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Lecture 5 Self and Identity
Part 1 - Introduction
Video: what kind of elements of identity do you recognize?
Everybody wears a mask
Insecurity, focus on others
Different faces > multiple identities
Showing her true face > search for autonomous identity: being yourself
Social/peer identities, peer groups
Why is identity an adolescent issue?
Biological changes
Puberty
Appearance
Changes on the outside have an impact on how one perceives oneself.
Cognitive changes
More self-conscious
Develop a future orientation
Imagine themselves from the outside, different time, able to consider different types of identities that they may want to adopt.
Social changes
Norms and values
Social choices
Educational choices
What is important for them?
Identity
Who am I?
Personal identity: who am I in terms of sense of self
Central is the process of figuring out who one is
Social identity: who am I in terms of group memberships
Identifying with social group
Central is one's sense of belonging to social groups
These identities may influence ones believes about oneself > self-concept
Mental image that one has about oneself
Views about oneself, including:
Values
Attributes
Goals
Self-esteem
Competence
Self-concept clarity (consistent self-concept)
Identity + self-concept > the self (the totality of me)
Part 2 – personal identity
Erikson's identity development
Adolescence = psychosocial moratorium
Time gap between childhood security and adult autonomy
Adolescents experiment with numerous roles and identities
Sense of insecurity: what is the future? What am I going to do?
Crisis in adolescence
Identity diffusion versus achievement
Identity diffusion: failure to form a stable and secure identity
Identity achievement: establishing a clear and definite sense of who you are and how you fit into the world around you
Erikson: achievement by end of adolescence
Characteristics that can help you to achieve identity achievement:
Mental and emotional capacity (so, not possible before end of adolescence)
Interactions with others (others serve as a mirror)
Exploration (trying out possibilities, only possible in environment that gives you the opportunity to explore)
Commitment (making choices among alternatives. Making decisions: who are you?)
Marcia's 4 stages model (extension of Eriksons model)
4 markers: commitment vs crisis/exploration
Absent/present
Identity diffusion:
No direction > ‘it doesn't matter’
Unstable self-esteem
Feeling alienated
Apathy
Hopelessness, suicidal thoughts
Moratorium
Working on something, exploring
Open, flexible, no direction (‘it depends’), collecting information
External doubt, anxious
Identity foreclosure
Dogmatic, inflexible, intolerant, black and white thinking, authority sensitive
Obedient, sensitive to rejection
Identity achievement
Open, flexible, creative, abstract and critical thinking
High self-esteem, high in moral reasoning
During adolescence there is a clear decline (with age) with adolescents who are in moratorium and identity diffusion. But: adolescents in identity achievement are low. This stage is more seen in early adulthood or after. The early years of adulthood is most interesting: you see fluctuations in identity statuses. Adolescence is a stage of exploration, no commitment.
The development across these stages is not fixed (no chronological sequence). It's a process which you can imagine as a cycle.
Identity achievement generally not established before age 18.
College years prolong psychosocial moratorium.
Over time, diffusion and moratorium decrease and achievement increases.
Critique on Marcia's model
Dual cycle models
Dual cycle models
Adolescents do not begin with a blank slate
Identity formation is already starting in childhood
Identity is not a static status process but a cyclic process
Identity formation is a process of continuous interplay between commitment, reconsideration, and in-depth exploration
Identity formation occurs in several domains (e.g., educational and interpersonal) and becomes increasingly complex over time
Crocetti et al. Model
Commitment: in several identity domains > self-confident
This phase is not fixed. It's possible that people keep exploring their commitments. They get new information > changing commitment.
In depth-exploration: reflecting on current commitments
> Identity maintenance cycle
Reconsider commitment: comparing present commitments to possible alternatives
> Identity formation cycle
Personal identity: summary
Refers to identity search and commitment
Goal is a coherent sense of self
Continuous (across time and place)
Develops through exploration and commitment on various domains
Part 3 – Social identity
Social identity theory
Person's sense of who they are becomes of identification with group (sense of belonging)
Belongingness to a group affects self-definition
Beliefs, interests and actions are aligned with those of the group
Strive to positive self and group evaluation drives group comparison and favorable bias towards ingroup
Ingroup: identify with them
Outgroup: don't identify with them
People need groups to survive: they need to know who to invest in, resources for own group > increases for change of survival (evolutionary idea)
People have a favorable bias towards their own ingroup.
