Elise HostyFSHS 506Midterm

#1 The Endocrine System is responsible for triggering the biological growth and change

associated with puberty. It is a very complicated process, and one that all our bodies must go

through as we enter into puberty. The Endocrine System is also known as a messaging system

for our bodies. It sends messages throughout the body through the bloodstream. It is a chemical

communication network that communicates through the hormones. Many people think that the

Endocrine System is just in the brain, but they are wrong because is it actually the head through

the pelvis. We will take a closer look at the following diagram to better understand the Endocrine

System.

In the diagram, the yellow stars

are where the functions of the

Hypothalamus

Pituitary Gland

Parathyroid Gland

Thyroid Gland

Thymus

Adrenal Gland

Ovary (females)

Testis (males)

Elise HostyFSHS 506MidtermEndocrine System are placed in the body. The red line points to the gland or organ to identify the

yellow star. Each part of the Endocrine System plays a main role for the body. The hypothalamus

is the very top yellow star and it is in the brain. It is responsible for maintaining homeostasis, or

balance in the body. It monitors and regulates basic drives like eating, drinking, and sexual

behavior. It also makes sure all the hormones are in balance across the lifetime. The second

yellow star in the brain is the pituitary gland, which is responsible for growth in the body. The

next two stars located near the neck are the parathyroid gland and the thyroid gland. They are

responsible for maintaining metabolism within the body. The next star down is the thymus

located near the chest of the body. The Thymus is responsible for the immune system. Following

the thymus is the adrenal gland, which is on the backside of the body’s kidneys. The adrenal

gland is in charge of insulin and glucagon, or in short, controlling the sugars of the body. The

last two yellow stars are the ovaries for females and the testis for males. The ovaries are in

charge of estrogen and progesterone production. The testes are responsible for testosterone

production. Knowing where all these are located and what they are responsible for can help to

understand the Endocrine System.

As said above, directly under the hypothalamus is the pituitary gland. This gland is

known as the “master gland.” It triggers puberty by sending signals to the gonadropins, which

are hormones that stimulate the sex glands to increase production of sex hormones to adult

levels. The gonadropins then release hormones called FSH and LH. FSH is a follicle-stimulating

hormone that stimulates sperm production in the testes for males and stimulates follicle

production in the ovaries for females, which is responsible for menstruation. LH is a lutenizing

hormone that regulates testosterone production in males and regulates estrogen and egg

production in females. Once FSH and LH are going throughout the body, they start producing

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermestrogen in the ovaries for females or testosterone in the testes for males. Estrogen is responsible

for feminizing the body for females and androgen is responsible for maculating the body for

males. The pituitary gland is responsible for jump-starting puberty that takes place in our

adolescent years.

The other important aspect about the Endocrine System is the HPG feedback loop, or

HPG axis. The HPG axis is made up of the hypothalamus, pituitary, and gonads. It is a feedback

loop that regulates hormone production. The following is a diagram of the HPG feedback loop

and the process that take place.

Hypothalamus

Gonadostat

Pituitary Gland

FSH – follicle-stimulating hormone

LH – lutenizing hormone

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midterm The Gonadostat is in the hypothalamus and sort of acts like a thermostat in way. It is

sensitive to the amount of hormones in the bloodstream and it seeks out the level of hormones in

the body. The FSH and the LH are responsible for maintaining the feedback loop. If the

Gonadostat senses that the hormone level is too low, it then signals the pituitary gland to make

more hormones. On the contrary it senses there is too many hormones, it signals the pituitary

gland to shut down the making of hormones.

Menstruation in females is orchestrated by this HPG feedback loop or axis, with the help

of the endocrine glands, ovaries, and uterus. When females start their menstruation, the

hypothalamus releases the gonadotropin in a pulse like matter. The gonadotropins then stimulate

the pituitary gland to release the FSH and LH hormones. The FSH stimulates the production and

secretion of the estrogen in the ovary which stimulates the ovary to mature or ripen in follicles

within the ovary. The LH hormone is responsible for triggering ovulation, which is the release of

the mature egg from the ovary into the empty space between the ovary and the fallopian tube.

