Adolescence

1
Lecture

• Adolescence

2
Rites of Passage

• A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual that
  marks an individuals transition from one status
  to another.
• Most rites of passage focus on the transition to
  adult status.
• In many cultures, rites of passage often involve
  dramatic practices and are the avenue through
  which adolescents gain access to adult practices,
  knowledge, and sexuality.

3
Rites of passage in pre-industrial societies

• Four steps
• Separation.
• Training.
• Initiation.
• Induction.
• Functions
• Sense of adult responsibility.
• Lessen ambiguity.
• Bond.

4
Rites of Passage in North America

• We do not have universal formal ceremonies that
  mark the passage from adolescence to adulthood.
• Certain religious and social groups have
  initiation ceremonies that indicate an advance in
  maturity has been reached.
• School graduation ceremonies come the closest to
  being culture-wide rites of passage in North
  America

5
Height and Weight

• Growth spurt - occurs about 2 years earlier for
  girls.
• Mean beginning of the growth spurt - age 9 for
  girls, age 11 for boys.
• Peak rate of pubertal change - age 11.5 for
  girls, age 13.5 for boys.
• Increase in height - about 3 inches per year for
  girls, about 4 inches for boys.
• The rate at which adolescents gain weight follows
  approximately the same timetable as height.

6
Sexual Maturation in Boys

• Increase in penis and testicle size
• Appearance of straight pubic hair
• Minor voice change
• First ejaculation
• Appearance of kinky pubic hair
• Onset of maximum growth
• Growth of hair in armpits
• More detectable voice change
• Growth of facial hair

7
Sexual Maturation in Girls

• Breasts enlarge
• Pubic hair appears
• Hair appears in the armpits
• Growth in height
• Hips become wider than shoulders
• First menstruation comes rather late in puberty
• Menstrual cycles are often highly irregular
• Some girls arent fertile until 2 years later
• Breasts are fully rounded by the end of puberty

8
Definition of Puberty

• Puberty is a period of rapid physical maturation
  involving hormonal and bodily changes that occur
  primarily during early adolescence.
• Pinpointing its beginning and its end is
  difficult.
• The average adolescent is a statistical
  abstraction, a tool designed to simplify very
  complex issues.

9
Early and Late Maturation in Boys

• Recent research confirms that during adolescence,
  it is advantageous to be an early-maturing rather
  than late-maturing boy.
• Early maturing boys appear to perceive themselves
  more positively and have more successful peer
  relations than their late-maturing counterparts.

10
Early and Late Maturation in Girls

• Findings are less consistent for girls.
• Early maturation is a disadvantage in the very
  early grades (fifth or sixth) it puts the
  adolescent out of step with peers.
• Early-maturing girls may well be four or more
  years in advance of like-aged boys.
• Initial disadvantages of early maturation for
  girls may disappear later.

11
Adolescent Sexuality

• Adolescence is a time of sexual exploration and
  experimentation.
• Sexual development and interest are normal
  aspects of adolescent development.
• The role of social experience Harry Harlow.

12
Sexuality as a Scripted Activity

• Scripts describe a sequence -gt coping with the
  unknown.
• Peer group experiences, observations of adults,
  cultural knowledge -gt a rough idea of the scripts
  boys and girls are supposed to follow and the
  roles they are supposed to play.
• Studies also show that first dates are highly
  scripted along gender lines.
• Males were found to follow a proactive dating
  script, while females followed a reactive one.
• Another study showed males and females bring
  different motivations to the dating experience.
• Girls were more likely to describe romance in
  terms of interpersonal qualities, while boys
  described it in terms of physical attraction.

13
The Progression of Adolescent Sexual Behaviors

• Adolescents engage in a consistent progression of
  sexual behaviors
• Necking
• Petting
• Intercourse/Oral sex
• Eight in 10 girls are virgins at age 15.
• Seven in 10 boys are virgins at age 15.
• The probability that adolescents will have sexual
  intercourse increases steadily with age.

14
Sexual expectations

• Gagnon and Simon Dating and courtship may well
  be considered processes in which persons train
  members of the opposite sex in the meaning and
  content of their respective commitments
• Most teenagers today believe that it is
  acceptable to have intercourse before marriage as
  long as it takes place within the context of a
  loving, intimate relationship.

