Learning Goals

A. Early History

1.1 Compare and contrast Plato's and Aristotle's views of adolescence?

1.2 In which ways are the views regarding adolescence expressed by Plato and Jean-Jacques Rousseau similar?

B. The Twentieth Century

1.3 What was the driving force behind the changing views of adolescence that emerged between 1890 and 1920?

1.4 What factors led historians to label G. Stanley Hall the "father of the scientific study of adolescence"?

1.5 What was Hall's storm-and-stress view concept of adolescence?

1.6 In what ways were Hall's views similar to those of Charles Darwin?

1.7 Why was Margaret Mead's sociocultural view of adolescence considered pathbreaking in the early 1900s?

1.8 What factors have led to a debate over the accuracy of Mead's findings?

1.9 What is the inventionist view of adolescence?

1.10 Why do historians call the period of 1890 to 1920 the "age of adolescence?"

1.11 How are schools, work, and economics important dimensions of the inventionist view?

1.12 Why do some historians suggest that changing laws, in effect, created adolescence?

1.13 What factors combined in the 1960s and 1970s to challenge the position of prominence achieved by adolescents in the 1950s?

1.14 Is life different for an adolescent in 1920 as opposed to 1970?

1.15 What females and individuals from ethnic minorities have contributed to the study of adolescents?

A. Stereotyping Adolescents

2.1 What is a stereotype, and what are the contemporary stereotypes of adolescence?

2.2 What is the purpose served by a stereotype?

2.3 What did Joseph Adelson mean by the adolescent generalization gap?

B. A Positive View of Adolescence

2.4 In what way did research by Daniel Offer and his colleagues challenge existing stereotypes of adolescence?

2.5 Do adolescents deserve the negative portrayal they get in the media today? Support your answer with information from the book and your own experience.

A. Current Status

3.1 Why is today both the best of times and the worst of times for adolescents?

3.2 How would you compare the current status of adolescents and public attitudes toward them with that of adolescents of several decades ago?

3.3 What differences in development among adolescents render them a heterogeneous group?

3.4 How do contexts of development influence adolescent development?

3.5 What are the sociocultural contexts of development?

3.6 What factors lead to a lack of homogeneity in adolescence?

3.7 In what ways have today's families changed from those in decades past, and how have these changes affected adolescents?

B. Social Policy and Adolescents' Development

3.8 What is a social policy, and why do we need one that is concerned with adolescent development?

3.9 According to Marian Wright Edelman how are today's politicians falling short in practicing what they preach, i.e., "family values?"

3.10 What is generational inequity and how does it relate to social policy issues?

3.11 In what ways are future generations more likely to be challenged by generational inequality?

3.12 Why should the well being of adolescents be one of America's foremost concerns?

3.13 Why is it important to not diminish the role of youth in future generations?

3.14 In what ways might young adults benefit from the existence of social security?

A. What Is Development?

4.1 What do we mean when we speak of an individual's development?

B. Processes and Periods

4.2 What are the three major processes that shape adolescent development?

4.3 Differentiate between cognitive processes and socioemotional processes and their roles in adolescent development?

4.4 What are the three major developmental periods and their subperiods from conception to death?

4.5 What are the four (4) periods of childhood development?

4.6 What factors reflect the role of biological processes in the adolescent's development?

4.7 Why would it be inappropriate to suggest that a child enters adolescence as a blank slate?

4.8 What is adolescence and what are its two periods?

4.9 Why do developmentalists no longer believe that change ends with adolescence?

4.10 How do cultural and gender differences impact when children enter adolescence?

A. Developmental Transitions

5.1 Do adolescents enter adulthood at the same time?

5.2 What are the three (3) periods of adult development?

5.3 What is meant by the saying, "Adolescence begins in biology and ends in culture?"

5.4 What are some biological changes associated with adolescence?

5.5 What transitional period was Kenniston referring to when he proposed the term youth?

5.6 Contrast youth and emerging adulthood.

B. Developmental Issues

5.7 What are the three major issues of adolescent development?

5.8 What is the nature-nurture issue and how is it relevant to the concept of maturation and experience?

5.9 Differentiate between continuity of development and discontinuity of development?

5.10 Contrast the views of nature proponents with those of nurture proponents?

5.11 What are the main issues in early-later experience debate?

5.12 What recent changes in the choices being made by young women are reflective of the role nurture plays?

5.13 How do beliefs about significant developmental experiences differ in various cultures?

5.14 Why do developmentalists usually refrain from taking extreme positions on developmental issues?

A. Understanding Adolescence: What Matters?

6.1 What seven things matter in understanding adolescence?

6.2 What are biological processes and why do they matter?

6.3 What are cognitive processes and why do they matter?

6.4 What contexts are significant in adolescent development?

6.5 What aspects of social and personality development matter?

6.6 What problems and disorders can restrict optimal adolescent development?

6.7 Why does science matter in understanding adolescent development?

6.8 What does it mean to be a critical thinker?

6.9 Why is the ability to think critically an important milestone in adolescence?

B. Careers in Adolescent Development

6.10 What opportunities are available for those who want to pursue a career related to adolescent development?

6.11 How might one's level of education affect their career choices or opportunities in the fields related to adolescent development?