The Developing Person
Through the Life Span 8e
by Kathleen Stassen Berger
ADOLESCENCE:
CHAPTER 14-16
BIOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Puberty Begins
Puberty
 The time between the first onrush of hormones and full
adult physical development.
 Usually lasts three to five years.

Many more years are required to achieve psychosocial maturity.
MenarcheFemale’s first menstrual period, signaling
that she has begun ovulation. Pregnancy is
biologically possible, but ovulation and
menstruation are often irregular for years
after menarche.
SpermarcheMales first ejaculation of sperm. Erections
can occur as early as infancy, but ejaculation
signals sperm production.
Puberty Begins
Hormone
•
An organic chemical substance that is produced by one body tissue
and conveyed via the bloodstream to another to affect some
physiological function.
•
Various hormones influence thoughts, urges, emotions, and behavior.
Sex Hormones
Estradiolthe chief estrogen. Females produce more
estradiol than males do.
Testosteronethe best known of the androgens (male
hormones). Secreted in far greater amounts
by males than by females.
Puberty Begins
 HPA (hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal) axis- A
sequence of hormone production originates in the
hypothalamus, moving to the pituitary and then to the
adrenal glands (abnormalities: eating disorders, anxiety,
depression)
HPG (hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad) axis- A
sequence of hormone production
originates in the hypothalamus, moves to the pituitary
gland and then to the gonads
Age of Puberty
•
The rise puberty is still considered
normal in those as young as age 8 or as
old as age 14.
Genetics
About 2/3 of the variation in age of
puberty is genetic.
Stress
•
 Puberty arrives earlier if:


a child’s parents are sick, addicted or
divorced
the neighborhood is violent and
impoverished
 Not all scientists agree that stress
causes early puberty.
Too Early, Too Late
Early-maturing girls tend to have:
 lower self-esteem
 more depression
 poorer body image
than later-maturing girls.
Early-maturing boys are more:
 aggressive
 law breaking
 alcohol-abusing
than later-maturing boys.
Slow developing boys tend to be more:
 anxious
 Depressed
 afraid of sex.
Nutrition
Many adolescents are deficient in
their intake of necessary
vitamins or minerals.
Deficiencies of iron, calcium, zinc, and
other minerals affect bone and muscle
growth.
Nutritional deficiencies result from the food choices that
young adolescents are allowed, even enticed, to make.
Body Image
A person’s idea of how his or her
body looks.
•
One reason for poor nutrition is
anxiety about body image.
•
Girls diet partly because boys tend to
prefer to date thin girls.
•
Boys want to look taller and stronger, a
concern that increases from ages 12 to
17, partly because girls value welldeveloped muscles in males
Eating Disorders
 Anorexia nervosa-
Characterized by self-starvation,
affected individuals voluntarily
under eat and often over
exercise, depriving their vital
organs of nutrition. Anorexia can
be fatal.
 Bulimia nervosa-
Characterized by binge eating
and subsequent purging, usually
by induced vomiting and/or use
of laxatives.
The Transformations of Puberty
Growth spurt
 The relatively sudden and rapid physical growth
that occurs during puberty.
 Each body part increases in size on a schedule: A
weight increase usually precedes a height increase,
and growth of the limbs precedes growth of the
torso.
 A height spurt follows the increase in body fat, and
then a muscle spurt occurs.
The Transformations of Puberty
Sexual Maturation
•
•
Primary sex characteristics-The parts of the body that are
directly involved in reproduction, including the vagina, uterus,
ovaries, testicles, and penis.
Secondary sex characteristics- Physical traits that are not
directly involved in reproduction but that indicate sexual
maturity, such as a man’s beard and a woman’s breasts.
The Transformations of Puberty
Sexual Activity
•
•
Fantasizing, flirting, handholding, staring, displaying, and
touching all reflect gender, availability, and culture.
Hormones trigger thoughts and emotions, and the social
context shapes thoughts.
The Transformations of Puberty
 Child sexual abuse
 Any erotic activity that arouses an
adult and excites, shames, or
confuses a child, whether or not the
victim protests and whether or not
genital contact is involved.
 Peak 12-15 years of age
Drawbacks of Adolescent Brain
Development
Different parts of the brain grow at different rates:
•The limbic system (fear, emotional impulses) matures
before the prefrontal cortex (planning ahead,
emotional regulation).
•That means the instinctual and emotional areas develop
before the reflective ones do.
When emotions are intense, the logical
part of the brain shuts down.
When stress, arousal, passion, sensory
bombardment, drug intoxication, or
deprivation is extreme, the adolescent brain
is overtaken by impulses
Benefits of Adolescent Brain Development
Several aspects of adolescent brain
development are positive:
•
•
•
increased myelination, which decreases
reaction time
enhanced dopamine activity,
promoting pleasurable
experiences
synaptic growth
enhances moral development and
openness to new experiences and ideas
Cognitive Development in
Adolescence
Adolescent Thinking
Adolescent egocentrism
 An aspect of adolescent
thinking that leads young
people (ages 10 to 14) to
focus on themselves to the
exclusion of others.
Adolescent Egocentrism
Personal fable
An adolescent’s belief that his or her thoughts,
feelings, or experiences are unique, more
wonderful or awful than anyone else’s.
Invincibility fable
An adolescent’s egocentric conviction that
he or she cannot be overcome or even harmed
by anything that might defeat a normal mortal,
such as unprotected sex, drug abuse, or high-speed driving.
Imaginary audience
 The other people who, in an adolescent’s egocentric belief, are watching and taking
note of his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior.
This belief makes many teenagers self-conscious
Adolescent Thinking
Formal operational thought

