Emotional and Social Development in Adolescence - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Emotional and Social Development in Adolescence

Chapter 12Slide2

Erikson’s Theory: Identity versus Role Confusion

Erikson was the first to recognize

identity

as the major personality achievement of adolescence and as a crucial step toward becoming a productive adult

Constructing an identity involves defining who you are, what you value, and the directions you choose to pursue in life

Erikson believed that teenagers in complex societies experience an

identity crisis

, a temporary period of distress followed by settling on values and goals

Identity versus role confusion

If young people’s earlier conflicts were resolved negatively or if society limits their choices to ones that do not match their abilities and desires, they may appear shallow, directionless, and unprepared for the challenges of adulthood

Current theorists agree that questioning of values and priorities is necessary for a mature identity

But they see this process not as a “crisis” for most young people, but simply a process of

exploration

followed by

commitment

Slide3

Self-Understanding

During adolescence, the young person’s vision of the self becomes more complex, well-organized, and consistent

Compared with younger children, adolescents have more or less positive feelings about an increasing variety of aspects of the self

Over time, they form a balanced, integrated representation of their strengths and limitations

Changes in self-concept and self-esteem set the stage for developing a unified personal identity Slide4

Changes in Self-Concept

By the end of middle childhood, children can describe themselves in terms of personality traits

In early adolescence, they unify separate traits (“smart” and “talented”) into more abstract descriptors (“intelligent”)

But, these generalizations are not interconnected and are often contradictory

Ex. 12-14 year olds might mention opposing traits like “intelligent” and “dork,” “shy,” and “outgoing”

These disparities result from the expansion of adolescents’ social world, which creates pressure to display different selves in different contexts

From middle to late adolescence, cognitive changes enable teenagers to combine their traits into an organized system

Compared with school-age children, teenagers place more emphasis on social virtues, such as being friendly, kind, and cooperative

Traits that reflect a concern with being viewed positively by others

Among older adolescents, personal and moral values are key themes

As young people revise their views of themselves to include enduring beliefs and plans, they move toward the unity of self that is central to identity development Slide5

Changes in Self-Esteem

In adolescence, young people

add several new dimensions of self-evaluation: close friendship, romantic appeal, and job competence

For most young people,

self-esteem rises

, and they see themselves as more mature, capable, and attractive than previously

But, individual differences in self-esteem also become increasingly stable in adolescence

Positive relationships among self-esteem, valuing of various activities, and success at those activities strengthen

Ex. Academic self-esteem is a powerful predictor of teenagers’ judgments of the importance and usefulness of school subjects, willingness to exert effort, achievement, and eventual career choice

Across SES and ethnic groups, individuals with mostly favorable self-esteem profiles tend to be well adjusted, sociable, and conscientious

Low self-esteem in all areas is linked to adjustment difficulties

Authoritative parenting and encouragement from teachers predict high self-esteem in adolescence

Adolescents whose parents are critical and insulting have unstable and generally low self-esteemSlide6

Paths to Identity

Researchers evaluating progress in identity development have constructed 4

identity statuses

on the basis of 2 key criteria from Erikson’s theory:

exploration

and

commitment

Identity moratorium

– exploration without having reached

commitment

Identity achievement

– commitment to values, beliefs, and goals following a period of exploration

Identity foreclosure

– commitment in the absence of exploration

Identity diffusion

– an apathetic state characterized by lack of both exploration and commitment

Some young people remain in one identity status, while others experience many status transitions

Most young people move from “lower” statuses (foreclosure or diffusion) to “higher” ones (moratorium or achievement)

This occurs between mid-teens to mid-20s

The pattern often varies across

identity domains

, such as sexual orientation, vocation, and religious valuesSlide7

Paths to Identity

Attending college promotes identity development by providing students with expanded opportunities to explore career options and life styles

After college, graduates often sample a broad range of life experiences before choosing a life course

Individuals who go to work immediately after high school settle on a self-definition earlier than college-educated youths

But, they are at risk for identity diffusion if they encounter difficulty realizing their occupational goals because of lack of training or vocational choices

Adolescents of both sexes typically make progress on identity concerns

before

experiencing

genuine

intimacy in relationships Slide8

Identity Status and Psychological Well-Being

Identity achievement and moratorium are both psychologically healthy routes to a mature self-definition

Adolescents in moratorium resemble identity-achieved individuals in using an active

,

information-gathering cognitive style

to make personal decisions and solve problems (i.e. they seek out relevant information, evaluate it carefully, and critically reflect on and revise their views)

Young people who are identity achieved or exploring have higher self-esteem, feel more in control of their own lives, are more likely to view school and work as feasible avenues for realizing aspirations, and are more advanced in moral reasoningSlide9

Identity Status and Psychological Well-Being

Adolescents stuck in either foreclosure or diffusion are passive in the face of identity concerns and have adjustment difficulties

Foreclosed individuals display a dogmatic, inflexible cognitive style, internalizing the values and beliefs of parents and others without deliberate evaluation and they resist information that threatens their position

Most fear rejection by people on whom they depend for affection and self-esteem

Long-term diffused individuals typically use a diffuse-avoidant cognitive style in which they avoid dealing with personal decisions and problems and, instead, allow current situational pressures to dictate their reactions

Taking an “I don’t care” attitude, they entrust themselves to luck or fate and tend to go along with the crowd

As a result they experience time management and academic difficulties and, of all young people are the most likely to use and abuse drugs

