Summary exam 2
Adolescent Development
Lecture 8: Family Relationships and Autonomy
Self-fulfilling Prophecy the idea that individuals’ behavior is influenced by others’ expectations for
them.
Parents sometimes lie to their adolescents about their adolescent years: more likely to do so when
their teenagers are younger and about activities they don’t want their children to try, such as sex or
smoking.
Midlife crisis a psychological crisis over identity believed to occurs between the ages of 35 and 45,
the age range of most adolescents’ parents.
Families also change in its economic circumstances, its relationship to other social institutions, and its
functions.
Familism orientation toward life in which the needs of one’s family take precedence over the
needs of the individual. This has high value in immigrant families. Adolescents in familism families
develop more prosocial values, are less likely to get depressed, and less likely to get involved with
antisocial peer groups = lessens chances of drinking or using illicit drugs.
Generational dissonance divergence of views between adolescents and parents that is common in
families of immigrant parents and American-born adolescents. This is a significant source of stress for
adolescents and parents alike.
Facts from figures:
- Adolescents tend to be closer to their mothers, spend more time with mothers, and feel
more comfortable talking to their mothers.
- Impulsive adolescents are significantly more likely than their non-impulsive peers to become
aggressive in responsive to rejecting parenting.
Random terms:
- Parental responsiveness one of the two important dimensions of parenting:
responsiveness refers to the degree to which the parent responds to the child’s needs in an
accepting, supportive manner.
- Parental demandingness the other important dimension of parenting: demandingness
refers to the degree to which the parent expects and insists on mature, responsible behavior
from the child.
- Behavioral genetics the scientific study of genetic influences on behavior (/ adolescent
development).
- Molecular genetics the scientific study of the structure and function of genes.
- Alleles different versions of the same gene. Different forms of the same gene arise
because of genetic mutations and may guide development in different directions.
- Shared environmental influences nongenetic influences that make individuals living in the
same family similar to each other.
- Nonshared environmental influences the nongenetic influences in individuals’ lives that
make them different from people they live with.
- Diathesis-stress model a perspective on psychosocial 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
1
, environmental influences also make him or her especially likely to thrive when exposed to
positive environmental influences.
- Emotional autonomy the establishment of more adultlike and less childish close
relationships with family members and peers.
- Behavioral autonomy The capacity to make independent decisions and to follow through
with them.
- Cognitive autonomy the establishment of an independent set of values, opinions, and
beliefs.
- Detachment is psychoanalytic theory, the process through which adolescents sever
emotional attachments to their parents or other authority figures.
- Individuation the progressive sharpening of an individual’s sense of being an autonomous,
independent person.
- Psychosocial control parenting that attempts to control the adolescent’s emotions and
opinions.
Main principles of Family System Theory
A family parents and children/ uncles, aunts, grandparents etc. Dictionary definition: married, 2-
parent, biological offspring = very outdated. Families come in different forms and sizes. What a family
is may be time and culture dependent. Three main functions of a family:
1. Socialization: raising kids.
2. Enduring source of support (practical/economical/emotional/social)
3. Social embedding = continuity of relationship across the life course
Family system theory an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence each
other. Relationships in families change most dramatically during times when individual family
members or the family’s circumstances are changing, because it is during these times that the
family’s equilibrium (evenwicht) often is upset. It emphasizes interconnections among different family
relationships (such as marital, parent-child, sibling). This theory is relevant due to the balance/
equilibrium that adolescents experience is disrupted. During adolescence, often the adolescent as well
as the parents is in a bit of a identity crisis.
- System --> set(s) of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the
environment. Interrelation = not only a affects B, but A and B affect each other.
- Changing, self-organizing and adapting to changes in its members and the outside
environment. System is flexible but strives for stability.
- Family --> cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Key principles:
- Holism to understand the family and how that might affect the development of the
members, it is not enough to look at member separately. There are roles, parents are
caretakers.
- Hierarchy/ structure family is organized in subsystems, by gender or generation.
(Individual level, marital relationship = dyadic level, parent-child relationship, sibling
relationship, child with adolescents = triadic level, family as a whole).
- Boundaries at every level (subsystems, inside/outside, between the different
relationships), permeability varies across families/ time.
o There can be spillover or compensation = when there are loose boundaries between
relationships in the family.
o Research results study 1 about spillover:
At higher levels of interparental conflict led to a higher parent-adolescent
conflict = spillover. This was also across multiple days the case. They also saw
that higher levels of adolescent-parent conflict led to more interparental
conflict.
o Research results study 2 about why spillover?:
2
, Higher levels of interparental conflict were associated with higher levels of
anger both in the mother and adolescent, and that predicted more mother-
adolescent conflict = spillover. So it affects the mood.
o Research results study 3 about spillover bad?:
Marital quality leads to higher parent-adolescent quality. When marital
quality was lower, the mother-adolescent relationship got better the next
day, probably compensation. So spillover can also be positive.
3 types of influence on the adolescent in a system: genotype, shared environment, unshared
environment.
