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Lecture 1: What is Adolescence?

Age range

If we think of Adolescence, in terms of age – we usually consider the period of

adolescence to commence around 12 years of age and end around 18 years of age
– basically the teenage years.

It is important to emphasise that scholars differ in terms of the ages in which they
consider to represent the period of adolescence – some have argued that
adolescence begins around 9-10 years of age and finishes by the mid to late
twenties.

We know that some non-visible processes associated with puberty can begin when a
child reaches the age of 6.

On the other end of the spectrum, some scholars have argued that there exists
another kind of developmental stage after adolescence, which has been termed
emerging adulthood – which starts around the age 18 and finishes by the age of 29
to 30 years.

In this lecture, and for a majority of this course, we are going to focus on the period
of adolescence – that is, between the ages of 12-18 years in a person’s life.

From an evolutionary perspective, adolescence marks the first time that a person is
capable is carrying what is considered to be the main goal of evolution – that is the
propagation of the species – that is transfer genes from one generation to the next.

History of the term – Adolescence

The term “adolescence” came into general use in late 19 th and early 20th century –
(1890-1920) – a period which some scholars term – The Age of Adolescence.

Thus, given that the human written record goes back at least 5,000 years –
Adolescence can be considered a fairly modern construct.

Although, adolescence is a relatively modern term – an examination of the human

written record suggests that the teenage years and early twenties have long been
recognised as a distinct period in a person’s life trajectory.
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In ancient Greece – Plato argued that educating a young person in the Sciences and
Mathematics should not begin until the around the age of 14, where it was believed
that the human mind was developed enough to apply reasoning to problem-solving
contexts.

Aristotle, another famous ancient Greek thinker, and a student of Plato, was even
less confident in the ability of young adolescents to apply their reasoning skills,
arguing that young people are only able to manage their impulses in their early 20s.

And it is during this time that they successfully make use of their reasoning
capabilities.

This theme of a conflict between impulses and reasoning is also present in later
writings about young people of adolescent age.

Age of Adolescence.

Let’s look back specifically at the Age of Adolescence – which is the period between
1890-1920.

Scholars often refer to the period between 1890 and 1920 as the age of adolescence
because of several significant changes that took place in the western world that
changed the way that children and teenagers were treated and viewed by wider
society.

Two social changes:

i) Child Labor Laws

ii) Universal Education Laws

During the 19th century, many countries in the Western World were in the grip of the
Industrial Revolution. During this period there was significant demand for cheap
labour to work in the factories and mines.

Children and teenagers represented a cheap and readily available source of labour.
Often, children and teenagers were mistreated and severely exploited.
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Fortunately, there were influential members of society, such as educators and youth
advocates who were opposed to the mistreatment of children in the work place and
actively campaigned for the implementation of laws that would provide children and
teenagers with some protections against workplace exploitation.

A catalyst for changes in child labour laws appears to have stemmed from a
infamous case of child mistreatment in the United States.

In 1874 there was court case involving an adopted, 10-year old girl, by the name of
Mary Ellen McCormack.

Mary Ellen’s testimony in court revealed that she had been badly mistreated by her
adoptive Mother. At the time, there were no laws pertaining to the rights of a child,
and Mary’s mother had to be tried and convicted under Animal Cruelty Laws.

This case, and some others, drew widespread interest and sparked the emergence
of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Following the child
protection legislation was introduced in the United States, which then spread to other
parts of the world including the United Kingdom and eventually Australia.

In Australia, children protection agencies emerged in various states in the late 19 th

and early 20th century.

As result of successfully campaigning, laws were enacted which prohibited

companies from hiring preteen children and limiting the numbers of hours that those
in their early teens were allowed to work.

Interestingly, it was not until the end of WWI and into the mid-1920s that we had the
first international treaty concerning the protection of Children’s rights.

In addition to laws restricting child labour there were laws regarding the universal
attendance of secondary schooling.

A flow-effect concerning the compulsory attendance of secondary schooling, which

has been felt in the last 20-30 years is further postponement of full adulthood, into a
period described by some as emerging adulthood.

Adolescence as a distinct field of scholarly enquiry.