Often their apathy leads to a sense of hopelessness about the future

Least mature identity statusSlide10

Factors Affecting Identity Development

Adolescent identity formulation is the beginning of a life long, dynamic process that is influenced by many factors related to either the individual or the context

Identity status is both a cause and a consequence of personality

Adolescents who assume that absolute truth is always attainable tend to be foreclosed

Those who doubt that they will ever feel certain about anything are more often identity-diffused

Those who appreciate that they can use rational criteria to choose among alternatives are likely to be in a state of moratorium or identity achievementSlide11

Factors Affecting Identity Development

Identity development is enhanced for teenagers whose families serve as a “secure base” from which they can confidently move out into the wider world

Adolescents who feel attached to their parents but also feel free to voice their own opinions tend to be in a state of moratorium or identity achievement

Foreclosed teenagers usually have close bonds with parents but lack opportunities for healthy separation

Diffused young people report the lowest levels of parental support and of warm, open communicationSlide12

Factors Affecting Identity Development

Interaction with diverse peers encourages adolescents to explore values and possible roles

Schools and communities offering varied opportunities for exploration also support identity development

Supportive experiences include classrooms that promote high-level thinking, teachers who encourage low-SES students to go to college, and vocational training that immerses young people in the real world of adult work

Culture strongly influences an aspect of mature identity not captured by the identity status approach: constructing a sense of self-continuity despite major personal changes

In a study of continuity of identity in Native-Canadian and cultural-majority 12-20 year olds

Most cultural-majority adolescents described an enduring personal essence, a core self that remained the same despite change

Native-Canadian youth took an interdependent approach, emphasizing a constantly transforming self resulting from new roles and relationships Slide13

Factors Affecting Identity Development

Societal forces are responsible for the special challenges faced by gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths and by ethnic minority adolescents in forming a secure identity

For minority adolescents,

ethnic identity

– a sense of ethnic-group membership and attitudes and feelings associated with membership – is central to the quest for identity

In many immigrant families, adolescents’ commitment to obeying their parents and fulfilling family obligations lessens the longer the family has been in the immigrant-receiving country

This can induce

acculturative stress

– distress resulting from conflict between the minority and the host culture

Adolescents whose families have taught them the history, traditions, values, and language of their ethnic group and who frequently interact with same-ethnicity peers are more likely to forge a favorable ethnic identity, which is associated with higher self-esteem

Forming a

bicultural identity

– by exploring and adopting values from both the adolescent’s subculture and the dominant culture, is very beneficial Slide14

Moral Development

Cognitive development and expanding social experiences permit adolescents to better understand larger social structures

Societal institutions and law-making systems that govern moral responsibilities

As their grasp of social arrangements expands, adolescents construct new ideas about what should be done when the needs and desires of people conflict

As a result, they move toward increasingly just, fair, and balanced solutions to moral problems Slide15

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Piaget’s work on the moral judgment of children inspired Lawrence Kohlberg’s more comprehensive cognitive-developmental theory of moral understanding

Using a clinical interviewing procedure, Kohlberg presented a sample of 10-16 year old boys with

hypothetical

moral dilemmas

– stories presenting a conflict between two moral values

For each dilemma, Kohlberg asked participants what the main actor should do and why, then followed them longitudinally,

reinterviewing

them at intervals over the next 20 years

The well-known “Heinz dilemma” pits the value of obeying the law (e.g., not stealing) against the value of human life (e.g., saving a dying person)

Kohlberg emphasized that

moral maturity depends on the way an individual reasons about the dilemma

,

NOT

on the content of the response (e.g., whether or not to steal)Slide16

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

The “Heinz dilemma”

In Europe a woman was near death from cancer. There was one drug the doctors thought might save her. A druggist in the same

t

own had discovered it, but he was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together half of what it cost. The druggist refused to sell the drug for less or let Heinz pay later. So Heinz became desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have done that? Why or why not?Slide17

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Understanding

Kohlberg organized moral development into 3 levels, each with 2 stages

Kohlberg believed that moral understanding is promoted by:

Actively grappling with moral issues and noticing weaknesses in one’s current reasoning

Gains in perspective taking, which permit individuals to resolve moral conflicts in more effective ways Slide18

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Understanding

The

preconventional

level

– morality is externally controlled; children accept the rules of authority figures and judge actions by their consequences

Stage 1: The punishment and obedience orientation:

Children at this stage focus on fear of authority and avoidance of punishment as reasons for behaving morally

Prostealing

: “if you let your wife die, you will be blamed for not spending the money to help her and there’ll be an investigation of you and the druggist for your wife’s death”

Antistealing

: “you shouldn’t steal the drug because you’ll be caught and sent to jail if you do. If you do get away, [you’d be scared that] the police would catch up with you at any minute.”

Stage 2: The instrumental purpose orientation:

Children view right action as flowing from self-interest and understand reciprocity as equal exchange of favors

Prostealing

: “If Heinz decides to risk jail to save his wife, it’s his life he’s risking; he can do what he wants with it. And the same goes for the druggist; it’s up to him to decide what he wants to do.”

Antistealing

: “Heinz is running more risk than it’s worth [to save a wife who is near death]”Slide19

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Understanding

The conventional level

– individuals regard conformity to social rules as important because they believe that actively maintaining the current social system ensures positive relationships and societal order

Stage 3: The “good boy-good girl” orientation, or the morality of interpersonal cooperation

: The individual obeys rules in order to promote societal harmony, based on an understanding of ideal reciprocity and on the capacity to view a 2-person relationship from the vantage point of an impartial, outside observer

Prostealing

: “no one will think you’re bad if you steal the drug, but your family will think you’re an inhuman husband if you don’t. If you let your wife die, you’ll never be able to look anyone in the face again.”

