Adolescent Development 9 10 Major Developmental Issues Nature v Nurture driving question what CAUSES developmental change differences between two people s development o nature heredity o nurture environment Continuity v Discontinuity driving question what does change LOOK like how is information absorbed o continuous quantitative gradual smooth cumulative processes happen the same way over the entire lifespan o discontinuous qualitative abrupt different skills come at different stages in different ways Stability v Change driving question WHEN can meaningful change happen o stability after some part of your life you are what you are going to be for the rest of your life change is early and then no more developmental change happens after that early experiences are critical freud theory ends with adolescence after you re 7 or 8 your experiences have formed your personality significant change is unlikely later in life o change environment is equally influential throughout your life erikson Historical Perspective on Adolescence 15th century the word itself first appears earlier roots philosophers consider the nature of man o what makes us human How did we get to be human How does an infant change as she develops into an adolescent or adult o Often invoked ideas about development Early Greeks o Plato Dualist body and soul mind are distinct o Soul is independent of the body Innate knowledge Ideas exist in the mind at birth Experience helps you recall what you already know Development is all about bringing your knowledge into your conscious thought Soul has three layers Desire spirit o Present in both animals and humans o belong to body die with body Reason o divine layer unique to man o lives on after death of body Questions nature vs nurture picks nature Developmental ideas Reason develops in adolescence Lower layers of soul develop earlier o Not everyone reaches reason o Education should be tailored to age o Don t teach math science until adolescence o Aristotle Unity of body and soul Soul not separate from body 3 layers plant like baby o just taking in nutrients animal like children o perceiving thinking human developmental classification infancy boyhood young manhood Middle Ages o Fall of the roman empire Collapse of infrastructure Isolated communities no interaction between groups of people Art suffers Regression of thought Earlier were more enlightened ideas about human nature o Dominant view of human nature Not of the animal world Thought to be nothing like animals Preformationism Homunculus fully formed miniature adult o Found in sperm Growth is quantitative not qualitative Inherently evil Human being by nature are negative creatures Renaissance o Comenius A lot of this comes from the church which had increased influence on this thinking Sinfulness will only get worse without intervention Humans are born with tendency to sin Education Stern discipline most important feature Punishment is a necessary part of education Want to get rid of all the evil In contrast to plato Aristotle o Continuous v discontinuous CONTINUOUS only change is us o DIFFERENCE plato said we already know what we know we just gradually getting bigger have to grow into it Middle ages said that we are innately evil and we have to get rid of it to turn into a good person Return to a developmental view of human nature Children are qualitatively different from adults not just miniature versions Educational content should fit the developmental level of this More like the ancient greeks than like the middle ages child o Locke All knowledge comes from experience tabula rasa or blank slate we come into the world not knowing anything and are fully molded by our environment whatever you experience is going to have a huge impact on who you are opposed to physical punishment praise instead positive environment positive development different from both greeks and middle ages nature v nurture NURTURE cont vs discont you learn by having your experiences you get more and more as time goes on process is always the same only difference btwn adult and child is that they have more experiences not that they absorb the information differently o Rosseau Not miniature adults Humans are innately good Development as natural progression Innate plan pre programmed Cannot be improved upon Too many restrictions or rigid discipline can be bad Potential just needs to unfurl History of Adolescence in the US o 1890 present Age of Adolescence idea that adolescence is very separate from childhood and adulthood o societal changes increasing industrialization new technologies new jobs required longer period of schooling delay entering adulthood workforce remain childlike dependent longer o legal changes laws recognizing adolescence as a separate period of life child labor laws compulsory education laws juvenile justice legislation o science focuses on adolescence as a separate period of life G Stanley Hall 1844 1924 Haeckel s recapitulation theory father of adolescent psychology o Roots in darwin s theory of evolution o ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny o development of the individual repeats the evolutionary changes of the species o physical development of the fetus Proposed 3 stages of development o In each our behavior is Like that of our species in an earlier evolutionary stage Infancy childhood animal stage Youth savagery Adolescence transitioning towards civilization Adolescence turbulent transitional time storm and stress is the norm o emotional maladjustment o instability moodiness o risky behavior o competing pulls of savagery and civility late adolescence o new birth beginning of modern civilization o higher more human traits maturity nature v nurture nature rooted in evolution we all follow the same pattern of progression cont v discount discont qualitatively different stages stab v change stability ends with the end of adolescence no developmental change after adolescence o Judging Hall Haeckel s theory has been refuted Echoes in modern Evolutionary Psychology Evolutionary forces to explain traits and characteristics and their development 9 13 Behavorism we cant study what we cant observe o mind as black box o can only study behaviors development as learning o result of experiences rewards and punishments o gradual change change is CONTINUOUS NURTURE Social Learning Theories social cognitive development shaped by experiences o BUT humans actively interpret experience Observational Learning o Humans can learn by watching others and what