The LH then transforms the ruptures follicle into the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum causes

the endometrium to thicken and secrete nutrients into the uterus. If the egg is not fertilized, the

corpus luteum degenerates and stops producing progesterone. As the progesterone levels fall, the

endometrium is deprived of hormonal support and soughs off, which is the monthly menstrual

flow. None of this is possible without the HPG feedback loop.

The HPG feedback loop also comes into play with male puberty. If the hypothalamus

detects high amounts of testosterone in the blood, it reduces the production of the gonadotropins.

The Pituitary gland then reduces the LH and FSH hormones, which in turn reduce the production

of testosterone. The amount of testosterone and sperm produced by the testicles is a balance of

the gonadotropins, LH and FSH hormones. Maturation between the brain and testes takes about 3

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermyears from onset of puberty and once this interaction is establishes, it is consistent throughout

life.

During our adolescent years, many major changed are occurring throughout our body and

puberty is one of them. Responsible for signaling our puberty is the Endocrine System. What

triggers puberty to start is the hypothalamus and the pituitary glands, which signal the

gonadotropins, which in turn signal the FSH and LH hormones to create androgen or estrogen in

our bodies. This then matures the sex organs during our puberty. The HPG Feedback Loop then

keeps everything in check with our hormones in our bodies with the use of the Gonadostat.

Without the Endocrine System, we would never be able to go through puberty and our bodies

would never be able to mature.

#2 Adolescence can be a difficult time for many people because of the numerous changes

that are occurring in their bodies. Some of these changes include physical, sexual, social, and

cognitive. The changes in the brain during adolescence are very important and can be crucial for

the rest of your life. This is why it is so important to try to understand just exactly what is

happening in our brains during this time. The majority of our brain development takes place in

the pre-natal period, or the first 40 weeks of our life in our mother’s womb. Interestingly enough,

the second brain growth spurt is in adolescence, which is why it is so important to take care of

ourselves during these years.

A major part of the adolescent brain development is the part called the prefrontal cortex.

This is in the front of your brain and allows people to think, evaluate, and make complex

decisions. It is also responsible for your emotions and behavior. The prefrontal cortex normally

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermdoes not fully develop until age 25, so really during our adolescence years, this part of the brain

is still trying to grow and sort itself out. Another important aspect of the prefrontal cortex is the

fact that it controls impulse control and helps to inhibit desires that need immediate gratification.

During the adolescent years, this part of your brain is still developing, so there is very little

impulse control for kids this age. This helps to explain why kids do not have the biological

capacity to say no to tough decisions or why they choose to engage in more risky behaviors.

These years are also the time when adolescents start to lose grey matter and gain white matter.

Grey matter involves less ability to for see consequences and the inability to think into the future

and white matter helps you gain more impulse control. Although you are beginning this process

of switching over to white matter during the adolescent years, these changes do not again fully

take place until the age of 25. All of this information can be a lot to take in, but it helps us to

better understand what is going on in the brains of adolescents and it can help answer some of

our questions as to why teenagers make the decisions they do.

Now let us use this information to look a case study of a 16-year-old boy who has been

charged with murder for an example of the development of the pre-frontal cortex in an

adolescent. The argument is, should this boy be charged as an adult in this murder, or as a child.

Based on all of this information presented, the conclusion should be that this boy should not be

charged as an adult. So many things are happening in his prefrontal cortex that can help defend

his case. Firstly, this is the part of the brain where emotion and behavior are stored. If this does

not fully develop until the age of 25, he is still working through all of this. During the adolescent

years, there are a lot of emotions that are being dealt with and our emotions are so strong

sometimes that we do not know how to manage with them. This boy could have been put in a

difficult situation where he felt pressured into doing something by his peers and felt he had no

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermchoice but to murder someone. Not only are his emotions developing, but also is his behavior,

and he might not have been able to control what he was doing. Everything in his prefrontal

cortex is still developing and that is the same for his emotions and his behaviors. This 16-year-

old boy may not have had the capability to control all these changes that are occurring.

