1) Adolescence involves significant psychosocial development including forming an identity, navigating new relationships with peers and parents, and sexual maturation. 2) Teenagers experience conflict with parents as they seek independence, while parents try to balance closeness with granting autonomy. Peer influence also increases risk-taking behavior in adolescents compared to adults. 3) Issues like depression, suicide, delinquency, and sexual activity are also part of the psychosocial challenges of adolescence, as teenagers develop identity and independence.

1. PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

2. PART V: ADOLESCENCE
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development
2
1. Introduction
2. Fact or Fiction?
3. Identity
4. Relationships
5. Sexuality
6. Sadness and anger
7. Closing Thoughts

3. Fact or Fiction? Fiction Fact
1. Generally speaking, parent-adolescent
conflict is about routine, day-to-day concerns.
2. Early exclusive romance signifies maturity.
3. Thinking about committing suicide is actually
quite rare among high school students.
4. Major crimes are more likely to be committed
during adolescence and emerging adulthood than
in any other period of life.
3
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

4. Not yet Achieved
On the path to identity, what roles do adolescents most often adopt?
Identity
achievement
Role
confusion
MoratoriumForeclosure
identity versus role confusion: Erikson’s term for the fifth stage
of development, in which a person tries to figure out “Who am I?”
A situation in which an adolescent
does not seem to know or care
what his or her identity is (also
called identity diffusion).
An adolescent’s choice of a socially
acceptable way to postpone
making identity-achievement
decisions, with going to college a
common example.
Erikson’s term for the attainment
of identity, or the point at which
a person understands who he or
she is as a unique individual.
Erikson’s term for premature
identity formation, which occurs
when an adolescent adopts
parents’ or society’s roles and
values wholesale, without
questioning or analysis.
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PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

5. How do the religious, political,
vocational, and gender arenas of
identity develop during adolescence?
5
Four Arenas of Identity Achievement
JGI/Jamie Grill/Getty Images
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

6. Four Arenas of Identity Achievement
6
Video:
Excerpts from the Up Documentary:
Tony, the Boy Who Wanted to be a Jockey
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

7. I don’t want to ask
again. So, please
clean your room
I’ll do it later
Not later,
now.
Why. It doesn’t
matter.
Yes it does
I’m too tired,
but…oh…okay
Thanks for cleaning
your room. That’s
been helpful
all summer.
You’re
welcome
If you could keep
your room clean all
school year, too,
that would be great.
Can do. No problem
Dad. I’m going over
to Dahlia’s house
now. I’ll be back
before dinner.
Sounds good.
See you later.
Adolescent
egocentrism
A characteristic of
adolescent thinking
that leads young
people (ages 10 to 13)
to focus on themselves
to the exclusion
of others
Bickering
Peevish arguing,
usually repeated
and ongoing
Better communication
and balance
Both parents and teenagers try
to balance the need for
independence and closeness,
with less disclosure but
improved communication as the
young person matures (Masche,
2010)
Granting greater
autonomy
As adolescents get older,
parents may grant more
autonomy, often with
positive affect (Collins &
Laursen, 2004., p. 337)
Adults and Teenagers
7
What is a typical way in which adolescents and parents relate
and adjust to one another?
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

8. 8
Video:
Adolescence: Interview with Anne Petersen
Adults and Teenagers
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

9. 9
Video:
The Wisdom of Generations: Boys’ and Girls’
Initiations Among the Chokwe and Related People
Adults and Teenagers
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

10. How did an experiment indicate
the effects of peer pressure on
adolescent risk-taking?
Alone With peers
Adolescents Young adults Adults
3.4
2.9
2.4
1.9
1.4
0.9
0.4
Source: Adapted from Steinberg, 2007.
The Role of Peers
peer pressure: Encouragement
to conform to one’s friends or
contemporaries in behavior,
dress, and attitude.
Video Game Risk Taking, by Age Group
Number of
crashes
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PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

11. 11
Video:
The Children’s Peace Movement in Colombia
Peer Support
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

12. Before Committed Partnership
What are some findings about sexual behavior and teenagers?
Teens who have had sex by
the end of high school
Sexually experienced girls
reporting they were in a
steady relationship when
they first had sex
Teens reporting using a
condom during last
intercourse
1991
2007
Girls
Boys
Percent
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
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PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

13. What have some studies shown about adolescents and sex?
Adolescents and Sex Percentage findings
As a parent, you know your 12-year-old daughter hugged
and kissed a boy “for a long time” (O’Donnell et al.,
2008).
As a 12-year-old, you have hugged and kissed a boy
“for a long time” (O’Donnell et al., 2008).
U.S. adolescent couples that have discussed the risks of
pregnancy and disease before becoming sexually active.
Approximately how much less rates of teenage pregnancy
are in most European nations than in the United States,
curriculum being one of the many reasons.
In a longitudinal study, approximately the number of
students who had sex by age 16 four to six years after
participating in abstinence-only programs (Trenholm et
al., 2007).
In a longitudinal study, approximately the number of
students who had sex by age 16 four to six years after not
participating in abstinence-only programs (Trenholm et
al., 2007).
Learning about Sex 5%
38%
50%
50%
50%
50%?
?
?
?
?
?
13
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

14. Depression
What might be the relationship between depression and crowds?
Feelings of
depression
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
Elementary
school
High school
High
Low
Popular/Jocks
Brains
Burnouts
crowd: A larger group of adolescents who have something in
common but who are not necessarily friends.
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PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

15. Suicide
Suicide Rate in the United States by Age Group, 1962-2006
Suicides
per
100,000
in age
group
Age group
Sources: Maguire, 2010.
10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-84 +85
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
What are suicide rates in the United States? 2006
1980
1962
15
suicide ideation: Considering the possibility of committing suicide.
parasuicide: Lethal action against the self that does not result in death.
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

16. Destructiveness
How is delinquency predicted?
From childhood:
primarily brain-based
From adolescence:
primarily context-based
short attention span,
hyperactivity, inadequate
emotional regulation, slow
language development, low
intelligence, early and
severe malnutrition,
autistic tendencies,
maternal cigarette smoking
and being the victim of
severe child abuse
deviant friends; having few
connections to school;
living in a crowded, violent,
unstable neighborhood; not
having a job; drugs and
alcohol; having close
relatives (especially older
siblings) in jail
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filo/Getty Images
PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

17. Closing Thoughts
Back in 1904, the psychologist G. Stanley Hall identified
adolescence as a time of “storm and stress.” What, if
anything, have you discovered about adolescence in
this presentation that supports his idea?
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PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development

18. PART V: Adolescence
TOPIC 16: Psychosocial Development