COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

IN ADOLESCENTS
Unit 2
ADOLESCENCE
 Developmental transition between childhood
and adulthood entailing major physical,
cognitive and psychosocial changes.

 Adolescence ( 11 years – 17 years) begins

with puberty and last till late teens or early
20’s.

 Puberty – is the process by which a person

attains sexual maturity and ability to
reproduce
 WHO, June 2019 defines an adolescent - as any
person between ages 10 and 19 years.
 Young people according to WHO are from 10 and
24 years.

 Adolescence is a social construction.

 As the time from childhood to adulthood is longer,
the interface period is referred to as adolescence.
 Depending on the state legal age of major, young
adulthood begins.

 In reality, some may not come out of the

adolescent phase even in later life.
HIGH RISK BEHAVIOUR IN TEENS
 Are those that potentially expose people to
harm or significant risk of harm which will
prevent them reaching their potential.

 However, some risky behaviour is normal and

part of growing up.

 Risky behaviour includes – sexual activity,

substance abuse, smoking, preventable
injury and violence including self harm.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTS
 Teens have healthy bodies, zest for life and
more maturity in thinking, however, they may
continue to be immature in certain ways

 Abstract reasoning, sophisticated moral

judgement and planning more realistically for
the future can be seen

 Abstract reasoning refers to the ability to

analyse information, detect patterns and
relationships, solve problems on a complex
intangible level, being able to formulate
theories about the nature of objects and ideas.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhcgYgx7
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piaget’s theory of cognitive development
PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
 Birth to 2 years – sensorimotor – experience
world though senses

 2 years to 7 years – preoperational –

experience world through imagination

 7 to 11 years – concrete operations – think

logically about concrete events, understand
analogies, do arithmetic problems

 12 years to adulthood – formal operations –

abstract reasoning
FORMAL OPERATIONS
 Highest level of cognitive development

 Piaget;s final stage of cognitive development,

characterized by the ability to think abstractly.

 Deductive reasoning, systematic planning, ability to

think in terms of what might be, not just what it is
 Imagine and test the hypotheses
 Use symbols
 Understand historical time and extraterrestrial space
 Learn from past challenges and make plans for the
future
 Think abstractly emotional implications – eg love
freedom or hate of exploitation
HYPOTHETICAL DEDUCTIVE
REASONING
 Ability of the formal operation to develop,
consider and test hypotheses.

 Piaget attributes it to brain maturation +

expanding environmental opportunities –
even if neurological development takes
place, the appropriate stimulation must be
present.

 This can be achieved – cooperative effort ,

culture and schooling.
PARENTS ROLE IN HELPING CHILDREN
DEVELOP REASONING SKILLS
 According to Ellen Galinsky – Mind in Making:
1. Provide opportunities for play – testing
how things work informally is crucial to
developing critical thinking.
2. Children explores cause and effect in play.

3. Give ample time to think, attempt a task.

4. Do not solve it for them.

5. Give clues so that they are not frustrated.

ASK OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS
1. Do not give automatic answers
2. Ask them – what are your ideas, I am
interested to here your view points, how can
we solve it, where can we find information
to solve problems.
3. Respect their views even if it is not correct.
HELP CHILDREN DEVELOP
HYPOTHESES
1. Ask them – if we do this, what do you think will
happen; lets predict what will happen next.

2. Encourage thinking in new and different

ways
3. Find creative solutions
4. Ask – what other ideas do we have or lets think
of all the possibilities.

https://
www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binar
ies/66077_Levine_Chapter_15.pdf
(cognitive development in adolescence)
EVALUATING PIAGET’S THEORY
 Highly influential theory giving educators and parents
benchmarks for what to expect and how to frame curriculum.

