1. Adolescence
Chapter 9

2. Objectives Define Adolescence
Describe the physical, cognitive, and ideological changes that characterize adolescence
Describe research related to the sexual attitudes and roles of adolescents
Discuss the social development of the adolescent and the role of peers and family

3. Key Terms Androgynous Identity Crisis Rationalization Asynchrony
Initiation Rites
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Authoritarian Families
Laissez-Faire Families
Sex Identity
Authoritative Families
Menarche
Sex Role
Permissive Families
Social Learning Theory
Conformity
Democratic Families
Puberty
Spermarche

4. Article
Teens brains

5. Adolescence
Adolescence is the transition period between childhood and adulthood. And while we all have an idea what adolescence is, defining it precisely is difficult
Initiation rites: Rites of passage from one age or status to another, that mark admission into adulthood
Birthdays, Bar mitzvahs, graduation, weddings

6. Views of Adolescence
Are years between late childhood and early adulthood the best that life has to offer?
A carefree time to act on ideals unburdened by practical concerns?
Or is adolescence a time of crisis, rebellion, and unhappiness?
It depends on who you ask…

7. How Adults view Adolescence
Every adult has lived through adolescence
However, the teenage years of most adults do not always help them understand the concerns and difficulties of today’s adolescents
Adults vary their attitudes toward teenagers in general and certain adults have conflicting feelings about them

8. How Adults view Adolescence
Many adults admire young people
Their values, music, fashions, and activities (mass media)
Through dress, cosmetics, consumer purchases, and a variety of physical activities, some adults attempt to look and feel as healthy and active as adolescents
Older people who live and work directly with teenagers often value the influence young people have in their lives. Teenagers help them stay connected to a larger world outside their own

9. How Adults View Adolescence
Bonus:
Ask an adult if they would like to change places with you and go back to their adolescence. Why?
Paragraph

10. How Adults view Adolescence
Do adults feel threatened by the youth?
Maybe when adults see their own children develop into mature bodies and their bodies start declining physically
Adults see themselves being outperformed by youth
May regret the loss of their own youth and envy those who are still young

11. How Adults view Adolescence
News and popular press portray teenagers in a negative light
Disruptive
Disturbed
Teenage crime
Different view of adolescents?
Different generations sometimes hold different ideas of morality
Sexual activity, war, environment

12. How Adults view Adolescence
Adolescents may provoke a negative reaction from their parents by possibly displaying traits their parents see as a reflection of themselves that they would prefer not to see
Examples?
Some look at adolescents in a positive light, in horror, burden of stress, tension, conflict.
EXTREME VIEWS

13. Activity Computer paper, One picture
You, staff member, & family member
Adolescents
Concerns/Difficulties
Attitudes
“Who am I?”
What do I want to be as a a person?”
What are the things that are important to me?”

14. How Adolescents View Themselves
Knowing how adults view adolescents, does that shape how adolescents view themselves?
According to psychologists, the answer is yes!
Adolescents tend to regard themselves the way they think others see them
Adults stereotypes serve as a mirror for them

15. How Adolescents View Themselves
For many, adolescence is a period of searching for identity.
Adolescents are continually struggling with such questions:
“Who am I?”
What do I want to be as a a person?”
What are the things that are important to me?”

16. Article
How adults view teens

17. Extension Activity
Adolescents and Alcohol

18. Theories of Adolescence
G. Stanley Hall
Adolescence as a transitional stage from beast to human
Fully grown animal in a cage, sees freedom but doesn’t know quite when freedom will occur or how to handle it
Storm & stress, confused, troubled, frustrated

19. Theories of Adolescence
Margaret Mead
Found that in some cultures adolescence is highly enjoyable time of life

20. Theories of Adolescence
Robert Havighurst
Every adolescent faces challenges, development tasks that must be mastered
Accepting ones’ physical make-up & acquiring a masculine or feminine sex role
Developing appropriate relations with agemates of both sexes
Becoming emotionally independent of parents and other adults
Achieving the assurance that one will become economically independent

21. Theories of Adolescence
Deciding on, preparing for, and entering a vocation
Developing the cognitive skills and concepts necessary for social competence
Understanding and achieving socially responsible behavior
Preparing for marriage and family
Acquiring values that are harmonious with an appropriate scientific world picture
Tasks present a challenge, adolescents generally handle it well. Most face some stress but finds ways to cope with it

