Chapter 16 Adolescence Psychosocial Development PDF

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Chapter 16: Adolescence: Psychosocial Developmen Wednesday, April 1, 2020

5:34 PM

Identity - Consistent definition of one's self as a unique individual, in terms of roles, attitudes, bel and aspirations - Erickson ○ Identity vs role confusion § Erickson's term for the fifth stage of development, in which the person tries figure out "who am I?" but is confused as to which of many possible roles to adopt ○ Identity achievement § Erickson's term for the attainment of identity, or the point at which a person understands who he or she is as a unique individual, in accord with pas experiences and future plans - Role confusions (identity diffusion) ○ A situation in which an adolescent does not seem to know or care what his or her identity is - Foreclosure ○ Erickson's term for premature identity formation, which occurs when an adolescen adopts parents' or society's roles and values wholesale, without questioning or anal - Moratorium ○ An adolescent's choice of a socially acceptable way to postpone making identityachievement decisions § Going to college is a common example - Several aspects of the search for identity, especially sexual and vocational identity, have become more arduous than they were when Erickson described them - Now, developmentalists believe that is it unusual for teenagers to resolve this crisis and r identity achievement Four areas of adolescent identity formation - Religious identity ○ Most adolescents accept broad outlines of parental and cultural religious identity ○ Specific religious beliefs may be questioned - Political identity ○ More twenty first century adolescents identify as independent than any other grou ○ They are more liberal than parents, with major political shifts usually occurring lat

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○ Most adolescents identify with their ethnicity Vocational identity ○ Vocational identity takes years to established ○ Early vocational identity is no longer relevant ○ Part-time work during high school is often related to negative outcomes Sexual identity ○ Erickson's gender intensification no longer fits adolescent development; it is now called gender identity (male, female, transgender) ○ Gender identity often begins with biological sex and leads to gender role; many adolescents question some gender role aspects ○ Some adolescents foreclose by exaggerating male or female roles; others seek a moratorium by avoiding all sexual contact

Gender dysmorphia - Sexual drives change as hormone levels increase ○ Previously in DSM-4, gender identity disorder = strong and persistent cross gender identification ○ Currently in DSM-5, gender dysphoria = people distressed at their biological gende - An increasing number of adolescents feel that they do not identify with their biological s - Some children suffer from feeling that they do not match their biological sex - These children may be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a new DSM-5 diagnosis that describes the distress individuals may feel as a consequence of feeling that they are in the "wrong body" Relationships with adults - Conflicts with parents ○ Parent-adolescent conflict typically peaks in early adolescence and is more a sign of attachment than of distance - Bickering ○ Bickering involves petty, peevish arguing, usually repeated and ongoing - Uninvolved parenting ○ Although teenagers may act as if they no longer need their parents, neglect can be destructive Cultural differences: In cultures that value harmony above all else, adolescent contradictions ar not apparent Relationships within the family - Emotional dependency ○ Adolescents are more dependent on their parents if they are female and/or from a minority ethnic group Thi b ith i h lth d di th lt d th ifi

contradictions are not apparent Relationships within the family - Emotional dependency ○ Adolescents are more dependent on their parents if they are female and/or from a minority ethnic group ○ This can be either repressive or healthy, depending on the culture and the specific circumstances ○ Overall, parental reactions are crucial: too much criticism and control might stop dialogue, not improve communication and behavior - Family closeness may be crucial ○ Communication: do parents and teen talk openly with one another? ○ Support: do they rely on one another? ○ Connectedness: how emotionally close are they? ○ Control: do parents encourage or limit adolescent autonomy? Relationships with peers - Peer pressure ○ Peer pressure involves encouragement to conform to one's friends or contemporaries in behavior, dress, and attitude - Selection ○ Teenagers select friends whose values and interests they share, abandoning friends who follow other paths - Facilitation ○ Peers facilitate both destructive and constructive behaviors in one another ○ This makes it easier to do both the wrong thing and the right thing - Deviancy training ○ Destructive peer support in which one person shows another how to rebel against authority or social norms Romance - Sequence of male-female relationships during childhood and adolescence ○ Group of friends, exclusively one sex or the other ○ A loose association of girls and boys, with public interactions within a crowd ○ Small mixed-sex groups of the advanced members of the crowd ○ Formation of couples, with private intimacies - First love ○ First romances appear in high school and rarely last more than a year ○ Girls claim a steady partner more often than boys do ○ Breakups and unreciprocated crushed are common ○ Adolescents are crushed by rejection and sometimes contemplate revenge or suicide

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suicide Same-sex romances ○ Culture and cohort are powerful ○ Currently in North America and western Europe, not just two but many gender roles and sexual orientations are evident ○ Variants (via research) reflect culture, cohort, and survey construction Sexual orientation ○ Refers to whether a person is sexually and romantically attracted to others of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both sexes; a person's erotic desires ○ Can be strong, weak, overt, secret, or unconscious ○ Is surprisingly fluid during the teen years

