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Chapter 15 - Cognitive Development in Adolescence (Information-Processing…
Chapter 15 - Cognitive Development in Adolescence
Piaget's Theory: The Formal Operational Stage: concrete operational children can "operate on reality" while formal operational children can "operate on operations." They no longer require concrete things or events as objects of thought, but can come up with new more general logical rules through internal reflection
Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning: where someone starts with a hypothesis, then make inferences which they then isolate and combine variables to see which variables are confirmed in the real world.
Adolescents can solve the pendulum problem by Piaget - concrete operational are unable to separate the effects of each variable: 1) they test one variable without holding another variable constant; 2) fail to notice variables that are not immediately obvious
Propositional Thought: Ability of adolescents to evaluate the logic of propositions (verbal statements) without referring to real-world circumstances
Even though Piaget did not view language as playing a central role in young children's development, he acknowledged its importance in adolescence
Follow-Up Research on Formal Operational Thought - school age children show signs of hypothetico-deductive and propositional thought but are not yet as competent at it as adolescents
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: In simplified situations; when there are several variables, they are overwhelmed.
Propsitional Thoughts: Cannot follow it if the premises contradict reality or there own beliefs; they rarely think carefully about the major premise and then violate rules of logic.
LOGICAL NECESSITY: the accuracy of conclusions drawn from premises rests on the rules of logic, not real-world confirmation; children fail to grasp it
Advances in reasoning during adolescence that illustrate their ability to apply logic
Handle problems requiring increasingly complex sets of mental operation
Move from concrete examples to explaining the logical rules on which it is based
Get better at analyzing logic of propositions, regardless of content
Why are so many adults not fully formal operational
People only think abstractly and systematically in areas where they have had extensive guidance and practice in using such reasoning
Without the experience and opportunity to do so, most people in tribal and village societies still master formal operational tasks
Information-Processing View of Adolescent Cognitive Development
Seven specific mechanisms that underlie cognitive change in adolescence
KNOWLEDGE
METACOGNITION - central to cognitive development
STRATEGIES
COGNITIVE SELF-REGULATION
INHIBITION
PROCESSING SPEED AND CAPACITY
ATTENTION
Scientific Reasoning: Coordinating Theory with Evidence: kids at third grade are able to alter their theories to reflect conflicting evidence
Young children blend evidence and theory together, overlook evidence that does not match prior beliefs; both of these improve steadily from childhood through adolescence
How Scientific Reasoning Develops: # of years a child spends in school has a strong influence on the development of scientific reasoning
Factors that support adolescents' skill at coordinating theory with evidence
Greater working memory capacity
Exposure to increasingly complex problems and instruction that highlights critical features of scientific rasoning
The ability to think about theories, deliberately isolate variables and actively seek disconfirming evidence is rarely present before adolescence; increasing objectivity and openmindedness
Consequences of teenagers' new cognitive capacities
Exaggerated sense of personal uniqueness
Idealism and criticism
Sensitivity to public criticism
Difficulty making everyday decisions
Self-Consciousness and Self-Focusing
IMAGINARY AUDIENCE: refers to adolescents' belief that they are the focus of everyone else's attention and concern
Positive effects: Others evaluations do have REAL consequences, helps kids hold onto important relationships as they struggle to separate from parents and establish an independent sense of self
PERSONAL FABLE: refers to teenagers' belief that they are special and unique
Positive effects: sense of omnipotence predicted self-esteem and overall positive adjustment; may help young people cope with challenges of adolescence
These do not result from egocentrism - but from an increase in perspective takin, which cause young teenagers to be more concerned with what others think
Idealism and Criticism
Adolescents are VERY critical: there is a disparity between teenagers' idealism and adults' realism - they can imagine alternative system and want to explore them
Why are idealism and criticism + for teenagers: once they see people are having both strengths and weaknesses they have a much greater capacity to work constructively for social cahnge and to form positive and lasting relationships
Decision Making: teenagers struggle with planning and decision making because they find it difficult to think rationally and inhibit their emotions; adolescents emphasize SHORT TERM goals
Steps of good decision making
Assessing the likelihood of various outcomes
Evaluating one's choice in terms of whether one's goals were met
Identifying pros and cons of each alternative
If not, learning from the mistake and making a better future decision
Adult supervision is important
