Omari McDuffey 4/18/2013 PSY 210 McMonigle Chapter 14 Cognitive Development in Adolescence How Thinking Changes In Adolescence -Five

important sets of change in thinking take place in adolescence: 1.) We become more able to think about what is possible not just about what actually is 2.) We become more able to think in sophisticated ways about abstract concepts like love democracy and justice 3.) We become better at thinking about the process of thinking 4.) We improve in our ability to think about things from multiple vantage points at the same time 5.) We start to see things as relative rather than absolute Thinking about Possibilities -Adolescents are able to consider what they observe against a backdrop of what is possible -Children do not wonder the way adolescents often do about wonder the way adolescents often do, about the ways in which their personalities might change in the future or how they might have been different had they grown up with different parents or under different economical circumstances -Adolescents ability to reason systematically in terms of what is possible comes in handy in a variety of scientific and logical problem-solving situations they face in school Deductive Reasoning: a type of logical reasoning in which one draws logically necessary conclusions from a general set of premises or givens -Individuals who can reason deductively understand that they correct conclusion necessarily follows from the first two statements -Adolescents are also better able than children to recognize when a logical problem doesnt provide sufficient information and to respond by saying that the question cant be answered with any certainty -Children are easily fooled by such problems; adolescents are more likely to say that there is no way of knowing some questions. Inductive Reasoning: a type of reasoning in which one draws a conclusion based on the totality of evidence -Inductive reasoning is used by people of all ages, even very young children -Unlike inductive reasoning however, deductive reasoning is seldom seen before adolescence, because deductive reasoning requires us to think systematically about possibilities Hypothetical Thinking: thinking that is based on what is possible, and not just, what is real sometimes referred to as if-then thinking

-Prior to adolescence individuals have difficulty dealing with propositions that are contrary to fact unless they are part of a larger fictional story -Hypothetical thinking also has implications for the adolescents social behavior. It helps the young person to take the perspective of others by enabling him or her to think through what someone else might be thinking or feeling, given that persons point of view -Hypothetical thinking therefore helps in formulating and arguing ones viewpoint because it allows adolescents to think a step ahead of the opposition-a cognitive tool that comes in quite handy when dealing with parents Thinking about Abstract Concepts -Adolescents greater facility with abstract thinking also applies to interpersonal and philosophical matters -As some writers have pointed out the ability to think abstractly may prompt many adolescents to spend time thinking about the meaning of life itself Thinking About Thinking Metacognition: the process of thinking about thinking itself -Not only do adolescents manage their thinking more than children, but they are also better able to explain to others the processes they are using -One fascinating way in which thinking about thinking becomes more apparent during adolescence is in increased introspection self consciousness and intellectualization Adolescent Egocentrism: the tendency for adolescents to be extremely self-absorbed, thought to result from advances in thinking abilities Imaginary Audience: the belief, often brought on by the heightened self-consciousness of early adolescence, that everyone is watching and evaluating ones behavior Personal Fable: a persons belief that he or she is unique and therefore not subject to the rules that govern other peoples behavior -We associate this type of thinking with adolescence studies show that susceptibility to the personal fable actually may appear not only in adolescence but also in adulthood Thinking in Multiple Dimensions -A fourth way in which thinking changes during adolescence involves the ability to think about things from different vantage points at the same time -Adolescents can see things through more complicated lens -The increasing capability of individual to think in multiple dimensions also have consequences for their behavior and thinking in all sorts of settings. Adolescents describe themselves and others in more differentiated and complicated terms -Being able to understand that peoples personalities are not one-sided, or that social situations can have different interpretations, depending on ones point of view, permits the adolescent to have far more sophisticated and fare more complicated relationships with other people and self conceptions -Adolescents ability to look at things in multiple dimensions concern their understanding of sarcasm. As an adult you know what the meaning of a speakers statement is communicated by a combination of what is said, how it is said and the context in which it is said

