Adolescence : Psychosocial Development

Adolescence : Psychosocial Development

WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

1. Why might a teenager be into sports one year and into books the next ?
2. Should parents back off when their teenager disputes every rule, wish, or suggestion they make ?
3. Who are the best, and worst , sources of information about sex?
4. Should we worry more about teen suicide or juvenile delinquency?
5. Why are adolescents forbidden to drink and smoke, but adults can do so?

 

Identity

Psychosocial development during adolescence is often understood as a search for a consistent understanding of oneself .

Erikson:

• Identity is the consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual , in terms of roles , attitudes , beliefs , and aspirations Identity versus role confusion.

Role Confusion

Identity Achievement

Erikson’s term for the attainment of identity, or the point at which a person understands who he or she is as a unique individual , in accord with past experiences and future plans.

Role Confusion

A situation in which an adolescent does not seem to know or care what his or her identity is . ( Sometimes called identity or role diffusion.)

Psychosocial Development

 

Identity achievement

• The search for identity still begins at puberty but it continues much longer .
• Most emerging adults are still seeking to determine who they are .
• Erikson believed that , at each stage , the outcome of earlier crises provides the foundation of each new era.

Four Areas of Adolescent Identity Formation

Religious identity

• Most adolescents accept broad outlines of parenta and cultural religious identity.
• Specific religious beliefs may be questioned.

 

Political identity

• Most adolescents follow parental political traditions
• They tend to be more liberal than their parents.
• Fanatical political religious movement participation is rare.
• Most adolescents identify with their ethnicity .

Vocational identity

• Vocational identity takes years to establish .
• Early vocational identity is no longer relevant
• Part- time work during high school is often related to negative outcomes. .

Psychosocial Development .

Vocational identity

• Complex within difficult contemporary job market
• 18 to 25 years: Average worker holds seven job
• May be avoidance of foreclosure and premature commitment in job market.

 

Gender identity

• Gender identity that begins with the person’s biological sex and leads to a gender role.
• It often begins with biological sex but may be questioned
• Gender roles changing everywhere
• DSM -5: Gender dysphoria

Psychosocial Development

Ethnic identity

• Shaped by social contextsocial role and place in society
• Affected by family, friends, and wider culture
• About one -half of U.S. adults have non European ancestorsmany have mixed heritage
• . Understanding self contributes to development of respect for heritage of others.

Relationships with Adults (part 1)

Conflicts with parents

• Parent-adolescent conflict typically peaks in early adolescence and is more a sign of attachment than of distance.

Bickering

• Bickering involves petty, peevish arguing, usually repeated and ongoing, especially between mothers and daughters.
• Parent – child relationships usually improve with time.

Keys to Family Closeness .

Family closeness is more important than family conflict or individual autonomy.

• Communication: Do family members talk openly with one another?
• Support: Do they rely on one another?
• Connectedness: How emotionally close are family members ? •
• Control : Do parents restrict autonomy ?
• Parental monitoring : Mutual , close parent -child interaction is the most effective monitoring .

Peers .

• Adolescents rely on peers to mitigate and manage developmental challenges .
• Healthy , early parental relationships enhance later peer friendships .
• Peers are especially helpful in early adolescence or in times of stress . Peer influence is affected by genes and early experiences .
• Peer support is needed by minority and immigrant groups in ethnic identity achievement. .

Selecting Friends

• Peers can lead one another into trouble and collectively provide deviancy training.
• Peer support in which one person shows another how to rebel against authority or social norms
• Developmental progression from problem behavior to violent behavior involves selection and facilitation.

Social Networking

Technology usually brings friends together

• Technology users are usually as extroverted and socially connected as other adolescents .
• Social networking may be a lifeline for isolated adolescents .

Romance ( part 1)

First love

• First romances typically appear in high school and rarely last more than a year.
• Girls claim a steady partner more often than boys do
• Not all romances include intercourse.
• Breakups and unreciprocated crushes are common .
• Adolescents are crushed by rejection and sometimes contemplate revenge or suicide.

Romance (part 2)

Same-sex romances

• Sexual orientation refers to the direction of a person’s erotic desires .
• Currently in North America and western Europe, not just two but many gender roles and sexual orientations are evident.
• Variants via research) reflect culture, cohort, and survey construction
• Some cultures accept and others criminalize LGBTQ youth.

