BESC1120 Study Guide - Final Guide: Mental Chronometry, Moral Reasoning, Decision-Making
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EXAM NOTES - Developmental Psychology
Adolescence
Lecture 8:
Chapter 10: Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence
Adolescence = The stage of development between childhood and adulthood, from about 12 to 20 years of
age.
Cognitive Development
Revolution in way able to think
Show a type of logical thought, allowing them to systemically manipulate a number of different
factors simultaneously (which is not apparent in younger children’s modes of thinking)
Capable of weighing up pros and cons of such issues such as experimenting with drugs, or
embarking on a sexual relationship
Able to think abstractly – entertaining possibilities that are freed from the constraints of the here
and now – hypothetical situations (for example …’What would happen to society if a nuclear war
broke out?’ OR ‘What if I was born into a really poor family?’) – they can imagine what these
situations might be like even though they’ve never experienced them
These new skills in speculative thought – stimulate to think critically about their own actions /
feelings and others as well (eg. ‘perhaps she said she didn’t want to go out with me because she’s
grossed out by my pimples’)
2 major theoretical viewpoints have emerged in relation to this thinking in adolescence.
Piaget’s Theory: the stage of formal operations:
Between aprox ages 12-15, cognition undergoes a qualitative transformation from ‘concrete
operational thought’ to ‘formal operational thought’ (a more abstract way of thinking)
Thinking characterised by mental manipulations using internal representations alone
Logic, abstract thought
Typifies adolescence and adulthood
Concrete thought involves mental manipulations (operations) performed on observed situations or
actual objects – whereas formal thought is on ‘operations on operations’ – can perform mental
manipulations (operations) using internal representations (thoughts) alone – not tied to observable
situation and things
Hypothetico-deductive
Propositional
Combinatorial
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning:
A logical form of thinking in which hypotheses are systematically tested using scientific method
Systematic, scientific approach
Piaget found, around age 13 individuals are first able to make hypotheses from own observations
and can test them systematically
This ability is called hypothetico-deductive reasoning
It underpins the scientific method used in experiments in all science branches
Dealing with multiple factors / dimensions of a problem
Pendulum problem – experiment with strings (multiple variables effecting the speed)
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Propositional Reasoning:
Thinking that involves making inferences from premises which are presented as true, so that the
concluding statement is also true
Understanding of this reasoning is part of formal operations stage
Eg. A premise might consist of “cats run faster than sports cars” , the second premise might be
“sports cars run faster than family sedans” ----- with the logical conclusion that “cats must therefore
run faster than family sedans” – correct in this situation in formal stage, however in concrete stage
the child would say it isn’t realistic because sports cars are faster than cats and therefore the
conclusion is invalid
Inability of concrete operational children to distinguish the factual content of the problem from the
logic of the argument
Older adolescents aged 15-18 are able to do this
Variations in the development of formal operations:
Horizontal decalage = the sequential acquisition of concepts across different content areas within a
single stage of cognitive development
Not all types of formal thinking emerge at the same time so Piaget applied this – assumed
horizontal decalage
Some things are learnt before others – sequential – developmental sequencing in cognitive tasks
Wide individual differences in formal operational thinking
Depends on environmental circumstance – class, location, etc
Development of formal operations is heavily dependant on sociocultural context including the
degree to which the environment calls upon different types of thinking (not purely on
accommodation and assimilation proposed by Piaget)
Later researchers argue these formal operations tasks might only apply in academic settings,
everyday problem solving involves much less of this systematic reasoning
Everyday problem solving – more about considering circumstances surrounding a problem to lead
to the best or most mature outcome (post formal thinking)– not necessarily the fully logical solution
like Piaget suggests
Impact of formal operations on adolescent behaviour:
The development of formal operational thought impacts adolescents behaviour in number of ways
Enables teens to think more critically and flexibly about things such as parents authority –argue
with their parents more skilfully than they could as children often using multiple viewpoints
Has lead to expansions in education and social relationships
Able to better assimilate the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of their culture, and to
understand philosophical and abstract topics at school eg. literary analysis, and abstract concepts in
science at highschool that couldn’t be done in primary school
Information-processing theories and adolescent cognitive development:
Human cognition is a complex system of information storage and retrieval with several distinctive
processes (attention, encoding, memory and thinking)
Continuous process, no stages
Development in cognition leads to greater knowledge, improved skills, improved memory,
improved attention
Later advances are built upon a foundation of earlier cognitive achievements
One of the most fundamental components of info processing is attention (capacity to focus
cognitive resources on a task)
Sustained attention – individual maintains attention over prolonged period of time
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Document Summary
Chapter 10: physical and cognitive development in adolescence. Adolescence = the stage of development between childhood and adulthood, from about 12 to 20 years of age. Show a type of logical thought, allowing them to systemically manipulate a number of different factors simultaneously (which is not apparent in younger children"s modes of thinking) Capable of weighing up pros and cons of such issues such as experimenting with drugs, or embarking on a sexual relationship. 2 major theoretical viewpoints have emerged in relation to this thinking in adolescence. Between aprox ages 12-15, cognition undergoes a qualitative transformation from concrete operational thought" to formal operational thought" (a more abstract way of thinking) Thinking characterised by mental manipulations using internal representations alone. A logical form of thinking in which hypotheses are systematically tested using scientific method. Piaget found, around age 13 individuals are first able to make hypotheses from own observations and can test them systematically.