Multiple groups: gender, peers, religiosity, humanity (research: when you include people to identify with humanity, they automatically include everybody)
For adolescents:
Gender identity
Peer group identity
Identity & gender
First social group that children feel belonged to
Gender identity
One's sense of oneself as male, female or transgender
Sexual orientation
Whether one is sexually attracted to individuals of the same sex, other sex, or both
Gender-role behavior
The extent to which an individual behaves in traditionally “masculine” or “feminine” ways
What do we see in development? > Childhood:
Labeling around 2, preference for gender-congruent toys, play mates, future professions, accomplishments
Compared to girls, boys have stronger gender-identity, are more content with their gender, place more pressure on themselves to conform to the expected gender role
Adolescence:
Sexual orientation (I.e. gay, lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual) develops
Beliefs about gender roles become more flexible; more and more androgynous, but... societal pressure for gender-stereotypic behavior increases (gender intensification hypothesis)
Graph: expressivity (refers to gentle and helpful behavior > feminine)
There are no differences between boys and girls on the early side of the graph. While children develop, the gender differences increases with the top being age 13/14, and then it decreases again.
Girls' behavior remains steady in comparison with boys.
Graph: instrumentality (traditional male characteristic – competitive, adventure)
Gender differences are highest at age 7 and 19 and is the least at age 12/13.
What are possible explanations for these results?
During adolescence, boys show a drop in emotional expressiveness, but girls do not show a similar decline in instrumentality.
It really depends on kind of behavior whether you see gender intensification hypothesis. For girls much wider than for boys.
Peer identity
Why are peer identities so important in adolescence?
Benefits of peer identity
Secure environment for exploration: we are all the same > secure environment
More diverse peer groups = more exploration and smoother identity formation in adulthood
Pathway from external regulation by others to self-determination
How to regulate your emotions externally (through others) to a more self-regulation process. Identifying with peers helps in that sense.
Gender and peer identity in adolescence
Three adolescent group: early (12-13 years)…
Types of ingroups: gender and peer
Outcome variables: self-typicality (how much self is perceived typical of ingroup) and ingroup favoritism (allocating money to ingroup vs outgroup)
Results:
Self-typicality:
Gender identity: early to mid-adolescence, people identify more with their gender ingroup
Peer identity: increase (especially in late adolescence)
Ingroup favoritism:
Gender ingroup: decreases over age
Peer identity: increases, then decreases
These findings illustrate that adolescents indeed identify with their gender and peer groups, but that especially the peer groups are an important part of adolescents life and being reflected in how much they favor their ingroup above the outgroup.
Bright side of social identities
Sense of identity (who you are)
Sense of belonging
Uncertainty reduction
Higher self-esteem
Downside of social identities
Exclusion (e.g., discrimination, outcast lash-out effect)
Stereotype threat (e.g., performance drops) (> self-fulfilling prophecy?)
Little autonomy (e.g., level of individual voice)
Social identity: summary
Defining the self in terms of group membership
Beliefs, interests, and actions are aligned with those of the group
Identification with social groups increases during adolescence
Can have both positive and negative effects
Part 4 - Self-concept
View or perception that one has about oneself (values, goals, personal attributes, abilities, self-esteem). There are a few developmental changes in how adolescents view themselves.
Self-concepts
During adolescence self-concepts become more:
Abstract, complex, and linked to specific situations
Examples:
Childhood: concrete terms, related to traits
Adolescence: more complex, more abstract, related to both traits and personality characteristics
Functional: a way that individuals can cope with the recognition of having both strengths and weaknesses > more insight in who you are
Consistent between descriptions and actual behavior
Example Davis-Kean:
How good are you in math? > actual grade
First age wave: no high correlations
In adolescence correlations are much higher
How adolescents report themselves matches with how they behave
Hypothetical and future-oriented
Perceive themselves in a hypothetical/future way
Due to the capacity of abstract thinking adolescents can distinguish between:
Actual self: who am I
Possible selves: who might I become
Negative/feared selves
Able to view themselves from a distance
Immersed vs. Distal self
Immersed self:
Self through own eyes
Using singular pronouns
Distal self:
Self through the eyes of others
Using third person pronouns
Particularly salient in adolescence
Can have negative and positive effects:
Constant concern about how others evaluate you > fear > social anxiety disorder
Study Kross et al.:
Emotional reactivity (I'm still upset)
The participants in the self-distance position reported less intense emotions
Thought flow (recounting, reconstruing)
Self-distance positions lowered the details that the participants recalled. Better in reconstruing the situation, making it more adaptive.
Possible selves
Positive, hoped-for, or ideal selves
Who I would like to be
Negative, or feared selves
Who I wish to avoid becoming
Possible self categories
Achievement: relates to school and school interactions with teachers, achievement-related activities
Largest category
Interpersonal relationships: involves family, friends, relationships and social interactions
Personality traits: relates to personality characteristics, self-descriptions of traits
Physical/health-related: relates to physical health, weight, height
Material/lifestyles: relates to material possessions and living situation, including moving
Possible selves motivate action
Possible selves improve well-being and performance because they:
You are explicit about what you want
You are linking these goals with behavior, you make it concrete
You start working on it (you have written down what you want > obligates you to get working on it)
However... everyone has aspirations to do well, but not everyone succeeds = aspiration-attainment gap
You don't have the possibilities to reach the goal > it doesn't fit with actual social identity
Accessible behavior (strategies, asking for help) can conflict with identity
Possible selves works best when...
