Nature and Nurture

I found the research on pages 440-441 of our textbook showing the interaction between nature and nurture very interesting. In the study African American families participated in Parent-adolescent training sessions to improve family cohesion and communication. Parents received teaching on nurturing and guiding their children. The children (all 11 years old) were taught the importance of household rules, dealing with racism, making life goals and avoiding alcohol.  4 years after the study began the researchers became aware of the new genetic research showing a positive correlation for risky behavior in teens with the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR gene. When they separated the participants into two groups, those with the genetic risk and those without the genetic risk, the training sessions at age 11 were shown to have a significant impact on the genetically-at-risk teens, but no impact on the genetically-not-at-risk adolescents, compared to controls. The Parent-adolescent training completely negated the genetic risk, at age 14 these genetically-at-risk adolescents had not engaged in more risky behavior than both the experimental group and control in the group of not-genetically-at-risk adolescents. This illustrates quite well that the interaction of genes and environment makes us who we are and that with the right environmental inputs, negative genetic influences may have little or no affect.

Teens

I found the section about delinquency to be of particular interest this week. It really surprised me that often people who commit crimes in the adolescences stop by the time their 21. In some ways, this makes sense as of course we take much more risks at that age and participate in activities that we may not to partake in as we get older and of course there is a high frequency of alcohol incidents since the drinking age in the U.S. is 21. However, I always thought that having a criminal record in your teens would indicate a life long criminal record. It is reassuring and further proves what a developmental time period adolescence is when you realize the frequency with which these crimes occur, and even more go uncaught. I also find it really quite mind blowing just how much hormonal and challenging shifts we go through during adolescence it really proves the effects of psychological science and the process of development as we grow.

Developing an Identity

I found the section on identity in chapter 16 to be particularly interesting. Developing an identity is something I am still working on as an emerging adult. In fact, I think late teens to early 20's is a critical time for the shaping of one's identity. It's during the 20's, after all, that we make very important decisions that will probably impact the rest of our lives. We answer questions like: How do I make a living? What are my passions? Where do I want to live? Who do I want to live with? Should I get married? Should I have kids? What makes life meaningful? I think millennials are extending their exploration of identity. Part of this is out of our control.

My teenage self didn't ask many questions. I felt like a valued member of the communities I belonged to and in general my parents were very supportive of me growing up. According to Berger, when teens accept traditional values without questioning, it's known as forclosure (Berger, 2011). I was totally guilty of this. I identified with my parents' religion and political views. When I learned something in class I took it as fact. It wasn't until I got to college that I truly learned how to learn...about the world and about myself. I will continue to ask questions as I develop my identity.

Chapter 16

I'm going to talk a little bit about parent-adolescent relationships in different cultures. Like stated in the book, because of globalization, children of different cultures are aware of different types of relationships. Being aware of them, and actually experiencing them are two different things. This is what I'm going to be experiencing soon. I'm planning on studying abroad in Chile in the near future. I am going to be living with a host family. I hopefully will have younger siblings and experience their childhood. I want to know how Chilean families deal with different types of situations. I want to know how they celebrate their holidays and birthdays. I know Spanish families celebrate for any reason possible. I am so excited. This will open up my mind to so many things. I will be more open minded and learn to accept and understand other cultures. Besides just their celebrations and parent-adolescent relationships, I want to learn how close they are with their family. I know right now, my sisters are my best friends and I can talk to my dad about absolutely anything. I wonder if parents in other countries are more strict and expect more, or if they are their child's friend as well. I hope just for the sake of learning new things, they are different than my family. It will be hard to get used to, but I'm excited for the experience of a lifetime.