22. Personal Development
Becoming an adult involves much more than becoming physically mature
Transition from childhood-adulthood involves:
Changes in patterns of
Reasoning
Moral thinking
Personality
Sexual behavior

23. Personal Development Physical changes
Puberty: Sexual maturation, biological event that marks the end of childhood
Girls:
About age 10.
Rather suddenly begin to grow.
Before growth, fat tissues develop, making girl appear “chubby”. Girls retain fat tissue
Once spurt begins, growth inches a year
During spurt, breasts and hips begin to fill out
Pubic hair
Between (12 or 13) menstrual period, Menarche
12-18 months will pass until she is able to conceive a child
Most societies consider menarche the beginning of motherhood

24. Personal Development Boys: Begins at about age 12
Boys lose fat tissues quickly, making them look lanky or lean.
Pubic hair and genitals grow
Growth occurs months later than girls
Growth lasts 3 years longer
Once growth occurs, it rapid and boys fill out
Broad shoulder and thick trunk
Acquire more muscle tissue, larger heart and lungs than girls
Voice deepens
Hair begins to grow on face and chest

25. Personal Development
Asynchrony: Condition during the period of adolescence in which growth or maturation of bodily parts is uneven
Ex: Hands, feet larger than rest of body
Clumsiness starts to diminish

26. Reactions to Growth
Adolescents desperately want to be accepted by peers
Girls ranked boys attributes they seek
Intelligence
Attractiveness
Ability to hold conversation

27. Reactions to Growth Boys ranks girls attributes they seek
Attractiveness
Friendliness
Intelligence

28. Reactions to Growth
Individual differences grow significantly that affect personality of young adolescents
Research indicates boys have the advantage
Heroes in sports
Leaders in formal and informal activities
Other boys look up to them
Girls have crushes on them
Adults tend to treat them more mature
More self-confident and independent

29. Reactions to Growth With girls pattern is somewhat different
Girls who mature early may feel embarrassed rather than proud of their height or figure
Some date older boys and become “bossy” with people their own age
Late-maturing girls tend to get along better with people their age
Late teens, girls that matured earlier may be more popular

30. Reactions to Growth
Does physical growth have powerful psychological effects?
Self-Fulfilling prophecy: A belief, prediction, or expectation that operates to bring about its own fulfillment
If boy thinks he doesn’t fit his culture’s physical ideal, may view himself differently

31. Changes in Thinking Abstract thinking
What would the world be like if people lived to be 200?
Rationalization: Individual seeks to explain an often unpleasant emotion or behavior in a way that will preserve self-esteem

32. Moral Development Kohlberg
Psychologists agree that a person’s moral development depends on many factors, especially the kind of relationship the individual has with parents
Changes in college

33. Erik Erikson’s Theory of the Identity Crisis
According to Erikson, building an identity is a task that is unique to adolescence.
Children are aware of what other people (adults and peers) think of them
Are there labels are kids?
Good
Bad
Funny
Talented
Brave
Hot
Does not figure in who they really are or where they are going
Children live in the present, adolescents think about the future

34. Erik Erikson’s Theory of the Identity Crisis
Most adolescents must go through what Erikson called an identity crisis
Identity Crisis: A time of storm and stress during which they worry intensely about who they are
Factors
Physiological changes
Cognitive developments
Sexual drives
See future as a reality

35. 4 Adolescent Personality Types
Says Erikson is correct in pointing out the adolescent identity crisis.
Crisis arises because individuals must make commitments on such important matters as occupation, religion, and political orientation
Marcia points out 4 adolescent personality types

36. 4 Adolescent Personality Types
Identity moratorium adolescents: Who have not experiences a crisis or made a commitment on any of the important matters facing them
Identity foreclosure adolescents: Who have not had a crisis but have made a commitment based not on their own choice, but on the suggestion of others

37. 4 Adolescent Personality Types
Identity confused adolescents: Who are in a continual search for meaning, commitment, and self-definition, and thus experience life as a series of ongoing crises
Identity achievement adolescents: Who have experiences crises, considered many possibilities, and freely committed themselves to occupations and other life matter

38. 4 Adolescent Personality Types
Do not interpret rigidly, one can transition from one category to another
Can belong to different categories

39. Criticism of Erikson’s Theory
A.C. Peterson:
Says crisis is not a normal state of affairs for adolescents
Change in external circumstances creates crisis, not a biological clock
Albert Bandura
Social Learning Theory: Continuous process of human development through interaction

