Adolescence

Life between childhood and adulthood

Puberty

2 year period of rapid development during which there is a surge of hormones, making you sexually mature

Primary sex characteristics

External genitalia and reproductive organs

secondary sex characteristics

non-reproductive traits such as facial hair and deeping voice in boys and breast and hip development in girls.

2 characteristics of adolescent cognitive development

1. In early adolescence your reasoning is self-focused and you think your private experiences are unique

2. As you become capable of abstract thinking, you detect inconsistencies in other people's reasoning and note hypocrisy

Aging

The older people get, the harder it is to tell differences between two ages

(ie - big difference between 2 year old and 6 year old, but not big differnce between 31 and 34)

menopause

End of the menstrual cycle caused by reduction in estrogen production

* foremost biological sign of aging in women

Amyloid Plagues

clumps of deteriorating nerve tissue

Neurofibrillary tangles

tangled nerve fibers

dementia

mental disintegration; when you have trouble making decision, don't remember anything, and can't think logically.

Alzhiemer's Disease

(stages aka what you lose first)

early stages seem like normal forgetfullnes

* memory goes first in brain aging

* then reasoning (bathing, eating, dressing, etc)

* language goes last

Acetylcholine

important for cell communication

prospective memory

memory for doing daily things

(last memory to go)

character

the psychological muscles for controlling impulses

moral reasoning

the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong

preconventional memory

* before age 9

* people obet either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards (self-interest)

conventional morality

*by early adolescence

* care for others and uphold laws and social rules simply because they are the laws and rules

* do what others expect you to - take others' perspectives for social approval

postconventional morality

* found in some people who are in the formal operational stage of thought

* affirms people's agreed upon rights or follows what one personally perceives as basic ethical principles

competence vs inferiority

elementary school (6yrs-puberty)

identity vs role confusion

adolescence (teen years into 20s)

intimacy vs isolation

young adulthood (20s to early 40s)

generativity vs stagnation

middle adulthood (40s to 60s)

integrity vs despair

late adulthood (late 60s and up)

3 identities teenagers can take on

(according to Erikson)

1. that of their parents

2. a negative one

3. none at all

intimacy

the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood

cross sectional studies

studies in which people of different ages are compared with one another

longitudinal study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a period of years

"He who lives with his wits, dies with his wits"

keep active, maintain your hobbies and use your brain into retirement to keep you from declining in intelligence

crystallized intelligence

one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills - increases with age

fluid intelligence

one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly - tends to decrease during late adulthood

social clock

the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, etc.

life events

events marking transitions to new life stages (increasingly occuring at unpredictable ages)

ex. marriage, parenthood, moving out of parents' house, etc.

empty nest syndrome

a feeling of distress focusing on a loss of purpose in and relationship when last child leaves the house

Kohlberg

formulated a stage theory of moral development based on reasoning in ethical dilemmas

gender differences

women are better at reading emotional cues and have more empathy.