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Adolescent Advancement
When life was shorter
§ People went from childhood
directly to work
§ During the depression,
there was no work; to keep older children out of trouble President Roosevelt made school mandatory until 18
G. Stanley Hall identified adolescence as new life stage
§ “Storm and Stress”-
intense moodiness, emotional sensitivity, and risk-taking tendencies
Piaget and the Teenage Mind
Piaget proposed that the teen mind is entering into Formal Operational
thought:
§ abstract reasoning
§ the ability to think
logically and reason hypothetically
§ The ability to think
like scientists
Unfortunately, adolescents do not yet have emotional control.
Kohlberg and the Teenage Mind
Kohlberg said that we go through 3 levels of moral reasoning beginning in our teens
A woman is near death from cancer.
One drug might save her. The druggist was charging...ten times what the drug cost him to make. The...husband, Heinz, went
to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together half of what it cost. [He] asked...druggist to sell
it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said NO! Heinz broke into the man’s store to steal the drug...Should
he have done that? Why?
§ Preconventional morality
- around age 13
Ø The lowest level - considers punishments
and rewards
§ Conventional level -
around age 15
Ø Considers rules and social norms
§ Postconventional level
- some people never reach
Ø Consider their own moral guide apart from
society’s
Morality
Elkind and the Teenage Mind
Elkind studied teenage emotions.
He hypothesized the existence of Adolescent Egocentrism
Ø Adolescents begin to
see the flaws in others
Ø Noticing flaws creates
anxiety about their own flaws
Ø An imaginary audience
is watching them at all times
Ø They begin to think
their actions are at the center of everyone's thoughts
Storm and Stress
Adolescents become aware that adults say one thing and do another
§ Rebellion develops to
test the limits of the rules
Teens have a misconception called the Personal fable
Ø They are totally separate from cause and
effect
Ø They are unique in the universe
Ø Nothing can hurt them
Ø No one has the problems they do
§ Combined with the teenage
hormone surge, this creates the storms and stress of adolescence.
Teenage Hormones
Hormones released during puberty
§ Sensitize the regions
of the cortex involving emotions
Ø Teenagers are unusually alert to social
cues
§ Adolescents show more
amygdala (emotion center) activity than adults
Ø Yet, they have less activity in the frontal
lobes (nonemotional judgment center)
§ While adolescents can
think rationally in nonemotional situations, their attention is captivated by arousing interpersonal stimuli.
Emotional Reasoning
The ability to reason abstractly is correlated to heightened social anxiety and self-consciousness
§ Adolescents easily attune
emotionally to one fact and then ignore all the other facts, often causing poor logic and bad decision making.
Ø To get a view of teenage emotions, researchers
use the experience sampling technique.
Experience-Sampling Technique
At random times throughout the day a signal is sent and the teen
writes down what they are feeling and doing at that time:
§ Teens report many more
extremes of emotions than adults
§ Once the emotion begins,
it lasts longer in adults
§ Stress – like
other emotions – is not as controllable as it will be in adulthood
Psychopathologies
Being highly emotional does not correlate to being emotionally disturbed
§ Only 1 in 4 teens feels
unhappy with their life
§ However, every serious
psychological disorder has its age of onset in the late teens or early twenties.
§ Depression is one of
the highest teen pathologies
Teens as Risk Takers
Risk taking is a basic feature of teenage life
§ 1 in 5 used marijuana
§ 1 in 4 smokes cigarettes
§ 1 in 4 are binge drinkers
66% of teens report they committed at least one illegal act
§ For many teens, there
is a thrill in doing something knowingly illegal and not getting caught - rebellion.
§ Their personal fable
tells them that others get hurt or caught. They won’t personally get hurt or caught.
The Downhill Pathway
At-risk teens tend to have:
§ Emotional problems early
in life
§ Externalizing problems
§ Aggressive behavior
Ø Which gravitates towards others who are
aggressive
Ø Leading to gangs of aggressive youths
Ø Reinforcing the aggressive behavior
§ Those who report their
goal in life is “just having fun” correlate to delinquent acts.
