The context of decision making in adolescence is a rite of passage of sorts. Throughout the transition period from pre-teens to adulthood, innumerable changes occur physiologically and psychologically. Often the two are intertwined. Adolescence is a time of sexual maturation in a physiological sense (i.e., reproductive organs are fully functional), yet the emotional and intellectual capacity has not matured to the same extent. Consequently, adolescents are prone to risky behavior. The demonstration of quick, insensitive, or self-satisfying decisions that tend to characterize adolescence are, to an extent, expected behavior. As the same time, the lessons learned from such behavior are intended to carry younger adolescents into later teen years and into adulthood as psychological maturation narrows the gap with its physiological counterpart.
In the oft-cited article, Maturity of judgment in adolescence: Psychosocial factors in adolescent decision making, authors Laurence Steinberg and Elizabeth Cauffman (1996) aim to demonstrate how varying factors psychosocial factors influence maturity through adolescence. The article differentiates adolescents and adults by the ways they think (i.e. cognitive factors) and the ways they behave socially and emotionally (i.e., psychosocial factors). Since adolescents are weaker in these factors, they tend to have poorer judgement.
Their paper aims to further understanding around these two factors. The extent of immaturity demonstrated through adolescent behavior may be more based on personality traits, interpersonal relations and affective experience, as compared to cognitive factors such as knowledge and competence. For example, an individual’s pursuit to have intercourse with one person despite being in a relationship with another person might be influenced by ego, a finding supported in the literature, relative to poor judgement, as noted by Steinberg and Cauffman (p.264). On the other hand, cognitive traits might weigh the seriousness of the risk (i.e., getting caught), or the costs and benefits of the particular behavior (i.e. immediate gratification compared to feelings of guilt later on). The difference between adults and adolescents are the desire to satisfy the ego and weighting given to risk. From the review the authors claim that, “there appears to be a scientific basis within the psychological literature on adolescent development for distinguishing under the law between individuals who have, versus have not, reached the age of 17” (p.268). The trend in research continues to point to comparable outcomes between adolescents and adults relative to cognition and judgement.
This is an important distinction in the context of addressing behavioral issues. Admittedly the authors state that the “distinction is imperfect” (p.251). The problem, they note, is the limited developmental research on adolescence that explores the influence of cognitive factors on psychosocial factors, or vice versa. There is the added context, unaddressed in the article about physiological issues, such as the concentration of chemicals such as serotonin that influence mood.
Nevertheless, the synopsis of research from this oft-cited article points to psychosocial factors as a major difference in the capacity of decision-making between adolescents and adults. Placing focus on addressing psychosocial factors such as ego, social status or emotional stability may prove more productive than cognitive reasoning.
Reference
Steinberg, L., & Cauffman, E. (1996). Maturity of judgment in adolescence: Psychosocial factors in adolescent decision making.Law and Human Behavior, 20(3), 249-272. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01499023
