: families, peer groups, schools, work, leisure, media

Families

• Family relationships change during adolescent years

• Increasing diversity in family forms and household composition in modern society

Peer groups

• plays increasingly important role in socialization and development

• research has not concluded whether this is a positive or negative influence

Schools

• Designed to educate, socialize, and occupy adolescents

• How well are they performing these functions?

Work, Leisure, and Media

• Part-time jobs

• Extracurricular activities

• Media, including social media

• To what extent do these forces influence adolescents’ attitudes, beliefs, and behavior?

The Psychosocial Developments of Adolescence

• Identity: discovering and understanding who we are as individuals

• Autonomy: establishing a healthy sense of independence

• Intimacy: forming close and caring relationships with others

• Sexuality: expressing sexual feelings and enjoying physical contact with others

• Achievement: being successful and competent members of society

Psychosocial Problems in Adolescence

Most adolescents do not experience major psychological problems

The three common problems include

• drug and alcohol use/abuse

• delinquency and other externalizing problems

• depression and other internalizing problems

Biosocial Theories

The “nature” side: stress hormonal and physical changes

Hall’s Theory of Recapitulation

The development of the individual parallels the development of the human species

• during infancy, we are more like animals compared to humans

• adolesecence seen as a transitional time that parallels human evolution from “primitive” to “civilized”

• stages determined by instinct (biological and genetic forces within the person), hardly influenced by the environment

• Adolescence is a period of “storm and stress”

Dual Systems

Simultaneous development of two different brain systems

• one system that governs the way the brain processes rewards, punishments, and social-emotional info; starts early in adolescence

• another system that regulates self-control and advanced thinking abilities (planning, logical reasoning); starts later in development

• analogy: like starting a car without a solid braking system

AKA maturational imbalance theory

Organismic Theories

The interaction of biological changes AND contextual, environmental factors

Freudian Theory

• Development through psychosexual conflicts

• Adolescence a period of upheaval

Eriksonian Theory

Stress the psychosocial

• 8 stages, each characterized by a specific “crisis” from the conflict between biology and society

• Revolves around identity crisis: challenge of adolescence is to resolve this crisis and emerge with a coherent sense of identity

Piagetian Theory

Development best understood by examining changes in nature of thinking

• adolescence is the transition from concrete to abstract thought in distinct stages of cognitive development

• eventually, individuals are capable of thinking in hypothetical and abstract terms

• logical capabilities expand

Learning Theories

Stress context in which behavior takes place, individuals have the capacity to learn from experience

Behaviorism

emphasizes the processes of reinforcement and punishment as the main influences on adolescent behavior

Social learning Theory

emphasizes processes of observational learning and imitation

• beyond reinforcement/punishment, adolescents watch and model others

Sociological Theories

Focus on how adolescents, as a group, come of age in society; commonalities

Adolescent Marginality

Power differential between adults and adolescents that leave adolescents feeling marginalized

• leads to frustration and restlessness

• proposes that many problems we associate with adolescence have been created by how we treat adolescents

Intergenerational Conflict

Adolescents and adults grew up under different social circumstances and have different attitudes, values, and beliefs

Historical and Anthropological Perspectives

Considers broader context, including historical era, experience depends on social, political, and economic forces at a given time

Adolescence as an invention

Adolescence is entirely a social invention

• life stages are divided arbitrarily and reflect political, economic, and social circumstances

Anthropological Perspectives

societies vary in the way they view and structure adolescence

• consider adolescence culturally defined (adolescence is gradual and peaceful in non-industrialized societies and abrupt and difficult in industrialized societies)

Common Stereotypes About Adolescence

• adolescents portrayed as troublemakers or mean girls

• they are depicted as sex crazed idiots or tormented lost souls

• media representations suggest that adolescence is inherently a turbulent and unpredictable period

Scientific Findings on Adolescence:

• stereotypes can influences behavior (mothers’ beliefs about adolescent drinking can lead to increased alcohol use in teens)

• adolescents have both positive and negative elements in their development, challenging the dark and stormy stereotype

• the period of adolescence is diverse, with experiences shaped by individual circumstances and contexts