power pointpsyc380chapter12010

Copyright © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill

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PowerPoint slides prepared by Leonard R. Mendola, PhD

Touro College


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Chapter 1: Introduction Outline

The Historical Perspective• Early History• The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries• Stereotyping of Adolescents• A Positive View of Adolescence

Today’s Adolescents in the United States & Around the World• Adolescents in the United States• The Global Perspective

The Nature of Development• Processes and Periods• Developmental Transitions• Developmental Issues

The Science of Adolescent Development• Science and the Scientific Method• Theories of Adolescent Development• Research in Adolescent Development


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Chapter 1 Introduction

Adolescence, 13th Edition, is a window into the nature of adolescent development—

your own and that of every other adolescent.

In this first chapter, you will read about the history of the field, the characteristics of today’s adolescents, both in the United States and the rest of the world, and the

way in which adolescents develop.


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Historical Perspective

• Early HistoryIn early Greece, the philosophers commented about the nature of youth.

Plato (4th Century BCE)

Aristotle (4th Century BCE)

In the Middle Ages, children and adolescents were viewed as miniature adults and were subject to harsh discipline.

In the 18th Century, the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau offered a more enlightened view of adolescence.


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The 20th & 21st Centuries

• G. Stanley Hall’s Storm-and-Stress View• Margaret Mead’s Sociocultural View• The Inventionist View• Further Changes in the 20th and 21st Centuries

– The women’s movement– The dual family and career objectives – Increased use of media and technology by adolescents

• Web, iPods, Cellphones, text messaging, YouTube & MySpace

– Increased diversity

(Continued from previous slide)


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Stereotyping of AdolescentsA Stereotype is . . .

A generalization that reflects our impressions and beliefs about a broad category of people.

All stereotypes carry an image of what the typical member of a particular group is like.



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• Some Stereotypes of Adolescents:

• “They say they want a job, but when they get one, they don’t want to

work.”• “They are all lazy.”• “All they think about is sex.”• “They are all into drugs.”• “The problem with adolescents today is

that they all have it too easy.”• “They are so self-centered.”



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Stereotyping of AdolescentsJoseph Adelson (1979)

• Coined the term adolescent generalization gap.• Refers to generalizations that are based on

information about a limited, often highly visible group of adolescents.



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A Positive View of Adolescence• The negative stereotyping of adolescents is overdrawn.

(Balsano & others, 2009; Lerner, Roeser, & Phelps, 2009).

Old Centuries and New Centuries• Psychologists are now calling for a focus on the positive side of

human experience and greater emphasis on hope, optimism, positive individual traits, creativity, and positive group and civic values, such as responsibility, nurturance, civility, and tolerance. (Gestsdottir & Lerner, 2008).

Generational Perceptions and Misperceptions• Adults’ perceptions of adolescents emerge from a combination

of personal experience and media portrayals, neither of which produces an objective picture of how typical adolescents develop. (Feldman & Elliott, 1990).



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Today’s Adolescents in the United Statesand Around the World

“Growing up has never been easy.”

• The developmental tasks today’s adolescents face are no different from those of adolescents 50 years ago.

• For a large majority of youth, adolescence is not a time of rebellion, crisis, pathology, and deviance. Rather it is a time of evaluation, decision making, commitment, and finding a place in the world.

• Socioeconomic, ethnic, cultural, gender, age, and lifestyle differences influence the developmental trajectory of every adolescent (Conger & Conger, 2008).


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Social Contexts

• Contexts are the settings in which development occurs.

• Contexts are influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors.

• Each adolescent’s development occurs against a cultural backdrop of contexts that includes family, peers, school, church, neighborhood, community, region, and nation, each with its cultural legacies (Parke & others, 2008; Taylor & Whittaker, 2009).


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Today’s Adolescents

Projected Percentage Increase in Adolescents Aged 10–19, 2025– 2100.

