Unit 5

• Defining adolescence:

  • ages 11-18
  • biological changes
  • Puberty and hormone production
  • Hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA)axis: adrenal glands and release of hormones (ex: cortisol); prob develops earlier
  • Hypotalamus pituitary gonads (HPG) axis: testes and ovaries
  • Adrenarche: awakening of adrenal glands (6 years)
• Sex hormones:

  • Same level of testosterone and estrogen releases, but during puberty the balance changes
  • GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone) are hormone that cause gonads to enlarge and increase production (estradiol in girls and testosterone in boys) leading to ova or sperm
• • Menarche: first menstrual period for females (~ 12 yrs)
  • peak growth before
  • Spermarche: first ejaculation of sperm for males (~ 14 yrs)
  • Peak growth after
  • Precocious puberty: before age 8
  • Delayed puberty: after age 14
  • Genes: ~ 2/3 of variation is onset
  • Race: Blacks develops faster, Asians develop later
• Secular trend: gradual long term progression towards earlier puberty; each generation has puberty a bit earlier and grown a centimeter taller; stopped in developed nations
• Effects on pubertal timing:

  • Body fat:
  • higher body fat=earlier puberty
  • menarche age declines where health care improved
  • Leptin:
  • affects appetite, abt age 12
  • Chemicals:
  • in food supply
  • females are especially sensitive
  • Stress:
  • athletic children in affluent=delayed puberty
  • bad environment=early puberty
• Puberty:

  • Early maturing girls: lower self-esteem, more depression, poorer body image, older bfs, higher rates of teen pregnancies, more likely to be in an abusive relationship
  • Early maturing boys: more aggressive, law-breaking, alcohol abusing, more confident; size and maturation affect how people respond to them
• Body rhythms:

  • Hypothalamus and pituitary regulate everything
  • Delayed phase preference: phase delayed in circadian sleep-wake cycles (circadian rhythms)
  • Eveningness: more alert at night; may be genetic, more common for males, puts adolescents at risk
  • 3/4 of HS seniors are sleep deprived
  • AAP said school shouldn't start until 8:30
• Growth spurt:

  • very rapid increase of height and size
  • girls: before menarche, age 10
  • boys: after spermarche, age 12
  • each body part increases in size on a schedule; asymmetrical (finger before hands)
  • sequence
  • weight first
  • height
  • muscles, a year or two later
• Diet and nutrition:

  • more calories: (2,200-2,800)
  • may get enough calories, but not nutrients
  • Iron deficiency: reduces energy, more common in girls (prob bc period)
  • Calcium: bone mass, less than 50% of rec intake
• Obesity: may be trending, but still too high worldwide; adolescents become less active, recommend 60 minutes of exercise per day
• Body image

  • anxiety about body image contributes to poor nutrition among teens
  • Girls most unhappy from early to middle childhood
  • boys may be unhappy with muscle mass
  • trends are worldwide
• EDs:

  • increased over teen years, ~40% of girls and 15% of boys
  • Anorexia nervosa: most deadly, underrating
  • Bulimia nervosa: 3x as common, binging and purging
  • Binge-eating: more in adolescent, episodes of overeating
• Uneven brain growth: limbic system and prefrontal Cortex

  • synaptic pruning is still active during adolescents
  • HPG axis influences dev of limbic system
  • prefrontal cortex devs more gradually
  • so.. instinctual and emotional areas dev before reflective ones do
• More efficient brain

  • Synaptogenesis: creation of synapses
  • Synaptic pruning: removal of underused connections
  • Myelination: growth of fatty sheath that cover nerve fibers
• Brain maturation during adolescence: subcortical

  • Changes in brain lead to plasticity during adolescents
  • Limbic system is activated during emotional processing and social rewards
  • Reward circuits matures and is sensitive to dopamine (7x more vs young)
  • Ventral striatum sensitive to immediate rewards at puberty
  • Delayed discounting: future rewards instead of immediate pleasure
• Brain maturation:

  • Prefrontal Cortex: matures after limbic
  • Stronger connection btwn PFC and subcortical of social emotional brain
• Trends in impulsivity:

  • Impulsivity peaks at 12, stabilizes, then drops through early 20s
  • Sensation-seeking: increases at 12, stabilizes then slows down in early 20s
  • Early adolescence is a risky time
• Consequences of brain changes

  • Dopamine and the ventral system: heighten reward system, more with peers, sensitive to immediate pleasure
  • Limbic system: feel emotions more intensely
  • Prefrontal cortex: lack of impulsivity, still developing ability to plan long term
• Cognitive dev:

  • Brain dev + experience leads to cog gains in ..
  • Information processing speed
  • Selective attention
  • Working memory
• Piaget's Formal Operational thought:

  • Age: 11 through adult
  • Can think abstractly and apply logical concepts
• Balance scale task:

  • Dev by Inhelder and Piaget (1958)
  • Must balance a scale with weights req analytical thought
  • Results
  • Less than 6 (preoperational): not understanding how scales work
  • Elementary school (early concrete): only focus on weight and ignore distance
  • After 10 (late concrete): uses trial and error
  • Age 13 (formal operation): understands
• Hypothetical thought:

