Chapter 1  1.  Briefly sketch the main historical perspectives on adolescence, and outline the influence those perspectives have had on subsequent historical and on modern viewpoints.

	The earliest recorded perspectives on adolescence are found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Plato identified the ability to reason as the defining mark of adolescence while Aristotle viewed the most important aspect of adolescence to be the ability to choose, calling self-determination the hallmark of maturity.  During the Middle Ages, adolescents were viewed as miniature adults, given responsibilities accordingly and subjected to harsh discipline.  In the 18th Century, Rousseau reintroduced the idea that adolescents are different from adults and should be treated differently. He believed that the ability to reason grows in children between the ages of 12 and 15 and that during this time, adults should encourage their natural curiosity about things. Between ages 15 and 20, their ability to reason increases while simultaneously they mature emotionally, moving from being self-centered to being interested in others.
	The period 1890-1920 saw the invention of the concept we now call adolescence, documented most thoroughly in the writings of G. Stanley Hall who called the period between ages 12 and 23 a time of “storm and stress.”   
	Hall’s documentation of the pull of opposites within adolescents (conceit vs humility, good intentions vs temptations, happy vs sad) can be seen as the precursor to Erickson’s Life Stages, all of which are defined as balancing acts between two competing directional pulls.
	Hall was heavily influenced by Darwin, and believed that development was largely determined by genetic or biological factors.  As a strong advocate of “nature” over “nurture,” Hall provided a good point of departure for subsequent theorists, both biological and behavioral.  
	A contrasting 20th Century theory can be found in Margaret Meade’s socio-cultural view, which downplayed the importance of nature/heredity, emphasizing instead the importance of social and cultural relationships. This theory was later expanded by Vygotsky with his “zone of proximal development” (ZPD), and by Bronfenbrenner in his Ecological Contextual Theory of Development. 
	Most theorists today believe that heredity intersects with environment to determine behavior, and the balance of the 20th Century was dominated by “The Inventionist View,” which considers adolescence to be a social/historical construct, comprised of both biological and socio-cultural factors.   During the 20th Century, a good deal of legislation was passed that effectively defined adolescence as a legal status, in which based on their chronological age, adolescents are excluded from most employment and are required to attend secondary school.	

3.  developmental controversies

Development is the process of change – both growth and decay – that occurs across a lifetime. Its course is determined by biological, cognitive and socio-emotional processes.  In some ways we humans are all the same – we’re utterly dependent at birth, we grow up, we age, we die. Each individual is unique however in how they go through these stages, manifesting millions of differences within the categories listed above during adolescent development. Biologically, we differ in the development of our brains, our height and weight gain, advances in motor skills and how and when we experience the hormonal changes of puberty; cognitively, we differ in how we experience changes in thinking and intelligence; socio-emotionally, the changes we experience in our emotions and personality reflect the different relationships and social contexts within which we live.  Therefore, it is not surprising that controversies have arisen in the study of adolescent development.
	The predominant controversy is the nature vs nurture issue:  are we who we are predominantly because of our genetic makeup (nature) or predominantly because of the environment in which we grow up (nurture)?  Those on the side of nature argue that just as a planted acorn grows in an orderly way to become an oak tree and a sunflower seed grows in an orderly way to become a sunflower, a human life, determined by his or her genetic blueprint, also grows in an orderly way, going through life’s various stages because of biological programming.
	The nurture advocates emphasize the importance of the individual’s environmental, social and cultural experiences: nutrition and medical care, intellectual stimulation and education, social environment (parents, culture, peers, community, media).
	Developmentalists do not generally adopt extreme positions on this issue because much evidence exists in support of both sides of the issue. Those on the nature side acknowledge that extreme environments can depress development. Those on the nurture side recognize the tremendous impact of biological changes on the adolescent’s development.  The interaction between nature and nurture is what is important.
	The continuity-discontinuity issue focuses on the extent to which development involves gradual cumulative change (continuity) versus distinct stages (discontinuity).  Was my development gradual and prolonged, like that of an acorn into an oak tree, or did I undergo sudden distinct changes the way caterpillar becomes a butterfly? For the most part, “nurture” developmentalists tend to describe development as a gradual, continuous process while “nature” advocates describe development as a series of distinct stages which are biologically determined.
	Developmentalists do not generally adopt extreme positions on this issue because we don’t exhibit anything so concrete as a chrysalis becoming a butterfly.  A child’s first word may be viewed as a sudden, discontinuous event, or it may be seen as the cumulative result of months of growth, listening and sound-making practice. Puberty may become visibly manifest almost overnight, but it is a gradual process that occurs over months and years.
	The early-later experiences issue focuses on the relative importance and impact of experiences that happen early in life versus those that happen later.  Can infants who are deprived of nurturing in their early days overcome that deprivation through extensive nurturing later on?  Or are early experiences critical to positive development.  There is a long history of debate on this issue that can be traced back to Plato who believed that infants who were rocked frequently became better athletes!
“Later” proponents argue that children and adolescents are extremely malleable and adaptive throughout their development, and that sensitive care-giving later on is just as important as early care.
	Developmentalists do not generally adopt extreme positions on this issue because research again supports both sides; there are documented cases of children who spent their first months in orphanages deprived of human interaction that never catch up with children who are not deprived.  But there are also cases in which these children are able to catch up and live normal lives.  
	Overall, developmentalists avoid taking extreme positions on any of these issues because they recognize that nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity, and early and later experiences all work together to affect our development throughout our life span. 