Fig. 1.1


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Today’s Adolescents

Actual and Projected Number of U.S. Adolescents Aged 10–19, 2000–2100

Fig. 1.2


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Social Policy and Adolescents’ Development

Social policy A national government’s course of

action designed to influence the welfare of its citizens.

Currently, many researchers are attempting to design studies whose results will lead to wise and effective social policy decision making (Eccles, Brown, & Templeton, 2008)


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The Global Perspective

Youth Around the World

• Two-thirds of Asian Indian adolescents accept their parents’ choice of a marital partner for them.

(Verma & Saraswathi, 2002).

• In the Philippines, many female adolescents sacrifice their own futures by migrating to the city to earn money that they can send home to their families.

• Street youth in Kenya and other parts of the world learn to survive under highly stressful circumstances. In some cases abandoned by their parents, they may engage in delinquency or prostitution to provide for their economic needs.

• In the Middle East, many adolescents are not allowed to interact with the other sex, even in school (Booth, 2002).


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Youth Around the World

Rapid global change is altering the experience of adolescence, presenting new opportunities and challenges to young people’s health and well-being.

Around the world, adolescents’ experiences may differ depending on their gender, families, schools, and peers (Brown & Larson, 2002; Larson & Wilson, 2004).



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Brad Brown and Reed Larson (2002) summarized some of these changes and traditions in the world’s youth:

• Health and well-being• Gender• Family• School• Peers

Adolescents’ lives are characterized by a combination of change and tradition.



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The Nature of Development

Development: The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span.


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Development Processes

Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes

Biologicalprocesses

Physical changes within an

individual’s body.


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Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes Cognitive

processes

Changes inthinking andintelligence.



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Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes Socioemotional

processes

Changes inrelationships, emotions,

personality, and social contexts.



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Processes and Periods

Developmental Changes Are a Result of Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes

Fig. 1.3


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Periods of Development

Childhood

• Prenatal Period• Infancy• Early Childhood• Middle and Late Childhood


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Adolescence

• Early Adolescence

• Late Adolescence



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Adulthood

• Early Adulthood

• Middle Adulthood

• Late Adulthood



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Processes and Periods of Development

Fig. 1.4


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Developmental Transitions

Childhood to Adolescence

• Growth spurt, hormonal changes, sexual maturation.• Increases in abstract, idealistic, and logical thinking.• Quest for independence.• Conflict with parents.• Increased desire to spend more time with peers.

• Conversations with friends become more intimate.


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Developmental Transitions

Adolescence to Adulthood

• Approximately 18 to 25 years of age.

• Economic and personal temporariness.

• Experimentation and exploration.



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Emerging Adulthood

Key Features

• Identity exploration, especially in love and work.

• Instability.

• Feeling in-between.

• Self-focused.

• The age of possibilities, a time when individuals have an opportunity to transform their lives.


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Health and Well-Being

Fig. 1.5

Adolescents’ Self-Reported Well-Being from 18 Years of Age Through 26 Years of Age


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Health and Well-Being

Fig. 1.6


Adolescents’ Self-Reported Risk-Taking Decreases from 18 Years of Age Through 26 Years of Age


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Becoming an Adult

Possible markers of adulthood:

• Economic independence. • Self-responsibility.

• Independent decision making. • Accepting responsibility for the consequences of

one’s actions. • Deciding on one’s own beliefs and values. • Establishing a relationship equal with parents.


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Becoming an Adult

Three Types of Assets That Are Especially Important in Making a Competent Transition Through Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Fig. 1.7


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Becoming an Adult

Resilience

Refers to adapting positively and achieving successful outcomes in the face of significant risks and adverse circumstances.



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Developmental Issues

• Nature vs. Nurture

• Continuity vs. Discontinuity

• Early vs. Later Experience

Fig. 1.8


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Evaluating the Developmental Issues

• It’s unwise to take an extreme position on developmental issues.

• Nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity, and early and later experience all affect our development throughout the human life span.