Positive and negative possible selves are balanced
They have incorporated strategies (you know the steps to get where you want)
They are identity-congruent (not motivated when people you identify with don't do this)
They fit the context
Possible selves and context fit
Context: success-likely
The college years...
Context: success-unlikely
The college years...
The likelihood of academic behavior
The match mannered: participants who were thinking about positive possible selves and they were thinking about it in the context that was cued successful, they were more motivated than when thinking about negative selfs.
The same pattern was found for failure-likely context: much more adaptive to think about what you don't want to be like.
Self-concept: summary
Self-concept refers to perception about the self (goals, values, attributes, (perceived) ability)
Develops in adolescence (more abstract, complex, consistent with behavior, future oriented, distal)
Possible selves motivate action, but work best under certain conditions
Imaging a distal self can be adaptive in emotional situations
Adolescence Development - Lectures - Universiteit Utrecht
Adolescent Development - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 1
Part 1
10 risk behaviors
Alcohol
Delinquency
Gambling
Internet
“extreme sports”
Smoking
School
Unsafe sex
Softdrugs
Traffic
When being different becomes the norm: how microaggressions affect Dutch lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.
Who are adolescents?
Beginning: 10/11 years old children > you see differences in size and how old they look.
The end: physique that is like the adult level. So huge change in physical appearance, but also from being relatively immature to much more mature.
Defining adolescents
The period between the onset of sexual maturation and the attainment of adult roles and responsibilities.
The transition from:
“child” status (requires adult monitoring)
To “adult” status (self-responsibility for behavior)
Adolescents in action 1
Video ‘tieners reageren op Nederland verwelkomt Trump’
The adolescents understand this form of comedy and can reflect on it and can see what other countries think.
Part 2
The health paradox of adolescence
Adolescence is the healthiest and most resilient period of the lifespan
From childhood to adolescence:
Increase strength, speed, mental reasoning, immune function
Resistance to cold, heat, hunger, dehydration, and most types of injury
Yet: overall morbidity and rates increase 200-300% from childhood to late adolescence
Sources of morbidity and mortality in adolescence:
Primary causes of death/disability are related to problems of control of behavior and emotion.
Increased rates of accidents, suicides, homicides, depression, alcohol & substance use, violence, reckless behaviors, eating disorders, health problems related to risky sexual behaviors
Increased risk-taking, sensation-seeking, and erratic (emotionally influenced) behavior
Recognized for a long time
Youth are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine – Aristotle
I would that there were no age between ten and twenty-three …. for there is nothing in between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting... - Shakespeare
Scientific questions (Ronald Dahl)
What is the empirical evidence that adolescents are heated by Nature?
Are these changes based in biology?
In the hormones of puberty?
In specific brain changes that underpin some behavioral and emotional tendencies & problems that emerge in adolescence?
What are the implications for interventions? Should we intervene?
If we don't intervene
Onset of problems such as nicotine dependence, alcohol and drug use, poor health habits, etc. Will show up as mortality in adulthood.
Many adult onset problems such as depression can be traced to early episodes in adolescence.
The father
.....read moreAdolescent cognitive development - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 3
Part 1 – adolescent cognitive development
Conditional reasoning/propositional logic: Classic Modus Ponens (MP) inference: if p then q
What is cognition?
Cognition: aspects of mind related to the acquisition, modification, and manipulation of knowledge in particular contexts
Cognitive development: changes in how an individual thinks, solves problems, and changes in memory, attention and information processing
Two perspectives in text: Piagetian and Information Processing
Piagetian perspective: focuses on what are the changes that we see all people go to
Information processing perspective: how do we process information? How does this change across time? Based on individual differences.
Textbook: adolescent thinking compared to children differ in (at least) 5 ways
Better at thinking about what is possible
Children: focus on here and now
Better at thinking about what is abstract
More often think about the process of thinking – able to think about how they think about things (metacognition)
Thinking is multidimensional (what persons say, how they say it and what they mean)
Able to see things as relative rather than absolute (not black - white)
Cognitive development during adolescence: a Piagetian perspective
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist
Stage Theory of Cognitive Development (individuals in different stages think differently)
How thinking changes in varies stages of adolescence. Piaget believed that children were active instructors of their knowledge (not only teachers/parents).
