Summary book Adolescence
Chapter 4: Families
Self-fulfilling prophecy: the idea that individuals’ behavior is influenced by others’
expectations for them.
Family systems theory: a perspective on family functioning that emphasizes interconnections
among different family relationships (such as marital, parent-child, sibling)
Major contributor to adolescent-parent bickering is the fact that teenagers and their
parents define the issues of contention very differently.
Midlife crisis:
- Midlife crisis: a psychological crisis over identity believed to occur between the ages
of 35 and 45, the age range of most adolescents’ parents.
- Adolescents are entering into a period of rapid physical growth, sexual maturation
and the physically attractive, their parents are beginning to feel increased concern
about their own bodies, about their physical attractiveness and about their sexual
appeal.
- A second overlap of crises concerns perceptions of time and future.
- Finally, consider the issue of power, status, and entrance into the roles of adulthood.
Familism: an orientation toward life in which the needs of one’s family take precedence over
the needs of the individual.
Generational dissonance: Divergence of views between adolescents and parents that is
common in families of immigrant parents and American-born adolescents.
Solution: immigrant parents more accepting of the new culture and adolescents more
accepting of the old culture.
Dimensions of parenting:
- Parental responsiveness: the degree to which the parent responds to the child’s
needs in an accepting, supportive manner.
- Parental demanding: the extent to which the parent expects and demands mature,
responsible behavior.
Styles of parenting:
1. Authoritative parents: warm but firm. They set standards for the child’s conduct but form
expectations consistent with the child’s needs and capabilities.
2. Authoritarian parents: value obedience and conformity. They tend to favor more punitive,
absolute and forceful discipline.
3. Indulgent parents: behave in an accepting benign, and more passive way in matters of
discipline.
4. Indifferent parents: do whatever is necessary to minimize the time and energy they must
devote to interacting with their child.
, How authoritative parenting works:
1. First, authoritative parents provide an appropriate balance between restrictiveness and
autonomy, giving the adolescent opportunities to develop self-control while providing the
standards, limits, and guidelines that teenagers still need.
2. Second, because authoritative parents are more likely to engage their children in verbal
give-and-take, they are likely to promote the sort of intellectual development that provides
an important foundation for the development of maturity.
3. Third, because authoritative parenting is based on a warm parent-child relationship,
adolescents are more likely to identify with, admire, and form strong attachments to their
parents, which makes them more open to their parents’ influence.
4. Finally, the child’s own behavior, temperament, and personality shape parenting
practices.
Behavioral genetics: the scientific study of genetic influences on behavior
Molecular genetics: the scientific study of the structure and function of genes
Alleles: different versions of the same gene
Environmental influences:
- Shared environmental influence: nongenetic influences that make individuals living in
the same family similar to each other.
- Nonshared environmental influence: nongenetic influences in individuals’ lives that
make them different from people they live with
Diathesis-stress model: a perspective on psychological disorder that posits that problems are
the result of an interaction between a preexisting condition (the diathesis) and exposure to
stress in the environment.
Differential susceptibility theory: the idea that the same genetic tendencies that make an
individual especially susceptible to develop problems when exposed to adverse
environmental influences also make him or her especially likely to thrive when exposed to
positive environmental influences.
Divorce:
- The impact of divorce itself is small.
- The quality of the relationships the young person has with the important adults in
her of his life matters more than the number of parents present in the home.
- It is the process of going through a divorce, not the resulting family structure, that
matters most for adolescents’ mental health.
- Research has linked the adverse consequences of divorce to several factors not
specifically due to having a single parent, these include the exposure of the children
to marital conflict.
- Genetic differences between adolescents whose parents have divorced and those
whose parents have not may account for part of this.
Chapter 4: Families
Self-fulfilling prophecy: the idea that individuals’ behavior is influenced by others’
expectations for them.
Family systems theory: a perspective on family functioning that emphasizes interconnections
among different family relationships (such as marital, parent-child, sibling)
Major contributor to adolescent-parent bickering is the fact that teenagers and their
parents define the issues of contention very differently.
Midlife crisis:
- Midlife crisis: a psychological crisis over identity believed to occur between the ages
of 35 and 45, the age range of most adolescents’ parents.
- Adolescents are entering into a period of rapid physical growth, sexual maturation
and the physically attractive, their parents are beginning to feel increased concern
about their own bodies, about their physical attractiveness and about their sexual
appeal.
- A second overlap of crises concerns perceptions of time and future.
- Finally, consider the issue of power, status, and entrance into the roles of adulthood.
Familism: an orientation toward life in which the needs of one’s family take precedence over
the needs of the individual.
Generational dissonance: Divergence of views between adolescents and parents that is
common in families of immigrant parents and American-born adolescents.
Solution: immigrant parents more accepting of the new culture and adolescents more
accepting of the old culture.
Dimensions of parenting:
- Parental responsiveness: the degree to which the parent responds to the child’s
needs in an accepting, supportive manner.
- Parental demanding: the extent to which the parent expects and demands mature,
responsible behavior.
Styles of parenting:
1. Authoritative parents: warm but firm. They set standards for the child’s conduct but form
expectations consistent with the child’s needs and capabilities.
2. Authoritarian parents: value obedience and conformity. They tend to favor more punitive,
absolute and forceful discipline.
3. Indulgent parents: behave in an accepting benign, and more passive way in matters of
discipline.
4. Indifferent parents: do whatever is necessary to minimize the time and energy they must
devote to interacting with their child.
, How authoritative parenting works:
1. First, authoritative parents provide an appropriate balance between restrictiveness and
autonomy, giving the adolescent opportunities to develop self-control while providing the
standards, limits, and guidelines that teenagers still need.
2. Second, because authoritative parents are more likely to engage their children in verbal
give-and-take, they are likely to promote the sort of intellectual development that provides
an important foundation for the development of maturity.
3. Third, because authoritative parenting is based on a warm parent-child relationship,
adolescents are more likely to identify with, admire, and form strong attachments to their
parents, which makes them more open to their parents’ influence.
4. Finally, the child’s own behavior, temperament, and personality shape parenting
practices.
Behavioral genetics: the scientific study of genetic influences on behavior
Molecular genetics: the scientific study of the structure and function of genes
Alleles: different versions of the same gene
Environmental influences:
- Shared environmental influence: nongenetic influences that make individuals living in
the same family similar to each other.
- Nonshared environmental influence: nongenetic influences in individuals’ lives that
make them different from people they live with
Diathesis-stress model: a perspective on psychological disorder that posits that problems are
the result of an interaction between a preexisting condition (the diathesis) and exposure to
stress in the environment.
Differential susceptibility theory: the idea that the same genetic tendencies that make an
individual especially susceptible to develop problems when exposed to adverse
environmental influences also make him or her especially likely to thrive when exposed to
positive environmental influences.
Divorce:
- The impact of divorce itself is small.
- The quality of the relationships the young person has with the important adults in
her of his life matters more than the number of parents present in the home.
- It is the process of going through a divorce, not the resulting family structure, that
matters most for adolescents’ mental health.
- Research has linked the adverse consequences of divorce to several factors not
specifically due to having a single parent, these include the exposure of the children
to marital conflict.
- Genetic differences between adolescents whose parents have divorced and those
whose parents have not may account for part of this.