Chapter 16 first post

This chapter I want to focus on peer power and peer pressure, this can be found on pages 442-443 in our textbook. I picked peer pressure because this is a great subject to reflect on since we all know, experienced and heard of peer pressure before. I especially want to reflect on the first two sentences underneath the peer pressure headline "adults sometimes fear peer pressure, that an adolescent's peers will push her or him to try drugs, break the law, or do other things tht child would never do alone."( Berger 422). I wanted to reflect on this because I wanted to note that I feel society, media and outside views influence these parents fears. I know for myself my mom watched too many teenage movies where the girl gets bullied , starts trying drugs and gets into the wrong crowd. I also know that having teenagers go on drugs and drinking was all over the news which worried her too. Also now Facebook sends out all these warnings and stories to share which she saw also, and started to conform to what society was thinking about friend groups. I also wanted to note this could be a big problem when transitioning schools. Since I went to catholic school, my mom was used to that set of Friends my whole life. Then when I got into high school I started hanging around with different people and she thought this could be the worst for me. She feared peer pressure and bad decisions due to my new background. But what she didn't know was how great all these people were and all the new friends I met eventually after adjusting to the school. This brings up the next point the book states "the fear ignores the fact that friends generally encourage socially desirable behaviors, such as joining sports teams, studying for exams , rejecting cigarettes and applying to college." (Berger, 442). That's exactly what happened to me , I joined a volleyball team and met so many new people and it was a great change from catholic school to the same people to a different school with many changes. Next I want to talk about the different peer groups, cliques and crowds. The funny thing is, I believe my friend group was both. We were made up of almost 50 people, and everyone stayed loyal and true friends as bizarre as that sounds. It was the best experience I had, me and my friends would always hangout here and at each other's houses, all 50 of us. I was worried when I transferred to a new school that i would get peer pressured into bad decisions, but I found the right group of friends and I am still friends with them today. I do believe everyone experiences some type of peer pressure in their lives but I do not believe it is worth all the fear and anxiety for parents and caregivers. When you're in your teenage years you find people you may be friends for life for. Sometimes friend groups change and people change but that is the whole process of growing and developing through teenage years. I think being peer pressured, finding a crowd or clique is all apart of the teenage developing stages and gaining sociality. The whole reason why I wanted to talk about peer groups and peer pressure in my blog today is because I wanted to bring society into it, and show that even though they label things as peer pressure cliques and crowds , I think you can make it to be a great experience without the labels. I wanted to reflect on how that when you grow older, you sometimes might experience peer pressure but you will find where you fit in and learn how to be social. I feel that peer groups is where you learn about yourself and learn about other people and learn that you and meet someone completely different from you and find that you could have something in common. I just wanted to tell a little background too on society and my life and let you guys know a little more about my experience of peer groups and friends. 

Chapter 16

While reading through Chapter 16 the section on Learning About Sex caught my eye. I found it interesting because personally my parents never talked to me about sex. I think it was around the sixth grade or so that the boys and girls had separate talks about sex with our health teachers. For the girls, our health sex lightly briefed on the topic not saying too much about it just going over what it was and we also had the period talk. Besides that I never really had any other peers, teachers, or adults talk about the subject. What I knew at that age is the stuff that my friends were talking about. In the book, it talks about how most parents wait too long to talk about sex. This was shown in a study where children and parents were asked about hanging out and kissing parents. Only 5% percent of the parents said they knew, compared to 38% of the girls actually doing that. From that you can see the large difference from what the parents know to what the children actually do. In my opinion, I think this definitely leads to unplanned teen pregnancies because children might not be probably informed because parents do not talk about it. I think having parents that talk about sex with their children can lead to their children being safer when they are sexually active. 