Sex Education ( part 1)

From the media

• Internet is a common source for sex information.
• Controversial correlation between exposure to media sex and adolescent sexual initiation

 

From parents

• Many parents wait too long, avoid specifics, and are uninformed about adolescent’s relationships.
• About 25 percent adolescents receive any sex education from parents .
• Warm , open communication is effective. .

Sex Education ( part 2)

From peers

• Adolescent sexual behavior is strongly influenced by peers, especially when parents are silent , forbidding , or vague.
• Only about half of U.S. adolescent couples discuss issues such as pregnancy and , and many are unable to come to a shared conclusion based on accurate information.

Sex Education (part 3)

From educators

• S. parents want up- to-date sex education for their adolescents.
• Timing and content vary by nation, state, and community.
• HIV AIDS crisis prompted sex education for most U.S. adolescents. •
• Abstinence -only programs are not successful .
• Current recommendations suggest sex education should begin earlier and contain more practical information , not just abstinence and male- female marriage.

 

 

Sadness and Anger

Self- esteem

• Self- esteem declines across children of every ethnicity and gender , higher in boys, African Americans
• Universal trends are also apparent ; familism is protective for some.
• Level of family and peer support is influential.

Major depressive dis

• Deep sadness and hopelessness disrupts all normal, regular activities .
• Varied causal factors: biological and psychological stress; genes; rumination with peers
• 5 HHTLPR

Suicide

Suicidal ideation

• Thinking about suicide, usually with some serious emotional and intellectual or cognitive overtones 23 percent seriously thought about suicide.

Parasuicide

• Any potentially lethal action against the self that does not result in death
• Parasuicide is common; completed suicide is not.

Cluster suicides

• Several suicides committed by members of a group within a brief period.

Delinquency and Defiance (part 1)

Behaviors

• Externalizing and internalizing behavior are more closely connected in adolescence than at any other age.

Breaking the law

• Prevalence and incidence of criminal activities are more common in adolescence .
• About one -fourth of young lawbreakers are caught.
• Most adolescents obey the law .

Delinquency and Defiance ( part 2)

 

An angry adolescent can be both depressed and delinquent because externalizing and internalizing behavior are closely connected during these years .

 

Some psychologists suggest that adolescent rebellion is a social construction, an idea created and endorsed by many Western adults but not expected or usual in Asian nations . 32:57

 

Breaking the Law

Prevalence and incidence of criminal actions are higher during adolescence.

• 30 percent of African American males and 22 percent of European American males arrested at least once before age 18.
• Most adolescents self-report law-breaking at least once before age 20.

Two kinds of teenage lawbreakers

• Adolescent-limited offenders
• Life-course-persistent offenders

Pathways of Adolescent Delinquency

Stubbornness -defiance -running away

• Response: Social supports that channel or limit rebelliousness

Shoplifting >arson and burglary

• Response: Stronger human relationships and moral education

Bullying -assault, rape , murder

• Response: Action stopped in childhood; assistance is developing other ways to make connections .

Variations in Drug Use: Age Trends

Adolescence is sensitive time for experimentation , daily use, and addiction.

• Prevalence and incidence increase from ages 10 to 25 then decrease .
• Use before age 15 is linked to escalation to negative behaviors and outcomes .
• Cohort differences

Inhalant use most likely with youngest adolescent ; less understanding of risks and graver consequences

 

• Cigarette smoking down but vaping up
• Easy access noted .

Harm from Drugs (part 1)

In general

• Pre -maturity drug use may harm body and brain growth.
• Unlikely an adolescent will notice the path from use to abuse to addiction.

Tobacco

• Slows down growth ( impairs digestion , nutrition , and appetite )
• Reduces the appetite
• Causes protein and vitamin deficiencies
• Can damage developing hearts , lungs , brains , and reproductive systems.

Alcohol

• Most frequently abused drug among North American teenagers
• Heavy drinking may permanently impair memory and self- control by damaging the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.
• Alcohol allows momentary denial of problems → when problems get worse because they have been ignored , more alcohol is needed .
• Denial can have serious consequences .
• Genes and neighborhoods are in part the cause of addiction and rebellion .

