Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Midterm Exam

1. Characteristics used to describe adolescents: egocentric, imaginary audience, personal fable. Make up an example of an adolescent scenario in which you use all 3 of these terms.

Egocentric thinking is a normal tendency by adolescents to see everything happening relates to them. It is not similar to selfishness, but egocentric behavior makes adolescents not see someone else’s opinion. It can also refer to an adolescent’s tendency to have different views between what others think of them and what others think of them. An imaginary audience is adolescent’s tendency to view themselves as other people’s objects of attention and evaluation. Teens experiencing imaginary audiences are more self-conscious and worry about how people think of them. They can constantly modify themselves for presentation, thinking that everyone is watching them. Personal fable refers to the adolescents’ belief that they are special, unique, invulnerable, and omnipotent such that no life difficulties or problems can affect them regardless of their behavior. For instance, John walking and tripping over the school’s sidewalk expresses egocentrism when he thinks everyone noticed and they will think negatively of him as being clumsy. When John is walking home after tripping, he expresses imaginary audience when he tries to figure out whether two people he passed by are talking about him tripping when they laugh. However, when John does not let his tripping affect him, he demonstrates a personal fable. ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• Briefly define anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Why are these disorders included in the section on adolescence?

Anorexia is an eating disorder marked by abnormally low body weight, intense fear of weight gain, and distorted perception regarding weight. Adolescents affected by anorexia tend to eat low-calorie foods and do excessive exercising. They have a distorted body image, feel exhausted, constipated, bloated, dizzy, irritable, distracted, and have difficulty concentrating. Bulimia involves uncontrollable overeating episodes followed by purging through vomiting and laxatives misuse. Victims also complain about their body image, express guilt, shame about eating, experience depression and irritability. Binge eating entails a severe eating disorder that involves consuming unusually large food amounts frequently and feeling unable to stop eating. Binging is excessive overeating that feels uncontrollable on multiple occasions. Individuals feel like eating even when they are not hungry, eat alone or in secret, feel depressed, disgusted, and ashamed. Eating disorders are common among teens who often experience bodyweight concerns, excessive eating, guilt, and shame relating to their eating behavior and body image. Anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating are also psychological disorders that entail severe disturbances in eating behavior, commonly experienced during adolescence. Teens are often preoccupied with their body weight, pursue strict dieting, overeating when distressed, feeling out of control, and frequent use of laxatives or diuretics.( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• Define the invincibility fable and give your own example. What is the connection between the invincibility fable and cognitive development?

Invincibility fable refers to a particular thought pattern that involves egocentric thinking marked with indestructibility belief. This thinking pattern makes individuals think that they cannot get caught when wrongdoing or get hurt when engaging in risky behaviors. For instance, Jim being under the influence of alcohol and speeding down a freeway demonstrates invincibility fable perfectly. He is not worried about this risky behavior and believes nothing wrong can stem from his high speed under alcohol influence. This behavior is particularly common among teens as they engage in activities that older people perceive foolishly dangerous or even stupid. Psychologists believe that this thinking results from the incomplete development of the brain’s frontal lobe that controls and mediates the understanding of consequences. It is also a development phase during adolescence associated with risky behavior. Teens tend to feel unique, special, and nothing bad or accidental can happen to them. ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• Discuss four concerns experienced by teenage parents.

Parents experience most developmental challenges concerning their children during their teen years as they try to offer the appropriate support system to help their children thrive. Teenage pregnancy is a significant concern for teenage parents. Most teenage pregnancies end up in abortion or adoption, but those who decide to keep their babies experience difficulties during pregnancy. They experience stigma, stress, lack of emotional support, and poor coping mechanisms. Health issues are also a significant concern because teenage parents often experience complications during pregnancy and childbirth. They are more likely to experience premature births, low birth weight, and other health problems. The babies are also highly likely to suffer from newborn health problems, disability, and death. Schooling becomes a real challenge during teenage parenting. Teenage parents have to take care of their kids, which consumes a lot of time and energy they would use for schooling. Most of them never graduate high school, and most of them graduate later in their thirties. Teenage parents also experience economic issues as most struggle to find and keep well-paying jobs to take care of their kids. Most of the mothers are forced into welfare to supplement their earnings.( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• Define and give your own example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Self-fulfilling prophecy refers to the process by which an originally false expectation confirms itself. Individuals often have expectations about other people or entities, and sometimes the other people or entities can act in a manner that validates the original expectations. The expectations can be positive or negative, and they often affect behavior. It is a socio-psychological phenomenon of expecting or predicting something and it causing itself or becoming true. The placebo effect is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It involves individuals expecting positive effects from a non-active substance. The placebo effect stems from expectations or classical conditioning and can help individuals ease their pain, fatigue, or depression. A teenager can also expect and experience beneficial effects from a non-active substance because they expect and predict the substance to work and have a medical or behavioral outcome. Adolescents are long-term predictors of negative social expectations of their peers. ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• Define and give your own example of mastery, self-efficacy, and learned helplessness.

