Formal

• Formal Operations


  Level of cognitive development in adolescents
• Formal Operations


  • Adolescents move away from reliance on concrete, real-world stimuli, and develop capacity for abstract thought
  • Usually around 11 yrs old
  • They can use symbols to represent other symbols, hidden messages, imagine possibilities, create hypotheses
• Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning


  1. Methodical, scientific approach to problem solving

  2. Involves ability to develop, consider, and test hypotheses

  3. Attributed to brain maturation and expanding environmental opportunities
• The new way of thinking of adolescents is as unfamiliar to them as their reshaped bodies, and they sometimes feel just awkward in its use
• Adolescents


  • Can keep many alternatives in mind at the same time yet may lack effective strategies for choosing them
  • Can think about thinking - their own and the other people's thoughts
• Imaginary Audience


  A conceptualized "observer" who is concerned with a young person's thoughts and behavior
• Personal Fable


  • Belief that they are special, their experience is unique, and they are not subject to the rules that govern the rest of the world
  • Underlies much risky, self-destructive behavior
  • Brain immaturity biases adolescent toward risky decision making
• Adolescents


  • Become more skilled in social perspective-taking, the ability to tailor their speech to another person's POV
• Fuzzy-Trace Theory Dual-Process Model


  Decision making is influenced by two cognitive systems: verbatim analytical and gist-intuitional, which operate in parallel