 
Chapter 2   1.	Compare and contrast the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Erikson. Explain in what ways Erikson made fundamental changes to psychoanalytic theory.

	Psychoanalytic theories describe human development as primarily an unconscious process – beyond awareness.  Freud and Erikson both developed psychoanalytic theories of human development; both men believed that humans develop in stages, and both men based their stages on chronological age. However, while Freud believed that personality is largely set by age 5 and his final stage begins at puberty, Erikson believed that personality continues to develop across the entire lifespan, and his final stage begins at 60.  Freud believed personality was shaped primarily be the sexual drive and called his stages “psycho-sexual stages.”  In contrast, Erikson defined his stages as “’Psycho-social, arguing that human development reflects a desire to affiliate with other people.
	Freud’s psychoanalytic theories divided personality into three parts: the unconscious “id” (present from birth, where our instincts for pleasure reside, along with the psychic energy which forms our personality), the “ego” (that part of our personality responsible for dealing with reality, that emerges out of the conflict between the id and reality), and the “superego” (the moral branch of personality, which is in constant conflict with our id). The ego functions in both the conscious and unconscious mind and experiences anxiety because of the ongoing conflicts between the id and reality, many of which are not conscious conflicts. The ego protects itself through defense mechanisms such as repression.
	Freud believed that the individual’s basic personality is settled by the age of five, created from the struggle between the id and reality. His theory includes five “psychosexual stages:” Oral (birth to 18 months, when an infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth; Anal (18 months to 3 years, when the child’s pleasure focuses on the anus); Phallic (3 to 6 years, when the child’s pleasure focuses on the genitals, Latency (age 6 to puberty, when the child represses sexual interests and develops social and intellectual skills), and Genital (puberty onward, a time of sexual reawakening during which the source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside of the family).  Freud viewed the Phallic stage as the most important stage in terms of personality development because it is during this phase that the Oedipus complex appears (the child’s desire to replace the parent of the same sex and receive all the affections of the opposite sex parent).  Freud believes the child eventually leaves this phase and moves into latency when he or she realizes that their same-sex parent may punish them for their dark wishes. To reduce this conflict between fear and desire, the child identifies with the same-sex parent, striving to be like him or her.
	Unlike Freud, who said that our personality was shaped by age 5, Erikson believed that humans develop throughout their life span. Accordingly, Erikson identified eight psychosocial stages that humans move through during their life. Each stage confronts the individual with a unique developmental task, the outcome of which affects that individual’s ever-evolving personality. The stages are Trust vs. Mistrust (first 12 months, during which an infant who is well taken care of will develop trust); Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (age 1 to 3, during which the child begins to test boundaries set by his parents and discover self-control and independence. Positive outcome again depends largely on the parent – if the parent encourages initiative and reassures when mistakes are made, there is a positive outcome, but if the parent is overprotective or resists the child’s independence, the child will experience shame or doubt); Initiative vs. Guilt (early childhood, pre-school, age 3-5, when a child becomes more socially engaged, begins to develop a sense of responsibility, and experiences accomplishment but also must learn to control impulses, with the aid of parents who are encouraging yet consistent in discipline); Industry vs. Inferiority (middle and late childhood, 6 years to puberty, the period when the child enters school. Successful experience with new learning brings a sense of industry while failure gives a sense of inadequacy and inferiority); Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence, 10-20 years, the culmination of the work of the first four stages, a time when adolescents seek to know their true identity, and need to be able to integrate the healthy resolutions of earlier conflicts); Intimacy vs. Isolation (early adulthood, 20s-30s, when intimacy with others is possible only if a reasonably well integrated identity emerges from the 1st five stages); Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle age, 40s-50s, during which the individual finds fulfillment in assisting the younger generation in developing and leading useful lives – if they don’t feel they are contributing, then they feel stagnation); and Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood, 60s onward, the time in which the individual looks back and evaluates their life. If the previous stages have developed properly then they will experience integrity. If the previous stages have not developed in a positive way then they will feel despair. 
	Erikson’s most fundamental change to psychoanalytic theory was to apply it over an entire lifetime rather than just the early years of infancy, childhood and adolescence. His other important contribution was to base his theories of development on social factors, rather than sexual.  Contemporary psychoanalytic theorists place more emphasis on cultural experiences than on sexual experiences as determinants of development – a perspective that is closer to Erikson’s than to Freud’s.

