Dr van Widenfelt PSYC 307 Fall 2015 Today agenda ADOLESCENCE topics chapter 15 Cognitive Development Piaget Formal Operations Kohlberg Adolescence Shift in intellectual cognitive development during adolescence Adolescence Egocentrism Development of abstract thinking Brain maturation Language capacity more complex and helps with more complex thinking Increased independence Increased exposure to how other s think and behave Moral challenges Brain maturation continues Prefrontal cortex developing further Helps in planning and analyzing abilities Mylination faster reaction time Language mastery improving Cognitive skills Teenagers generally start to be able to think in an adult way to be logical to think in terms of possibilities to reason scientifically and abstractly E g to understand cause and effect in development Many able but does not do that all the time Formal Operational Thought Piaget Formal operational thought Fourth and final stage of cognitive development Characterized by more systematic logic More advanced reasoning ability to think about abstract ideas Dramatic difference between primary school and high school age Piaget Formal operational thinking May see already beginning at age 10 But takes many years Early teens still very concrete Base on facts But hypothetical situations difficult Concrete thinking might think black and white Formal operations can think more complexly Must be trained and developed Large individual differences More is possible Start thinking about things had not thought about before More possibilities More combinations possible Sandwich test https www youtube com watch v 7Y7hH1eZfXA 2 min Reasoning and analytic skills See changes in problem solving How to Balance a Scale https www youtube com watch v xbkZLiJOQ3o balance scale task Siegler 7 min Balance task 7 year olds Likely to put weights on both sides without considering the distance from the center of the scale 10 year olds preoperational Most likely to use trial and error problem solving Eg see strategy used to put puzzle together 14 year olds formal operational Systematically test the idea that the relationship between weight and distance is reciprical If did puzzle think through a strategy first Two Modes of Thinking analytic thought adolescents don t always like to use this type of thinking intuitive thought ideas are discovered and applied With maturity adolescents gradually balance formal analytic thinking and emotional experiential thinking Two Modes of Thinking Intuition Versus Analysis Intuitive thought Thought that arises from an emotion or a hunch beyond rational explanation is influenced by past experiences and cultural assumptions Analytic thought Thought that results from analysis such as a systematic ranking of pros and cons Consideration of risks and consequences possibilities and facts Analytic thought depends on logic and rationality is more difficult requires more perspective taking and challenging ways of thinking Hypothetical thought Hypothetical thought EG Can reflect on maybe things are not what they appear Eg Ask more questions about their family Have ability to create ideal senarios imagine an ideal person or ideal world Deductive and inductive reasoning Deductive reasoning Adolescents can reason from a general statement premise or principle through logical steps to figure out deduce specifics Sometimes called top down reasoning Inductive reasoning Reasoning from specific experiences or facts to a general conclusion less cognitively advanced than deduction See in children Sometimes called bottom up reasoning Drawing conclusions Bottom Up or Top Down Formal Operational Thought Logical fallacies in adolescence Make point with logic even if not true https www youtube com watch v WmIb2Jb KC8 4 min Base rate neglect Person ignores the overall frequency of some behavior or characteristic called the base rate in making a decision Individual differences Hypothetical thought and deductive reasoning not always demonstrated in adolescence nor acquired by everyone Egocentrism Adolescent egocentrism Characteristic of adolescent thinking that leads young people to focus on themselves to the exclusion of others Difficulty thinking rationally about themselves Heightned self consciousness Able to imagine many options and senarios But through an egocentric view Imaginary audience Other people are watching and taking note of his or her appearance ideas and behavior This belief makes many teenagers self conscious and not at ease with others Feel easily judged Can quickly arrive at He or she doesn t like me Fables adolescents hold Personal fable belief that his or her thoughts feelings or experiences are unique Drama more wonderful or awful than anyone else s Invincibility fable Adolescent s egocentric conviction that he or she cannot be overcome or even harmed by anything unprotected sex drug abuse or high speed driving Egocentrism reassessed Both sides of egocentrism Previous research suggests egocentrism fosters adolescent risk taking Current perspectives propose egocentrism may be protective Adolescents who feel psychologically invincible tend to be resilient Helps with being more adaptive Question How does adolescent egocentrism differ from early childhood egocentrism Development of Young child only sees from egocentrism perspective of own needs TOM Adolescent Self focus Going through so much And everyone watching me See shift from egocentrism to more social cognition Can start seeing others not thinking like me necessarily start seeing even more that others might have different thoughts Start reading others better Can make inferences And Can ASK Moral Development Moral development Kids will start becoming more sophisticated in reasoning how they think about moral decisions Social problem solving Younger Good or bad based on reward and punishment Ado s can start considering feelings of others and sensitive to society s values can now attach to a value or law even if no reward or punshiment Kohlberg Three levels of moral decision making First when younger Preconventional and Conventional what is good for ME Then to I want you to like me I don t want my dad to be mad at me rule bound It is the law that is why I do what I do I don t want to get in trouble NOTE Kohlberg believed mostpeople remain at conventional mode of morality Post conventional Make decisions based on the principle What would Jesus do What would my mom do Make decisions based on personal moral principles EG If your