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Chapter 3
Week 3 Development across the life span II
Adolescence 👩🏻🧑🏻
Is the period of life from about age 13 to the early 20, during which a young person is no longer physically a child but is
not yer independent, self-supporting adult.
Adolescence isn’t necessarily determined by chronological age, It also concern how a person deal with life issues
such as work, family and relationships.
Physical development
Puberty: The physical changes in both primary sex characteristics, growth of the actual sec organ such as the penis or
the uterus. and secondary characteristics, changes in the body such as the development of breast and body hair. 🦵🏻💪🏻
Puberty often begins about 2 years after the beginning of the growth spurt, the rapid period of growth that takes
place at around age 10 for girls and around age 12 for boys.
The development if the brain, will continues well into the early 20s. In particular, the prefrontal cortex of the brain
,which is responsible in part for impulse control, decision making, and the organization and understanding of
information, does not complete its development until about age 25.
When the still-developing brain is paired with the adolescent’s lack of life experience in making reasoned judgements,
it becomes easy to understand why adolescents may engage in risky behaviour even when they should know better.
Many adolescents feel that they are so unique, so special, that bad things just won’t happen to them. This personal
fable can cause some pretty risky behaviour.
Cognitive behaviour
The cognitive development is less visible than the physical development but still represents a major change in the way
adolescents think about themselves.
Piaget’s formal operations revisited
Abstract thinking becomes possible, although some egocentric thought remains.
Personal fable: Adolescents have spend so much time thinking about their own thoughts and feeling that they become
convinced that they are special, one of a kind, and that no one else has ever had these thought and feeling before them.
Imaginary audience : It shows up as extreme self-consciousness in adolescents. They become convinced that
everyone is looking at them and that they are always the center of everyone else’s world, just as they are the center of
their own, many adolescents experience concerning what others think about how the adolescent looks or behaves.
Kohlberg’s three levels of morality
Another important aspect in the cognitive advances that occur in adolescence concerns the teenager’s understanding of
“right” and “wrong”.
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Carol Giligan(1982) proposed that men and women have different perspective on morality: Men tend to judge as
moral the action that lead to fair or just end whereas women tend to judge as moral the action that are
nonviolent and hurt the fewest people.
Kohlberg’s assessment of moral development involves asking people what they think should be done in hypothetical
moral dilemmas. What people say they will do and what people actually do when faced with a real dilemmas are often
two different things.
Psychosocial Development
The development of personality and social relationships in adolescence primarily concern the search for a consistent
sense of self or personal identity.
Erikson’s identity VS role confusion. 👩🏻🧑🏻
In this stage, the teenager must choose from among many options for values in life and beliefs concerning things
such as political issues, career options, and marriage. The adolescence must find a consistent sense of self.
Erikson believed that teens who have successfully resolved the conflicts of the earlier four stages are much better
“equipped” to resist peer pressure to engage in unhealthy or illegal activities and find their own identify during the
adolescent years.
Peer pressure is quite effective on teenagers who desperately want to ‘fit in’ and have an identify of a certain sort
and who feel that others will not want to be with them unless they conform to the expectations and demands of the
peer group.
Parent-teen conflict
Even for the majority of adolescents who end up successfully finding a consistent sense of self, there will be conflicts with
parents.
Many researchers believe that a certain amount of “rebellion” and conflict is a necessary step in breaking away from
childhood dependence on the parents and becoming a self-sufficient adult.
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Adulthood and Aging 👱🏻♀️👨🏻🦰
Adulthood begins in the early twenties and ends with old age and death.
Divided into young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood.
Emerging adulthood as a time from late adolescence through the 20s and referring to mainly those in developed
countries who are childless.
Do not live in their own home, may still be in the process of forming romantic relationship, and are not earning enough
money to be independent.
Physical development
Physical aging
Physical changes in young adulthood are relatively minimal. The good news is that the 20s are a time of peak physical
health, sharp senses, fewer insecurities, and mature cognitive abilities. The bad news is that even in the early 20s,
the signs of aging are already beginning.
Menopause
In a women’s 40s , the levels of the female hormone estrogen decline as the body’’s reproductive system prepares to
cease that function.
Women experience a physical decline in the reproductive system called the climacteric; the 5 to 10 year period
during which these changes occur is called perimenopause.
Menopause refers to the actual cessation of ovulation and menstrual cycles and the end of a woman’s
reproductive capability
Men also go through a time of sexual changes, but it is much more gradual and less dramatic than menopause.
Andropause: gradual changes in the sexual hormones and reproductive system of males.
Aging and health
It is in middle age that many health problems first occur, although their true cause may have begun in the young
adulthood years. Daily wear and tear in the early adult years become obvious in the 40s and 50s
Common health problems in middle age.
high blood pressure
skin cancer
heart problem
arthritis
obesity
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Cognitive development
During this time, intellectual abilities do not decline overall, although speed of processing does slow down.
Changes in memory
Challenges in memory most likely caused by stress and high volumes of information to maintain
It is more likely caused by the stresses a middle-aged person experiences and the sheer amount of information that a
person of middle years must try to keep straight.
Some studies suggest that thinking about the positive events of the past aids the formation of newer memories- the
areas of the brain that are linked to the processing emotional content see to have a strong connection to the areas of
the brain responsible for memory formation.
Exercising mental abilities helps
Work challenging crossword puzzles
Reading
Have an active social life
Physically activity is very important!
Psychosocial development
In adulthood, concern involve career , relationships, family and approaching old age.
