Psych 205 chapter 15 PDF

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Dr. Barbara Strock (TA: Sara Valencia Botto); Section 1; Fall Semester 2018...

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Piaget’s Theory: Formal Operational Stage Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning - hypothetico-deductive reasoning ฀   when faced with a problem, start w/ a hypothesis, from which they deduce logical, testable inferences, then systematically isolate and combine variables to see which of these inferences are confirmed in the real world o begins w/ possibilities and proceeds to realities - adolescence is when this begins - Piaget’s pendulum problem o Children presented with strings of diff lengths, objects of diff weights to attach to the strings, and a bar from which to hang the strings o Asked to figure out what influences the speed with which a pendulum swings through its arc o Formal operation children can hypothesize that there are 4 potential influencers ▪ Length of string ▪ Weight of hanging object ▪ How high the object is raised before released ▪ How forcefully the object is pushed o By varying one factor at a time, they can test each variable Propositional Thought - propositional thought ฀  adolescents  ability to evaluate the logic of propositions (verbal statements) without referring to real-world circumstances - poker chip experiment o kids shown a pile of poker chips and asked true or false statements o adolescent kids understand the either or statements (such as the poker chip is either  green or n ot green) but the younger kids didn’t understand Follow-Up Research on Formal Operational Thought - are children capable of hypothetico-deductive and propositional thinking? o Younger kids show glimmers of it but are less competent than adolescents - Logical necessity of propositional reasoning ฀   the accuracy of conclusions drawn from premises rests on the rules of logic, not on real-world confirmation o Little kids lack this understanding - With age, adolescents become better at analyzing the logic of a series of propositions, regardless of their content - Move from concrete examples to logical thinking - Do all individuals reach the formal operational stage? o Many well-educated adults fail hypothetico-deductive tasks and have trouble reasoning with sets of propositions that contradict real-world facts o People are most likely to think abstractly and systematically on tasks they have extensive guidance and practice in such reasoning o Without the opportunity to solve hypothetical problems, people in some societies might not display formal operations An Information-Processing View of Adolescent Cognitive Development

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information-processing theorists ฀   refer to a variety of specific mechanisms, including diverse aspects of executive function, as underlying cognitive gains in adolescence o attention ฀   becomes more selective & better-adapted to the changing demands of tasks, planning improves o inhibition ฀   inhibition, both of irrelevant stimuli and of well-learned responses in situations where they are inappropriate, improves, supporting gains in attention and reasoning o strategies ฀   become more effective, improving storage, representation, and retrieval of info o knowledge ฀   increases, easing strategy use o metacognition (awareness of thought) ฀   expands, leading to new insights into effective strategies for acquiring info and solving problems o cognitive self-regulation ฀   improves, yielding better moment-by-moment monitoring, evaluation, and redirection of thinking o working memory ฀   increases as speed of thinking and processing capacity increase ▪ more info can be held in the mind at once and combined into increasingly complex, efficient representations Scientific Reasoning: Coordinating Theory with Evidence - Kuhn’s research on the development of scientific reasoning o Had 3rd  , 6th , 9th graders and adults o Each given evidence (sometimes consistent and sometimes contradictory) and then questioned about it o Found that the capacity to reason like a scientist improved with age o These findings reveal that on complex, multivariable tasks, children often blend evidence and theory into a single representation of the way things are ▪ Especially likely to overlook evidence that doesn’t match their prior belief How Scientific Reasoning Develops - key factors in adolescents gaining skills at coordinating theory with evidence o greater working-memory capacity o permitting a theory and the effects of several variables to be compared at once o exposure to increasingly complex problems o instruction that highlights critical features of scientific reasoning - metacognitive understanding is vital for scientific reasoning - adolescents and adults vary widely in scientific reasoning skills - adolescents develop scientific reasoning skills in a step-by-step fashion Consequences of Adolescent Cognitive Changes Self-Consciousness and Self-Focusing - two main types of cognitive distortions in adolescence o imaginary audience ฀   adolescent’s belief that they are the focus of everyone else’s attention and concern

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as a result of this, become self-conscious and go to great lengths to avoid embarrassment o personal fable ฀   certain that others are observing and thinking about them, teenagers develop an inflated opinion of their own important (a feeling that they’re special and unique) Idealism and Criticism - adolescents’ capacity to think about possibilities opens up the world of the ideal - teenagers often construct grand and ideal visions of the world - teenage idealism and criticism are advantageous o once adolescents see other people as having both strengths and weaknesses, they have a much greater capacity to work constructively for social change and to form positive and lasting relationships Decision Making - adolescents handle cognitive tasks more effectively than when they were younger - teenagers aren’t as good at decision making than adults - good decisions involve… o recognizing the range of possible response options o identifying pros and cons to each alternative o assessing the likelihood of various outcomes o evaluating one’s choice in terms of whether one’s goals were met o learning from the mistake and making a better future decision Sex Differences in Mental Abilities Verbal Abilities - girls o higher scores in reading and writing o more efficient language processors - boys o do poorly in writing o rely heavily on sensory brain regions and process spokean dn written words differently - maternal and paternal involvement influence the achievement and educational attainment of adolescents Mathematical Abilities - studies about sex differences in math abilities in early school grades are inconsistent - girls o tend to be advantaged in counting, arithmetic computation, and mastery of basic concepts - boys o outperform girls later in childhood when math concepts become more abstract and special o have advantages in two skill areas ▪ more rapid numerical memory ▪ superior spatial reasoning - the gender gap is relatively small - social pressures are also large influence