-Adolescents increased facility in thinking along multiple dimensions permits them to appreciate satire ,metaphor and the ways in which language can be used to convey multiple messages as in double entendresexpressions that have two meanings one of them usually rude or crude Adolescent Relativism -A final aspect of cognition that changes during adolescence concerns the way in which adolescents look at things -Adolescents, in contrast, tend to see things as relative. They are more likely to question others ascertain and less likely to accept facts as absolute truths Theoretical Perspectives on Adolescent Thinking -Piagets perspective and the information processing perspective are two views adolescent thinking begin from different assumptions about the nature of cognitive development, they each provide valuable insight into why thinking changes during adolescence -Piagets view of adolescent thinking, the shift from concrete operational thinking, which characterized middle childhood to formal operational thinking, appears to take two steps -Characteristics of early adolescent formal thinking is apparent but it has a sort of now you see it now you dont quality to it -Young adolescents may demonstrate formal thinking at some times but at others may only be able to think in concrete terms; use formal operations on some tasks but not on others; reason formally under some but not all testing situations -Although virtually all adolescents have the potential o develop formal operational thinking, and most can and do demonstrate it from time to time not all adolescents develop formal operational thinking or employ it regularly and across different contexts -Researchers working from the Information processing view of Adolescent thinking perspective focus on what it is about the ways that adolescents think about things that makes them better problem solvers than children Social Cognition Social Cognition: the aspect of cognition that concerns thinking about other people, about interpersonal relationships and about social institutions -Studies of social cognition during adolescence have examined social perspective taking, which refers to how and how accurately individuals make assessments about the thoughts and feelings of others; reasoning about social conventions which refer to individuals conceptions of social norms and guidelines for social interaction and beliefs about big issues including morality and religion Social Perspective Taking Social Perspective Taking: the ability to view events from the perspective of others -Preadolescents can put themselves in others shoes, but they have trouble seeing how the thoughts and feelings of one person may be related to the thoughts and feelings of another Mutual Role Taking: in Selmens Theory, the stage of social perspective taking during which the young adolescent can be an objective third party and can see how the thoughts or actions of one person can influence those of another -Later in adolescent perspective taking develops an in-depth, societal orientation. The adolescent at this level understands that the perspectives that people have on each other

are complicated, often unconscious and influenced by forces beyond an individuals control Social Conventions -During adolescence, however such absolutes and rules are questioned as they young person begins to see that standards for behavior are subjective and based on points of view that are subject to disagreement -By early adolescence however conventions are seen as arbitrary and changeable in both their origins and their enforcement. Social Conventions: the norms that govern everyday behavior in social situation -Adolescents begin to see social conventions as the means by which society regulates peoples behavior. Conventions may be arbitrary but we follow them because we all share an understanding of how people are expected to behave in various situations -Shared expectations create order and predictability -Social norms exist because individuals have a common perspective and agree that in given situations, certain behaviors are more desirable than others because such behavior helps things function more smoothly Religious Beliefs during Adolescence -Adolescents are more oriented toward spiritual and biological matters and less toward rituals practices and the observance of religious customs -Consistent with the shift in emphasis during adolescence there is a decline in the stated importance of religion, and especially of participation in an organized religion -Compared with older adolescents, younger ones are more likely to attend church regularly and state that religion is important to them -The early years of college appear to be a time when some individuals reexamine and reevaluate many of the beliefs and values they have grown up with -Although individuals typically become less involved in formal religion during the adolescent years, there are differences among adolescents in their degree of religiosity -Religious adolescents, especially those who are affiliated with more fundamentalist denominations, are less depressed than other adolescents; less likely to engage in premarital sexual intercourse, use drugs or engage in the community Adolescent Risk Taking Sensation Seeking: the tendency of individuals to strive for novel and intense experiences -American teenagers annually and asks whether they had engaged in various behaviors during the previous thirty days -Risk taking is much more common among males than females, although there is some evidence that is gender gap has been narrowing over time -Many theories have been offered to explain why adolescents take more risks than adults do -Two widely held beliefs are (1) that adolescents are less logical than adults and (2) that adolescents are more likely than adults to develop personal fables are. Neither has found much research support -If adolescents use the same decisions making processes as adults and if adolescents are no more likely than adults to think of themselves as invulnerable are why do adolescents behave in ways that are excessively risky

