PSY2071 Topic 5

Adolescence and emerging adulthood

Carrie Ewin
Faculty of Education
Slides prepared by Dr Megan Spencer-Smith
Developmental periods – age ranges
Prenatal conception to birth Perinatal period 22 wks to 7 days of life
Infancy birth to 12 months Neonatal period first 4 wks of life
Toddlerhood 12 to 36 months
Early childhood 3 to 6 years
Middle childhood 6 to 9 years
Adolescence Emerging adulthood
Young adulthood
Middle adulthood
Late adulthood

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Prescribed readings
Chapter 8: Adolescence
▪ Section 1: p 342 to 345 (Brain development through to Culture and timing of
puberty), p 348 to 351 (Eating disorders through to Substance use)
▪ Section 2: p 353 to 354 (Piaget's theory of formal operations through
to Hypothetical-deductive reasoning), p 355 to 357 (Information processing:
selective attention and advances in memory through to The personal fable)
▪ Section 3: p 367 to 370 (Emotionality in adolescence: storm and
stress? through to Self-esteem), p 372 to 374 (Moral development through
to The cultural-developmental theory of moral reasoning), p 376 to 382
(Family relationships through to Cliques and crowds), p 389 to 393 (Crime and
delinquency through to Resilience in adolescence)

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Prescribed readings
Chapter 9: Emerging Adulthood
▪ Section 1: p 399 to 403 (Five distinguishing features of emerging
adulthood through to The cultural context of emerging adulthood), p 410 to 412
(Substance use and abuse).
▪ Section 2: p 141 to 416 (Cognitive development: post formal thinking through
to Reflective judgement), p 412 (Map 9.1 Worldwide enrolment in tertiary
education), p 419 (Finding adult work).
▪ Section 3: p 426 to 431 (Identity development through to Ethnic identity), p 436
to 442 (Emotional and social development: the social and cultural contexts of
emerging adulthood through to Sexuality).

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Topic objectives
▪ To outline some of the major processes in physical developmental
and health in the adolescent and emerging adulthood years
▪ To describe key achievements and progress in cognitive, moral and
self-identify across the adolescent and emerging adulthood years
▪ To outline some of the strengths and limitations of theoretical
approaches to explaining development across cognitive, moral and
self-identify domains in the adolescent and emerging adulthood
years.

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Lecture outline
PART 1 – Defining adolescence and emerging adulthood
PART 2 – Physical development and health issues
PART 2 – Cognitive development
PART 3 – Emotional and social development

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Emergence of adolescence
▪ 1904 Stanley Hall described a new life stage characterised by storm and
stress called “adolescence”
▪ Going to secondary school - routine for most children in 20th century
▪ Transition phase between childhood and adulthood
▪ Start: onset of pubertal maturation, just before teenage years
▪ End: change in social role and responsibilities, just after teenage years

▪ From the latin word adolēscere, which means "to grow up”
▪ Not new
“I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth
would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting
wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.” (Shakespeare,
The Winter's Tale, III.iii)
Anthropology: most human societies recognise an intermediary “adolescent”
period
Animal studies: some of the neurobehavioural changes observed in other
species, such as increases in exploratory tendencies.

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Presentation title
9
The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain

https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_jayne_blakemore_the_mysterious_workings_of_th
e_adolescent_brain

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Emerging adulthood
▪ Phase of life devoted to constructing an adult life
▪ defined by testing out different possibilities and developing self
▪ Begins after high school and tapers off by late 20s
▪ Not a universal life stage
▪ exists for a minority of young people
▪ A challenging and change-inducing stage of life, charactersised by:
1. Identity explorations
2. Instability
3. Self-focus
4. Feeling in-between
5. Possibilities

https://mediaplayer.pearsoncmg.com/assets/mypsychlab-arnett2e-
the_features_of_emerging_adulthood_across_cultures

