Adolescence Exam 3

Are peers necessary for development?

Good peer relations might be necessary for normal social development in adolescence Social isolation and rejection are linked with many different forms of problems and disorders Delinquency Substance use/abuse Depression

Three discipline techniques:

Love withdrawal: A parent withholds attention or love from the adolescent Power assertion: A parent attempts to gain control over the adolescent or the adolescent's resources Induction: A parent uses reason and explanation of consequences for others of the adolescent's actions

moral behavior

subjective → behavior that aligns with the beliefs and code of a society (different according to different cultures)

Boundary ambiguity

: The uncertainty about who is in or out of the family and who is performing or responsible for certain tasks in the family system - must be clear and consistent IN STEPFAMILES

Cheating. Do we all do it? Under what circumstances would an adolescent cheat?

A 2006 survey revealed that 60% of secondary school students said they had cheated on a test in school during the past year 1/3 reported that they had plagiarized information from the Internet in the past year Among the reasons students give for cheating include the pressure for getting high grades, time pressures, poor teaching, and lack of interest Cognitive Dissonance

IMPORTANT

About 20% of families, parents and adolescents engage in prolonged, intense, repeated, unhealthy conflict - Toxic Stress

What role does maturation play for the adolescent? What role does maturation play for the parent?

Adolescent changes Physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes in the adolescent can influence parent-adolescent relationships Conflict between parents and adolescents, especially between mothers and sons, is the most stressful during the apex of pubertal growth With increased logical skills, adolescents want to know, often in fine detail, why they are being disciplined Even when parents offer logical reasons for discipline, adolescents' cognitive sophistication may call attention to deficiencies in the reasoning Idealistic thinking comes into play Expectations for both the parent(s) and adolescent may change Adolescents spend more time with peers than when they were children, and also begin to push more strongly for independence Early-maturing adolescents experience more conflict than later-maturing adolescents Parent changes Parental changes that contribute to parent-adolescent relationships involve: Marital satisfaction Economic burdens Career reevaluation Time perspective (vs. adolescent = "unbounded optimism") Health and body concerns Older fathers vs. younger fathers - warmer, better communicators For most parents, marital satisfaction increases after adolescents or emerging adults leave home

Maturation

Adolescent changes Physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes in the adolescent can influence parent-adolescent relationships Conflict between parents and adolescents, especially between mothers and sons, is the most stressful during the apex of pubertal growth With increased logical skills, adolescents want to know, often in fine detail, why they are being disciplined Even when parents offer logical reasons for discipline, adolescents' cognitive sophistication may call attention to deficiencies in the reasoning

Autonomy and Attachment

Adolescents do not simply move away from parental influence into a decision-making world all their own As they become more autonomous, it is psychologically healthy for them to be attached to their parents Emotional development and autonomy is key John Bowlby (1989) and Mary Ainsworth (1979) argue that secure attachment in infancy is central to the development of social competence Attachment style only has a moderate impact on outcome

Emotions in romantic relationships

Adolescents spend a lot of time thinking about romantic involvement Romantic relationships often are involved in an adolescent's emotional experiences Adolescents who have a boyfriend or girlfriend reported wider daily emotional swings than their counterparts who did not

What role(s) do siblings play in adolescent development? Identify positives and negatives.

Approximately 80% of American adolescents have one or more siblings Conflict is only one of the main dimensions of sibling relations Other dimensions include helping, sharing, teaching, fighting, playing, emotional support, rivalry, and communication High sibling conflict can be detrimental to adolescent development, especially when combined with ineffective parenting Positive and negative; love-hate; intimate and irritating Do parents show favoritism? For the majority - YES

Moral Feeling

At about 10 to 12 years of age, individuals develop an empathy for people who live in unfortunate circumstances (Damon, 1988) Children's concerns are no longer limited to the feelings of particular persons in situations they directly observe Adolescents' empathic behavior varies considerably

What is the parent's role in adolescents? What should their role look like? Identify the 4 parenting styles and be able to provide examples of each.

Authoritarian - A restrictive, punitive style Authoritative - A style in which parents encourage adolescents to be independent but still place limits and controls on their actions Neglectful - A style in which the parent is very uninvolved in the adolescent's life Indulgent - A style in which parents are highly involved with their adolescents but place few demands or controls on them

Peer relationships matter. Do parent-child relationships matter? What do we know about the parents' role in moral development?

