PS100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Imaginary Audience, Spermarche, Victimisation
Developmental Psychology - Lecture 8
Adolescence - Chapters 10 and 11
Learning Objectives
- To understand
Society’s construction of adolescence
Puberty: timing, variations and impact
Health threats of adolescence
Cognitive development and the impact of education
Moral development in adolescence
Establishment of personal identity, sense of self and self esteem
Peer interaction and friendships
Adolescent pregnancy
Historical Perspectives
- Adolescents “are in character prone to desire and ready to carry out any desire they hay have formed
into action… They are changeful too, and fickle in their desires.” - Freud
- “Our youth now love luxury. They show disrespect for their elders” - Socrates
Social Construction of Youth
- Images of ‘youth
Drunk?
Hoons?
Crime?
- 4 Main Categories
Ideal - Top performing student
Parasite - Living with parents or dole bludger
Threat - Violent, especially in groups
Victim - Need to be protected
Consequences
- Alienation
- Disenfranchisement
- Disempowerment
- Exclusion from rights/powers on the grounds that they are “not ready”
- While protective in intent is often inconsistent, arbitrary and unfair
Adolescence
- Period from age 12 – 20
- Modern Western cultures
- Period of gradual transition
- Traditional Indigenous Australians
- Initiation at puberty
- Abrupt social role change to adult
- ‘Youth’ as a social category rather than a biological one
Puberty
- Primary sex characteristics
Development of sex organs
- Secondary sex characteristics
External changes
- Wide individual differences
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- 9 - 17 years for girls’ menarche
- 10 - 14 years for boys’ spermarche
Variations in Pubertal Development
- Ethnic , cultural, and socioeconomic differences
- Secular trend
- Largely genetically determined
- Environmental factors include
Nutrition
Body fat
Non Normative Puberty - Males
- Early maturing males
Academic, emotional and behavioural problems, but these might be short-lived
Have opportunities for leadership and higher social status with peers
- Late maturing males
Negative impact on esteem short-lived
Develop positive qualities (e.g., insight)
Less pressure to engage in risk behaviours
Non Normative Puberty - Females
- Early maturing females
Negative long- and short-term effects
Premature dating and sexual encounters
Vulnerable to STIs, eating disorders, smoking and drinking, depression, anxiety, poor academic
achievement
Related to family environment
- Late maturing girls
Lower peer status, but generally more positive outcomes
Health in Adolescence
- Risk-taking behaviours
- Obesity
25% Australian adolescents are overweight or obese
- Eating Disorders
Dieting, anorexia, bulimia, steroid or laxative use
- Sexually transmitted disorders
- Substance use
Alcohol, tobacco, drugs
Cognitive Development
- Piaget –formal operational thought
- Logic, abstract thought = Prepositional thinking
- Hypothetico-deductive reasoning (13 years)
- Systematic, scientific approach
- Individual differences in formal operational thinking
- Piaget assumed horizontal decalage
Information-Processing Theories
- The component processing theories argue:
- Development in cognition leads to:
- Greater knowledge
- Improved skills
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Document Summary
Establishment of personal identity, sense of self and self esteem. Adolescents are in character prone to desire and ready to carry out any desire they hay have formed into action they are changeful too, and fickle in their desires. - freud. They show disrespect for their elders - socrates. Parasite - living with parents or dole bludger. Exclusion from rights/powers on the grounds that they are not ready . While protective in intent is often inconsistent, arbitrary and unfair. Youth" as a social category rather than a biological one. 9 - 17 years for girls" menarche. 10 - 14 years for boys" spermarche. Academic, emotional and behavioural problems, but these might be short-lived. Have opportunities for leadership and higher social status with peers. Vulnerable to stis, eating disorders, smoking and drinking, depression, anxiety, poor academic. Lower peer status, but generally more positive outcomes. 25% australian adolescents are overweight or obese achievement.
