Sensation seeking seems to be less important in tobacco use. Some developmentalists speculate that
teenagers begin smoking because they really do not understand its health consequences. Teenagers,
however, seem to be well-aware of these risks, including the link between smoking and lung cancer. So
why do they start smoking if they know they should not?
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.8, pp. 278-279)
In teams, create an anti-smoking campaign for teens. Present each team’s campaign to the class.
Eating Disorders
LO 11.9 What are the characteristics and causes of eating disorders?
Dieting is quite different from an eating disorder, which is a category of mental disorders in which eating
behaviors go far beyond most people’s everyday experience with trying to lose weight. Individuals with
an eating disorder have a distorted body image that causes them to believe they are overweight when they
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.9, p. 279)
Why do you think teens who are heterosexual are at a lower risk for an eating disorder than teens who are
gay, lesbian, or unsure of their sexual orientation?
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is characterized by extreme dieting, an intense fear of gaining weight, and obsessive
exercising. In girls and women (who are by far the most common sufferers), the weight loss eventually
Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia nervosa involves an intense concern about weight combined with twice-weekly or more frequent
cycles of binge eating followed by purging through self-induced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives, or
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.9, p. 279)
How could you help a friend who had an eating disorder?
Risk Factors
Some theorists have proposed biological causes for eating disorders, such as a brain dysfunction. Others
argue for a psychoanalytic explanation, such as a fear of growing up. The most promising explanation,
however, may lie in the discrepancy between the young person’s internal image of a desirable body and
her (or his) perception of her own body. Girls who participate in activities such as ballet and gymnastics,
in which thinness is highly valued, are at a greater risk of developing eating disorders.
Depression and Suicide
LO 11.10 Which adolescents are at greater risk of depression and suicide?
Epidemiological studies reveal that, at any given time, five to eight percent of adolescents are in the midst
of an enduring depression. Perhaps twice that many will experience a serious depression at some time in
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.10, pp. 280-281)
What protective factors might be useful in preventing depression?
Depression can hinder academic achievement because it interferes with memory. For example, depressed
be less able to store and retrieve verbal information than their non-depressed peers.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.10, p. 281)
Why would remembering negative information and forgetting positive information contribute to academic
development?
Some teenagers’ depression leads to thoughts of suicide, and some of the thoughts lead to action.
Therapeutic interventions, such as antidepressant medication, may improve a depressed teenagers’
academic performance along with her emotional state. Most such treatments have been shown to be as
effective for adolescents as they are for depressed adults.
Although depression is more common among girls, the likelihood of a completed suicide is almost five
times as high among adolescent boys as among girls. In contrast, suicide attempts are estimated to be
three times more common among girls than among boys.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.10, p. 281)
Give examples of how each of the contributing factors might affect suicide.
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 11.7-11.10, pp. 277-282)
If you had the power to change U.S. culture in ways that you think would reduce the prevalence of the
problems that were discussed in this section, what changes would you make?
CHANGES IN THINKING AND MEMORY (pp. 282-286)
MyPsychLab Connections
Watch: Imaginary Audience, p. 284
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 11.11, p. 283)
Research Report: Formal Operational Thinking and Everyday Problem Solving
Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage
LO 11.11 What are the characteristics of thought in Piaget’s formal operational stage?
Piaget’s observations led him to conclude that the formal operational stage of thinking emerges fairly
rapidly in early adolescence, between roughly age 12 and age 16. During this stage, teenagers learn to
reason logically about abstract concepts. Formal operational thinking has a number of key elements.
Systematic Problem Solving
One important feature of formal operations is systematic problem solving, the ability to search
methodically for the answer to a problem. To study this process, Piaget presented adolescents with
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.11, pp. 282-283)
Think of a few real-life examples of tasks that demand systematic problem solving.
Logic
Another facet of this shift is the appearance of what Piaget called hypothetico-deductive reasoning—the
Adolescent Egocentrism
Psychologist David Elkind hypothesized that another common manifestation of hypothetico-deductive
reasoning is a type of thought he called adolescent egocentrism, the belief that one’s thoughts, beliefs, and
feelings are unique.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.11, pp. 283-284)
Give examples of the personal fable and an imaginary audience.
Research examining these constructs has produced mixed results.
▪ While it is true that adolescents use idealized mental models to make all kinds of decisions about their
own and others’ behavior, school-aged children exhibit similar forms of thought.
▪ If school-aged children display this kind of thinking, then it is not as strongly correlated to formal
operational thinking as Elkind claimed.
Direct Tests of Piaget’s View
LO 11.12 What are some major research findings regarding the formal operational stage?
Researchers have found clear evidence of the changes in adolescent thinking during the formal
operational stage in at least some adolescents. Formal operational reasoning also seems to enable
adolescents to understand figurative language, such as metaphors, to a greater degree. In a more practical
vein, developmentalists have shown that teenagers’ new cognitive abilities alter the ways they make
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.12, pp. 284-285)
In what way might formal operational thinking influence decision-making about risky behavior in
adolescence?
Advances in Information-Processing
LO 11.13 What kinds of advances in information-processing capabilities occur during
adolescence?
