Chapter 09 Adolescence Text-Based Questions

Text-Based Questions 215. What makes a particular child reach puberty early or late? 216. Why would any adolescent starve herself to death? 217. How can teenagers be both logical and impulsive? 218. Why does bullying increase in middle school? 219. What visible changes take place in puberty? 220. How do hormones affect the physical and psychological aspects of puberty? 221. Why might some high schools decide to adopt later start times? 222. What are the gender differences in the growth spurt? 223. What is the connection between body fat and onset of puberty in girls? In boys? 224. Why might early puberty be difficult for girls? 225. What problems are common among early-maturing boys? 226. What problems result from the growth spurt sequence (weight, height, muscles)? Page 31 227. How do the skin and hair change during puberty? 228. What is the crucial difference between primary sex characteristics and secondary sex characteristics? Give examples of each. 229. What problems might occur if adolescents do not get enough iron or calcium? 230. Why is one's body image often distorted during adolescence? 231. List the symptoms of anorexia and of bulimia. 232. Why does the limbic system develop before the prefrontal cortex, and what are the consequences? 233. How does adolescent egocentrism differ from early childhood egocentrism? 234. How might the invincibility fable explain why adolescents reveal personal information on social media websites? 235. What are the characteristics of formal operational thinking? 236. What is the difference between inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning? 237. How might intuition and analysis lead to opposite conclusions? 238. What mode of thinking (intuitive or analytic) do most people prefer in their everyday life, and why? 239. Why have most junior high schools disappeared? Page 32 240. What characteristics of middle schools make them more difficult for students than elementary schools? 241. What is the connection between school climate and bullying? 242. How might a school that believes in the incremental approach to intelligence structure itself to increase student motivation? 243. Why are student transitions from one school to another of particular concern for educators? What steps can they take to ease transitions? 244. How does the PISA differ from other international tests? 245. List five benefits of adolescent brain development. 246. Why is high school achievement likely to advance the national economy? Page 33 215. Genes, amount of body fat, and stress all play a role in the timing of puberty. 216. While certain alleles increase the risk of developing anorexia nervosa, a disorder characterized by severe calorie restriction and an intense fear of being fat, cultural pressure to be thin appears to be a crucial factor. 217. Teenagers are impulsive because their prefrontal cortexes are underdeveloped, inhibiting their sense of caution and ability to analyze risks. At the same time, they begin to develop formal operational thought, which is characterized by logical, hypothetical reasoning. This allows for more challenging, problem-focused learning. 218. When puberty increases sexual interest and urges, harassment and teasing increase as well. Some students also begin to act as bullies in attempt to be assertive in a large school environment. Cyberbullying increases as more students engage in technology-driven communication and socializing. 219. Girls experience nipple growth, widening of the hips, growth of pubic hair, and breast maturation. Boys experience growth of testes and penis, growth of pubic hair, and development of facial hair. Both boys and girls grow taller and stronger, with growth spurts in height and weight. 220. In girls, estrogen triggers menarche and may contribute to depression. In boys, androgens produce sperm and triggers spermarche, and, in a small number of boys, may also contribute to the onset of schizophrenia. In both boys and girls, hormones awaken their interest in sex. 221. Due to a phase delay in the sleep-wake cycles in teens due to the hormones of the HPA axis during puberty, many teens are drowsy and have difficulty focusing in the morning. Adolescent learning is better in schools that start after 8 a.m. 222. Girls experience their height growth spurt an average of two years before boys do. Girls' height growth spurt usually precedes menarche, whereas boys' height growth spurt usually follows spermarche. 223. Girls who are heavier tend to experience menarche earlier than girls who are malnourished. Both sexes reach puberty earlier in well-nourished nations than in malnourished ones. However, heavier boys in the United States tend to reach puberty later than their slimmer counterparts. 224. Girls who reach puberty before their peers are often teased, leading to lower self-esteem, poorer body image, and more depression than on-time maturing girls. They may have older boyfriends, and have an increased risk of early sexual activity, drug and alcohol use, eating disorders, relational bullying and physical violence. 225. Early-maturing boys tend to be more sexually active and aggressive, and are more likely to break the law and abuse alcohol, which can lead o trouble with parents, teachers, and the police. 226. Since bones typically grow faster than muscles and internal organs, adolescents are more prone to athletic injuries in adolescence than when they were younger, and can also move with greater awkwardness and clumsiness due to rapid but often uneven Page 40 growth. Weight lifting can be dangerous because muscles are not mature. 