Cognitive Development

Adolecents at around age 11 or 12, start to think more abstract as their thinking develops. Jean Piaget calls this process formal operations thinking.

With adolecents being able to think more abstractly, they are able to understand higher level thinking, as well as being able to develop better problem solving skills by questioning the world around them.

Rationalization- A process whereby an individual seeks to explain an often unpleasent emotion or behavior in a way that will preserve his or her self-esteem.

Adolecents usually tend to rationalize their behavior to see themselves as decent human beings. They are not tied to the concrete reality of things and can view why they feel or act in that way.

Not all adolecents reach the stage of formal oparations thinking at the same time. It is highly dependent on their living class and themselves as an individual.

Regardless of their background, the more education an adolecent has, the higher their reasoning capabilities will be. Different societies also affect how prevalent formal oporations thinking is due to the differences in education.

Adolecents' developed thinking may cause them to have idealistic ideas and feel the world is a sorry place to live. This can cause them to be unrealistic about the world. Some adolecents may even develop a "messaih complex" and feel like they must change the world themselves.

Psychologist David Elkind studied the adolecent thinking process and found that they often overlook what seems obvious to adults. He noted that this causes them to make complicated solutions and lead into making inappropiate choices. This may also cause their views to be self-centered.

Dr. Elkind states that adolecents are playing to an audience that shares interests with themsleves, and that the adolecent thinks they are unique or special, and cannot be understood by anyone else.

Dr. Elkind describes multiple problems with adolecents due to their abstract thought process and immiturity. These are; Finding fault with authority figures, Argumentatativeness, Indecisiveness, Apparent hypocrisy, Self-consciousness, and Invulnerability.

Post Discussion Questions

• What are your thoughts of how Adolecents thoughts after the presentation?
• Do you think you have a better understanding of how you think after the presentation?
• Do you think you will rationalize your feelings and actions less often? Do you think it will happen more often? Why do you think that is?