Certain types of parent-child experiences can induce the child and adolescent to think at more advanced levels of moral reasoning Parents who allow or encourage conversation about value-laden issues promote moral advanced moral thought Unfortunately, many parents do not often provide this... Three discipline techniques: Love withdrawal: A parent withholds attention or love from the adolescent Power assertion: A parent attempts to gain control over the adolescent or the adolescent's resources Induction: A parent uses reason and explanation of consequences for others of the adolescent's actions

What is the difference between a clique and crowd?

Cliques are small groups that range from 2 to 12 individuals and average about 5 to 6 individuals. Usually same sex and age. Crowds are larger than cliques and less personal. (Ex: jocks, druggies, etc) They are based on reputation and they do not have to hang out often.

List and be able to identify examples for the 6 types of friendships.

Companionship Stimulation Physical support Ego support Social comparison Intimacy/affection

Dodge (1993) argues that adolescents go through five steps in processing information about their social world:

Decoding of social cues Interpretation Response search Selection of an optimal response Enactment problem solving!!!!

Family and peer influence

During adolescents, some believe parents have little authority... Parents' choices of neighborhoods, churches, schools, and their own friends influence the pool from which their adolescents select possible friends Parents can model or coach their adolescents in ways of relating to peers - some of this work needs to be done before adolescence Research indicates that secure attachment to parents is related to an adolescent's positive peer relations Adolescent-parent attachments are only moderately correlated with adolescent outcomes

But, I thought adolescents were egocentric?

Females do it better than males: Adolescent females view themselves as more prosocial and empathic Adolescent females also engage in more prosocial behavior than males

Peer Relations

For some adolescents, peers are the most important aspect of their lives Peers: Individuals who are about the same age or maturity level One of the most important functions of the peer group is to provide a source of information about the world outside the family

Socioeconomic status and ethnicity

In many schools, peer groups are strongly segregated according to socioeconomic status and ethnicity Middle-SES students often assume the leadership roles in formal organizations Athletic teams are one type of adolescent group in which African American adolescents and adolescents from low-income families have been able to gain parity or even surpass adolescents from middle- and upper-SES families in achieving status

moral thought

Individual cognitive evaluation of right and wrong, good and bad

Intimacy and homophily

Intimacy in friendship matters...developing trust Need for disclosure and understanding increases in middle adolescence (e.g., age 13) Homophily is "the tendency to associate with similar others" age, sex, ethnicity, and other factors

Influences on the Kohlberg's Stages

Kohlberg emphasized that cognitive development and exposure to social situations are vital. Peer interaction is also a critical part of the social stimulation that challenges individuals to change their moral orientation Researchers have found that more advanced moral reasoning takes place when peers engage in challenging, even moderately conflicting, conversation - "take on another's role" The impact of modeling more advanced moral reasoning Disequilibrium

Latchkey adolescents

Latchkey adolescents typically do not see their parents from the time they leave for school in the morning until about 6:00 or 7:00 P.M. They are called "latchkey" because they carry a key to their home and let themselves into the home while their parents are still at work

Who was Lawrence Kohlberg and what did her propose?

Lawrence Kohlberg (1958, 1976, 1986) crafted a major theory of how adolescents think about right and wrong He proposed that moral development is based primarily on moral reasoning and unfolds in a series of stages Central to Kohlberg's work on moral development were interviews with individuals of different ages

Identify the 3 Levels of Moral Reasoning and the stages in each level. Develop one example of each stage on your own (to understand best...do not use the examples provided in the book).

Level 1:Preconventional Reasoning—the lowest level of moral development Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation Moral thinking is often tied to punishment Stage2: Individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange Individuals pursue their own interests but also let others do the same What is right involves an equal exchange....fairness Examples: Level 2: Conventional Reasoning—intermediate level of moral development at which individuals abide by certain standards (internal), but they are the standards of others (external), such as parents or the laws of society Stage 3: Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity Individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty to others as a basis of moral judgments Children and adolescents often adopt their parents' moral standards at this stage Stage 4: Social systems morality Moral judgments are based on understanding the social order, law, justice, and duty Examples: Level 3: Postconventional Reasoning—the highest level of moral development at which morality is more internal The individual recognizes alternative moral courses, explores the options, and then decides on a personal moral code Stage 5: Social contract or utility and individual rights A person evaluates the validity of actual law and examines social systems in terms of the degree to which they preserve and protect fundamental human rights and values Stage 6: Universal ethical principles The highest stage at which the person has developed a moral standard based on universal human rights Examples:

What stage do adolescents fall in? Do all fall in the same stage? Is it continuous and is each achieved and never revisited?