Antistealing

: “It isn’t just the druggist who will think you’re a criminal, everyone else will too. You’ll feel bad thinking how you’ve brought dishonor on your family and yourself.”

Stage 4: The social-order-maintaining orientation

: The individual takes societal laws into account and believes that rules must be enforced evenhandedly, and members of society must uphold rules to maintain societal order

Prostealing

: “Heinz has a duty to protect his wife’s life; it’s a vow he took in marriage. But it’s wrong to steal, so he would have to take the drug with the idea of paying the druggist for it and accepting the penalty for breaking the law later.”

Antistealing

: “Even if his wife is dying, it’s still Heinz’s duty as a citizen to obey the law. If everyone starts breaking the law in a jam, there’d be no civilization, just crime and violence.”Slide20

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Understanding

The

postconventional

or principled level

– define morality in terms of abstract principles and values that apply to all situations and societies

Stage 5: The social contract orientation

: Individuals view laws and rules as flexible instruments for furthering human purposes and will freely follow them when they are consistent with individual rights and the interests of the majority

Prostealing

: “Although there is a law against stealing, the law wasn’t meant to violate a person’s right to life. If Heinz is prosecuted for stealing, the law needs to be reinterpreted to take into account situations in which it goes against people’s natural right to keep on living.”

Stage 6: The universal ethical principle orientation:

At this highest stage, right action is defined by self-chosen ethical principles of conscience that are valid for all people, regardless of law and social agreement

Prostealing

: “It doesn’t make sense to put respect for property above respect for life itself. [People] could live together without private property at all. Respect for human life and personality is absolute and accordingly [people] have a mutual duty to save one another from dying.”Slide21

Research on Kohlberg’s Stage Sequence

Kohlberg’s original research and other longitudinal studies provide the most convincing evidence for his stage sequence

With few exceptions, individuals move through the first 4 stages in the predicted order, at a slow and gradual pace

Reasoning at Stages 1 and 2 decreases in early adolescence

Stage 3 increases through

midadolescence

and then declines

Stage 4 reasoning rises over the teenage years and, by early adulthood, is the typical response

Very few people move beyond stage 4 to the

postconventional

stages

In fact,

postconventional

morality is so rare that no clear evidence exists that Kohlberg’s stage 6 actually follows stage 5

This is a key challenge to Kohlberg’s theory: if people must reach stages 5 and 6 to be considered truly morally mature, few individuals anywhere would be considered truly moralSlide22

Research on Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Understanding

A newer view of Kohlberg’s stages views moral maturity as a revision of stages 3 and 4

These stages are not “conventional,” based on social conformity as Kohlberg assumed

Rather, they require profound moral constructions, an understanding of ideal reciprocity as the basis for relationships (stage 3) and for widely accepted moral standards, set forth in rules and laws (stage 4)

In this view, “

postconventional

” morality is a highly reflective endeavor limited to few individuals

Real-life conflicts often elicit moral reasoning below a person’s actual capacity because they involve practical considerations and mix cognition with intense emotion

Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas do not evoke the emotional aspect involved in real-life conflicts, thus allowing individuals to use their upper limits of moral thought because they allow reflection without the interference of personal risk

Like Piaget’s cognitive stages, Kohlberg’s moral stages do not develop in a neat stepwise fashion, rather they

are loosely organized and overlapping

Because of the influence of situational factors on moral judgments, people draw on a range of moral responses that vary with context Slide23

Are There Sex Differences in Moral Reasoning?

Carol Gilligan and others have argued that Kohlberg’s theory, formulated on the basis of interviews with males, does not adequately represent the morality of girls and women

Gilligan believes that feminine morality emphasizes an “ethic of care” that Kohlberg’s system devalues

According to Gilligan, a concern for others is a different but no less valid basis for moral judgment than a focus on impersonal rights

Many studies have tested Gilligan’s claim that Kohlberg’s approach underestimates the moral maturity of females, and most

do not

support it.

On hypothetical dilemmas as well as everyday moral problems,

adolescent and adult females display reasoning at the same stage as their male agemates and often at a higher stage

These findings suggest that although Kohlberg emphasized justice rather than caring as the highest moral ideal, his theory taps both sets of values

Still, Gilligan does make a powerful claim that research on moral development has been limited by too much attention to rights and justice (a “masculine” ideal) and too little to care and responsiveness (a “feminine” ideal)Slide24

Coordinating Moral, Social-Conventional, and Personal Concerns

As adolescents enlarge the range of issues they regard as personal, they think more intently about conflicts between personal choice and community obligation

Like whether, and under what conditions, it is permissible for laws to restrict speech, religion, marriage, childbearing, group membership, and other individual rights

Ex. A government should not restrict the right to an individual’s religious views, but what about when religious views say that women should not be allowed an education and that anyone who denounces a religion should be put to death?

