adolescence, physical and cognetive

Physical manifestations of puberty

• rapid growth

• development of primary sex characteristics (organs and structures related to reproduction)

• development of secondary sex characteristics (sexual maturity that di nit involve the sex organs directly)

Growth during adolescence

Growth spurts:

• weight increase

• skeletal changes

• asynchrony in growth

Puberty in females

• begins earlier (11-12) (boys 13-14)

• wide variations among individuals

Influences:

• nutrition

• health

• environment

Earlier start of puberty is an example of a significant secular trend:

• pattern of change occurring over several generations

• results of better nutrition over centuries

Onset of menarche

• varies in different parts of the world

• begins later in poorer, developing countries

• influenced by proportion of fat to muscle in body

• related to environmental stress

Puberty in males

• penis and scrotum begin to grow at an accelerated rate around age of 12 and reach adult size 3 or 4 years later

• enlargement of prostate gland and seminal vesicles

• spermache around age 13

Primary sex characteristics

Further development of sex glands:

• testes in males

• ovaries in females

Secondary sex characteristics

• changes in gentiles and breasts

• growth of hair: pubic, facial, body

• further development of sex organs

• males: voice deepens

Sexual maturation

• women reach it much faster

Reactions to physical changes

• menstruation and ejaculations occur privately but changes in body shape and size are public

• teenagers entering puberty frequently embarrassed by the changes

• females may feel unhappy about their changing bodies → related to unrealistic ideals of beauty that society seems to demand

Early maturation males

• tend to be more successful at athletics, presumably due to their larger size

• tend to be more popular and have a more positive self-concept

• larger size makes it more likely to seek out the company of older adolescents who may involve them in activities that are inappropriate for their age

Early maturation girls

• obvious changes in bodies

• may have to endure ridicule from their less mature classmates

• tend to be sought after more as potential dates and their popularity may enhance their self-concepts → this may lead to situations that are psychologically challenging for early maturing girls

• conspicuousness of their deviance from their later-maturing classmates may nave a negative effect, producing anxiety, unhappiness and depression

Consequences of late maturation females

• may be overlooked in dating and other mixed+sex activities during middle school and they may have relatively low social status

• satisfaction with themselves and their bodies may be greater than that of early maturers

• fewer emotional problems

Consequences of late maturation males

• smaller and lighter boys than their more physically mature peers tend to be viewed as less attractive

• disadvantaged when it comes to sports activities and social activities

Consequences of late maturation trans kids

Current approaches include the possibility of delaying puberty so children can make the decision when they are ready for it

• puberty blockers

• there are arguments for and against it

• allows the child more autonomy and less potential future complications

• consultation with psychologists, medical professionals, the parents and the child

Fueling the growth of adolescence

For most adolescence the major nutritional issue is ensuring the consumption of a sufficient balance of appropriate foods

• rapid physical growth is fueled by an increase in food consumption

• particularly during the growth spurt, adolescence eat substantial quantities of food, increasing their intake of calories dramatically

• during teen years, average girl requires 2200 cal. a day and boys 2800 cal. a day

• several key nutrients are essential like calcium and iron

Brain development

Prefrontal cortex: biologically immature → impulsivity (the ability to inhibit impulses is not fully developed yet)

• brain produces an oversupply of gray matter which is later pruned at a rate of 1-2% per year

• myelination increases and continues to take transmission of neural messages more efficient

Sleep deprivation

Adolescents go to bed later and get up earlier, sleep deprivation results in:

• lower grades

• depression

• greater difficulty controlling moods

• greater risk of auto accidents

Stages of fomal operations (Piagetian perspective on cognitive development)

• 12 years

• formal reasoning → the ability to think abstractly using formal principles of logic

• development of abstract and hypothetical reasoning

• development and use or propositional logic → reasoning that uses abstract logic in the absence of concrete examples

• cultural differences in enactment

The consequences of adolescents’ use of formal of formal operations

• questioning parents and authority figures → questioning rules and expectations

• exhibiting greater idealism and impatience with imperfections → become more argumentative

• experiencing indecisions → they can see different sides to issues

Information processing perpectives (gradual transformations in abilities)

• changes in cognitive abilities are evidence of gradual transformation in the capacity to take in, use and store info

• number of progressive changes occur in the ways people organise their thinking about the world, develop strategies for dealing with new situations, sort facts and achieve advances in memory capacity and perceptual abilities

Changes in info processing

• gains during adolescence help to explain developmental differences in abstract, multidimensional and hypothetical thinking

• store knowledge increases as the amount of material to which they are exposed grows and their memory capacity enlarges

• growth of metacognition

Metacogniton

• thinking about one’s own thoughts

• monitoring one’s own learning processes more efficiently

• pacing one’s own studying

Egocentrism in adolescent thinking

• new abilities make adolescents particularly introspective and self-conscious

• these hallmarks of the period may produce a high degree of egocentrism

Adolescent egocentrism is a state of self-absorption in which the world is viewed as focused on oneself

• imaginary audience: belief that their behaviour is a primary focus of other’s attentions and concerns

• personal fables: the view that what happens to them is unique, exceptional and shared by no one else