Main parenting styles and their effect on adolescents:
3
Adolescent Development
Lecture 8: Family Relationships and Autonomy
Self-fulfilling Prophecy the idea that individuals’ behavior is influenced by others’ expectations for
them.
Parents sometimes lie to their adolescents about their adolescent years: more likely to do so when
their teenagers are younger and about activities they don’t want their children to try, such as sex or
smoking.
Midlife crisis a psychological crisis over identity believed to occurs between the ages of 35 and 45,
the age range of most adolescents’ parents.
Families also change in its economic circumstances, its relationship to other social institutions, and its
functions.
Familism orientation toward life in which the needs of one’s family take precedence over the
needs of the individual. This has high value in immigrant families. Adolescents in familism families
develop more prosocial values, are less likely to get depressed, and less likely to get involved with
antisocial peer groups = lessens chances of drinking or using illicit drugs.
Generational dissonance divergence of views between adolescents and parents that is common in
families of immigrant parents and American-born adolescents. This is a significant source of stress for
adolescents and parents alike.
Facts from figures:
- Adolescents tend to be closer to their mothers, spend more time with mothers, and feel
more comfortable talking to their mothers.
- Impulsive adolescents are significantly more likely than their non-impulsive peers to become
aggressive in responsive to rejecting parenting.
Random terms:
- Parental responsiveness one of the two important dimensions of parenting:
responsiveness refers to the degree to which the parent responds to the child’s needs in an
accepting, supportive manner.
- Parental demandingness the other important dimension of parenting: demandingness
refers to the degree to which the parent expects and insists on mature, responsible behavior
from the child.
- Behavioral genetics the scientific study of genetic influences on behavior (/ adolescent
development).
- Molecular genetics the scientific study of the structure and function of genes.
- Alleles different versions of the same gene. Different forms of the same gene arise
because of genetic mutations and may guide development in different directions.
- Shared environmental influences nongenetic influences that make individuals living in the
same family similar to each other.
- Nonshared environmental influences the nongenetic influences in individuals’ lives that
make them different from people they live with.
- Diathesis-stress model a perspective on psychosocial 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
1
, environmental influences also make him or her especially likely to thrive when exposed to
positive environmental influences.
- Emotional autonomy the establishment of more adultlike and less childish close
relationships with family members and peers.
- Behavioral autonomy The capacity to make independent decisions and to follow through
with them.
- Cognitive autonomy the establishment of an independent set of values, opinions, and
beliefs.
- Detachment is psychoanalytic theory, the process through which adolescents sever
emotional attachments to their parents or other authority figures.
- Individuation the progressive sharpening of an individual’s sense of being an autonomous,
independent person.
- Psychosocial control parenting that attempts to control the adolescent’s emotions and
opinions.
Main principles of Family System Theory
A family parents and children/ uncles, aunts, grandparents etc. Dictionary definition: married, 2-
parent, biological offspring = very outdated. Families come in different forms and sizes. What a family
is may be time and culture dependent. Three main functions of a family:
1. Socialization: raising kids.
2. Enduring source of support (practical/economical/emotional/social)
3. Social embedding = continuity of relationship across the life course
Family system theory an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence each
other. Relationships in families change most dramatically during times when individual family
members or the family’s circumstances are changing, because it is during these times that the
family’s equilibrium (evenwicht) often is upset. It emphasizes interconnections among different family
relationships (such as marital, parent-child, sibling). This theory is relevant due to the balance/
equilibrium that adolescents experience is disrupted. During adolescence, often the adolescent as well
as the parents is in a bit of a identity crisis.
- System --> set(s) of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the
environment. Interrelation = not only a affects B, but A and B affect each other.
- Changing, self-organizing and adapting to changes in its members and the outside
environment. System is flexible but strives for stability.
- Family --> cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Key principles:
- Holism to understand the family and how that might affect the development of the
members, it is not enough to look at member separately. There are roles, parents are
caretakers.
- Hierarchy/ structure family is organized in subsystems, by gender or generation.
(Individual level, marital relationship = dyadic level, parent-child relationship, sibling
relationship, child with adolescents = triadic level, family as a whole).
- Boundaries at every level (subsystems, inside/outside, between the different
relationships), permeability varies across families/ time.
o There can be spillover or compensation = when there are loose boundaries between
relationships in the family.
o Research results study 1 about spillover:
At higher levels of interparental conflict led to a higher parent-adolescent
conflict = spillover. This was also across multiple days the case. They also saw
that higher levels of adolescent-parent conflict led to more interparental
conflict.
o Research results study 2 about why spillover?:
2
, Higher levels of interparental conflict were associated with higher levels of
anger both in the mother and adolescent, and that predicted more mother-
adolescent conflict = spillover. So it affects the mood.
o Research results study 3 about spillover bad?:
Marital quality leads to higher parent-adolescent quality. When marital
quality was lower, the mother-adolescent relationship got better the next
day, probably compensation. So spillover can also be positive.
3 types of influence on the adolescent in a system: genotype, shared environment, unshared
environment.
Main parenting styles and their effect on adolescents:
3