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math can be seen as a masculine subject ▪ perpetuated by peers and parents ▪ reduce girls’ confidence and interest in math - stereotype threat ฀   fear of being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype Language Development Vocab and Grammar - older adolescents use more abstract nouns and metacognitive verbs (i.e. realize, conclude, hypothesize) - teenagers more effectively analyze and correct their grammar Pragmatics - a major improvement in adolescents’ communication skills is an improved capacity to adapt language style to social context Learning in School School Transitions - impact of school transitions o adjustment problems o kids’ grades can decline with school transitions ▪ less personal attention ▪ more whole-class instruction ▪ less chance to participate - those dealing with other life strains (family disruption, poverty, parental conflict or unavailability) are at greatest risk for self-esteem and academic difficulties - helping adolescents adjust to school transitions o need support from parents, teachers, and peers Academic Achievement - early positive educational environments, from family or school, leads to personal traits that support achievement o intelligence o confidence in one’s own abilities o desire to succeed o high educational aspirations - child-rearing styles o authoritative parenting ▪ linked to higher grades ▪ predicts mastery-oriented behavior in childhood o authoritarian and permissive styles ▪ linked to lower grades o uninvolved style ▪ predicts the poorest grades and worsening school performance over time - parent-school partnerships o high-achieving students typically have parents who keep tabs on their child’s progress, communicate with teachers, and make sure their child is enrolled in challenging , well-taught classes o linked to SES

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the daily stresses of living in low-income, high-risk neighborhoods reduce parents’ energy for school involvement - peer influences o peers play an important role in adolescent achievement o teenagers whose parents value achievement not only tend to be academically motivated but generally choose friends who share the same values o peer support for high achievement depends on the overall climate of the peer culture o schools that build close networks between teachers and peers can prevent negative outcomes o teenagers use of text messaging and e-mail to remain continuously in touch w peers is an aspect of contemporary peer-group life that poses risks to achievement - school characteristics o adolescents need school environments that are responsive to their expanding powers of reasoning and their emotional and social needs o classroom learning experiences ▪ large, departmentalized secondary schools lack warmth and supportiveness (dampens motivation) o tracking ▪ ability grouping is detrimental during the elementary school years ▪ by high school, some grouping in unavoidable ▪ college preparatory tracks accelerate academic progress, while no formal tracking decelerates it ▪ breaking out of a low academic track is difficult Dropping Out - 7% of 16-24 year olds dropped out of high school - factors related to dropping out o persistent pattern of disruptive behavior combined w poor academic performance o other times it’s more bc of academic difficulties and disengagement o the pathway to dropping out starts early - prevention strategies o supplementary academic instruction and counseling that offer personalized attention ▪ intensive remedial instruction in small classes that give warm, caring teacher-student relationships ▪ academic assistance + social support o high-quality vocational education ▪ real-life application of vocational education is more comfortable and effective than purely academic work in some cases o efforts to address the many factors in students’ lives related to leaving school early ▪ programs to strengthen parent involvement ▪ offer flexible work-study arrangements

▪ provide onsite child care for teen parents participation in extracurricular activities ▪ draw them into the community life of the school Vocational Development Selection a Vocation - young people move through several periods of vocational development o fantasy period ฀   in early and middle childhood, children gain insight into career options by fantasizing about them ▪ choices bear little relation to the decisions they’ll eventually make o tentative period ฀   between ages 11-16, adolescents think about careers in more complex ways, at first in terms of their interests, and then in terms of their abilities and values o realistic period ฀   by the late teens and early twenties, with the economic and practical realities of adulthood just around the corner, young people narrow their options ▪ exploration ฀   gathering more info about possibilities that blend with their personal characteristics ▪ crystallization ฀   focus on a general vocational category and experiment for a time before settling into a single occupation Factors Influencing Vocational Choice - it’s a result of a dynamic interaction between person and environment - many things influence the decision o personality o family o teachers o gender stereotypes - role of personality in vocational choice ฀   people are attracted to occupations that complement their personalities - John Holland’s 6 personality types that affect vocational choice o Investigative person ฀   enjoys working with ideas, is likely to select a scientific occupation o Social person ฀   like interacting with eople, gravitates toward human services o Realistic person ฀   prefers real-world problems and work with objects, tends to choose a mechanical occupation o Artistic person ฀   emotional and high in need for individual expression, looks toward an artistic field o Conventional person ฀   likes well-structured tasks and values material possessions and social status, has traits well-suited to certain business fields o Enterprising person ฀   adventurous, persuasive, a strong leader, is drawn to sale and supervisory positions or to politics - Family influences o Young people’s vocational aspirations correlate strongly w their parents’ jobs o Higher SES families o

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Parents probably have prestigious jobs ฀   kids more likely to aspire to that Parents more likely to give their kids important info about the worlds of education and work and probably has connections Parenting practices shape work-related preferences

▪ Teachers o Influential teachers have an effect on what kids are interested in - Gender stereotypes o Women’s progress in entering and excelling in male-dominated professions has been slow o Although girls receive higher grades than boys, they enter secondary school with much lower self-esteem o During high school and college, females’ career aspirations decline as many question their capacity Vocational Preparation of Non-College-Bound Adolescents - much harder to find a job without a college degree in the US -...