In addition to the 2 social changes that I have mentioned – there was a change in
academic circles, wherein adolescence emerged as a distinct field of scholarly
enquiry.

The emergence of adolescence as a distinct field of scholarly enquiry can be

attributed to the work of G. Stanley Hall.
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G. Stanley Hall was a seminal figure in the child study movement in the United
States and was the first person in the United States to obtain a PhD in Psychology.

In fact, Stanley Hall was the founder of the American Psychological Association –
and you should be familiar with at least some of the work of the American
Psychological Association as they provide the APA guidelines which you often are
required to follow – so if you have problems with APA referencing or are not a fan of
this referencing system, you may lay part of the blame to G. Stanley Hall.

Hall is probably most well-known for his assertion that adolescence is inherently a
time of “storm and stress” wherein young people experience a time of acute
emotional and behavioural upheaval, but then obtain stable equilibrium upon
reaching adulthood.

Hall described Adolescence as a time during which young people start contradicting
their parents, show volatile swings in their moods, and behave in reckless and
antisocial ways.

Stanley Hall’s assertion of Adolescence - as period of storm and stress - has been
pervasive and is still present in many popular culture depictions of adolescence.

However, many scholars in the field of Adolescent research would argue that Stanley
Hall’s assertion is not quite right.

We do know, based on research - that children’s conflicts with their parents increase
in early adolescence compared to pre-adolescence (which is the period immediately
beforehand).

However, conflict only remains high for a few years, before tapering off again during
later adolescence and then into adulthood.

Importantly, although conflict increases in early and mid-adolescence most of the

conflict tends to be about relatively minor issues – such as personal appearance,
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dating, family rules (not treating the house like your personal hotel), and being home
by set times (i.e., curfews).

As such, the assertion that Adolescence is a volatile period – is considered by many

scholars, to be an overstatement.

Indeed, much of the conflict between parents and adolescents seems to occur
because teens are attempting to establish independence from their parents – and
parents are having trouble letting go.

As we will see later on – attempting to establish independence from one’s family is

considered by some scholars to have an evolutionary basis – and that this
evolutionary adaptation has helped us survive as species.

Although Stanley Hall may have been off the mark with the idea that adolescence is
a period of storm and stress, he did make a number of assertions about the period of
adolescence that appear to hold true today.

One must remember that Stanley Hall’s published work, which is over 1300 plus
pages, was published over a 100 years ago.

Some of Stanley Hall’s assertions still have currency:

1) Hall suggested that depression (depressed mood) was most common during
adolescence “The curve of despondency starts at eleven, rises steadily and
rapidly till fifteen, then falls steadily till twenty-three”.

This observation by Stanley Hall is consistent with contemporary research on

moodiness.

Research evidence shows that adolescents report more rapid and extreme swings in
their moods – both positive and negative – then either preadolescents or adults.
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Historically and in popular thinking – teenage moodiness was and is often attributed
to hormones.

Whilst hormones may play some role in moodiness – there are also likely to be other
factors at play.

For example – Piaget’s research on Cognitive Development suggests that as

children reach adolescence they begin to development formal operational skills
including abstract reasoning.

Abstract reasoning allows young people to get more of a sense of the complexities of
life, which they are unlikely to have been cognizant of when they were younger.

Becoming more aware of life’s complexities is often stressful – and is also likely to be
an underlying factor in the moodiness that we see in teenagers.

There are also role changes during adolescence for example, combining work and
school, which can lead to sleep deprivation and stress – and consequently,
moodiness.

What do the experts tell us about Adolescence?

Expert 1.

Robert Epstein

Epstein is critical of the idea of Adolescence as a period of Storm and Stress.

Argues that that adolescence is an artificial extension of childhood.

Blames this artificial extension in part on Stanely Hall’s writings and also the
emergence of mass schooling in 1800-1900s – which is known as the Factory Model
of Schooling, which I touched on a little earlier in the lecture.
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Epstein observes that in most mammalian species, animals function as adults when
they reach puberty.

As such, he believes that adolescence is a cultural product of industrial societies.

He asserts that in most non-industrial societies, young people tend to be integrated

into adult society and adult roles as soon as they are capable – and in such societies
Epstein contends that you tend not to have incidents of teenage turmoil or in
technical language - Psychopathology and Anti-Social Behaviour.

