ADOLESCENCE: PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE AND

SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY FOR HEALTH

SCIENCES
Muhamad Ariff Ibrahim, PhD
 Describe the changes involved in puberty.

 Identify
adolescent problems related to health,
cigarette smoking and eating disorders.

 Explain cognitive changes in adolescence.

 Describe
the socio-emotional development in
adolescence.
 What words or images
come to your mind when
you hear the word
“teenager”?
Make a list
 The most challenging period of life.

 Dating occurs for the first time.

 Biological
changes trigger a heightened interest
in body image.

 Increased time with peers but, the time with

parents is decreased.
 What physical changes occur in adolescence?
 Pubertal with rapid physical changes involving hormones

 Most noticeable physical changes include:

 Pubic hair growth
 Facial and chest hair growth in males
 Breast growth in females
 Increased height and weight
 Sexual maturity
 Puberty is a period of rapid physical maturation
involving hormonal and bodily changes that occur
primarily during early adolescence.

 Important marker of the beginning of adolescence.

 The onset of puberty varies among individuals.

Testosterone

Estradiol
Age of onset of puberty depends on:

 GENDER (girls; ahead by months or years)

 GENES and ETHNICITY
 WEIGHT (malnutrition delays puberty)
 STRESS (causes puberty earlier)
 What do
 Foradolescent girls, do you
you think?
think it is advantageous to be
“early maturing”?

 What about for boys?

 Early maturing  Earlymaturing boys
girls are at higher are at higher risk
risk of: of:
 Teasing  Rebellion
 Eating disorders  Breaking the law
 May involve in  Stress and depression
immoral behaviours from relationships
 Theyare more dissatisfied with their bodies during
puberty. Why?

 Girlsare less happy with their

bodies and have more negative
body images than boys due to
increase in the body fat.

 Boysbecome more satisfied due to the

increase in muscle mass.
A psychological disorder characterized by:
 Disturbed patterns of eating
 Maladaptive ways of controlling body weight

2 major categories:
 Aneating disorder that involves the
harsh pursuit of thinness through
starvation.

 Anorexic might have:

 Intense of fear of gaining weight.
 Distorted image of their body shape
 Constantly weight themselves and gaze
 Critically at themselves in front of the
mirror.
 An eating disorder that the individual consistently
follows a binge-and-purge
eating pattern.

 Purging is accomplished through self-inducing vomiting.

 Bulimia can cause damage to the gastrointestinal

system or death.

 Most bulimics are :

 Worried with food
 Having a strong fear of becoming overweight
 Depressed
Ingeneral, adolescence is a HEALTHY age
period:
 Peak athletic performance
 High energy and endurance
 Body systems function at an optimal level
 Death by disease is rare (worldwide!)
 Manyfactors linked to poor health in
adulthood begin during adolescence like:
 They engaged with less exercise (due to
homework/assignment)
 Like to eat fast food instead of nutritional
foods.
 Improper sleep patterns that leads to not
getting enough sleep.
 Beginsprimarily during
childhood and adolescence.

 Once young adolescents begin

smoking, the addictive
properties of nicotine make it
difficult to stop.

 Earlier
the onset, the more
damaging.
 Adolescent thought is at the Formal Operational
stage.

 At
this stage, the individual think beyond the real
world, concrete experiences and think in abstract
and more logical.

 Anexample of formal operational thought would be

imagining the outcome of a particular action that has
yet to be undertaken.
 Itrefers to the heightened self-consciousness of
adolescents.
 Has 2 key components :
 Imaginary audience
 Believe others are always watching over them.
 The attempt to be noticed, visible and “on stage”.

 Personal fable
 Sense of personal uniqueness and invulnerability.
 Adolescents feel that no one can understand how they really
feel ( E.g:“You can’t possibly understand how I feel!”).
 It frequently show up in adolescent’s diary.
Imaginary Audience

Personal Fable
 The first year of secondary school can be
difficult as adolescents have to move from top
position in primary school (oldest, biggest, most
powerful) to the lowest position (youngest,
smallest and least powerful).
 Erikson’s5th stage is Identity vs.
Identity confusion:
 Adolescents are faced with deciding
who they are, what they are all about
and where they are going in life.