The second argument that we will look at is impulse control. Because adolescents have

little to no impulse control, they are very likely to engage in risky behavior. Let us again say this

boy was put in a difficult situation. He may have felt he had no choice but to murder someone to

solve his problem. His first thought was probably to kill, and because of his lack of impulse

control, he committed this action without thinking. Because of the immaturity of adolescents’

prefrontal cortex, they will make bad decisions, and the same goes for the 16-year-old boy. Lack

of impulse control and bad decision making go hand in hand, and it is no different for this boy.

The last matter we will look at is the grey and white matter argument. Due to the fact that

during these years adolescents are just beginning the process of converting their grey matter to

white matter, which is again a process that is not finished until age 25, their ability to for see

consequences and think into the future is just beginning to form. This means at this time,

adolescents are lacking the ability to see consequences for their actions. They have a different

way of thinking about things than adults do, which can help explain why they engage in some of

the actions that they do. The 16-year-old boy, like most adolescents, probably did not stop and

think about what might happen if he went through with his actions. Most kids this age do not

think anything bad will happen to them, which is why they go through with these risky

behaviors. They do not fully grasp the concept that what they do now will affect them for the rest

of their lives. This kid that murdered someone was not able to fully comprehend what will

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermhappen if he did so. He did not think about how he could go to jail for the rest of his life. All he

thought about was how this action was convenient for him at the time.

Adolescents cannot be held responsible for their actions during these years because their

prefrontal cortex is still under development. Because the prefrontal cortex is responsible for so

many important things like emotions, behavior, impulse control, and lack of ability to think in

the future, the 16-year-old boy, and all other adolescents will engage in risky behavior and make

bad decisions. The boy should not be tried as an adult in his murder case because he is not

capable of understanding what he did at such a young age. He had no control over his impulses

and gave into them because he did not know any better. All adolescents should not be tried as an

adult because their prefrontal cortex is still under development and they cannot be truly held

responsible for their actions.

#3 John Piaget said it best when he said he viewed adolescence as a very important period of

cognitive growth. We have come a long way since Piaget’s time and we now know he was

absolutely right. A lot of things are occurring during the adolescent years, and cognitive growth

is a major milestone. What causes this leap of cognition in adolescents’ brains is the biological

maturation and experiences. As we delve into learning about the cognitive processes occurring in

adolescents’ brains, we examine just how different they think than adults and why this can come

into play in court.

When we start learning about adolescents’ cognitive processes, we first look at the theory

by John Piaget. He says that cognition is the way we understand the world, which explains a lot

about how children and adolescents think. Piaget’s theory says that all people pass through fixed

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermsequences of universal stages of cognitive development and moving from one stage to the next

takes place when a person reaches the appropriate level of physical maturation and is exposed to

relevant experiences. Without these experiences, people are thought to be incapable of reaching

cognitive potential. Piaget’s theory has four stages we pass through, from babies through

adolescents. Adolescents take place in the last stage, the formal operational thinking stage.

Children usually enter this stage at about age eleven or twelve and stay in this stage until

adolescence ends, around age twenty-five. During this stage, adolescents learn all about abstract

thinking. They are no longer limited to the concrete, but it is sometimes difficult for them to

grasp these abstract concepts. It is also important to note that until there is maturation in the

brain, they cannot obtain these abstract concepts. This is a huge key to understanding the

adolescent cognitive process because they are still trying to mature during these adolescent years,

and until they do this they cannot pass through Piaget’s formal operational thinking stage.

We are going to use all this information in an example with a boy named Andre to better

understand Piaget’s theory. Now Andre was recently arrested for armed robbery (he is 15). He

lives in a neighborhood where he sees acts of violence nearly every day, and he began to

experience a “video” of sorts in his mind, where he believed these adults would follow him home

and harm his grandparents and siblings. He became very frightened for himself and his family.

