NURS2003 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Egocentrism, Personal Fable, Acculturation
CHAPTER 9 – COGNITIVE AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Mysterious Teenage Mind
Wise observers have described the “hot-headed” qualities of youth for millennia
“Storm and stress”: G. Stanley Hall’s phrase for the intense moodiness,
emotional sensitivity and risk-taking tendencies that characterise the life stage he
labelled adolescence
Adolescence became a life stage during the twentieth century, when high
school became universal and “isolated” teens together as a group
Formal operational stage: Jean Piaget’s fourth and final stage of cognitive
development reached at around age 12 and characterised by teenagers’ ability to
reason at an abstract, scientific level
Teenagers can think abstractly about hypothetical possibilities and reason
scientifically
Although even most adults don’t typically reason like scientists, older
teenagers use the skills involved in formal operations to plan their adult
futures
According to Lawrence Kohlberg, reaching formal operations makes it possible
for teenagers to develop moral values that guide their lives
By examining how they reason about ethical dilemmas, Kohlberg has
classified people at the preconventional, conventional and the highest, post-
conventional level
Preconventional level of morality: in Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the lowest level
of moral reasoning, in which people approach ethical issues by considering the
personal punishments or rewards of taking a particular action
A level of moral judgement in which only punishment and reward are
important
Conventional level of morality: in Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the intermediate
level of moral reasoning, in which people respond to ethical issues by considering
the need to uphold social norms
Moral judgement that is based on obeying social norms
Post-conventional level of morality: in Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, the highest
level of moral reasoning, in which people respond to ethical issues by applying
their own moral guidelines apart from society’s rules
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Moral reasoning that is based on one’s own moral ideals, apart from society’s
rules
Despite the fact that Kohlberg’s criteria for measuring morality has serious
problems, adolescence is when we become attuned to society’s flaws
Adolescent egocentrism: David Elkind’s term for the tendency of young teenagers
to feel that their actions are at the centre of everyone else’s consciousness
The ability to evaluate the flaws of the adult world produces adolescent
egocentrism
Imaginary audience: David Elkind’s term for the tendency of young teenagers to
feel that everyone is watching their every action; a component of adolescent
egocentrism
Personal fable: David Elkind’s tern for the tendency of young teenagers to believe
that their lives are special and heroic; a component of adolescent egocentrism
Imaginary audience and personal fable are 2 components of the intense early-
teenage sensitivity to what others think
Studies suggest that many, but not all, storm-and-stress stereotypes about
teenagerhood are true
Adolescents are highly socially sensitive and attuned to immediate
reinforcements
This risk-taking (and sometimes law-breaking) propensity, especially with
friends, makes adolescence a potentially dangerous time
Experience-sampling technique: a research procedure designed to capture
moment-to-moment experiences by having people carry pagers and take notes
describing their activities and emotions whenever the signal sounds
Research using this technique shows that teens are more emotionally intense
than adults
Contrary to our stereotypes however, most adolescents are upbeat and happy
Non-suicidal self-injury: cutting, burning or purposely injuring one’s body to cope
with stress
Rates of non-suicidal injury and depression rise during adolescence –
especially among females
The push to be in the popular crowd may help explain both the upsurge in
acting out and unhappiness during the tumultuous pubertal years
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