One Out of Five Teenagers is Overweight
TEENS
ADULTS
15%
21%
25%
31%
'76 - '80
'88 - '91
'76 - '80
'88 - '91
40% increase in proportion of overweight teens, over a 12-year period
Possible Causes:
•Too much junk food
•Too much TV watching
•Lack of Exercise
Source: National Center for Health Statistics (1994)
FEATURES OF FORMAL OPERATIONAL
THINKING
• Attention to hypothetical ideas and possibilities
• Scientific reasoning
• Logical combination of ideas
• Abstract thinking
The Pendulum Problem
A Piagetian test for formal operational thinking
X
Y
Z
1
2
3
B
C
There are:
• 3 weights (A, B, C)
• 3 lengths of string (1, 2, 3)
• 3 push positions (X, Y, Z)
A
Which makes the quickest arc?
Source: Howard Gruber & J. Jacques Vonesce, The Essential Piaget. New York, Basic Books (1977).
KOHLBERG'S STAGES OF
MORAL JUDGMENT
• PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL (emphasis on avoiding punishments and
getting awards)
Stage 1: Heteronomous morality; ethics of punishment and obedience
Stage 2: Instrumental purpose; ethics of market exchange
• CONVENTIONAL LEVEL (emphasis on social rules)
Stage 3: Interpersonal conformity; ethics of peer opinion
Stage 4: Social system orientation: conformity to social system; ethics of law
and order
• POSTCONVENTIOANL LEVEL (emphasis on moral principles)
Stage 5: Social contract orientation; ethics of social contract and individual
rights
Stage 6:Ethics of self-chosen universal principles
Longitudinal Development of Moral Reasoning
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
stage 4
stage 5
Moral reasoning (percent)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
Age (in Years)
26
28
30
32
34
36
Gilligans's Stages of Moral Development
Stage
Features
Stage 1 Survival orientation
Egocentric concern for self, lack of
awareness of others' needs; "right"
action is what promotes emotional or
physical survival
Stage 2 Conventional care
Lack of distinction between what others
want and what is right; "right" action is
whatever pleases others best
Stage 3 Integrated care
Coordination or integration of needs of
self and of others; "right" action takes
account of self as well as others
Developmental Changes in Information Processing
Control processes
Environmental
stimuli
(input)
Sensory
register
(SR)
Increased efficiency
Attention
Recognition
Short-term
memory
(STM)
Increased
size
Response
(output)
Rehearsal
Organization
Meaningfulness
Long-term
memory
(LTM)
Greater
specific
expertise
Greater
knowledge
about problemsolving
Summary of Adolescent Cognitive Development
• Piaget’s formal operational stage
• Scientific and abstract thinking develop
• Information processing skills continue to improve
• Moral development matures