“All Gas and No Brakes!”: Helpful Metaphor or Harmful Stereotype?  

Oleh:

Payne, Monica A.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Journal of Adolescent Research (http://jar.sagepub.com/) vol. 27 no. 1 (Jan. 2012), page 3-17.
Topik: Adolescence; Developmental Metaphors; Neuroscience; Storm and Stress; Teen Brain
Fulltext: Journal of Adolescent Research-2012-Payne-3-17_ros.pdf (276.05KB)

Isi artikel

Stanley Hall’s (1904) description of adolescence as a time “suggestive of some ancient period of storm and stress when old moorings were broken and a higher level attained” (p. xi) is arguably one of developmental psychology’s most vivid and powerful metaphors. Its relatively insignificant contribution to Hall’s treatise (Arnett, 2006), the early demise of its recapitulation theory underpinnings, and the later opposition of many researchers notwithstanding, it survives a century of academic challenge to remain, in Robert Epstein’s (2010) words, “a life-size, three-dimensional, rock-solid image of Teen in Turmoil” (p. 120). Since the late 1990s this storying of hormonal upheaval has been enthusiastically supplemented by neuroimaging studies indicating maturation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC)—responsible for the socalled “executive functions” of planning, judgment, and impulse control—is not normally completed until at least the mid-20s (see, for example, Giedd, 2008; Yurgelun-Todd, 2007). These findings are increasingly cited in support of raised age restrictions with regard to, for example, purchasing alcohol, obtaining a driving license, entry into certain occupations, and even the right to vote. In this journal Mike Males (2009) critiqued this position as “biodeterminist” and generally “antiadolescent”—an argument eliciting the vigorous riposte that this research promotes increased understanding of both “the vulnerabilities and tremendous potential of the adolescent brain” (Johnson, Sudhinaraset, & Blum, 2010, p. 5).

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