Adolescence

1. Intended learnings: Be able to define adolescence and explain the major developments and challenges during this life stage

2. Adolescence • Does every culture have adolescence as a life stage? • Puberty Rites, answer 1 and 2 • In the United States adolescence as a life stage has not always been part of development

3. Contributions to adolescence as a life stage • Education - state laws make education mandatory -Now college extending adolescence more 2. Exclusion from labor force 3. Development of juvenile-justice system Current – June 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the 8th Amendment (prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment) forbids a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for juveniles convicted of homicide. Used research showing brain is not yet fully developed (more reckless and impulsive, still changing) 2005: Roper v. Simmons death penalty on minors violated the 8th Amendment

4. Characteristics of Adolescence • 1. Biological growth and development • Puberty • 2. Undefined status • Expectations vague (e.g., can vote and fight in war but not drink) • 3. Increased decision making • What type of decisions do you make now that you didn’t as a child? • 4. Increased pressures • Where do these pressures come from? • 5. Search for self • Trying out different roles

5. T chart of differences in adults and adolescence in clothes, music, recreation, and one other category Read article 122 answer think about it 1 & 2

6. Teenagers and Dating • Does dating exist in every culture? • Did it always exist in ours? • Didn’t emerge until after WWI • Difference between courtship and dating? • Courtship purpose is eventual marriage • Not flexible – lead to engagement, roles defined. E.g., a man must meet her parents and ask permission, dates under supervision • Dating: may lead to marriage but not main purpose. Entertainment and amusement • Flexible – casual dating, progresses to steady dating, engagement, marriage but can skip stages and some don’t make it to the end

7. Emergence of Dating Page 127 • Industrial revolution - Moved from farms to cities, parental control over courtship decreased • Public education - Now attending coed schools – increase interaction • Automobile - More freedom to move away from parents • Telephone - More easily talk to members of opposite sex • Equality of women • Women entered workforce – increased interaction

8. Dating Studies • Willard Waller & Pennsylvania State University: • 1920’s: concluded dating was a form of entertainment and had little to do with mate selection – status attainment and excitement center of dating process • Selected partners based on status characteristics: good looks, nice clothes, and popularity (similar social rank in fraternities and sororities) • Later research • Challenged previous results – character and personality also factors important (along with status attainment and entertainment) • Looked for similar qualities in a person when you want to causally date them and when you are courting • Homogamy • Marry people who have social characteristics similar to their own

9. Why do we date? • What did you say? • What do experts say? 1. Form of entertainment 2. Mechanisms for socialization *Teaches how to behave in social situations 3. Fulfills basic psychological needs *Companionship 4. Helps individuals attain status *Dating a valued person can raise one's own status *Are people judged by whom they date?

10. Traditional dating patterns? responsibility on the man, expected to date, set activities (movies), commitment, several dating patterns before settling on a marriage partner Contemporary dating patterns? interact informally, no set stages of dating, flexibility, equality in dating Amish? age 16, courting buggy, date at formal events, picnics, wedding, singings - pair off, dates once a week, marriage in mind, do not recognize divorce

11. Rules of Dating