Week 13: Puberty and Adolescent Development Flashcards
(36 cards)
What are the 3 interdisciplinary approaches to understanding adolescent development?
- Neurobiological Contexts
- Sociological Contexts
- Psychological Contexts
What does G. Stanley Hall’s Storm and Stress Hypothesis describe?
The hypothesis suggests that adolescence is marked by decreases in cognitive control (“storm”) and increased emotional sensitivity (“stress”) to novel stimuli.
What are some characteristics of adolescence according to Hall’s Storm and Stress Hypothesis?
Adolescence is characterized by frequent, intense conflicts with parents, mood disturbance, and risky behaviors.
What core ideas of Hall’s Storm and Stress Hypothesis have been challenged?
Contemporary challenges to the hypothesis include questioning its notion of adolescence being inevitable, normative, and ubiquitous in nature.
What does Arnett’s (1999) critique of Hall’s Storm and Stress Hypothesis argue?
Arnett criticizes Hall’s view that adolescence-specific difficulties are universal and inevitable, suggesting there are individual differences, cultural variations, and effects of chronological time.
What are the key factors Arnett (1999) introduces in understanding adolescence?
Arnett introduces the “4 Ts”: Typicality, Temperament, Transactions, and Timing to understand adolescent development.
What is identity development in adolescence?
Identity development is a major personality achievement and a crucial developmental step toward becoming a productive, content adult, involving defining who you are, what you value, and the directions you choose to pursue in life.
According to Erikson, what happens during adolescence in terms of identity?
Erikson believed adolescents experience an identity crisis, a temporary period of distress as they experiment with alternatives before settling on values, personally meaningful convictions, and goals.
What are the 4 stages of identity development?
- Identity Achievement
- Identity Moratorium
- Identity Foreclosure
- Identity Diffusion
What is Identity Diffusion in Marcia’s theory?
Identity Diffusion refers to a state where individuals are neither committed to values and goals nor actively trying to reach them. They may never have explored identity alternatives.
What is Identity Foreclosure in Marcia’s theory?
Identity Foreclosure occurs when individuals have committed to values and goals without exploring alternatives, often following what authority figures (e.g., parents) have decided for them.
What is Identity Moratorium in Marcia’s theory?
Identity Moratorium refers to a “delay or holding pattern.” Individuals have not yet made definite commitments but are in the process of exploring alternatives, with the desire to find values and goals to guide their lives.
What is Identity Achievement in Marcia’s theory?
Identity Achievement happens when individuals have explored alternatives and are committed to a clearly formulated set of self-chosen values and goals.
What are the two key dimensions in Marcia’s theory of identity development?
The two key dimensions are Crisis (exploration of alternatives) and Commitment (adopting values and goals).
What is puberty?
Puberty is the state of physical development at which individuals are first capable of reproduction. It begins with neuroendocrine changes, hormonal surges, and physical morphological changes, leading to reproductive maturity.
What are the key features of puberty?
Puberty is controlled and sustained by hormones.
It involves morphological changes in height, weight, and body shape.
Puberty is associated with changes in behavior and mood.
What are synapses?
Synapses are tiny gaps between neurons where fibers from different neurons come close together to communicate by releasing neurotransmitters.
What is synaptic pruning?
Synaptic pruning is the process where neurons that are seldom stimulated lose their synapses, returning the neurons to an uncommitted state for future development.
What happens during synaptic pruning?
Neurons that aren’t used frequently lose their synapses, allowing the brain to strengthen important connections and eliminate unnecessary ones for more efficient functioning.
How does synaptic pruning affect brain development?
Synaptic pruning during puberty helps in the structural neural maturation and reorganization of the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, which takes longer to mature compared to sensory perceptual areas.
What happens to gray matter (GM) volume during puberty?
Total gray matter volume increases during early childhood but begins to decrease around puberty due to synaptic pruning, which marks the brain’s structural neural maturation and reorganization.
When does synaptic pruning start?
Synaptic pruning starts around puberty, indicating the beginning of structural neural maturation and reorganization processes in the brain.
Which brain area matures last during synaptic pruning?
The prefrontal cortex matures more slowly compared to sensory perceptual areas during synaptic pruning and neural development.
What is the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)?
The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) is a laboratory task used to measure risk-taking behavior by assessing how much participants are willing to inflate a balloon in order to earn money, with the risk of it popping.
