Introduction to General Psychology Niel Steve M. Kintanar

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Human Development Adolescents

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Adolescents

Adolescence is a developmental period, lasting from about ages 12 to 18, during which many biological, cognitive, social, and personality traits change

from childlike to adultlike.

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Positive Psychology and Adolescents

1. Freud described adolescents as sexually driven and conflicted.2. Too often adolescents have been stereotyped as abnormal and deviant. a. Acting out and boundary testing are normal events in adolescent development. b. Adolescents enthusiastically try on

new identities.3. Adolescence is a time of evaluation, decision making, and commitment.4. Worldwide, about three out of four adolescents have a healthy self- image.

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Physical Development in Adolescents1. Puberty is a period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation.a. Increases in concentrations of

testosterone lead to the development of genitals,

increased height, and voice changes for males.b. Increases in estradiol (estrogen) lead to breast, uterine, and skeletal development, for females.c. Social factors are as important as or more important than hormones in determining adolescent behavior.

Introduction to General Psychology Niel Steve M. Kintanar

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Cognitive Development in AdolescentsThey also enter a period

of significant cognitive growth where thinking is characterized by abstraction, idealism, and hypothetical-deductive reasoning. This change in thinking is reflected in a change in moral reasoning skills.

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Socio-emotional Development in AdolescentsAccording to Erikson,

adolescents experiment with different roles in an effort to determine who they are.

a. A moratorium is a temporal and

psychological gap between childhood and

adulthood.

b. Identity confusion can result in withdrawal and isolation or immersion in the crowd

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Adolescent Concerns1. Identity formation

2. Developing autonomy

3. Forming relationships (Parents and Peers)

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1. Identity FormationJames Marcia proposes that four identity

statuses are based on the dimensions of exploration and commitment.

1. Identity diffusion: A person has not yet explored meaningful alternatives and also has not made a commitment (no career options & personal values)

2. Identity foreclosure: A person makes a commitment to an identity before adequately exploring various options. (wanting to be a nurse or a doctor because that is what my parents want it to be.)

3. Identity moratorium: A person is exploring alternative paths but has not yet made a commitment. (secondary school years?)

4. Identity achievement: A person has explored alternative paths and made a commitment.

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1. Developing a positive identity1. Identity is complex and takes a long time to develop.2. The secondary school years are an important time for identity development.3. Whether or not to adopt the parents’ identities is a

challenge.4. Identities continue to change.

Introduction to General Psychology Niel Steve M. Kintanar

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Introduction to General Psychology Niel Steve M. Kintanar

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2. Developing autonomyAs people move from childhood to adulthood, adolescents demand, and parents grant them

increasing autonomy. Ψ Parents “granting autonomy” is freeing adolescents from external rules or constraints.

Ψ But adolescents typically demand autonomy earlier than their parents are ready to grant it. (Parent and adolescent conflict)

Ψ Studies have shown that both parents and adolescents agree that parents can (and indeed should) regulate some aspects of their adolescents lives.

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2. Developing autonomyWhich aspects or areas of your life can your

parents regulate? • Academics?

• Friends?

• Love life?

• Safety?

• Morality?

• The way you dress?

Ψ Parents and adolescents agree that parents do have the right to control youth with regard to safety issues and issues of morality but disagree with the areas that falls under the personal domain.

Ψ But what falls under the personal domain?