Development Part 3 Development in Adolescence Physical Development

Development Part 3

Development in Adolescence • • Physical Development Social Development – Role of peers vs parents – Imaginary audience – Spot-light effect Psychosocial development – Erikson Moral development – Kohlberg

Physical Development of Adolescence begins with puberty (sexual maturation). Puberty occurs earlier in females (11 years) than males (13 years). Thus height in females increases before males.

Primary Sexual Characteristics During puberty primary sexual characteristics — the reproductive organs and external genitalia — develop rapidly.

Secondary Sexual Characteristics Also secondary sexual characteristics—the nonreproductive traits such as breast and hips in girls and facial hair and deepening of voice in boys develop. Pubic hair and hair in armpit grow in both sexes.

Puberty: Girls • • • Ages 8 -10 Girls begin to appear chubby. Reaches peak at age 12. Menarche is a women’s first menstrual cycle. Studies indicate that girls that develop faster tend to have lower self esteem.

Puberty: Boys • • • Ages 9 -16 Growth spurt peak at age 14 Develop fat but go right into lean lanky phase. Spermarche is a boys first ejaculation. Boys tend to have higher self esteem if they develop earlier.

Asynchrony • Awkward stage for both boys and girls • Asynchrony the condition in which the growth of bodily parts is uneven

Brain Development Until puberty neurons increase their connections, however, at adolescence selective pruning of the neurons begin. • During adolescence neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin which speeds up nerve conduction. • Frontal cortex lags behind limbic system development. • Hormonal surges and limbic system may explain teens’ occasional impulsiveness.

Erikson and Psychosocial Development • Personality is profoundly influenced by our experiences with others (he was a Neo-Freudian) • Believed people face different crises in their lives that they must resolve in order to continue healthy development (8 stages) Erikson studied in Austria under Anna Freud. He fled to U. S. in 1933 from Austria due to threat of Nazi power. (1902 – 1994)

Psychosocial Development

Developing an identity • Main goal during adolescence is to develop a clear sense of “self” • Will try on various roles in different settings (home, school, with friends, etc) • Explore their own values • While they are trying to define themselves, there is still a need to “fit-in”. – This can be difficult for teens who feel different from others regarding parts of their identity

Identity and Self-Esteem A positive self-identity is connected to positive self-esteem! Having a social identity that is devalued will affect overall self-esteem Reinforcing positive social identity development is very important.

Parent and Peer Influence Although teens become independent of their parents as they grow older, they nevertheless relate to their parents on a number of things including religiosity and career choices. Peer approval and relationships are also very important. This addresses the

Imaginary audience • The feeling experienced when individuals believe everyone is watching or listening to them – result of spotlight effect • Stems from egocentrism • Part of the personal fable (idea that you are unique, perhaps the only who has ever experienced this…) • Examples- changing clothes a lot, matching trends, preoccupied with appearance

Emerging Adulthood Emerging adulthood spans from 18 -25 years. During this time young adults live with their parents and attend college or work. They marry on average in their mid-twenties. Ariel Skelley/ Corbis

Social Clock • Culturally (society’s) preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement • The “best” timing for certain life events • The timing varies from culture to culture.

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Developing Reasoning Power and ideas about morality According to Piaget adolescents can handle abstract problems, i. e. , they can performal operations. Adolescents can judge good from evil, truth and justice, and think about God in deeper terms. AP/Wide World Photos William Thomas Cain/ Getty Images

Developing Morality Kohlberg (1981, 1984) sought to describe the development of moral reasoning. He believed it coincided with Piaget’s ideas of cognitive development Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas, like “Whether a person should steal medicine to save a loved one’s life, ” to children and adolescents and found stages of moral development. “The Heinz dilemma”

Heinz dilemma • Kohlberg based his stages on the responses of school-aged children to following situation: Video

In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2, 000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No. ” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? Why?