Peer Pressure

The textbook described peer pressure in a way that seems much different than the way that I've always heard peer pressure described. As I'm sure most of us have thought of peer pressure throughout our lives, I've always linked the idea of it to our peers pressuring us to do "bad" things. The textbook explains the other side of peer pressure, however. It describes adolescents deciding to join a sport team because their peers did, rejecting drugs because their peers did, or applying for college because their peers did. I certainly experienced this growing up. I decided not to do drugs (including alcohol) until I was 23 years old, because as an adolescent I looked up to the Straight Edge hardcore bands that I used to go watch play. They didn't do drugs or drink, so many of their fans followed that same path because we wanted to do what they were doing. In this way, peer pressure can lead to good outcomes and experiences. However, I have a tendency to think that even this form of peer pressure isn't ideal, though I understand it's a matter of fact among adolescents who are searching for a concrete identity. I think it will be important to try to teach my children that peer pressure, whether it results in good or bad outcomes, is not ideal. I will try to explain, as I believe to be true, that we should be making decisions based much more off of what we want and what we feel rather than what our peers around us are doing. If this means not applying for college even though all of their peers are doing it, I will appreciate and respect the decision if accompanied with a certain level of thought and reason. In either instance, however, I will remain engaged with my children to ensure that they are happy with the decisions that they make, regardless of how they came to those decisions.

Chapter 16 4 arenas of Identity Achievement

1.       Religious identity-  with religions wanting the youth to figure out what exactly they want achieving this becomes difficult due to the facts of some people don’t want to worry about it as an adolescent and would much rather worry about it when they are older. To me I find that this is something that has been somewhat removed especially in our “American culture” because you have so many who are focused on other things that they tend to say they are involved in the religions of their parents when in reality they don’t commit the time and efforts.

2.       Sexual/ Gender Identity- Erikson show in the book that “although many adolescents aware temporarily confused about their sexual identity, they would soon identify as men or women”. I found this very interesting with how society is at present time. You have many gay couples now that have a said “man and woman” in their relationships, sexually they are gay and they do come to grips with what gender they are taking the role of.

3.       Political/ Ethnic Identity- Erikson use to think that back in the day to achieve this you would simply chose your political party. Now you hear of people modern day saying I chose a person not necessarily a party. With that nowadays you deal with people also making these choices based off of ethnicity for example, many black people regardless of being involved with other political views may have chosen Obama because of his ethnicity. I believe politics still to me are more based off of party thoughts and not people. Generally speaking a lot of people are the same way due to what their parents believe.

4.       Vocational Identity- is where people decide what they are in society for employment. Most people cannot realize or make decisions in this until about age 25, those who work jobs when they are younger are vocationally molded.

With all of these being the basis of achievement, I find it sad that most of these things are directly made possible through the people’s parents or friends. I have always done what I had thought to be what I wanted to stride for I haven’t devoted myself to something due to family thinking it is what I should be doing. I have listened but I don’t follow unless it seems to be the best fit for me.

Decision Making for after High School

Seniors in high school have to make a decision whether or not they are going to go to college, go to a trade or technical school, go into the military or work full time. I remember when I was making my decision on what to do after high school. It wasn't the easiest decision because I knew I needed to work to make money so I could get to and from work plus I also would have a two year old at home who I needed to raise. When reading chapter 15 it was interesting to me that in 2009 there was only 26 states in the United States require students to pass a high-stakes test in order to graduate. I know now that Pennsylvania has a test that students are required to take. They are called Keystones and my brother who is 15 has to to take these tests and they are not easy because he is having a problem passing. They also mentioned something about Common Core which is placing higher standards for every year of school. Some people think that it will improve education but some people think if teachers from K through 12 are teaching students so they can take a test then they could be destroying learning since they are mainly focused on memorization and ignoring analysis and intuition. I didn't learn what I needed to in high school to be ready for college and that made my first year tough. 

We all had to make a decision about life after high school. It isn't the easiest decision to make. I saw my 18 year old brother go through it last year. He doesn't know what he wants to do with his life and didn't know if he wanted to go to college or work. He decided to go to college and work. He is a part time student and works full time. Seeing my brother go through it was rough because he was like a lot of my friends that didn't know what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. Some of my friends went into the military, some decided to work, and some went to college. We shouldn't know what we want to do at the age of 18. We haven't lived or experienced life. Some feel you have to right after college because it is what we are supposed to do. Sometimes our parents pressure us also because they want us out of the house. We don't have the right decision making skills to make big life-altering decisions like that. Making the decision about college felt like the decision I had to make about either putting my son up for adoption or keeping him. We have to make big grown up decisions like college when we are still trying to find ourselves. Some of us go through things that help us grow up quicker then others. I lost my dad and I learned that I needed to grow up and start taking more responsibility. I guess that's where decision making comes into play when things occur in our lives.