15
Changing sexual habits

• More teenagers are sexually active at an earlier
  age.
• Early sexual activity does not carry the
  psychological risks that many adults associate
  with it.
• Adolescents are poor users of contraception.
• Teenage pregnancies.
• Sex education programs.
• Boys and girls differ in the ways they approach
  and respond to sexual intercourse (survey
  results).

16
Cognitive Development

• Daniel Keating on adolescent thought processes
• Thinking about possibilities.
• Thinking ahead.
• Thinking through hypotheses.
• Thinking about thought.
• Thinking beyond conventional limits.

17
Piagets Theory

• Adolescent thought is at the formal operational
  stage.
• Concrete Operations relate directly to tangible
  objects and thoughts about objects
• Formal Operations relate to abstract
  propositions or possible future states of
  affairs. All possible combinations are considered
  systematically.
• Thought is abstract and logical and
  characterized by logic and hypothetical-deductive
  reasoning. Adolescents have the cognitive ability
  to develop hypotheses about ways to solve
  problems. They systematically deduce, or
  conclude, which is the best path to follow in
  solving a problem.

18
Reasoning by manipulating variables

• Inhelder and Piaget's studies of formal
  operational thinking Combination-of-chemicals
  problem.
• Four large bottles, one indicator bottle, and two
  beakers are arrayed on a table in front of the
  child.
• Each bottle contains a clear liquid.
• The liquids are chosen so that when liquid from
  bottles 1 and 3 are combined in a beaker and then
  a drop of the chemical from the indicator bottle
  (g) is added, the mixture turns yellow.
• The task of the subject is to reproduce the
  coloring by using the four liquids and the
  indicator solution (g). The complete solution
  consists of the finding that 1 and 3 together
  with g produce the yellow coloring, that 2 has no
  effect and that 4 removes the coloration.
• The child is invited to try out various
  combinations in an attempt to determine which
  combination of chemicals will transform the color
  of the liquid.

19
Reasoning by logical necessity

• Syllogism
• General premise All trains to Toronto stop in
  Barrie.
• Specific premise The train on track 2 goes to
  Toronto.
• Conclusion Therefore, the train on track 2 stops
  in Barrie.

20
Other tasks

• Isolation of variables The pendulum task.
• Correlational reasoning Cards with pictures of
  mice. The animals have the same shape and same
  expression. The color of fur and eye varies
  dichotomously dark versus light.
• Are formal operations universal?
• Results suggest that children on the threshold of
  adolescence are capable of the systematic,
  logical manipulation of variables that is the
  characteristic of formal operations (Piaget) if
  they are given proper instruction and if the
  benefits of the systematic manipulation are made
  clear.

21
Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development

• Lawrence Kohlberg stressed that moral development
  is based primarily on moral reasoning and unfolds
  in stages.
• Cognitive-developmental theory longitudinal
  research studied children (American boys) from
  age 10/13/16 over 20 years.
• Kohlberg used a unique interview in which
  participants are presented with a series of
  stories in which characters face moral dilemmas.

22
Heinz Dilemma

• In Europe, a woman was near death from 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 ten times
  what the drug cost him to make. He paid 400 for
  the radium and charged 4,000 for a small dose of
  the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went
  to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried
  every legal means, but he could only get together
  about 2,000, which is half of what it cost. He
  told the druggist that his wife was dying, and
  asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay
  later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered
  the drug and I'm going to make money from it."
  So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets
  desperate and considers breaking into the man's
  store to steal the drug for his wife.
• Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?

23
Judy Dilemma

• Judy was a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother
  promised her that she could go to a special rock
  concert coming to their town if she saved up from
  baby-sitting and lunch money to buy a ticket to
  the concert. She managed to save up the fifteen
  dollars the ticket cost plus another five
  dollars. But then her mother changed her mind and
  told Judy that she had to spend the money on new
  clothes for school. Judy was disappointed and
  decided to go to the concert anyway. She bought a
  ticket and told her mother that she had only been
  able to save five dollars. That Saturday she went
  to the performance and told her mother that she
  was spending the day with a friend. A week passed
  without her mother finding out. Judy then told
  her older sister, Louise, that she had gone to
  the performance and had lied to her mother about
  it. Louise wonders whether to tell their mother
  what Judy did.
• Should Louise, the older sister, tell their
  mother that Judy lied about the money or should
  she keep quiet? Why or why not?