Stages | Age | Brief Description |
Sensorimotor | 0–2 | Cog. dev. involves learning how to coordinate activities of the senses with motor activities
|
Preoperational | 2–7 | Capable of representing the world symbolically (e.g. language) |
Concrete Operations | 7–11 | Become more adept at using mental operations which leads to a more advanced understanding of the world
|
Formal Operations | 11–15+ | Allows adolescents to reason about more complex tasks and problems involving multiple variables
|
Cognitive development during adolescence: a Piagetian perspective
Formal operations – final stage of cognitive development
Concrete: discuss world as it is
Formal: as it might be/become
Increase in ability for abstraction/abstract thought, speculation about the future
--> Allows an individual to place their lives in a personal and societal perspective
Needed to: achieve identity, form goals, select an occupation
Adolescent cognitive abilities
Understand impact of: past on present, present on future
How one thing relates to another
Greater capacity to evaluate immediate and long-range costs and benefits
World as might be, ought to be
Formal operations: 4 overlapping
.....read moreMorality - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 4
Morality: right and wrong. How do we know what is right/wrong?
Trolley problem 1
There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead there are 5 people tied to the tracks. You are standing near a level that will switch the trolley to a different track where 1 person is tied.
Should you pull the lever to divert the runaway trolley onto the sidetrack?
Clash between utilitarianism – (actions that maximize happiness and well-being) and deontological ethics – the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of that action…
2 options: do nothing and allow the trolley to kill 5 people, or pull the lever divert the train and kill one?
Trolley problem 2
A trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by putting something very heavy in front of it. There is a very fat man next to you – your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?
Most people: do nothing, don't push an innocent person.
This solution is essentially an application of the doctrine of double effect, which says that you may take action which has bad side effects, but deliberately intending harm (even for good causes) is wrong.
Different rationale for making the same decision.
Trolley problem
A moral dilemma is a conflict in which you have to choose between two or more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each action.
Trolley problem 1:
Utilitarianism (greatest good; 1 person dead is better) vs. Deontological ethics (moral action regardless of consequence; putting the lever gets you involved in a situation > you become in a criminal act)
Trolley problem 2:
Utilitarianism: push the person
Deontological: you don't push the person. Don't get involved.
Nature-nurture debate on moral development
Biological/evolutionary viewpoint
Developmental process of maturation. Morality rises because of this maturation.
Nature of the human being is ‘good’. Something built into us: we recognize who is helpful or not > nature of human is good.
Cultural viewpoint
Developmental process of interiorization/internalization
Nature of the human being is ‘bad’
Teach people to have certain values (not built into us). Teach the child to move the original sin.
Interactionist viewpoint
Nature of the human being is morally neutral, neither good nor bad. It depends on what happens and how they interact and mature
Self and Identity - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 5 Self and Identity
Part 1 - Introduction
Video: what kind of elements of identity do you recognize?
Everybody wears a mask
Insecurity, focus on others
Different faces > multiple identities
Showing her true face > search for autonomous identity: being yourself
Social/peer identities, peer groups
Why is identity an adolescent issue?
Biological changes
Puberty
Appearance
Changes on the outside have an impact on how one perceives oneself.
Cognitive changes
More self-conscious
Develop a future orientation
Imagine themselves from the outside, different time, able to consider different types of identities that they may want to adopt.
Social changes
Norms and values
Social choices
Educational choices
What is important for them?
Identity
Who am I?
Personal identity: who am I in terms of sense of self
Central is the process of figuring out who one is
Social identity: who am I in terms of group memberships
Identifying with social group
Central is one's sense of belonging to social groups
These identities may influence ones believes about oneself > self-concept
Mental image that one has about oneself
Views about oneself, including:
Values
Attributes
Goals
Self-esteem
Competence
Self-concept clarity (consistent self-concept)
Identity + self-concept > the self (the totality of me)
Part 2 – personal identity
Erikson's identity development
Adolescence = psychosocial moratorium
Time gap between childhood security and adult autonomy
Adolescents experiment with numerous roles and identities
Sense of insecurity: what is the future? What am I going to do?
Crisis in adolescence
Identity diffusion versus achievement
Identity diffusion: failure to form a stable and secure identity
Identity achievement: establishing a clear and definite sense of who you are and how you fit into the world around you
Erikson: achievement by end of adolescence
Characteristics that can help you to achieve identity achievement:
Mental and emotional capacity (so, not possible before end of adolescence)
Interactions with others (others serve as a mirror)
Exploration (trying out possibilities, only possible in environment that gives you the opportunity to explore)
Commitment (making choices among alternatives. Making decisions: who are you?)
Marcia's 4 stages model (extension of Eriksons model)
4 markers: commitment vs crisis/exploration
Absent/present
Family relations - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 6 Family relations
Part 1
How and why do (dynamics of) parents-adolescent relationships change during adolescence?
How are adolescents affected by (changing) experiences in the parent-adolescent relationship, and vice versa?