Most adolescents reason at stage 3 Gradual in adolescents' development & Stages 1-4 are consistent across cultures In one study, Postconventional reasoning did not occur until 20-22 & less than 10% of individuals exhibit postconventional moral reasoning No significant difference between 16-19 year old group and 18-25 year old group.

When comparing children from heterosexual families to those raised by gay or lesbian parents, are there any differences?

Not really

Adolescents will make their OWN choices

Peer relationships can influence interests, activities, interpersonal skills, etc. Believe it or not...parents influence typically holds with more core beliefs and perspective Morals, religion, education

What is empathy?

Positive feelings (i.e., empathy) contribute to adolescents' moral development Empathy: Reacting to another's feelings with an emotional response that is similar to that person's feelings It often has a cognitive component: the ability to discern another's inner psychological states (perspective taking)

Peer Contexts

Positive peer relationships = positive emotions and feelings of acceptance Negative peer relationships = stress and anxiety during a crucial part of development Experience opportunities for adaptive and maladaptive behaviors Influenced by effective management/supervision by parent

What is reciprocal socialization?

Reciprocal socialization: The process by which children and adolescents parents and vice versa Bidirectional and epigenetic As a social system, the family can be thought of as a constellation of subsystems defined in terms of generation, gender, and role Each family member is a participant in several subsystems When the behavior of one family member changes, it can influence the behavior of other family members The mobile effect

What influences moral reasoning? Does a certain style of engagement have a larger impact than another?

Reinforcement, punishment, and imitation have been invoked to explain how and why adolescents learn certain moral behaviors and why their behaviors differ from one another The effectiveness of reinforcement and punishment depends on how consistently they are administered and the schedule that is adopted Adolescents are especially alert to adult hypocrisy, and evidence indicates that they are right to believe that many adults display a double standard

Social skills training

Researchers have found it difficult to improve the social skills of adolescents who are actively disliked and rejected Many are rejected because they are aggressive or impulsive and lack the self-control to keep these behaviors in check... Is this always true? Social-skills training programs have generally been more successful with children 10 years of age or younger than with adolescents Once an adolescent gains a negative reputation among peers, the peer group's attitude is often slow to change, even after the adolescent's behavior has been corrected

Know the differences between romantic and affectionate love.

Romantic love: Also called passionate love or eros, has strong sexual and infatuation components, and often predominates in the early part of a love relationship ♣ Characterizes most adolescent love ♣ Also extremely important among college students Affectionate love: Also called companionate love, occurs when individuals desire to have another person near and have a deep, caring affection for that person ♣ There is a strong belief that affectionate love is more characteristic of adult love than adolescent love

Competent adolescent development is most likely to happen when adolescents have parents who:

Show them warmth and respect Demonstrate sustained interest in their lives Recognize and adapt to their changing cognitive and socioemotional development Communicate expectations for high standards of conduct and achievement Display authoritative, constructive ways of dealing with problems and conflict

Social cognition and emotion

Social cognition involves thoughts about social matters As children move into adolescence, they acquire more social knowledge There is considerable individual variation in how much one adolescent knows about what it takes to make friends, to get peers to like him or her, etc. In a recent study social intelligence was related to peer popularity but not to academic achievement

What role does the marital relationship have on adolescent development? What does the research suggest assists with an adolescent's development?

The Marital Relationship Matters... Now and in the future The most consistent findings are that happily married parents are more: sensitive responsive warm affectionate

Emotion plays an important role in peer relations

The ability to regulate emotion is linked to successful peer relations Moody and emotionally negative individuals experience greater rejection by peers, whereas emotionally positive individuals are more popular Those without peer-related problems generated more alternative solutions (less aggressive solutions)

Gender and Culture

The evidence related to the peer group focuses on group size and interaction in same-sex groups: Boys are more likely than girls to associate in larger clusters Boys are more likely than girls to engage in competition, conflict, ego displays, and risk taking to seek dominance Females are more likely to engage in "collaborative discourse," in which they talk and act in a reciprocal manner Girls' friendships in adolescence are more likely to focus on intimacy; boys' friendships tend to emphasize power and excitement

What does the author mean by hidden curriculum? Provide examples of hidden curriculum.

The hidden curriculum - Why schools were really developed The hidden curriculum is conveyed by the moral atmosphere that is a part of every school The moral atmosphere is created by school and classroom rules, the moral orientation of teachers and school administrators, and text materials

Coparenting

The organizing theme of coparenting is that poor coordination, active undermining and disparagement of the other parent, lack of cooperation and warmth, and disconnection by one parenting partner are conditions that place children and adolescents at developmental risk

Define emotional autonomy? Why is this important?

