Chapter 12:
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Source: Papalia & Martorell (15th ed.), Santrock (17th ed.), Boyd & Bee (7th ed.)
The Search for Identity
• Identity
o A coherent conception of the self, made up of goals,
values, and beliefs to which the person is solidly
committed.
• Erikson’s Identity vs. Identity Confusion
o Psychosocial Moratorium
▪ Allows young people to search for
commitments to which they can be faithful.
o Virtue: Fidelity
▪ Sustained loyalty, faith, or a sense of
belonging to a loved one or to friends and
companions.
▪ Identification with a set of values, an
ideology, a religion, a political movement, a
creative pursuit, or an ethnic group.
o A man is not capable of real intimacy until he has
achieved a stable identity, whereas women define
themselves through marriage and motherhood.
• Identity Status (James Marcia)
o Crisis
▪ Period of conscious decision making
related to identity formation.
o Commitment
▪ Personal investment in an occupation or
system of beliefs.
IDENTITY STATUS CRISIS COMMITMENT
Identity Diffusion ✖ ✖
Foreclosure ✖ ✔
Moratorium ✔ ✖
Identity Achievement ✔ ✔
• Gender Differences in Identity Formation
o Identity status and intimacy were associated with
each other in both men and women but that the
relationship was more robust for men.
o Changes in social structure and the increased role of
women in the workforce may have led to these
reductions in gender differences.
• Identity Development in Sexual Minority Youth
o Sexual Orientation
▪ Focus of consistent sexual, romantic, and
affectionate interest.
▪ Most gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth begin
to identify as such between the ages of 12
and 17 years.
▪ Gay and lesbian youth who experience
rejection and low support for their sexual
orientation from their parents after coming
out are more likely to adopt a negative view
of their sexuality.
▪ Overall, sexual minority youth who do not
successfully integrate their sexual identity
in their self-concept are at risk for anxiety,
depression, or conduct problems.
• Racial and Ethnic Differences (Ethnic Identity Development)
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Psychosocial Development in Adolescence
• Cultural Socialization
o Parental practices that teach children about their
racial/ethnic heritage and promote cultural practices
and cultural pride.
• Cultural Differences in Identity Formation
o Individualistic Culture
▪ People’s self-concept is individual in nature
and their personality—because it is
conceptualized as something that lives
within individuals—is generally stable
across situations.
o Collectivistic Culture
▪ People view themselves within the context
of their relationships with others.
▪ People’s personality characteristics are
more fluid because whom they consider
themselves to be depends in part on whom
they are with at the time.
▪ Their sense of self is interdependent.
Sexuality
• Sexual Orientation
o Origin
▪ Sexual preferences are reflected in the
stimuli that activate areas of the brain
associated with incentive motivation.
▪ Lesbian, gay and bisexual adolescents and
young adults are at higher risk for
substance use, suicide, and depression.
o Sexual Behavior
▪ Young people across the world are staying
in school longer, more likely to use
contraception, and marrying later, which
has led to a greater occurrence of
premarital sex across multiple countries.
▪ Noncoital forms of sexual activity, such as
oral and anal sex and mutual masturbation,
are also common among teens.
▪ Sexting
• Sharing or sending sexually
explicit or suggestive photos or
videos to others.
• Girls are more likely to send
sexually explicit photographs,
and sending photographs is in
turn associated with a great
likelihood of engaging in sexual
activity.
▪ Two major concerns about adolescent
sexual activity are the risks of contracting
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and,
for heterosexual activity, of pregnancy.
▪ Generally, an involved and engaged
relationship between teens and parents is
associated with a decreased risk of early
sexual activity and more parent-child
communication is associated with delayed
sexual intercourse.
▪ Meaning in life has been associated with a
decreased risk of unsafe sexual activity but
only in adolescent women.
▪ If adolescents believe their peers are
having and approve of sex or are
pressuring them to have sex, then they,
especially boys, may feel pressure to
engage in activities they do not feel ready
for.
