Chapter 15: Cognitive
Processes in Adolescents
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15.1 Cognition
• 15.2 Reasoning About Moral Issues
• 15.3 The World of Work
• 15.4 Special Challenges
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15.1 Cognition
Piaget’s Stage of Formal
Operational Reasoning
• Information Processing During
Adolescence
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Piaget’s Stage of Formal
Operational Reasoning
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Begins at about 11 and continues
through adulthood
• Children now able to think hypothetically
and abstractly
• Can use deductive reasoning
• Beliefs can interfere with reasoning
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Ratings of Validity of Studies
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Information Processing
During Adolescence
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Capacity of working memory and speed of
processing reach adult levels
Acquire adult-like levels of knowledge and
understanding in many areas
Adolescents are quite skilled at choosing
strategies and monitoring effectiveness
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15.2 Reasoning About
Moral Issues
Kohlberg’s Theory
• Gilligan’s Ethic of Caring
• Promoting Moral Reasoning
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Kohlberg’s Theory
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3 levels of moral reasoning beginning with
obedience to authority and ending with
decisions based on moral principles
Support for the theory: people progress through
the stages in sequence and moral reasoning is
linked to moral behaviour
Cross-cultural evidence is inconsistent
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Gilligan’s Ethic of Caring
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Gilligan: caring is more important than
justice and becomes more
sophisticated
• Justice and care both serve as a basis
for moral reasoning depending on the
nature of the moral problem
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Promoting Moral
Reasoning
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Discussions about moral issues
and exposure to higher levels of
reasoning
• Just Communities foster
discussion and provide exposure
to higher levels of reasoning
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15.3 The World of Work
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Career Development
• Part-Time Employment
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Career Development
Super’s theory: identity is primary force
in career choice
• Teens go through stages of
crystallization, specification, and
implementation when choosing a career
• Holland’s theory: 6 personality types are
basis for finding fulfilling jobs or careers
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Part-Time Employment
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Majority of high school seniors work part-time
• In 1998, nearly half of Canadian young people
between the ages 15 and 24 were working were
working in retail sales and service-industry jobs.
• Negative effects: school performance suffers,
mental health and behavioural problems, and
misleading affluence
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15.4 Special Challenges
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Learning Disabilities
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder
• Cognitive Delay
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Children with Learning
Disabilities
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Children with learning disabilities have
normal intelligence, but have difficulty
mastering academic material
Many varieties of learning disabilities
making it difficult to diagnose and equally
difficult to identify appropriate treatments
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Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder
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Shows a combination of overactivity,
inattention, and impulsivity
More common in boys than girls
Often treated with stimulant drugs,
instructions on regulating behaviour,
and parent training
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Persistence of ADHD
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Cognitive Delay
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Defined as below-average test scores
along with problems adapting to the
environment
• The most severe forms are less common
• 90% are mildly or educably delayed
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Levels of Cognitive Delay
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