UNDERGRADUATE B. A. Honours SUBJECT: Psychology Paper: Human Development TOPIC: Adolescents LESSON: Cognitive Development of Adolescents LESSON MAP: 5.5.18.C.1 Cognitive Development of Adolescents With physical development, there is a remarkable change in adolescents’ cognitive development. The changes in how adolescents think, reason, and understand can be more dramatic than their obvious physical changes. Adolescents are considered to be in the formal operational stage of Piaget, the highest level of cognitive development. Their thinking process is more realistic and is capable of abstract reasoning. Piaget suggested that people reach it at the start of adolescence, around the age of 12. Piaget’s Stage of Formal Operations According to Piaget, the adolescent years are remarkable because youth move beyond the limitations of concrete mental operations and develop the ability to think in a more abstract manner. Piaget used the term "formal operations" to describe this new ability. Formal operations refer to the ability to perform mental operations with abstract, intangible concepts such as "happiness" or "wellbeing" and to be able to estimate or describe the effect of these intangible concepts. Therefore, youth can now represent in their mind circumstances, or events that they have never seen, nor personally experienced. During adolescence, the developing teenager acquires the ability to think systematically about all logical relationships within a problem. The transition from concrete thinking to formal logical operations occurs over time. Each adolescent progresses at varying rates in developing his/her ability to think in more complex ways. Each adolescent develops his/her own view of the world. Some adolescents may be able to apply logical operations to school work long before they are able to apply them to personal dilemmas. When emotional issues arise, they often interfere with an adolescent's ability to think in more complex ways. The ability to consider possibilities, or facts, may influence decision making, in either positive or negative ways. Adolescent thought is more abstract, characterized by: verbal problem-­‐solving ability, increased tendency to think about thought itself, thought is full of idealism and possibilities, thought is more logical. The adolescent is able to think about fanciful problems not based in reality and realizes that logical rules can be applied to the ideas that violate reality. For example, take the problem, “if all green people live in red houses, are all people who live in red houses green?” The concrete operational child would have difficulty getting beyond the fact that there is no such thing as green people. In contrast, the child in the formal operational stage would focus on applying logical solutions to the problem regardless of the unrealistic content. During adolescence, the child’s thought also becomes increasingly flexible and abstract. To solve problems the child uses logical processes in which all the possibilities in a situation are considered. In contrast to the concrete operational child, who under most circumstances can solve problems of classifications only in a real situation with the objects actually being present, the adolescent considers a number of alternatives or hypotheses in a problem-­‐solving situation and thinks of what could occur. In addition to this system of deducing consequences from a variety of alternative hypothesis, the child can assimilate and combine information from a variety of sources. Rather than evaluating single factors in solving a problem, as the concrete operational child does; the child at this stage is able to consider combinations of factors and simultaneous interactions of factors, which will affect the solution. They can deal with possibilities and predict future events. Their thinking is not confined to the concrete physical realities. Suppose children are asked a question of the form, “Cows are bigger than Tigers, and Tigers are bigger than elephants; which between the two, elephant and cow, are smaller?” A formal operational child will evaluate the logic of the statements to answer the question, which a concrete operational child cannot. This shows the abstract and hypothetical nature of adolescent’s thought processes. The two important characteristics of child’s thinking during adolescents are: (a) Hypothetico -­‐ deductive reasoning and (b) propositional thinking. •
Hypothetico -­‐ deductive reasoning is a formal operational problem solving strategy. That is, when faced with a problem, a formal operational thinker can formulate a general theory based on all possible factors and then deduce specific hypotheses from the general theory for further testing. He can test hypotheses in an orderly fashion to examine which ones work in the real world. •
Piaget & Inhelder (1958) have demonstrated how children solve the ‘Pendulum problem’. The problem-­‐solver is asked to figure out what determines how fast a pendulum swings? The choices are: a. Length of the string b. Weight of the pendulum c. Height of pendulum release d. Force with which the pendulum is pushed The adolescents approach the problem systematically. Like a scientist they carry out investigations. They vary one factor at a time and observe its effect on the movement of the pendulum. As a result, they are likely to identify that the critical factor is the length of the string. This is an example of hypothetico-­‐deductive reasoning. To illustrate the value of hypothetico-­‐deductive reasoning, consider the following example: A teenage girl, decided she'd like to surprise her friends and prepare soup Unfortunately, the first batch didn't turn out so well. In order to solve this problem she will mentally review the ingredients she used, and the steps he took to prepare the soup. The girl will consider the variables that make the taste of the soup different such as omitting a key ingredient, an improper ingredient. Next, she will change each individual variable and she will subsequently decide what she needs to do differently. For instance, she may decide that the most likely cause of different taste of soup is due to too much of water added in the soup. So, for the next time she will add little