Teenagers display more subtle thinking than school-age children on issues

When asked if it is OK to exclude a child from a peer group on the basis of race or gender, 4

th

graders usually say exclusion is always unfair

But, by 10

th

grade, young people, though increasingly mindful of fairness, indicate that under certain conditions exclusion is OK

Ex. A 10

th

grade girl justifies her opinion that members of an all-boys music club should not have to allow a girl to join “It’s not nice, but it’s their club.”Slide25

As adolescents integrate personal rights with ideal reciprocity, they demand that protections they want for themselves extend to others

With age, adolescents are more likely to defend the government’s right to limit the personal right to engage in risky health behaviors, such as smoking and drinking, in the interest of the larger public group

Ex. It endangers everyone when a person chooses to drink and drive

Similarly, teenagers are increasingly mindful of the overlap between moral imperatives and social conventions

Eventually they realize that violating strongly held conventions can harm others, either by inducing distress or by undermining fair treatment

Ex. Like wearing a T-shirt to a wedding or talking out of turn at a student council meeting

Over time, as their grasp of fairness deepens, young people realize that many social conventions have moral implications

They are vital for maintaining a just and peaceful society

Which is a central aspect of Kohlberg’s stage 4

Coordinating Moral, Social-Conventional, and Personal ConcernsSlide26

Influences on Moral Reasoning

Moral understanding is influenced by various factors, including child-rearing practices, schooling, peer interaction, and culture

Evidence suggests that, as Kohlberg believed, these experiences present young people with cognitive challenges

Which stimulate them to think about moral problems in more complex ways Slide27

Influences on Moral Reasoning: Parenting Practices

As in childhood, parenting practices associated with moral maturity in adolescence combine warmth, exchange of ideas, and appropriate demands for maturity

Adolescents who are most advanced in moral understanding have parents who engage in moral discussions, encourage prosocial behavior, and create a supportive atmosphere by listening sensitively, asking questions, and presenting higher-level reasoning (AKA authoritative parenting…)

In one study, 11 year olds were asked what they though an adult would say to justify a moral rule, such as not lying, stealing, or breaking a promise

Those with warm, reasonably demanding, communicative parents were more likely than their agemates to point to the importance of ideal reciprocity: “You wouldn’t like it if I did it to you.”

In contrast, when parents lecture, use threats, or make sarcastic remarks, adolescents show little or no change in moral reasoning over timeSlide28

Influences on Moral Reasoning: Schooling

Years of schooling is a powerful predictor of movement to Kohlberg’s stage 4 or higher

Higher education introduces young people to social issues that range beyond personal relationships to entire political or cultural groups

College students who report more perspective-taking opportunities (ex. Classes that emphasize open discussion of opinions and friendships with others of different cultural backgrounds) and who indicate they have become more aware of social diversity tend to be advanced in moral reasoning Slide29

Influences on Moral Reasoning: Peer Interaction

Interaction among peers who present differing viewpoints promotes moral understanding

Through negotiating and compromising with agemates, young people realize that social life can be based on cooperation between equals rather than authority relations

Interventions for improving moral understanding include discussions and role playing of moral problems

For interventions to be effective, young people must be highly engaged

Confronting, critiquing, and attempting to clarify one another’s viewpoints

And because moral development occurs gradually, many peer interaction sessions over weeks or months typically are needed to produce moral change Slide30

Influences on Moral Reasoning: Culture

Individuals in industrialized nations move through Kohlberg’s stages more quickly and advance to a higher level than individuals in village societies, who rarely move beyond stage 3

One explanation is that in village societies, moral cooperation is based on direct relations between people and does not allow for the development of advanced moral understanding

Which depends on appreciating the role of larger social structures, such as laws and government

Another possible reason is that responses to moral dilemmas in collectivist cultures are often more

other-directed

than in Western Europe and North America

In both village and collectivistic industrialized cultures that highly value interdependency, statements portraying the individual as vitally connected to the social group are common

These findings raise the question of whether Kohlberg’s highest level represents a culturally specific way of thinking: limited to Western societies that emphasize individualism

At the same time, a review of over 100 studies confirmed an age-related trend consistent with Kohlberg’s stages 1-4 across diverse societies

A common justice morality is clearly evident in the dilemma responses of people from vastly different cultures Slide31

Moral Reasoning and Behavior

A central assumption of the cognitive-developmental perspective is that moral understanding should affect moral action

According to Kohlberg, mature moral thinkers realized that behaving according to their beliefs is vital for creating and maintaining a just social world

Consistent with this idea, higher-stage adolescents more often act

prosocially

and less often engage in cheating and other antisocial behaviors

Yet the connection between advanced moral reasoning and action is only modest

Moral behavior is influenced by many factors besides cognition

Including emotions (empathy, sympathy, guilt), individual temperament, and a long history of experiences that affect moral decision making

Morality is also affected by

moral self-relevance

– the degree to which morality is central to self-conceptSlide32

Moral Reasoning and Behavior

Research has yet to identify the origins of a sense of moral self-relevance, or how thought combines with other influences to foster moral commitment

Close relationships with parents, teachers, and friends may play a vital role

Modeling prosocial behavior and fostering morally relevant emotions of empathy and guilt, which combine with moral cognition to powerfully motivate moral action

Another possibility is that

just (fair) educational environments

– in which teachers guide students in democratic decision making and rule setting, resolving disputes civically, and taking responsibility for others’ welfare – are influential

Such environments may be particularly important for low-SES ethnic minority students

Encouraging civic responsibility in young people can help them see the connection between their personal interests and the public interest

An insight that may foster all aspects of morality Slide33

Religious Involvement and Moral Development

Religion plays an important role in resolving real-life moral dilemmas for many people

Nearly 2/3 of Americans report being religious

Formal religious involvement declines in adolescence

But teenagers who remain part of a religious community are advantaged over nonaffiliated youths in moral values and behavior

Factors contributing to these favorable outcomes:

In one study, religiously involved young people were more likely to report trusting relationships with parents, other adults, and friends who held similar world views