Teenagers face an increasing number of decisions and be overwhelmed by their expanding range of options therefore their efforts to choose break down and they resort to habit, act on impulse or postpone decision making
Teenagers need protection from high risk experiences until their decision making abilities improves
Sex Differences in Mental Abilities
Verbal Abilities
Girls score higher than boys on tests of verbal ability throughout childhood and adolescence
Gaps in literacy achievement are contributing to the gender cap in colleges
Why does gender gap in verbal abilities exist
BIOLOGICAL REASONS: earlier development of cortex of left hemisphere (where language is localized); brain activity shows girls to have specific efficient activation patterns
ENVIRONMENTAL REASONS: girls receive more verbal stimulation, instruction is less suited to boys, more kids grow up without a father who encourages good work habits and literacy skills
Mathematical Abilities
Sex differences in mathematic ability: girls are better at computation; increasingly abstract and spatial work favors boys
How heredity and social pressure contribute to gender gap in math
HEREDITY: more rapid numerical memory (permits more energy to be devoted to complex operations), superior spatial reasoning
SOCIAL PRESSURES: math is a masculine subject, stereotype threat for girls, boys use computers in different ways than girls, leading them to acquire more specialized computer knowledge
Strategies that can promote girls interest in and confidence at math and science
Teaching kids that mental abilities aren't fixed but can be improved
Math curriculum beginning in Kindergarten that teaches kids how to apply effective spatial strategies
Cultural values of gender equality
Spatial tasks on which individuals show noticeable difference in performance
Mental rotation tasks: people must rotate a 3D figure rapidly and accurately inside their heads
Spatial perception tasks: people must determine spatial relationships by considering the orientation of the surrounding environment
Sex differences in spatial abilities persist throughout the lifespan; are influenced by the following factors
Biological: Prenatal exposure to androgens increase right hemispheric functioning, cognitive abilities of males are adapted for hunting, requiring generation mental representation to find their way around
Environmental: Manipulative activities; playing action video games - boys spend far more time than girls at these activities
Language Development
Vocabulary and Grammar
Change in adolescents' vocabularies
Master sarcasm and irony
Grasp of figurative language increases
Add increasing number of abstract words to their vocabularies
Gains in grammatical development: they use increasingly elaborate grammatical constructions - longer sentences consisting of a greater # of subordinate clauses
Pragmatics
Gains in adolescents' communication skills: improved capacity to adapt language style to social contact; greater increase at reflecting on language features; engaging in cognitive self-regulation
Social function of teenage slang: use slang as a sign of group belonging and as a way to distinguish themselves from adults
Learning in School
School Transitions
Reasons why adolescents' grades decline with transition to secondary school
Feel that teachers are less caring and supportive
Decrease in feelings of academic competence
Tighter academic standards - less personal attention, more whole class instruction
Girls have more difficulty with school transitions and experience a greater drop in self-esteem - coincides with the onset of puberty and dating; feel lonelier and more anxious
Ways to ease strain of school transitions
Maintaining close friendship, increasing social interaction and academic motivation
Forming smaller units within larger schools promotes closer relations with both teachers and peers; increasing extracurricular involvement
Specifically, homerooms where teachers offer academic and personal counseling, assignment of students to classes with peers
Parental involvement, monitoring, gradual autonomy granting and emphasis on mastery
Academic Achievement
Environmental factors that support high academic achievement in adolescence
Having peers who value high achievement
School characteristics - warm teachers, activities that encourage high level thinking
Authoritative parenting
Employment schedule - less than 15 hours per week
Effects of child rearing styles on academic achievement
Authoritarian: lower grades
Permissive: Lower grades
Authoritative: most effective, engaging in joint decision making, permitting more autonomy with age, increasing achievement the most
Combining parental warmth with moderate to high control promotes success: makes young people feel cared about and valued; encourages reflective thinking and self-regulation, and increases awareness of the importance of doing well in school
Uninvolved: poorest grades, worsening school performance over time
When parents partner with school, they send the message that education is to be valued, increasing a sense of self-efficacy in young people
Ways schools can strengthen parent-school partnerships
Building bridges between minority cultures and school cultures
Using parents' talents to increase the quality of school programs
Strengthening personal relationships between teachers and parents
Including parents in school governance so they remain invested in school goals