The relinquish of childlike dependencies on parents. Allows kids to see their there parents as people and not idolize them

Moral development:

Thoughts, behaviors, and feelings regarding standards of right and wrong The intrapersonal dimension The interpersonal dimension

What are values and what role does religion and spirituality play for adolescents?

Values: Beliefs and attitudes about the way things should be Over the past three decades, traditional-aged college students have shown an increased concern for personal well-being and a decreased concern for the well-being of others, especially for the disadvantaged (Pryor & others, 2010)

Values

Values: Beliefs and attitudes about the way things should be Over the past three decades, traditional-aged college students have shown an increased concern for personal well-being and a decreased concern for the well-being of others, especially for the disadvantaged (Pryor & others, 2010) Our discussion of values relates to William Damon's view that he proposed in (described in Chapter 1) Damon concluded that a major difficulty confronting today's youth is their lack of a clear sense of what they want to do with their lives—that too many youth are essentially "rudderless" He argues that their goals and values too often focus on the short term

Divorce continues to be on the rise. What factors impact adolescent adjustment during divorce? Does age impact vulnerability? If so, when is it most difficult?

What factors are involved in the adolescent's individual risk vulnerability in a divorced family Adolescent's adjustment prior to the divorce Personality and temperament Developmental status Custody Gender Relocation

What is altruism?

the unselfish regard for others' welfare

What is a conglomerate strategy? Do they work? For students who lack social skills, we often see recommendations for social skills training. Is social skills training effective?

♣ Conglomerate strategies involve the use of a combination of techniques, rather than a single approach, to improve adolescents' social skills - Not one-size-fits-all ♣ A conglomerate strategy might consist of: ♣ Demonstration or modeling of appropriate social skills ♣ Discussion and reasoning about social skills ♣ Use of reinforcement for enactment of appropriate social skills in social situations ♣ Researchers have found it difficult to improve the social skills of adolescents who are actively disliked and rejected ♣ Many are rejected because they are aggressive or impulsive and lack the self-control to keep these behaviors in check... ♣ Is this always true? ♣ Social-skills training programs have generally been more successful with children 10 years of age or younger than with adolescents ♣ Once an adolescent gains a negative reputation among peers, the peer group's attitude is often slow to change, even after the adolescent's behavior has been corrected

Why is social knowledge so important? Be able to identify Dodge's steps to social information processing

♣ Dodge (1993) argues that adolescents go through five steps in processing information about their social world: ♣ Decoding of social cues ♣ Interpretation ♣ Response search ♣ Selection of an optimal response ♣ Enactment

What internal and external characteristics are linked to loneliness? And, what outcomes do we see with adolescents who experience loneliness?

♣ Example: internal constructs (low SE and shyness) + external constructs (low social acceptance, fewer friends, poor-quality friendship, and victimization) ♣ Chronic loneliness is linked with impaired physical and mental health ♣ Prominent in first year of college - less likely to cope

Who is Harry Stack Sullivan? Why is he such an important theorist in the study of adolescent friendships?

♣ Harry Stack Sullivan (1953) has been the most influential theorist in the study of adolescent friendships ♣ He argued everyone has basic social needs that must be fulfilled. Impacts emotional well-being ♣ During adolescence friends become increasingly important in meeting social needs ♣ The need for intimacy intensifies during early adolescence, motivating teenagers to seek out close friends ♣ If adolescents failed to forge such close friendships, they experience loneliness and a reduced sense of self-worth

How and when do peer pressure and conformity begin to play a larger role in development?

♣ Peer pressure and conformity kicks in around 8th - 9th grade ♣ Low self-esteem and high social anxiety often leads to conformity

What is the function of dating in adolescence? What do we know about dating and its impact on adolescent adjustment?

♣ Recreation ♣ A source of status and achievement ♣ Part of the socialization process ♣ Involves learning about intimacy ♣ Context for sexual experimentation and exploration ♣ Provide companionship ♣ Identity formation and development ♣ A means of mate sorting and selection Dating and adjustment ♣ Researchers have linked dating and romantic relationships with various measures of how well adjusted adolescents are ♣ In one study, the more romantic experiences 10th graders had, the more they reported: ♣ Higher levels of social acceptance, friendship competence, and romantic competence ♣ Adolescent girls report more depressive sxs and emotionally unavailable parents ♣ Higher levels of substance use, delinquency, and sexual behavior Dating and romantic