2.	Compare and contrast the cognitive theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and the information-processing approach. Identify the stages of Piaget’s theory, and sketch the nature of cognitive changes that take place from infancy through adolescence according to the other theories.

	Unlike psychoanalytic theories, cognitive theories of adolescents focus on the development of their conscious thoughts.  Piaget’s theory states that individuals actively construct their understanding of the world as they develop through four cognitive stages. They do this through a process of organizing new information and adapting their understanding to include new ideas.  Vygotsky and the Information Processing Theory both agree with Piaget that individuals actively construct their knowledge of the world. However, neither proposes any chronological stages of development and Vygotsky gives far more importance to social interaction and culture than does Piaget.  For Vygotsky, language plays a powerful role in shaping thought while for Piaget, language is a byproduct of cognitive development. For Vygotsky, formal education plays a central role, helping children learn the tools of their culture, while for Piaget, education simply offers opportunities with which to refine cognitive skills that have already emerged.  Though information processing theorists do not name specific successive stages of development, they do seem to present cognitive development as a cumulative process, in which children become more sophisticated thinkers through changes in their brains, sensory systems and in the rules and strategies they learn.
	Vygotsky believed that the development of memory, attention and reasoning involves learning to use the inventions of society, such as language, mathematical systems and memory strategies.  He theorized that the key process involved in acquiring new knowledge is the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD), or collaborative learning of information that is too difficult for the individual, but can be mastered with help from adults or more educated peers.
	In Piaget’s theory, there are several key processes at work during cognitive development. In actively constructing their world, the child or adolescent will employ a “Schema,” a mental concept or framework with which to organize and interpret information using two processes, “assimilation” and “accommodation.”  Assimilation is used to incorporate new information into the existing schema, but sometimes the influx of new information requires “accommodation,” in which the child must adjust the existing schema to be able to accept the new information.  (My son learned this year that he can no longer wait until the morning of a test or that homework is due to start working on it. He acknowledged that his AP classes really do require intensive work and now begins his studies in advance of the day something is due).  Piaget identified a shift in thought between stages, called “equilibration,” in which the child/adolescent must resolve a conflict or sense of disequilibration caused by the influx of new information that does not fit into his or her existing schema. In solving the conflict, adjusting their schema, they move back into equilibration. Piaget believed that individuals move back and forth between states of equilibration and disequilibration.  
	Two of the primary processes described by information processing theorists as driving cognitive development, “generalization” and “strategy construction” can be compared to Piaget’s “assimilation” and accommodation.” Generalization is the ability to apply something learned in one set of circumstances to a completely new set of circumstances, while strategy construction is the discovery of a new procedure for processing information.
The information-processing theory, compares the human being to a computer. Thinking is information-processing. When the individual perceives, encodes, represents, and stores information from the environment in his mind or retrieves that information, he is thinking. Thinking also includes responding to any constraints or limitations on memory processes.  Development is driven by self-modification. Like Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the information-processing approach holds that children play an active role in their own development. Through self-modification, the child uses knowledge and strategies she has acquired from earlier problem solutions to modify her responses to a new situation or problem. In this way, she builds newer and more sophisticated responses from prior knowledge.
	For Piaget, cognitive development occurs across four distinct stages. During the “sensorimotor stage” (birth to age 2), the infant develops understanding through coordinating sensory experiences with physical/motor actions. At first, all behavior is reflexive but gradually patterns are learned and primitive signals begin to be used.  During the second “Pre-operational” stage (2 to 7 years), the child begins to represent the world with words and images, reflecting increasingly symbolic thinking. During the third stage, “Concrete Operations,” lasting from age 7 to 11, the child can reason logically about concrete events and can classify objects into different sets. Upon reaching the fourth stage of “Formal operational thought” (11 to 15), thinking is no longer limited to actual concrete experiences but can become more abstract. The individual is capable of hypothetical deductive reasoning and also develops images of ideal circumstances.  Each of these age-related stages consists of distinct ways of thinking; the different kind of thought employed in each successive stage is what makes it more advanced than the previous one.
