Chapter 15 - Developmental Psychology PDF

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Chapter 15: Adolescence: Cognitive Development: I. Logic and Self: move from egocentrism to abstract logic. A. Egocentrism: thinking deeply about their future. Adolescent egocentrism is a characteristic of adolescent thinking that leads young people (10-13) to think of themselves at the exclusion of others. More unique special or disliked than they actually are. Interpret others behaviors as a judgment on them. Acute selfconsciousness at 10-14 is more relevant now than ever. 1. Fables: personal fable is aspect of adolescent egocentrism that an adolescent’s belief that their thoughts, feelings, experiences, are unique more wonderful or awful than anyone else’s. invincibility fable is adolescent conviction that he or she cannot be overcome or even harmed by anything that might defeat a normal person like unprotected sex, drug abuse, high speed driving. 2. The imaginary audience: the other people who, in an adolescent egocentric belief, are watching and taking note of his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior. The belief makes many teenagers very self-conscious 3. Egocentrism reassessed: egocentrism is often used as a blame for all actions an adolescent takes. Generalization, adolescents are fearless. Egocentrism may be protective. B. Formal Operational Thought: in Piaget’s theory the fourth and final stage of cognitive development, characterized by the ability to understand and systematically manipulate abstract concepts. Multiply unreal numbers, gross national product, testing H20 in the lab. 1. Piaget’s Experiments: balancing a scale. Reciprocal interaction between distance and weights heaviness. 2. Hypothetical Deductive Reasoning: think of possibility not just reality. Hypothetical Thought is reasoning that includes propositions and possibilities that may not affect reality. Transforms perceptions. Criticize everything due to an awareness that their hypothetical thoughts may be different and their growing awareness of differences. Deductive reasoning is reasoning from a general statement, premise, principle through logical steps to figure out specifics (top-down). Inductive reasoning is reasoning from a specific experience or facts that reach a general conclusion (bottom-up). 3. Logical Fallacies: sunk cost fallacy is that money time or effort that cannot be recovered has already been invested in some endeavor then more should be invested in that effort to reach the goal. Base rate neglect is the common fallacy in which person ignores the overall frequency of some behavior or characteristic in making a decision. Egocentrism makes base rate neglect more likely and more personal. Logical fallacies occur at every age. II. Two Modules of Thinking: dual process model is notion that 2 networks exist within the human brain, one for emotional and one for analytical processing of stimuli. A. Intuition Versus Analytical: each is independent of each other. Maturation of the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex reflects this duality. Likely to chose more inclusive statements rather than sticking to logic. 1. The Irrational Adolescent: quick thinkers, intuitive, impatient with adult logic but also overthink.

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a. Intuitive thought: thought that arises from an emotion or hunch, beyond rational explanation and is influenced by past experiences and cultural assumptions. b. Analytic thought: thoughts that result from analysis such as systematic ranking of pros and cons, risks and consequences, possibilities and facts. Analytic thought depends on logic and rationality. 2. Preferring emotions: logic is more difficult than intuition. Questioning ideas that are comforting and familiar. Become better at knowing when analysis is needed. Rational thinking is difficult when egocentrism dominates. 3. Better thinking: more mature thought processes are wiser, lead to caution. Adults may be egocentric. Adolescents value social warmth and friendship and may be more attuned to those values than to long-term consequences. Weighing alternatives and thinking of possibilities can be paralyzing. Knowledge base increases and the brain matures, impulses become less insistent and past experiences accumulate, both modes of thought are more forceful. B. Dual Processing and the brain: limbic system is activated by puberty and the prefrontal cortex grows over time. Follow impulses that will bring social approval. Adults brains give more signals of caution which is the opposite reaction of adolescent brains when they were with their peers. Longitudinal survey traced sensation seeking and a decline in impulsive action occurs as analytic thinking increases. How people act on impulses vary. Digital Natives: digital divide is shrinking digital difference still exists. Take technology for granted. A. Technology and Cognition: conversation and experience advance adolescent thought and social networking speeds up this process. Students must learn to evaluate online sources however. B. A new addiction: sexual abuse via the internet, encourages rapid shifts of attention, multitasking without reflection and visual learning instead of invisible analysis. Extensive use of the internet may not qualify as an addiction. Regardless overuse is a problem for some adolescents. C. Cyber Danger: cyber bullying is bullying that occurs when one person spreads insults or rumors about another by means of emails, text messages, or videos. 1. Worst in adolescence: quick acting but judgement is weak cyberbullying is particularly prevalent between 11-14. Imaginary audience is strong. Adolescents trust technology. 2. Sexting: sending a sexual photograph. Pictures can be forwarded, senders are at risk of depression if it is a bad reaction. Connect with others who have the same prejudices or self destruction obsessions. Danger lies with the cognition of the user. Teaching and Learning: far from homogeneous group. No single structure or works best for everyone. A. Definitions and facts: secondary education is the period after primary education and before tertiary education. Occurs from ages 12-18 although there is some variation. Healthier and wealthier if complete secondary school. Compulsory until age 12 almost everywhere. Middle school is a school for children between

elementary and high school (6th-8th grade) US students are lower in standardized test scores and high school graduation rates. B. Middle School: school dropout rates are affected by middle school. Influenced by experience. Especially stressful time. 1. Increasing behavioral problems: academic achievement slows down and behavioral problems increase. Under stress. How much students like middle school will impact what they learn. Future high school dropout can be found in middle school. Many stop trying to achieve. 2. Finding acclaim: egocentrism leads to feelings of shame or fantasies of stardom. Achievement that was once outstanding is now average. Athletic teams are more competitive. Seek acceptance from their peers. Bullying increases physical appearance is important as is social status. 3. Coping with middle school: blaming others for problems. Some avoid failure by not making an effort at all. Entity theory of intelligence is when you see intelligence ability as innate a fixed quantity present at birth, those who view this don’t believe that effort enhances achievement. Incremental theory of intelligence is the belief that intelligence can be directly increased by effort. Those who believe this think they can master whatever they seek to learn. (mastery motivation). Social skills are important to improve relationships. Teacher needs to believe in their students as well. C. High School: many patterns continue into high school. Can think abstractly, analytically, hypothetically, and logically as well as personally emotionally intuitively and experientially. 1. The college Board: high schools emphasize formal thinking makes sense. Assume they have mastered formal thinking. Increasing advanced classes. College credit. High stakes test are an evaluation that is critical in determining success or failure. If a single test determines whether a student will graduate or be promoted. 2. Those who do not go to college: high school graduates are not ready for the work force because education has been too abstract. Educated for life as well as for college. 3. Measuring practical cognition: providing on the job training. Skills are hard to measure. Program for International Student Assessment is taken by 15 year olds in 50 nations that measure problem solving and cognition in daily life. US students did worse on this than PRILS or TIMS. Correlate with high achievement: people value education, standards are high and clear, teachers and administrators are valued, learning is prioritized. Cognitive skills that boost national economic development and personal happiness are creativity, flexibility, relationship building and analytic ability....