Piaget’s fourth and final stage of cognitive development,
characterized by more systematic logic and the ability to think
about abstract ideas.
To use the Principle of Proportionality:
Multiply number or pegs from the middle with the number or weights on the peg
(each weight weighs the same)
3x2=6
3x2=6
=
2x2=4

3x2=6

1x3=3
3x1=3
=
Adolescent Thinking
Hypothetical thought
Reasoning
that includes propositions and possibilities that may
not reflect reality. Reasoning about if-then propositions.
If all people had wings…
Not hypothetical reasoning: “People don’t have wings”
“ Then everybody would have wings”
Hypothetical reasoning: “Then we’d have to have specially
trained air traffic controllers to make
sure plans didn’t hit them.”
Adolescent Thinking
Inductive reasoning
(bottom-up reasoning)
Reasoning from one or more
specific experiences or facts to a
general conclusion; may be less
cognitively advanced than
deduction.
Deductive reasoning
(top-down reasoning)
Reasoning from a general
statement, premise, or
principle, through logical steps,
to figure out (deduce) specifics.
+ Hypothetical Thought
Intuitive, Emotional Thought
Adolescents find it much easier and quicker to forget about
logic and follow their impulses.
•
Dual-process model
The notion that two networks exist
within the human brain,
one for emotional and
one for analytical processing
of stimuli.
Intuitive, Emotional Thought
 Intuitive thought
 Arises from an emotion or a hunch, beyond rational
explanation, and is influenced by past experiences and
cultural assumptions.
 Analytic thought
 Results from analysis, such as a systematic ranking of pros
and cons, risks and consequences, possibilities and facts.
Depends on logic and rationality.
Intuitive, Emotional Thought
Paul Klaczynski compared 9-,12-,and 15-year olds
Intuitive thought vs. Analytical thought
“Timothy was very good-looking, strong, does not smoke. He likes hanging
around with his male friends, watching sports on TV, and driving his Ford
Mustang convertible. He’s very concerned with how he looks and with being
in good shape. He is a high school senior now and is trying to get a college
scholarship.”
Based on this [description], rank each statement in terms of how
likely it is to be true… the most likely statement should get a 1. The
least likely statement should get a 6.”
___ Timothy has a girlfriend
73%adolescents made at least 1
error
___ Timothy is an athlete.
Not IQ, but experience
___ Timothy is popular and an athlete.
___ Timothy is teacher’s pet and an athlete.
___ Timothy is teacher’s pet.
Thinking About Religion
 Most adolescents (71%) felt
close to God
 Most (78 %) were the same
religion as their parents
 Some adolescents (2%)
are agnostic
 Others (16%) are
not religious
Teaching & Learning
Primary Education
(elementary or grade school) Kindergarten – 6th grade
Secondary Education
Typically 7th grade – 12th grade
Two levels of secondary education:
1. Middle School 6th – 8th
Junior High – 7th and 8th grade
2. Senior High – (High School) 9th – 12th grade
Middle School
Challenges
Less Learning
 Puberty
 Changing classroom
- different specialized teachers
- less personal connection
 After school activities based more on competition
than inclusion
 Low-income students lacking parental support and
resources find it increasingly difficult to “keep up”
 Digital Divide
 High-stakes testing
 Sex education controversial
Technology & Cognition
Digital Divide
The digital divide is the gap between
students who have access to computers and
those who do not. In the United States and
