This document contains my summary of the book for adolescent development. This concerns chapters 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 13, the material for the first partial exam!
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Summary readings for exam 2 Adolescent Development
Literature Adolescent Development
Book summary Adolescent Development UU exam 2 (200500046)
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Interdisciplinaire Sociale Wetenschappen
Adolescent Development (200500046)
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Samenvatting boek AD Deeltentamen 1
Introduction – The Study of Adolescent Development
Adolescence is a time of growing up, of moving from the immaturity of childhood into the
maturity of adulthood, of preparation for the future.
Adolescence is a period of transitions: biological, psychological, social, economic.
For the purpose of this book, we’ll define adolescence as beginning with puberty and ending
when individuals make the transition into adult roles, roughly form age 10 until the early
20s.
Social scientists who study adolescence differentiate among early adolescence (about ages
10 to 13), middle adolescence (about ages 14 to 17), and late adolescence (about ages 18 to
21).
A framework for studying adolescent development based on a model suggested by John Hill.
The model has three basic components:
1) The fundamental changes of adolescence
According to Hill, three features of adolescent development give the period its
special flavor and significance: the onset of puberty (biological), the emergence of
more advanced thinking abilities (cognitive), and the transition into new roles in
society (social).
Biological transitions – involves changes in the young person’s physical appearance
and the development of the ability to conceive children.
Cognitive transitions – the word cognitive refers to the processes that underlie how
people think. Compared with children, adolescents are much better able to think
about hypothetical situations and about abstract concepts.
Social transitions – changes in rights, privileges, and responsibilities.
2) The contexts of adolescence
Psychological development during adolescence is a product of the interplay between
a set of three very basic, universal changes (biological, cognitive, and social) and the
context in which these changes are experienced.
According to the ecological perspective on human development we cannot
understand development without examining the environment in which it occurs.
Four main contexts in which adolescence spend time: Families, Peer groups, Schools
and, Work (Leisure and the Mass Media)
3) The psychosocial developments of adolescence
Psychosocial = referring to aspects of development that are both psychological and
social in nature, such as developing a sense of identity or sexuality.
They represent basic developmental challenges that we face as we grow up and
change: 1) discovering and understanding who we are as individuals – identity; 2)
establishing a healthy sense of independence – autonomy; 3) forming close and
caring relationships with others; 4) expressing sexual feelings and enjoying physical
contact with others – sexuality; and 5) being successful and competent member of
society – achievement.
,Biosocial theories = theories of adolescence that emphasize the biological changes of the
period:
- Hall’s Theory of Recapitulation, Stanly Hall believed that the development of the
individual paralleled the development of the human species. For Hall, the
development of the individual though these stages were determined primarily by
instinct - by biological and genetic forces within the person – and hardly influenced
by the environment.
- Dual Systems Theories which stress the simultaneous development of two different
brain systems – one that governs the ways in which the brain processes rewards,
punishments, and social and emotional information, and another that regulates self-
control and advanced thinking abilities, such as planning or logical reasoning.
Organismic theories= theories of adolescence that emphasize the interaction between the
biological changes of the period and the contexts in which they take place:
- Freudian theory. According to Freud, puberty temporarily throws the adolescent into
a period of psychological crisis by reviving old conflicts over uncomfortable sexual
urges that had been buried in the unconscious.
- Eriksonian Theory. Erikson also believed that internal, biological developments
moved the individual from one developmental stage to the next. But unlike Freud,
Erikson stressed the psychosocial, rather than the psychosexual, conflicts faced by
the individual at each point in time.
- Piagetian Theory. Development was best understood by examining changes in the
nature of thinking.
Learning theories = theories of adolescence that emphasize the ways in which patterns of
behavior are acquired through reinforcement and punishment or through observation and
imitation:
- Behaviorism emphasize the processes of reinforcement and punishment as main
influences on adolescent behavior. Within this framework, reinforcement is the
process through which a behavior is made more likely to occur again, whereas
punishment is the process through which a behavior is made less likely to occur
again.
- Social learning theory. Places more weight on the processes of observational
learning and imitation.
Sociological theories = theories of adolescence that emphasize the ways in which
adolescents, as a group, are treated by society.
- Adolescent marginality. There is a vast difference in power between the adult and
the adolescent generations, which may leave young people feeling marginalized, or
insignificant.
- Intergenerational conflict.
, Chapter 1 – Biological Transitions
Puberty has four chief physical manifestations:
1) A rapid acceleration in growth, resulting in dramatic increases in height and weight.
2) The development of primary sex characteristics, including the further development of
the gonads (sex glands), which results in a series of hormonal changes.
3) The developmental of secondary sex characteristics, including changes in the genitals
and breasts, and the growth of pubic, facial, and body hair.
4) Changes in the brain’s anatomy and activity as a result of hormonal influences.
Each of these sets of changes is the result of developments in the endocrine and central
nervous systems.
The endocrine system produces, circulates, and regulates levels of hormones. Hormones are
highly specialized substances that are secreted by one or more endocrine glands and then
enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body. Glands are organs that stimulate
particular parts of the body to respond in specific ways. Many of the hormones that play
important roles at puberty carry their instructions by activating certain brain cells, called
gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons.
The hormonal feedback loop (hypothalamus; the part of the brain that controls the pituitary
gland and where there is a concentration of GnRH neurons, pituitary: which controls
hormone levels in general, gonads: in males, the testes; in females the ovaries which release
the “sex hormones” androgens and estrogens) -> the HPG axis. Your HPG axis is set to
maintain certain levels of androgens and estrogens. When these hormone levels reach the
set point, the hypothalamus responds by once stopping inhibiting the pituitary gland,
permitting it to stimulate the release of sex hormones by the gonads.
The onset of puberty is stimulated by an increase in a brain chemical called kisspeptin. The
production of kisspeptin in the brain is affected by other chemicals, most importantly leptin,
which stimulates it, and melatonin, which suppresses it.
Leptin is a protein produced by fat cells and exists in our body in levels proportionate
to our amount of body fat. It plays a critical role in the regulation of hunger and appetite by
suppressing our desire to eat when we’re full.
Melatonin is a hormone whose levels rise and fall as a function of how light or dark it
is, which helps regulate the sleep cycle.
Your genes predispose you to go through puberty around a particular age, but the more fat
cells you have, and the more light to which you have been exposed during childhood, the
more likely it is that you will go through puberty on the early side of your inherited
propensity.
The simultaneous release of growth hormones, thyroid hormones, and androgens stimulates
rapid acceleration in height and weight. This dramatic increase in stature is called the
adolescent growth spurt. The sequence in which various parts of the body grow is fairly
regular. Extremities – the head, hand, and feet – are the first to accelerate in growth.
Accelerated growth occurs next in the arms and legs, followed by the torso and shoulders.
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