 

Preventing Drug Abuse

• All psychoactive drugs are particularly harmful in adolescence.
• Adults who exaggerate harm or who abuse drugs themselves are unlikely to prevent teen drug use.
• Antidrug programs may cause a backlash (generational forgetting).
• Price, perception, and parents are influential.

 

Biosocial Development (part 1)

Emerging adulthood

• Period of life between the ages of 18 and 25
• Now widely thought of as a distinct developmental stage
• Impacted by genetic, prenatal, and early experiences
• Prime time for hard physical work and safe reproduction.

Biosocial Development (part 2)

Strong and active bodies

• Muscles grow, bones strengthen , shape changes.
• All body systems function optimally .
• Serious diseases are rare.

 Other developmental influences

• About half slow and fast aging differences occu by age 26
• Nutritional patterns related to later life health.

Don’t Set the Alarm ?

Every emerging adult sometimes sleeps too little and is tired the next day-that is homeostasis .

But years of poor sleep habits reduce years of life a bad bargain .

Biosocial Development: Risk Taking

• Risk taking in emerging adulthood is gender and age -related, genetic, and hormonal .
• Beneficial risk taking : Going to college , getting married , having a baby
• Destructive risk taking : Accidents , homicides , and suicides.

Cognitive Development ( part 1)

Postformal cognition

• Combines aspects of dual processing (intuition and analysis )
• Is a type of logical , adaptive problem -solving beyond formal operational thought
• Aided by better neurological development and greater social world experience.

 

Countering stereotypes

• Evidenced in emerging adult cognitive flexibility (e.g., rejecting some traditional norms, overcoming emotional reactions, using reality based responses rather than stereotypes)

 

Failing to counter stereotypes

• Evidenced in failure to recognize own stereotypes and false beliefs
• Stereotype threat.

Cognitive growth and higher education

• Traditional perspective: Education improves health and wealth and teaches adults to develop more critical thinking •
• Alternative view: College experience has adopted a corporate model and changed for the worse

Selection and facilitation

• Parental SES strongest predictor of college degree attainment
• Contemporary college student population is more diverse
• Learning from people of different perspectives can advance cognition.

Cognitive Development: Diversity (part 1)

Culture and Cohort

Ideally , college brings together people of many backgrounds who learn from each other.

• United States was first major nation to endorse massification
• Land -grant colleges in every state
• Access increases diversity among students
• Tertiary education funding has decreased in the United States ; increased in many countries

Cognitive Development: Diversity part 2)

Ethnic, economic , religious , and cultural diversity

 

• Discussion among people of different backgrounds , ages , and experiences leads to intellectual challenge and deeper thought.
• Those who are most likely to be postformal thinkers are also those with the most friends from other backgrounds .

Psychosocial Development (part 1)

Identity achievement

• The search for identity still begins at puberty, but it continues much longer.
• Most emerging adults are still seeking to determine who they are.
• Erikson believed that, at each stage , the outcome of earlier crises provides the foundation of each new era.

Psychosocial Development (part 2)

Ethnic identity

• Shaped by social context social role and place in society
• Affected by family , friends , and wider culture
• About one- half of U.S. adults have non European ancestors ; many have mixed heritage .
• Understanding self contributes to development of respect for heritage of others.

Psychosocial Development (part 3)

Vocational identity

• Complex within difficult contemporary job market
• 18 to 25 years : Average worker holds seven jobs
• May be avoidance of foreclosure and premature commitment in job market.

Intimacy needs

• Erikson’s sixth psychosocial stage, intimacy versus isolation, emphasizes that humans are social creatures.
• Social connections are important throughout life .
• Infant synchrony and attachment are precursors to adult intimacy , especially with development of positive working model of social connections .

Emerging adults and their parents

• Parents important to emerging adults Later marriage, high divorce rates
• Family members have linked lives Living at home with parents Boomerang group.

Friendship

• Peak of functional significance during emerging adulthood
• Social media often used

Characteristics

• Loyal , trustworthy , supportive , enjoyable , mutual
• Shared experiences

Romance

• Falling in love influenced by personality , age , gender , cultural differences , and cohort •
• “Hooking up” is becoming more common .
• Internet used to strengthen friendship and seek romance

Cohabitation

• Many emerging adults are postponing, not abandoning , marriage .
• Two-thirds of U.S. (and many other countries) married couples cohabit with partner before marriage.
• Education increases chance of marriage and marital childbearing .
• Culture matters.