• Intellectual Development
    • Cognitive growth during adolescence is rapid, with gains in abstract thinking, reasoning, and the ability to view possibilities in relative rather than in absolute terms.
      • Prefrontal cortex­ new neural pathways­ allows you to see consequences of decisions – important to avoid drugs/ alcohol
    • Piagetian Approaches to Cognitive Development
      • Adolescence coincides with Piaget’s formal operations period of development, when people begin to engage in abstract thought and experimental reasoning.
      • Using Formal Operations to Solve Problems
  • Formal operational stage is the stage during which people can think abstractly.
  • Unfolds gradually – 12­15
  • Capable of propositional thought­ reasoning using abstract logic in the absence of concrete examples
  • Not everyone reaches this stage­ estimated that up to 75% of pop doesn’t
  • Will use abstract thinking in familiar situations/ concepts
  • Lack of formal education delays/ prevents formal operational thinking

iii.            The Consequences of Adolescents’ Use of Formal Operations

  • Adolescents’ ability to reason abstractly and use formal operations leads to a change in their everyday behavior.
  • Question authority figure more
  • Idealistic
  • More argumentative
  • Information­Processing Perspectives: Gradual Transformations in Abilities
    • According to information­processing approaches, cognitive growth during adolescence is gradual and quantitative, involving improvements in memory capacity, mental strategies, and other aspects of cognitive functioning.
      • From this view, thinking advances during adolescence result from the ways people organize their thinking and develop new strategies.
      • Another major area of cognitive development is the growth of metacognition­can think about own thought processes
    • Egocentrism in Thinking: Adolescents’ Self­Absorption
      • Hand in hand with the development of metacognition is the growth of adolescent egocentrism­self absorpstion­ that can make it more difficult for them to accept criticism, tolerate authority figures
        • Adolescent egocentrism leads to two distortions:
        • Imaginary audience­everyone else cares as much about them as they do
        • Everyone is watching
        • Loud and obnoxious, especially in groups
        • Personal fables­what happens to them is unique and unshared
        • You can’t understand what I’m going through
        • Diaries, risk taking
        • Moral Development
  • Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Development
  • According to Kohlberg, levels of moral development encompass
  • Preconventional Reasoning ­ the child’s judgments are based on sources

of authority who are close by and physically superior to himself—usually the parents. Just as his descriptions of others at this stage are largely external, so the standards the child uses to judge rightness or wrongness are external rather than internal.  In particular, it is the outcome or consequences of his actions that determine the rightness or wrongness of those actions.

  • In stage 1 of this level—the punishment and obedience orientation—relies on physical consequences of actions to determine right and wrong
  • In stage 2—individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange

—it is rewarded, do it; if it is punished don’t do it

  • Conventional Reasoning ­ children shift from judgments based on external consequences and personal gain to judgments based on the rules or norms of a group to which the child belongs, whether that group is the family, peer group, a church, or the nation. What the chosen reference group defines as right or good is right or good in the child’s view, and the child internalizes these norms to a considerable extent.  Very few children exhibit conventional thinking, but many adolescents are capable of this kind of moral reasoning.
    • Stage 3 is the stage of mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity, sometimes called the good boy/nice girl stage.

Good behavior is what please others

You want others to like you and think of you as a good person which is why you follow rules

  • Stage 4 shows the child turning to larger social groups for her norms. Kohlberg labeled this the stage of social­system and conscience.

It is also called the law­and­order orientation.

Importance of duty respecting authority and obeying rules

  • Postconventional Reasoning ­ The transition to level III, postconventional morality, is marked by several changes, the most important of which is a shift in the source of authority. At level I, children see authority as totally outside themselves.  At level II, the judgments or rules of external authorities are internalized, but they are not questioned or analyzed.  At level III, a new kind of personal authority emerges in which individual choices are made, with individual judgments based on self­chosen principles.
    • In stage 5, called the social contract orientation, rules, laws, and regulations are not seen as irrelevant; they are important ways of ensuring fairness.

