Lecture
Adolescence
Rites of Passage
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A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual that marks an individual’s
transition from one status to another.
Most rites of passage focus on the transition to adult status.
In many cultures, rites of passage often involve dramatic practices and
are the avenue through which adolescents gain access to adult
practices, knowledge, and sexuality.
Rites of passage in pre-industrial societies
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Four steps
 Separation.
 Training.
 Initiation.
 Induction.
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Functions:
 Sense of adult responsibility.
 Lessen ambiguity.
 Bond.
Rites of Passage in North America
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We do not have universal formal ceremonies that mark the
passage from adolescence to adulthood.
Certain religious and social groups have initiation
ceremonies that indicate an advance in maturity has been
reached.
School graduation ceremonies come the closest to being
culture-wide rites of passage in North America
Height and Weight
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Growth spurt - occurs about 2 years earlier for girls.
Mean beginning of the growth spurt - age 9 for girls, age 11 for boys.
Peak rate of pubertal change - age 11.5 for girls, age 13.5 for boys.
Increase in height - about 3 inches per year for girls, about 4 inches
for boys.
The rate at which adolescents gain weight follows approximately the
same timetable as height.
Sexual Maturation in Boys
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Increase in penis and testicle size
Appearance of straight pubic hair
Minor voice change
First ejaculation
Appearance of kinky pubic hair
Onset of maximum growth
Growth of hair in armpits
More detectable voice change
Growth of facial hair
Sexual Maturation in Girls
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Breasts enlarge
Pubic hair appears
Hair appears in the armpits
Growth in height
Hips become wider than shoulders
First menstruation comes rather late in puberty
Menstrual cycles are often highly irregular
Some girls aren’t fertile until 2 years later
Breasts are fully rounded by the end of puberty
Definition of Puberty
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Puberty is a period of rapid physical maturation involving
hormonal and bodily changes that occur primarily during
early adolescence.
Pinpointing its beginning and its end is difficult.
The average adolescent is a statistical abstraction, a tool
designed to simplify very complex issues.
Early and Late Maturation
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in Boys
Recent research confirms that during adolescence, it is advantageous
to be an early-maturing rather than late-maturing boy.
Early maturing boys appear to perceive themselves more positively and
have more successful peer relations than their late-maturing
counterparts.
Early and Late Maturation
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in Girls
Findings are less consistent for girls.
Early maturation is a disadvantage in the very early grades (fifth
or sixth) – it puts the adolescent out of step with peers.
Early-maturing girls may well be four or more years in advance
of like-aged boys.
Initial disadvantages of early maturation for girls may disappear
later.
Adolescent Sexuality
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Adolescence is a time of sexual exploration and experimentation.
Sexual development and interest are normal aspects of adolescent
development.
The role of social experience: Harry Harlow.
Sexuality as a Scripted Activity
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Scripts describe a sequence -> coping with the unknown.
Peer group experiences, observations of adults, cultural knowledge ->
a rough idea of the scripts boys and girls are supposed to follow and
the roles they are supposed to play.
Studies also show that first dates are highly scripted along gender
lines.
Males were found to follow a proactive dating script, while females
followed a reactive one.
Another study showed males and females bring different motivations to
the dating experience.
Girls were more likely to describe romance in terms of interpersonal
qualities, while boys described it in terms of physical attraction.
The Progression of Adolescent Sexual Behaviors
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Adolescents engage in a consistent progression of sexual
behaviors:
 Necking
 Petting
 Intercourse/Oral sex
Eight in 10 girls are virgins at age 15.
Seven in 10 boys are virgins at age 15.
The probability that adolescents will have sexual intercourse
increases steadily with age.
Sexual expectations
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Gagnon and Simon: “Dating and courtship may well be
considered processes in which persons train members of the
opposite sex in the meaning and content of their respective
commitments”
Most teenagers today believe that it is acceptable to have
intercourse before marriage as long as it takes place within the
context of a loving, intimate relationship.
Changing sexual habits
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More teenagers are sexually active at an earlier age.
Early sexual activity does not carry the psychological risks that
many adults associate with it.
Adolescents are poor users of contraception.
Teenage pregnancies.
Sex education programs.
Boys and girls differ in the ways they approach and respond to
sexual intercourse (survey results).
Cognitive Development
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Daniel Keating on adolescent thought processes:
Thinking about possibilities.
Thinking ahead.
Thinking through hypotheses.
Thinking about thought.
Thinking beyond conventional limits.
Piaget’s Theory
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Adolescent thought is at the formal operational stage.
Concrete: Operations relate directly to tangible objects and
thoughts about objects
Formal: Operations relate to abstract propositions or possible
future states of affairs. All possible combinations are considered
systematically.
Thought is abstract and logical and characterized by logic and
hypothetical-deductive reasoning. Adolescents have the
cognitive ability to develop hypotheses about ways to solve
problems. They systematically deduce, or conclude, which is the
best path to follow in solving a problem.
Reasoning by manipulating variables
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Inhelder and Piaget's studies of formal operational thinking:
Combination-of-chemicals problem.
Four large bottles, one indicator bottle, and two beakers are arrayed on
a table in front of the child.