most developed nations, some of this gap
has now been bridged due to computers in
schools.
Recent studies:
Teachers who work with low income students
say that students’ lack of access to
technology is a major challenge
•
Only 3% of low-income students have
access to the Internet at home
Teaching and Learning
High-stakes test
•
•
•
•
•
An evaluation that is critical in determining success or failure.
A single test that determines whether a student will graduate
or be promoted
In 2009, 26 U.S. states required students to pass a high-stakes
test in order to graduate.
Pros – college preparedness
Cons – High school drop-outs
High School Dropouts
Over 1.2 million high school
dropouts each year
 Over one third of all dropouts are lost
in ninth grade.
 High school drop outs are not eligible for 90% of
US jobs.
 75 % of crimes are committed by high school
dropout
 Dropouts from the Class of 2010 alone will cost the
nation more than $337 billion in lost wages over
the course of their lifetimes.
The Transition to a New School
Entering a New School
•
The transition from one school to another often impairs a
young person’s ability to function and learn.
•
Changing schools just when the growth spurt is occurring and
sexual characteristics are developing is bound to create stress.
Psychosocial Development
in Adolescence
Identity
 Identity versus Role
Confusion

Erikson’s term for the fifth stage of
development, in which the person
tries to figure out “Who am I?” but
is confused as to which of many
possible roles to adopt.
Identity Achievement
Erikson’s term for the attainment of identity, the point
at which a person understands who he or she is as a
unique individual, in accord with past experiences and
future plans.
Not Yet Achieved
Role confusion (identity diffusion)
Adolescent does not seem to know or care
what his or her identity is.
Foreclosure
Premature identity formation, which occurs when an
adolescent adopts parents’ or society’s roles and values
wholesale, without questioning or analysis.
Moratorium
Choice of a socially acceptable way to
postpone making identity-achievement
decisions.
Four Arenas of Identity Formation
1. Religious Identity
for most, it is similar to that of their parents and community
2. Political Identity
for most, it is similar to their parents apolitical teens tend to
become apolitical adults
3. Vocational Identity
Originally meant envisioning oneself as a worker in a
particular occupation
4. Gender Identity
Acceptance of the roles and behaviors that society associate
with the biological categories of male and female.
Relationships with Adults
Conflicts with Parents
 Parent–adolescent conflict typically
peaks in early adolescence and is
more a sign of attachment than
of distance
Bickering
 Petty, peevish arguing, usually repeated and ongoing.
Neglect
 Although teenagers may act as if they no longer need their
parents, neglect can be very destructive.
Closeness Within the Family
Four Aspects of Closeness:




Communication: Do parents and teens talk openly with one
another?
Support: Do they rely on one another?
Connectedness: How emotionally close are they?
Control: Do parents encourage or limit adolescent autonomy?
Authoritative Parenting – typically high
closeness
Authoritarian – typically low closeness /
rebellion/defiance
Closeness Within the Family
Parental monitoring
 Parents’ ongoing awareness of what their children
are doing, where, and with whom.
Positive consequences when part of a warm, supportive
relationship
 Negative when overly restrictive and controlling