▪ As a teen’s number of close friends who
initiate sex grows, the likelihood the teen
will initiate sex also rises.
▪ Adolescents’ perception that their friends
approve of their risky online sexual
behaviors increases their participation in
those behaviors.
 o Contraceptive Use
▪ The best safeguard for sexually active
teens is regular use of condoms, which give
some protection against STIs as well as
against pregnancy.
▪ Overall, condom usage has declined
slightly in recent years; however, overall
contraceptive use has increased.
▪ Teens who believe their peers approve of
contraception are more likely to adopt their
use as well.
▪ Barriers to contraceptive use include lack of
access, concerns about confidentiality,
financial concerns, a belief they will not get
pregnant, or reluctance to discuss use with
a sexual partner.
• Sexually Transmitted Infections
o Infections and diseases spread by sexual contact.
o Globally, more than 1 million STIs are acquired each
day.
o Commonly caused by viruses or bacteria.
o Men who have sex with other men and young women
have the highest risk of contracting an STI.
o Adolescent women produce less cervical mucous and
thus are more likely to become infected during sexual
encounters.
o The chief reasons for the prevalence of STIs among
teenagers include early sexual activity, multiple
partners, and failure to use condoms or to use them
regularly and correctly.
o Viral STIs
▪ Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
• Most common STI.
• Leading cause of cervical cancer
in women.
• Almost every adult who is sexually
active will eventually get HPV in
the absence of vaccination.
▪ Genital Herpes
• Chronic, recurring, often painful,
and highly contagious disease.
• Can be fatal to a person with a
deficiency of the immune system
or to the newborn infant of a
mother who has an outbreak at
the time of delivery.
• Can be managed, but cannot be
cured.
• Two variants: herpes simplex virus
type 1 (HSV-1), which causes
cold sores, and herpes simplex
virus type 2 (HSV-2), which
causes genital sores.
▪ Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
• Causes acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome
(AIDS).
• Transmitted through bodily fluids,
usually by sharing intravenous
drug needles or by sexual
contact with an infected partner.
• Attacks the body’s immune
system, leaving a person
vulnerable to a variety of fatal
diseases.
• Symptoms of AIDS include
extreme fatigue, fever, swollen
lymph nodes, weight loss,
diarrhea, and night sweats.
• As of now, AIDS is incurable, but
increasingly, the related
infections that kill people are
being stopped with antiviral
therapy.
o Bacterial STIs
▪ Chlamydia
• Most common along with
gonorrhea.
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• Globally, approximately 3.8
percent of women and 2.7
percent of men have a diagnosis
of chlamydia.
• Many people with chlamydia have
no symptoms, although they can
still transmit the infection to
others.
• Some infected people develop
abnormal vaginal or penile
discharge and a burning
sensation during urination.
• If undetected and untreated, can
lead to severe health problems,
including, in women, pelvic
inflammatory disease (PID), a
serious abdominal infection.
▪ Gonorrhea
• Most commonly contracted via
vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
• Symptoms may include abnormal
discharge from the penis or
vagina, painful urination, and
rectal discharge, itching, and
soreness.
• Untreated gonorrhea can lead to
PID as well as infections in the
eyes, throat, or joints.
▪ Syphilis
• Spreads via direct contact with a
chancre, or sore, usually through
vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
• Pregnant women can also transmit
the infection to their fetus.
