Adolescent Psychology Chapter 3 – Flashcards
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How did Piaget view children?
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As little scientists
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According to Piaget, at what age should we be thinking formally?
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Age 15
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As adolescents, do we have the ability to think logically?
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Yes, but we tend not to because it takes too much time.
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What is wrong with Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory?
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Very lab oriented, which makes generalizing tough and a lab is not a real life setting. Also, fifteen seems too young to be thinking formally.
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Post Formal Thinking
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Greater awareness of the complexity of real-life situations.
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What age groups did Labouvie-Vief work with?
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Adolescents and Emerging adults
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Pragmatism
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Adapting logical thinking to the practical constraints of real-life situations.
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What scenario did Labouvie give to participants?
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Wife tells her husband that if he comes home drunk again she's leaving him. He does it again. What does the wife do?
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Adolescents response to Labouvie's scenario?
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Wife packs up the kids and leaves. Logic response, but not very real world.
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Emerging adult's response to Labouvie's scenario?
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It depends. Can she support herself? What about the kids? Where will they go?
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Dialectical Thought
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A growing awareness that most problems do not have a single solution and that problems must be often addressed with crucial pieces of information missing.
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What do emerging adults become aware of in thought?
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We realize things don't always have a single solution. No matter how hard we try to make the best decision, we will still miss something crucial. Example: Careers, choosing a college, poor parking at a job, etc.
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Dualistic Thinking
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Tendency to see situations and issues in polarized, absolutely black and white terms.
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What are some examples of dualistic thinking?
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Abortion, politics, marriage equality, capital punishment, etc. Only 2 options and one is correct. No shades of grey.
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When is comes to dualistic thinking, who do adolescents typically agree with?
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Their parents.
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Reflective Judgment
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Evaluating the accuracy and logic of evidence and arguments.
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When does reflective judgment more commonly occur?
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During emerging adulthood.
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3 Steps to thinking about an issue
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1. Multiple Thinking- all options seem applicable 2. Relativism-We begin weighing all options and realize some may be better than others. 3. Commitment-We make a final decision or commitment to one single option.
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Critical Thinking
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Involves analyzing information and making judgments about what it means, relating it to other information, and considering ways it might be valid or invalid. Basically, we are transforming knowledge.
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How does competence with decision making vary?
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With age
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What did early research say about decision making?
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Adolescents had issues coming up with consequences.-Varied with age
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What did the latest research say about decision making?
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All ages of adolescence can come up with consequences.
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What is the main point in the research about decision making with adolescents?
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Adolescents can come up with consequences, but are more influenced by their present situation than by their future.
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Risky Behaviors
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Texting & driving, Sexting, Partying, Sex, Drugs, and rock & roll.
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Dual Processing
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Making decisions based on analytic reasoning and heuristics.
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What are some examples of heuristics we use?
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Stereotypes, generalizations, etc.
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Do adolescents use analytic reasoning & cognition or psychosocial and heuristics more often?
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Heuristics and Psychosocial
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Cognitive Factors
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Approaching decisions thoughtfully and logically- similar to analytic
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Psychosocial Factors
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Psycho=Feelings, affects, pleasure, thrill-seeking, etc. Social=Anyone other than you.
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Metacognition
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The capacity for "thinking about one's thinking" that allows monitoring and reasoning about one's thought process.
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What are some examples of Metacognition?
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Studying, job interviews, Performance, etc.
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Self Monitoring
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A type of metacognition. "How do I look?"
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Social Cognition
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The term used to describe the way we think about other people (What do I think about other people?) social relationships, (What do I think about my relationship with someone?) and social institutions (What do I think about education, or politics, or marriage, or what have you.)
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Perspective Taking
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The ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others.
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Mutual Perspective Taking
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Each side realizes that the other can take their perspective.
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What happens during mutual perspective taking?
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Two people have the ability to disagree, but generally "get" each other.
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Social & Conventional System Perspective
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Perspectives of self and others are influenced not just by their interaction with each other, but by their roles in the larger society. Example: Saying I'm a southerner and understanding what others think about southerners.
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Adolescent Egocentrism
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Having difficulty distinguishing your own thinking about yourself from the thoughts of others. ("It's all about me")
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Imaginary Audience
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Adolescent's exaggerated feelings of self-consciousness and intense need for privacy.
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What is an example of Imaginary Audience?
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If we have a bad hair day, we're convinced that everyone will notice and they will remember forever.
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What types of things do adolescents want hidden from parents?
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Social media & Text messaging
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Personal Fable
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A belief in one's personal uniqueness, omnipotence, and invulnerability to taking risks.