Sex education - From the media ○ Correlation between exposure to media sex and adolescent sexual initiation ○ Sexual contact appears seven times per hour during programs that are most watched by teenagers - From parents ○ Many parents wait too long, avoid specifics, and are uniformed about adolescent's relationships ○ Warm, open communication is effective - From peers ○ Adolescent sexual behavior is strongly influenced by peers, especially when parents are silent, forbidding, or vague ○ Specifics of peer education depend on the group: all members of a clique may be virgins, or all may be sexually active ○ Only about half of U.S. adolescent couples discuss issues such as pregnancy and STIs, and many are unable to come to a shared conclusion based on accurate information - From educators ○ U.S. parents want up to date sex education for their adolescents ○ Timing and content vary by state and community ○ Sex education varies by nations ○ Abstinence-only programs were not successful Sadness and anger - Depression ○ Self-esteem for boys and girls dips at puberty ○ Signs of depression are common ○ Level of family and peer support influential ○ Cultural contexts are influential; familism - Major depressive disorder

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Deep sadness and feelings of hopelessness, lethargy, and worthlessness Varied casual factors: biological and psychological stress; genes; rumination with peers

Suicide - Cluster suicides ○ Several suicides committed by members of a group within a brief period of time - Parasuicide ○ Any potentially lethal action against the self that does not result in death ○ Is common, completed suicide is not - Suicidal ideation ○ Thinking about suicide, usually with some serious emotional and intellectual or cognitive overtones - Statistics ○ More than one-third (35%) of U.S. high schools girls felt so hopeless that they stopped doing some usual activities for two weeks or more in the previous year ○ More than one-fifth (22%) seriously thought about suicide ○ Corresponding rates for boys were 20% and 11.6% Delinquency and disobedience - Behaviors ○ Externalizing and internalizing behaviors are more closely connected in adolescence than at any other age ○ Externalizing: slamming doors, defying parents, criticizing, breaking the law - Breaking the law ○ Most adolescents self-report breaking the law at least one before age 20 ○ Adolescents who are male, ethnic minority, or from a low SES families are more likely to be arrested - Increased anger during puberty is normal, but most adolescents express their anger in acceptable ways ○ Life course persistent offender: a person whose criminal activity begins in early adolescence and continues throughout life; a career criminal ○ Adolescence limited offender: a person whose criminal activity stops by age 21 - Pathways to adolescent crime provide early warning signs ○ Stubbornness = defiance ○ Shoplifting = arson and burglary ○ Bullying = assault, rape, and murder - Possible explanations for decrease in adolescent crimes

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Fewer dropouts, wiser judges, smaller families Better contraception and legal abortions, stricter drug laws, more immigrants

Drug use: variations in drug use - Age trends ○ Drug use becomes widespread from age 10 to age 25 and then decreases ○ Drug use before age 15 is the best predictor of later drug use, which increases yearly from ages 10 to 21 Variations by gender ○ Adolescent boys generally use more drugs and use them more often than girls do ○ Gender differences are reinforced by social constructions about proper male and female behavior - Variations by cohorts ○ Cohort differences are evident § U.S. drug use has decreased since 1976 (synthetic narcotic drugs, cigarettes); rapid increase in vaping § Drug availability has limited impact on use; perception of risks does □ 116 internet vendors Harm from drugs - Tobacco ○ Slows down growth (impairs digestion, nutrition, and appetite) ○ Reduces the appetite ○ Causes protein and vitamin deficiencies ○ Can damage developing hearts, lungs, brains, and reproductive systems - Alcohol ○ Most frequently abused drug in among North American teenagers ○ Heavy drinking may permanently impair memory and self-control by damaging the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex ○ Alcohol allows momentary denial of problems; when problems get worse because they have been ignored, more alcohol is needed ○ Denial can have serious consequences - Marijuana ○ Adolescents who regularly smoke marijuana are more likely to drop out of school, become teenage parents, and be unemployed ○ Marijuana affects memory, language proficiency, and motivation Preventing drug abuse: what works? - Antidrug curricula: may increase drug use Th d ti t k d

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○ The advertisements make drugs seem exciting ○ Adolescents recognize the exaggeration ○ The ads give some teenagers ideas about ways to show defiance Advertising campaigns against teen smoking ○ Antismoking announcements produced by cigarette companies may increase use Generational forgetting ○ The idea that each new generation forgets what the previous generation learned, as used here, the term refers to knowledge about the harm drugs can do Massive ad campaigns ○ Have worked in Florida and California, where teen smoking was cut by almost 50% Parental example, social context changes, and price ○ Higher prices, targeted warnings, and better law enforcement have cut down smoking...