-Not surprisingly, individuals who are overconfident, competitive and high in sensation seeking, are more likely engage in various types of risky behaviors than their peers -A good deal of adolescents risk taking takes place in contexts where they are unsupervised and exposed to tremendous peer pressure to engage in risky behavior -Researchers found that the mere presences of friends watching their performance increased risk taking among adolescents and undergraduates but not among adults The Transition from Elementary School to Secondary School Junior High School: an education institution designed during the early era of public secondary education, in which young adolescents are schooled separately from older adolescents Middle Schools: an educational institution housing seventh and eighth grade students along with adolescents who are one or two years young -Not surprisingly, students who have more academic psychosocial problems before making a school transition come less successfully -Some experts believe tha middle and junior high school by and lange, fail to meet particular developmental needs of young adolescents The Best Classroom Climate for Adolescents -Both adolescents and teachers are more satisfied in classes that combine a moderate degree of structure with high student involvement and high teacher support -Teachers encourage their students participation but do not let the class get out of control -Classes that are too task-oriented particularly when they also emphasize teacher control tend to make students feel anxious uninterested and unhappy -Students do best when their teachers spend a high proportion of time on lessons, begin and end lessons on time and provide clear feedback to students about what is expected of them and about their performance and give ample praise to students when they perform well Achievement Motivation and Beliefs Need for Achievement: a need that influences the extent to which an individual strives for success in evaluative situations -Training for achievement and independence needs to take place in the context of a warm parent-child relationship -Adolescents behavior in school is also influenced by their judgments about their likelihood of succeeding or failing -Students who believe that they are good at math for instance, will take more and more difficult math courses than their peers -But because course selection influences subsequent achievement, and achievement in turn influences students beliefs about their abilities, a cycle is set in motion in which students belief, abilities and actual achievement have a reciprocal influence each other Intrinsic Motivation: motivation based on the pleasure one will experience from mastering a task Extrinsic Motivation: motivation based on the rewards one will receive for successful performance -Adolescents who believe that they are compliment are more likely to be intrinsically motivated and to maintain their efforts to do well in school -In contrast adolescents who have doubts about their abilities are more likely to be extrinsically motivated and to be more susceptible to feelings of anxiety and hesitation in the face of

challenge. Although extrinsically motivated adolescents want to do well in school, the source of their motivation puts them on shaky ground Achievement Attribution: the belief one holds about the causes of ones successes and failures Environmental Influences on Achievement -Context also influences performance, school environments differ markedly in ways that affect student success -Important aspects of the home environment are better predictors of adolescents academic achievement than are features of the school environment -Studies have shown that adolescents achievements are directly related to their parents values and expectations. In addition, the socioeconomic status of the adolescents family affects educational achievement -Adolescents who are friends with high achieving students do better in school, whereas those whose friends perform poorly in school do worse Ethnic Differences in Educational Achievement -On average, the educational achievement of African American and Hispanic American students behind that of Caucasian students and all three groups achieve less in school than do Asian American students -Studies have linked these differences to ethnic differences in beliefs about the causes of success and failure and to differences in beliefs about the consequences of doing poorly in school -Studies of ethnic minority youngsters also show that foreign born adolescents as well as those who are children of immigrants tend to achieve more in school than do minority youngsters who are second or third generation Americans. Dropping Out of High School -High school dropouts are far more likely than graduates to live at or near the poverty level to experience unemployment to depend on government-subsidized income maintenance programs to become pregnant while still a teenage and to be involved in delinquent and criminal activity -Dropping out of high school is not so much a discrete decision as the culmination of a long history of repeated academic failure and increasing alienation from school Beyond High School -Today, three-fourths of high school graduates enroll in college; two-thirds immediately after graduation. However, rates of college graduation lag far behind rates of enrollment -Individuals who do not go to college are often unprepared for the world of work -Experts believe that adolescents who do not go on to college would have an easier time if the links between worlds of school and work were strengthened. Work and Occupational Development -The majority of American high school students work during the school year, with the average sophomore putting in close to 15 hours per week at a job and the average senior working about 20 hours per week -Working during high school is just as common among middle-class teenagers as it is among poor youth

Working and Adolescent Development -Studies indicate that the been overstated and that intensive employment during the school year may even have some costs to young peoples development -Many experts believe that workings more than 20 hours a week may jeopardize adolescent school performance and engagement and may increase delinquency and substance use Influences on Occupation Choices -Theorists have examined the role of personality facts, traits interests and values in the process of career selection a different approach focuses on individuals work values -Career choices are the result of an interacting among individuals preference social influence and important forces in the broader social environment -No influence on occupational choice is stronger than socioeconomical status .Not surprisingly adolescents occupational ambitions and achievements are highly correlated with the ambitions and achievements of those around them