Chapter 9: Autonomy

2. Susceptibility to Influence

* As adolescents spend more time outside the family, the opinions of others become more important. • Adolescents seek advice from different people in different situations • Peers: short-term, day-to-day, and social matters. • Parents: occupational plans, values, religious beliefs, ethics. • Adults, teachers, mentors: advice with problems - especially those that involve parents. Peer Influence: • Peeks around age 14 • During adolescence, mere presence of friends activates brain regions associated with the experience of reward. • Increased emotion regulation related to resistance of peer influence • Important to remember that not all peer influence is bad, and some can be very good. * Prosocial peers can have a positive impact Demographic differences: • Girls and Black adolescents are less susceptible to peer pressure • Asian Americans and Latinx-American kids are more susceptible • Teens from single parent and/or non-authoritative families are more susceptible to peer pressure.

Domains of Behavioral Autonomy

1. Decision-making abilities 2. Susceptibility to the Influence of Others • Peers • Parents • Adults, teachers, and/or mentors

2 Theories on Emotional Autonomy

1. Detachment: Psychoanalytic Perspective on Emotional Autonomy • Anna Freud argued detachment occurs when • early adolescents begin to detach from their parents emotionally • turn to relationships with peers Characteristic of Freud's Psychoanalytic perspective • "Storm and stress" in the home • High levels of teen-parent tension • Adolescents detach from parents and are driven out of the household by unbearable levels of family conflict • argued absence of conflict meant child was not growing up Research has not supported Freud's assessment. • Increased bickering may be normal, but most families get along during adolescence • Emotional bonds between parents and teens are not severed * Relationships are simply transformed * Bonds become closer during late adolescence • No evidence of "detachment" or "breaking off" of teen-parent relationship

3 Forms of Autonomy

1. Emotional Autonomy • Aspect of independence related to changes in the individual's close relationships, especially with parents. 2. Behavioral Autonomy • The capacity to make independent decisions and follow through on them. 3. Cognitive Autonomy • Having independent values, opinions, and beliefs.

Development of autonomy during adolescence follows three main processes:

1. Puberty 2. Cognitive Changes = Abstract Thinking 3. Imposition of New Social Roles

2 models explain how individuation begins

1. Puberty - some believe puberty is the main catalyst • Changes to physical appearance • Individuation begins shortly thereafter 2. Social-Cognitive - may be provoked by development of more sophisticated understandings of themselves and parents. • Differentiated self-conceptions • Realizing parents are not all-knowing can be liberating and stressful for parents and teens

Emotional Autonomy: maintaining connection is key

Adolescents who become emotionally autonomous: • but also feel distant or detached [Detachment] from their parents, score poorly on measures of psychological adjustment • but still feel close and attached to their parents, are psychologically healthier [Individuation]

Parenting and Behavioral Autonomy

Authoritative Parents: behavioral autonomy is associated with authoritative parenting rather than permissive, authoritarian, or neglectful parenting • Less susceptible to antisocial peer pressure • More susceptible to positive peer influence Peers vs. Parents • Substituting peers for parents leads to problem behavior • Seeking advice from peers [and parents] does not. • Problem: being distance from one's parents Teens become more peer-oriented when parents • Give too much autonomy too early • Restrict autonomy when child is ready ü * * * Parents need to maintain a healthy balance between asserting control and granting autonomy.

Parenting Styles and Emotional Autonomy

Authoritative parenting leads to healthier sense of autonomy amongst adolescents. • Because guidelines are flexible and adequately explained, it is not hard for the family to adjust and modify them as the child matures. • Authoritarian Households: Parents see child's emotional independence as rebellious or disrespectful and resist their need for independence. • Indulgent and Indifferent Families: do not provide sufficient guidance and do not acquire adequate standards for behavior. * Permissively reared teens turn to their peers for advice and emotional support (not genuinely autonomous). * Parents: Caught off guard and may switch to being authoritarian when children begin to need to individuate.

Cognitive Autonomy

Develops after emotional and behavioral autonomy. • Emotional autonomy: see parents more objectively, reevaluate ideas and values previously accepted without question. • Behavioral autonomy: may experience a variety of cognitive conflicts caused by having to deal with competing pressures to behave in a different way. Three important developmental changes related to development of cognitive autonomy: 1. Abstract Thinking 2. Beliefs rooted in General Principles 3. Beliefs based in one's own values vs. parents' value system Development of Cognitive Autonomy follows cognitive changes characteristic of adolescence: • Enhanced reasoning abilities and hypothetical thinking leads to a heightened interest in ideological and philosophical matters. • Ability to consider alternative possibilities and to engage in thinking about thinking allows for the exploration of different value systems, ethics, religious beliefs.

2. Individuation

Healthy emotional autonomy is achieved through a gradual transformation. Individuation: • From infancy through late adolescence • Relinquishing childish dependencies on parents • Preference for more mature, less dependent relationships • Takes responsibility for choices and actions • Does not involve stress and turmoil De-idealization: teens begin to see parents flaws and realize that there are things about themselves that their parents do not know.