• Teen Pregnancy
o Approximately 12 million young women aged 15 to 19
years give birth each year in developing countries,
and 10 million of these pregnancies are unintentional.
o Teenage pregnancies often have poor outcomes.
o Their babies are likely to be premature or dangerously
small and are at heightened risk of other birth
complications.
o Babies are e also at heightened risk for health and
academic problems, abuse and neglect, and
developmental disabilities, substance abuse, gang
activity, and of becoming adolescent parents
themselves.
o Many teenagers get much of their sex education from
the media, which present a distorted view of sexual
activity, associating it with fun, excitement,
competition, or violence and rarely showing the risks
of unprotected sex.
o Teens who watch highly sexual television content are
twice as likely to experience a pregnancy compared
to those with lower level or no exposure.
o Teens exposed to sexually explicit content—including
pornography and erotica—are more likely to have oral
sex and sexual intercourse at earlier ages.
o Abstinence-only sexual education programs,
sometimes known as sexual risk avoidance
programs, present sex within the context of marriage
as the only morally acceptable and safe form of
sexual activity.
o Comprehensive sexual education programs
encourage abstinence but also discuss STI infections
and safer sexual practices.
• Other Risks of Adolescence
o Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
▪ Includes any and all procedures that
involve removal of external female genitalia
for non-health-related reasons.
▪ Often involves the removal of the clitoris or
the inner and/or outer folds of the vulva, or
narrowing of the vaginal opening with
stitches.
▪ There are no health benefits to FGM and
many complications.
 o Child Marriage
▪ Is a human rights violation and is almost
universally banned.
▪ Global estimates are that over 650 million
women alive today married before turning
18 years of age, and approximately 12
million girls a year are forced into early
marriage.
▪ Child brides are at higher risk for STIs and
abuse and are less likely to continue or
complete their education.
Adolescent Rebellion
• Pattern of emotional turmoil, characteristic of a minority of
adolescents, that may involve conflict with family, alienation from
adult society, reckless behavior, and rejection of adult values.
Adolescents and Parents
• Individuation and Family Conflict
o Adolescents’ struggle for autonomy and personal
identity.
o Carving out boundaries of control between self and
parents, which may entail family conflict.
o Most family arguments concern control over every
day personal matters—chores, schoolwork, dress,
money, curfews, dating, and friends—rather than
issues of health and safety or right and wrong.
o Parents of young adolescents must strike a delicate
balance between too much freedom and too much
intrusiveness.
o Those students who perceive their parents as highly
intrusive in their personal lives are also more likely to
be influenced by negative peer interactions.
o Overall, family conflict predicts multiple adjustment
problems, including depression, anxiety, conduct
problems, and problems with peers.
o Family conflict tends to go down over time in warm,
supportive families.
o A warm, interconnected relationship with parents can
help teens individuate successfully.
o In collectivistic cultures, the developmental goal
during adolescence is less about establishing
independence away from the family and more about
establishing interdependence and strengthening
emotional bonds with the family members.
• Parenting Styles and Parental Authority
o Authoritative parenting continues to foster healthy
psychosocial development in adolescents.
o Authoritative parents insist on important rules, norms,
and values but are willing to listen, explain, and
negotiate.
o Overall, teens whose parents firmly enforce
behavioral rules have more self-discipline and fewer
behavior problems than those with more permissive
parents, and those whose parents grant them
psychological autonomy tend to be self-confident and
competent academically and socially.
o By contrast, psychological control can harm
adolescents’ psychosocial development and mental
health and is associated with externalizing problems.
• Parental Monitoring and Adolescents’ Self-Disclosure
o Parental monitoring broadly involves keeping track of
the young person’s activities.
o Those teens who disclose more are less likely to
engage in problem behaviors.
o Teens are more likely to disclose information when
parents maintain a warm, responsive family climate
and provide clear expectations without being overly
controlling.
• Family Structure and Atmosphere
o Adolescents living with their continuously married
parents tend to have significantly fewer behavioral
problems than those in other family structures.
o The greater the number of family structural transitions
experienced, the greater the risk of negative
outcomes.
o Adolescents in cohabiting families, like younger
children, tend to have greater behavioral and
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emotional problems than adolescents in married
families.