  • Inductive reasoning "bottom-up"
  • younger children (concrete operations)
  • using facts to make a general conclusion
  • Deductive reasoning "Top-down"
  • by age 14
  • begins with premise, to reach specific conclusion
• • Formal operational skills are influenced by..
  • Maturation of the brain
  • Active experiments with objects in the environment
  • Social interaction with children and adults
  • Supporting research:
  • PFC and abstract thinking
  • Motivation through autonomy and relationships
  • school and thinking
  • cultural practices
• Dual processing thinking: two network within the brain-one for emotional and another for analytical

  • Intuitive thought "gut":
  • reflects limbic system
  • begins with a heuristic (general rule)
  • impulsive and emotional
  • Analytical thought:
  • prefrontal cortex reflects dev
  • formal, logical, rational
  • deliberate and slow
• ToM:

  • Devs during adolescents
  • Two forms: automatic reaction or more thoughtful
  • Advances ToM test: to see which they do better on
  • Social stories: analytic thinking test
  • Reading the emotion in eyes test: intuitive test
• Dual processing and age:

  • Inconsistency: adolescents are analytical and logical on some problem but not others
  • Experience challenges when emotional and logical conflicts
  • Can regress and become vulnerable to destructive norms and sterotypes
  • Gender intensification: beliefs about gender norms, until abt age 15
• Not always logical:

  • capacity to use logical, but may not use it
  • unemotional processing (cool thinking) improved, where as emotional processing (hot thinking) created confusion and mistakes more often in adolescence
  • Quick thinking (due to myelination) "gut"
  • Social variable are more important than intelligence in determining types of thinking used
• Adolescents Egocentrism(Elkind):

  • focus on self and exclude others
  • acute self-conscious
  • Materialism: material possessions of peers
  • change appearance to fit youth
  • Og thought it was for more young adolescents, research suggest also in older
• Beliefs related to adolescents egocentrism:

  1. Imaginary audience: they are the center of attention; everyone's watching appearance and behavior
  2. Personal Fable: feelings and experiences are unique and special; more destined for wonder or tragedy
  3. Invisibility Fable: death occurs when destined; they can't be fatally harmed by things that might harm others
• Adolescent Ego:

  • Distorted self-perception: may not be in reality
  • Misinterpreting: everyones behavior and judgement
  • Rumination: thinking obsessively about personal concerns
  • Imaginary audience: increased self consciousness
  • Invincibly fable: taking more risk
• Education:

  • Primary education: up to age 6
  • Secondary education: ages 7 to 12
  • Tertiary education: college
• Historical changes in schooling:

  • 1900: attended up to 6th, only 6% graduated HS; mostly wealthy boys
  • 1890-1920: industrialization and child labor laws led to increase in secondary education
  • 1950s: more than 50% of adolescents graduated HS
  • End of 20th century: 80% stated until HS, creation of jr high; middle school changed bc earlier puberty
  • Today: HS has become the norm; on avg 1/3 are not in secondary
  • more in under developed countries
• Purpose of secondary school: middle

  • Grades 5-8
  • Important transition for primary vs secondary
  • Engagement starts to go down
  • limited hypothetical thinking, long term planning, and delayed discounting
  • less parents and teacher
  • challenges of pubertal transitions
  • chronic absences
• Purpose of secondary school: high

  • create an educated workforce
  • secondary school linked to countries's economic growth
  • Most US schools are comprehensive high school, so doesn't depend on if they're college bound or not
• Career and Technical Education (CTE):

  • In Europe and Asia: CTE is highly prized... 4/10 choose a vocational track bc it often leads to earnings that are similar to those of an academic track
  • gaining popularity in the US, but more emphasis on technical and academic standards
  • supports students in finding well paying jobs
• Graduation requirements:

  • Variation in requirement for credits, # of years of diff course
  • PE, art, foreign language: required in some states but not others
  • College credits: AP and IB
  • Exit exams req by 8 states
  • Performance portfolios for graduation
• Meaning achievement:

  • only 4/10 adolescents have req skills necessary for adult achievement
  • Increasing divide: COVID caused a falling behind
• Inequity in Achievement:

  • Living in low-income neighborhoods:
  • under-resourced
  • teachers with less exp
  • violence
  • Discrimination
  • 1/3 exp racism, more in AA
  • Stereotypes threat
  • feeling judged in an area where there are common stereotypes about their group and resulting anxiety neg affects their performance
  • Teacher expectations
  • may have lower expectation of youth of color
• International comparison:

  • PISA w/ 15 yr olds applying problem solving and cognition on daily life
  • US ranked top 25% (14/27)
  • large gap btwn scores of low income and high income
  • private does better than public
  • boys better in science
  • TIMSS., ranked 37th
• Abscesses:

  • Chronic absence: missing more than 18 days of school (10%)
  • Spiked during COVID
  • Wealthy: inc by 9%
  • Poor: nearly doubles
  • DC: inc 5%