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Study-guide for Exam I. In Adolescent Psychology
Chapter 1:
Outline
I.
Introduction
Historical views of adolescence-why is it important to look at history?
a. Early History
b. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
c. Stereotyping of Adolescents
d. A Positive View of Adolescence
II. Today’s Adolescents in the United States & Around the World
a. Review what it is like to be a teenager around the world
III. The Nature of Development-how do we develop?
a. Processes and Periods
b. Developmental Transitions
c. Developmental Issues
IV. The Science of Adolescent Development-what are some things we have discovered about
adolescent development?
a. Theories of Adolescent Development
b. Research in Adolescent Development
V.
a.
b.
c.
VI.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
What do you think about adolescence?
Is it a difficulty or easy time of life?
What are some of the good things that happened to you during your adolescence?
Were there any bad?
History of adolescence more detailed view
Some questions to think about
Did past societies have what we call an adolescent period?
Why has adolescence become known as such a terrible time?
Is adolescence really that bad?
Middle Ages
In the 18th Century
The 20th & 21st Centuries
i. G. Stanley Hall’s Storm-and-Stress View
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ii. Margaret Mead’s Sociocultural View
iii. The Inventionist View
g. Further Changes in the 20th and 21st Centuries
i.
The women’s movement
ii.
The dual family and career objectives
iii.
Increased use of media and technology by adolescents
iv.
Web, iPods, Cellphones, text messaging, YouTube & MySpace
v.
Increased diversity
h. Stereotyping of Adolescent-how does society view teenagers?
i. Stereotype
1. “They say they want a job, but when they get one, they don’t want to work.”
2. “They are all lazy.”
3. “All they think about is sex.”
4. “They are all into drugs.”
5. “The problem with adolescents today is that they all have it too easy.”
6. “They are so self-centered.”
j. Joseph Adelson (1979)
i.
The negative stereotyping of adolescents is overdrawn.
(Balsano & others, 2009; Lerner, Roeser, & Phelps, 2009).
ii.
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Old Centuries and New Centuries
Psychologists are now calling for a focus on the positive side of human experience and greater
emphasis on hope, optimism, positive individual traits, creativity, and positive group and civic
values, such as responsibility, nurturance, civility, and tolerance.
(Gestsdottir & Lerner, 2008).
iii.
Generational Perceptions and Misperceptions-examine what older generations thing of
adolescence
iv.
“Growing up has never been easy.”
1. Social Contexts-what are they? Think of the contexts in which you grew up.
VII. Social policy
a. What is social policy?
b. Look at conditions for youth around the world.
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VIII.
The Global Perspective
a. What did Brad Brown and Reed Larson (2002) find?
Adolescents’ lives are characterized by a combination of change and tradition.
IX. The Nature of Development
a. Development: what is it?
b. Periods of Development
i. Adolescence
•
Early Adolescence
•
Late Adolescence
ii. Adulthood
•
Early Adulthood
X. Developmental Transitions
a. Childhood to Adolescence-describe the major changes physically and psychologically
b. Adolescence to Adulthood
XI. Emerging Adulthood-why is this so important?
a. Key Features-list some of the key changes, and/or feelings associated with this time of
life.
XII. Becoming an Adult-what do you think makes an adult?
a. Possible markers of adulthood: List
XIII.Developmental Issues-controversies
a. Nature vs. Nurture
b. Continuity vs.
Discontinuity
c. Early vs. Later Experience
XIV. Theories of Development
i.
a. Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud-adolescence is the Genital phase
1. Examine defense mechanisms
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j.
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory-compare to Freud
1. Adolescents must find identity
k. Cognitive Developmental Theory-just review, details will be later in the semester
1. Piaget
2. Vygotsky (1896–1934)
l. Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theory
1. Behaviorism-what is it?
2. Skinner
m. Social Cognitive Theory
1. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
n. Eclectic Theoretical Orientation-your professor’s style
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XIV.
Not following any one theoretical approach, but rather selecting from each theory
whatever is considered the best in it.
Research in Adolescent Development
a. Methods for Collecting Data
1. Observation
2. Surveys and Interviews
3. Standardized Tests
4. Experience Sampling Method (ESM)
5. Physiological Measures
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Chapter 2: Puberty, Health, and Biological Foundations Outline-where does it all begin?
I.
Puberty-what is it?
a. Determinants of Puberty-list how you know an adolescent is entering puberty
b. Are Puberty’s Effect’s Exaggerated?
c. Health
d. Adolescence: A Critical Juncture in Health
e. Emerging Adults’ Health
f. Nutrition
g. Exercise and Sports
h. Sleep
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II. Evolution, Heredity, and Environment
a. The Evolutionary Perspective
b. The Genetic Process
c. Heredity-Environment Interaction
d. Determinants of Puberty
• Changes in the endocrine system
• Weight
• Body fat
• Leptin
• Birth weight
III. Heredity-describe the genetic aspects of puberty
IV. Hormones
a. Androgens
• Testosterone
b. Estrogens
• Estradiol is an estrogen
V. Hormone Levels by Sex and Pubertal Stage for Testosterone and Estradiol
a. The Endocrine System
b. Hypothalamus
c. Pituitary Gland.
d. Thyroid Gland
e. Gonads, or Sex Glands
1. Adrenarche
2. Gonadarche
3. Menarche
4. Spermarche
5. Sociocultural and Environmental Factors-discuss some factors that contribute to the
beginning of puberty
6. Growth Spurt
f.