As an example he cites a First Nation community in Canada, in a place in the

Provence of British Columbia, known as Victoria Island.

Before T.V. and exposure to other Western Cultural constructs, a particular Inuit
community had very few problem teenagers.

However, with advent of T.V. in this community, we saw the emergence of teenage
crime and rebellion in this community.

The blame for this emergence of teenage rebellion - according Epstein - can be
traced to the influence of Western Schooling and associated Values, Norms,
attitudes and beliefs.

According to Epstein, teenagers in many Western Countries (e.g., United States) are
subject to 10 times more restrictions than adults and twice as many restrictions than
convicted criminals who are currently serving time in prison.

Epstein asserts that such restrictions have the effect of infantilising teenagers.

The term infantilising refers to treating a person as an infant, when they are not (an
infant). In other words, treating older and older people as infants, whilst isolating
them from adults.

In fact, Epstein believes that the infantilising young people extends beyond
adolescence to young adult hood (i.e., young persons between 20 and 30 years of
age).
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Research by Epstein and his colleague Diane Dumas – identified a correlation

between infantilising and psychological dysfunction.

Now I just want quickly discuss the distinction between correlation and causation.

Correlation (also known as an association) refers to a situation in which a

relationship between 2 or more variables is statistically significant (usually at
the .05 or .01 level) 

For instance, there is an association between drug use and dysfunctional

interpersonal relationships.

Correlations can be positive - so that as one variable (drug use) goes up, so does
the other (dysfunctional relationship); or they can be negative, which would mean
that as one variable goes up (drugs) another goes down (academic performance
scores in school).

The trouble is that, unless they are properly controlled for, there could be other
variables affecting this relationship that the researchers don't know about. For
instance, education, gender and mental health issues could be behind the drug use
and dysfunctional interpersonal-relationship association.

Causation indicates that one event is the result of the occurrence of the other
event; i.e. there is a causal relationship between the two events. This is also
referred to as cause and effect. 

Theoretically, the difference between the two types of relationships are easy to
identify — an action or occurrence can cause another (e.g. smoking causes an
increase in the risk of developing lung cancer), or it can correlate with another (e.g.
smoking is correlated with alcoholism, but it does not cause alcoholism). (Source
ABS).

In practice, however, it remains difficult to clearly establish cause and effect,

compared with establishing correlation.

So in going back Epstein’s and Duma’s finding that there is correlation between
infantilising and psychological dysfunction – does not mean that infantilizing causes
psychological dysfunction.
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Nevertheless, Epstein argues that isolating teens from adults may a factor in certain
trends that are prevalent during adolescence.

Some of the trends that I am referring too here are:

 Peak age for arrest for a criminal offence is around 18 years of age.

 Depression and other Psychopathological conditions first arise and peak

during adolescence.

 Suicide is one of the leading causes of death of young people

 High levels of conflict (approximately 20 times per month between teenagers

and parents)

Epstein argues that Adolescents are extraordinarily competent in many areas of

human functioning and should be treated as such.

- Memory and perceptual abilities peak during adolescence

- Raw scores on intelligence tests peak during 14-15 years of age

- Incidental memory is strong during adolescence.

* People also acquire information incidentally in the course of other activities,

even though they have no intention of doing so. Diminishing incidental
memory has been cited as a factor as to why older people have difficulty
mastering technology.

- Least susceptible to disease during adolescence

*What may same like a radical set of ideas for some of us – Epstein argues that
teenagers (and not just refer to older teens 16-17 years) but 13-15 year olds should
be legally given the option to:

 To marry

 Own property
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 To work

 To start their own business

 To sign contracts

 Make decisions about health care and abortions

It is important to emphasise that these rights or options are not automatically

conferred to all teenagers. Rather teenagers can pursue these options based on
successfully completing competency tests.

These competency tests can be likened to competency tests that we have to

undergo to obtain a drivers’ licence.

Epstein theorizes that competency to obtain significant adult rights is likely to be

highly motivating for teenagers.

What do you think of Epstein’s ideas about how society should

treat teenagers?

Expert 2.