water. After the second batch is finished, she will then evaluate if this solved the problem or whether she needs to change a different variable. Propositional thinking-­‐ Adolescents are able to employ propositional thought during the formal operational stage. Propositional thought is reasoning that uses abstract logic in the absence of concrete examples. Evaluate the logic of propositions or verbal statements without referring to real-­‐world circumstances. The statements are evaluated on their own merit even if they are contrary to the real world knowledge. Consider the question,’ If dogs are called cats, can cats bark? The adolescents will answer, ‘yes’ to the question. They evaluate the logical validity of statements without being influenced by the concrete real-­‐world knowledge. It is the culture, which influences the adolescent’s use of formal operation. Adolescents with little formal education, who live in isolation, technologically unsophisticated societies are less likely to use formal operations than formally educated persons in more sophisticated societies (Jahoda, 1980; Segall et al. 1990). Information Processing-­‐ Adolescent’s cognitive abilities grow gradually and continuously according to information processing perspective. The information processing perspective sees changes in adolescents’ cognitive abilities as gradual transformations in the capacity to take in, use, and store information. The maturation of frontal lobe helps the adolescent to process the information in a different way. Multiple progressive changes occur in the ways people organize their thinking, develop strategies to deal with new situations, sort facts, and advance in memory capacity and perceptual abilities (Wellman & Gelman, 1992; Pressley& Schneider, 1997; Wyer,2004).There are two categories of change noticed in adolescent cognition: structural change and functional change. Structural change: It includes changes in working memory capacity and the increasing amount of knowledge stored in long-­‐term memory. The capacity of working memory enlarges and helps adolescents to handle complex problems. Information stored in long-­‐term memory can be declarative, procedural, or conceptual. Declarative knowledge: Declarative knowledge is defined as the factual information stored in memory and known to be static in nature. It consists of all the factual knowledge a person has acquired, e.g., who is Gandhiji? Procedural knowledge: Procedural knowledge is the knowledge of how to perform, or how to operate. It consists of all the skills a person has acquired. It is to know ‘ how’ something happens in a particular way e.g., how to drive a car? Conceptual knowledge: conceptual knowledge cannot be learned by rote. Thoughtful, reflective learning must learn it. It is to know ‘why’ something happens in a particular way e.g., why the earth revolves around the sun? Functional change: Processes for obtaining, handling, and retaining information are functional aspects of cognition, which include learning, remembering, and reasoning. The most noticeable functional changes are (1) a continued increase in processing speed and (2) further development of executive function (selective attention, decision-­‐making, and management of working memory). Decision Making: Adolescence is a time of increased decision making. Compared to children, young adolescents are more likely to generate options, examine a situation from a variety of perspectives, anticipate the consequences of decisions, and consider the credibility of sources. Unlike Piaget’s view that cognitive advances occur in stage-­‐like spurts, information-­‐processing theorists emphasize gradual and continuous growth. The information-­‐processing perspective sees changes in cognitive abilities as gradual transformations in the way that individuals take in, use, and store information. From this view, thinking advances during adolescence result from the ways people organize their thinking and develop new strategies. Critical Thinking: A solid basis of fundamental skills is necessary for the development of critical thinking skills. Recent studies have shown that critical thinking increases with age, but still only occurs less than half the time with high school juniors. Cognitive changes that allow improved critical thinking are: (1) increased speed and capacity of information processing (2) more breadth of content knowledge in a variety of areas (3) increased ability to construct new knowledge combinations (4) a greater range and more spontaneous use of strategies Information Processing Perspectives assert that one of the key reasons that mental abilities advance during adolescence is the growth of metacognition. Metacognition, the ability to think about one's own thinking process and their ability to monitor their cognition. Advances in mental abilities during adolescence are attributed to the growth of metacognition. Adolescents are more capable of understanding their own mental processes. For example, adolescents plan their study materials depending on their memory capacity. The improvements in metacognitive abilities permit adolescents to comprehend and master school materials more effectively (Kuhn, 2000; Desoete, Roeyers, & De Clercq, 2003). These new abilities can make adolescents deeply introspective and self-­‐conscious-­‐
two characteristics which produce a high degree of egocentrism. Egocentrism in Adolescent Thinking: Adolescent egocentrism is a stage of self-­‐absorption where the world is seen only from one's own perspective. Thus adolescents are highly critical of authority figures, unwilling to accept criticism, and quick to find fault with others. Adolescent egocentrism helps explain why teens often think they’re the focus of everyone’s attention. Adolescent egocentrism leads to two distortions: Imaginary audience, where adolescents think they are the focus of everyone else's attention, constructing elaborate scenarios about other’s thoughts/intentions. Personal fables, the belief that the adolescent is unique and exceptional and shared by no one else. The imaginary audience: The emergence of the social self seems to be marked by a period of heightened self-­‐consciousness, during which adolescents are thought to become increasingly preoccupied with other people's concerns about their actions, thoughts and appearance. According to Elkind's theory, this belief results in increased self-­‐consciousness, a tendency to anticipate the reactions of other people in relation to the self, and a feeling of being the focus of attention, regardless of whether a real audience exists or not in the situation. Teens may mistakenly believe that everyone around them is watching and judging them, scrutinizing their every move, as a result of which they become painfully self-­‐