The Dangers of Technology

       Society’s mistrust of technology is deep-rooted. Fear of technology’s misuse has been exploited in popular horror and science fiction for hundreds of years. Mary Shelley’s monster Frankenstein for example, was the embodiment of an unnatural use of technology leading to horrific results. Stories such as these cemented the fear that technology, particularly an unnatural use of that technology, would generally do us no good in the end. The theme that technology has the ability to harm through its unknown side-effects or properties has been repeated not only in popular fiction but in the public sphere, especially the media. In the course of history, no new technology has been introduced without an accompanying public fear that the use of that technology would cause the user harm. It should come as no surprise then that the use of this narrative has been used repeatedly in reporting the dangers of technology use by children. The list of harms that will befall children using technology is extensive but ranges from increasing incidents of speech defects, increasing obesity and a greater likelihood of brain cancer.

Post 2 Chapter 15 ~ Religion

Religion and spirituality is a topic that's been on my mind a lot lately. I was raised Catholic. I went to Catholic school for 13 years. Even at my public university (before Millersville), I was an active member of the Catholic church for three years. Then senior year hit. My roommate never went to church. One Sunday, I decided not to go. I rarely went back.

I was surprised at how many teens considered themselves "close to God" (71% of 3,360 individuals!) (C. Smith, 2005, p. 4). I am wondering where and how they chose the samples...but anyway...over time, most individuals in the cohort shifted away from conventional religion but considered themselves to be more religious. The author suggests this is because they start to own their own beliefs. That's the thing--most of us learn religion from our parents. I never really questioned my religious beliefs until I got to college and was surrounded by people who didn't share my religion. I definitely feel that growing up in a Catholic school kept me in a bubble, separated from the rest of the world. I do think it instilled certain values in me (being kind to others, valuing a sense of community, incorporating spirituality into everyday life). Though I could have learn these values outside of school, going to a private religious school definitely reinforced them.

I hope that as I grow older I can gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a spiritual person. I honestly don't know what to believe anymore. Religion is a man-made institution. Wars are fought over it. Lives are lost. So many horrific things happen in this world every day. The Catholic church would explain that this is the result of free will. I have friends who ask if God is all-knowing and has the power to intervene in the lives of those on this earth, why doesn't He put an end to this suffering? I don't think anyone really knows. But, I do know that religion also gives people hope when hope is lost. Despite different teachings throughout different religions, for most, I think the overall concept is "be good to others." Definitely a positive message. It unites people. It gives them a sense of place and belonging. And, it gives meaning and purpose to many peoples' lives. I like to believe that there's a God. And no, just because you "believe" something to be true doesn't necessarily make it true. But, I do think that sometimes logic isn't the only answer. Having faith--whether it be in God, yourself, others, or the unknown--makes life so worth living.

Post 2 Chapter 15

I'm going to talk more about intuition versus logic. Logic is used in school. When you need to weigh out the good and the bad, I usually use logic to determine what I should do. However, when you’re stuck in a creative situation, then you’ll want to tap into your intuitive mind. Your mind provides ready access to both intuitive and logical thinking. They’re very different, and they’re both extremely useful. When you're dealing with a logical situation, you typically ask yourself "is this reasonable?" or "is this too expensive?" "is this worth it?". When in intuitive situations, you do what feels right. You don't always think about the positives and the negatives. Your logical, rational side does have its purpose. One thing it does really well is protect you from taking impulsive actions that could harm you or compromise your goals. Intuition is doing what you want to do when you want to do it. I personally am more risk-taking and tend to use my intuition more often than my logical thinking. It gets me into trouble sometime. I am going to try to use a little bit of both because like I said earlier, both are equally important.