Religious education and youth activities teach concern for others and provide opportunities for moral discussions and civic engagement

Regardless of formal affiliation and domination, religious institutions may be uniquely suited to foster moral and prosocial commitments Slide34

Further Challenges to Kohlberg’s Theory

The most radical opposition comes from researchers who – referring to a wide variability in moral reasoning across situations – claim that Kohlberg’s stage sequence inadequately accounts for morality in

everyday life

They favor a

pragmatic approach

to morality

They assert that each person makes moral judgments at varying levels of maturity, depending on the individual’s context and motivations

Conflict over a business deal is likely to evoke stage 2 reasoning (instrumental purpose)

A friendship or romantic dispute stage 3 reasoning (ideal reciprocity)

A breach of contract stage 4 reasoning (social-order-maintaining)

Supporters of the cognitive-developmental perspective point out that people frequently rise above self-interest to defend others’ rights Slide35

Gender Typing

Early adolescence is a period of

gender intensification

– increased gender stereotyping of attitudes and behavior, and movement toward a more traditional gender identity

Biological, social, and cognitive factors all play a role in gender intensification

Puberty magnifies sex differences in appearance, so teenagers spend more time thinking about themselves in gender-linked ways

Pubertal changes also prompt gender-typed pressures from others

Parents, especially those with traditional gender-role beliefs, may encourage “gender-appropriate” activities and behavior more than they did earlier

And when adolescents start to date, they often become more gender-typed as a way of increasing their attractiveness

Cognitive changes, in particular greater concern with what others think, make young teenagers more responsive to gender-role expectationsSlide36

Gender Typing

Gender intensification declines by middle to late adolescence, but not all young people move beyond it to the same degree

Teenagers who are encouraged to explore non-gender-typed options and to question the value of gender stereotypes for themselves and society are more likely to build an androgynous gender identity

Overall, androgynous adolescents, especially girls, tend to be psychologically healthier

More self-confident, more willing to speak their own mind, better liked by peers, and identity-achievedSlide37

The Family

Development in adolescence involves striving for

autonomy

– a sense of oneself as a separate, self-governing individual

Teenagers strive to rely more on themselves and less on parents for decision making

Nevertheless, parent-child relationships remain vital for helping adolescents become autonomous Slide38

Parent-Child Relationships

Adolescent autonomy is supported by a variety of changes within the adolescent

Puberty triggers psychological distancing from parents

As young people look more mature, parents give them more independence and responsibility

Cognitive development paves the way for autonomy: Gradually, adolescents solve problems and make decisions more effectively

Improved ability to reason about social relationships leads teenagers to

deidealize

their parents, viewing them as “just people”, so they may question parental authority

But teenagers still need guidance and sometimes protection from dangerous situations

Autonomy is fostered by warm, supportive, parent-adolescent ties that permit young people to explore ideas and social roles Slide39

Parent-Child Relationships

The rapid physical and psychological changes of adolescence trigger conflicting expectations in parent-child relationships

A major reason is that many parents find rearing teenagers to be stressful

Interest in making choices about personal matters strengthens in adolescence

But parents and teenagers (especially young teenagers) differ sharply on the appropriate age for granting certain privileges

Ex. control over clothing, going out with friends, and dating

Parents’ own development can also lead to friction with teenagers

Middle-aged parents must accept that their own possibilities are narrowing while their children’s are expanding

Teenagers may fail to appreciate that parents value spending time together as a family because and important period of their adult lives, child-rearing, is coming to an end

In other words, they don’t understand why their parents want to spend time together as a family because their parents know that they are almost at the end of their child-rearing days Slide40

Parent-Child Relationships

Immigrant parents from cultures that highly value family closeness and obedience to authority have greater difficulty adapting to their teenagers’ push for autonomy, often reacting more strongly to adolescent disagreement

As adolescents acquire the host culture’s language and are increasingly exposed to its individualistic values, immigrant parents may become even more critical, causing teenagers to rely less on the family network for social support

The acculturative stress adolescents may experience is associated with a rise in deviant behavior, including alcohol use and delinquency

Throughout adolescence, the quality of parent-child relationship is the single most consistent predictor of mental health

By middle to late adolescence, most parents and children achieve a mature, mutual relationship, and harmonious interaction rises

The reduced time that Western teenagers spend with their families has little to do with conflict

It is due to the large amount of unstructured time available to teenagers in North America and Western Europe because they have fewer obligations to overall family welfare

And they tend to fill this time with activities away from home, including part-time jobsSlide41

Family Circumstances

Parents who are financially secure and content with their marriages usually find it easier to grant teenagers appropriate autonomy and experience less conflict with them

Teenagers who develop well despite family stresses benefit from the same factors that fostered resilience in earlier years

An appealing, easygoing disposition

A parent who combines warmth with high expectations

Strong bonds with prosocial adults outside the family, especially if parental supports are lackingSlide42

Siblings

Sibling interactions adapt to development in adolescence

Often becoming

less intense in both positive and negative feelings

Nonetheless, siblings who establish a positive bond in early childhood continue to express affection and caring

Mild sibling difference in perceived parental affection no longer triggers jealousy

Instead, they predict increasing sibling warmth

Perhaps because adolescents now interpret a unique parental relationship as a sign of their own individuality Slide43

Peer Relations

As adolescents spend less time with family members, peers become increasingly important

In industrialized nations, young people spend most of each weekday with agemates in school

Teenagers also spend much out-of-class time together, more in some cultures than others

