Transcript Infancy: Physical Development

CHAPTER 15
Adolescence:
Cognitive Development
Learning Outcomes
LO1 Describe the cognitive advances that define
adolescent thinking.
LO2 Describe and evaluate Kohlberg’s view of
the kinds of moral judgments made by many
adolescents (and adults).
LO3 Discuss the transition to high school and
factors associated with dropping out.
LO4 Discuss career development and the pluses
and minuses of part-time work for high school
students.
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TRUTH OR FICTION?
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T-F Many adolescents see themselves as being on
stage.
T-F It is normal for male adolescents to think of
themselves as action heroes and to act as though
they are made of steel.
T-F Adolescent boys outperform adolescent girls in
mathematics.
T-F Most adolescents make moral decisions based
on their own ethical principles and may choose to
disobey the laws of the land if they conflict with their
principles.
T-F The transition from elementary school is more
difficult for boys than for girls.
T-F Adolescents who work after school obtain lower
grades.
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LO1 The Adolescent in Thought:
My, My, How “Formal”
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The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• The growing intellectual capabilities of teens change
the way they approach the world.
• Cognitive changes influence how they view
themselves, family, and friends, and how they deal with
broader social and moral values.
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Piaget’s Stage of Formal Operations:
– Is characterized by the capacity for flexible, reversible
operations concerning abstract ideas and concepts, such as
symbols, statements, and theories.
• Hypothetical Thinking:
– The ability to think beyond the immediate; to project
into the future and contemplate various outcomes
– Teens can foresee many possibilities for themselves
and engage in utopian thinking (envisioning an
ideal world).
• Sophisticated Use of Symbols:
– Formal-operational thought allows grasp of geometry
and allows manipulation of symbols to work in
theoretical realms of physics, math, etc.
– It also allows the understanding, appreciation, and
generation of metaphors, a sophisticated use of
speech where words or phrases ordinarily meaning
one thing are applied to another.
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Reevaluation of Piaget’s Theory
– Research does strongly support his view that the
capacity to reason deductively does not emerge until
adolescence.
– But, formal-operational thought is not a universal step in
cognitive development.
• It may be a function of technological cultures.
• And may occur later than thought, if at all.
• Some research suggests formal-operational thought is
found among only 40-60% of 1st year college students.
• Some individuals may do well on one formal-operational
task and not on another.
• Adolescents also may not show formal-operational thought
if they are unfamiliar with a task.
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Adolescent Egocentrism: Center Stage
– Egocentrism is not only evident at preschool age, it
makes a come-back during adolescence.
– It is a somewhat different type at this stage of
development in that teens can now comprehend the
ideas of others, but have difficulty sorting out the things
that concern others from the things that concern them.
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Adolescent Egocentrism: Center Stage, cont.
– The Imaginary Audience:
• Is one aspect of adolescent egocentrism: the belief that
others around us are as concerned with our thoughts and
behaviors as we are
• Teens may fantasize about being famous, etc. and place
themselves “on stage” for an imaginary audience’s
constant review
• This may account for teens preoccupation with appearance
and desire for privacy.
• Some believe it is a response to increased social scrutiny
and is more a social anxiety than a cognitive development.
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Adolescent Egocentrism: Center Stage, cont.
– The Personal Fable:
• Another aspect of adolescent egocentrism: the belief that
our feelings and ideas are special and unique and that we
are invulnerable
• It is connected with risk-taking behaviors and showing off.
• Teens believe nothing bad will happen to them even when
they are cognitively aware of the realities.
• The sense of invincibility and
invulnerability is universal in
teens regardless of race, or SES.
• Many teens also have the belief
that adults and even sometimes
peers can never feel or understand
what they are feeling.
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The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities
– Males and females do not differ noticeably in overall
intelligence, but beginning in childhood sex differences
appear in certain cognitive abilities.
• Verbal Ability
• Visual-Spatial Ability
• Mathematical Ability
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities, cont.
– Verbal Ability:
• Includes many language skills: reading,spelling, grammar,
oral comprehension, and word fluency
• As a group, females surpass males in verbal ability.
• Girls acquire language faster than boys; they talk sooner
and have larger vocabularies.
• Parents talk more to infant girls and this early advantage
may influence their verbal skills and further their abilities in
this area.
