Adolescence And Socioeconomic Status

Discuss the concept of adolescence as a social construct and its validity for different cultures.

The article “Inside the Teen Brain’ by Marty Wolner, states that the human brain provides parents with shocking new evidence to possibly explain the sometimes irrational, illogical, and impulsive behavior of teenagers. Teenage years are radically more active and dynamic than they previously thought. So teenagers are left with most of the information reaching their brains being processed in the emotional part (limbic system). Information processed in the limbic system without benefit increases the processing in the prefrontal cortex. It may result in impulsive, egocentric, and maybe even risky behavior choices. The prefrontal cortex of the teenage brain does not excuse inappropriate or irresponsible behavior from the teen. The brain is not yet

“A lot of people think that addiction is a choice. A lot of people think it 's a matter of will. That has not been my experience. I don 't find it to have anything to do with strength.”

Some structural changes that play a role in the development of psychosocial development are important changes in activity involving dopamine. Dopamine plays a crucial role in how individuals experience pleasure; these changes have important inferences for sensation-seeking. Functionally, over the course of adolescence, involves increases in the synchronized connection of many brain regions in response to arousing stimuli. Before adulthood, there is less cross-talk between the brain systems that regulate rational decision-making and those that regulate emotional arousal. During adolescence, very strong feelings are less likely to be moderated by the involvement of brain regions involved in controlling impulses, planning ahead, and comparing the costs and benefits of alternative courses of

It turns out that the development of the brain through a teenagers life, greatly impacts the way they react to situations and the choices they make, whether it be good or bad. For example, when Romeo and Juliet fell in love, they didn’t exactly stop to think if the consequences would be bad or not, most logically explained by the ongoing development of the brain. Romeo and Juliet must have been using the amygdala, the part of the brain that is responsible for guiding instinctive reactions, to substitute as the prefrontal cortex, which would fundamentally describe Romeo and Juliet's behavior and why they decided to get married way to early. The development of the brain gives the brain no choice but to process information through a different part of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala definitely helps to substitute for the prefrontal cortex, however it can also be responsible for reacting to a situation without thinking of the outcomes, which is why teengers, like Romeo and Juliet, sometimes make negligent and careless alternatives, which end up in bad consequences. The author of an article noting the development of teen brains explains how “[e]ven though the brain [of a teenager] is almost physically mature, the grey matter in the thinking part of the brain (pre-frontal cortex) is still making

The changes in adolescence brain create a dimension that will be difficult in making the right choices in human agency and the decision or actions of the adolescence is unpredictable, because their thinking capacity in choice making is still developing. This changes in the brain is constantly being influences by multiple interaction.

Research has found that in years of adolescence, parents needs to understand the way the teen brain works. Teens have been known to take risk throughout the ages. After reading “Teenage Brains are Vulnerable and Malleable, Researchers

In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare explains that an unreasonable feud between people is pointless. The play is about two star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, and how their love causes their terrible deaths. Today modern science explains to us why teens do what they do. Their underdeveloped brains cause them to do these impulsive things. This helps explain that when teens value reward over risk they don’t think about the dangerous consequences that come from their actions.

Why is it that teens seem to always be doing dangerous activities? How can teens choose to do something that most adults will find ignorant? Why does it seem that teens never think about the consequences of their actions? According to findings from recent scientific studies, the adolescent brain can be blamed for these problems. These studies have found that the reason behind teenagers’ impulsive decisions is that their brains have not yet fully developed and will not do so until their twenties. From these studies, it is shown that the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that helps make good decisions, is not fully mature in the teen years. Because of this, adults are more likely to think out their actions beforehand

In research regarding juvenile ages 13-17 behavior scientific studies of the brain regions associated with emotional impulses and impulse control conclude that adolescent brains are more active than adults brains in regions controlling aggression and fear, and less active than adult brains in area controlling risk assessment and impulse control regions. (1 ) underdeveloped sense of responsibility, which leads to impulsive and reckless decisions, (2) inability to remove himself from negative influences and vulnerability to such negative influences and pressures, and (3) underdeveloped moral

The age group the author will be discussing will be the considered middle adolescences which are the ages of 14-16. During this age range, the youth are going through many life changes such as puberty, social changes and life transitions in general. When working with this age range, there are many things that need to be taken into consideration. Using the biopsychosocial cultural model will help social workers better understand a client and will serve as a foundation or a guide to be able to give this age range the best care. Biologically the middle adolescences have to deal with a lot of physical changes such as puberty. Psychologically, the middle-aged youth have to deal with things that re going on around them that impacts their mental

Risk-taking involves making decisions with uncertain good or bad effects. Risk taking among teenagers has psychological and physiological determinants. The most common psychological factors that result to harmful risk-taking are acting brave, not caring for the outcome of one’s actions, thinking that oneself is resistant to harm, wanting to belong to a group, being scared not to take risks, and wanting to feel thrills and excitement.

The imbalance model seeks to explain the mechanisms that influence adolescent risk taking. The prefrontal cortex, linked to decision making among other processes, and the subcortical limbic regions, linked to reward, are in an unbalanced state in the brains of adolescents. During adolescence, the limbic regions develop more quickly than the prefrontal cortical regions involved in control and decision making; therefore, there is an imbalance between the regions, with the limbic reward regions having more influence. In pre-adolescent children, these regions are not developed, which explains the difference in decision making and risk taking relative to adolescents. On the other side of that, the prefrontal cortical and subcortical limbic regions are fully developed in adults, explaining their better understanding of consequences, impulsivity control, good decision making, and less risk-taking behaviors. According to the researchers,

This will be an academic study of the effects of socioeconomic status on the health development of adolescents. This research is designed to contribute to the existing literature by focusing on the development of youths as a result of their social circumstances. Although it can be applied to political discussion regarding health policies, the purpose of this research is to enhance the existing knowledge on how social factors can be determinants of health. The research will be conducted as a cross-sectional study that compares and contrasts the health and health habits of adolescents from low and high socioeconomic statuses. As a cross-sectional study, this research will be conducted through collecting quantitative data from a sample of 300 primary and secondary students to analyze for a correlation between two variables. Although this method may not provide as much detail as a longitudinal study, it is most ideal because our hypothesis requires the comparison of quantitative data.

Adolescence is a period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity. The adolescent is no longer a child, but they haven’t yet reached adulthood. Adolescence is considered people between the ages of 13 and 21. Puberty is the physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual reproduction. Puberty is important to adolescence because when a child hits puberty, that’s when the child is becoming an adolescent. Puberty is a big part of an adolescent’s life.