Mastery refers to the ability to acquire great knowledge and skills in a particular activity. The comprehensive knowledge or skill in a specific activity or subject gives an individual control and superiority over other people or entities. For instance, adolescents tend to assume new social roles as peers, romantic partners, and co-workers, and they must develop skills to control themselves during these interactions. John begins dating Margaret, and he must master language skills, caring competencies, love language, and acts such as kissing. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in their own capacity to exercise behaviors required to generate specific performance attainments. Self-efficacy reflects individual confidence in exerting control over other people or entities through motivation, social skills, and behavior. Adolescents use self-efficacy as a protective component to enhance healthy development and social functioning. For instance, a teenager with high self-efficacy in sports will feel confident in performing at the highest level during challenging matches. Learned helplessness refers to a condition of resignation that reduces motivation, self-reliance, social assurance, and personal performance, holding the teens back from achieving their goals. For instance, a teenager smoker can experience learned helplessness when they repeatedly try and fail smoking cessation.    ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• Define and give your own example of stereotype threat.

Stereotype threat refers to the fear or anxiety of affirming a negative stereotype about an individual’s social group. For instance, society views girls as bad in technical subjects like mathematics and physics, and an adolescent girl would develop fear or anxiety of conforming to this stereotype. Female adolescents can experience stereotype threats in these circumstances, affecting their ability to evaluate situations, leading to underperformance. Stereotype threat generates a high cognitive load, reducing focus and performance. A stereotype threat creates an ironic effect that increases the prevalence of something in mind, eating up cognitive resources. It is disruptive and deters adolescents from maximizing their ability and effectively accessing and using their knowledge. Stereotypes can stem from intelligence tests and diagnoses that tell the student of their intellectual ability. These tests can potentially generate stereotypes that, for instance, and according to most tests, Black students are less intelligent than White students.( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• Discuss three ways that bullying can be prevented.

Bullying occurs everywhere, but it is most common in schools and among teenagers. Bullying behavior is hurtful to every individual behavior from targets, witnesses to bullies themselves. Many schools have a bullying policy, but it is not enough to stop bullying behavior. Schools need to be proactive in addressing bullying by building a positive school climate to foster healthy development and discourage aggression, victimization, and feeling unsafe. Establishing a positive environment entails instilling healthy habits and teaching children and teens that being critical, judgmental, making hurtful jokes, and rumor spreading is wrong and unhealthy and characterizes bullying. Schools should organize school-wide events regarding bullying, such as Bullying Awareness Wednesday. These events should include activities like slogan writing and putting on the wall regarding their take on bullying behavior in every class. They should also involve bullying policy learning to educate students about their rights and expected school conduct. There should be strong repercussions for bullying behavior. The school should strive to demonstrate that bullying is an illegal offense and that has zero tolerance for these actions. To actualize this standpoint, schools should work hard to get to the bottom of every bullying incidence, punishing the perpetrators severely and discussing with the family and other students.    ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

• What is the difference between drug abuse and drug addiction?

