Learning Goals

A. Determinants of Puberty

1.1 What is puberty?

1.2 What role does heredity play in puberty?

1.3 What are hormones, and what is their role in puberty?

1.4 What are the two classes of hormones, and how do they affect males and females differently?

1.5 What is testosterone, and what role does it play in male development?

1.6 What is the role of the endocrine system in puberty?

1.7 What are the different endocrine glands, and what are their functions?

1.8 How does the endocrine system work?

1.9 How does the negative feedback system in the endocrine system work?

1.10 What are the two phases of puberty that are linked with hormonal changes?

1.11 What role is played menarche and spermarche with regards to a girl or boy's entry into gonadarche?

B. Growth Spurt

1.12 What physical changes coincide with the growth spurt?

C. Sexual Maturation

1.13 What is the order of physical changes during sexual maturation?

D. Secular Trends in Puberty

1.14 What does the term secular trends refer to?

1.15 What is a likely contributor to the earlier maturation of girls today?

1.16 What are the five pubertal stages of male and female sexual development?

E. Psychological Dimensions

1.17 What accounts for adolescent preoccupation with their bodies?

1.18 What are some gender differences in adolescents' perception of their bodies?

1.19 How do hormones affect behavior in adolescents?

1.20 What is the typical reaction of young girls to menarche?

1.21 What effect does early or late maturation have on a developing boy or girl?

1.22 Are the effects of puberty exaggerated?

F. Pubertal Timing and Health Care

1.23 What can be done to help off-time maturers who are at risk for health problems?

A. Neurons

2.1 What are neurons?

2.2 What are the three basic parts of the neuron?

2.3 How do neurons change in adolescence?

2.4 What are synapses?

2.5 What is meant by synaptic "blooming and pruning?"

2.6 What determines the timing and course of synaptic overproduction and retraction?

B. Brain Structure

2.7 What are the four lobes of the brain?

2.8 What recent technological advances have allowed for more in-depth study of the adolescent brain?

2.9 What role might the amygdala play in adolescent thought processes?

2.10 What is the significance of increased synaptic density in the brain?

A. Critical Juncture in Health

3.1 Why are health related behaviors of adolescents so important?

B. Nutrition

3.2 What is basal metabolism rate?

3.3 Why is the consumption of 'fast-foods' a concern for today's adolescents?

3.4 Why are eating patterns formed in childhood of special interest to medical professionals?

C. Exercise and Sports

3.5 How extensive is the role of sports in adolescent's lives?

3.6 Are adolescents getting enough exercise?

3.7 Do adolescents in the U.S. exercise less than those in other countries?

3.8 What role does school play in the development of attitudes towards exercise?

3.9 Does it make a difference if children and adolescents are pushed to exercise in school?

3.10 What is the role of exercise in reducing adolescent stress?

3.11 What are some positive side benefits of adolescent involvement in sports?

3.12 What are some potential negative outcomes of youth participation in sports?

D. Sleep

3.13 Why have adolescent sleep patterns become a recent focus of interest?

3.14 What can be the results of disrupted sleep in adolescence?

E. Health Services

3.15 What are some reasons that adolescents might not be receiving adequate health care?

F. Leading Causes of Death

3.16 What are the three leading causes of death in adolescence?

A. The Nature of Genes

4.1 What is the nature of genes?

4.2 What is the difference between a genotype and phenotype?

4.3 What physical traits are included in phenotypes?

4.4 Would measured introversion-extroversion be predictable from knowledge of the specific genes?

B. Methods

4.5 What are the research methods of behavior genetics?

4.6 How is the influence of heredity on behavior studied?

4.7 What is a twin study?

4.8 How do twin studies examine the difference between identical twins and fraternal twins?

4.9 What are some issues that develop as a result of twin studies?

4.10 What is an adoption study?

4.11 What is the basis of the enthusiasm regarding the study of molecular genetics?

4.12 What is a genome?

4.13 What is the importance of the Human Genome Project?

C. Exploring Heredity and Environment

4.14 According to behavior geneticist Sandra Scarr, what three ways heredity and environment are correlated?

4.15 What distinguishes Scarr's concepts of passive genotype-environment correlations, evocative genotype-environment correlations, and active (niche-picking) genotype-environment correlations?

4.16 What is the difference between shared environmental influences and nonshared environmental influences?

4.17 What are the most reasonable conclusions we can make about the interaction of heredity and environment?

4.18 Why are the views of Judith Harris both intriguing and controversial?