227. In puberty, the skin becomes oilier, sweatier, and more acne-prone. Hair grows in the armpits and pubic areas, and the hair on arms and legs becomes coarser and darker. Adolescents become very aware of their skin and hair, worrying about pimples and using their hairstyles as a way to indicate gender and autonomy. 228. Primary sex characteristics are body characteristics directly involved in conception and pregnancy, such as growth of the ovaries and testes. Secondary sex characteristics are bodily feature that do not directly affect fertility, but visually signify masculinity or femininity, such as breasts and broad shoulders. 229. Insufficient iron can cause anemia in adolescents, and insufficient calcium can lead to osteoporosis later in life. 230. Hormones in puberty awaken sexual interest, and both sexes become less happy with their own bodies and more superficial in what they admire in the other sex. The ideal body type in most nations is tall and thin. 231. Anorexia has three symptoms: 1) a significantly low body weight for developmental stage (BMI of 17 or lower); 2) an intense fear of weight gain; and 3) a distorted perception and denial of the problem . Bulimia has three symptoms: 1) Bingeing and purging at least once a week for three months; 2) uncontrollable urges to overeat; and 3) a sense of self tied to body weight and size. 232. Pubertal hormones target the amygdala directly, whereas the cortex responds more to age and experience than to hormones. Intense fear and excitement originate in the amygdala, and planning, emotional regulation, and impulse control originate in the prefrontal cortex. This makes adolescents' emotional rushes unchecked by caution. 233. In early childhood, egocentrism refers to the inability to take another's perspective. Young adolescents not only think intensely about themselves but also think about what others think of them. Adolescents regard themselves as unique, special, and much more socially significant than they actually are. 234. The invincibility fable leads adolescents to conclude that they will not be hurt by risky behaviors. Teens reveal personal information to electronic “friends,” oblivious to the dangers of taking this risk. 235. Formal operational thinking enables adolescents to consider abstractions, possibilities, and hypothetical situations. It is the basis of deductive reasoning. 236. Deductive reasoning is a top-down process. It begins with an abstract idea, then uses logic to draw specific conclusions. Inductive reasoning is a bottom-up process. It begins with specific examples that lead to general conclusions. 237. Intuition begins with a belief, assumption, or general rule. It is quick and powerful—a gut reaction. Analysis is formal, logical, hypothetical thinking. It involves rational analysis of many factors that must be considered. Intuition causes one to focus on the most interesting part of the problem, whereas analysis leads one to consider all aspects of the problem. Decisions based on intuition may lead one to take risks or jump to conclusions that analysis would help avoid. 238. People tend to use intuition in their everyday life because it is quicker and easier to rely on pre-existing beliefs, assumptions, and rules than it is to reason deliberately. 239. The age of puberty has decreased, shifting the appropriate age groupings for adolescents. Junior high has been replaced with middle school and ninth grade has Page 41 moved into the high school. 240. Having different teachers for each subject can make middle school teachers impersonal and distant; unlike elementary school, no one teacher is aware of a student's overall behavior. Changing classes for each period can make personal recognition from authority figures difficult at a time when such recognition is important. This can contribute to a feeling of alienation from school and teachers. Students already at risk of emotional problems may be pushed over the edge by the transition and experience intense anxiety or depression. 241. When students consider their school a good place to be--with strong teachers, friendly students, and good opportunities--students with high-self esteem are more likely to disapprove of bullying. In contrast, when students consider their school in a negative light, those with high self-esteem are often bullies. 242. The school could implement cooperative groups and reduce competition so that teachers and students would be supportive of each student's learning. According to international comparisons, educational systems that track students into higher or lower classes, that expel students who are not learning, and that allow competition between schools for the brightest students (none of which reflects incremental theory) are also school systems with lower average achievement and a larger gap between student scores at the highest and lowest quartiles. 243. The unfamiliar circumstances involved in transitioning between schools may interfere with learning and social adjustment. School districts could limit the number of transitions (by adopting K-8 or K-12 formats) and reduce the number of students in schools so that students aren't strangers to each other or the school officials. 244. The PISA measures the students' ability to use skills they learned in school to cope with real-life problems rather than testing facts. 245. 1) Faster reaction time; 2) Increased positive emotions; 3) Easier acquisition of new ideas; 4) More mature moral reasoning; and 5) Willingness to question tradition and try new things 246. Creativity, flexibility, and analytic ability allow for innovation and mastery of new technology. When nations increase their human capital by helping more adults acquire those skills, their economies prosper. Page 42