What is family?
Dictionary definition: married, 2-parent, biological offspring
But: different forms and sizes
Definition may be culture-dependent
Structures common ‘historically’ are not as common today
Ruggles:
Fragmentary household (1 parent, divorced etc.): increased
Extended households (multiple generations, family-units): decreased
In white and in non-white. But different slope of decrease and increase
In all societies, the family fulfills similar functions:
Socialization of children/adolescents
Enduring source of (practical/economic & emotional/social) support
Continuity of relationships across the life course = social embedding
The family as a system
Focus traditionally on mother (primary caregiver)-child/adolescent relationship
Family systems theory: an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence each other
System: set of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the environment
Interrelation: not A affects B, but A & B affect each other
Changing, self-organizing, and adapting to (changes in) its members and the outside environment
System is flexible, but strives for stability (= equilibrium: each person a particular role)
Family = cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Three aspects – family system theory
Holism
To understand family, not enough to look at members separately
Roles (e.g., caretaker)
Illustration of depression: mother can't take her role > influences the system > the child takes the ‘mother'-role
‘hierarchy’/structure
Organized into subsystems
By gender or generations
Dyadic relationship
Marital relationship
Parent-child relationship
Sibling relationship
Triadic level
Particular with both her parents
Family level/whole
Boundaries
At every level (subsystems, inside/outside)
Permeability varies across families
Permeability evolves over time
How much what happens when a specific subsystem of the family affects other subsystems or the entire family?
Spillover vs. Compensation
Associations between dyadic relationships within the whole family
When there are loose boundaries between subsystems
Spillover: do we see that what happens in a systems, affects what happens in other systems?
Compensation: do we see that what happens in a particular system, is compensated in another system?
Compartmentalization: systems are quite independent from each other
Sherill:
Interparental conflict >
Peers - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 7 Peers
Book ‘The nurture assumption’: peers play a big role in development of youth (instead of (only) the parents)
Part 1 - Importance of peers across adolescence
Higher in needs fulfillment when you fulfilled the lower needs (survival needs) > belongingness and love needs and esteem needs. These are psychological needs.
Importance also visible in the brain: social relationships. Example: exclusion from playing a game: social pain when excluded (analogous in its neurocognitive function to physical pain).
Peers become more central in adolescence
Time spent with family decreases
Time spent with peers increases
Peers compared to parents in adolescence
Differences between the two relationships
Parents = vertical (parents are more powerful), peers = horizontal relationship
Being equal in experiences, characteristics etc.
Shift from parents to friends as main source of support and happiness
Discuss with friends for romantic issues, emotional issues;
Discuss with parents for career/education issues;
Thus: relationships are different and friends become more important
Peers vs friends
Peers
Large network of same-age peers
Friends
People you know, like and with whom you develop a valued, mutual relationship (broad definition)
More specifically:
Mutual liking
Emotional closeness
Loyalty
Reciprocal validation of self-worth
General support
Time spent together
Childhood vs adolescence
From shared activities (childhood) to intimacy: trust, loyalty, self-disclosure > relying on each other
Why? It requires a certain role-play: perspective-taking, keep their own views and other's views in mind at the same time (that's complex to do)
Social competences therefore increasingly important (conflict management, perspective-taking etc.)
From same-sex to mixed-sex
And “friends with benefits”
From dyads (2) and small groups (3-4) to cliques (5-6) or larger crowds (these are larger to contain)
“Subcultures” used to form identity > understand who you are
Selection vs influence
Friends are often similar to each other
Is this due to selection or influence?
Research:
On the one hand: due to selection. Principles of interpersonal attraction:
Proximity (being close by)
Homophily/similarity (in values, interests, characteristics)
Adolescents: orientation toward school, leisure activity, SES, ethnicity (perhaps due to attitudes/prejudice)
Reciprocity
So: selection plays a role > “birds of a feather flock together”
But, parents also play a role in this selection process
Expressing disapproval
Type of school
Neighborhood
Extra-curricular activities
Adolescent personality & behavior
Adolescents in school - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 8
Part 1 – adolescents in school
Schools:
Educate young people: prepare them for adulthood
Define young persons’ social world
Context in which they spend most of their waking hours
Shape their psychosocial development
Classroom factors:
Classroom climate
Teachers' expectations
Instructional quality
Emphasis on performance vs learning (grades)
Friends' engagement
Peer norms
Social organizations of schools
School transition at age 12
Educational tracks
Select school
Admission by lottery
School size
Part 2 – Dutch school system
NL: freedom of education
Guiding principle in educational governance is article 23 of the Constitution:
Education shall be the constant concern of the Government
All persons shall be free to provide education (start their own school), without prejudice to the authorities’ right of supervision
Then: protestants vs Catholics
Now: many different school types
Based on religion
Based on teaching philosophy
Relatively easy to change teaching principles as long as it meets the quality criteria
Consequences of freedom of education for classroom climate
Diversity educational approaches
Relatively large differences in learning outcomes in different schools
Consistency values home & school
Segregation: similar peers
“free-market system” (popularity of schools varies > competition between schools)
NL: early educational tracking
Level on which they receive their teaching
Red countries: single school for both primary and lower secondary education
Pink: transition between primary and lower secondary education, but still with common core curriculum for students
Blue: differentiated branches/tracks
Decrease in combined educational tracks in the 1st year of secondary school
E.g., havo-vwo
Consequences of early educational tracking for classroom climate
Instruction adapted to level of understanding > teaching is more efficiently
Similar performing classmates
Achievement constrained by level of instruction
Less contact between different social groups
Lower status of vocational pathways
Selection based on?