Jay Giedd
Also has a very positive view of adolescence.

Suggests that the teen brain is not broken or defective. Rather it is wonderfully
optimized to promote our success as a species.

Giedd contends that a key theme that underlie adolescence is:

“Healthy-body, risk taking brain paradox”.

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In many ways, we are physically at our peak during adolescence and early
adulthood.

Immune System

Tolerance for temperature fluctuations (Heat & Cold)

Resistance to Cancer

Memory*

Are all at their peak during adolescence.

However, despite reach many of our physical peaks there are peaks in things that
end the lives of young people.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Suicide

Crime

Drugs and Alcohol

Psychiatric and other types of parapsychological disorders emerge including:

- Anxiety disorders
- Bipolar disorders
- Psychosis
- Eating disorders
- Substance Abuse

What may explain this paradox?

Part of the answer may lie in the differences in the maturation rates of the Social
Emotional Systems in the Brain and the Cognitive Control System.
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The social-emotional network – also known as the limbic system, refers to a

complex set of structures including the hypothalamus, the amygdala, and the
hippocampus which are involved in motivation, learning, memory and emotion.

Emotional seat of the brain (though also related to learning and cognitive
processing).

Limbic system influences the endocrine system (hormones).

Cognitive Control system or network is involved in what cognitive psychologists call

executive processes and this includes functions such as Frontal Lobes have an
attention, planning, response inhibition, regulation of emotion, and controlling one’s
impulses.

Studies of Brain Development during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood

suggest that Social Emotional System develops rather quickly at time of puberty, and
the cognitive control system matures more gradually during adolescence into early
adulthood.

In fact, for some us – if you under the age of 25, your cognitive control system may
still be maturing.

The mismatch between the early development of the socioemotional system and the
later development of the cognitive control system may explain some of the
behavioural traits that when tend to see during adolescence.

This includes risk taking and impulsivity.

In a recent article in the National Geographic – which ran a special on the Teen
Brain – David Dobbs wrote – “We court risk more avidly as teens then at any other
time”.
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Indeed, a leading cause of death amongst teenagers is accidents which are a direct
result of taking unnecessary risks.

So what are some of the factors that underlies teenage risk taking?

Interestingly, adolescents use the same basic cognitive structures that adults do –
and they usually reason their way problems just as well – and sometimes, if not
better than adults.

Indeed, it appears that teens can overestimate risk (Steinberg) – contrary to popular
depictions of teens – who are often portrayed as people who think that they are
immortal – this is not the case;.in

So why people take risks during their teenage years than at any time in their lives.

Part of the answer is to do with what I have already mentioned – a late maturing
cognitive control system.

If you recall – one of the key executive functions of the cognitive control system is to
regulate emotion.

What we find is that teenagers take risks during highly emotive situations.

This is because the Social-Emotional Centre hijacks the decision-making processes

of teenagers.

Now to make sense to as to what a highly emotive situation may look like – it is
important to distinguish between two Psychological constructs – “Cold Cognition”
and “Hot Cognition”
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Historically, when researchers have studied teenage behaviour and their decision
making processes – researchers have usually carried out these studies under
conditions of “cold cognition”.

Examples of cold cognition include laboratory tests where teenagers are asked to
solve problem-solving puzzles, make decisions when presented with non-
threatening, hypothetical scenarios and so on.

Cold cognition scenarios are by definition – low arousal scenarios.

Hot cognition scenarios are often real-world scenarios in which there is a live
audience watching – and the audience is typically made up of peers.

For example, diving off a cliff when you are out with your buddies, drag racing, and
so on.

Hot cognition scenarios are high arousal scenarios.

An interesting experiment was carried out by Laurence Steinberg who is a leading

researcher on Adolescent Behaviour and Juvenile Crime.

Steinberg created a Cold and Hot Cognition Scenario using a video racing car game.

In the video game – the participants (which included both Adults and Teenagers)
were asked to drive through town with the main goal to get from one side of town to
other in the quickest possible time.

As in most cities there are traffic lights and rules which have to abide by. Most
pertinent in this game were the traffic lights.

We have Red, for stop, amber – warning that lights are about to change, and green
for go.

