Developing individual in society Lecture 8 : 03/12/2020 Adolescence Lecturer: Fenja Ziegler Development past childhood - While developmental psychology tends to focus on infancy and childhood, it is not the only period where development occurs. - This focus results from an interest in certain domains including: - Early brain development. - Language development. - Physical and logical reasoning. First of all, what is adolescence? Adolescence is the process or condition of 'growing up. The growing age of the human species and the period which extends from childhood to manhood. It is the period between maturation and the attainment of adult roles and responsibility. What age is 'adolescence'? - Many different answers to this, no answer that all psychologists agree on. - One convention for psychologist's state age 13-15, the critical period in development. - However, others say 11-18, showing individual differences. - Some argue there is a more gradual than discrete developmental period between the age of 12-25. Historical perspectives - Adolescence is a relatively new idea, only emerging in the late 1800s. - Adolescence depends on societal context and expectations according to Crockett. - Therefore, adolescents' experiences vary widely across culture and history. Evidence for adolescence - Different disciplines have evidence showing a period of developmental sensitivity post-childhood and pre-adulthood. Qualitatively different ideas are seen throughout psychology such as: - Brain development - Cognitive and Social reasoning - Emotional function, as well as dysfunction - Behaviour, more importantly, risk-taking behaviour. All of these changes occur alongside other biological changes and develop at different rates depending on the person.
Approaches to age Different ways of counting age are more useful and less useful in certain settings. Nominal age: This is the most thought of way of age, showing years, months and days. - Often used when researching cognitive and behavioural development in childhood. Conceptual age: The age since conception. - Notes factors such as premature or overdue births. - Expressed in days or weeks. - Often used when wanting to track differences in development. Pubertal age: Attempts to consider biological development that varies in age between individuals. Conceptual Age - Useful for early brain research. - Allows you to compare 1 month overdue child to a 2 month premature child. - As there will be differences in the brain development between the infants. - However, cannot account for different environmental influences on either infant. In research, conceptual age is useful when looking into adolescent neurophysiology, and is necessary when making longitudinal comparisons from infancy. Pubertal stage - Wide variety in age of onset and progression of puberty. Affected by gender, diet, or even socioeconomic status. - Better predictor of developmental outcomes. - Useful when interested in biological or hormonal influences instead of social influences. - However, cannot be used for those with hormone insensitivity for various reasons. Tanner stages vs hormones - 'Tanner stages', the gold standard of pubertal development. - Gives individuals a 1-5 rating of their development in puberty based on a clinical assessment. Considers pubic hair, genital