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1
Lecture outline
PART 1 – Defining adolescence and emerging adulthood
PART 2 – Physical development and health issues
PART 2 – Cognitive development
PART 3 – Emotional and social development

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Key events in brain development in adolescence
▪ Increase in the over production of synaptic connections around
puberty (10-12 years), especially in frontal lobes
▪ Synaptic pruning follows, ensuring connections used remain, enabling
pathways to become more specialised
▪ Myelination continues, with brain functioning becomes more
efficient
▪ Like synaptic pruning, it means the brain is less flexible and changeable
▪ Growth of cerebellum, now known to be important for movement as
well as higher order cognitive functions such as decision making,
social skills and humour

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Puberty – sexual organs mature
▪ Begins when the pituitary gland
signals other glands in the body to
begin producing sex hormones at
adult levels
▪ Andogens – e.g. testosterone
▪ Oestrogens (or Estrogen)
▪ Males and females produce both
types, but males have higher
concentration of androgens and
females oestrogens
▪ Pituitary gland also signals to
increase production of growth
hormones that interact with sex
hormones
▪ Generally occurs earlier in females
than males, but wide variation
11 or 12 years
13 or 14 years

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Puberty – Spermarche
▪ Surge in production of sex hormones that trigger adolescence might
lead to changes in mood
▪ Males – anger and annoyance
▪ Females – anger and depression

▪ First ejaculation
▪ around age 13 years

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Puberty – Menarche
▪ Onset of menstruation
▪ Timing varies across the world
▪ Earlier in more economically
advantaged than disadvantaged
countries
▪ Even within wealthier countries, girls
from more affluent circumstances begin
earlier

Why?!

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Secular trend in the age of menarche – change over generations

Why?!

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 Puberty – average timing of physical changes

▪ Reflects white American

and British adolescents

▪ Variations exist in other

groups e.g. in Kenya,
Kikuyu boys (not girls)
show show the first
physical changes of
puberty

▪ What factors influence timing of puberty?

▪ What are the consequences of timing of puberty?

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Timing of puberty: EARLY onset
Timing can have implications for social functioning
Females
• Physical bodily changes (e.g. breast development) may lead to feeling
uncomfortable and different from peers
• Might experience ridicule from less mature peers
• Tend to be sought after more as potential dates, and popularity may enhance
their self-concepts.
• Early maturing girls are at risk for psychopathology – both internalizing and
externalizing symptoms during adolescence. Elevated risk for depression in
adulthood
Males
• Tend to be more successful at athletics, because of larger size?
• Tend to be more popular and have a more positive self-concept
• Difficulties in school > delinquency and substance abuse
• Initially have lower levels of depression but later showed anxiety & low self-image

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Timing of puberty: LATE onset
Females
• May be overlooked in dating and other mixed-sex activities during early and
middle school years, and have relatively low social status
• Satisfaction with themselves and their bodies may be greater than that of
early maturers
• Fewer emotional problems
Males
• Boys who are smaller and lighter than their more physically mature peers
tend to be viewed as less attractive
• Disadvantage when it comes to sports activities and social activities
• Decline in self-concept
• They have positive qualities, such as insightfulness and assertiveness
• They are more creatively playful than early matures

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Health issues in adolescence – Anorexia nervosa
https://mediaplayer.pearsoncmg.com/assets/mypsychlab-arnett2e-
anorexia_nervosa_tamora

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Lecture outline
PART 1 – Defining adolescence and emerging adulthood
PART 2 – Physical development and health issues
PART 2 – Cognitive development
PART 3 – Emotional and social development

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Piaget’s approach to cognitive development
▪ Children pass through four universal STAGES in a fixed order from birth
through adolescence

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Formal operations
▪ Development of hypothetical-deductive reasoning
▪ Applying hypothetical thinking (testing different possibilities) involved in
scientific experiments

Emerges
▪ Early adolescence
▪ Variable usage depends on conditions surrounding assessment

Established
▪ Late adolescence
▪ Consolidated and integrated into general approach to reasoning

→ Not all achieve this stage

Why?
education, culture

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Adolescent use of formal operations: consequences
▪ Ability to reason abstractly, through use of formal operations, leads
to changes in daily behaviour
▪ Questioning parents and authority figures
▪ Exhibiting greater idealism and impatience with imperfections
▪ Experiencing indecision

Why is this understanding helpful?