If you drive through an amber light before it turns red – you obviously save time.
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So there is reward if you take some risk.

However, there is a penalty if you take a risk and fail.

In this case, if you don’t beat the red light – you have time added to overall race time.

So the game rewards you for taking some risk – but punishes you for taking too
much risk.

When Steinberg ran the experiment he had some of the teenage participants
participate in the video game alone with nobody watching – this is what we would
call a Cold Cognition Scenario.

Steinberg found that in this cold cognition scenario – the teenagers took risks at
about roughly the same rate as the adults did in the experiment.

However, we he ran the experiment in a Hot Cognition Scenario there were different
results.

To induce a hot cognition scenario he asked the participant’s friends to come into the
room to watch as the participants took part in the video game.

When he brought a teen’s friends into the room to watch – the teens playing the
video game would take twice as many risks.

However, when it came to having an adults set of friends come into the room –
adults drove no differently than when they had no friends in the room. That is, the
adults performed consistently – irrespective of whether friends were present or not.
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According to Steinberg – the teenagers in the study did not suddenly take more
chances because they downgraded the risk – but rather – the teenagers gave more
weight to the payoff – which in this case is peer recognition of their risky deeds.

With respect to peer recognition – we know that peer influence is more powerful
during adolescence than any other time in one’s life.

Thinking back to when you were at School –

did you engage in activities in front of your
peers that you would do if nobody was
watching?

In fact, some neuro-imaging studies suggest that adolescent brains react to peer
rejection in similar ways to how the brain reacts to threats of physical health or food
supply.

So I guess when your teenager comes to complaining that he or she has to be

allowed to attend a particular party and that it is matter of life and death that he or
she attends – in the teenagers own minds – this is probably the case.

So we know that a discrepancy in the maturation rates of the socioemotional network

and the cognitive control work is a factor in the types of behaviours (i.e., risk taking)
that see during adolescence.

But why would there be a discrepancy in the maturation rates of these 2 systems.

Some scholars speculate that the discrepancy between the 2 systems is a modern
phenomenon – and cite that the fact that it appears that in modern times the onset of
puberty begins earlier than it did in the past.
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These scholars suggest that in the past it the time difference between the
development socioemotional networks and the cognitive control network was much
closer together than it is now.

Other scholars have differing views.

Another expert in the field in Adolescent Development – BJ Casey suggests that

there the discrepancy between the 2 systems can be explain as an evolutionary
adaptation.

BJ Casey
BJ Casey – like some of the other scholars that have already mentioned – has a
positive view of adolescence:

“We're so used to seeing adolescence as a problem. But the more we learn about
what really makes this period unique, the more adolescence starts to seem like a
highly functional, even adaptive period. It's exactly what you'd need to do the things
you have to do then."

According to Casey many of the traits that we see in adolescence have evolutionary
adaptive advantages.

*Seeking Independence from Family

*Impulsivity

*Focus on peers

*Risk Taking
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*Novelty

*Sensation Seeking

If we take the last example listed here – sensation seeking

Sensation Seeking – can lead to dangerous outcomes, but can lead to positive
outcomes which include the urge to meet new people.

The urge to meet new people has flow-on effects such as building social networks
which now is important for making us happier, healthier, safer, and generally more
successful.

According to Casey seeking sensation evoking, risk taking, independence from

family, novelty seeking, focus on peers all have evolutionary advantages.

As mentioned at the beginning of the lecture – adolescence which coincides with

puberty represents the first time that we as humans are capable of carrying out
evolution’s highest priority – which is to procreate.

In other words, from a biological perspective - our teenage years represent the first
time that we are reproductively ready.

If we want to make sense of BJ Casey’s line of thinking – we need to carry out a

thought experiment and mentally beam ourselves back 100,000 years to East
Africa.

It is likely that we would be been living in clans which comprised largely of immediate
and extended family members.
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Whilst we are children this usually isn’t a problem – though what happens when
children with a familial clan became teenagers, and as such, reproductively ready.

Well Houston – we have a problem. The nearest people these teenagers can
procreate with are fellow family members.

Procreating with those who have very similar genes to us, leads to offspring with
various genetic disorders – and historically, that is, before the advent of modern
medicine, people with genetic disorders tend not to live very long.

