1. Childhood and Adolescence
Psychology

2. Curiosity We are born with a survival instinct for competence
Master our environment
Makes young children constantly curious, constantly experimenting
Delicate instinct, can be nurtured or suppressed depending on adult response
Adult disapproval gives the child a sense of failure and they remain dependent on parents
Adult approval and repeated success produces more curiosity and independence

3. Personality Children tend to see the world in black and white terms
The sensitivity and responsiveness of a baby’s nervous system are major factors in shaping personality.
3 basic categories of nervous temperament:
Difficult: very active and intense
Quiet, or slow to warm up: Tends to be withdrawn
Easy: Most common, generally in a good mood
A lot of overlap among these 3 types
Nervous temperaments displayed in the first few months of life are likely to persist through the growing years, but can change by adolescence and adulthood.
Children tend to see the world in black and white terms

4. Play Important for physical development:
Child tries out various kinds of movement to develop motor skills
Important for mental development:
Test their creativity
Learn to solve problems
Explore the physical world
Gain competence
Helps create a child’s social persona
Teaches about the ways people deal with one another (rules, rewards, and punishments)

5. Friends
Early years: children have no choice, play with children of their parents friends or family
School: children begin picking out their own friends
A testing ground for how to express anger and aggression
Balancing assertiveness with compromise

6. Discipline and Punishment
Daily training that parents provide by action, word, and example to shape their child’s behavior
Steer away from dangerous or unacceptable behavior toward self-control
Best to reward acceptable behavior and withhold reward if behavior is unacceptable
Fairness and consistency

7. What is adolescence?
A period between childhood and adulthood where there is rapid physical and mental development
Begins with puberty (sexual maturation)
Most physical development is complete by age 18, but mental development is not complete until age 24 or so.

8. Puberty
Adolescents can experience long-term psychological effects from maturing earlier or later than their peers
This hits boys harder
Boys who mature at an early age, become taller and stronger their peers, have an advantage
Classmates admire them
Think of them as more attractive
Usually given leadership roles
Tend to excel at sports
Treated more as adults
This builds self-confidence that follows them into adulthood
Tend to do better in their careers and are more successful

9. Rules and Authority
Adolescents are capable of more sophisticated ways of thinking
Less rigid about their ideas
Can juggle multiple abstract concepts at a time
Can relate abstract concepts, relate to them, and to the world
Example: the idea of conformity and individualism, how one is a conformist and an individualist
Risk Taking
Adolescents believe in their own ‘personal fable’: bad things will happen to other people, but not to me.
Lack of experience, wishful thinking, and a need to prove themselves

10. Peer Pressure
Conforming to the customs of a group can make a teen feel like they fit in
Sense of belonging is an important need
Some teens are more susceptible than others
Teenage identity crises
Who am I?
What do I want out of life?
Occurs when they are not sure who they want to be or how they want to be perceived.