Adolescence: A frame of reference
• Adolescence: period between childhood and adulthood.
• Begins with puberty
• Divided into 3 parts
– Early, beginning of puberty – 14 years
– Middle, 15 – 17 years
– Late, begins at 18 years ending age debated
• Criteria used to determine the end of adolescence dependent on society and
culture.
– Ceremonies which bestow adult responsibilities: rites of passage
– Individuals determine when adulthood begins
Rites of passage
• Ceremonies that celebrate the transition from one stage of life to the next.
• Acknowledgement that the individual has arrived at a new enlightenment.
• Some separation from society
• Some preparation from an elder
• Public display of specified traditions
• Welcoming back to the society
• Public acknowledgment of the changed status
• Obtaining a driver’s license
• High school graduation
• Full time job
• Living on own
Achieving autonomy
• Autonomy: being capable of an independent existence
• Emotional autonomy: a state of developing special intimate relationships with
others
• Behavioral autonomy: acting in a way which shows control of impulses and
accepting responsibility for one’s behaviors.
• Measures the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood
• Acting in a personally responsible manner
• Minimal risk taking and reckless behavior
• Individual differences; some achieve autonomy at 18 years some after 25 years
• Parental recognition, “the blessing” an important component
Study by Bjornsen
• 281 college students, average age 22
• Asked the following questions about their same gender parent:
– Was there a time when your parent did something or said something to
you that meant that you were “all grown up” or had reached maturity?
– Was there a time when you wanted your parent to do something or say
something to you that meant that you were “all grown up” or had reached
maturity?
• The majority 71.3 % males and 71.7 % females received the parental blessing
from their same-gender parent
– Males; decision making abilities, specific skills and financial
responsibilities
– Females; rite of passage, pubertal changes and increased respect
• Those who had not received a blessing stated they wished they would have.
• Data suggests parental acknowledgement important to the transition from
adolescence to adulthood
Broad and narrow socialization
• Socialization: the process by which new members of a society are instilled with
the fundamental elements of their culture.
• Narrow socialization: value trading, conformity, obedience and fitting into family
and society
• Broad socialization: encourages independence, individualism and self-expression.
Broad socialization and the duration of adolescence
• Teens receive little occupational training
• Long periods of education required
• Marriage is delayed
• Emotional/behavioral autonomy achieved at later ages
• End of adolescence individually defined
• Transition is often gradual and ambiguous
The affect of socialization on the experience of adolescence
• Broad socialization
– Agents of socialization in conflict
– Increased levels of anxiety and confusion
– Freedom to makeup own mind about what is right and wrong
• Narrow socialization
– Not as much conflict
– Peers support the traditional and ostracize the untraditional
– Group goals emphasized
– Uniform standard of conduct
History of Adolescence
• Adolescence a development of modern industrialization
• Industrial revolution led to child labor in factories that eventually reduced
employment opportunities for adults
• Industrialization required a labour force with specialized academic and personal
skills
• This led to public schooling, and as demands grew, to high school
• The delay of autonomy by increased schooling led to the stage of life we now call
adolescence
• G. Stanley Hall presented first scientific approach in 1904
– Summarized available research
– Stated that urban industrial society pushed teens into maturity
– Stated that adolescence was a period of development marked by turmoil
Women at the turn of the century
• Vocational opportunities severely restricted
• Many took on household responsibilities
• Expectations that they marry early and have children
• Double standard of sexuality
• Activities much more regulated than men’s
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Prior to 1930’s most received 8 years of schooling
Technological innovations, awareness of children’s working conditions, the Great
Depression, World war I and II brought changes.
• Teens out of the workforce and in high school
• By 1940 73% of 14-17 year olds in school
• By 1950 82 % of teens in school
• Today almost all teens attend high school and graduate
• School shifted from serving the elite to serving all
Modern views of adolescence
• Teens segregated from adult society
– Full time work delayed
– More time spent with peers
– Peer groups become important socializing factors
• Today teens view themselves positively
– 83% are happy
– 62% feel confident
– Positive view of relationships with parents
– Exceptions
• 33% say their parents don’t know how to communicate
• 11% feel parent’s care more about their job then their children
• Adults views of teens
– Widespread negative attitude towards teens
– Teens have too much free time
– Over 40% believe teens have poor work habits and lack self-discipline
– Teens aIn the eyes of the law
• Individual provinces determine the age when teens can obtain adult privileges
such as
– Drive
– Drink
– Marry without parental permission
– Be held liable for intentionally injuring a person or damaging property
– Legal age of emancipation,
– Ability to enter into contracts
– Ability to consent to medical treatment
Reciprocal interaction
The idea that the individual both is influenced by others and at the same time may
influence others
The 5 Themes of Adolescence
• Adolescence is a time of choices, “firsts,” and transitions
• Adolescence is shaped by context
• Adolescence is influenced by group membership
• Adolescent experience has changed over the past 50 years
• Today’s views of adolescence more balanced, greater attention to its positive
nature
Research Methods in Adolescence
• Modern psychology uses scientific methodology to study adolescence
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Surveys: have problems with reliability and face validity
Naturalistic and participant observation: require objectivity that is hard to
maintain. Also difficult not to alter the setting by being there. When done well, it
offers data that is accurate in the real world.