Erikson intimacy Vs Isolation: Forming relationship.
Erikson saw the primary task in young adulthood to be that of finding a mate.
Intimacy: is an emotional and psychological closeness that is based on the ability to trust, share and care.( an ability
developed during the earlier stages such as trust Vs mistrust)
Young adults who have difficulty trusting others and who are unsure of their own identities may find Isolation instead
of Intimacy— loneliness, shallow relationships with others, and even a fear intimacy.
Erikson Generativity Vs Stagnation: Parenting
In middle adulthood, person who have found intimacy can now turn their focus outward, toward others.
Generativity: a process of as parenting the next generation and helping them through their crises, or contributing to the
well-being of the next generation through career or volunteering.
Parenting children is a very important role for many during middle adulthood.
Those who are unable to find generativity and are still dealing with issues of intimacy or even identity are said to be
stagnated.
Type of Parenting
Parenting children is a very important part of most people’s middle adulthood. Diana Baumrind (1967) outlined three basic
style of parenting, each of which may be related to certain personality traits in the child raised by that style of parenting.
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Authoritarian parenting
It tends to be overly concerned with rule. This type of parent is stern, rigid, controlling and uncompromising, demands
perfection and has a tendency to use physical punishment. Children raised in this way are often insecure, timid,
withdrawn and resentful.
Permissive parenting
It occurs when parents put very few demands on their children for behavior. Permissive neglectful parents simply
aren’t involved with their children, ignoring them and allowing them to do whatever they want, until it interferes with what
the parent want.
Permissive indulgent
Parents seem to be too involved with their children, allowing their ‘little angles’ to behave in any way they wish, refusing
to set limits on the child’s behavior or to require any kind of obedience.
Authoritative parenting
It involves combining firm limits on behavior with love, warmth, affection, respect and a willingness to listen to the child’s
point of view. Authoritative parents are more democratic, allowing the child to have some input into the formation of
rules but still maintaining the role of final decision maker.Punishment tend to non-physical.Children raised in this style
of parenting tend to be self-reliant and independent.
Erikson Ego Integrity Vs Despair: Dealing with mortality
As people enter the stage known as late adulthood, life becomes more urgent as the realities of physical aging and the
approaching end of life become harder and harder to ignore.
In the life review, people must deal with mistakes, regrets and unfinished business. If people can look back and feel
that their lives were relatively full and are able to come to terms with regrets and losses, then a feeling of Ego
integrity or wholeness result.
If people have many regrets and lots of unfinished business, they feel despair, a sense of deep regret over things
that will never be accomplished because time has run out.
Theories of Physical and Psychological Aging.
There are a number of theories of why people physically age. Some theories or physical aging point to biological changes
in cellular structure, whereas others focus on the influence of external stresses on body tissues and functioning.
Cellular-clock theory
In this theory, cells are limited in the number of times they can reproduce to repair damage.
Evidence of this theory is the existence of telomeres, structures on the ends of chromosomes that shorten each time
a cell reproduces.
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When telomeres are too short, cells cannot reproduce and damage accumulates, resulting in the effect of aging
Sound almost like what happens when the warranty is up on a car, doesn’t it?
Wear-and-tear theory
The theory that points to outside influences such as stress, physical exertion and bodily damage is known as the wear-
and-tear theory of aging.
The body’s organ and cell tissue simply wear out with repeated use and abuse. Damage tissues accumulate and
produce the effect of aging.
Collagen, for example, is a natural elastic tissue that allows the skin to be flexible.
As people age, the collagen ‘wears out’ , becoming less and less “stretchy” and allowing skin to sag and wrinkle.
Free-radical theory
It is actually the latest version of the wear-and-tear theory in that it gives a biological explanation for the damage done to
cells over time.
Free radical are oxygen molecules that have an unstable electron. They bounce around the cell, stealing electrons
from other molecules and increasing the damage to structures inside the cell.
As people get older, more and more free radicals do more and more damage, producing the effect of aging.
Oxygen molecules with an unstable electron move around the cell, damaging cell structures as they go
Activity theory
It proposes that an elderly person adjusts more positively to aging when remaining active in some way.
Elderly people who volunteer at hospitals or schools, those who take up new hobbies or throw themselves full time
into old ones, and those who maintain their friendships with others and continue to have social activities have been
shown to be happier and live longer than those who withdraw themselves from activity.
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Contrary to the view of the elderly as voluntarily withdrawing from activities, the withdrawal of many elderly people is
not voluntary at all.
Their lack of involvement is often because others simply stop inviting elderly people to social activities and including
them in their live.
Theory of adjustment to aging that assumes older people are happier if they remain active in some way, such as
volunteering or developing a hobby
Stages of Death and Dying
There are several ways of looking at the process of dying. One of the more well-known theories is that Elisabeth Kubler-
Ross (1997), who conducted extensive interviews with dying persons and their caregiver.
Denial: It’s the people refuse to believe that the diagnosis of death is real.
Anger: It’s really anger at heath itself and the feeling of helplessness to change thing.
Bargaining: It’s the ding person tries to make a deal with doctors or even with God.
Depression: Its’s sadness from losses already experienced and those yet to come.
Acceptance: It’s the person has accepted the inevitable and quietly awaits death.
Not an Adolescent, but Not Yet an Adult?
What does it mean to be an adult?
Adulting may be difficult for some
Every twenty-something may not experience emerging adulthood
While some may transition to adulthood during this time, others may not be able to financially live independently
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