Unjust laws may be broken­as long as you except the consequences

  • In his original writing about moral development, Kohlberg

included stage 6, the universal ethical principles orientation.

Have to balance equally valid, but conflicting moral principles for any given situations

  • His initial study only included boys, and several researchers have stated that women test out lower than men on average, not because they are less moral, but because they use different moral reasoning.

Most don’t reach 5 and 6

  • Gilligan’s Approach to Moral Development: Gender and Morality
    • Carol Gilligan suggests that the way boys and girls are raised in our own society leads to differences in moral reasoning.

Boys­ justice and fairness

Girls­ responsibility and compassion towards others; personal sacrifice for others

Gilligans said it was culturally influenced

  • Gilligan sees morality in girls developing in three stages.
  • “Orientation toward individual survival” — what is practiced , best for them
  • “Goodness as self­sacrifice”— socialized to sacrifice personal happiness for what others want
  • “Morality of nonviolence”—hurting anyone, including the self is immoral
  • College: Pursuing Higher Education
    • Who Goes to College?
  • Higher proportion of whites than minority students
  • Minority enrollment increase every year
  • Only 40 percent graduate in 4 years. Half of the remaining 60 percent will get a degree
    • Gender and College
  • The college experience differs for men and women.
  • Differences evident in courses/majors chosen
  • Stem majors dominated by men
  • Differences may be attributed to gender stereotypes held by teachers, students
    • Academic Performance and Stereotype Threat
      • Gender differences reflect the powerful effect of gender stereotypes.
      • Men, compared to women, are more apt to view themselves as above average on several spheres relevant to academic success.
      • Teachers call on men more often and make more eye contact with them.
      • Males receive more extra help and more positive reinforcement for their comments than women do.
      • Stereotype threat – fear that you will confirm a stereotype about your group.
    • Remind women of stereotype about math – Perform on math test drops
    • Although not entirely consistent, some research shows that women who attend same­sex colleges show higher selfesteem than those attending coeducational colleges.

In female only colleges:

  • Women receive more attention
  • More professors are women
  • Women get more encouragement in math and science
  • Picking an Occupation: Choosing Life’s Work

 

  • Ginzberg’s Three Periods
  • According to Ginzberg’s Career Choice theory, people typically move through a series of stages in choosing a career.
  • Fantasy period­ 11 – career choices have no relation to actual skills, abilities, or available job opportunities.
  • Tentative period­ adolescence – begin to think in more pragmatic terms about job requirements, own abilities.
  • Realistic period­ early adulthood – explore options through job experience, training. Narrow choices, make commitment.

 

  • Holland’s Six Personality types
  • According to Holland’s Personality Type Theory, six personality types are important to career choice:
    • Realistic – grounded, problem­solvers, physically strong, medico social skills

­ Farmers, laborers, truck drivers

  • Intellectual – oriented toward theoretical, abstract; not great with people

­ Math, science

  • Social – strong verbal, interpersonal skills ­ Salespeople, teachers, counselors
  • Conventional – enjoy highly structured work. ­ Clerks, secretaries, bank tellers
  • Enterprising – risk takers, take­charge attitude ­ Leaders, managers, politicians
  • Artistic – artistically expressive

­ Starving artist

  • Gender and Career Choices: Women’s Work
  • Although it is now illegal to advertise a position for a man or a woman, remnants of traditional gender­role prejudice persist.
    • Traditionally, women were considered most appropriate for communal professions­ associated with relationships
    • In contrast, men were perceived as best suited for agentic professions­ associated with getting things accomplished

­ Women tend to earn on average 77 cents to the dollar that men earn.

  • Women today are underrepresented in male dominated professions such as engineering and computer programming
    • Between 1950 and 2000, women in the U.S. labor force increased from 35 percent to nearly 60 percent.
  • Women and minorities in high­status, visible professional roles may hit the glass ceiling­ barriers within organizations that keep people from advancing