 Criticism – children show scientific thinking before adolescent

stage too
 Does not account for individual differences
 Overestimated older children’s abilities
 Did not give importance to cultural and societal influences
 Failed to take into account the gradual accumulation of
knowledge and expertise in specific fields
 Role of meta cognition was not given importance
 Role of situation in influencing and constraining formal operation
stage was failed to be considered
 Formal stage need not be the pinnacle of cognitive development
as it can be extended to adulthood
 Intuition, wisdom, role of experience were all not given due
importance.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN
ADOLESCENTS
 Improves with further refinement and reading.
 During formal operation stage, they enjoy multiple
meanings, metaphors
 More skilled in social perspective taking.

 Social perspective taking – is the ability to

understand another person’s point of view and
level of knowledge and to speak accordingly.

 This ability is essential to have conversations with

others .
 This helps them to develop their own world of
generations different from their parents.
IMMATURE CHARACTERISTICS OF
ADOLESCENT THOUGHT (DAVID
ELKIND)
 From an egocentric beings, adolescents learn to solve
abstract problems, yet they are immature – appear rude,
get into trouble with others, like to live in their own fantasy
world.

 Why is this so? According to David such behaviour stems

from adolescents’ inexperience venture into formal
operational thought.
Characteristics include:
 idealism and criticalness – adolescents envision an

ideal world
 They realize the real world is far from it and hold adults

responsible for it
 Become super conscious of hypocrisy

 Convinced they know better than adults to manage

situations often find fault with parents.

ARGUMENTATIVENESS
 Constantly look out to prove their point of
view to others.

 Indeciveness – they have many alternatives

in mind but because of their inexperience,
they lack making up their mind in choosing
among alternatives.

 Apparent hypocrisy – they do not

recognize the difference between expressing
an ideal and making the sacrifice to live up to
it.
SELF CONSCIOUSNESS
 Adolescents can now reflect on their own thinking
and that of others .

 They have imaginary audience – a conceptualized

“observer” who is as concerned with a young
person’s thoughts and behaviour as he or she is.

 Specialness and vulnerability – personal fable – a

term for the conviction that one is special, unique
and not subject to the rules that govern the rest of
the world.

 This special form of egocentrism underlines much

risky, self destructive behaviour.
EDUCATIONAL AND VOCATIONAL
ISSUES
 School is the central organizing experience in
most adolescent’ lives.
 It offers opportunities to learn, master new

skills, sharpen old ones, participate in sports,

arts other activities, explore vocational
choices, expand friendship.

Influences on school achievement

 Research studies point out factors such as

SES, quality of home environment, parental

involvement, peer influence, quality of
schooling, students’ and parents’ belief in
their ability to succeed.
SELF EFFICACY BELIEFS AND
ACADEMIC MOTIVATION
 Albert Bandura pointed out that students who
are high in self efficacy – believe that they can
master academic material and regulate their own
learning.

 Self regulated learners set challenging goals and

use appropriate strategies to achieve them.

 They try hard, sustain in difficult times, seek help

when necessary.

 Students who do not believe in themselves tend

to become frustrated and depressed.
USE OF TIME
 Academic motivation and efficacy beliefs –
affect the way adolescence use their time

 Eg. Some are very busy in extracurricular activities,

do house hold work, involve in sports/exercise yet
score good grades, where as others seem to have lot
of time at hand, yet do not achieve? Why is this so?

 Research has also shown that students with limited

involvements and less engagement in school tended
to have less ambitious educational and occupational
plans, less optimism about their prospects for
marriage, and less interest in responsible citizenship,
whether or not they had outside employment.
 Research observations show – if parents want their children
to do well in school, they must see that children have
learning experiences that build a belief in their ability to
succeed.

 Parents who are economically secure and who have high

aspirations for their children and a strong sense of parental
efficacy tend to have children with high academic goals and
achievement (Bandura, 1996).

 Students whose peer group were high achievers showed less

decline in achievement and enjoyment of school while those
who associated with low achievers showed greater declines.

 This was common for both boys and girls across ethnic
groups (Ryan, 2001)
SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS AND THE
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT
 SOS is a powerful factor in educational achievement
through its influence on family atmosphere, on parents’
way of rearing children.

