Transcript Psych A - Ch 2, Mod 5 Adolescence

Module 5:
Adolescence
Ch 2 – Life Span Development
Psychology A
Ms. Kramer
Adolescence
• Think of the person you were when
puberty hit… are you the same person
now?
– What has changed?
– What celebrations did you have when this
happened?
• No longer a child, yet not an adult.
• This is probably the most dramatic
change you will ever face!
Adolescence back in the day…
• 13 – adult celebration
• Next – marriage!
– Female – child-rearing and domestic work.
– Male – hunter
• In early 1800’s…
– 8th grade was the end of education, must
work!
– Many married with children before 20 years!
Adolescence today
• Adolescence:
– Period between childhood and adulthood.
• Adult status is reached later these days.
– Longer to finish school, get married, have kids.
– Many want to stay financially dependent on parents for
longer.
– Begins with sexual maturation.
• Now happens about 2 years earlier.
• Creates tension because part of them is adult and
part isn’t…let’s discuss this!
– Teen pregnancy for example.
Sound familiar?
• When you want to be an adult, the
message can be to be patient and
wait…when you want to act childlike, you
hear that you should grow up and act
your age.
• Parents aren’t ready to let you have
independence.
• What are other common themes of this
time of life?
Physical changes during adolescence
• Puberty:
– Time when a person
matures sexually.
– Hormones that bring
on physical and
emotional changes
start this stage.
– Girls about 11, boys
about 13 years old.
• What puberty brings:
– Growth spurts
• Early middle school girls
can be taller, but around
8th/9th… boys outgrow
females.
– Primary sex
characteristics:
• Reproductive organs.
• See chart – pg. 83
– Secondary sex
characteristics:
• Breast
development,
facial hair…less related to
reproduction.
Adolescent development
• Obvious signs of
puberty:
– Menstruation for girls
and beginning of
ejaculation for boys.
• Sexuality has
cognitive and cultural
factors.
– Music, media, movies,
internet, etc.
– Safe sex vs. abstinence
• Sexual orientation:
– One’s attraction
toward people of a
particular gender.
• 3-4% of males, & 1-2%
of females are
exclusively
homosexual.
• 1% bisexual.
• What determines
sexual orientation?
– Nature or nurture?
– Choice or no?
Adolescent Reasoning
• At the beginning of this time, Jean Piaget says
we are at the formal operational stage.
– When we develop adult thinking and reasoning.
• Formal logic & abstract thinking are possible and this
represents a qualitative change.
– Don’t think more… you think differently.
• Doesn’t happen all the time, at this stage you
tend to think more of yourself than anything
else.
– Falling in love for the 1st time, breaking up, etc.
• Can focus on idealistic thinking, and can
totally devote yourself to a cause quite
passionately.
Lawrence Kohlberg: morality
• Morality:
– One’s sense of right
and wrong.
• Kohlberg felt our
way of thinking
about moral
situations changes
with our level of
development.
He posed moral dilemmas to
participants in experiments:
• Page 86.
• Wasn’t interested in whether the person thought
Heinz was right or wrong.
• Instead, what reasoning did people use to make
their decisions?
• Came up with three levels of moral
development:
– Preconventional moral reasoning (concern with self),
conventional moral reasoning (concern with fitting
in), and postconventional moral reasoning (concern
with broader ethical issues).
Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Reasoning
Draw this chart~!!!
Another way to see it…
• Pre-conventional:
– Student working on an assignment, “I better do well
on this worksheet, or the teacher will be mad at me.”
• Conventional level:
– Working on a book report, “I hope I do as well as
everyone else in the class so I don’t stand out.”
• Post-conventional:
– Teacher reading a book, “my new approach to
distributing food could end hunger in the world.”
Criticism to Kohlberg
• Postconventional stage – not supported.
– Stage mostly occurs in white male population.
• Groups that value individualism.
– Think for yourself, stand on your own two feet!
• In communal cultures, the notion that
postcoventional morality is superior to
conventional morality receives little
support.
– North American women are more communal
and do not agree!
Social Development in Adolescence:
Erik Erikson
• Theory of social development.
• Certain issues peak during
different periods of life,
including adolescence.
• Life span divided into 8 stages
from infancy to late adulthood.
– Each stage has a psychosocial
development task.
• Challenge, how individuals handle
the task will lead to a more desirable
or less desirable outcome.
Erikson's Stages of
Psychosocial Development
• See, know, love handout!
• How do we search for our
identity?
– Experimentation
• Healthy and not
• Primary task of
adolescence according to
Erikson is….?
– A strong, consistent sense
of who and what you are!
– Career, drugs, etc.
– Rebellion
• Same values as rents?
• Self-destructive?
– “Self”-ishness
• Different cliques
– Teen friendships temporary?
– Life long friends, later in
life.
– Optimism & Energy
• Good outlook
• Don’t tolerate
things (pollution, civil rights)
Erikson –
Developing Intimacy
• Says you strive to achieve
intimacy:
– A close, sharing, emotional,
and honest relationship
with others.
• Spouses, friends, family
members.
– Doesn’t have to be
sexual!
• Intimacy vs. Isolation:
– “Baggage”
– Can’t share yourself
honestly and openly if you
are confused about your
sense of self.
Independence
From the family
• Speeds up in this stage.
– Primary attachment to
parents shifts to peers.
• Mall example.
• See page 92.
3 Key Development Issues
• 1.) Continuity and Stages
–
–
–
–
–
Are we tadpoles turning into frogs?
Are we saplings growing into trees?
Cognitive development
Moral development
Social development
– Adolescence relies on continuity and stages.
3 Key Development Issues
• 2.) Stability and Change
– Tempermant and values…stay constant.
– Relationships and certain behaviors… change.
• 3.) Nature and Nurture
– Nature – important with sexual feelings and
interests.
– Nurture – also learn about expressing
sexuality from families and society.