EDPY 302 - Final Exam

Authoritative Parenting Style

Warm, Supportive, sets high Standards, helps children achieve their goals. High Warmth + High Control. Children tend to be socially competent, self-regulated, and academically successful.

Authoritarian Parenting Style

Less warm, High expectations, limited guidance or support. Low warmth + High control. Children may be obedient but anxious, less socially skilled.

Permissive Parenting Style

Warm and nurturing, but provides little structure or rules. High Warmth + Low Control. Children may be impulsive, struggle with boundaries.

Indifferent/Uninvolved Parenting Style

Low warmth, and low structure, emotionally uninvolved. Low Warmth + Low Control. Children at higher risk for behavioural problems, poor academic outcomes, and low self-esteem.

Impact of Parenting Style

Adolescent behaviour depends not only on warmth and involvement, but also on how control is exercised.

Overprotective Parenting (Safetyism)

Parents and institutions have increasingly removed risk and unstructured experience from children’s lives. Less unsupervised outdoor play, more structured/supervised activities, fear or letting kids roam freely.

Changes in Process (Safetyism)

Enables constant connection and wider social networks. Facilitates social comparison, online validation, and new forms of peer interaction

Under-protected Digital world (Safetyism)

Children are exposed to social media platforms built to capture attention often without age verification or guardrails. Has led to emotional harm, harassment, peer comparison, etc.

Effects on Friendship and Well-being (Safetyism)

Enhances closeness and support if used properly. May increase stress, cyber bullying, or feelings of exclusion

Active Social Media Use

Posting, interaction, peer support tends to be less harmful

Passive Social Media Use

Heavy use, or problematic/addictive patterns tend to be more harmful

Outcomes of social media use

Positives - Peer support, creativity, connectedness, learning

Negatives - Anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, exposure to harmful content, self-harm

Privacy Features

How easy is it to encounter harmful content, is there moderation, body image content, algorithms, DM’s and group chats

Susceptibility Factors

Preexisting mental health issues, loneliness, social comparison

What are the motives behind social media use?

Connection, entertainment, inspiration, information (for teens) Profit for companies and creators.

Autonomy

As children grow older they develop increasing physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional capacity and motivation to act, think and make decisions independently.

Risk-taking, attention and problem-solving are influenced by

Social and environmental factors but also by ongoing brain development; adolescents may show variability in attention, organization, and self-regulation

In emotionally charged contexts, adolescents may show

Increased sensitivity to reward and social feedback.

Responsive reward system

Can increase motivation to explore new environments and experiences. This exploratory behaviour can support learning, skill development, and adaptation to new situations, but can result in increased vulnerability to stress, health risks, or negative experiences.

Implications of Autonomy

• avoid trying to eliminate all risk-taking; instead, channel it into safe and constructive activities (e.g., sports, creative challenges, leadership opportunities)

• provide stimulating, supportive environments that encourage exploration and learning (reflection)

• support the development of self-regulation, planning, and decision-making skills

• educational environments that provide structure, guidance, and opportunities for practice can support the continued development of these skills

Nonlinear brain maturation

Brain development does not occur at a constant rate

Which Mature Faster

Subcortical Regions involved in emotion and reward processing (Limbic System)

Connections between brain regions

Connections between the prefrontal cortex and limbic system gradually strengthen through myelination and synaptic refinement (supports improvement in emotional regulation, judgement, and self-control over time)

Neural imbalance (dual-systems phase)

Because systems mature at different rates, adolescence is often characterized by a temporary imbalance in which reward and emotional systems are more reactive than cognitive control systems

Heightened emotional and reward influence

In emotionally charged contexts, especially in the presence of peers or potential rewards, adolescents may show increased sensitivity to reward and social feedback, which can sometimes lead emotions or motivations to outweigh careful deliberation

Cognitive ToM

Understanding what others think, including their beliefs, intentions, knowledge, and perspectives

Affective ToM

Understanding what others feel, emotions from facial expression, tone, body language and context

ToM

Both cognitive and emotional skills contribute, fostering attention, language and perspective taking alongside opportunities for social and emotional learning can enhance students’ ability to understand and response to peers effectively.

