Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

The dramatic physical and cognitive changes of adolescence make it both an exhilarating and apprehensive period of development. Although their bodies are full-grown and sexually mature, these exuberant teenagers have many skills to acquire and hurdles to surmount before they are ready for full assumption of adult roles.

Chapter outline

·   PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

·   Conceptions of Adolescence

·   The Biological Perspective

·   The Social Perspective

·   A Balanced Point of View

·   Puberty: The Physical Transition to Adulthood

·   Hormonal Changes

·   Body Growth

·   Motor Development and Physical Activity

·   Sexual Maturation

·   Individual Differences in Pubertal Growth

·   Brain Development

·   Changing States of Arousal

·   The Psychological Impact of Pubertal Events

·   Reactions to Pubertal Changes

·   Pubertal Change, Emotion, and Social Behavior

·   Pubertal Timing

·   Health Issues

·   Nutritional Needs

·   Eating Disorders

·   Sexuality

·   Sexually Transmitted Diseases

·   Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenthood

·   Substance Use and Abuse

· ?  SOCIAL ISSUES: HEALTH  Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youths: Coming Out to Oneself and Others

·   COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

·   Piaget’s Theory: The Formal Operational Stage

·   Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning

·   Propositional Thought

·   Follow-Up Research on Formal Operational Thought

·   An Information-Processing View of Adolescent Cognitive Development

·   Scientific Reasoning: Coordinating Theory with Evidence

·   How Scientific Reasoning Develops

·   Consequences of Adolescent Cognitive Changes

·   Self-Consciousness and Self-Focusing

·   Idealism and Criticism

·   Decision Making

·   Sex Differences in Mental Abilities

·   Verbal Abilities

·   Mathematical Abilities

· ?  BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT  Sex Differences in Spatial Abilities

·   Learning in School

·   School Transitions

·   Academic Achievement

·   Dropping Out

Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

· ?  SOCIAL ISSUES: EDUCATION  Media Multitasking Disrupts Attention and Learning

On Sabrina’s eleventh birthday, her friend Joyce gave her a surprise party, but Sabrina seemed somber during the celebration. Although Sabrina and Joyce had been close friends since third grade, their relationship was faltering. Sabrina was a head taller and some 20 pounds heavier than most girls in her sixth-grade class. Her breasts were well-developed, her hips and thighs had broadened, and she had begun to menstruate. In contrast, Joyce still had the short, lean, flat-chested body of a school-age child.

Ducking into the bathroom while the other girls put candles on the cake, Sabrina frowned at her image in the mirror. “I’m so big and heavy,” she whispered. At church youth group on Sunday evenings, Sabrina broke away from Joyce and joined the eighth-grade girls. Around them, she didn’t feel so large and awkward.

Once a month, parents gathered at Sabrina’s and Joyce’s school to discuss child-rearing concerns. Sabrina’s parents, Franca and Antonio, attended whenever they could. “How you know they are becoming teenagers is this,” volunteered Antonio. “The bedroom door is closed, and they want to be alone. Also, they contradict and disagree. I tell Sabrina, ‘You have to go to Aunt Gina’s on Saturday for dinner with the family.’ The next thing I know, she’s arguing with me.”

Sabrina has entered  adolescence , the transition between childhood and adulthood. In industrialized societies, the skills young people must master are so complex and the choices confronting them so diverse that adolescence is greatly extended. But around the world, the basic tasks of this period are much the same. Sabrina must accept her full-grown body, acquire adult ways of thinking, attain greater independence from her family, develop more mature ways of relating to peers of both sexes, and begin to construct an identity—a secure sense of who she is in terms of sexual, vocational, moral, ethnic, religious, and other life values and goals. Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence.

The beginning of adolescence is marked by  puberty , a flood of biological events leading to an adult-sized body and sexual maturity. As Sabrina’s reactions suggest, entry into adolescence can be an especially trying time for some young people. In this chapter, we trace the events of puberty and take up a variety of health concerns—physical exercise, nutrition, sexual activity, substance abuse, and other challenges that many teenagers encounter on the path to maturity.

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Adolescence also brings with it vastly expanded powers of reasoning. Teenagers can grasp complex scientific and mathematical principles, grapple with social and political issues, and delve deeply into the meaning of a poem or story. The second part of this chapter traces these extraordinary changes from both Piaget’s and the information-processing perspective. Next,