Grommersoft

Notetaker: Victor Law
Advanced Placement Psychology
Chapter 4: Adolescence and Adulthood
( http://www.ApPsychology.net )
Adolescence
•  Adolescence: transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
•  Due to improved nutrition, sexual maturation occurs earlier nowadays
•  Psychologists note that adolescence is often marked by mood swings
•  Begins with puberty: period of sexual maturation, during which one first becomes capable of reproducing; 2-year
period of rapid development usually beginning in girls at age 11 and in boys at age 13
•  Primary sex characteristics: body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction
possible
•  Secondary sex characteristics: nonreproductive sexual characteristics –female breasts and hips, male voice quality
and body hair
•  Landmarks of puberty for boys are first ejaculation at about 14 and first menstrual period for girls at about 13
•  Menarche: first menstrual period
•  Although variation in the timing of growth spurt has little effect in height, there are psychological consequences
•  Early maturation is good for boys –stronger, more athletic, and tend to be more popular, self-assured, and independent
•  Early maturation for girls is stressful; but later when peers catch up, helps enjoy greater prestige and self-confidence
•  Reasoning is often self-focused –may believe private experiences are unique and no one understands the feelings
•  Kohlberg’s Moral Ladder
1.  Preconventional morality (before age 9)
•  Obey to either avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards; If you don’t feed the dog, he will die; If you do
the dishes, you can have desert
2.  Conventional morality (by early adolescence)
•  Morality evolves to a more conventional level that upholds laws simply because they are laws and rules; since
able to see others’ perspectives, follow actions that gain social approval or maintain social order; if you steal,
everyone would think you are a thief
3.  Postconventional morality
•  Those who develop abstract reasoning of formal operational thought; follow what affirms people’s rights or
what one personally perceives as basic ethical principles; if you steal the drugs, you would not have lived up
to your own ideal; Robin Hood is a hero because he stole from the rich for the poor
•  As our thinking matures, our behavior becomes less selfish and more caring
•  To refine sense of identity, adolescents in western cultures try out different “selves”
•  Different selves gradually reshape to form identity: one’s sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is
to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles
•  Identity searching continues past teen years; as it becomes clearer, self-esteem increases
•  Erikson contended that after identity stage is developing capacity for intimacy: ability to form close, loving
relationships; primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood
•  As identity is formed, separation from parents occur
Adulthood
•  Physical abilities peak in early adulthood; world-class sprinters and swimmers peak in their teens or early twenties;
but decline of abilities not noticed till later in life
•  Women, because of early maturation, peak earlier than men
•  Foremost biological sign of aging in women is menopause: time of natural cessation of menstruation; refers to
biological changes a women experiences as ability to reproduce declines

•  Menopause does not usually create psychological problems for women
•  Women’s expectations and attitudes regarding menopause influence its emotional impact
•  Men experience decline in sperm count, testosterone level, and speed of erection and ejaculation
•  With age, eye’s pupil shrinks and lens becomes less transparent –reducing light reaching retina
•  Disease-fighting immune system weakens –more susceptible to life-threatening disease; but due to lifetime collection
of antibodies, less suffering of short-term ailments
•  Since early adulthood, small, gradual loss of brain cells, but can be compensated by active growth of neural
connections in people who remain active
•  Some do suffer brain ailment such as Alzheimer’s disease: progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized
by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and physical functions; deterioration of neurons that
produce neurotransmitter acetylcholine
•  Hard for older people to recall meaningless info, but if it is meaningful, their rich web of existing knowledge helps
them catch it
•  Cross-sectional study: study in which people of different ages are compared with one another; cross the age groups
•  Show that younger people do better than older ones
•  Longitudinal study: research in which same people are restudied and retested over long period; a group of people for
a long time
•  Show that until late in life, intelligence remains stable
•  Found that because cross-sectional use people of different eras, other variables may skew the results; but longitudinal
may be at fault as those who survive the end of test may be the healthiest, smartest
•  Conclude that whether intelligence increases/decreases depends on type of intellectual preformance measured
•  Crystallized intelligence: one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age; As time passes,
“hardens” = stronger (increases with time)
•  Fluid Intelligence: one’s ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age
•  Types of intelligence explain why mathematicians and scientists produce creative work in early adulthood while those
in literature produce best work in late adulthood
•  Social clock: culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
•  2 basic aspects of lives dominate adulthood: intimacy (forming close relationships) and generativity (being productive
and supporting future generations)
•  Children are the most enduring of life changes
•  When children leave home, the empty nest is for most people a happy place and they report greater happiness and
enjoyment of marriage
•  People of all ages report similar levels of happiness and satisfaction with life; teenagers have quick changing range of
moods while adults have less extreme, but more enduring moods
Death and Dying
•  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross proposed that terminally ill pass through 5 stages (Dabda):
•  Denial; unacceptance of ill
•  Anger or resentment; Why me?
•  Bargaining; with God
•  Depression; loss of everything and everyone
•  Acceptance; peaceful, accepting one’s fate
Bibliography
Myers, David G., Psychology Fifth Edition. Worth Publishers, Inc. New York, NY ©1998