Chapter 09 Adolescence Essay Questions

Essay Questions 200. Name the sex hormones. What kinds of changes occur in boys and girls as a result of production of sex hormones? 201. Discuss the relationship between stress and early puberty. Include in your discussion research findings. 202. Joshua has a slightly deformed ear that can be corrected by plastic surgery. By age 11, Joshua is quite conscious of the defect, but he has been told that it would be best to postpone surgery until he is at least 15 years old. Discuss the possible advantages and disadvantages of this recommendation. 203. Explain why an 18-year-old is likely to outperform the most athletic 13-year-olds in sports such as swimming, tennis, and skiing. 204. What is the difference between primary and secondary sex characteristics? Describe the changes that occur in sex characteristics during puberty. 205. You have been asked to develop some innovative ways to promote healthy eating in a high school cafeteria. What could you do to entice adolescents to make healthy food choices? List three things you would do based on information presented in the textbook. 206. Discuss the physical, social, and cultural factors that make the typical adolescent boy or girl feel dissatisfied with his or her appearance. 207. Discuss the differences between anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. What symptoms must be present for a diagnosis of either of these eating disorders? 208. Describe a situation from your adolescence when, in retrospect, you can see how your limbic system was in control though it would have been better for your prefrontal cortex to take command. Page 30 209. Provide an example of a time when you exhibited adolescent egocentrism in your own life. What type of adolescent egocentrism was it? 210. Address self-important thinking in adolescence, specifically discussing the invincibility fable and the imaginary audience. Include in your discussion potential risks that might be associated with each of the two aspects of adolescent egocentrism. 211. If given some weights and asked to balance a scale by hooking the weights onto the scale's arms, how will the most cognitively advanced adolescents determine where to place the weights to balance the scale? How would preadolescents balance the scales? 212. Analyze the differences between deductive and inductive reasoning. Define both types of reasoning and offer an example of the practical application of each. 213. Define analytic thinking and intuitive thinking, and give an example of each. Why do adolescents tend to use intuitive thinking to a greater extent than analytic thinking? 214. You have been asked to participate on a committee charged with designing the ideal middle school. Given your knowledge of middle schools and middle school students, what design recommendations would you suggest to the committee? Discuss three recommendations you would offer and the rationale for each. Page 31 200. Estrogens are female sex hormones and androgens are male sex hormones. An increase in the sex hormones marks the unseen beginning of puberty, and produces mature ova and sperm. Both hormones also awaken an interest in sex and make reproduction possible. It also increases psychopathology such as schizophrenia in males and depression in females. 201. There is a positive correlation between stress levels and early-onset puberty, but there is no clearly established cause-and-effect relationship. High stress does increase the production of sex hormones, but there also seems to be a genetic predisposition to early-onset puberty. This means that a child living in a dysfunctional family may also have parents who also experienced early-onset puberty. The relationship between stress and early puberty seems to be stronger in girls than in boys as several studies have shown that girls who live in stressful environments are more likely to experience early-onset puberty than boys. 202. Physical development in adolescence is often uneven, with the nose, lips, and ears growing before the head itself reaches adult size and shape. Therefore, the surgeon wants to wait until Joshua's ears and head have finished growing so that permanent proportionate results can be achieved. However, if he is typical of those in his age group, Joshua is already concerned about his appearance and peer reaction and will probably push to have the defect “fixed” earlier. The deformity may be a cause of stress and impact his self-esteem until it is corrected. 203. The 18-year-old's superior performance is due to his or her faster reaction time, increased heart and lung capacity, increased physical endurance, and greater strength. 204. Primary sex characteristics are those that are directly involved in conception and pregnancy. Secondary sex characteristics develop during puberty and make the bodies of adolescents ready for reproduction. Specific primary changes in the female are growth of the uterus and vagina, as well as menarche and the beginning of ovulation. For boys, primary changes include growth of the testes and penis and the onset of spermarche. Secondary changes in hair, voice, breasts, muscles, and skeletal structure occur in both males and females. 205. Answers will vary and should include offering healthy food containing necessary vitamins and minerals, encouraging the drinking of milk, and removing vending machines. 206. Physical factors include the adolescent's uneven growth that often results in temporary anomalies and clumsiness. Social factors include the importance of appearance in gaining approval from members of the opposite sex and the possible effect of variations in timing (early maturing or late maturing). Culturally, unrealistic standards of appearance are promoted in all forms of media, setting a standard that can rarely – if ever – be met. 207. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by severe calorie restriction and the fear of being fat. In order for anorexia to be diagnosed, three symptoms must be present: a significantly low body weight for developmental stage (a BMI of 17 or lower), an intense fear of weight gain, and a disturbed body perception and denial of the problem. Bulimia nervosa is characterized by periods of bingeing following by purging. For bulimia to be diagnosed, the following symptoms must be present: bingeing and purging at least once a week for 3 months, uncontrollable urges to eat, and a sense of self tied to body size and shape. Page 38 208. Responses will vary and should clearly differentiate between the emotions of the limbic system and the logic and rational thinking of the prefrontal cortex. 209. Answers will vary, but students must clearly demonstrate an understanding of the principles of the invincibility fable (the belief that nothing bad will happen to them) and the imaginary audience (the idea that the whole world is watching them and is concerned about what they do.) 210. The invincibility fable is the notion that adolescents feel immune to harm or defeat. Since they feel they cannot be harmed, they may engage in dangerous thrill-seeking acts. Potential risks include physical injury (or even death) and alienation from the family. Adolescents play to the imaginary audience, thinking they are the center of attention and everyone is watching them. Risks associated with the imaginary audience include reluctance to engage in social situations, like when an adolescent refuses to go to school with the "wrong" clothes, shoes, or hairstyle. 211. A cognitively advanced adolescent would hypothesize and test the reciprocal relationship between weight and distance. Preadolescents would use trial and error. 212. Deductive reasoning starts with a general idea and then uses logic to draw specific conclusions. Inductive reasoning occurs in the opposite manner: it starts with specific facts or experience and ends with a general conclusion. Examples will vary and should clearly illustrate each type of reasoning. 213. Analytic thought is formal, logical, rational, hypothetical, and deductive. Examples will vary, but should involve rational analysis of many factors, such as the scale-balancing problem mentioned in the text. Intuitive thought starts with a prior belief or assumption and involves applying memories or feelings. Examples will vary. Adolescents use intuitive thinking so frequently because it is fast and powerful. Additionally, increased hormonal production brings emotion to the forefront of adolescents' thought processes. Intuitive thought is more emotional than analytic thought. 214. Recommendations will vary and could include changing the school schedule to accommodate longer classes that allow for in-depth discussion; designing course schedules to allow for consistency of teachers to allow for more personal student-teacher involvement; creating "schools within a school"—organizing the school into smaller groups so that teachers work with a limited number of students, thus increasing student involvement and engagement in school by creating a more cohesive, familiar community; linking the new middle school directly to an elementary school in order to minimize the changes associated with transition; and creating a school culture and curriculum focused on an incremental, rather than entity, approach to intelligence. Page 39