Correlation: does not determine cause and effect, but does provide prediction.
Twin studies: H-factor determined by subtracting differences between
monozygotic twins from differences among dizygotic twins. Helps settle the
nature/nurture controversy.
Experimental studies: effect of a treatment found by subtracting changes in the
experimental group from changes in the control group. This method determines
cause and effect.
Physical development in adolescence
– Growth spurt from the extremities to the center results in lack of coordination
and problems with the body image or homunculus
– Girls begin earlier than boys
– Brain changes include increased mylenation and prefrontral lobe
development, resulting in quicker neuronal action and improvement in
planning, judgment (avoiding syllogisms), and predicting the consequences of
one’s actions. Also, pre-frontal lobe development leads to improved
regulation of emotional impulses arising from the amygdala.
– Hormonal changes
 Boys: increased androgens resulting in greater aggressive tendencies
 Girls: increased estrogens resulting in more depressive tendencies
 Hormonal tendencies are channeled into actual behaviour by
socialization
 In girls the hormonal changes are more cyclic with an LH surge when
estrogens reach a peak level. This plus the fact that our society has
turned menstruation into a courtesy stigma, plus the homunculus
problems, leads girls to negatively evaluate their bodies and increase
depressive tendencies.
– All children are born with a genetically determined temperament. In
adolescence, the interaction of that temperament with the social and physical
environment will shape personality.
– The “secular trend” refers to the fact that puberty in occurring earlier in
industrialized countries as a result of nutrition and disease control
– Early male maturers are more popular, self-confident, and independent as
adolescents. However, they do not do well academically and in adulthood tend
to become less active, less ambitious, more conforming, and more rigid in
thinking. Late male maturers tend to be “nerds” in adolescents but as adults
excel socially and in their careers.
– Early female maturers are popular, optimistic, and date earlier. However, they
they engage in high risk behaviour, are more prone to peer and media
pressure, have lower grades, have earlier pregnancies, and suffer stress. Late
female maturers tend to have body image problems and are at risk for anxiety
problems, but show little acting out behaviour in adolescence or later, and as
adults are more self-confident, socially active, and assertive.
Cognitive development in adolescence
– Piaget:
 children are little scientists
 they develop “schemas” or theories to explain the world based on
their experience and mental maturation
 assimilation is when an existing schema explains new experiences
 accommodation is when new experiences cause a change in the
theory
 adolescents are in the 4th stage of Piagetian development: Formal
operations
 they can introspect and create schemas in purely abstract form
 they can carry several ideas in their heads at one time and compare
them in abstract
 they are able to picture ideal forms but the incomplete pre-frontal
lobes prevent complete emotional control and judgment leading to:
 obsession with ideals and seeing the world in polarities
 egocentrism: imaginary audience
 personal fable
 invincibility fable
 post-piagetian development:
 in late adolescence relativistic thinking develops: different
schemas for different situations. For example, instead of
lies and truth, there are good lies and bad lies, and good
truth and bad truth.
 In middle adulthood you get qualitative thinking: there is
emphasis on the VALUE of getting an answer rather than
getting the answer itself.
– Vygotsky:
 Mental development occurs as a result of social and environmental
forces.
 When a child is “ready” to learn something (the zone of proximal
development) and the environment is right, the child will learn it
 When it learns something, that shapes how it will process
information in the future
 An example of culture shaping thinking is how music videos have
developed a scattered form of logic in adolescents in our culture.
– Erikson:
 At each stage of development the individual makes a “decision” on
how to interact with the social world.
 These decisions are irreversible and affect all other decisions the
person must make at following stages
 The first decision that must be made in infancy is between trust
and mistrust
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In adolescence the individual must make two decisions: identity or
role confusion, and intimacy or isolation.