Question

Mary Jane went shopping on Tuesday night with her brother and sister from 7 to 9 p.m. She happened to be shopping in the same shopping center that had a burglary at 8 p.m. Tuesday night. The next day, while sitting in class, juvenile officers came and detained her for the burglary. They took her to a juvenile detention center and screened her for any prior illegal activity. Mary Jane had never been in trouble previously, so they let her go home with her parents with a notation of the time to come to juvenile court. Mary Jane insists that she had no part in the burglary. •Do you feel that most people have a predisposition toward teenagers (e.g., they are always looking for trouble)? Why or why not? ?Do you think this is ever a reasonable belief? Why or why not?

Answer 1

• Neuroscientists confirm that teenagers do have brains, but they're wired differently from those of adults. Why many teenagers seek thrills, break rules and seem nonchalant about their own safety has been a question brain scientists have worked to answer in the last two decades.
• Scientists typically refer to "the teenage brain" in 13- to 17-year-olds, but that doesn't mean that college students are totally "adults" yet. In fact, research from the National Institutes of Health has shown, the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain associated with inhibition of risky behavior, doesn't get fully developed until age 25.
• The connections between the prefrontal cortex and other areas of the brain are also developing in teenagers. And a number of deep structures in the brain are influenced by changes in hormones, which may lead to heightened emotions.
• The way that brain regions talk to one another in teenagers may explain teens' sometimes confounding behavior, scientists say. Even in their mid-teens, adolescents can make quick, efficient, correct decisions; in the heat of the moment, though, the brain's deep emotional centers will win out over reason.
• Teens are more sensitive than adults to rewards of situations or activities, and less sensitive to risks.It's not that adolescents don't understand risk. They understand it perfectly well.It's just that they find it more rewarding to impress their peers, and things of that sort, than the risk that's involved to their actual survival; it's just what they value at that point.
• There's an evolutionary explanation for this kind of behavior: In most mammals, adolescence is the time when individuals leave the family environment.
• Sensation-seeking leads pubescent creatures to go find sexual partners and a social structure outside the home. They need to become independent of their parents and adapt to new surroundings.
• Venturing out into the wild and leaving the security of parents is a risky thing to do, so there must be some built-in biological mechanism to ignore the potential dangers of the wild.
• From a positive psychology perspective, there is growing evidence that creating safe, loving and nurturing environments throughout a child’s life has profound effects on healthy brain development that can take teens north-of-zero.
• Also, encouraging daily habits that reduce cortisol and increase dopamine and oxytocin is crucial. This includes lifestyle choices like: fortifying intimate bonds, maintaining extensive social networks, having creative outlets, regular physical activity, mindfulness, not abusing drugs and getting a good night’s sleep. These daily routines will help to optimize healthy brain structure and connectivity for a teenager and througout adulthood.
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