Peers contribution to adolescent achievement: they show gains in school performance, more likely to avoid drugs, engage in responsible behavior, and participate in extracurricular activities
GPA has the strongest association with future adjustment
Increasing achievement for ethnic minority students - if they observe that they are worse off by majority, they can retreat into stereotype threat and disengage from school
Schools can build close networks of support with teachers and other students (creating a smaller-school climate, focus on a common theme, increasing relationship quality and sense of belonging)
Classrooms characteristics
Increase in motivation and cognitive self-regulation: classrooms high in teacher support, promotion of mutual respect, encouragement of student interaction about academic work
Decrease in motivation and cognitive self-regulation: Classrooms emphasizing competition and public comparison of students
TRACKING decreases student achievement. There is slower progress and achievement; feeling that past performance does not reflect actual ability; exert way less effort; have less stimulating classroom experiences
High Stakes Testing
Potential benefits: Increased rigor of classroom teaching, increases student motivation and achievement, turns around poor performing schools (or protects students from being trapped in them)
Undermines education quality - increased amounts of time on test preparation rather than focusing on deeper understanding
Dropping Out: higher among boys and low-SES ethnic minority students; percentage of American adolescents completing high school has increased steadily
Consequences of dropping out: 1) lower employment rates than high school graduates; 2) more likely to remain in menial, low-paid jobs and to be out of work from time to time
Characteristics related to dropping out
Family characteristics: Parents who do not emphasize achievement or who were high school drop outs or are uninvolved, or reacts with anger and punishment, low income
School and community characteristics: Lack of teacher-student relationships, large classes and student boy, emphasizes hierarchical structure, irrelevant curricula
Student characteristics: poor school attendance, inattentiveness, discipline problems, inability to get along with teachers, students behind or decrease achievement, low self-esteem
School experiences of academically marginal students who drop out: grade retention, large, impersonal school, classes with unsupportive teachers, few opportunities for active participation
Strategies to prevent school dropout
High quality vocational education
Efforts to address many factors in students' lives related to leaving school early
Remedial instruction and counselling that offers personalized attention
Participation in extracurricular activities
Vocational Development
Phases of vocational development
TENTATIVE PERIOD: between ages 11-16, start to think about careers in terms of their interests, and then in terms of their abilities and values
REALISTIC PERIOD: late teens, early 20s. Narrow their options. Explore possibilities that blend with their personal characteristics, then they focus on a general vocational category and experiment for a time before settling on a single occupation
FANTASY PERIOD: Early/middle childhood, children gain insight into career options by fantasizing about them
Factors Influencing Vocational Choice
Relationship between personality and vocational choice is MODERATE
REALISTIC: prefers real-world problems and work with objects; tends towards mechanical occupations
ARTISTIC: has high need for emotional and individual expression; drawn toward fields like writing, music and the visual arts
SOCIAL
CONVENTIONAL: likes well structured tasks and values social status, tends to choose business occupations
INVESTIGATIVE: enjoys working with ideas; likely to select scientific occupations
ENTERPRISING: adventurous, persuasive, and a strong leader; drawn to sales and supervisory positions
Reasons why young people's vocational aspirations correlate strongly with their parents' jobs
Similarity in personality, intellectual abilities and educational attainment
Number of years of schooling is a powerful predictor of occupational status
Higher SES kids more likely to select high-status, white collar occupations
Teachers can offer encouragement and act as role models; have closer relationships with college-bound kids
Female progress in entering male dominated profession has been slow - girls are less confident in their abilities, increasingly likely to underestimate their achievement, and decreasingly likely to express interest in math and science careers
Confidence-building messages and career guidance that encourages students to set goals that match abilities, interests and values
Models of high achieving women in their lives
Vocational Preparation of Non College Bound Adolescents: these kids have fewer work opportunities than they did several decades ago
Nature of most adolescent jobs
Low level, repetitive tasks; provide little contact with adult supervisors
Linked to poor school attendance, decreased grades, decreased participation in extracurricular activities, increased incidence of drop out, increased of alienation from parents, report more drug and alcohol use and delinquent acts
Challenges to implementation of national apprenticeship program in US
Ensuring cooperation between schools and businesses
Preventing low-SES youths from being concentrated in the lowest-skilled apprenticeship placements
Overcoming reluctance of employers to assume some responsibility for training