	Other theorists who have addressed the cognitive changes occurring between infancy and adolescence include: Bandura, who believed that behavior, the environment and a person’s cognitive factors interact reciprocally, and that we learn through observation; Bronfenbrenner, whose Ecological Context Theory provides learning through active experience/interaction with five environmental systems; Skinner, a behaviorist who believed that all learning (behavior) is shaped by interaction with one’s environment.
	Other cognitive changes that occur from infancy through adolescence include: a move from idealistic to realistic and pragmatic thinking; and a move from absolutist thinking (in polarities of right/wrong, good/bad) to greater awareness of diversity, leading to reflective, relativistic thinking.
		 
 Chapter 5.	1. Self-understanding/social contexts

# 1	Self-understanding in an adolescent is constructed of both cognitive and social aspects. The adolescent’s cognitive representation of herself is comprised of a number of specific self-conceptions, many of which are based on the various roles she plays within the membership categories in which she lives on a daily basis.  Ethnic heritage and socio-economic status also impact self-understanding.  Adolescence is an ongoing journey in which the individual adolescent learns to integrate her understanding of her behaviors within all of these categories and roles (“contexts”) in which she lives.
	There are a number of dimensions in which the adolescent experiences change and growth in self-understanding.  She begins to think of herself in abstract terms (“I am kind’), perhaps idealizing her sense of herself.  She is also self-protective, likely to identify those aspects of herself that are positive as being more important than those aspects of herself she perceives as negative. 
She becomes aware that she acts like a completely different person within different contexts  -- she may be patient, outgoing and a good listener with her friends while being moody and withdrawn with her parents and siblings.  The adolescent’s behavior fluctuates so much over time and within different contexts that Rosenberg used the term “barometric self” to describe the state of adolescence. Adolescents are cognitively aware of these constant fluctuations and differentiating behaviors, seeing the contradictions within themselves, and will describe themselves as being simultaneously ugly and attractive, bored and inquisitive, friendly and mean.  They often think of themselves as having a “true self” and a “false self” and are aware of inhabiting these seeming contradictory worlds within different social contexts.
Adolescents often have an ideal sense of the person they want to become that conflicts with the actual imperfect person they think they are. The ability to perceive the discrepancies between the real and ideal self is seen as a cognitive advance, but according to Carl Rogers, too great a discrepancy can lead to a sense of failure, self-criticism and depression.  Many adolescents have a sense of a possible self that can be both positive and negative – it’s the self they would like to become or the dreaded self they might become.
Adolescents are more likely to use social comparisons in describing themselves than are children.  Their life experiences are greater and they have many more groups and models with which to obtain personal characteristics to self-compare..  Adolescents are also much more self-conscious than are children and often turn to their friends for support and clarification of self-definition, often using their friends as the main source for self-appraisal.  Children are more likely to believe what their parents tell them about who and how they are.  Adolescents believe their friends.
Some of the changes in self-understanding occur in older adolescents rather than younger adolescents: older adolescents are more likely to be aware that their self-understanding is comprised of both conscious and unconscious aspects.  Older adolescents are also better able to integrate the myriad contradictory selves of earlier years.  They recognize the inconsistencies of their own self-descriptions but are gradually able to formulate an integrated sense of identity.  
An adolescent’s self-understanding can and will vary across the myriad of relationships and social roles that she occupies. Integrated self-understanding is often reached through the older adolescent’s growing realization that different social contexts truly do require different behaviors, and that the fact that they behave differently in different circumstances does not conflict with who they really are.  An adolescent will eventually understand and accept the differences in her behaviors when her role is daughter, sister, friend, student, mentor, teacher, brain, or athlete. 