• The above consensus has not meant the absence of spirited debate.


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The Science of Adolescent Development

“Science refines everyday thinking.”

— Albert Einstein

German-Born American Physicist,

20th Century

“Science refines everyday thinking.”

— Albert Einstein

German-Born American Physicist,

20th Century


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Science and the Scientific Method

• Conceptualize a process or problem.

• Collect research information (data).

• Analyze data.

• Draw conclusions.


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Science and the Scientific Method

Theory An interrelated, coherent set of ideas

that helps to explain phenomena and make predictions.

Hypothesis

Specific assertions and predictions that can be tested.



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Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud (1856–1939)

Fig. 1.9


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Freud

Superego Id Ego

Personality Structure



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Freud

Defense Mechanisms• Unconscious methods the ego uses to distort

reality and protect itself from anxiety.

• Examples: Repression and regression.

• However, Peter Blos (1989), a British psychoanalyst, and Anna Freud (1966), Sigmund Freud’s daughter, believed that defense mechanisms provide considerable insight into adolescent development.



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Revisions of Freud’s Theories

• Contemporary psychoanalytic theorists believe that he overemphasized sexual instincts.

• They place more emphasis on cultural experiences as determinants of an individual’s development.

• Unconscious thought remains a central theme, but most contemporary psychoanalysts argue that conscious thought plays a greater role than Freud envisioned.



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Evaluating Psychoanalytic Theory

• Contributions of psychoanalytic theories include an emphasis on a developmental framework, family relationships, and unconscious aspects of the mind.

• Criticisms include a lack of scientific support, too much emphasis on sexual underpinnings, and an image of people that is too negative.



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Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

• According to Freud, our basic personality is shaped in the first five years of life

• According to Erikson, developmental change occurs throughout the life span.


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Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Fig. 1.10



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Psychosocial Theory

Fig. 1.10



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Cognitive Developmental Theory

• Psychoanalytic theories stress the importance of the unconscious.

• Cognitive theories emphasize conscious thoughts.

• Three important cognitive theories are Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory, and information-processing theory.


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Cognitive Developmental Theory

Piaget

Fig. 1.11



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Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

Vygotsky (1896–1934)

• Cognitive skills can be understood only when they are developmentally analyzed and interpreted.

• Cognitive skills are mediated by words, language, and forms of discourse.

• Cognitive skills have their origins in social relations.


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Information-Processing Theory

• Emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it.

• Robert Siegler (2006, 2009), a leading expert, states that thinking is information processing. When adolescents perceive, encode, represent, store, and retrieve information, they are thinking.


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Evaluating Cognitive Theories

• Contributions of cognitive theories include a positive view of development and an emphasis on the active construction of understanding.

• Criticisms include skepticism about the pureness of Piaget’s stages and too little attention to individual variations.


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Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theory

Behaviorism• Essentially holds that we can study

scientifically only what we directly observe and measure.

• Out of the behavioral tradition grew the belief that development is observable behavior that can be learned through experience with the environment (Klein, 2009).


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Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theory

Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

• The scientific study of observable behavior responses and their environmental determinants.

• Behavior is learned and often changes according to environmental experience.


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Social Cognitive Theory

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

Fig. 1.12


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Evaluating Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

• Emphasis on scientific research and environmental determinants of behavior.

• Criticisms include too little emphasis on cognition in Skinner’s views and giving inadequate attention to developmental changes.


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Ecological Theory

Bronfenbrenner (1917 – 2005)

• Microsystem• Mesosystem• Exosystem• Macrosystem• Chronosystem• Bronfenbrenner (2004; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006)

has added biological influences to his theory and describes the newer version as a bioecological theory


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Ecological Theory

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory of Development

Fig. 1.13


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Evaluating Ecological Theory

• Contributions of the theory include: • A systematic examination of macro and micro

dimensions of environmental systems.

• Attention to connections between environmental systems.

• Criticisms include: • Giving inadequate attention to biological factors. • Too little emphasis on cognitive factors.



