Transcript Adolescence

Adolescence
What is Adolescence?
Adolescence – the period between childhood and adulthood
Historical Adolescence
In hunting gathering societies,
at 13 you would be an adult
Females started to bear
children and take care of
domestic tasks
Males began hunting
Some societies still like this still
exist
Historical Adolescence
In America in the 1800’s, adolescence was extremely short
Formal education ended around 8th grade, young couples got
married and began families around the age of 20
Adolescence is now much
longer and more complex
Adolescence
Adolescence begins with sexual
maturation
This begins two years earlier than
100 years ago
Adolescence lasts longer than it
used to
Students go to college longer and
delay independent adult status
People are also waiting until later
in life to have families
Physical Development
Puberty – the period of
sexual maturation, during
which a person becomes
capable of reproduction
Puberty begins earlier in
girls (around age 11) than in
boys (around age 13)
Growth spurt is one of the
most obvious changes
Physical Development
Primary Sex Characteristics – The body structures (ovaries, testes,
external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible
Secondary Sex Characteristics – Non-reproductive sexual
characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality,
and body hair
Menarche – the first menstrual period
Cognitive Maturity
Physical maturity happens
before cognitive maturity
Frontal lobes develop which
bring improved judgment,
impulse control, and long term
planning
The emotional Limbic system
matures before the frontal
lobe.
The frontal lobe continues to
mature until around 25
Heavy alcohol drinking can
stunt the growth of the frontal
lobe.
Cognitive Development
Adolescents don’t think
more than before, they
think differently than
before
Egocentrism can come
back - May think that
one’s experiences are
unique from others
Development of Moral
Reasoning – Sense of
Right and wrong
Moral Reasoning
Piaget believed that adolescent’s moral judgments build on their cognitive
development
Lawrence Kohlberg agreed with Piaget, and sought to describe the development of
moral reasoning
Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas to children, adolescents, and adults and analyzed
their responses looking for stages of moral development
Kohlberg’s Dilemma
In Europe, a woman who was near death from a very bad disease, a special kind
of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a
form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The
drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging 10 times what the
drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the Radium and charged $2000 for a
small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he
knew to borrow the money, but he could get together only about $1000, half of
what it cost. Ht told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it
cheaper or let him pay later. The druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and
I’m going to make money from it.” Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s
store to steal the drug for his wife.
Was Heinz right or wrong? Why?
Kohlberg’s 3 Stages
1. Preconventional moral
reasoning –
- Primary concern is the
desire to avoid punishment
or gain reward
- Most children under 9 show
this, although some never go
past this stage
ex. Heinz was wrong to steal
the drug because he might be
put in jail.
Kohlberg’s 3 Stages
2. Conventional Moral Reasoning –
Primary concern is the desire to fit in
and play one’s role as a good citizen.
• There is a strong desire to fit in and
play one’s role as a good citizen
• Typical of most adults, and begins
during early adolescence
•Ex. Heinz was wrong to steal
because stealing breaks the law. Or
Heinz was right to take the drug
because most people would do what
they must to protect a family
member.
Kohlberg’s 3 Stages
3. Postconventional moral reasoning –
characterized by universal ethical principles
that represent the rights or obligations of all
people.
• Most people do not reach this stage
• Ex. Heinz was right because everyone has
a right to live, and he was trying to help his
wife stay alive. Or Heinz was wrong because
everyone must respect the property of
others, even the property of a selfish greedy
druggist
Social Development
Adolescent Social Development
Adolescents in different
cultures will try out different
selves in different situations to
try and find their identity
Identity – our sense of self, it
is solidified through testing
and integrating various roles
Social Identity – we aspect of
our self concept; the part of
our identity that comes from
our group memberships
High School and College is
where people develop a
clearer sense of their identity
Young Adulthood
The identity stage is
followed by young
adulthood and the
intimacy stage
When you develop a clear
sense of self, you begin to
form emotionally close
relationships
Intimacy – the ability to
form close, loving
relationships
Parent-Peer Relationships
As adolescents seek to
find their identity, they pull
away from their parents
Parent-child conflict tends
to be greatest with first
born children than later
children
Teens begin to act more
similar to their peers than
their parents
Emerging Adulthood
A period from the late teens to the
mid twenties bridging the gap
between adolescent dependence
and full independence and
responsible adulthood
People are waiting longer than
before to reach responsible
adulthood