He decided that the only way his family would not be harmed was if he left home—but he

needed money to leave home, so he robbed a cab driver.

Piaget’s theory could play a huge role in the case study with Andre because Andre is

only fifteen, and he most likely has not yet matured enough in the brain to understand abstract

ideas. He looks at things concretely and maybe thought the violence adults he sees every day will

in fact come after his family and himself. He cannot yet comprehend that these are all abstract

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermideas in his mind, and they may or may not play out. Instead he thinks they definitely will

happen because the lack of maturation in his brain does not let him fully think abstractly in

situations.

Another key element in Piaget’s theory is systematic problem solving. This is the ability

to search methodically for an answer to a problem and carrying out basic experiments on

problems and solutions and to observe what their interventions bring about. Because Andre is

only fifteen, he is still in the process of mastering the concepts in the formal operational thinking

stage and he is not yet fully able to make sense of this problem solving. Instead of taking time

out to think of every possible solution to the problem of the violence happening in his

neighborhood, Andre jumps the gun and immediately thinks the best solution is to run away so

his family is not harmed. Maybe if he stopped to think about a different solution, he would not of

had to rob a cab driver because he would have realized the best solution is not to run away from

his problems.

Another aspect in Piaget’s formal operational thinking stage is the concept of

hypothetico-deductive reasoning. This is the ability to derive conclusions from hypothetical

situations or premises. This means that adolescents can start to form hypothesizes, but they are

not always right. They have to experiment to find a solution for their problem. Adolescents also

use inductive reasoning where they arrive at a conclusion based on experiences. Piaget also talks

about propositional thought, or reasoning that uses abstract logic in the absence of concrete

examples. This means that if certain premises are true, then a conclusion must also be true. Using

all of this information, we can better analyze Andre’s situation. Andre develops the hypothesis

that if he runs away, the violent adults in his neighborhood will not harm his family. He may

have to experiment with this idea to help him learn whether his hypothesis is correct. Andre

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermmight learn later on that him leaving has nothing to do with the violent adults hurting his family,

but he is not yet able to fully comprehend this because his brain and his cognitive processes are

still forming. Andre also uses inductive reasoning to form his hypothesis. He learns from

experience of seeing all these violent acts that happen around him, maybe these include hurting

other families in his neighborhood, and he forms the conclusion that they will inevitably hurt his

family too. This comes into play with prepositional thought because he could see these violent

adults hurting other families, thus he concludes that they will hurt all families, including his own.

The last important concept that Piaget uses is the formation of schemas in adolescents’

minds. Thinking is arranged into schemas, which are organized mental patterns that represent

behaviors and actions. Adolescents use these schemas to apply logic to all types of situations.

Andre has probably seen so much violence in his life and has formed schemas about them. Piaget

also says that environmental experience plays on who we will be, which is key. All his life,

Andre is surrounded by this violence. Maybe he just snapped and wanted to get away from it, so

he thought the best solution was to run away, which led to his robbing of the cab driver. He

knows nothing but violence, and in turn used violence to get what he wanted, money. Until

Andre’s cognition is able to mature more, he uses these schemas and the environment around

him to shape his behavior and actions.

After learning all this information, it is clear that in adolescence, their cognitive

processes are still being formed. Adolescents, like Andre, have not yet matured enough for their

brain to fully comprehend all these concepts. This comes into play in many places, like court,

where adolescents should be assessed differently based on their brain development. It is clear

that all adolescents think differently than adults and are still trying to fully develop their

cognitive processes.

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midterm

#4 There are many factors that go into the identity achievements of adolescents. When

adolescents are trying to find their identity and who they are, they pass through three very

important developmental tasks. The first task that we look at comes from Erikson and Marcia.