Peer Power
Peer pressure
Encouragement to conform to one’s friends or
contemporaries in behavior, dress, and attitude.
Deviancy training
Destructive peer support in which one person
shows another how to rebel against authority or
social norms.
Clique
A group of adolescents made up of close friends
who are loyal to one another while excluding
outsiders.
Crowd
A larger group of adolescents who have something
in common but who are not necessarily friends.
Selecting Friends
 Selection
 Teenagers select friends whose values
and interests they share, abandoning
friends who follow other paths.
 Facilitation
 Peers facilitate both destructive
(“Let’s all skip school”) and
constructive (“Let’s study together”)
behaviors in one another.
 Helps
individuals do things that they
would be unlikely to do on their own.
Romance
Sequence of male–female relationships
during childhood and adolescence:
1. Groups of friends, exclusively one sex or
the other
2. A loose association of girls and boys, with
public interactions within a crowd
3. Small mixed-sex groups of the advanced
members of the crowd
4. Formation of couples, with private
intimacies
Culture affects timing and manifestation of
each step.
Sexual Orientation & Gender
Sexual orientation
Whether a person is sexually attracted to others of the same sex, the opposite
sex, or both sexes
Gender Identity
a person’s acceptance of roles and behaviors which society
determines associated with categories of male and female.
Gender identity disorder
According to the DSM-IV where one may not identify with their
own biological sex. Feeling “trapped in the wrong body”
“transgender” (across genders)
Controversy over omitted from the DSM-V as it may originate as problem
with society in rather than the individual.
Learning About Sex
Learning From Peers
•
•
•
Adolescent sexual behavior is strongly influenced by
peers.
Specifics of peer education depend on the group: All
members of a clique may be virgins, or all may be
sexually active.
Only about half of U.S. adolescent couples discuss
issues such as pregnancy and STIs before becoming
sexually active.
Learning About Sex
Learning From Parents
Parents often underestimate
their adolescent’s need for
information.
Learning in School
Most parents want other adults to provide up-todate sex education.
Depression
 A dip in self-esteem at puberty is found for
children of every ethnicity and gender
 Clinical depression
 Feelings of hopelessness, lethargy, and worthlessness
that last two weeks or more.
 Rumination
 Repeatedly thinking and talking about past
experiences; can contribute to depression and is more
common in girls.
Suicide
Suicidal Ideation
 Thinking about suicide, usually with some serious
emotional and intellectual or cognitive overtones.
 Adolescent suicidal ideation is common, completed
suicides are not.
 Adolescents are less likely to kill themselves than
adults are.
Suicide
Suicide
Gender Differences in Suicide
 Suicide rate among male teenagers in the U.S. is four times higher than the rate
for female teenagers.
Reasons for this difference:
 Male culture that shames those who attempt suicide but fail
 Methods: Males tend to shoot themselves; females swallow pills or hang
themselves
 Girls tend to ruminate while boys withdraw.
Delinquency and Disobedience
 Increased anger during puberty is
normal but most adolescents express
their anger in acceptable ways.
 Life-course-persistent offender
 A person whose criminal activity typically
begins in early adolescence and continues
throughout life; a career criminal
 Adolescence-limited offender
 A person whose criminal activity stops by
age 21
Drug Use and Abuse
Variations in Drug Use
 Drug use becomes widespread from age 10 to 25 and then decreases
 Drug use before age 18 is the best predictor of later drug abuse
Variations by Generation and Gender
 Most adolescent drug use has decreased in the U.S. since 1976 but synthetic
narcotic and prescription drug usage is up.
 Gender differences reinforced by social constructions about proper male and
female behavior (e.g., “If I don’t smoke, I’m not a real man”).
−Boys tend to take more drugs more often than girls
 Most U.S. adolescents are not regular drug users and about 20% never use
any drugs.
 Rates vary from state to state.
Drug Use and Abuse