U.S. young people have about 50 hours of free time per week

Europeans have about 45 hours

East Asians have about 33 hours

A shorter school year and less demanding academic standards, which lead American youths to devote much less time to school work, account for these differences

Adolescent peer relations can be both positive and negative

At their best, peers serve as critical bridges between the family and adult social rolesSlide44

Friendships: Characteristics

Number of “best friends” declines from about 4-6 in early adolescence to 1-2 in adulthood

At the same time, the nature of the relationship changes

Adolescents seek

intimacy (psychological closeness), mutual understanding

of each other’s values, beliefs, and feelings

,

and

loyalty

(sticking up for each other and not leaving them for someone else) from their friends

Self-disclosure

(sharing of private thoughts and feelings) between friends rises steadily over the adolescent years

As a result, teenage friends get to know each other better as personalities

Adolescent friends tend to be alike in identity status, educational aspirations, political beliefs, and willingness to try drugs and engage in lawbreaking acts

Over time, they become more similar in these ways

Cooperation and mutual affirmation between friends rise in adolescence

Adolescents are less possessive of their friends than in childhood

Because they desire some autonomy for themselves and recognize that friends need this tooSlide45

Friendships: Sex Differences

Emotional closeness is more common between girls, who engage in more self-disclosure than boys

Girls often get together to “just talk”

Boys more often gather for an activity (sports or competitive games) and their discussions more often focus on accomplishments and involve more competition and conflict

In line with gender-role expectations, girls’ friendships typically focus on

communal concerns

, boys’ on achievement and status

The quality of boys’ friendships is more variable than girls’

Gender identity plays a role: Androgynous boys are as likely as girls to form intimate same-sex ties, but highly “masculine” boys are less likely to do so

Closeness in friendship can have negative effects

Adolescent friends sometimes

coruminate

, or repeatedly mull over problems and negative feelings, which triggers anxiety and depression, more often in girls than in boys

When conflicts arise between intimate friends, more potential exists for one party to harm the other through relational aggression

Ex. Divulging sensitive personal information to outsiders

For this reason, girls’ closest same-sex friendships tend to be of shorter duration than boys’ Slide46

Friendships on the Internet

Use of the Internet to communicate, especially through instant messaging, seems to support friendship closeness in adolescence

Adolescents also use the Internet to meet new people

Through online ties, they explore central adolescent issues, such as sexuality and challenges in parent and peer relationships

The context of the Internet may feel less threatening than those of similar everyday conversations

Online communication also poses dangers

Exposure to degrading racial and ethnic slurs, sexually obscene remarks, and potentially harmful social experiences Slide47

Friendships and Adjustment

As long as adolescent friendships are not characterized by jealousy, relational aggression, or attraction to antisocial behavior, they are related to many aspects of psychological health and competence into early adulthood

Close friendships:

Provide opportunities to explore the self and develop a deep understanding of another

Provide a foundation for future intimate relationships

Help young people deal with stresses of adolescence

Can improve attitudes toward and involvement

in schoolSlide48

Cliques and Crowds

In early adolescence, tightly knit

peer groups

tend to form, which are organized into

cliques

– groups of 5-7 members who are friends and usually resemble one another in family background, attitudes, and values

At first, cliques are limited to same-sex members

For girls, but not boys, clique membership predicts academic and social competence

Clique membership is more important to girls, who use it as a context for expressing emotional closeness

Mixed-sex cliques are common by mid-adolescence

Often several cliques with similar values form a larger, more loosely organized group called a

crowd

Membership in a crowd is based on

reputation and stereotype

Which gives the adolescent an identity within the larger social structure of the school

Typical high school crowds include “brains” (

nonathletes

who enjoy academics), “jocks” (who are very involved in sports), “populars” (class leaders who are highly social and involved in activities), “partiers” (who value socializing but care little about school work), “nonconformists” (who like unconventional clothing and music), and “burnouts” (who cut school and get into trouble)

Crowd affiliations are linked to strengths in adolescents’ self-concepts, which reflect their interests, abilities, and family factorsSlide49

Cliques and Crowds

Belonging to a clique or crowd can modify adolescents’ beliefs and behavior, but family experiences affect the extent to which adolescents become like their

peers

In a study of 8,000 9

th

-12

th

graders

Adolescents who described their parents as authoritative were members of “brain,” “jock,” and “popular” groups that accepted both adult and peer reward systems

Adolescent boys with permissive parents aligned themselves with the “partiers” and “burnouts,” suggesting lack of identification with adult reward systemSlide50

Cliques and Crowds

As interest in dating increases, boys’ and girls’ cliques come together into mixed-sex cliques

Which provide models for how to interact with the other sex and a chance to do so without having to be intimate

By late adolescence, as boys and girls become comfortable approaching each other directly, the mixed-sex clique disappears

Crowds decline in importance as adolescents settle on personal values and goals

They no longer feel a need to broadcast, through dress, language, and activities, who they are

From 10

th

to 12

th

grade, about ½ of young people switch crowds, mostly in favorable directions

“Brains” and “normal” crowds grow and deviant crowds lose members as teenagers focus more on their future Slide51

Dating

With the hormonal changes of puberty, sexual interest increases, but cultural expectations determine when and how dating begins

Asian youths start dating later and have fewer dating partners than young people in Western societies, which encourage romantic involvements between teenagers from middle school on

At age 12-14, these relationships last only briefly, but by age 16 they continue on average for nearly 2 years

Young adolescents tend to mention recreation and achieving peer status as reasons for dating