Test scores standardized achievement test
Also based on achievement motivation and work ethic of the student
Lower level advised to students with low SES parents > unequal opportunities
But: reading level at age 15 overlaps (PISA)
Maybe students become different because we put them in different tracks
How is the Dutch system doing?
PISA scores 2018: Netherlands score average on performance, but in regard to variation, there is more variance in comparison with other countries
Conclusion: the way a society organizes a school system shapes the experiences of adolescents in the classroom.
Part 3 – school transition
School transition involves many changes
Media use - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 9 Media use
Adolescents are heavy users of media.
How does this media use impact the development? (2)
How does adolescent development influence media use? (1)
Moderate discrepancy hypothesis (MDH)
Children and adolescents are predominantly attracted to entertainment that deviates only moderately from the things they know, understand, and are capable of.
Children and adolescents are not or less interested in entertainment that deviates too much from their existing framework and experiences.
Developmental approach: Hypothesis is a viable explanation of why media preferences differ so much among different age groups. As children develop, they learn and understand more, so what attracts them in media also changes.
Children and adolescents like to be challenged, but not too much. It has to relate to the things they know.
Media can be used to gratify certain needs. Individuals select media to gratify needs that they have (e.g., needs to lift your mood (> choose a happy song))
Needs are determined by developmental level
Depends on different situational and individual factors, including development
Five main developmental characteristics that inform needs and gratifications
Identity exploration
Autonomy and self-efficacy
Peer orientation (and romantic partners)
Emotionality and sensation seeking
Physical development (hormonal changes)
Changes in appearance
Interest in sex (curious and questions)
Impact on mood (moody, fluctuations in mood)
Link to media
Needs in media preferences
Adolescents have a need for information: insecure about bodies, interest in sex > what should a body look like? What is attractive?
Media can used to seek advice about these topics
Risky consequence: e.g., boys asking girls for nude selfies, difficult to oversee the consequences
Physical development
Pruning: decline grey matter > more efficient processing
Cell bodies and synapses
‘Use it or lose it’
Explains why after this process of pruning, it becomes much harder to learn new things
Cognitive development
Formal operational thinking: logical, abstract hypothetical, problem-solving, interest in future
Only completely in place at the end of adolescence
Adolescents will switch between concrete and formal operational thinking
Disadvantages:
Egocentrism is on overdrive. They imagine this audience: what would other people think about what I’m doing?
This all has implications for media use
Media implications
More complexity in story lines
More complex characters
Topic that deal with big world issues > war movies, science fiction
Fast-pace media which stimulates problem-solving skills
Multiple levels: not easily get bored
Love and sex - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 10 Love and sex
Part 1 &2 – Adolescent romance
Not only being in a romantic relationship, but also:
Daydreaming about the person in front of you in class with whom you have never spoken
Claims to have a boyfriend, but denied by the boy
Talk on phone everyday (or texting), but never seen in public together for fear of being ridiculed
Going together but only spend time together with other members of their crowd
Going steady for 3 years (the “real” thing)
Fantasies to interactions to relationships = romantic experiences
Romance
Love or romance is central theme in 68% of pop music
One of top 5 script themes for adolescent characters on TV
Adolescent girls attribute 34% of their strong emotions to real or fantasized heterosexual relationships
Adolescent boys 25%
Substantially higher than any other topic
Organizing principles of peer culture
Focal topic of conversation in leisure time
Romantic relationship
Romantic Relationship = mutually acknowledged ongoing voluntary interactions.
Compared to other peer relationships, romantic ones typically have a distinctive intensity, commonly marked by expressions of affection and current or anticipated sexual behavior.
Applies to same-gender, as well as mixed-gender, relationships.
Romantic experiences
Refers to activities and processes that include romantic relationships and also behavioral, cognitive, and emotional phenomena that do not involve direct experiences with a romantic partner.