Post 2

I wanted to make a commentary just about the chapter, rather than something I found interesting like I always do. Throughout this chapter I learned the reasons behind why changing schools is different, transitioning into college and changing from middle stages of development into adulthood. I think that this chapter pointed out and showed why we act a certain way in transitioning into adulthood. I liked this chapter because this actually verified why we act a certain way and why things in life are much harder from just changing into stages of adulthood. This described to me and probably to the rest of the class why we act a certain ways. What I mean is sometimes we are moody, overwhelmed and depressed and sometimes we don't know what it's from, but in this chapter it describes that changing into adulthood can just change the way you feel with all the body changes and environmental changes. This chapter made me realize why I went through different changes just because of developmental and environmental stages of my life. 

Chapter 15

I enjoyed reading about the dual-process model thinking on page 414 of our textbook. I found it interesting because I have noticed my thinking in the last two years switch to more analytical thinking from intuitive. My personality, and probably also because I'm a woman, tends to be more passionate and I feel everything. When I'm sad, I let myself be sad. When I'm happy, I'm very happy. When I'm determined, I'm very determined. My husband is very analytical, much less emotional, look at the facts and more even-keeled. We are literally polar opposites in every single way, thank you premarital counseling for making us realize that earlier rather than later. Our thinking process also reflect our personality types and tendencies. But over the last two years I have seen him become a little more emotional thinking and me more analytical. It was very insightful to see that this is an actual thinking process and not just "personality"

post 2

After reading some of our classmates post I have a question for everyone! After learning about how our prefrontal cortex doesn't stop developing till 20-22 years old, what are your thoughts about special needs and punishment? Should they be punished the same as a fully developed adult? I remember a couple years ago a trial and debate was going on about a special needs man who killed someone. They debated on how to trial the man due to the fact that he was not fully developed cognitively. Sometime I know I act on impulse or emotion and decide things that might not be the right choice, like going out a night when I should be home working on homework (obviously not as extreme). Anyway, what are your thoughts? I think that they should be trialed the same but should also have some other programs to go through that can help them better than just throwing them into jail. Some know right from wrong when some may not. I don't mean it in a morally way, I mean it more in a justice way, what do you think should be done? Should they be thrown in jail, or should they have programs that could help them develop more understanding why they are being punished.

Post one week 9

There are many things I find interesting about our society. One thing however that has recently intrigued me is the fact about how emotion and decision making are both related to the prefrontal cortex. I found this piece of information very interesting as I related it to the TED talk with Dan about how we have the illusion that we are making our own decisions. After thinking a lot about all of the information I have learned I believe that all factors of emotion, influences and environment impact our decisions. One that really impacted me was deciding on colleges. I got into two out of the three colleges I applied to. It was a tough decision but I chose Millersville for the lacrosse program mainly. Now that I have quit I find it interesting still being here. I like Millersville as a school don’t get me wrong but if lacrosse didn’t influence me to go to Millersville along with my goalie coach, I don’t think that I would have picked Millersville University. I also had influences in my life due to the fact I was in a serious relationship when I was deciding my school. I wish I would have taken all the influences out of my life and seen where I would have gone. I just find it interesting how influences and emotions can affect a serious decision, like deciding what school to go to. 

