Cognitive development: How adolescent thinking evolves

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Cognitive development: How adolescent thinking evolves

Adolescents typically think in concrete ways, meaning they have difficulty with abstract and symbolic concepts. Their thinking tends to be focused on the present. They are just beginning to be able to gather information from experience, analyze information, and make critical decisions about future choices and consequences.

Research by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health suggests that the brain goes through a dramatic period of development during puberty. Most advances occur in the frontal lobe, an area thought to be responsible for advanced mental functions, called "executive functions," such as reasoning, judgments, and self-control. Researchers theorize that a teen's experiences determine, to a large degree, how the frontal lobe, and correspondingly, executive functions develop and mature.¹

This stage of thinking should be taken into account when counseling adolescents. For example, when talking about smoking, it may be more effective to point out short-term consequences like bad breath or loss of athletic ability than long-term consequences such as cancer.

Age 11 to 14 years tends to be a self-centered period. Many adolescents are preoccupied with their own desires and needs and can be insensitive to others. Because they are so self-centered, they seem to believe other people are watching them. As a result, some teens may feel as if they are constantly "on stage" and are being judged by an imaginary audience. A teen who is affected by this imaginary audience may be self-conscious and concerned about appearance. For example, some teens may comb their hair endlessly, change their clothes often, and constantly look in the mirror to see how they look to others.

It is normal for adolescents to have a sense of being uniquely invincible, to have an "it will never happen to me" mind-set. This way of thinking may limit their ability to assess situations, risks, and future consequences. As a result, they may engage in risky behaviors and test authority.

Early adolescents gradually become more sophisticated in their thinking. Adolescents are also beginning to recognize the complexity of issues and that information can be interpreted in different ways. They learn flexibility, complex reasoning, inductive and deductive reasoning, sensitivity toward others, and problem solving. The ability to see other points of view sometimes can be unsettling for adolescents who may then question issues that they once accepted at face value. This can make some adolescents feel insecure or adrift. In times of stress, teens may revert to concrete, simplistic thinking.

References

Citations

1. National Institute of Mental Health (2001). Teenage Brain: A Work in Progress (NIH Publication No. 01-4929). Available online: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/teenbrain.cfm.

Credits

Last updated:	March 17, 2008
Author:	Debby Golonka, MPH
Reviewed By:	Michael J. Sexton, MD - Pediatrics, Louis Pellegrino, MD - Developmental Pediatrics
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Pat Truman, MATC