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What are the three issues with Personal Fable?
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1. We think we're special and nobody could possibly understand what we're going through. 2. We think we know everything 3. We don't think anything bad can happen to us. `
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Pseudostupidity
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Adolescents fail to see the obvious, not because it's too hard, but because they make a simple task more complicated than it is.
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What is an example of pseudostupidity?
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Drama in our lives usually isn't a big deal but we tend to over complicate it anyways.
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What is the most influential theory of cognitive development from infancy through adolescence?
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Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
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How do changes in cognitive development proceed?
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Through distinct stages
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Stages
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Each person's cognitive abilities are organized into a coherent mental structure. All thinking is part of the same mental structure.
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Maturation
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Driving force behind development from one stage to the next.
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What is necessary for cognitive development?
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A normal environment
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What separated Piaget from other theorists?
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His emphasis on maturation. Piaget portrayed maturation as an active process.
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How does active construction of reality occur?
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Through schemes.
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Assimilation
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New information that is altered for an existing scheme.
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Accommodation
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Changing the scheme for new information.
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What are Piaget's stages of Cognitive Development?
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Sensorimotor (0-2 years old) Preoperational (2-7 years old) Concrete Operations (7-11) Formal Operations(11-15/20)
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Pendulum Problem
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Used to test whether a child has progressed from concrete to formal operations.
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What occurs during the pendulum problem?
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Children & adolescents are asked to determine what causes the speed at which the pendulum sways. They are given various weights and lengths of string.
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In what two ways did children and adolescents respond to the pendulum problem?
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Through random attempts using concrete operations or through an experimental approach using formal operations.
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What does PET scans stand for?
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Positron Emission Tomography
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What does fMRI stand for?
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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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What did PET scans and fMRI's accomplish?
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A more advance understanding in how the brain works. Unveils neurological basis for decision making and reflective judgment.
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At what age is the brain 95% of it's adult size?
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Age six
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Synapse
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Point of transmission between two nerve cells.
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Neurons
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Cues of the nervous system.
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Overproduction/Exuberance
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Thickening of synaptic connections occurs around the time puberty begins. (10-12)
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Where does overproduction occur?
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In the gray matter of the brain, but mostly in the frontal lobe.
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At what age does overproduction peak?
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At 11 or 12
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Synaptic Pruning
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Process by which the number of synapses in the brain are reduced, making functions fast and efficient but less flexible.
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At what age does the average brain lose 7%-10% of its gray matter?
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Between 12 & 20. "Use it or lose it"
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fMRI's show rapid synaptic pruning in what types of adolescents?
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High intelligent adolescents
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Myelination
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Process by which myelin grown. Myelin keeps the brain's electrical signals on one path increasing with speed.
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What does Myelination result in?
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Better executive functioning, faster and more efficient functioning, however causes the brain to be less flexible.
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Cerebellum
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Structure in the lower brain, beneath the cortex.
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What did we used to think the cerebellum was involved in?
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Basic functions
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What does new research show the cerebellum is involved in
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High functions such as math, music, decision making, social skills, humor, etc.
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Which structure of the brain is the last to stop growing?
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The cerebellum.
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What are the three major perspectives in culture and cognitive development?
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1. Cognitive-Developmental 2. Information-Processing 3. Psychometric
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What do the three perspectives of culture and cognitive development underestimate?
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The role culture has in cognitive development.
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What is the goal of the three perspectives in culture and cognitive development?
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To discover principles that apply to people in all times and cultures.
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What is Lev Vygotsky emphasize?
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Cultural basis in cognitive development
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What type of view did Vygotsky have on cognitive development?
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Sociocultural. Social=children learn through others. Cultural=what children need to know is determined by culture.
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Zone of Proximal Development
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Gap between how a person performs a task alone and when guided by one more competent than them.
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According to Vygotsky, when do adolescents learn best?
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At the top of the zone of proximal development by needing help by another at first, then learning to do the task on their own.
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Scaffolding
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Degree of assistance provided to the learner in the zone of proximal development, decreasing as the learner's skills develop.
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Who extended Vygotsky's theory?
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Barbara Rogoff
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Guided Participation
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Teaching interaction between two people as they participate in a culturally valued activity.
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What did Rogoff consider guidance to be?
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The direction offered by cultural and social values as well as social partners.
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Cultural Psychology
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Emphasizing that psychological functioning cannot be separated from the culture in which it takes place.
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What do cultural psychologists seek to analyze?
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How people use cognitive skills in their daily activities.
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What does the research generally say about our heuristics?
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They are usually wrong.