40. Sexuality: Attitudes & Roles
Sexual attitudes:
Belief when sexual intercourse is appropriate
Morally different views between young people and adults?
Would you agree?
Sex identity: One’s biological inheritance, includes genetic traits and sex-linked behaviors

41. Sexuality: Attitudes & Roles
Sex role: Defined by genetic makeup, but mainly by society and culture.
Tells us how we are expected to behave, look, think, and feel in order to be considered by others, and to consider ourselves “masculine” or “feminine”
Can change over time
Sex-role stereotypes
Sandra Bem:
Androgynous: Roles that involve a flexible combination of traditionally male and female characteristics

42. Social Development The Family Changes based on divorce & income
Regardless of these changes, one of the principle developmental tasks of adolescents is becoming independent of their families
Mixed feeling on both sides
Some parents have built their lifestyles around the family and are reluctant to let the child go
Parents know they will soon have to find someone else on whom to shift their emotional dependence

43. Social Development Family continued
Parents whose children are old enough to leave home sometimes have to wrestle with their own fears of advancing age
Same time, young people long to get out on their own and try themselves against the world, they worry a lot about failing
Struggled is mirrored by adolescent’s unpredictable behavior, which parents interpret as “adolescent rebellion”.

44. Parenting Styles
The way in which adolescents seek independence and the ease with which they resolve conflicts about becoming adults depends in large part on the parent-child relationship

45. Parenting Styles Diana Baumrind (1971,1973)
Observed and interviews nursery school children and their parents. She observed and questioned both how the children interacted with their parents, and what the parents did
Follow-up observations when the children were 8 or 9 led to several conclusions about the impact of three distinct parenting styles on children

46. Parenting Styles Authoritarian families: Parents are the bosses
Do not feel they have to explain their actions or demands
Parents may feel the child has no right to question parental decisions

47. Parenting Styles Children raised in authoritative families
Resent all authority
Rebel without a cause

48. Parenting Styles Democratic or authoritative families
Adolescents participate in decisions affecting their lives
Great deal of discussion & negotiation
Parents listen to their children’s reasons for wanting to go somewhere, do something, and make an effort to explain their rules & expectations
Adolescents make many decisions for themselves, but parents retain the right to veto plans they disapprove

49. Parenting Styles
Studies suggest children raised in democratic or authoritative families are:
More confident of their own values and goals than other young people
More likely to want to make their own decisions with or without advice
3 reasons
Child able to assume responsibility gradually, not given too much responsibility too soon
Child more likely to identify with parents who love and respect them than parents who treat them bad
Through behavior or child, parents present a model of responsible, cooperative independence for the growing person to imitate

50. Parenting Styles Permissive or Laissez-faire families
Children have the final say
Parents attempt to guide, but give in when children insist on having their way
Parents may give up their child-rearing responsibilities
Setting no rules about behavior
Making no demands
Voicing no expectations
Virtually ignoring young people in their house

51. Parenting Styles Children raised in permissive families
Tend to feel unwanted
Doubt their own self-worth
Often do not trust themselves
Tend to be more aggressive
Low self-esteem
Poor control over impulsive behavior

52. Parenting Styles Maccoby & Martin (1983)
Later identified a fourth parenting style
Uninvolved parents were typically very self- centered in their child rearing
Seemed uncommitted to their role
Distant from their child

53. Parenting Styles
Research says that authoritative parenting yields the best results
Why?
Establishment of limits on the child
Responding to the child with warmth and support
But it would be wrong to conclude that parents are solely responsible for the way their children turn out
Adolescents themselves contribute to the style parents embrace; with consequences for their own personal development

54. Peer Group
Adolescents can trust that their peers will not treat them like children
Teens need and use each other to define themselves
High schools
Well defined groups
Cliques
Crowds
Name them…?

55. Peer Group
Early in adolescence, groups are usually divided by gender, but later they mix
What determines whether an adolescent will be accepted by a peer group?

56. Peer Group
Belonging to a clique (a group within a set) is very important to most adolescents and serves several functions
Need for closeness to others
Means to define oneself
Establish an identity
Help individual achieve self-confidence
Sense of independence
Provide feedback

57. Peer Group One of the greatest fears teenagers have is to be disliked
Leads to conformity
Conformity: Act in accordance with some specified authority