Midterm 2 Flashcards
Why are teenagers so moody when they experience puberty?
- sex hormones
- lack of sleep - teenage brain releases melatonin later on at 1
- the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed.
- teenagers react more quickly from the more emotional part of their brain (amygdala) opposed to running it by the more rational side of brain (prefrontal cortex).
define puberty
how is it characterized?
brain neuroendocrine process occurring primarily in early adolescence.
puberty and adolescence are not the same thing.
it is characterized by:
primary changes = growth of penis / mensturation
secondary = growth of pubic hair, development of breasts, voice
and dramatic changes in height and weight
what are hormones?
chemicals secreted by the endocrine glands and carried through he body by the bloodstream.
what is the HPG axis? (hypothalamus-pituitary-gonands)?
please hormones and controls of gonads: testes in males and ovaries in females.
what is Menarche?
a girls first menstruation cycle. comes later in the pubertal cycle.
what are some of the factors that either make puberty Early onset or Later onset?
Early onset:
- obesity; stress; single parent families
Later onset:
- higher income; lower body weight
How does puberty affect body image?
girls are more self-conscious and less happy in their bodies than boys.
body positivity for both genders increased by the end of adolescence. (more accepting of bodies)
Is a stronger sense of identity within men created by the young men who develop early, or develop later?
late maturing boys in their thirties have a stronger sense of identity
what are some of the negative effects that early maturing girls experience?
more prone to smoking, alcohol, depression, eating disorders, earlier independence, earlier sexual experiences.
what is the corpus collosum?
what happens to it during puberty?
where nerve fibres connect brains’s left/right hemispheres.
during puberty, the corpus callosum thickens, which leads to better information processing.
what is the limbic system?
what happens to it during puberty?
the limbic system is “the seat of emotions”, its considered an older brain and where reactions come from.
a lower, subcortical system in the brain that is the seat of emotions and experience of rewards.
it matures before the prefrontal cortex.
what is the amygdala?
this is a limbic system structure
especially involved emotion (mostly anxiety, anger and fear)
there is a higher percentage of sexually active young adolescent in low income areas of inner cities.
facts
adolescent males who play sports show higher levels of sexual risk taking.
adolescent females who play sports show lower levels of sexual risk taking
ya
what are some of the complications of babies that are born to young moms?
- low birth weight of baby, also increased changes of neurological problems and childhood illness
- moms more likely to drop out of school
- moms more likely to experience depression
what are some positive outcomes of exercise in adolescence?
lower blood pressure, lower incident of type 2 diabetes, lower depressive symptoms.
what are some things associated with if youth decide to exercise or not?
- if parents are active
- peer relationships
- screen based activity
kids should be getting 10 hours of sleep and at least 1 hour of vigorous exercise per night.
yes mam
use of alcohol before age 11 linked to a higher risk for alcohol dependence in adulthood.
however parental monitoring (like in France how they give their kids a little bit of booze and model what social drinking looks like) then there tends to be lower amounts of problem behaviour (steeling alcohol) by adolescence.
oooo
what is the strongest predictor of substance use in adolescence?
their peers.
> > this is why parental involvement is important (to know who your children is friends with)
what is Anorexia nervosa?
eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation
what is bulimia nervosa?
eating disorder where individual consistently follow a binge-and-purge pattern, self-inducing vomiting or using a laxative // or compulsive exercising.
What stage would adolescents be in in Piagets theory of cognition as they go through puberty?
Formal operational Stage
- can think about things like love, justice, ect.
- adoslecents an conjure up purely hypothetical make-believe situation, and try to reason logical about them.
- increased tendency to think about though itself and think more socially.
HYPOTHETICAL-DEDUCTIVE REASONING - begin to think more like a scientist, devising plans to solve problems/ systematically testing solutions
In David Elkind’s theory of cognitive development, what would characterize adolescence.
- Adolescent egocentrism = heightened self
- imaginary audience = belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are, leading to attention- getting behaviour
- Personal Fable = sense of uniqueness and invincibility(invulnerability) “nobody gets me, nobody understands me”. also can be in risk behaviour.