By late adolescence, young people are

r

eady for greater psychological intimacy and look for someone who offers companionship, affection, and social support

The achievement of intimacy between dating partners typically lags behind that of friends

Recall that according to ecological theory, early attachment bonds lead to an

internal working model

, or set of expectations about attachment figures, that guides later close relationships

Consistent with this idea, secure attachment to parents in infancy and childhood, together with recollections of that security in adolescence, predicts quality of teenagers’ friendship and romantic ties

Perhaps because early adolescent dating relationships are shallow and stereotyped, early dating is related to drug use, delinquency, and poor academic achievement Slide52

Dating

Gay and lesbian youths face special challenges in initiating and maintaining visible romances

Their first dating relationships seem to be short-lived and involve little emotional commitment, because they fear peer harassment and rejection

Because of intense prejudice, homosexual adolescents often retreat into heterosexual dating

M

any have difficulty finding a same-sex partner because their homosexual peers have not yet come out

Overall, as long as it does not begin too early, dating provides lessons in cooperation, etiquette, and dealing with people in a wider range of situations

Among older teenagers, close romantic ties promote sensitivity, empathy, self-esteem, social support, and identity development

Still,

about half

of first romances do not survive high school graduation

Those that do usually become unsatisfying because young people are still forming their identities and after high school often find they have little in common Slide53

Peer Conformity

Conformity to peer pressure is greater during adolescence than in childhood and early adulthood

In a study of American youths, adolescents felt greatest pressure to conform to the most obvious aspects of the peer culture

Dress, grooming, and participation is social activities

Peer pressure to engage in

proadult

behavior, such as cooperating with parents and getting good grades was also strong

Research conducted in Singapore had similar outcomes, except that peer pressure to meet family and school obligations exceeded pressure to join in aspects of peer-culture

Early adolescents

are

more likely

than younger or older individuals to give in to peer pressure on day-to-day personal choices

But, parents have more impact on basic life values and educational plans

Authoritative child rearing is related to resistance to peer pressure

When parents are supportive and exert appropriate oversight, teenagers respect them and usually follow their rules and consider their advice

A

dolescents whose parents exert either too much or too little control tend to be highly peer-oriented

They more often rely on friends for advice about their personal lives and future and are more willing to break their parents’ rules, ignore schoolwork, and engage in other problem behavior Slide54

Problems of Development

Most young people move through adolescence with little disturbance

But, some encounter major disruptions in development

Such as early parenthood, substance abuse, and school failure

In each instance, biological and psychological changes, families, schools, peers, communities, and culture combine to yield particular outcomes

Serious difficulties rarely occur in isolation

They are usually interrelated as is apparent in 3 additional problems of the teenage years: depression, suicide, and delinquencySlide55

Depression

Depression

– feeling sad, frustrated, and hopeless about life, accompanied by loss of pleasure in most activities and disturbances in sleep, appetite, concentration, and energy – is the

most common

psychological problem of adolescence

If allowed to continue, it seriously impairs social, academic, and vocational functioning

About 15-20% percent of teenagers have had one or more major depressive episodes

From 2-8% are chronically depressed

Depression increases sharply from ages 12-16 in industrialized nations

Teenage girls are

twice

as likely as boys to report persistent depressed mood

This difference in rates of depression in males and females is sustained throughout the lifespan

Many adults minimize the seriousness of adolescent depression, misinterpreting it as a passing phaseSlide56

Factors Related to Depression

Genes can induce depression by affecting:

The balance of neurotransmitters in the brain

The development of brain regions involved in inhibiting negative emotion

The body’s hormonal response to stress

Experience can also activate depression, promoting any of these biological changes

A high incidence of depression and other psychological disorders is seen in parents of depressed children and adolescents

This may reflect a genetic risk that is passed from parent to child

It may also result from maladaptive parenting by the depressed parent

Depressed youths usually display a learned-helplessness attributional style

In a vulnerable young person, depression can be sparked by an event, such as failing at something important, parental divorce, or the end of a close friendship or romantic partnershipSlide57

Sex Difference in Depression

In industrialized nations, girls are more prone to depression than boys

In developing countries, rates of depression are similar for males and females and occasionally higher in males

Because the difference in rates of depression in males and females is limited to industrialized nations, it cannot be due to the biological changes of puberty

Factors responsible for these gender differences include stressful life events and gender-typed coping styles

Early maturing girls are especially prone to depression

Gender intensification in early adolescence often strengthens girls’ passivity, tendency to ruminate on problems, and dependency, which is maladaptive

Girls who repeatedly feel overwhelmed develop an overly reactive physiological stress response and cope more poorly with challenges

Stressful experiences and stress reactivity feed on one another, sustaining depression

Profound depression can lead to suicidal thoughts which all too often are translated into actionSlide58

Suicide

Suicide rate increases over the lifespan, but it jumps sharply at adolescence

Suicide is the 3

rd

leading cause of death among American youths

The adolescent suicide rate tripled between the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s, followed by a slight decline

Since 2000 the rate has been steadily increasing

Rates of adolescent suicide vary widely among industrialized nations

Low rates in Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain

Intermediate in Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States

High in Finland, New Zealand, and Singapore

These international differences remain unexplained Slide59

Factors Related to Adolescent Suicide

Despite girls’ higher rates of depression, 3-4 times as many boys as girls kill themselves

Girls make more unsuccessful suicide attempts and use methods from which they are more likely to be revived, such as a sleeping pill overdose