Erikson says that is adolescence, our central crisis is our identity vs. role confusion. In this time

we are developing a personal identity and a sense of self-continuity. We are also beginning to

understand our unique characteristics. Erikson says that this new identity must be forged that will

help a young person cope with many roles in adulthood. One thing that we will face in Erikson’s

task is identity crisis. Identity crisis is confusion about all of the roles we face in our lives.

Adolescence have so many roles to chose from as they age, which stems our identity crisis. To

help them from their identities, many adolescence turn to their peer groups to practice their

emerging roles. These peers can help give them support as they are trying to figure out who they

are. Who adolescents associate with as they are trying to form their identity is crucial because

their peers help mold their opinions on things. Sometimes these peer groups can have a positive

influence, and other times a negative one. It is vital when trying to form your identity who you

are hanging out with. These peer groups are also a defense against emotional turmoil that an

adolescent might face.

Also in the task of identity achievement we look to the researcher Marcia. He says that

this identity achievement comes from you beginning to separate from your family of origin.

Marcia says that there are two parts to adolescent identity formation, crisis and commitment.

When adolescents are in crisis, they are in a period of decision-making when they examine their

old values and beliefs. It is important that they go through a time of where they questions things

and examine what they think they know is the truth. After they go through the crisis period, they

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermwill then commit to a role. In the commitment phase, they commit not only to a specific role, but

also to certain values, ideology, and a belief system.

Marcia then has four identity statuses, which are

displayed in the diagram on the right. The first status

is identity achievement. In this status, a person has

been through a crisis and reached commitment to

ideology or other goals. In identity achievement, a

person has to have gone through a crisis or certain

experiences to reach their identity. In moratorium, there is a crisis in progress, but no

commitment is made yet. In foreclosure, a person has made a commitment without going through

a crisis and there is no reassessment of old position. In this type of status, the person is very firm

in their identity. The last status is identity diffusion, in which they are not in the midst of a crisis

and no commitment is made. This type of person is sort of all over the place in terms of where

they stand in their status. It is also important to point out that recent research show that we go

through more than one period of identity formation and we can go though certain statuses over

and over.

We then enter into task number two, which is the self. The self is made up of three main

parts, our gender identity, racial identity, and sexual identity. Our gender identity is who we are

as male and female and our gender roles come into play. Our racial identity is how we were

brought up in our race and culture. Many races are brought up differently and it is important to

note that this can play a huge role in how we develop our self. Lastly, our sexual identity is who

are sexually. All three of these are key components that go into our sense of our self. Our self is a

broader view of our multiple roles and ourselves. You can see various aspects of our self

simultaneously and as we age our view of our self becomes more organized and cohesive.

Identity achievement

Moratorium

Foreclosure Identity Diffusion

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midterm

There are four parts that go into our self. The first one is our non-academic self, which is

our physical appearance, peer relations, and our family relationships. The next one is our

academic self, which is our school related abilities like math or English. As we get to around the

age of junior high, we begin to break away and find what exactly we’re good at in school. The

third part that goes into our self is our emotional self, which is our particular emotional state. In

our adolescent years, we tend to really focus on all the emotions we have and we can sometimes

take them to extremes. The last part is our physical self, which is our physical abilities. The four

aspects of our self really shape how we see ourselves in the here and now. It is also important to

note that if an adolescent know they do not have a strong ability in one area or is lacking, they

will often exaggerate or emphasize their abilities in another area. We sometimes mistake this for

adolescents just being cocky and conceited, but in reality it is a defense mechanism because they

are insecure about one of their abilities.

The last task we look at in adolescent identity achievement is self-esteem. Self-esteem

plays a huge role at any point in our lives, but especially in the adolescent years. Self-esteem is

an affective component of the self and adolescents can have both positive and negative self-

evaluations. Self-esteem is very emotionally centered and adolescents can view one aspect of

themselves positively and others negatively. We also look at the terms associated with self-

esteem, social competence and social comparison. Social competence is how you handle yourself

in social situations. Up until the time of adolescence, kids rarely think about social competence,

but once you being your adolescent years, you suddenly become aware of your social

competence. Social comparison is when you compare yourself to others. Again as a kid, you

rarely think about this, but once middle school hits, it can be all you think about. Girls may begin

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermto compare their bodies and boys may begin to compare their physical abilities. It is important to

see that social comparison is at its highest in middle school.

