CHAPTER 9 AUTONOMY

1. Why is autonomy development a central issue during adolescence? How do the pubertal, cognitive, and social changes occuring in adolescence impact on autonomy development?

2. Define the three types of autonomy EMOTIONAL, BEHAVIORAL, and VALUE autonomy. How would you describe a person who is autonomous in these ways? Think of some concrete examples.

3. What is the process of DETACHMENT espoused by PSYCHOANALYTIC theorists? When and how does this process begin, and how does it progress? Is this view supported by current research on parent-adolescent relationships? Explain your answer.

4. What is the process of INDIVIDUATION? Contrast this with detachment. What are the FOUR COMPONENTS of individuation? How do puberty and social-cognitive development trigger this process?

5. What characteristics of family relationships foster individuation? What are ENABLING behaviors, and what are CONSTRAINING behaviors in parent-adolescent interactions?

6. Contrast authoritative, authoritarian, and indulgent/indifferent parenting in terms of how they affect the development of individuation.

7. What cognitive abilities feed into the improvement of adolescents' decision-making abilities? What aspects of decision-making improve over the course of adolescence?

8. In what situations are adolescents more likely to conform to their parents' opinions? In what situations are adolescents more likely to conform to parents' opinions?

9. When (or at what age range) are adolescents most susceptible to PEER PRESSURE (especially pressure to do antisocial acts)? Why are teens especially susceptible to peer conformity at this time? (two views)

10. How does authoritative parenting interact with the nature of peer pressure (i.e., whether peer pressure is positive or negative)?

11. Are there cultural differences in the development of behavioral autonomy? How do non-Western adolescents differ from American adolescents in terms of age expectancies for behavioral autonomy?

12. In general, how does thinking about moral, political, and religious values and beliefs change over the course of adolescence?

13. Describe LAWRENCE KOHLBERG's stages of moral reasoning. According to CAROL GILLIGAN, how do men and women generally differ in their orientation and approach to moral dilemmas?

14. How does POLITICAL thinking change over the course of adolescence? What about RELIGIOUS beliefs?