Pubertal Growth Spurt
1. Males
2. Females
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VI. Psychological Dimensions of Puberty
a. Body Image: Adolescents are preoccupied with their bodies.
b. Gender Differences:
c. Appearance.
d. Developmental Changes.
e. Health.
f. Perceived best and worst aspects of being a boy or a girl.
g. Body Art:
h. Hormones and Behavior
i.
Early and Late Maturation
j. Are Puberty’s Effects Exaggerated?
VII. Health
a. Adolescence: A Critical Juncture in Health
b. health-compromising behaviors-discuss some of these
c. health-enhancing behaviors-discuss some of these
d.
e.
f.
g.
Risk-Taking Behavior-discuss this type of health-compromising behavior
Health Services
Leading Causes of Death-three leading causes
Males Are Mainly Responsible for the Higher Mortality Rate
h. Nutrition
i.
Exercise and Sports-summarize
j.
Studies that support the benefits of regular exercise
k. Families
l.
Schools
m. TV/Computers
n. Sleep
VIII. The Size and Complexity of the Adolescent’s Brain Emerged over the Long Course of
Evolution.
a. The Evolutionary Perspective
b. Natural Selection and Adaptive Behavior
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c. Adaptive behavior
d. Evolutionary Psychology
e. Evolutionary Developmental Psychology
f. The Genetic Process
1. The nucleus of each human cell contains chromosomes—threadlike structures that
contain DNA.
2. The activity of genes (genetic expression) is affected by their environment (Gottlieb,
2007).
g.
h.
i.
j.
genotype
phenotype
Behavior Genetics
Three ways that heredity and environment are correlated:
1. Passive genotype-environment correlations.
2. Evocative genotype-environment correlations.
3. Active (niche-picking) genotype-environment correlations. Exploring HeredityEnvironment Correlations
k. Shared and Non-Shared Environmental Experiences
Chapter 3: The Brain and Cognitive Development
Outline
I.
The Brain
a. Neurons
b. Brain Structure, Cognition, and Emotion
c. Experience and Plasticity
II. The Cognitive Developmental View
a. Piaget’s Theory
b. Vygotsky’s Theory
III. The Information-Processing View
a. Cognitive Resources
b. Attention and Memory
c. Cognitive Control (Inhibition)
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d. Executive Functioning
e. The Psychometric/Intelligence View
–
Intelligence Tests
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Multiple Intelligences
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Heredity and Environment
f.
Social Cognition
g. Adolescent Egocentrism
h. Social Cognition in the Rest of the Text
IV. The Brain
a. The Neuron
1. The cell body
2. Dendrites
3. Axon
4. Myelin sheath
5. synaptogenesis.
6. Synapses
7. “pruned.”
8. Neurotransmitters:
9. Myelinated Nerve Fiber
V. Brain Structure, Cognition, and Emotion
a. Neurons are connected in precise ways, they form various structures in the brain:
b. The Corpus Callosum
c. The Prefrontal Cortex
d. The Amygdala
e. The Prefrontal Cortex
f.
Experience and Plasticity
g. Can the Adolescent’s Brain Recover from Injury?
VI. The Cognitive Developmental View
a. Piaget's Theory
b. Cognitive Processes
1. Schema:
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2. Assimilation:
3. Accommodation:
4. Equilibration:
5. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development-adolescence is the Formal
Operations stage
6. Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
7. Early Formal Operational Thought.
8. Late Formal Operational Thought
c. Vygotksy’s Theory-professor’s favorite
1. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
2. Social Constructivist Approach
d. The Information-Processing View
1. Cognitive Resources
2. Attention and Memory
3. Cognitive Control (Inhibition)
4. Executive Functioning
5. Higher-order, complex cognitive processes.
6. Decision Making
7. Critical Thinking
8. Creative Thinking
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e. Expertise
f.
Metacognition and Self-Regulatory Learning
1.
2.
VII. The Psychometric/Intelligence View
a. A definition of intelligence
b. Intelligence tests
VIII. View
IX. Intelligence tests
a. Binet developed the concept of mental age (MA).
1. An individual’s level of mental development relative to others.
b. The Wechsler Scales
c. Using Intelligence Tests
d. Multiple Intelligences
1. Analytical intelligence
2. Creative intelligence
3. Practical intelligence
e. Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind
f.
Howard Gardner (1983, 1993, 2002) suggests there are eight types of intelligence, or
"frames of mind."
Verbal
Musical
Mathematical
Interpersonal
Spatial
Intrapersonal
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Naturalist
g. Emotional Intelligence
X. Social Cognition
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a. Social cognition refers to the way individuals conceptualize and reason about their social
worlds.
b. Adolescent Egocentrism
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Imaginary audience.
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Personal fable.
c. Perspective Taking