Assignment #2

Respond to all the Questions 1-24, each question needs 200-300 words.

please follow the rubrics:

– Posts in-depth, incisive reflections; demonstrates critical thinking. Offers a different
perspective on what’s being discussed.

– Very well-written posts within the required timeframe.

– No grammar or spelling errors.

– Respond with critical thinking and citations from the texts (where appropriate). These
responses will form the basis of critical thinking.

The Self
1. Based on what you have learned so far in this text, what would you say are the economic reasons traditional
cultures would promote an interdependent self?

2. Adolescent girls have lower overall self-esteem than adolescent boys, yet boys have lower average emotional
states than girls do. Is this a contradiction, or is it possible that both these findings could be true?

3. Compared with young people in Western cultures, do you think young people in traditional cultures would be
more or less likely to experience loneliness?

Family Relationship
4. Why do you think fathers tend to be less involved than mothers in the lives of their adolescents? Do you think
this will remain true when the current generation of adolescents grows up and becomes parents?

5. How would you predict parent-adolescent conflict in traditional cultures will be affected by globalization?

6. In addition to the factors mentioned here, can you think of other things that might influence adolescents’
responses to divorce, for better or worse?

Friends and Peers
7. Why do you think many adolescents find it more difficult to be close to their parents than to their friends? Is
this phenomenon cultural or developmental, or both?

8. Nearly all the scholarly work on youth culture has been theoretical rather than empirical (research based).
How would you design a study to examine the validity of the theoretical ideas about youth culture presented
here?

9. Little research has taken place on clique and crowd composition after high school. Based on your
observations and experience, what hypothesis would you propose about peer group relations in emerging
adulthood?

Love and Sexuality

10. What do you think explains the gender double standard regarding young people’s sexuality that exists in so
many cultures?

11. Given that sexual contact in some form is often part of adolescent love relationships, why do you suppose
sex was not mentioned among adolescents’ and emerging adults’ reasons for forming love relationships in the
studies described here?

12. Why do you think homophobia is so ingrained in youth culture? What does Pascoe claim about homophobia
and adolescence in her article?

School
13. Imagine that you have just become the principal of an American secondary school. What could you do to
assess the school climate in your school? How would you go about improving it if it were less than
satisfactory?

14. What hypotheses would you propose to explain why boys generally do worse than girls academically, from
grade school through emerging adulthood?

15. In your view, should high school courses be offered only on academic subjects such as math and English, or
should courses in music, art, and physical education also be available? Justify your view.

Work
16.Do you think people living in the West have any responsibility for the conditions adolescent work in
developing countries? Why or why not? Do they have more responsibility if they buy the items that adolescents
produce through their labor?

17. Out of the four steps proposed by Wilson to address urban poverty among young people, which would you
support, and which would you oppose, and for what reasons?

18. Compare the history of adolescent work in the West to the recent history of adolescent work in developing
countries. What are the similarities and differences?

Media
19. Even if violent television does not have clear effects on adolescents’ aggressive behavior, is it possible that
it has other effects, such as on their moral development? What other effects should be considered, and how
would you design a study?

20. Why do you think watching television and listening to music have calming effects on adolescents’
emotions? Do you think emerging adults would experience the same effects?

21. What are the effects of media on globalization? How do these effect impact youth cultures?

Problems and Resilience
22. Are you in favor of a GDL program where you live? If so, what provisions would you include? Are such
programs unfair to young people who drive safely and nevertheless have their driving privileges restricted?

23. Few studies have been conducted on depressed mood among emerging adults. How would you expect the
sources of depressed mood in emerging adulthood to be similar to, or different from, the sources of depressed
mood in adolescence?

24. What do you think of the term “resilience?” Is this the best way to describe these experiences in
adolescence? What might be the problem with the term?