Includes:
fantasies and one-sided attractions (“crushes”),
interactions with potential romantic partners (including flirting) and
Brief, nonromantic sexual encounters (e.g., “hooking up,” or casual involvement in activities usually thought to take place with romantic partners, from “making out” to intercourse)
Adolescent romance
Romantic relationships support the development of interpersonal skills and promote a sense of identity.
Experiment with romantic relations
may facilitate healthy relations in adulthood.
Opportunities to gain skills in the expression and regulation of emotions, empathy and intimacy.
Developmental progression of romantic and sexual interest and behavior
8-11 (Pre and early puberty) adrenarche
First crush
Sexual attraction
Sexual arousal
More awareness of social rules
12-17 Mid and late puberty
Gender intensification
Gender binary
conformity increases and then subsides
Romantic relationships
Duration longer
More intense
Some life-long partners
Sexual Experiences increase
Not until adolescence do truly intimate relationships first emerge
Characteristics of true intimacy:
Openness, honesty, self-disclosure, and trust
Intimacy becomes an important concern due to changes of
Puberty
Cognitive changes
Alcohol use and delinquency - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 11 Alcohol use and delinquency
Intro
Under the influence of alcohol, youth are at higher risk to be involved in aggressive behavior and violent behaviors.
Part 1 – alcohol use and delinquency
Do the Dutch drink?
Underage drinking
13 years old > monthly drinking = 8.8%
15 year old drinkers > binge drinking = 70.8%
Are they delinquent?
Self-reported criminal behavior (at least one delinquent act in the last 12 months):
12-17 year
2010: 38%
2015: 35%
10/11 year old
2010/2015: 20%
Most prevalent delinquent acts:
Violence acts
Threatening
Vandalism
Registered minor suspects:
50% fewer registered minor suspects in 10 year
Part 2 – Similarities and differences between alcohol use and delinquency
Shared similarities
Interrelated
Correlated and co-occurrence
Table: number of offenses and prevalence rate of different drinking behaviors. Those adolescents who were not involved in any offense, half of them had drunk alcohol at least once in their life. Number of kids that had been involved in lifetime drinking, increases in amount of offenses
Longitudinal predictions: most studies find no predictive effect of alcohol use on delinquency, whereas delinquency mostly is a significant predictor of alcohol use
Peak in adolescence
Predictor of other risk behaviors (e.g., drug use, risky sex)
Shared underlying mechanisms (e.g., self-control, peers)
Importance of parental control and warmth
Decline in recent years
decline started from 2006/2007 onwards
Registered minor suspects: also a decline starting from 2006/2007
What is going on there?
Differences
Development
Alcohol use: increases up to at least 25 years
Delinquency: decline 18 year onwards
Across gender
Alcohol use: hardly any differences between boys and girls
Delinquency: boys are more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior than girls
Representation ethnic minorities
Alcohol use: less likely to drink
Delinquency: more likely to be involved
Behavior-specific vs general parenting
Age restriction
Alcohol-specific rules/communication
Delinquency: general parenting
No age restriction
Level of control and support are important in both parenting behaviors
Four different parenting styles
Neglectful: these kids are most likely to drink and engage in risky behaviors
Balance between control and support – alcohol use
Most of the parents in authoritative/average authoritative group
Depression, self-harm and suicide - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 12 Depression, self-harm and suicide
Moods and emotions
Relatively sudden changes in both positively- and negatively valanced affect
The intensity and/or frequency of negative emotion peaks in early adolescence
Young adolescents also experience less positive emotions
Emotions become more complex with a comprehension of mixed emotions
Dramatic changes of mood
The incidence of dysphoric or depressed moods radically increases, especially for girls
Social aspects of emotion expression and regulation become more developed
Increased in the ability to mask emotions
The use of emotion to manage relationships
Yet, emotional expression during early adolescence
The social referencing aspects of emotion become highly attuned
in early adolescence, there is a sharp increase in the awareness of other's perceptions of the self, and therefore shame
More daily fluctuations in self-esteem
Adolescents are more “moody” or variable in their emotions across the course of a day or week
Changes in negative and positive mood in mid-adolescence
Significant drop in positive mood, no change in negative mood
Mood variability across adolescence using daily internet diaries
Three times a year at age 13-18
4 different moods: happiness, sadness, angry, anxiety
Steady decrease across mid- to late adolescence in variability
Anxiety: does not show the same pattern, slight decrease but not an entire decrease
Moodiness decreases across adolescent period
Depression in all its forms
Depression: an enduring period of sadness
Depressed mood: an enduring period of sadness, without any other related symptoms
Depressive syndrome: sadness plus other symptoms such as crying, feelings of worthlessness, and feeling guilty, lonely or worried
Major depressive disorder: depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities plus 4 of other symptoms (for at least 2 weeks)
Clinical valuation on slide
Gender differences in CDI depression in mid-adolescence
Girls show higher levels of depression than boys
Depression over the lifespan
5-9: boys are more depressed than girls, but as soon as adolescence hit, then girls show higher rates of depressive disorders than boys. Across the lifespan, women show higher levels of depression than men.