There are overall trends that are found with self-esteem through adolescents. When social

comparison begins in middle school, self-esteem plummets and is at its all time low for most

kids. However as kids work their way through high school and onward, they begin to find things

their good at and they don’t worry so much about their failures or faults. This in turn is when

their self-esteem begins to rise. The goal of most parents is to be able to raise a kid with high

self-esteem, and who wouldn’t want that? Research shows that higher self-esteem can result in

better grades, less folding to peer pressure, being less sexually active, and less substance use and

abuse. As a parent, it is also good to try to always point out what your adolescent is good at

because this can help boost their self-esteem as well. In short, the more self-esteem an adolescent

has, the better.

As you can see, there are many components that go into adolescent identity achievement

and formation of self. Adolescence is a crazy, hard, complicated time for most kids and to put

even more pressure on of finding your identity can be a lot for kids, but this identity of self is

vital to who this adolescent will become. Who they become in adolescence will be a part of them

for the rest of their life.

#5 When it comes to psychosocial development, there are two parts to it, intrapersonal and

interpersonal. The first one that we look is intrapersonal, which is the development of identity,

self, and moral development. . When adolescents are trying to find their identity and who they

are, they pass through three very important developmental tasks. The first task that we look at

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermcomes from Erikson and Marcia. Erikson says that is adolescence, our central crisis is our

identity vs. role confusion. In this time we are developing a personal identity and a sense of self-

continuity. Also in the task of identity achievement we look to the researcher Marcia. He says

that this identity achievement comes from you beginning to separate from your family of origin.

Marcia says that there are two parts to adolescent identity formation, crisis and commitment.

Marcia then has four identity statuses, which are identity achievement, moratorium, foreclosure,

and identity diffusion.

We then enter into task number two, which is the self. The self is made up of three main

parts, our gender identity, racial identity, and sexual identity. All three of these are key

components that go into our sense of our self. Our self is a broader view of our multiple roles and

ourselves. You can see various aspects of our self simultaneously and as we age our view of our

self becomes more organized and cohesive. There are four parts that go into our self. The first

one is our non-academic self, which is our physical appearance, peer relations, and our family

relationships. The next one is our academic self, which is our school related abilities like math or

English. As we get to around the age of junior high, we begin to break away and find what

exactly we’re good at in school. The third part that goes into our self is our emotional self, which

is our particular emotional state. In our adolescent years, we tend to really focus on all the

emotions we have and we can sometimes take them to extremes. The last part is our physical

self, which is our physical abilities. The four aspects of our self really shape how we see

ourselves in the here and now.

We then look at our moral development, which is when Kohlberg’s theory of moral

development comes into play. Kohlberg created this fixed order, 3 level sequence of stages that

all children must go through in order to fully develop their moral way of thinking. In order to

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermadvance to the next stage, you must first pass through your age appropriate level of morality. The

very critical aspect of Kohlberg’s stages is that he says morality is directly linked to your

cognitive development and you have to advance through cognition before you can go through the

morality stages. This is crucial to understand because as we learned before, adolescents are at an

important time for developing cognitively and they are just beginning to grasp impulse control

and their abilities to say no to tough decisions. This all relates to their development of morality

as well because adolescents are just starting to lose grey matter and gain white matter and their

ability to think into the future and to for see consequences is still developing and this can affect

the way they think morally. Since we are looking at the adolescent years, we have already passed

through the first two stages in Kohlberg’s morality stages and we are now in the third stage. This

stage is called the postconventional stage and adolescents begin to learn that morality is broader

than society and they begin to do things for the good of society. They begin to do what is right

out of sense of obligation to societal laws and they follow laws because they are based on

universal principles. An example of this way of thinking would be saying it is wrong to kill

because murdering is a universal law or littering is wrong because it harms the environment and

it is up to us to treat our earth well. It is also important to note that in this stage, individuals are

identifying who they are as a person. They have to both develop cognitively and have life

experiences that can help adolescents advance their moral code.