Drug abuse and addiction are often used interchangeably. However, an individual can abuse drugs without necessarily being addicted. Drug abuse refers to the excessive use or misuse of any drug, medicinal substances, alcohol, and cigarettes. Drug addiction is the inability to stop using a particular drug despite numerous attempts. Substance abuse often leads to addiction, but individuals can abuse substances without becoming addicted. Both drug abuse and addiction are immensely detrimental to an individual’s health because they affect mental, emotional, and physical health. The possibility of drug abuse progressing to addiction depends on genetic predisposition, age, frequency of use, and length of use. The biggest differentiation between the two phenomena is an individual’s response when not using the substances. Drug use alters the brain reward system, making people feel good and encouraged to continue using the drugs. When the brain becomes overly dependent, addiction develops, and the user does not feel “normal” when not under the influence of the substances. Their desire to use the substances becomes a priority over everything else, and they can engage in risky behavior to ensure a constant supply.( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

1. Define Erikson’s stages of identity v role confusion and intimacy v. isolation.  What is the connection between the earlier stage and the latter one?

Identity v Role confusion is Erikson’s fifth psychological stage and occurs during turbulent teenage years. The stage is fundamental in developing a sense of personal identity that will proceed to influence behavior and development for the rest of an individual’s life. Teens need a sense of self and personal identity to stay true to themselves and avoid confusion. The sense of identity stems from teenagers striving to explore their independence. Those with constant encouragement and reinforcement succeed through this stage, emerging with a strong feeling of independence and control. Those who fail remain unsure of their beliefs and desires, feeling insecure and confused about themselves and their future. Intimacy v. isolation is Erikson’s sixth psychological stage when people establish intimate and loving relationships with other persons. Strong relationships result from their ability to engage with others successfully, and failure can lead to loneliness and isolation. As the individuals strive to explore personal relationships, they try to be close and committed as possible. Those that successfully develop a strong sense of identity and security in the identity v. role confusion stage are more likely to form enduring and secure relationships in the intimacy vs. isolation stage. The outcomes in the previous stage influence success or failure in the following stage.    ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

1. What is the difference between situational couple violence and intimate terrorism? Which situation is most likely to result in divorce and why?

Situational couple violence is not associated with general control behavior as it arises from a single argument, and none of them is trying to control the situation. They lash at each other as one partner is not constantly trying to control the other. It occurs more often for young couples who occasionally engage in conflicts that get out of hand generate minor forms of violence. They rarely progress to serious and life-threatening violence. Men and women’s violent actions occur at fairly equal rates and rarely lead to injury or partner domination. Characteristics comprise mild aggressive behavior, lower frequency, mild forms of violence, mutuality, and occur mainly due to anger and frustration rather than trying to gain dominance over the other. Intimate terrorism, also coercive controlling violence, involves the desire to gain dominance over the other partner. One partner uses coercive control and power of their partners, such as isolation, threats, and intimidation. It leads to severe forms of violence and psychological abuse for domination purposes. A person tries to control their partners’ all life aspects through sexual and sadistic control, economic, physical, and emotional abuse. Intimate terrorism often leads to divorce because one partner cannot tolerate the abusive behavior for a long time. Victims suffer chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and gynecological problems that can be too much to endure, and they end up asking for a divorce.    ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

1. Why do women stay in abusive relationships?  Think of 2 community-based interventions that might prevent domestic violence.

Women stay in abusive relationships for several reasons, including fear, distorted thoughts, damaged self-worth, wanting to save the relationship, children, family expectations and experiences, financial constraints, and isolation. Domination by the husband can lead to confusion, doubts, and self-blame. The husbands harassing and accusing their wives causes despair and guilt. Some women end up believing they deserved their partner’s harassment, and they become ashamed, embarrassed, and blame themselves for the circumstances. These distorted thoughts make women stay in abusive relationships. Bodily and emotional harm leads to fear, and the women feel trapped, terrorized, and traumatized. Children keep most women in abusive relationships because they sacrifice their safety and happiness and prioritize their children’s needs. Family expectations include pressure from parents and extended family to stay in the marriage and the belief that a broken marriage is a woman’s fault. Some women also stay in abusive relationships because they cannot sustain themselves financially. Community-based interventions for preventing domestic violence include community education and community accountability advocacy. Educational programs to educate the community about domestic violence evils, consequences, and the importance of household peace and harmony can help offer insights into the need for peaceful relationships. Community accountability involves encouraging community involvement in controlling and preventing domestic violence. Cultivating grassroots community leadership can improve the sustainability of domestic violence prevention efforts.    ( Psychology of Adolescents and Adulthood Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Reference

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/