But: men also show a significant increase in depression across the lifespan as well.
Self-harm
NSSI: non-suicidal self-injury
What is self harm?
A variety of behaviors in which an individual intentionally inflicts harm to his or her body for purposes not socially recognized or sanctioned and without suicidal intent
Includes: see slide
Prevalence
4% of adults report a history
14% of adolescents
High
Suicide and related problems in adolescence - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 12a suicide and related problems in adolescence
Suicide in the Netherlands
1% of all deaths
Males commit suicide 2 times more than females
Cause of death of young people in NL
10-25 years
Traffic accidents
Suicide
25-40 years
Suicide
40-60 years
Health related causes
Suicide
Methods of suicide
men: violent method: 50% hanging, 1 in 9 jump in front of train (more often among youth)
Women: less violent: 33% hanging, 25% medication overdose, 1 in 9 jump in front of train (more often in youth)
Leading cause of death US youth
Second cause of death
Also a high homicide rate
Across various ages:
Suiciding is the leading cause of death among individuals between 1 and 65 years of age
Suicide methods US: children and others
Availability of guns > firearms is the leading methods, then suffocation/hanging, ingestion, CO poisoning, jumping from a height, cutting, other causes
Suicide rates by race/ethnicity
Males are more likely to attempt suicide
Rural areas
Frequency of suicidal ideation and attempts
Thinking of suicide > ideation > attempt > suicide
Once one attempts suicide, they are more likely to do it again (15-fold)
Most common diagnoses in teen suicides:
Depression
Antisocial
Substance abuse
Anxiety
Despite the high rates of depression, among those who commit suicide, 24% who have completed suicide, were prescribed antidepressants, but zero found at autopsy: lack of using antidepressants > increases changes of suicide
Why do males complete more suicides than females, even though females are more likely to attempt suicide?
Gender paradox of suicidal behavior:
Areas with lower prescription rates (antidepressants), the rates of suicide are higher
If males are not going into doctors to get treatment, then this could be a potential explanation for why we see more suicides completions among males
Factors that predispose to suicide
Personal characteristics
Psychopathology
History of prior suicide attempt
Cognitive and personality (hopelessness & poor interpersonal problem-solving)
Homosexuality
Biological factors
Family characteristics
Family history of suicidal behavior
Higher rates of parental psychopathology
Non-intact families
Impaired parent-child relationships
Adverse life circumstances
Stressful life events
Childhood physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Contextual factors
The end of adolescence - Universiteit Utrecht
Lecture 12b the end of adolescence
When does adolescence end?
In the past – criteria that have been used to mark entry into adulthood include:
Events such as marriage, child-bearing
Important responsibilities to provide, protect, and procreate – duties towards others
Gender-specific criteria
Average age of marriage in the Netherlands 1950-2018
Shift in percentage who marry + older ages
Average age of the mother at the birth of a child in NL in 2018
29,9. Age of marriage: 35
Shift in society to say that we don't need to marry first to have children
Demographic distinctions
Median age of marriage and child birth is now much later than it was in the past
Young people attend school and college longer than in the past
In addition, more young people are going to college before starting work
From jobs to career
Arnett's theory of emerging adulthood
Influenced by theories of
Erikson: prolonged adolescence
Love, work, worldviews
Levinson: novice phase 17-33
Keniston: youth (role exploration)
What is emerging adulthood?
In Western cultures, could last from about 18 until the mid 20's
A life period which is typically characterized by an ongoing exploration of, and experimentation with possible life directions
Young people have left the dependency of childhood and adolescence, but have not entered the enduring responsibilities of adulthood
Emerging: it is a process of becoming an adult
In Western cultures
Young people no longer consider marriage and other events (such as finishing school, getting a job, etc.) as criteria for adulthood
They emphasize the capacity of the individual to stand alone as a self-sufficient person as the criterion for adulthood
Top 3 criteria defining adulthood
Responsible behavior, accept one's responsibility
Autonomous, independent decision making
Financial independence
Individualistic qualities of character
Criteria like chronological age and role transitions ranked very low
5 aspects of emerging adulthood
Age of identity exploration
Trying out various possibilities, especially in love and work
Difference between US and European educational system
Us: university level: orientation where you can study different areas before you make a choice of your major
European: more specialized, stronger connection to the work that you will be doing
Difference between US and Southern Europe versus Nothern Europe in cohabitation (become smaller)
Cohabitation more common in Northern Europe
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