Each bottle contains a clear liquid.
The liquids are chosen so that when liquid from bottles 1 and 3 are
combined in a beaker and then a drop of the chemical from the
indicator bottle (g) is added, the mixture turns yellow.
The task of the subject is to reproduce the coloring by using the four
liquids and the indicator solution (g). The complete solution consists of
the finding that 1 and 3 together with g produce the yellow coloring, that
2 has no effect and that 4 removes the coloration.
The child is invited to try out various combinations in an attempt to
determine which combination of chemicals will transform the color of
the liquid.
Reasoning by logical necessity
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Syllogism:
General premise: All trains to Toronto stop in Barrie.
Specific premise: The train on track 2 goes to Toronto.
Conclusion: Therefore, the train on track 2 stops in Barrie.
Other tasks
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Isolation of variables: The pendulum task.
Correlational reasoning: Cards with pictures of mice. The
animals have the same shape and same expression. The color
of fur and eye varies dichotomously: dark versus light.
Are formal operations universal?
Results suggest that children on the threshold of adolescence
are capable of the systematic, logical manipulation of variables
that is the characteristic of formal operations (Piaget) if they are
given proper instruction and if the benefits of the systematic
manipulation are made clear.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
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Lawrence Kohlberg stressed that moral development is based
primarily on moral reasoning and unfolds in stages.
Cognitive-developmental theory: longitudinal research studied
children (American boys) from age 10/13/16 over 20 years.
Kohlberg used a unique interview in which participants are
presented with a series of stories in which characters face moral
dilemmas.
Heinz Dilemma
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In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer.
There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a
form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently
discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was
charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for
the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick
woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the
money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together
about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his
wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But
the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make
money from it." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets
desperate and considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug
for his wife.
Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?
Judy Dilemma
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Judy was a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother promised her that she
could go to a special rock concert coming to their town if she saved up
from baby-sitting and lunch money to buy a ticket to the concert. She
managed to save up the fifteen dollars the ticket cost plus another five
dollars. But then her mother changed her mind and told Judy that she
had to spend the money on new clothes for school. Judy was
disappointed and decided to go to the concert anyway. She bought a
ticket and told her mother that she had only been able to save five
dollars. That Saturday she went to the performance and told her mother
that she was spending the day with a friend. A week passed without her
mother finding out. Judy then told her older sister, Louise, that she had
gone to the performance and had lied to her mother about it. Louise
wonders whether to tell their mother what Judy did.
Should Louise, the older sister, tell their mother that Judy lied about the
money or should she keep quiet?
Why or why not?
Kohlberg: A Piagetian
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Kohlberg was actually less interested in the subject's decision
(that is, what Heinz should have done) than in the underlying
rationale, or "thought structures," that the subject used to justify
his decision.
Moral growth progresses through an invariant sequence.
Kohlberg argued that each stage derives form the previous
stage, incorporates and transforms that stage, and prepares for
the next change.
Kohlberg believed that moral stages are universal.
Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Development
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Level 1: Preconventional Level
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Stage 1: Heteronomous Morality
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Stage 2: Individualism, Purpose, and Exchange
Level 2: Conventional Level
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Stage 3: Mutual Interpersonal Expectations,
Relationships, and Interpersonal Conformity
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Stage 4: Social System Morality
Level 3: Postconventional Level
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Stage 5: Social Contract or Utility and Individual Rights
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Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles
Results
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Moral reasoning developed very gradually, with use of
preconventional reasoning (Stages 1 and 2) declining sharply in
adolescence--the same period in which conventional reasoning
(Stages 3 and 4) is on the rise.
Conventional reasoning remained the dominant form of moral
expression in young adulthood with very few subjects ever
moving beyond it to postconventional morality (Stage 5).
Stage 3 or 4 is the end of the developmental journey for most
individuals worldwide.
Moral Thought and Moral Behavior
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Kohlberg’s theory has been criticized for placing too much emphasis on
moral thought and not enough emphasis on moral behavior.
Moral reasons can sometimes be a shelter for immoral behavior.
Cheaters and thieves may know what is right yet still do what is wrong.
Culture and Moral Development
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Kohlberg’s theory has been criticized for being culturally biased.
Moral reasoning is more culture-specific than Kohlberg
envisioned.
Many psychological studies of adolescence have emerged in
the context of Western industrialized society, with the practical
needs and social norms of this culture dominating thinking about
all adolescents.
Gender and the Care Perspective
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Kohlberg’s theory is a justice perspective that focuses on the
rights of the individual; individuals stand alone and
independently make moral decisions.
The care perspective is a moral perspective that views people in
terms of their connectedness with others and emphasizes
interpersonal communication, relationships with others, and
concern for others.
Gender and the Care Perspective (con’t)
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Carol Gilligan believed Kohlberg greatly under-played the care
perspective in moral development, due to being male, using males
for his research, and basing his theory on male responses.
Gilligan’s research found that girls interpret moral dilemmas in
terms of human relationships.
Other research has found that the gender differences in moral
reasoning are not existent.
Identity
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Erikson termed the period of adolescence a psychological
moratorium, a gap between the security of childhood and
autonomy of adulthood.