Boys tend to choose techniques that lead to instant death, such as firearms or hanging

Gender-role expectations may also contribute: less tolerance exists for feelings of helplessness and failed efforts in males than in females

African Americans and Hispanics have lower suicide rates than Caucasian Americans

However, the suicide rate among African American adolescent males has risen recently

Native American youths commit suicide 2-6 times the national averages

Probably influenced by high rates of profound family poverty, school failure, and alcohol and drug use

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths attempt suicide 3 times as often as other adolescents

Largely as a result of more family conflict, inner turmoil about their sexuality, and peer victimization Slide60

Factors Related to Adolescent Suicide

Suicide tends to occur in 2 types of young people

Those who are highly intelligent, but solitary, withdrawn, and unable to meet their own high standards

Those who show antisocial tendencies and express their unhappiness through bullying, fighting, stealing, drug abuse, and increased risk taking

Suicidal teenagers often have family backgrounds that include emotional and antisocial disorders, as well as a history of stressful life events

Cognitive changes, such as being better at planning ahead, lead to an increase in suicide in adolescence

Although some act impulsively, many young people take purposeful steps toward killing themselves

Belief in the personal fable leads many depressed adolescents to conclude that no one could possibly understand their painSlide61

Warning Signs of Suicide

Efforts to put personal affairs in order – smoothing over troubled relationships, giving away treasured

possessions

Verbal cues – saying good bye

to family members and friends, making direct or indirect references to suicide (“I won’t have to worry about these problems much longer.”; “I wish I were dead.”)

Feelings of sadness, despondency, “not caring” anymore

Extreme fatigue, lack of energy,

boredom

No desire to socialize;

withdrawal from friends

Easily frustrated

Emotional out-bursts

– spells of crying or laughing, bursts of energy

Inability to concentrate,

distractible

Decline in grades, absence from school, discipline problems

Neglect of personal appearance

Sleep change – loss of sleep

or excessive sleepiness

Appetite change – eating more or less than usual

Physical complaints – stomachaches, backaches, headaches Slide62

Delinquency

Juvenile delinquents are children or adolescents who engage in illegal acts

Although U.S. crime has declined since the mid-1990s, 12-17 year olds account for about 15% of police arrests

Although they make up 8% of the population

Almost all

teenagers, when asked confidentially about lawbreaking, admit to having committed an offense of some sort, usually a minor crime

Such as petty stealing or disorderly conduct

Delinquency rises over the early teenage years, remains high in middle adolescence, and then declines

For most adolescents, a brush with the law does not forecast long-term antisocial behavior

But, repeated arrests are cause for concern

Teenagers are responsible for 18% of violent offenses in the U.S.

A small percentage become recurrent offenders, who commit most of these crimes, and some enter a life of crime

Childhood onset of conduct problems are far more likely to persist than conduct problems that first appear in adolescence Slide63

Factors Related to Delinquency

In adolescence, the gender gap in aggression widens: Violent crime continues to be mostly the domain of boys

Girls only account for 1 in 5 adolescent arrests for violence and their offenses are largely limited to simple assault (such as spitting or pushing)

Although SES and ethnicity are strong predictors of arrests, they are only mildly related to teenagers’ self-reports of antisocial acts

Arrest rates reflect primarily the tendency to arrest, charge, and punish low SES ethnic minority youths more often that their higher SES white and Asian counterparts

Difficult temperament, low intelligence, peer rejection in childhood, and association with antisocial peers are linked to delinquency

Families of delinquent youths tend to be low in warmth, high in conflict, and characterized by harsh inconsistent discipline and low monitoring

Youth crime peaks on weekdays between 2:00-8:00pm when many teenagers are unsupervised

When children who are extremely active and impulsive (which boys are more likely to be than girls) experience incompetent parenting, aggression rises during childhood and leads to violent offenses in adolescenceSlide64

Factors Related to Delinquency

Teenagers commit more crimes in poverty-stricken neighborhoods with limited recreational and employment opportunities and high adult crime

In such neighborhoods, adolescents have easy access to deviant peers, drugs, and firearms and are likely to be recruited into antisocial gangs

Gangs that commit the vast majority of violent delinquent acts

Schools in the locales typically fail to meet students’ developmental needs

Large classes, weak instruction, and lax enforcement of rules increase teenagers’ inclination toward aggression and violence Slide65

Delinquency Prevention and Treatment

Effective prevention of delinquency should start early and take place at multiple levels to address factors that include family relationships, parenting style, the quality of teaching in schools, and economic and social conditions in communities

Many U.S. school have implemented

zero tolerance policies

, which severely punish all disruptive and threatening behavior, both major and minor, usually with suspension or expulsion

But, often they are implemented inconsistently: Low SES minority students are 2-3 times more likely to be punished, especially for minor misbehaviors

However, no evidence exists that this approach reduced youth aggression and other forms of misconduct

In fact, some studies find that by excluding students from school, zero tolerance heightens high school dropout and antisocial behaviorSlide66

Delinquency Prevention and Treatment

Treating serious offenders requires an intensive, often lengthy approach, also directed at the multiple determinants of delinquency

Even these multidimensional treatments can fall short if young people remain embedded in hostile home lives, antisocial peer groups, and fragmented neighborhoods

In a program called

multisystemic

therapy

, therapists combined family intervention with integrating violent youths into positive school, work, and leisure activities and disengaging them from deviant peers

Compared with conventional services or individual therapy, the intervention led to greater improvement in parent-child relations and a dramatic and sustained drop in number of arrests