It is now time to look at the other side of psychosocial development, the interpersonal

side. This is made up of adolescent relationships with their parents and peers. In this stage of

their lives, adolescents are beginning to form their development of intimacy, which revolves

around changes that take place during this time. Intimacy cannot be experienced without first

being developed in the biological and cognitive realms.

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midterm

The first major task is adolescent interpersonal formation is identity formation. This is

how they establish an identity separate from their parents. Sometimes it can seem hard for

parents to let their children be independent, but they have to try because this is a key task

adolescents must do. It is through these interpersonal relationships that help establish who a teen

is. The next task we look at is establishing autonomy. This is their sense of independence and

how they become a self-governing person, which is where Kohlberg’s morality stages come back

into play. Adolescents have to learn to be responsible for themselves and their actions. They also

need to establish their emotional autonomy, which again focuses on their interpersonal

relationships. They need to be able to have emotional regulation and to separate and understand

their emotional reactions to their parents, peers, and others. The key to this task is that

adolescents need to learn how not react, but instead respond. Adolescents also must establish

behavioral autonomy, which is to make appropriate decisions and to carry them out. They will go

to others for advice, but they need to learn to come to their decision on their own. They key to

behavioral autonomy is that adolescents are going to make a lot of mistakes before they learn

things on their own. They must also learn value autonomy, which is independence in attitudes

and values, which is again where Kohlberg comes into play. They learn to rely on their morality

to guide and inform decisions and behavior. It is also important to note that just because

adolescents land on a value system while they are still young does not mean that they will not

change their value system again as they age. Another important thing to look at with autonomy is

that autonomy is pushed in our culture and we see trends with parents pushing their children to

be more and more independent.

We then look at the third task, which is establishing intimacy. Our capacity for intimacy

is established at birth through our attachment. As we age, friends become increasingly important

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midtermand our peers direct our intimacy formation. Boys and girls friendships are very different from

one another. Girls attach more emotional importance to their friends than males and emphasize

mutual understanding, security, and mutual explorations of interests. Girls usually discuss family

problems, personal goals, fears, personal problems, and secrets. Boys on the other hand

emphasize activity and achievement and show less interest in mutuality, support, and caring than

girls. They are typically more interested in sports and hobbies. Adolescent peers and friendships

really do help shape who someone will become.

Our parents and families also help shape who we become because they too are an

important part of our life. What parenting style our parents use influences an adolescent’s self

concept, internal locus of control, assessment of abilities and capabilities, conduct, and post-

graduation plans. There are four parenting styles, but the best one is the authoritative style

because it is supportive parenting, has warmth, proactive teaching, discussion, interest, and

involvement. Our mothers are generally more involved in adolescent lives and adolescents

spend more time with their moms then they do with their dads. They are generally more

comfortable talking to their moms and have a greater emotional intensity with their moms.

Mothers are generally more knowledgeable about grades, friends, and activities. Fathers are

typically not as involved as mothers are, but adolescents who have strong, supportive fathers are

generally better adjusted, have lower conflict, and have more positive emotions. Adolescents

usually fight less with their fathers than their mothers. It is also important to note how

adolescents are in other family structures like step-families or divorce. In step-families,

adolescents are less well-adjusted. When it comes to divorce, girls typically show more distress

and more trouble interacting with stepfather, more easily depressed, and more drug use.

Elise HostyFSHS 506Midterm

Psychosocial development plays a major role in how adolescents develop. They develop

both interpersonally and intrapersonally to help shape who they will become. It is so important

for adolescent to find who they are and form relationships with others to become the best they

can be. The Psychosocial realm is crucial aspect of adolescent development because they learn

just who they are becoming.