The Science of Adolescent Risk-Taking Workshop Report (2011) / Chapter Skim
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4 The Psychology of Adolescence
4 The Psychology of Adolescence
Pages 48-57
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From page 48... ...
PSYCHOSOCIAL CHANGES Brown began with the primary psychosocial tasks adolescents must accomplish. Put simply, there are four key tasks: 1.
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From page 49... ...
The development of autonomy is closely linked to identity formation and is also generally conceptualized primarily as either a psychological or an interpersonal process. Some researchers, Brown explained, have suggested that there is a universal process through which individuals develop healthy autonomy (Kagitcibasi, 2005)
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From page 50... ...
Risk behaviors are also correlated with several more specific kinds of social situations, including romantic relationships that develop early in adolescence, association with older peers or permissive peer groups, romantic or sexual relationships with older partners, and lax adult supervision. What this suggests, for Brown, is that, apart from the cognitive and biological processes that affect ado lescents' behavior, it is important to understand the meaning that adoles cents attach to risky behaviors in the social context in which they encoun ter them.
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From page 51... ...
Brown suggested that it is more likely that psychosocial tasks encourage risk than that they discourage it. The key tasks of adolescence chal lenge an individual to explore possible identities and fashion a comfort able social identity, to try to gain acceptance into groups, and to develop the skills to navigate romantic relationships.
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From page 52... ...
As mentioned earlier, emotion, altered sensitivity to rewards, and increased impulsivity appear to play a role in adolescents' decisions. The developmental differences in brain processing discussed earlier also need to be accounted for in a conceptual picture of adolescents' decision making.
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From page 53... ...
Many public health interventions proceed from the premise that if adolescents knew of and understood a risk, they would not take it. Yet, Reyna explained, many studies have shown that not only are adolescents well aware of prevalent risks, but they also actually overestimate the risks of developing HIV or lung cancer or getting into a vehicle crash (see, e.g., Fischhoff et al., 2009; Millstein and Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Reyna and Farley, 2006)
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From page 54... ...
The key is that, although adolescents overestimate many risks, they often also rate the potential benefits as very high -- and thus the perceived benefits outweigh the perceived risks.
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From page 55... ...
Women who make initial risk estimates also show reduced interest in screening tests to detect breast cancer. Thus, highlighting the true level of risk (as is typically done in public health messages)
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. However, most adolescents engage in what Reyna called dual processing, that is, they engage in both verbatim thinking and gist thinking, making their decisions vulnerable to the sorts of contextual cues they receive when faced with a risky choice.
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From page 57... ...
Although the thinning of gray matter and the pruning of synapses discussed in Chapter 3 might seem to reduce processing power, theoretical mechanisms emphasizing streamlined gistbased processing suggest that pruning might be important in developing the capacity to make sound decisions.
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