 Adolescentsexperiment with the

numerous roles and identities they
draw from the surrounding culture.
 The
search for identity is aided by a psychosocial
moratorium.

 Psychosocial moratorium:
 A time period between childhood security and adult
autonomy, that adolescents experienced as part of their
identity exploration.
 During a psychosocial moratorium, a person has the
opportunity to try on multiple identities and/or roles
before firmly committing to one.
 Vocational/Career Identity
 Political Identity
 Religious Identity
 Relationship Identity
 Achievement/Intellectual Identity
 Sexual Identity
 Cultural/Ethnic Identity
 Interests
 Personality
 Physical Identity
 James Marcia concluded that 4 identity statuses
appear in Erikson’s theory.

 The extent of an adolescent’s commitment and crisis

is used to classify him or her according to one of the
four statuses.

 Crisis : A period of identity development during which

the individual is exploring alternatives.

 Commitment : Personal investment in identity.

 Identity
diffusion

Identity
foreclosure

Identity
moratorium

Identity
achievement
 Marcia’s Identity Statuses
Position on
occupation Identity status
and ideology
Identity Identity Identity Identity
diffusion foreclosure moratorium achievement

Crisis Absent Absent Present Present

Commitment Absent Present Absent Present

 13 years old Sarah has neither begun to explore
her identity in any meaningful way nor made an
identity commitment.
 18 years old Aiman’s parents want him to be a
medical doctor so he is planning on majoring
medicine in her college.
 19 years old Alya is not quite sure what life paths
she wants to follow, but she went to counseling
centre to find out about different careers.
 20 years old Hilmi explored several career
options in healthcare industry, eventually getting
his degree in optometry and is looking forward to
be an optometrist.
 In Marcia term, adolescents are primarily in the
identity diffusion, foreclosure or moratorium.

 Tomove to the status of achievement, adolescents

need 3 things :
 Need for confidence in parental support
 Need for a developed sense of industry
 Gain in self-reflective view of their future
 Authoritarian parents :
 encourage identity foreclosure.

 Authoritative parents :
 foster identity achievement.

 Indulgent parents :
 promote identity diffusion.
 Emotional development is characterized by :
 Increased interest in self-portrayal
 Search for an identity
 Emotional swings

 Emotions more changeable and fleeting.

 Moodiness is normal

 Decrease in overall happiness

 Risk of depression
 Cause:Biological, cognitive and social changes in
adolescents.

 Manyparent see their adolescent changing from

compliant child to someone who is noncompliant,
oppositional and resistant to parental standards.

 When this happens, parent tend to put more

pressure on the adolescent to conform to parental
standards.
 Everyday conflicts in parent–adolescent
relationships may serve a positive
developmental function.

 Minorarguments and negotiations facilitate the

adolescent’s transition from being dependent on
parents to become an autonomous individual.
 Peer relations :
 Very important in adolescent lives
 Most adolescents prefer a smaller number of peer
contacts and more intimacy.
 Adolescents formed group that shape their social lives
 Adolescents seek companionship from friends.
 Adolescents with superficial or no friendships are
lonely and depressed with lower self-esteem
 Qualityof adolescent friendships may be a
predictor of self-worth in early adulthood.
 Early
romantic relationships serve as a
context for adolescents to explore :
 How attractive they are.
 How it all looks to the peer group.

A special concern is early dating is

associated with adolescent
pregnancy and problems at home
and school.
 Juvenile delinquency
 is a broad concept that includes many actions
from minor violations to murder.
 is more likely to be committed by males.
 involvement by females is increasing.
 rates are higher for adolescent who is coming
from lower socio-economic background
 Erikson’s View:
 Is an attempt to establish an identity.

 Parenting:
 Parental monitoring of adolescents is especially
important in determining whether an adolescent
becomes a delinquent.