5. Adolescence Development Flashcards
(38 cards)
What is adolescence?
derives from latin
- ‘to grow into adulthood’
What ages do early, middle and late adulthood occur?
- early: 10-13
- middle: 14-18
- late: 19-25
What does adolescence begin with?
puberty
- period of rapid physical growth and sexual maturation
What are the key characteristics of puberty?
- sequence of changes is universal, but timing varies (typically 3-5yrs)
- age of onset: 8-15 years
What factors affect the onset age for puberty?
- sex: girls ahead of boys by months/years
- stress = earlier
- genes and ethnicity
- weight: malnutrition delays puberty, obesity is the opposite
When does adolescence end?
- in the 1960s was thought to be 18-10
- social revolution further lengthened adolescence as uni student lingered in this stage of life
- contemporary society it is determined by social factors rather than biologically
How did Stanley Hall historically view adolescence?
- period of ‘inevitable turmoil’ taking place during the transition from childhood to adulthood
- focus on aggression and crime
How does the storm and stress model explain adolescence?
- conflicting instincts and urges: triggered by puberty
- stress and turmoil caused by changes
- individual development takes over evolutionary development ‘appropriate environment’
- ‘reborn’ into ‘civilised society
What are the key components of the storm and stress model?
- a model that considers evolutionary, hormonal and environmental factors (all linked)
- Hall saw human development as a reflection of the evolutionary development the species went through (animalistic to civilised)
- this is mediated by biology
What are key components of the maturational imbalance model (dual system model)?
- suggests there is an imbalance between systems that mature early in development (limbic, affective-motivational system) and systems that are late to mature (cortical control system)
- this imbalance gives rise to adolescent-specific behaviours: such as greater propensity to take risks
What is the limbic system?
- ‘primitive part of the brain’
- no universal agreement on the complete list of structures
areas that most agree on:
- cingulate gyrus
- ventral striatum
- hypothalamus
- amygdala
- hippocampus
What areas of the brain are involved in social-emotional processing?
- ventral striatum: responsible for salience of behaviour and motivation (greater activity = predict risk taking behaviours)
- amygdala: responsible for emotion processing and fear responses
- prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex: responsible for executive function, behavioural control and decision making
What is the maturational imbalance model?
children:
- prefrontal cortex (PFC) and subcortical regions are equally underdeveloped
- pathways between them are also underdeveloped: don’t communicate well
adolescents:
- imbalance: PFC signalling much weaker than subcortical regions
- pathways are also imbalanced: subcortical regions in charge of PFC
- limbic system leads, leading to display of adolescent behaviours
adults: fully matured brain
- PFCs signalling strengthens
- subcortical region signal lessens
- areas communicate well: PFC mediates limbic system allowing behaviours to even out
What are the key components of the maturation imbalance model?
- model for enhanced ‘affective and incentive-based’ behaviour in adolescence
- early maturation of the subcortical regions such as the amygdala and ventral striatum
- late maturation of prefrontal cortical regions
- predicts non-linear enhancement in affectively-driven behaviour during adolescence
What study did Galvan and McGlennan conduct into adolescents response to taste?
tested: 15 adolescents and 15 adults
two stimuli:
- appetitive: sucrose water
- aversive: salt water
What did Galvan and McGlennan find about adolescents response to taste?
adolescents rated sucrose more positively and salt more negatively than adults (bigger reaction)
- ventral striatum was more activated by sucrose water in adolescents than adults
- caudate was more activated by salt water in adolescents
- insula was more activated by salt water in adults
What study did Hare et al conduct into adolescents response to faces?
tested 3 groups on their responses to emotive faces:
- 12 children
- 24 adolescents
- 24 adults
- PPs completed a no-go task with fearful, happy and calm facial expressions as targets and nontargets
- PPs told to respond when seeing one facial expression
What did Hare et al find about adolescents response to faces?
- exaggerated activity in amygdala for adolescents
What study did Chein et al conduct into risk taking in adolescents?
- randomly assigned adolescents, young adults and adults to complete a series of tasks
- either alone or with a peer (same sex and same age)
- risk taking propensity was assessed using the stoplight game
What did Chein et al find about adolescents risk taking?
- adolescents had significantly more risks with peer (more crashes)
- they also has had much more activation in the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex with peers and in comparison to the other groups
- the presence of peers increases adolescent risk taking by heightening sensitivity to the potential reward value of risky decisions
- risk is viewed as having a higher reward
Why is adolescence seen as an age of vulnerability?
- ‘window of vulnerability’ to risky behaviour
- key period for preserving life-long health (social, mental, physical etc)
- 75% of lifetime mental health disorders have their onset before 24
- quality of relationships in this time manifest to those later in life
What evidence did Degenhardt et al find for age of onset being inconsistent across substances?
used a large sample from 17 countries
- alcohol: 16-19
- cannabis: 18-19
- cocaine: 21-24
- is the age of onset variation due to ease of access?
What did Dick et al show about nature and nurture for alcohol use behaviour?
- both influence behaviour: nature more so
- steady increase in the influence of genetic factors on alcohol use across adolescence
- corresponding decrease in the influence of common environmental factors
What evidence did Bourque et al find for substance use increasing the risk of psychosis?
- becoming more regular marijuana user during adolescence is associated with increased risk of psychotic symptoms
