Adolscene

• White matter


  • Steady increase permits faster information and better communication across hemispheres
  • Increase occurs earlier in women than men
• Neuronal connections


  • Fewer but stronger, smoother, and more effective by mid- to late adolescence, making cognitive processing more efficient
• Brain development


  Starts at the back and moves forward
• Underdevelopment of frontal cortical systems

  May help explain why adolescents tend to seek thrills and novelty and why many of them find it hard to focus on long-term goals
• Heightened neurobehavioral susceptibility to social reward cues


  Peers tend to exert a stronger influence in adolescence
• Formal Operations


  Highest level of cognitive development according to Piaget
• Adolescent cognitive development


  • Move away from reliance on concrete, real-world stimuli
  • Develop capacity for abstract thought
  • Usually around 11 years old
  • Can use symbols to represent other symbols, hidden messages, imagine possibilities, create hypotheses
• Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning


  • Methodical, scientific approach to problem solving, characterizes formal operations thinking
  • Involves ability to develop, consider, and test hypotheses
  • Attributed to brain maturation and expanding environmental opportunities
• Adolescent new way of thinking

  Unfamiliar to them as their reshaped bodies
• Adolescent thinking


  • Can keep many alternatives in mind at the same time
  • May lack effective strategies for choosing them
• Self-Consciousness


  Adolescents can think about thinking - their own and other people's thoughts
• Imaginary Audience


  Conceptualized "observer" 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
• Adolescent social perspective-taking


  • Become more skilled at tailoring their speech to another person's point of view
• Fuzzy-Trace Theory Dual-Process Model


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


  • Offers opportunities to learn information, master new skills, and sharpen old skills
• Educational Practices are based on the assumption that students are, or can be motivated to learn
• Boys are more likely to fail to achieve a baseline of proficiency in reading, mathematics, and science
• Girls do better on verbal tasks that involve writing and language usage
• Boys do better in activities that involve visual and spatial functions helpful in math and science
• Spillover


  Experiences in different contexts influence each other
• Good middle or high school


  • Has an orderly, safe environment, adequate material resources, a stable teaching staff, and a positive sense of community
• Adolescent satisfaction with school

  • Allowed to participate in making rules
  • Feel supported from teachers and other students
  • Curriculum and instruction are meaningful and appropriately challenging and fit their interests, skill level, and needs
• Dropout reasons


  • Low teacher expectations
  • Differential treatment
  • Less teacher support
  • Perceived irrelevance of the curriculum to culturally under-represented groups
• Self-Efficacy beliefs


  Help shape the occupational options students consider and the way they prepare for careers
• Service Learning


  Form of education that promotes social responsibility and service to the community