#2 What is the definition of Erickson’s social moratorium?  Explain how and why it is beneficial to adolescents. How do family, culture, ethnicity, gender and identity influence developmental changes in identify formation during early and late adolescence?

	Adolescence is encompassed within Erickson’s 45th  Developmental Stage: Identity vs Identity Confusion.  During this stage, the adolescent is deciding who they are and who and what they want to be as adults.  The adolescent confronts many new roles within intensified academic expectations, exponentially expanding vocational options, and new kinds of interpersonal relationships (such as in a job, as a mentor, as an exceptional, recognized athlete or musician, or within a romance).  Leaving the security of childhood behind, the adolescent engages in a vast, new realm of possibilities by entering a “psychosocial moratorium,” in which he explores the options available and experiments with different roles, identities and personalities.  Erickson defines the psychosocial moratorium as the period between childhood security and adult autonomy.  Kind of like an advanced version of the 4-year-old playing dress-up, the adolescent “plays” neat then sloppy, argumentative then cooperative, nice then mean, etc.
	This period is of utmost importance to adolescents.  In the same way you and I try on clothes to determine what styles, sizes and colors fit us best (for physical comfort, social acceptability, and for being perceived as we wish to be perceived – i.e. in the various roles we STILL play as adults – as teacher, office worker or parent), the adolescent tries on roles, values and personalities to find out what fits them best – for who they are, who they want to be and how they want to be perceived.  Without the opportunity to experiment, to try things on, we may end up going in the direction we were pointed by our parents, perhaps spending our entire life wearing a pink onesie. 
	Erickson identified a number of areas from which the adolescent forms his evolved self-identity including vocation, or the work path the individual wishes to pursue; political leanings; spiritual or religious beliefs and practices; sexual identity; level of intellectual self-motivation; ethnic background and cultural heritage; non-academic interests and hobbies such as sports, music, art; characteristics of his personality such as introverted vs extroverted, anxious or calm, friendly or hostile); and physical identity.  Some or all of these areas may be important within one individual’s developing identity formation, but according to Erickson, vocation (work path) becomes central to identity development by late adolescence.  
	One’s family, culture, ethnicity, and gender can all influence developmental changes in identify formation during adolescence (both early and late).  One’s parents can push a certain identity upon the adolescent so firmly that he is afraid or unable to experiment with alternative identities, resulting in “identity confusion.”  This is apparent in the fundamental Christian or Islamic lifestyles that children of fundamental Christians or Muslims sometimes choose to follow; in the homosexuals who work to suppress their sexuality; in the failure to form vocational goals by girls raised in cultures where their education is forbidden (such as under the Taliban), and where they are taught that they are less important than boys, and that their adult role will be to support their husband, whoever he may be, as chosen by their fathers.