One solution would be to motivate the teenagers to leave home and procreate with
teenagers from other hunter-gather groups.

To motivate to leave their own clan you need them to want to want to strive for
independence from the family, to take risks, to seek novelty, to place more value on
peer approval than of the consequences of risk taking.

Indeed, the leaving the confines of one’s own familial clan is very hazardous. For
example, you lose group protection when you leave and you lose adult guidance in
terms of finding food, water, and shelter.

You need the ingredients in the teenage brain such as risk taking, novelty seeking
etc to increase the probability that teenagers will leave the group, risks the hazards
involved in transiting from one clan to another, and to seduce members of the
opposite sex in another clan.

So there is an evolutionary imperative or advantage for young people to seek to

meet members of other clans, tribes, and so on and procreate with members of
these far off tribes and clans.
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http://brainsontrial.com/watch-videos/video/the-mind-of-the-adolescent/

Not everyone agrees with this evolutionary explanation of adolescent behaviour. For
example, one of the scholars that I mentioned earlier – Robert Epstein – argues that
rebellious traits in teenagers have more to do with culture than with biology and cites
the fact traits that we associate with adolescence (i.e., teenage rebellion, risk taking)
etc tend to be more pronounced in western-industrialised societies than in pre-
industrialised societies.

What do you think?

Does anybody think that the Evolutionary Explanation offered by BJ Casey has
merit? Why or why not? Explain.

Application

Take Home Messages

1. Adolescence can be viewed as a cultural construct (cultural constructs can be

fluid – i.e., dynamic and changeable)

- Coincides but is separate from puberty (which refers to biological processes)

- The length of time between childhood and full-blown adulthood is extending

(e.g., some people do not consider themselves to be adults until they reach
their 30s)

- Adolescence came into popular thinking through historical, cultural, and

legislative changes (i.e., change to labour laws, mass schooling, academic
writing around adolescence)

2. Adolescence represents a paradoxical time in our lives

Positive

Peak in terms of health.

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Peak

- Resistance to disease
- Raw intelligence – teenage brain will be the sharpest that they will ever be
- Audio and visual senses peak
- Cognitive capacity similar to adults

Negative

Crime Peaks

Accidents (e.g. Motor vehicle accidents)

 Psychopathological conditions first arise and peak during adolescence.

In fact, mental health issues are so pervasive during adolescence some

researchers argue that mental issues throughout one’s life can be considered
as a result of a hiccup in the neurobiological programming of the adolescent
brain.

A challenge for parents, educators and others who work with teens is to
distinguish between challenging behaviours (e.g., mood swings) and genuine
pathology.

Indeed, we do not if the brain circuitry underlying teen moodiness is the same
circuitry involved in depression.

In fact, it is important to emphasise that one should not over-interpret findings

of neuroimaging studies.

Neuro-imaging studies are beginning to establish correlations between brain

structure and behaviours – but no causal link has been found between
particular brain structures and specific psychological disorders.

I want you to think about the distinction between correlation and causation
that mentioned earlier in the lecture.
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3. Think about whether or not you agree with Robert Epstein’s assertions that
teenagers should have the right to carry out adult roles and responsibilities
(right to marry, own property, run a business etc)

4. Adolescent Behaviours need to be understood in context

- Adolescents are highly capable of making competent decisions in cold

cognition contexts

- Adolescent behaviours and decision making process change in contexts

which are emotionally arousing (hot cognition).

- Research shows that beyond a certain point – providing information to

teenagers about the dangers of risky behaviour is unlikely to have much of an
effect – adolescents are likely to take risks in the presence of their peers until
their cognitive control system fully matures.

- *Some argue that one of the only things that we can do is monitor teens risk
taking behaviour externally

*laws that govern the sale of alcohol, cigarettes.

*Increasing the driving age
*Greater accesses to mental services

5. Adolescent behaviours can be viewed from an adaptive perspective.

- We think of adolescent risk taking and sensation seeking – we often view

these behaviours in a negative light.

However, risk taking involves trying new things, forging new relationship. Moderate
amounts of risk taking and experimentation are important for developing social
competence which is needed for success in the adult world.