Chapter Outline

Autonomy as an Adolescent Issue

According to Erik Erikson, the earliest period during which the issue of autonomy surfaces is toddlerhood.
Puberty probably serves as the initial trigger for the gradual transformation in family relationships that takes place during the individuation process. Following puberty, young people become increasingly concerned with establishing relationships outside of the family.
The intellectual and cognitive changes that accompany adolescence also support the growing trend toward independence and self-governance. The enhanced perspective taking and hypothetical reasoning skills make adolescents better decision makers than children.
Finally, the social opportunities and responsibilities that accompany adolescence also require and support the growth of responsible self-management.

Three Types of Autonomy

Psychologists have identified three types of autonomy that emerge during adolescence.
The first, emotional autonomy, has to do with the changes that occur in the adolescent's close relationships, most notably with his or her parents.
Behavioral autonomy is another important form of autonomy. It has to do with the ability to make independent decisions and carry through with them.
Finally, value autonomy involves the development of a set of principles about right and wrong that guide one's thinking and behavior.

The development of emotional autonomy

Over the course of adolescence, young people become less emotionally dependent on their parents.
They are less likely to turn to their parents for assistance, and more likely to realize their parents are not all knowing and all powerful.
They also have developed emotional relationships outside the family.

Emotional autonomy and detachment

Anna Freud believed that puberty led to disruption and conflict within the family unit, and, as a result, adolescents must emotionally separate themselves from their parents (a process known as detachment).
Freud believed that detachment was a necessary, typical, and healthy process. Research does not support Anna Freud's view. In fact, most studies find that adolescents and their parents get along quite well.

Emotional autonomy and individuation

Peter Blos provides an alternative view to the development of emotional autonomy and adolescent-parent relations. Blos believes that the concept of individuation better describes the process that adolescents experience in order to achieve emotional autonomy.
Individuation involves the young person taking increasing responsibility for the self, rather than expecting others to accept that responsibility. The individual gradually realizes that he or she can function competently on his or her own.
Individuation requires a transformation in how the adolescent views him or herself and how he or she acts with adults, but it is not a stressful or highly tumultuous process.
It is likely that individuation is triggered by puberty and by the social-cognitive advances that accompany adolescence.
The development of emotional autonomy begins in early adolescence and continues into the young adult years.
An early manifestation of the process occurs when an adolescent realizes that his or her parents are not all knowing and all powerful.
One of the latest developments to emerge is the ability to see the parent as an individual with a life outside of being a parent.
This may initially produce feelings of insecurity and discomfort, but generally speaking most adolescents are able to work through these changes without significant personal upheaval.

Emotional autonomy and parenting practices

Certain parenting practices have been found to be associated with the healthy development of emotional autonomy.
Psychologists now realize parenting that emphasizes both independence and emotional closeness tends to be linked with autonomous functioning in young people.
Adolescents whose parents use more enabling behaviors than constraining behaviors are more psychosocially healthy than adolescents whose parents are highly constraining.
Not surprisingly, the authoritative parenting style has been positively linked with autonomous functioning in adolescence. Authoritarian parenting, on the other hand, has been associated with excessively dependent behavior or highly rebellious responses in adolescence.
Finally, permissively and indifferently reared young people have been found to become psychologically dependent on their peers.

The Development of Behavioral Autonomy

Behavioral autonomy involves the ability to arrive at an independent decision and carry through on it. Researchers have considered three aspects of behavioral autonomy: decision-making susceptibility to peer and parental influence and self-reliance.

Changes in decision-making abilities

Due to the changes in perspective taking and hypothetical thinking, the ability to engage in decision making improves throughout the course of adolescence.
Lewis (1981) found that older adolescents are better than younger adolescents at considering the future outcomes of a decision, using independent consultants, assessing potential risks and considering the vested interests of certain parties.

Changes in conformity and susceptibility to influence

The opinions and advice of others become more important as individuals progress through adolescence.
Adolescents tend to turn to parents and other adults for information and advice concerning long-term decisions such as educational and occupational issues.
Peers typically influence more short-term decisions such as taste in music and clothing.
Studies looking at susceptibility to peer pressure in the absence of adults find that young people tend to be most susceptible to peer influence during early to mid-adolescence. It is likely that young people are highly susceptible during that period due to individuation.
Parenting practices are associated with the degree of peer orientation evidenced by adolescents. Young people with strict parents who provide very little opportunity for decision making within the family tend to be the most peer oriented.

Changes in feelings of self-reliance

Self-reliance is a third aspect of behavioral autonomy that psychologists have looked at in relation to adolescent development.
Self-reliance involves an adolescent's perception of how autonomous he or she is. Generally, females tend to report feeling more self-reliant than males.
Self-reliance has been positively linked with psychological and social adjustment.

The Development of Value Autonomy

Value autonomy involves developing a set of beliefs that will guide one's thinking and behavior about right and wrong. Increasingly, adolescent's beliefs become more abstract, more principled and more internal.

Moral development during adolescence

Moral reasoning

Lawrence Kohlberg, working from a cognitive-developmental perspective, devised one of the most comprehensive theories of the development of moral reasoning to date.
Kohlberg believed that there were three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.
Preconventional moral reasoners tend to consider the consequences of a behavior in deciding whether it is the right course of action.
Conventional moral reasoners refer to societal rules and standards in making moral judgments.
Those who think in a postconventional way see social rules and standards as subjective, and reason about morality using general principles of right and wrong.
Kohlberg's theory has not gone without criticism.
Carol Gilligan, for instance, has claimed that his theory is gender biased because it emphasizes the male orientation toward moral reasoning. She calls this perspective the justice orientation (focuses on rules, individual rights, and independence).
Gilligan claims that females approach moral decision making from a care orientation, which focuses on maintaining interpersonal relationships and emphasizes interdependence and interconnectedness of human beings in moral decisions.
Research has not substantiated Gilligan's claim that Kohlberg's theory is actually biased against females. However, there is evidence to suggest that females are more likely than males to approach moral decisions from a care perspective first and then apply a justice perspective. Males tend to follow a reverse order in approaching moral decision making.

Moral reasoning and moral behavior

Kohlberg's theory has been criticized because it doesn't tell us very much about how people reason about day-to-day problems or the ways we actually behave in moral situations.
Kohlberg's theory holds up pretty well under these concerns. Individuals reasoning on moral dilemmas like Kohlberg's parallel reasoning on everyday situation and research indicates that behavior is related reasoning.

Prosocial moral reasoning

Another important alternative approach to moral reasoning, which has emerged recently, is the study of prosocial reasoning.
Generally, the researchers who study prosocial reasoning look at how people think about issues like honesty, empathy and kindness.
Researchers have found that young people who are engaged in community service tend to demonstrate higher levels of prosocial reasoning than young people who are not involved in these activities.

Political thinking during adolescence

Political thinking has also been studied during adolescence. As would be expected, both types of thinking tend to become more abstract, more principled and more organized while also becoming less authoritarian and less rigid over the course of adolescence.

Religious beliefs during adolescence

Although religious beliefs become more cognitively advanced during adolescence, participation in organized religion tends to decline during the adolescent period.

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