24
Kohlberg A Piagetian

• Kohlberg was actually less interested in the
  subject's decision (that is, what Heinz should
  have done) than in the underlying rationale, or
  "thought structures," that the subject used to
  justify his decision.
• Moral growth progresses through an invariant
  sequence.
• Kohlberg argued that each stage derives form the
  previous stage, incorporates and transforms that
  stage, and prepares for the next change.
• Kohlberg believed that moral stages are
  universal.

25
Kohlbergs Levels of Moral Development

• Level 1 Preconventional Level
• Stage 1 Heteronomous Morality
• Stage 2 Individualism, Purpose, and Exchange
• Level 2 Conventional Level
• Stage 3 Mutual Interpersonal Expectations,
  Relationships, and Interpersonal Conformity
• Stage 4 Social System Morality
• Level 3 Postconventional Level
• Stage 5 Social Contract or Utility and
  Individual Rights
• Stage 6 Universal Ethical Principles

26
Results

• Moral reasoning developed very gradually, with
  use of preconventional reasoning (Stages 1 and 2)
  declining sharply in adolescence--the same period
  in which conventional reasoning (Stages 3 and 4)
  is on the rise.
• Conventional reasoning remained the dominant form
  of moral expression in young adulthood with very
  few subjects ever moving beyond it to
  postconventional morality (Stage 5).
• Stage 3 or 4 is the end of the developmental
  journey for most individuals worldwide.

27
Moral Thought and Moral Behavior

• Kohlbergs theory has been criticized for placing
  too much emphasis on moral thought and not enough
  emphasis on moral behavior.
• Moral reasons can sometimes be a shelter for
  immoral behavior.
• Cheaters and thieves may know what is right yet
  still do what is wrong.

28
Culture and Moral Development

• Kohlbergs theory has been criticized for being
  culturally biased.
• Moral reasoning is more culture-specific than
  Kohlberg envisioned.
• Many psychological studies of adolescence have
  emerged in the context of Western industrialized
  society, with the practical needs and social
  norms of this culture dominating thinking about
  all adolescents.

29
Gender and the Care Perspective

• Kohlbergs theory is a justice perspective that
  focuses on the rights of the individual
  individuals stand alone and independently make
  moral decisions.
• The care perspective is a moral perspective that
  views people in terms of their connectedness with
  others and emphasizes interpersonal
  communication, relationships with others, and
  concern for others.

30
Gender and the Care Perspective (cont)

• Carol Gilligan believed Kohlberg greatly
  under-played the care perspective in moral
  development, due to being male, using males for
  his research, and basing his theory on male
  responses.
• Gilligans research found that girls interpret
  moral dilemmas in terms of human relationships.
• Other research has found that the gender
  differences in moral reasoning are not existent.

31
Identity

• Erikson termed the period of adolescence a
  psychological moratorium, a gap between the
  security of childhood and autonomy of adulthood.
• His fifth stage of development is characterized
  by the dilemma of identity versus identity
  confusion.
• Adolescents experiment with the numerous roles
  and identities they draw from the surrounding
  culture.
• Either they successfully cope with conflicting
  identities or they dont resolve their identity
  crisis.

32
Erikson

• Adolescents must rework four earlier
  developmental crises.
• 1. Establishing trust.
• 2. Establishing autonomy.
• 3. Taking initiative.
• 4. Industry takes on a new meaning toward the end
  of adolescence.
• In order to forge a secure sense of self,
  adolescents must resolve their identities in both
  the individual and the social spheres.
  Adolescents engage in an identity-forming process
  that depends on
• How they judge others.
• How others judge them.
• How they judge the judgment processes of others.
• Keep in mind social categories ("typologies")
  available in the culture.

33
Identity Statuses and Development

• James Marcia concluded that four identity
  statuses, or modes of resolution, appear in
  Eriksons theory.
• The extent of an adolescents commitment and
  crisis is used to classify him or her according
  to one of the four statuses.

