Human Growth and Development

1
Human GrowthandDevelopment

• Chapter Sixteen
• Adolescence
• Psychosocial Development

PowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson,
Grossmont College Revised by Jenni Fauchier,
Metropolitan Community College
2
The Self and Identity

• Who am I?
• Identityconsistent definition of ones self as a
  unique individual in terms of roles, attitudes,
  beliefs. and aspirations

3
Multiple Selves

• Possible selvesvarious ideas of who one might be
  or become, each of which is typically acted out
  and considered as a possible identity
• False selfset of behaviors that is adopted by a
  person to combat rejection, please others, or try
  out as a possible self

4
Multiple Selves, cont.

• Three Types of False Selves
• acceptable false self. Adopted to be accepted
  arises from feelings of worthlessness,
  depression low self-understanding
• pleasing false self. Arises from wish to impress
  or please others medium self-understanding
• experimental false self. Adolescent tries out a
  self to see how it feels high self-understanding

5
Identity Status

• Eriksons identity versus role confusion
• Identity achievementattainment of identity
  self-understanding in accord with past
  experiences and future plans
• willing to reconsider values and goals of parents
  and culture, accepting some, rejecting others

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• Identity Foreclosure
• adopts values and goals of parents and culture
  without questioning
• closes out process before it begins
• Identity Diffusion
• has few commitments to goals or values, and
  apathetic about taking on any role
• Identity Moratorium
• experiments with alternative identities in order
  to try them out not ready to make commitment to
  particular future goal

7
Status Versus Process

• Developmentalists asked a series of questions to
  measure identity status
• can a person achieve identity in one domain but
  still be searching in another domain?
• answer yes
• is identity formed from within or from without?
• answer both

8
Gender and Ethnic Identity

• Gender identityidentification of self as either
  male or female with acceptance of all roles and
  behaviors that society assigns to that sex
• adolescents make a multitude of decisions about
  sexual behavior and select from many gender roles

9
Gender and Ethnic Identity, cont.

• Gender identity is often connected to ethnic
  identity
• Ethnic Identity
• often questioning of ethnic identity and dominant
  American identity
• As teens grow older, the need to be proud of
  general heritage grows greater

10
Sadness and Anger

• Adolescents can feel despondent and depressed,
  overwhelmed by the world and their own
  inadequacies, as well as on top of the world,
  destined for great accomplishment

11
Sadness and Anger, cont.

• Emotional problems are categorized in two ways
• internalizing problems problems are manifested
  inward to inflict harm on self
• externalizing problems problems are acted out
  by injuring others, destroying property, or
  defying authority

12
The Usual Dip

• General trend in mood is more downward than
  upward
• In U.S., both boys and girls feel less and less
  confident in math, language arts, and sports
• self-esteem drops at around age 12
• adolescents without support from family, friends,
  or school more vulnerable to self-esteem dip
• loss of self-esteem may push toward depression

13
Depression

• Rate of clinical depression more than doubles in
  puberty (15)
• depression affects 1 to 5 teenage girls, and 1 to
  10 teenage boys
• hormonal changes may explain this, coupled with
  psychic stress of school, friends, sexual drives,
  and identity crises

14
Adolescent Suicide

• Suicidal Ideation
• thinking about suicide common among adolescents

15
Adolescent Suicide, cont.

• Five reasons for erroneous belief that suicide is
  an adolescent problem
• rate is triple the rate of 40 years ago
• adolescents lumped together with young adults as
  one statistical category
• adolescent suicide is shocking and grabs
  attention
• social prejudice considers teenagers as problems
• suicide attempts are more common in adolescence

16
Parasuicide

• Parasuicidedeliberate act of self-destruction
  that does not end in death
• Parasuicide and suicide depend on five factors
• availability of lethal means, especially guns
• lack of parental supervision
• alcohol and other drugs
• gender
• cultural attitudes

17
Gender, Ethnic and National Differences in
Suicide

• Worldwide, parasuicide is higher for females
  completed suicide is higher for males
• except in China, where females complete suicide
  more than males
• Cluster suicides occur when several suicides are
  committed within the same group in a short time

18
Adolescent Rebellion

• Many psychologists believe that rebellion for
  adolescent boys may be normal

19
Breaking the Law

• Breaking the law is the most dramatic example of
  rebellion
• Worldwide, arrests rise rapidly at about age 12
  and peak at about age 16
• 44 of all U.S. arrests for serious crimes
  involve persons aged 10 to 20

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Breaking the Law, cont.

• Incidencehow often a behavior occurs
• Prevalencehow widespread a behavior is
• Adolescent males are 3 times more likely to be
  arrested than females

21
Breaking the Law, cont.

• African-Americans are 3 times more likely to be
  arrested than are European-Americans, who are 3
  times more likely as Asian-Americans to be
  arrested

22
Limiting the Damage

• Adolescent-limited offenderperson who becomes
  law abiding as an adult
• Life-course persistent offender juvenile
  delinquent who continues patterns of lawbreaking
  throughout life career criminal

23
Family and Friends

• Family and peer support helps adolescents through
  good and bad times
• Support provides
• sustenance
• provisions
• directions
• ballast for stability
• safe harbor or anchor

24
Parents

• Generation gapdistance between generations in
  values, behaviors, and knowledgeand
  understanding
• adolescents often loosen ties to family
• adolescents need to become psychologically
  separate
• Generational stakeeach generation needs to see
  family from its own perspective

25
Parent-Adolescent Conflict

• Typically, emerges in early adolescence,
  especially with daughters
• Bickeringpetty, peevish arguing, ongoing and
  repeated
• Adolescents believe they should have privileges
  of adult status

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Parent-Adolescent Conflict, cont.

• Timing of problems is cultural
• in general, for teens, bickering peaks in early
  to middle adolescence
• For Chinese-, Korean-, and Mexican-American
  teens, parental conflict surfaces in late
  adolescence

27
Other Family Characteristics

• Communication
• Support
• Connectiveness
• Control
• parental monitoring

28
Peers

• Theyre more crucial in early teens
• self-help group
• help bridge the gap between childhood and
  adulthood
• help to define who they are not (identity
  formation)
• Can encourage socially desirable behaviors.

29
Peer Pressure Unmasked

• Pressure to conform is strongup to age 14
• Peers help to bridge gap between childhood and
  adulthood
• Peer pressure can be especially negative in times
  of uncertainty, but is not usually a corrupting
  influence on good adolescents
• Most peer-induced misbehavior is short-lived

30
Peer Group for Immigrants

• Bicultural Conflict
• caught between strict family traditions and
  generational push for autonomy
• May give in to parental control (girls)
• May join a delinquent group (boys)
• Establishing ethnic identity is not easy

31
Romantic Attraction

• Sequence of Heterosexual Attraction
• friendships of one sex or the other
• loose association of girls group and boys group
• smaller mixed-sex group formed from larger group
• true intimacy peeling off from group into
  couples, with private intimacies

32
Homosexual Youth

• Complications of this life style usually slow
  down romantic attachments
• many reluctant to admit homosexuality
• may mask feelings
• depression and suicide higher for these youth

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Conclusion

• No other period is full of such multifactoral and
  compelling biological changes
• Fascinating and confusing social and intellectual
  transitions
• Most adolescents and their families survive
  fairly well

34
Conclusion, cont.

• Most have some difficulties and some may have
  several
• many problems stem from earlier development
• even considering that, adolescents are open to
  new patterns, goals, and lifestyles
• plasticity
• young people can find a path that leads to
  adulthood and its challenges