Intuitive vs Logical

        Intuition and Logic are two strategies for prediction and problem solving. We hear so much about the virtues of logic that we'd be excused to believe that logic was somehow the superior method, but a quick analysis shows that most actions we perform on a daily basis mainly use intuition. Logic is not better, just different. Both strategies have their advantages and apply in different situations. Sometimes we need to use both. Sometimes we can use either one, because the problem is so simple it doesn't much matter how we solve it. Sometimes it matters; if we happen to choose the wrong approach, it may prevent us from solving our problem.
       Logic is used a lot in the hard sciences, such as Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. We can think of most of mathematics, including things like the rules of Algebra, as part of a framework that is anchored in Logic. Physics and related sciences use logical and mathematical models to describe the world. These models are what allows the hard sciences to be so accurately predictive.
       Intuition is what we use to handle everyday problems such as predicting limb positions and controlling muscle movement, to understand and generate speech, to read, to analyze what we see, to drive a car, etc. In short, all the things we do that we take for granted and which we do "without thinking". Many of these are non-trivial and hard or impossible to do using current computer technology.

Preparing For College

I really enjoyed reading the section on High School. The whole section basically just described how high schools prepare students for high school. In order to pass high school students are required to take two years of math beyond algebra, two years of science,three years of history, and four years of English, and is often required to take a second language. I personally do not think high school at all prepares you for college. I can honestly say I went through 90% of high school without doing barely any homework and rarely ever studied and maintained straight A's the whole time. The papers we had to write were very easy and didn't require much to get a good grade. I knew I would be in shock coming into college, but not to the degree that I experienced. I started studying for test a week before the exam and still did terrible on it. I definitely think they should make the college prep courses in high school harder.

Intuitive Thought and Analytic Thought

While reading chapter 15, I was thinking about my decisions and the things that I did or made during my adolescent years that I came across intuitive and analytic thought. Intuitive thought is considered to be quick and powerful and it feels right. Analytic thought is an rational analysis of many factors. Some of the decisions I have made some decisions in my life that I have used both intuitive thought and analytic thought like the decision of putting my son up for adoption or keeping him. I didn't know I was pregnant and only had 2 days to decide what to do. I was extremely lucky to have the support and the help I did. I remember talking to a lot of people and trying to decide what the right thing to do was or the rational decision. I didn't have my dad around to talk to but when I fell asleep I knew he was there watching over me and making sure that I made the right decision. At first I chose to put my son up for adoption because I knew that I wanted him to have the best life in the world. I ended up getting my son back and yes its been hard and I have had to make some tough decisions like going to college after I graduated or work full time but I think over the past four and a half years I have done a pretty amazing job despite the fact that I am only 20 years old and a full time student. We all have to make decisions in our lives but sometimes the decisions we make aren't the right ones but we learn from those decisions.

Highschool and Preparing for College

Coming from a cultural background (Amish Mennonite) where completing high school is the exception rather than the norm and currently a college student I found the textbook discussion on high school interesting. My parents, uncles and aunts and siblings did not complete high school. I myself didn’t have the privilege of a high school education. In addition to easily passing the GED, I had fair scores on both the ACT and SAT. Gaps in my education, especially math, have made my chosen major – biology a bit more challenging. I was definitely not prepped for college, as a teenager, neither I or my parents ever thought that I would ever go to college. 

It is rather ironic that as other nations are moving away from high-stakes tests, the U.S. is instituting more high-stakes tests. When high-stakes tests are required to graduate from high school more high school students drop out (Christenson & Thurlow, 2004). Makes sense to me, I was homeschooled, with virtually no tests or grades, besides achievement tests once a year. Education was about learning, not about getting a grade or even a certificate of accomplishment. I realize that the no grade/tests model may not fit so well with institutional learning, but I do think there is a negative correlation between testing and interest in learning. 

Before college I did a 2 year non-credit herbal medicine program. We had homework, that randomly we had to put on the board but it wasn’t graded, and quizzes but no high-stakes testing. My classmates and I were much more motivated to learn for learnings sake than any other classroom I have ever been in.  We learned what we learned to be more skilled in our profession, not to pass a test or earn a degree. If high school was viewed more as preparation for life, not only preparation for college, it would be more beneficial for both those who continue their education and those who do not.

Christenson, S. L., & Thurlow, M. L. (2004). School dropouts: Prevention considerations, interventions, and challenges. Current Directions in Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell), 13(1), 36-39. doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01301010.x