• Mother’s Employment and Economic Stress
o The impact of a mother’s work outside the home may
depend on how many parents are present in the
household.
o Single mothers may find that work affects how much
time and energy is left to spend with children or
monitor their activities.
o Maternal employment has repeatedly been
associated with a less healthy nutritional environment
in the home and an increased risk of overweight.
Sibling Relationships
• Generally, adolescents tend to be less close to siblings than to
friends and are less influenced by them.
• As children move through adolescence, their relationships with
their siblings become progressively more and sibling conflict
generally declines.
• Siblings are important in part because social skills learned within
the context of sibling relationships can be transferred to the peer
group.
• A high-quality sibling relationship can buffer a teen against the
negative consequences of parental conflict.
Peer Relationships
• The peer group is a source of affection, sympathy,
understanding, and moral guidance.
• The influence of peers normally peaks at ages 12 to 13 and
declines during middle and late adolescence.
• Friendships
o Girls’ friendships tend to be more intimate than boys’,
with frequent sharing of confidences.
o Intimacy with same-sex friends increases during early
to mid-adolescence, after which it typically declines
as intimacy with the other sex grow.
o Adolescents with high-quality friendships have a high
opinion of themselves, do well in school, are sociable,
and are less likely to be hostile, anxious, or
depressed.
• Social Media and Electronic Interaction
o Adolescents who are active users of social media
sites, especially if they are not guarded about their
personal privacy, are more vulnerable to online
harassment and cyberbullying.
o In general, screen-based media usage is related to
poorer physical health, life quality, and family
relationships.
• Romantic Relationships
o Early adolescents think primarily about how a
relationship might affect their status in the peer group
and pay little attention to attachment or support
needs.
• Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
o Most common form of gender-based violence
perpetrated against young girls.
o Includes physical, emotional, or sexual violence, as
well as stalking.
o Teens who are victims of dating violence are more
likely to do poorly in school and to engage in risky
behaviors such as drug and alcohol use.
Antisocial Behavior and Juvenile Delinquency
• Biological Influences
o Genes influence as much as 70 percent of the
variance for teen offenders who begin to engage in
antisocial behavior at younger ages, who persist in
such behaviors over time, and who engage in more
serious offenses.
o As a result of neurobiological deficits, particularly in
the portions of the brain that regulate reactions to
rewards and punishments, children may not receive
or heed normal warning signals to restrain impulsive
or reckless behavior and they tend to have abnormal
or blunted responses to events that generally evoke
fear in others.
o Individuals who have low arousal levels may be prone
to antisocial behaviors as a form of sensation seeking
 to achieve arousal levels that a typical person
experiences.
o Children, especially boys, with attention-
deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at higher risk
for the development of comorbid oppositional defiant
disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD), which
contribute to antisocial behavior.
o Biological influences alone, however, are not by
themselves predictive of antisocial behavior.
• Environmental Influences
o Parents of children who become chronically antisocial
have been found to use more harsh parenting and
psychological control techniques.
o When constant criticism, angry coercion, or rude,
uncooperative behavior characterizes parent-child
interactions, the child tends to show aggressive
behavior problems, which worsen the parent-child
relationship.
o Antisocial adolescents tend to have antisocial friends,
and their antisocial behavior increases when they
associate with each other.
o Teens who are genetically predisposed to antisocial
behavior respond more strongly to maladaptive peer
group norms than other children.
o Boys, but not girls, who live in poor neighborhoods
that border wealthier areas are at greater risk of
antisocial behaviors than boys who live in areas of
concentrated poverty, perhaps as a result of the
feelings of unfairness the obvious social disparities
may bring about.
o Academic problems, school suspensions, and
truancy in childhood and adolescence are also
strongly associated with violent criminal offending in
early adulthood.
• Preventing and Treating Delinquency
o Adolescents who have taken part in well-designed
early childhood intervention programs are less likely
to get in trouble than their peers who did not
experience such programs.
o Successful programs boost parenting skills through
better monitoring, behavioral management, and
neighborhood social support.

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