Coping with their critical abilities can be challenging for teachers and
parents and others working with adolescents

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Evaluating Piaget’s approach
Pros
• Inspired a great deal of research
• Accounts for many changes observed during adolescence
• Helps explain
• Developmental differences
• Multidimensionality
• Metacognition

Cons
• Fails to demonstrate:
• Stage like fashion of cognition
• Formal operations in adolescent cognitive stage
• Fails to account for:
• Individual differences in the attainment of formal operations
• Cultural bias of adolescent cultural development

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Elkind’s adolescent egocentrism – the storm
▪ New abilities make adolescents particularly introspective and self-
conscious
▪ These hallmarks of the period may produce a high degree of
egocentrism
▪ Building on Piaget’s Formal Operational thinking to understand
adolescent behaviour…. Sensitivity!

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 Adolescent egocentrism
Distorted feeling of self-
absorption in which the world
is viewed as focused on
oneself

Personal fables Imaginary audience

view that what happens to them belief that his or her own
is unique, exceptional and behaviour is the primary focus of
experienced by no one else others’ attention and concern

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Post-formal thinking in emerging adulthood
Pragmatism – Using logical thinking in daily life
▪ Greater recognition and incorporation of practical limitations to logical
thinking (adolescents exaggerate how effective logical thinking is in real life)
▪ Dialectical thought involves a growing awareness that problems don’t often
have a clear solution and opposing approaches might each have merit
▪ Cultural differences e.g. more dialectical thinking in Chinese students
compared with American students

Reflective judgement – Evaluating accuracy and logic of an argument

Perry described stages:
1. Multiple thinking – many points of view recognised and valued
2. Relativism – attempt to evaluate the merits of competing views
3. Commitment – commit to a view believed to be most valid and being open
to re-valuate

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Lecture outline
PART 1 – Defining adolescence and emerging adulthood
PART 2 – Physical development and health issues
PART 2 – Cognitive development
PART 3 – Emotional and social development

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Moral development – Kohlberg (1927-1987)
• Professor University of Chicago & Harvard
• Stages of Moral Development
• Kohlberg presented hypothetical moral
dilemmas and asked participants to judge
whether a protagonist‘s behaviour in these
hypothetical problematic situations was right
or wrong, and to explain their judgments.
• Within this approach moral reasoning is
assessed through the analysis of the resultant
narratives.

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Heinz dilemma
Study: consists of a series of dilemmas such as this

Heinz Steals the Drug

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was
one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a
druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to
make, but the druggist was charging 10 times what the drug cost him to make.
He paid $200 for the radium & charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug.
The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the
money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000 which is half of what it
cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it
cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug &
I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate & broke into the
man's store to steal the drug-for his wife.

Should the husband have done that? (Kohlberg, 1963, p. 19)

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Moral development
▪ Children pass through a series of universal stages as their sense of
justice develops and in the reasoning they use
▪ Based on their cognitive capacities school-age children tend to think
either in terms of:
▪ concrete unvarying rules e.g. “it is always wrong to steal” and “I’ll
be punished if I steal” or
▪ rules of society e.g. “good people don’t steal” and “”what if
everyone stole?”
▪ By adolescence, the individual has reached ______ Piaget’s stage
of development, and they consider cases in terms of broader issues
e.g. “stealing may be acceptable if you are following your own
conscience and do the right thing”

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Evaluating Kohlberg’s theory
Pros
▪ Provides a structured approach to understanding values
▪ Provides insight into other people’s moral priorities