His fifth stage of development is characterized by the dilemma
of identity versus identity confusion.
Adolescents experiment with the numerous roles and identities
they draw from the surrounding culture.
Either they successfully cope with conflicting identities or they
don’t resolve their identity crisis.
Erikson
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Adolescents must rework four earlier developmental crises.
1. Establishing trust.
2. Establishing autonomy.
3. Taking initiative.
4. Industry takes on a new meaning toward the end of adolescence.
In order to forge a secure sense of self, adolescents must resolve their
identities in both the individual and the social spheres. Adolescents
engage in an identity-forming process that depends on:
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How they judge others.
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How others judge them.
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How they judge the judgment processes of others.
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Keep in mind social categories ("typologies") available in the
culture.
Identity Statuses and Development
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James Marcia concluded that four identity statuses, or modes of
resolution, appear in Erikson’s theory.
The extent of an adolescent’s commitment and crisis is used to classify
him or her according to one of the four statuses.
Crisis and Commitment
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Crisis - a period of identity development during which the adolescent is
choosing among meaningful alternatives
Commitment - the part of identity development in which adolescents
show a personal investment in what they are going to do
Marcia’s Identity Statuses
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Identity Achievement
Identity Foreclosure
Identity Moratorium
Identity Diffusion
Status:
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1. Identity achievement
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2. Foreclosure
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3. Moratorium
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4. Identity diffusion
Crisis
Yes
No
Yes
No
Commitment
Yes
Yes
No
No
The Elements of Identity
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Vocational/Career Identity
Political Identity
Religious Identity
Relationship Identity
Achievement/Intellectual Identity
Sexual Identity
Cultural/Ethnic Identity
Interests
Personality
Physical Identity
The Development of Identity
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Young adolescents are primarily in identity diffusion, foreclosure,
or moratorium status.
Some researchers believe the most important identity changes
take place during college.
Identity formation neither begins nor ends with adolescence.
Resolution of the identity issue at adolescence doesn’t mean
that identity will remain stable throughout life.
Ethnic Identity
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Ethnic identity is an enduring, basic aspect of the self that
includes a sense of membership in an ethnic group and the
attitudes and feelings related to that membership.
Most ethnic minority individuals consciously confront their
ethnicity for the first time in adolescence.
Ethnic identity increases with age.
Gender and Identity Development
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Erikson asserted that males’ aspirations were mainly oriented toward
career and ideological commitments.
He asserted that females’ aspirations were centered around marriage
and child bearing.
Researchers in the 1960s and 1970s found support for these gender
differences.
In the past 20 years, females have developed stronger vocational
interests and thus the differences are turning into similarities.
Stage Reversal and Gender Differences
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Some researchers believe that the order of stages Erikson
proposed is different for females and males.
Some have proposed that for males, identity formation precedes
the stage of intimacy, while for females, intimacy precedes identity.
This is consistent with the belief that relationships and emotional
bonds are more important concerns of females, while autonomy
and achievement are more important concerns of males.
Homosexual identity
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Development of a homosexual identity (Troiden, 1988)
Stage I: Sensitization; feeling different. Middle childhood: Feeling
different from other children; assumption at the time: that one is
heterosexual.
Stage 2: Self-recognition; identity confusion. Puberty: Attracted to
members of the same sex; inner turmoil; and identity confusion; one
can no longer take heterosexual identity as given, and one knows that
homosexuals are stigmatized.
Stage 3: Identity assumption. Although homosexual identity is assumed
during the early stages of this process, it often is not fully accepted.
Stage 4: Commitment; identity integration: One adopts homosexuality
as a way of life. Fusion of one's sexuality and emotional commitments;
public disclosure of one's homosexual identity.
Harry Stack Sullivan’s Perspective on Friendship
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Sullivan believed that all people have a number of basic social
needs that must be fulfilled for our emotional well-being.
Developmentally, friends become increasingly depended on to
satisfy these needs during adolescence.
The need for intimacy intensifies during early adolescence,
motivating teenagers to seek out close friends.
If teens fail to forge such close friendships, they experience
painful feelings of loneliness, and reduced sense of self-worth.
Findings on Friendship
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Adolescents report disclosing intimate and personal information
to their friends more often than younger children.
Adolescents say they depend more on friends than on parents
to satisfy their needs for intimacy, companionship, and
reassurance of worth.
The quality of friendship is more strongly linked to feelings of
well-being during adolescence than during childhood.
Depression
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Depression is more likely to occur in adolescence than in childhood.
Adolescent girls have higher rates of depression:
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Females’ self-images are more negative than males.
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Females face more discrimination than males.
Family factors can create a risk for depression.
Poor peer relations are associated with depression.
Experiencing difficult changes can result in depressive symptoms.
Suicide
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Suicide is now the third leading cause of death in 15-24 year
olds.
Males are about three times as likely to commit suicide.
Females attempt suicide more frequently.
The gender difference is thought to be due to the fact that boys
tend to use more active methods, while girls resort to passive
methods.
Homosexual adolescents are especially vulnerable to suicide,
as they are six to seven times more likely to attempt suicide
than their heterosexual counterparts.