1. Decision Making Abilities

With age, individuals are better at: • thinking ahead • imagining and analyzing the consequences of their decisions • seeking and evaluating the advice of others • making decisions that aren't hasty or excessively influenced by their emotions. Cognitive capacities undergoing changes during adolescence: • Consideration of Risks and Benefits • Future Orientation • Perspective Taking (e.g., considering someone else's bias or expertise) • Improved Self-regulation; impulse control

Which of the following types of parenting promotes healthy emotional autonomy in adolescents?

authoritative

Which of the following aspects of autonomy involves the capacity to make independent decisions and follow through with them?

behavioral autonomy

prosocial behavior

behaviors intended to help others

de-idealization

children place their parents on a pedestal; adolescents knock them off it. Psychologists believe that this 'de-idealization' of parents may be one of the first aspects of emotional autonomy to develop, bc adolescents shed their childish images of their parents before replacing them with more mature ones.

As Da-Xia moves into adolescence, her opinions begin to differ from those of her parents. She realizes that her parents are not always right and is starting to develop her own values. Which type of autonomy is Da-Xia developing?

cognitive autonomy

During late adolescence, the susceptibility to peer pressure

decreases.

When is an adolescent most likely to question his or her religious beliefs?

during the early years of college

Peter is noticing changes in the expression of affection and distribution of power in his relationships with his parents. He is less likely to rush to them with a problem and is spending more time with his friends. What type of autonomy is developing with Peter?

emotional

autonomy

emotional, behavioral, and cognitive components * feeling indep, thinking for oneself, and acting independently.

detachment

in psychoanalytic theory, the process through which adolescents sever emotional attachments to their parents or other authority figures

Which of the following types of households creates adolescents who do not develop healthy autonomy, have difficulty complying with rules, and are usually dependent on their friends?

indulgent

civic engagement

involvement in political and community affairs, as reflected in knowledge about politics and current affairs, participation in conventional and alternative political activities, and engaging in community service.

Between middle and late adolescence, individuals become

more likely to weigh the long-term consequences of their choices. Correct

Which of the following is a shift that is noticed in the political thinking of adolescents as they mature?

movement away from obedience

psychological control

parenting that attempts to control the adolescent's emotions and opinions

Reasoning that is based on rewards and punishments is called _________ reasoning.

preconventional

Which of the following events have researchers suggested is one of the most important triggers of the individuation process?

puberty

moral disengagement

rationalizing immoral behavior as legitimate, as a way of justifying one's own bad acts

Issues of autonomy

recur throughout the life span.

behavioral autonomy

the capacity to make independent decisions and to follow through with them

religiousity

the degree to which one engages in religious practices, like attending services

spirituality

the degree to which one places importance on the quest for answers to questions about God and the meaning of life

cognitive autonomy

the establishment of an independent set of values, opinions, and beliefs

emotional autonomy

the establishment of more adult like and less childish close relationships with family members and peers

preconventional moral reasoning

the first level of moral reasoning, which is typical of children and is characterized by reasoning that is based on rewards and punishments associated with different courses of action

postconventional moral reasoning

the level of moral reasoning during which society's rules and conventions are seen as relative and subjective rather than as authoritative; also called principled moral reasoning

service learning

the process of learning through involvement in community service

individuation

the progressive sharpening of an individual's sense of being an autonomous, independent person

conventional moral reasoning

the second level of moral development, which occurs during late childhood and early adolescence and is characterized by reasoning that is based on the rules and conventions of society

1. Puberty

triggers changes in adolescent's relationships. • Evolutionary perspective: independence-seeking is a natural consequence of physical and sexual maturation • Also true in primates • Drives adolescent away from exclusive emotional dependence on the family • As a result of puberty, adolescents look older • May provoke changes in how much autonomy and independence is granted by parents and teachers.

What triggers individuation?

two diff models have been suggested: 1. puberty is the main catalyst 2. stimulated by their cognitive development

2. Intellectual Abstraction

• Abstract thinking develops during adolescence and increases capacity to discern and weigh contradicting perspectives on their own • Cognitive changes provide logical foundation for changes in thinking about social, moral, and ethical problems.

Emotional Autonomy: Changes in the individual's close relationships.

• By the end of adolescence, people are far less emotionally dependent on their parents than they were as children

3. Newly Imposed Social Rules

• Create the opportunity for adolescents to think independently

Parenting and Emotional Autonomy

• Healthy Individuation is nurtured by close family relationships. • Characteristics of Autonomous Adolescents: • Close to parents • Enjoy doing things with family • Have few conflicts with parents • Feel able to turn to parents for advice • See parents as role models • Problematic: parents who are too emotionally close and use psychological control (i.e., intrusive and overbearing)