34
Crisis and Commitment

• Crisis - a period of identity development during
  which the adolescent is choosing among meaningful
  alternatives
• Commitment - the part of identity development in
  which adolescents show a personal investment in
  what they are going to do

35
Marcias Identity Statuses

• Identity Achievement
• Identity Foreclosure
• Identity Moratorium
• Identity Diffusion
• Status Crisis Commitment
• 1. Identity achievement Yes Yes
• 2. Foreclosure No Yes
• 3. Moratorium Yes No
• 4. Identity diffusion No No

36
The Elements of Identity

• Vocational/Career Identity
• Political Identity
• Religious Identity
• Relationship Identity
• Achievement/Intellectual Identity
• Sexual Identity
• Cultural/Ethnic Identity
• Interests
• Personality
• Physical Identity

37
The Development of Identity

• Young adolescents are primarily in identity
  diffusion, foreclosure, or moratorium status.
• Some researchers believe the most important
  identity changes take place during college.
• Identity formation neither begins nor ends with
  adolescence.
• Resolution of the identity issue at adolescence
  doesnt mean that identity will remain stable
  throughout life.

38
Ethnic Identity

• Ethnic identity is an enduring, basic aspect of
  the self that includes a sense of membership in
  an ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings
  related to that membership.
• Most ethnic minority individuals consciously
  confront their ethnicity for the first time in
  adolescence.
• Ethnic identity increases with age.

39
Gender and Identity Development

• Erikson asserted that males aspirations were
  mainly oriented toward career and ideological
  commitments.
• He asserted that females aspirations were
  centered around marriage and child bearing.
• Researchers in the 1960s and 1970s found
  support for these gender differences.
• In the past 20 years, females have developed
  stronger vocational interests and thus the
  differences are turning into similarities.

40
Stage Reversal and Gender Differences

• Some researchers believe that the order of stages
  Erikson proposed is different for females and
  males.
• Some have proposed that for males, identity
  formation precedes the stage of intimacy, while
  for females, intimacy precedes identity.
• This is consistent with the belief that
  relationships and emotional bonds are more
  important concerns of females, while autonomy and
  achievement are more important concerns of males.

41
Homosexual identity

• Development of a homosexual identity (Troiden,
  1988)
• Stage I Sensitization feeling different. Middle
  childhood Feeling different from other children
  assumption at the time that one is heterosexual.
• Stage 2 Self-recognition identity confusion.
  Puberty Attracted to members of the same sex
  inner turmoil and identity confusion one can no
  longer take heterosexual identity as given, and
  one knows that homosexuals are stigmatized.
• Stage 3 Identity assumption. Although homosexual
  identity is assumed during the early stages of
  this process, it often is not fully accepted.
• Stage 4 Commitment identity integration One
  adopts homosexuality as a way of life. Fusion of
  one's sexuality and emotional commitments public
  disclosure of one's homosexual identity.

42
Harry Stack Sullivans Perspective on Friendship

• Sullivan believed that all people have a number
  of basic social needs that must be fulfilled for
  our emotional well-being.
• Developmentally, friends become increasingly
  depended on to satisfy these needs during
  adolescence.
• The need for intimacy intensifies during early
  adolescence, motivating teenagers to seek out
  close friends.
• If teens fail to forge such close friendships,
  they experience painful feelings of loneliness,
  and reduced sense of self-worth.

43
Findings on Friendship

• Adolescents report disclosing intimate and
  personal information to their friends more often
  than younger children.
• Adolescents say they depend more on friends than
  on parents to satisfy their needs for intimacy,
  companionship, and reassurance of worth.
• The quality of friendship is more strongly linked
  to feelings of well-being during adolescence than
  during childhood.

44
Depression

• Depression is more likely to occur in adolescence
  than in childhood.
• Adolescent girls have higher rates of depression
• Females self-images are more negative than
  males.
• Females face more discrimination than males.
• Family factors can create a risk for depression.
• Poor peer relations are associated with
  depression.
• Experiencing difficult changes can result in
  depressive symptoms.

45
Suicide

• Suicide is now the third leading cause of death
  in 15-24 year olds.
• Males are about three times as likely to commit
  suicide.
• Females attempt suicide more frequently.
• The gender difference is thought to be due to the
  fact that boys tend to use more active methods,
  while girls resort to passive methods.
• Homosexual adolescents are especially vulnerable
  to suicide, as they are six to seven times more
  likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual
  counterparts.