• Boys in the U.S. are more likely to be dyslexic and have
other reading problems.
• Reading has cultural differences; some cultures view it as
feminine, masculine, or gender neutral.
– The U.S. and Canada stereotype reading as feminine.
– Nigeria and England see it as masculine.
– Children seem to excel according to their cultural
expectations.
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities, cont.
– Visual-Spatial Ability:
• Is the ability to visualize objects or shapes and to mentally
manipulate and rotate them
• Boys begin to outperform girls in these skills by 8-9 years of age
with differences persisting into adult years.
• The most noticeable difference involves mental rotation tasks
(imagining how things will look if they are rotated in space).
• Theories of why:
– Genetic Theory: sex-linked recessive genes of the X chromosome
(has not been supported by research)
– Biological Influence: prenatal androgens have been linked to
better performance on arithmetic tasks among 4-6 yr old girls
– Some women perform better on visual-spatial tasks when
estrogen levels are low and better on language tasks when it is
high
– Evolutionary Theory: it may be related to the tendency to create
and defend a territory or “home range” seen in the male of the
species
– Environmental Theory: gender stereotyping provides more
opportunity for boys in visual-spatial skills
Figure 15.1 – Examples of Tests Used to
Measure Visual-Spatial Ability
The Adolescent in Thought: My, My, How
“Formal”
• Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities, cont.
– Mathematical Ability:
• Most Americans have different expectations for boys and
girls that reflect stereotyping of girls as inferior to boys in
mathematical abilities.
• However overall research indicates there are no sex
differences in the performance of these skills.
• There is evidence of slightly greater male variability in
scores but causes remain unexplained.
• Although there are more males with high scores and low
scores, the average scores between males and females do
not differ.
• In spite of continued stereotyping, more women are
entering and succeeding in previously predominately male
careers requiring high degrees of mathematical skill.
Table 15.1 – Women as a Percentage of College Students Receiving
Bachelor’s Degrees in the Sciences and Engineering
Sources: Cox & Alm (2005); National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2007b).
Figure 15.2 – Women Flood Professions Once Populated
Almost Exclusively by Men
LO2 The Adolescent in
Judgment: Moral Development
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The Adolescent in Judgment:
Moral Development
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• In adolescence, many (not all) individuals become
capable of formal-operational thinking, allowing
decisions to be made in various situations using
reasoning and ethical principles.
• Many of these individuals engage in postconventional
moral reasoning, the 3rd and final level in Kohlberg’s
Theory of Moral Reasoning.
The Adolescent in Judgment:
Moral Development
• The Postconventional Level
– A period during which moral judgments are derived
from personal values, not from conventional standards
or authority figures
– This level has two stages:
• Stage 5:
– Recognition that laws stem from agreed-on procedures;
many rights have great value and should not be violated
unless there are exceptional circumstances
– It also notes that if everyone in need broke the law, the
legal system and the social contract would be destroyed.
• Stage 6:
– Relies on supposed universal ethical principles valuing
human life, individual dignity, justice, and reciprocity (the
understanding that all actions have mutual effects making
people interdependent)
Figure 15.3 – Age and Type of Moral Judgment
The Adolescent in Judgment:
Moral Development
• Moral Behavior and Moral Reasoning
– Many studies have found positive relationships between
moral cognitive development and moral behavior.
– Individuals at Stage 2 cheat, steal, and engage in other
problem behaviors more often than peers whose moral
reasoning is at higher stages.
– Adolescents with higher levels of moral reasoning are
more likely to exhibit moral behavior, including altruism.
The Adolescent in Judgment:
Moral Development
• Cross-Cultural Differences in Moral Development
– Cultural background is a powerful shaper of moral
reasoning.
– Potsconventional reasoning is more likely to be found in
urban cultural groups and in middle-class populations
but is rarely seen in traditional folk cultures.
• It is all but absent in teens in villages in Mexico, Taiwan,
Turkey, and the Bahamas.
• Hindu Indians are more likely to show a caring orientation
in making moral judgments.
• Americans more often demonstrate a justice orientation.
The Adolescent in Judgment:
Moral Development
• Sex Differences in Moral Development
– Some research reports males reason at higher levels of
moral development than females.