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Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

• Not following any one theoretical approach, but rather selecting from each theory whatever is considered the best in it.


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Research in Adolescent Development

Methods for Collecting Data

• Observation• Surveys and Interviews• Standardized Tests• Experience Sampling Method (ESM)• Physiological Measures• Case Study


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Self-Reported Extremes of Emotion by Adolescents, Mothers, and Fathers

Using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM)

Fig. 1.14


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The Flexibility and Resilience of the Developing Brain

Plasticity in the Brain’s Hemispheres

Fig. 1.15


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Research Design

• There are three main types of research design:

– Descriptive– Correlational – Experimental


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Research Design

• Descriptive research– Aims to observe and record behavior.

• For example, a researcher might observe the extent to which adolescents are altruistic or aggressive toward each other.

– Descriptive research cannot prove what causes some phenomenon

– Descriptive research can reveal important information about people’s behavior.


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Correlational Research

• Goes beyond describing phenomena.

• Helps us predict how people will behave.

• Describes the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.

• Correlation Coefficient• +1.00 to -1.00• Negative vs. Positive• Size of the number

• Correlation does not imply causation.


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Correlational Research

Possible Interpretations of Correlational Data

Fig. 1.16



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Experimental Research

• To study causality, researchers turn to experimental research.

• The cause is the factor that was manipulated.

• The effect is the behavior that changed because of the manipulation.

• All experiments involve at least one independent variable and one dependent variable.

• The independent variable is the factor that is

manipulated. • The dependent variable is the factor that is measured.


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Random Assignment/Experimental Design

Fig. 1.17


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Time Span of Research

Cross-sectional research• Research that studies people all at one

time.

Longitudinal research• Research that studies the same people

over a period of time, usually several years or more.


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Conducting Ethical Research

• May affect you personally if you ever serve as a participant in a study.

• Proposed research at colleges and universities must pass the scrutiny of a research ethics committee before the research can be initiated.

• APA’s guidelines address four important issues:

1. Informed consent

2. Confidentiality

3. Debriefing 4. Deception


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Minimizing Bias

• Gender Bias

• Culture and Ethnic Bias

• Ethnic Gloss


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Being a Wise Consumer of Information

• Be cautious of what is reported in the popular media.

• Recognize the tendency to over generalize a small or clinical sample.

• Be aware that a single study usually is not the defining word.

• Remember that causal conclusions cannot be drawn from correlational studies.

• Always consider the source of the information and evaluate its credibility.


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Adolescent Development Research

Journals

• Journal of Research on Adolescence

• Journal of Early Adolescence

• Journal of Youth and Adolescence

• Adolescence

• Child Development


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Careers in Adolescent Development

• College/University Professor

• Researcher

• Secondary School Teacher

• Exceptional Children (Special Education Teacher)

• Family and Consumer Science Educator

• Educational Psychologist

• School Psychologist

• Clinical Psychologist

• Psychiatrist

• Psychiatric Nurse


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Careers in Adolescent Development

• Counseling Psychologist

• School Counselor

• Career Counselor

• Social Worker

• Drug Counselor

• Health Psychologist

• Adolescent Medicine Specialist

• Marriage and Family Therapist


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RESOURCES FOR IMPROVING THE LIVES OF ADOLESCENTS

• Children’s Defense Fund www.childrensdefense.org/

The Children’s Defense Fund, headed by Marian Wright Edelman, exists to provide a strong and effective voice for children and adolescents who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves.

• The Search Institute www.search-institute.org

The Search Institute has available a large number of resources for improving the lives of adolescents. The brochures and books available address school improvement, adolescent literacy, parent education, program planning, and adolescent health and include resource lists. A free quarterly newsletter is available.


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E-LEARNING TOOLS

To help you master the material in this chapter, visit the Online Learning Center for Adolescence, 13th Edition at:

http://www.mhhe.com/santrocka13e

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