The Downhill Pathway
At-risk teens tend to have poor family relationships
§ They show insecure family
attachments
§ They feel disconnected
from parents
Ø An especially potent indicator of later
troubles
Ø A study showed that high levels of family
conflict during 7th grade led to serious trouble in high school
§ Parents must provide
limits, but also respect independence
Ø Not an easy road to negotiate, especially
when teens don't like the time table for freedom
The Downhill Pathway
Adolescent limited turmoil
is specific to teens and does not persist into adult life.
Life-course difficulties are antisocial behaviors that, for a fraction
of teens, persist into adult life.
§ But, how do you know
the difference?
The Downhill Pathway
Thriving Adolescence
Not all teens are trouble - some thrive –
what’s
the trick?
§ Close family relationships
developed early in life
§ Prosocial friends to
emulate
§ Academic success
§ Strong schools
§ Developing passion for
something that society prizes
§ A strong religious faith
and commitment
Ø Still, for all teens, we need to realize
they are different and treat them as such
The Adolescent-Environment Fit
We need to create a better life fit for teens
•
Don’t
punish adolescents as if they were adults
•
Limit
adolescents access to dangerous activities
•
Capitalize
on adolescent strengths
•
Youth
development programs
•
Change
school systems to accommodate teens
The Adolescent-Environment Fit
Don’t punish adolescents as if they were adults
§ They are mentally not
equivalent to adults
§ Adolescents are perfect
candidates for rehabilitation
§ Our prisons are oriented
toward retribution
Limit adolescents’ access to dangerous activities
§ Raise the age for driving
alone
§ Decrease access to alcohol
and cigarettes
§ We need to insulate
teens from dangers
The Adolescent-Environment Fit
Capitalize on adolescent strengths
§ They love to commune
with others
§ Teens are most likely
to get into trouble hanging around with friends in the afternoon.
Ø Structure their spare time
Youth development programs build
§ Competence
§ Confidence
§ Character
§ Caring
§ Connections
Ø Unfortunately, these programs are voluntary
» The majority of those who volunteer don’t usually
need this structure
The Adolescent-Environment Fit
Change school systems to accommodate teens
§ Traditional instruction
produces boredom
§ Instead we need to:
Ø Improve autonomy supporting activities
Ø Encourage independent thinking
Ø Create caring connection with teachers
Ø Give courses that relate to their lives
Ø Perform more service learning classes
Ø Relate school hours to adolescent biological
clock
» Hormones keep teens up late and require 10 hours of
sleep
» Start school later and go longer
» End the school day with youth center activities
Adolescent Relationships
Teenagers need independence from their families
They substitute peer relationships for their family
Disconnecting from the family:
§ Teens most uplifting
times are family moments
§ Yet, negative emotions
outweigh positives 10 to 1
§ Most arguments occur
over little things
§ Many arguments are over
the timetable to freedom
Ø What age should the rules change?
Ø Conflicts are worse in the middle of the
puberty years
Adolescent Relationships
Connecting to other groups:
§ Cliques - intimate groups
of approximately 6 members
§ Crowds – less
intimate larger groups
§ We gravitate toward
crowds that fit our interests
§ Crowds are found in
large schools more than small ones
Adolescent Relationships
Types of crowds include:
§ Brains, popular kids,
troublemakers, Goths, jocks
Ø Jocks appear to be a typically North American
creation
Ø The others seem to appear in many affluent
nations
§ Similar crowds will
positively interact with one another
§ Members of different
crowds move in different emotional directions
Feelings of Depression in Late Elementary and High School
Bad Crowds
Deviancy training
§ The leader of the bad
crowd is the most antisocial member
§ The leader sets the
standard for the others
§ This draws the less
antisocial into more antisocial activities
§ In bad crowds:
Ø Those with hostile attributional biases
find others that validate them
Ø There biases are reinforced by the others
in the group
Ø One-upmanship pushes the entire group
toward ever increasing antisocial activities
Bad Crowds
Gangs
§ Close knit delinquent
peer groups in low SES conditions turn into gangs
§ Gangs provide the members
with status, protection, and income (through criminal activities)
§ Gangs turn time-limited
adolescent turmoil into life-course criminal careers
In many areas of the world adolescence is eliminated
§ One million children
are forced into the sex trade
§ Hundreds of thousands
are forced to be child soldiers
§ In these conditions,
adolescence cannot thrive
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