• The average stage for men being
Stage 4: emphasizing justice, law,
and order
• The average stage for women
being Stage 3: emphasizing caring
and concern for others
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The Adolescent in Judgment:
Moral Development
• Sex Differences in Moral Development, cont.
– Other research argues sex difference patterns are reflections
of socialization patterns.
• Girls are socialized to focus on needs of others and to forego
simplistic judgments of right and wrong.
• Boys are socialized into making judgments based on logic.
– Most agree that females are more likely to show caring
orientations and males are more likely to assume justice
orientations.
– The dispute remains as to whether this difference means girls
reason at lower levels than boys.
The Adolescent in Judgment:
Moral Development
• Evaluation of Kohlberg’s Theory
– May underestimate the influence of social, cultural, and
educational institutions
– Postconventional thinking is rare in developing societies
and uncommon in the U.S.
– Stage 6 is based on acceptance of supposed universal
ethical principles: freedom, justice, equality, tolerance,
integrity, and reverence for human life
– They have high appeal for most American adolescents
who are raised to idealize such principles.
– But a worldview of 21st century events finds many of
those principles are not universally accepted or admired.
– Therefore, they may reflect Western cultural influences
more than the cognitive development of children.
– Kohlberg eventually dropped Stage 6 in recognition of
these problems.
LO3 The Adolescent in School
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The Adolescent in School
• Making the Transition from Elementary School
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– Moving to middle, junior, or high school usually involves
a major shift in setting, from a smaller school with selfcontained classrooms and one teacher for all subjects to
a larger more impersonal setting with more students and
different rooms and teachers
for different classes.
The Adolescent in School
• Making the Transition from Elementary School, cont.
– Students experience several issues:
• All this occurs at the same time they are experiencing the
early stages of puberty.
• They may find a more restrictive environment at a time
they begin to seek more autonomy.
• They have dropped status from the “top dog” to the
“bottom dog.”
• They often experience a decline in grades and
participation in school activities; also a drop in self-esteem
and an increase in psychological distress
The Adolescent in School
• Making the Transition from Elementary School, cont.
– Sex differences:
• Transition seems to be more difficult for girls than boys.
• The difference may be that girls are more likely to be
undergoing puberty and its added challenges; several life
changes at once make it more difficult to adjust
• They may be more likely to gain the attention of boys in
higher grades, whereas younger boys are not as likely to
be of much interest to the older girls.
– Easing the stress:
• Students who are in greater control of their lives tend to do
better with the transition.
• Schools can help by creating a more intimate, caring
environment.
• “Bridge Programs” during summer helps to introduce
students to the new school culture and strengthen their
academic skills.
• Dropping Out
– Education is a key path to success
in our society.
– But not all teens complete high school.
– High school dropouts are:
• More likely to be unemployed
• Make lower salaries; high school degrees add about 16%
to an individual’s lifetime earnings
• More likely to show problem behaviors: delinquency,
criminal behavior, and substance abuse
– But it is difficult to determine which comes first: do the
problems behavior lead to dropping out? Or does the
dropping out result in the problem behaviors?
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The Adolescent in School
The Adolescent in School
• Dropping Out, cont.
– Who Drops Out:
• States use different report systems making it difficult to
track students, and most do not track those who quit after
8th grade.
• Overall from age 18-24, 15% of males and 12% of females
have dropped out of high school.
• Rates vary from one ethnic and SES group to another:
– African Americans are highest at 7.3%
– Latino/a Americans (of any race) at 5%
– European Americans at 2.8%
– Students from lower SES backgrounds and older
students are more likely to drop out.
– When income levels are held constant, racial and
ethnic differences in drop out rates are reduced.
The Adolescent in School
• Dropping Out, cont.
– Who Drops Out:
• Early predictors and risk factors:
– Excessive absences and reading below grade level are two
of the earliest and strongest predictors of drop out.
– Other risk factors include low grades, poor problem-solving
ability, low self-esteem, problems with teachers,
dissatisfaction with school, substance abuse, being old for
one’s grade level, and being male.
– Teens who adopt adult roles early, especially marrying or
becoming a parent are also at high risk for drop out.