Improved communication

Better responses, adapted responses, fewer misunderstandings (intentions)

Conflict resolution

Anticipate reactions, offer apologies or solutions that are genuine

Stronger friendships

Understanding friends’ emotions fosters trust and emotional connectedness

Collaboration

Understanding thoughts and motivations helps coordinate task for completion, adaptation of strategies so everyone feels heard, boosting group performance

Peer Influence (Leadership)

Ability to guide peers in ways that feel fair and inclusive, can help mediate disputes and encourage cooperation

Self-Determination Theory

People have innate psychological needs that, when satisfied, lead to optimal motivation, growth, and well-being. When these needs are thwarted, motivation and functioning decline

Autonomous Motivation

Engage deeply with content, persist despite setbacks, develop lifelong learning habits.

Relevance

Learning connected to real-world experiences or personal interests increases engagement and deeper learning

Choice

Opportunities for meaningful decision-making support autonomy and intrinsic motivation

Challenge

Tasks should be appropriately challenging but achievable, supporting competence

Support

Teacher support, clear expectations and emotional safety help students persist

Belonging

Feeling respected, valued, and connected supports engagement and motivation

Motivation

Exists along a continuum from controlled (externally regulated) motivation to more autonomous (self-determined) motivation

Intrinsic Motivation

Involves engaging in an activity because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable (I WANT to learn this)

Extrinsic Motivation

Behaviour driven by external demands, rewards, or consequences (I’m studying BECAUSE I’ll get a good grade)

Students are more motivated when teachers

• Offer meaningful choices (autonomy support)

• Provide constructive feedback and achievable challenges (competence support)

• Create a caring, connected classroom climate (relatedness support)

• In adolescence, supporting autonomy helps young people develop self-regulation and identity

Balancing freedom and structure (autonomy supportive teaching)

Giving students choice without compromising curriculum goals or classroom management can be tricky

Teacher mindset and experience (Autonomy supportive teaching)

Some teachers may be more comfortable with traditional, teacher-directed approaches and my find sharing instructional control with students challenging.

Time constraints (Autonomy supportive teaching)

Planning lessons that incorporate student voice, interest, and collaborative decision-making often takes more preparation

Diverse student needs (Autonomy supportive teaching)

Students differ in motivation, and ability to handle autonomy, making a “one-size-fits-all” approach is difficult

Accountability pressures (Autonomy supportive teaching)

High-stakes assessments and standardized curricula can make it feel risky to offer extensive choice

Identity Processes

Short-term, real-time interactions between individuals and their context that continually shape identity over time

Developmental processes

Long term trajectories of change (ex. how exploration and commitment evolve)

Identity as an ongoing transactional process

• a genuine understanding of identity development requires longitudinal, multi-wave studies

• Need to capture both inter-individual trajectories and intra-individual change

Experiences can ____ growth

Accelerate

Challenges can _____ progress

Disrupt

People may _____ earlier thinking stages

Revisit

Strength + quality of commitments

How commitments become more differentiated, integrated, and authentic across adolescence and emerging adulthood

Healthy development =

Balance between exploration and commitment

Perfect Storm

Adolescents are navigating a time of stressors, major life events, daily hassles, and internal strains while their bodies, brains and coping capacities are still developing

Physiological and psychological responses to stress

These differences interact with temperament, genetics, and prior experiences, shaping risk for mental health challenges.

Reflecting (Commitments)

On the commitments an individual has already made (ex. Values, roles, goals)

Questioning (commitments)

How well those commitments align with the person’s sense of self

Engaging (commitment)

In conversations with others to gain new perspectives

Seeking (commitment)

Additional information and actively testing or experimenting with existing commitments

Reconsideration (commitments)

Comparing current to alternative options

Whether the current “fit” still holds

Metacognitive strategies to monitor identity commitments (open to change)