PSYC 3310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Frontal Lobe, Cultural Diversity, Amygdala
20 Jun 2018
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CHAPTER 1 ADOLESCENCE
Themes and Approaches
Ecological Systems Approach
• Ecological systems: the interacting structures both within the adolescent,
and in the adolescents’ surroundings
o E.g., physical, cognitive, and emotional functions, and family, peers,
school, and the community
• Fundamental changes in their biological, cognitive, and self-systems acts on,
and is acted on, by the others.
o E.g., The physical changes of puberty affect how they think of
themselves, which may affect their diet and exercise patterns.
• The social contexts that they are in may be affected by others and by the
relationships among the others.
Stage-Environment Fit
• Stage-environment fit: the ways developmental changes in an adolescent
interrelate with changes in the adolescent’s social environment
• E.g., The same parental approach is likely to meet with very different
responses from adolescents aged 13, 15, or 17.
• Often there is some degree of mismatch between an adolescent’s stage and
environment.
Cultural Diversity and Globalization
• Cultural diversity: the variety of customs, beliefs, expectations, and
behaviours that are typical of adolescents from different cultural and
ethnocultural backgrounds
• Globalization: the tendency for economic, social, and political events and
trends in one part of the world to have an impact on lives in other, distant
parts of the world
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• Adolescents everywhere are affected by the clash between their particular
cultural ideas and customs on the one hand, and those promoted by an
increasingly global information and media culture on the other.
Applications
• Ways of taking knowledge about adolescents that is derived from research
and putting it to practical use
Educated Consumers
• Those whose understanding of the field of adolescence and of the ways
knowledge is gathered allows them to judge the strengths and weaknesses of
new findings
Positive Development
• Much of the research in adolescence and discussion of adolescence in the
media concentrates on adolescent problems.
o It is important to understand these problems and to discover ways to
treat or prevent them.
• Positive development: the study of factors that encourage adolescents to
develop in a positive direction
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Defining Adolescence
• Adolescence is a name we use to single out a particular segment of a
lifespan.
• Some ways of defining the age boundaries of adolescence
Orientation
From
To
Chronological
11 or so
20 or so
Physical
Start of growth spurt
Full adult sizes
Sexual
Appearance of secondary sex
characteristics
Ability to reproduce
Familial
Parents grant more freedom
Achievement of independence
Psychosocial
Beginning of quest for identity
Achievement of a sense of
identity
Interpersonal
Shift in influence from family
to peers
Achievement of intimacy with
peers
Educational
Finish elementary school
Finish formal education
Social
Begin to date, enter work
world
Leave home, get a job, enter
steady relationship
Adolescence as a Transition Period
• Transition period: period of growth and change that is set off when
something disturbs an earlier balance
o Continues until a new equilibrium in reached
o Transitions of adolescence are especially varied and far-reaching –
profoundly affect the physical, cognitive, emotional, sexual, and social
realms and reach beyond these as well.
• Normative transitions are those that are expected to occur within a given
culture.
o Changes that most adolescents go through at roughly the same pint in
their development
o E.g., In Canada, we can expect that adolescents graduate from high
school, begin dating, begin choosing a career path, etc.
Document Summary
Applications: ways of taking knowledge about adolescents that is derived from research and putting it to practical use. Educated consumers: those whose understanding of the field of adolescence and of the ways knowledge is gathered allows them to judge the strengths and weaknesses of new findings. Defining adolescence: adolescence is a name we use to single out a particular segment of a lifespan, some ways of defining the age boundaries of adolescence. Leave home, get a job, enter steady relationship. 5: intended to keep them dependent and prevent them from competing with adults for jobs. German romantic poets such as goethe and schiller: sturm und drang or storm and stress: the belief that adolescence is necessarily a very tumultuous period. Baby boomers (1960s: during the 1960s, the proportion of adolescents in the population increased by as much as 30%, became politically and socially minded, eg. , protests against racism and war.