– Students from low-income households, large urban areas,
and the West and South are at great risk
– But not all dropouts come from lower SES; middle-class
youth who are bored, alienated, or strongly pressured to
succeed are also at risk
Table 15.3 – Dropout Rates and Distribution of 15- through 24-YearOlds Who Dropped Out of Grades 10–12, According to Various
Background Characteristics
The Adolescent in School
• Dropping Out, cont.
– Preventing Dropping Out:
• Many programs have been developed to prevent school dropout.
• Successful programs share these common characteristics:
– Early preschool interventions, such as Head Start
– Identification and monitoring of high-risk students throughout
the school years
– Small class size, individualized instruction, and counseling
– Vocational components that link learning and community
work experiences
– Involvement of families or community organizations
– Positive school climate
– Clear and reasonable educational goals; student
accountability for behavior and motivational systems that
involve penalties and rewards
• Unfortunately, most intervention efforts are not usually
introduced until students are on the verge of dropping out, when
it’s probably too late
LO4 The Adolescent at
Work: Career Development
and Work Experience
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The Adolescent at Work:
Career Development and Work Experience
• Career Development
– Deciding one’s life vocation is one of the most important choices
we make.
– Adolescents may not be practical at first but become increasingly
more realistic and conventional as they mature and gain
experience.
– As a teenager, the kind of work one wants to do becomes more
firmly established or crystallized, but a particular occupation may
not be chosen until the college years or afterward.
– There are more than 20,000 occupations found in The Dictionary
of Occupational Titles (compiled by the U.S. Dept. of Labor).
– But most young people choose from a relatively small range
based on their personalities, experiences, and opportunities.
– Many fall into jobs that are offered to them or follow career paths
of their parents or other role models in their lives.
The Adolescent at Work:
Career Development and Work Experience
• Career Development, cont.
– Holland’s Career Typology: (RIASEC method)
• Uses the approach of matching personality types with
careers to predict success in a career
• Holland’s method uses a Vocational Preference Inventory
that matches various careers with six personality types:
– Realistic
– Investigative
– Artistic
– Social
– Enterprising
– Conventional
• Many people combine several of these vocational styles.
The Adolescent at Work:
Career Development and Work Experience
• Adolescents in the Workforce
– Prevalence of Adolescent Employment:
• Life experiences help shape vocational development.
• Holding a job is a common life experience among
American teenagers.
– 1/2 of High School Sophomores; 2/3 Juniors; 3/4 Seniors
• Boys and girls are equally likely to be employed, but boys
work more hours.
• Millions of teens between age 14-18 are legally employed;
another 2-3 million work illegally
– Many are paid in cash so employers can avoid paying taxes.
– Many are under age (14 except for farm work).
– Others work too many hours, late on school nights, or at
hazardous jobs.
The Adolescent at Work:
Career Development and Work Experience
• Adolescents in the Workforce
– Prevalence of Adolescent Employment:
• Ethnic and SES differences:
– European American are 2 times more likely to be
employed than teens from ethnic minority groups.
– Teens from poor households are more likely to work to
help support the family but work longer hours than
middle-class teens.
– Currently teen employment is becoming more
common among middle-class families.
– Which may be attributed to proximity of middle-class
families to suburban shopping malls that are fertile
sources of jobs for teenagers
The Adolescent at Work:
Career Development and Work Experience
• Pros and Cons of Adolescent Employment
– Pros:
• Working teens develop a sense of responsibility, selfreliance, and discipline.
• They learn to appreciate the value of money and
education.
• Acquire positive work habits and values
• And have the opportunity to learn more about their career
aspirations
The Adolescent at Work:
Career Development and Work Experience
• Pros and Cons of Adolescent Employment, con’t.
– Cons:
• The meaning of work for teens (at least middle-income teens)
seems to have changed.
• Most of these teens do not work to help support families or put
money away for college like their lower-income counterparts do.
• Middle-class teens use their earnings for personal purchases,
such as clothing, entertainment, and car payments.
• Most work in jobs with low pay, high turnover, little authority, and
little chance for advancement.
• They typically perform simple, repetitive tasks not requiring
special skills.
• Students working 11-13 hrs per week have lower grades, higher
rates of drug and alcohol abuse, more delinquency problems,
lower self-esteem, and higher levels of psychological problems.
• Students working longer hours are monitored less by parents.