conscious. The concept of an imaginary audience helps parents to understand why their teenagers spend more time in front of the mirror or become incredibly embarrassed over a seemingly minor mistake. The personal fable: a related construct, denotes adolescents’ convictions of their own personal uniqueness, giving rise to the sense of being ‘special’ (Elkind, 1967). Youth may feel exceptionally unique and different from other people, including their own peers. Piaget called this the "personal fable." Many teens believe they have unique abilities, or conversely, unique problems, different from anyone else in the world. Some youth feel as though they are better, smarter, or stronger than others. Language Development: By ages 16 to 18 years the average young person knows about 80,000 words. Adolescents are driven by reflective and abstract thought. They can define and discuss abstract words like love, happiness. There are increasingly complex grammatical constructions in their sentences. They use more conjunctions in sentences. Adolescents are more proficient in social perspective talking, the ability to understand another person’s point of view and to speak accordingly. They show improved ability to vary language style according to the situation. They speak different language with peers than with adults. According to Marcel Danesi (1994), adolescent speech constitutes a dialect of its own: pubilect, “ the social dialect of puberty”. Pubillect helps in strengthening group identity and shut outsiders out. Moral development: Morality refers to the way people choose to live their lives according to a set of guidelines or principles that govern their decisions about right versus wrong and good versus evil. As youths' cognitive, emotional, social development continue to mature, their understanding of morality expands and their behaviour becomes more closely aligned with their values and beliefs. Therefore, moral development describes the evolution of these guiding principles and is demonstrated by ability to apply these guidelines in daily life. Kohlberg developed a six stage theory of moral development, and he grouped these six stages into three, higher-­‐order levels of development: 1) the Pre-­‐Conventional Level, 2) the Conventional Level, and 3) the Post-­‐Conventional or Principled Level. Each level is then further sub-­‐
divided into two stages to make a total of six stages. Kohlberg believed that by early adolescence most youth have reached the mid-­‐level of moral reasoning called the Conventional Level. At this level, morality is determined by social norms; i.e., morality is determined by the rules and social conventions that are explicitly or implicitly agreed upon by a group of people. These rules and customs function to serve to the best interests of the group's majority, while simultaneously providing a structure that maintains social order and limits discord among group members. The Conventional Level is further subdivided into stage three and stage four. Stage three is called the morality of interpersonal cooperation. At stage three, moral decisions are made by anticipating how a moral decision would be judged by other influential group members Because youth at this stage wish to be considered a good person and judged in a favourable light, their moral decisions will be based on whether or not their decisions would win the approval of those people whose opinions matter to them. The next stage within the Conventional Level is stage four, and is called the social-­‐order-­‐maintaining orientation. At this stage, morality is determined by what is best for the majority of people. Furthermore, moral decisions reflect an understanding that the majority of people benefit from a social order that fosters harmonious relationships among group members. At this stage, youth understand that laws are intended to serve everyone's best interest, and believe that societies function best when everyone strictly adheres to the law. These youth will begin to compare their daily decisions, and the consequences of those decisions, to the larger society's moral standards. Although few significant differences have been identified in the cognitive development of adolescent boys and girls, it appears that adolescent boys and girls do differ in their confidence in certain cognitive abilities and skills. Adolescent girls tend to feel more confident about their reading and social skills than boys, and adolescent boys tend to feel more confident about their athletic and math skills (Eccles, barber, Jozefowicz et al., 1999). In summary, from the concrete thinkers adolescents become able to think abstractly. They are able to analyze situations logically in terms of cause and effect and to entertain hypothetical situations and use symbols, such as metaphors, imaginatively. This higher-­‐level thinking allows them to think about the future, evaluate alternatives, and set personal goals. The new capacities help adolescents to engage in the kind of introspection and mature decision making that was previously beyond their cognitive capabilities. The following suggestions will help to encourage positive and healthy cognitive development in the adolescent: • Discuss with adolescents about a variety of topics, issues, and current events. • Encourage adolescents to share different ideas and thoughts with others. • Encourage adolescents to think independently and develop their own ideas. • Assist adolescents in setting their own goals and in re-­‐evaluating poorly made decisions for themselves. • Reinforce adolescents to think about possibilities for the future. • Provide positive rewards to adolescents for well-­‐thought-­‐out decisions.