Adolescence Test 1 Flashcards

Storm and Stress View

• G. Stanley Hall proposed that adolescence is characterized by turmoil, conflicts, and mood swings.

Inventionist View

• Adolescence is seen as a sociohistorical construct, particularly influenced by early 20th-century societal conditions that fostered youth dependency.

Cohort Effects

• Developmental characteristics are influenced by an individual's birth date or generational context rather than just age.

Millennials

• Individuals born after 1980, marked by ethnic diversity and tech-savviness.

Adolescent Generalization Gap

• A concept by Adelson indicating generalizations about adolescents stem from a limited, visible group sample.

Social Policy

• Government actions aimed at improving the welfare of citizens.

Development

• Encompasses changes from conception throughout the entire lifespan.

Biological Processes

• Refers to the physical changes occurring in an individual's body during development.

Cognitive Processes

• Involves changes in thinking, intelligence, and reasoning throughout development.

Socioemotional Processes

• Changes in personality, emotional responses, and social relationships over time.

Adolescence

• A transitional developmental phase from childhood to adulthood, involving biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes, typically from ages 10 to late teens.

Emerging Adulthood

• A developmental phase from approximately ages 18 to 25, characterized by exploration and experimentation.

Nature-Nurture Issues

• The debate over whether development is influenced more by genetic inheritance or environmental experiences.

Continuity-Discontinuity Issue

• Examines whether development is gradual and cumulative or happens in distinct stages.

Early-Later Experience Issue

• Focuses on the impact of early versus later life experiences on development.

Theory

• An integrated set of ideas that explains phenomena and predicts outcomes in developmental psychology.

Hypotheses

• Testable predictions derived from theories, providing specific assertions to evaluate.

Psychoanalytic Theories

• Suggest that developmental processes are primarily unconscious and emotionally driven.

Erik Erikson's Theory

• Proposes eight stages of development, each with a unique psychosocial task.

Vygotsky's Theory

• Highlights the role of culture and social interaction in cognitive development.

Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory

• Emphasizes the interactivity of behavior, environment, and cognitive processes.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

• Focuses on five environmental systems affecting development: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Experience Sampling Method

• A research approach using electronic pagers to capture participants' real-time life experiences.

Gender Bias

• Preconceived notions about capabilities based on gender that hinder individual interests.

Ethnic Gloss

• Superficial representation of ethnic groups, suggesting uniformity despite diversity.

Puberty

• A brain-endocrine process that initiates rapid physical development during early adolescence.

Hormones

• Chemical messengers secreted by glands, playing a critical role in development.

Process of Hormones

• Sequence involves hypothalamus, pituitary gland, gonads, leading to androgens and estrogens.

Spermarche

• Refers to the first ejaculation experienced by boys.

Precocious Puberty

• Describes cases of unusually early onset and rapid progression of puberty.

Secular Trends

• Historical patterns observed in the timing of puberty onset across generations.

Adaptive Behavior

• Behavioral modifications that enhance survival in natural settings.

Evolutionary Psychology

• Focuses on adaptation, reproduction, and the survival of the fittest as explanations for behavior.

Genotype

• Refers to an individual's genetic composition.

Phenotype

• The observable characteristics resulting from the genotype.

Behavior Genetics

• The study of how heredity and environment contribute to individual differences in development.

Epigenetic View

• Development is influenced by an ongoing interaction between genetics and environmental factors.

Neuroconstructivist View

• Suggests that brain development is influenced by both biological processes and environmental conditions.

Corpus Callosum

• Nerve fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain, facilitating information processing.

Schema

• Mental frameworks that help organize and interpret information.

Equilibration

• A mechanism in Piaget's theory explaining cognitive shifts through conflict and resolution towards balance.

Formal Operational Stage

• Piaget's final cognitive developmental stage, emerging around ages 11 to 15, marked by abstract and logical thinking.

Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

• The ability to formulate hypotheses and deduce solutions in problem-solving during the formal operational stage.

Neo-Piagetians

• Theorists who advocate for modifications of Piaget's theories, emphasizing information processing aspects.

Postformal Thought

• Reflective, context-sensitive thinking that accommodates emotions and subjective experiences.

Zone of Proximal Development

• Vygotsky's concept that indicates the range of tasks manageable with adult assistance.

Attention

• Focused concentration on mental resources in processing information.

Sustained Attention

• The ability to maintain focus on a specific stimulus over an extended time.

Executive Attention

• Involves planning actions, allocating focus to goals, monitoring task progress, and error correction.

Dual-Process Model

• Highlights the interplay between analytical and experiential systems in decision-making, benefiting adolescent choices.

Critical Thinking

• Reflective and evaluative thinking regarding evidence and reasoning.

Convergent Thinking

• Producing a single correct answer to problems, typical in standardized intelligence tests.

Divergent Thinking

• Generating multiple answers for a single question, fostering creativity.

Psychometric/Intelligence View

• Emphasizes individual differences in intelligence, often measured through IQ tests.

Intelligent Quotient (IQ)

• Calculated as a person's mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100.

Social Cognition

• How individuals understand and reason about their social environments.

Adolescent Egocentrism

• Increased self-consciousness during adolescence, believing others are equally interested in them.