risk taking and decision making in adolescence

• In puberty there is a temporary imbalance, with relatively less cognitive control ofthe socioemotional reward system, compared to before during childhood and laterin adulthood
• this imablance causes heightened risk taking in adolescence is the product of an easily arousedreward system and an immature self-regulatory system
• Adolescents are not deficient in their cognitive understanding of the risks but rather in thebalance of emotional impulse and cognitive control, plus other factors influencethem such as enhanced peer influence.
• Risk taking is usually considered in the psychologicalliterature as a kind of “problem behaviour
• However, Ellis et al. (2012) suggested taking anevolutionary life-history perspective. They argue that risk taking can have adaptivefunctions for the individual adolescent
• Risk taking may be an important learning step foradolescents. as it is especially adaptive for adolescentsgrowing up in harsh and unpredictable environmentalsituations—they have ‘less to lose’ by taking risks
• Steinberg (2009) sees increased risk taking as in part a consequence of brain changes inadolescence.

  • Brain changes affect both the balance of sensation seeking as opposed to self-regulation,
• gardner and Steinberg (2005) studied simulated risky car-driving activities in a computergame:

  • compared adolescents and younger/older adults, either playing the game alone or with two peers.
  • assessed risk preference and risk decision making in response to scenarios.
• On all three risk measures, there was a decrease with age but greater risk was taken when peers were present;However, there was a significant interaction between age and the peer condition
• The presence of peers increased risk taking in adolescents (more than doubling the number of risks), muchmore than in younger or older adults