1. Cognitive Transitions
Chapter 2

2. Changes in Cognition (Thinking)
Main advantages over child’s thought
Thinking of possibilities
Thinking about abstracts
Thinking about the process of thinking
Thinking in multidimensional terms
Seeing knowledge as relative

3. Thinking about Possibilities
Children’s thinking based on concrete/observable events; Adolescents can now think of what “might be”
Example: Ways in which their lives might be affected by different career choices
Can now move easily between the specific and the abstract to generate alternative possibilities
Development of deductive reasoning”
“If-then” thinking (hypothetical thinking)
Major intellectual accomplishment
Many parents believe that their children become more argumentative during adolescence. What probably happens in that their children become better arguers. An adolescent does not accept other people’s points of view unquestioningly but instead evaluates them against other theoretically possible beliefs.
Inductive reasoning is used by people of all ages, even very young children . Deductive reasoning is seldom seen before adolescence.
Inductive reasoning (page 65) – an inference is made based on the accumulated evidence that one has.

4. Thinking about Abstract Concepts
Ability to comprehend higher-order abstract logic inherent in puns, proverbs, metaphors, and analogies
The growth of social thinking (social cognition) during adolescence is directly related to the young person’s improving ability to think abstractly
Underlies interest in topics like interpersonal relationships, politics, philosophy, religion, morality
This is clearly seen in the adolescent’s increased facility and interest in thinking about interpersonal relationships, politics, philosophy, religion, and morality—topics that involve such abstract concepts as friendship, faith, democracy, fairness, and honesty.

5. Metacognition: Thinking about Thinking
Monitoring one’s own cognitive activity during the process of thinking
Increased introspection
thinking about our own emotions
Increased self-consciousness
Thinking about others thinking of us
Increased intellectualization
Thinking about our own thoughts

6. Metacognition may result in problems
Adolescent egocentrism
Extreme self-absorptions
Imaginary audience
Behavior is the focus of other’s concern
Personal fable
Experiences are unique
“That won’t happen to me…”
The imaginary audience involves having such a heightened sense of self-consciousness that the teenager imagines that his or her behavior is the focus of everyone else’s concern and attention.
The personal fable revolves around the adolescent’s egocentric (and erroneous) belief that his or her experiences are unique.
Page 67

7. Thinking in Multiple Dimensions
Can now see things in complicated ways rather than one aspect at a time
More sophisticated understanding of probability
Ability to understand when someone is being sarcastic
Can understand double-entendres
Adolescents describe themselves and others in more differentiated and complicated terms (“I’m both shy and extroverted”) and find it easier to look at problems from multiple perspectives (“I know that’s the way you see it, but try to look at it from her point of view”).
Ability to understand when someone is being sarcastic. (Demorest et al, 1984) page 69
Before age 9 children had difficulty picking out sarcastic remarks
Ages 9 to 13 children got better at understanding sarcasm.
The ability to understand increased through adolescence.
Can understand double-entendres
Such as “He said ‘erector set’” (page 69)

8. Adolescent Relativism
Ability to see things as relative rather than as absolute (children see things in absolute terms: either black or white)
Skepticism becomes common (begin to question EVERYTHING!)
Everything may seem uncertain
No knowledge seems completely reliable
Food For Thought: The main cognitive changes of adolescence are usually seen as intellectual improvements, but are they always advantageous? Can you think of any circumstances under which one or more of the five changes discussed in the previous section would be disadvantageous?

9. Piagetian View of Adolescent Thinking
SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
BIRTH TO TWO YEARS
PREOPERATIONAL
2 TO 6 YEARS
CONCRETE OPERATONAL
6 TO 11 YEARS
FORMAL OPERATIONS
11 + YEARS
Page 70 of the textbook
Table 2.1 covers the chief characteristics of each stage.
Cognitive-developmental view
Cognitive development goes through a fixed sequence of four qualitatively distinct stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational periods

10. The Development of Value Autonomy
KOHLBERG’S THREE LEVELS OF MORAL REASONING
Preconventional Moral Reasoning
(worrying about punishment/reward)
Conventional Moral Reasoning
(following societal rules and norms)
Postconventional Moral Reasoning
(most abstract and advanced)

11. The Development of Value Autonomy
Moral Development during Adolescence
Research has shown that moral behavior does not always match moral reasoning
Contextual factors influence how a person acts when facing moral dilemmas in the real world
Carol Gilligan
Argues against Kohlberg, says his theory is gender-biased
Women may use a care orientation to moral dilemmas
Men may use a justice orientation
However, research does not support Gilligan’s argument

12. The Heinz Dilemma
Was it right or wrong for Heinz to steal the drug for his wife?
Would your answer be considered preconventional, conventional, postconventional?

13. Work and Leisure

14. WORK AND LEISURE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
American adolescents spend more time on leisure, less time in productive activities, than peers in other countries
Example
Average American high school student spends < 5 hours per week on homework
In Asian countries a student spends 4 to 5 hours per day on homework
Having large amounts of free time is one hallmark of adolescence in modern society, although how adolescents use their free time varies considerably around the world.

15. Adolescents and Work: Working and Adolescent Development
The Development of Responsibility
Most people believe that working helps teens build character, teaches them about the real world, and prepares them for adulthood
But recent studies show that benefits of working during adolescence have been overstated
What do you think?
Few teenagers exercise a great deal of responsibility when it comes to managing their earnings. The majority of working teenagers spend most of their earnings on their own needs and activities. Most teenagers are not making genuine contributions to their family’s incomes as they were during the Great Depression. Page 239
Intensive employment during the school year may lead to more cynical attitudes toward work and the endorsement of unethical business practices. Pages

16. Adolescents and Work: Working and Adolescent Development
Work and Its Impact on Other Activities
Working more than 20 hours/week may jeopardize school performance
Absent from school more often
Less likely to be in extracurricular activities
Report enjoying school less
Spent less time on homework
Earned lower grades

17. Adolescents and Work: Working and Adolescent Development
Work and Problem Behavior
Time-honored belief: Working will deter teens from criminal activity by keeping them out of trouble
Research findings: Working long hours may actually be associated with increases in aggression, school misconduct, precocious sexual activity, minor delinquency.

18. Adolescents and Work: Working and Adolescent Development
Work and Problem Behavior
Differential Impact: Middle-Class vs. Poor Youth
Poor youth – working may not lead to problem behavior – WHY?
Pages