 National research council in their study found that children

of poor, uneducated parents are more likely to experience
negative family and school atmospheres and stressful
events.

 The neighbourhood attitude of peers also affects school

motivation.

 Still may young people from disadvantaged

neighbourhoods do well in school and improve their
conditions in life.
 What makes that differences?
SOCIAL CAPITAL
 Social capital contributes to the family and
community resources children and
adolescents can draw upon.

 Parents who invest time and effort in their

children and who have a strong network of
community support build the family’ social
capital .
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND
PARENTING STYLES
 Parents can affect their children educational
achievement by becoming involved in their
children’s schooling: acting as advocates for
their children and impressing teachers with
the seriousness of the family’s educational
goals.

 National centre for educational statistics

states that students whose parents are
closely involved in their school lives and
monitor their progress fare best in high
school.
AUTHORITATIVE PARENTING
 Such parents urge adolescents to look at both sides of
issues

 Admit that children sometimes know more than parents

 Welcome their participation in family decisions

 These parents strike a balance between making demands

and being responsive

 Their children receive praise and privileges for good

grades

 Poor grades bring encouragement to try harder and

offers of help
AUTHORITARIAN PARENTS
 Tell adolescents not to argue with or question
adults and tell them they will know better
when they are grown up.

 Good grades bring admonitions to do even

better

 Poor grades upset the parents who may

punish by reducing allowances or grounding
PERMISSIVE PARENTS
 Do not care about grades, make no rules about
watching television, do not attend school functions
and neither help with not check their children's
homework.

 These parents may not be neglectful or uncaring, but

simply convinced that teenagers should be
responsible for their own lives.

 Research done by Glasgow et al indicated that

adolescents raised authoritatively not only achieve
better academically but are more socially competent,
are more emotionally healthy, and show fewer
behaviour problems that children raised in an
authoritarian or permissive manner.
FACTORS THAT ACCOUNTS FOR ACADEMIC
SUCCESS OF AUTHORITATIVELY RAISED
ADOLESCENTS – WHY?
 Authoritative parents’ greater involvement in schooling

 Their encouragement of positive attitudes toward work

 Parent’s influence on how children explain success or failure (self efficacy

theory – Bandura)

 Yet in a study, it was seen that youngsters who saw their parents as
nonauthoritative were more likely to attribute poor grades to external
causes or to low ability – forces beyond their control rather than to their
own efforts.

 Such students later tend to spend less time on homework and attention in
class

 This leads to a sense of helplessness and it can become a self fulfilling

prophecy discouraging students from trying to succeed.

 At all times parenting styles alone is not crucial, peer support and school
environment is also extremely important for success at school
SCHOOL FACTORS
 The quality of a school strongly influences student achievement.

 Students who like their school do better academically and also

are healthier.

 Adolescents are more satisfied with school if they are allowed to

participate in school activities and fell support from teachers and
other students

 Schools that tailor teaching to students abilities get better

results than schools that try to teach all students in the same
way

 Research on Sternberg triarchic theory of intelligence found that

students high in practical or creative intelligence do better when
taught in a way that allows them to capitalize on those strengths
DROPPING OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL
 Money – poverty, financial pressures
 Boredom- actively less engaged in school

 Teenage pregnancy

 Academic struggles

 Lack of parental support

 Trouble with law or involvement in

undesirable activities

 Hence increasing active school engaged

behaviour is essential + family
encouragment
EDUCATIONAL AND VOCATIONAL
PREPARATION
 Influences on students aspirations – students self
efficacy beliefs – their confidence in their educational
and vocational prospects shape the occupational options

 These beliefs and aspirations are often influenced by

parents own self efficacy beliefs and aspirations.

 Other factors include individual ability and personality

 Socioeconomic background
 Advice from peer , school counsellors
 Life experiences
 Social values
 Awareness of opportunities
 Gender