Cons
▪ Suggests children don’t go beyond a punishment and reward mentality
▪ Developmental scientists have shown that our basic sense of morality comes
online quite early
▪ What about the measures?
▪ Do the vignettes reflect real world situations?
▪ Do they predict real world morality?
▪ Male-centered approach to moral thought
▪ Fails to include culturally diverse moral concepts, and is biased in favour or
the Western worldview

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Kholberg’s three levels of moral reasoning
Level 1: Preconventional Morality
Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment (How can I avoid punishment?)
Stage 2: Individualism and Exchange (What's in it for me?) (Paying for
a benefit)

Level 2: Conventional Morality

Stage 3: Interpersonal Relationships (Social norms) (The good
boy/good girl attitude)
Stage 4: Maintaining Social Order (Law and order morality)

Level 3: Postconventional Morality

Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights
Stage 6: Universal Principles (Principled conscience)

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Cultural-developmental approach to moral development
Researchers code people’s responses to moral issues according to
three types of “ethics” rooted in different worldviews:

1. Ethic of Autonomy
Individual defined as the primary moral authority – individuals viewed as having
a right to do what they would like to as long as their behaviour doesn’t harm
others.

2. Ethic of Community
Individuals defined as members of social groups to which they have
commitments and responsibilities – responsibilities of roles in family,
community and other groups are the basis of one’s moral judgment

3. Ethic of Diversity
Individual defined as a spiritual entity subject to a divine authority – moral views
based on traditional religious authorities and texts.

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Separating from parents
▪ Teenagers report most uplifting experiences occurred when with families
▪ BUT, these unhappy emotions outweigh positive emotions 10 to 1

Is this pattern observed across cultures?

What do they argue about? → autonomy

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Connecting in groups
▪ Teenage peer groups can be classified :
▪ Cliques are small groups of ~6 with similar attitudes and share activities
▪ Crowds are larger groups

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 Psychological disorders – typical age of onset

▪ 75% of adult mental disorders have their onset before 24 years of age; mostly
during adolescence (Kessler et al, Arch Gen Psych (2005)
▪ Symptoms in children and adults are inconsistent
• e.g. key defining features of major depressive disorder in children and
adolescence are the same as for adults.
• BUT way symptoms are expressed varies with developmental stage of child

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Depression – research findings
▪ 3-5% of adolescents have depression at any one time
▪ 20% of adolescents have depression at one point in their teenage
years
▪ First onset of depression often occurs in mid-to-late adolescence,
however average age is 40s
▪ Depression is more common in females during adolescence - 2:1
ratio
▪ Often a strong family history of depression
▪ Episodes vary in length – range from weeks to years
▪ Highly recurrent

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Depression intervention for adolescents

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Individual differences – different pathways
▪ Which teens get into serious trouble? What are the risk factors?
▪ Which teens flourish? What are the resilience factors?

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Constructing an identify – Erikson’s psychosocial stages
▪ Highlighted the challenge of transforming childhood self into adult
person

Identity
achievement

Foreclosure Moratorium

Can we categorise the ways people tackle the challenge of constructing

an adult identify?

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 Identity formation – Marcia
▪ To achieve a mature identity = experience a crisis and become
committed to that ideology
▪ Four states:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uUHWeAUWtg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OGfFXb1IAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKwqw5xkQMY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBAb9iPq2qg

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Moratorium in depth
▪ Marcia originally thought: Diffusion → Moratorium → Achievement
▪ BUT Real-life identity construction is more erratic, moving back
and forth in statuses throughout adulthood
▪ Shifts help to consistently rethink our lives, review goals and directions
▪ BUT some do not move successfully toward an identity search, find
themselves stuck
▪ Search for identity is not a universal developmental task but is
affected by life circumstances

Ruminative moratorium

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Lecture outline
PART 1 – Defining adolescence and emerging adulthood
PART 2 – Physical development and health issues
PART 2 – Cognitive development
PART 3 – Emotional and social development

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