• Your partner is dying from a rare disease. Luckily a cure has recently been invented, by one druggist who lives fairly close to you. This druggist is selling the cure for ten times the amount it cost him to make it. You try to raise the money, but even borrowing from friends and taking a loan from the bank, you can only raise half the amount. You go to the druggist and offer to pay him half now and half later, but he refuses, saying that he invented the cure and is determined to make money off it. You beg him to sell it cheaper as your partner will die before you can raise the full amount, but he still refuses. • You believe you could break into his store one night after he has gone home and steal the cure. This would definitely save your partner, although you might be arrested for the crime. • What should you do? • What if you could only steal the cure by killing the 23

Moral Thinking 1. 2. 3. Preconventional Morality: Before age 9, children show morality to avoid punishment or gain reward. How it affects them Conventional Morality: By early adolescence social rules and laws are upheld for their own sake. What others will think Postconventional Morality: Affirms people’s agreed-upon rights or follows personally perceived ethical principles. Examines rights and values

Responses to the Heinz dilemma: “pre-conventional level” • Stage one (obedience): Heinz should not steal the medicine, because he will consequently be put in prison. • Stage two (self-interest): Heinz should steal the medicine, because he will be much happier if he saves his wife, even if he will have to serve a prison sentence.

Responses to the Heinz dilemma: “conventional level” • Stage three (conformity): Heinz should steal the medicine, because his wife expects it; he wants to be a good husband. • Stage four (law-and-order): Heinz should not steal the medicine, because the law prohibits stealing making it illegal.

Responses to the Heinz dilemma: “post conventional level” • Stage five (human rights): Heinz should steal the medicine, because everyone has a right to choose life, regardless of the law. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine, because the scientist has a right to fair compensation. • Stage six (universal human ethics): Heinz should steal the medicine, because saving a human life is a more fundamental value than the property rights of another person. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine, because others may need the medicine just as badly, and their

How about a modern day Heinz dilemma… • Millions of Medicare-age Americans are drug dependent, not because of addiction but because of common chronic health problems such as diabetes, heart failure, high blood pressure and arthritis. Seniors are upset because drug company control of distribution and pricing of pharmaceuticals is eating away hard-earned nest eggs. Who cares? Where's the justice?

• You witness a man rob a bank, but instead of keeping the money for himself, he donates it to a local orphanage. You know this orphanage has been struggling for funding, and this money will allow the children to receive proper food, clothing and medical care. If you report the crime, the money will be taken away from the orphanage and given back to the bank. • What should you do? 30

• You are an EMS technician that has just been called to the scene of an accident. When you arrive you see that the car belongs to your wife. Fearing the worst you rush over, only to see she is trapped in her car with another man. He is obviously her lover, with whom she’s been having an affair. • You reel back in shock, devastated by what you have just found out. As you step back, the wreck in front of you comes into focus. You see your wife is seriously hurt and she needs attention right away. Even if she gets immediate attention there’s a very high chance she’ll die. You look at the seat next to her and see her lover. He’s bleeding heavily from a wound to the neck and you need to stem the flow of blood immediately. • If you attend to your wife, her lover will bleed to death, and you may not be able to save her anyway. If you work on the lover, you can save his life, but your wife will 31

• You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son who tried to escape and wants you to pull the chair from underneath him. He says that if you don’t he will not only kill your son but some other innocent inmate as well. You don’t have any doubt that he means what he says. • What should you do? • What if the other inmate was your other son who was innocent? 32

Carol Gilligan • Criticized Kohlberg – Kohlberg only looked at male subjects • She contended that males and females respond differently to situations – Men look at more absolutes (justice-based orientation) – Women are more relative and relationship based (caring orientation)

Moral Feeling Moral feeling is more than moral thinking. When posed with simulated moral dilemmas the brain’s emotional areas only lighted up when the nature of the dilemmas were emotion driven.

Moral Action Moral action involves doing the right thing. People who engage in doing the right thing, develop empathy for others, self-discipline for themselves to restrain their own impulses.