Sommerville, L. H. (2013). Special Issue on the teenage brain: Sensitivity to social evaluation

Question 1

What is the article Sommerville, L. H. (2013) about?

Answer 1

It is a review article that evaluates how continuing brain development partially explains or reflects adolescents’ attunement to social evaluation.

Question 2

What is unique about the adolescent social life?

Answer 2

1. Spend less and less time with their families and more with peers.
2. Digital communication peaks at 14-17 years.
3. Quality of peer interaction changes from acitivty partners to more intimate platonic and romantic relations.
4. Adolescent relations are unstable.

Question 3

What are the conclusions from Sommerville’s review?

Answer 3

Convergent evidence suggests that adolescents display heightened sensitivity to social evaluation at various levels of complexity, and continue to refine their capacity to represent the thoughts and feelings of others.