Adolescents process information faster, use processing resources more efficiently, understand their own
Metacognition, Metamemory, and Strategy Use
By age 14 or 15, the metacognitive and metamemory skills of adolescents far exceed those of younger
children. In addition, the capacity to apply memory strategies selectively, based on the characteristics of
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.13, p. 285)
Give examples of improvements in metacognition, metamemory, and strategy use from early adolescence
to late adolescence.
Text Learning
Differences between younger children’s and adolescents’ processing of a memory for a text are even
more dramatic. In a classic study of text processing, experimenters asked 10-, 13-, 15- and 18-year-olds
to read and summarize a 500-word passage. The researchers hypothesized that participants would use
four rules in writing summaries:
▪ First, they would delete trivial information.
▪ Second, their summaries would show categorical organization.
▪ Third, the summaries would use topic sentences from the text.
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 11.11-11.13, pp. 282-286)
How could some of the cognitive advances that emerge during adolescence be used in an essay countering
negative stereotypes of teenagers in the media?
SCHOOLING (pp. 286-291)
Transition to Secondary School
LO 11.14 How do changes in students’ goals contribute to the transition to secondary schools?
In many schools, children attend a lower school for eight years before moving on to a high school for four
years, an arrangement known as an 8-4 system. Because students typically show achievement declines
after entering high school, educators have developed two models that include a transitional school
between elementary and high school.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.14, pp. 286-287)
Conduct a class debate of the pros and cons of each of the school systems.
Middle School
One potential explanation for transition-related achievement declines is that students’ academic goals
change once they leave elementary school. These changes in goals influence behaviors such as the
amount of time that students devote to school work. Researchers classify such goals into two very broad
categories: task goals and ability goals.
▪ Task goals are goals based on personal standards and a desire to become more competent at
something.
▪ Students with ability goals adopt relative standards—that is, they view performance on a given
academic task as good as long as it is better than someone else’s. The students are more strongly
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.13, p. 287)
Give examples of how task and ability goals influence behavior.
Another factor that influences young adolescents’ adjustment to secondary school is their perception of
the school’s climate. Many middle-schoolers perceive their schools to be impersonal and unsupportive.
▪ Some schools provide students with an adult mentor, either a teacher or a volunteer from the
community, to whom they are assigned for a transitional period or throughout the middle school
High School
Regardless of the type of school they attended previously, the early days of high school set a general
pattern of success or failure for teenagers that continue into their adult years. For example, teenagers who
fail one or more courses in the first year of high school are far less likely than their peers to graduate.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.14, p. 288)
What was your first year of high school like? Did your grades and self-esteem decline? What do you
think teachers and administrators could do differently to make the transition easier for students?
Gender, Ethnicity, and Achievement in Science and Math
LO 11.15 What gender and ethnic differences in science and math achievement have researchers
found?
Girls seem to be at a particular risk for achievement losses after the transition to high school. For
example, eighth-grade boys outscore girls in science achievement, and the gap widens substantially by the
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.15, p. 289)
Give examples of how girls’ and their parents’ perception of sciences as a suitable career affects girls’
success in science courses.
The gender gap in mathematics achievement widens in high school as well, although sex differences are
smaller today than they were in the 1960s. Variations in boys’ and girls’ approaches to problem solving
may be responsible for sex differences in high school. Like their scientifically talented peers,
mathematically gifted high school girls have considerably less confidence in their abilities than their male
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.15, p. 289)
Dropping Out of High School
LO 11.16 What variables predict the likelihood of dropping out of high school?
The cumulative effect of success over many years of schooling fosters a greater sense of academic
confidence among academically successful high school students. Those who achieve, especially those
who achieve despite backgrounds that include poverty or other daunting obstacles, are likely to have
parents who have high aspirations for them or an authoritative parenting style.
Dropping out of high school, like academic success, results from a complex interaction of academic and
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 11.16, pp. 290-291)
List reasons why the peer group has such a strong influence on dropping out of school.
Whatever its cause, dropping out of high school is associated with a number of long-term consequences,
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 11.16, p. 290)
No Easy Answers: Reaching the High School Drop-Out
List suggestions for reaching high school drop-outs.
LECTURE ENHANCERS
Body Image and Eating Disorders
Given the complex relationship between body image, identity, and self-esteem, it would make sense that
body image might be related to eating disorders in some way. Adolescents are developing strong internal
working models about self, and these models influence their view of the world and the manner in which
they process information.
Cognitive Development
As if all of the physical changes that are taking place during adolescence are not enough, there are
significant cognitive changes that are taking place as well. One significant cognitive change involves the
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Media
▪ MyPsychLab—MyPsychLab contains a variety of engaging activities and assessments that aid in
teaching and learning, including the following tools:
o Writing Space. A single place to create, track, and grade writing assignments, provide writing
resources, and exchange meaningful, personalized feedback with students quickly and easily. For
Fall 2014 courses, Writing Space for the 7th edition will contain new auto-graded writing
▪ MyPsychLab Connections
o Watch: Today I Found Out: A Girl Discusses Her Best Friend’s Teenage Pregnancy, p. 274
o Watch: Gender Roles: Charlotte Anjelica, Transsexual, p. 276