Autonomy
Chapter Outline
Autonomy
Self-direction
Driven by
maturation,
cognitive change, and
social expectations
A decidedly “western” value
Types: Emotional, Behavioral, Value
Emotional Autonomy
Transformation in relationships with parents and peers
See parents’ weaknesses, or how parents can no longer “lead”
adolescent in certain directions
Anna Freud: detachment
Push away from same sex parent; some attraction to opposite sex
parent
Recent research does not support
Individuation
Peter Blos, neofreudian analyst
Taking increasing responsibility for self, especially in emotional
terms
Deidealize parents (they’re human)
Nondependency (I can solve my problems)
Individuation (my parents don’t know everything about me)
seeing parents as people (they have different sides to them)
Closeness?
Ryan & Lynch: increased EA found in teens who report parental
rejection
Most researchers believed EA fostered by parent-adolescent closeness
Holmbeck: different paths: teens from troubled homes DO develop
EA in the face of parental rejection
But, healthy homes characterized by high EA and parent-adolescent
closeness
Parenting & EA
Stuart Hauser: constraining/enabling
Individuation, ego development, social competence
Authoritative parenting
Behavioral Autonomy
Decision-making improves during adolescence
Dr. B’s research – Did your parents ever do or say anything that
indicated you were all grown up?
Temporarily substitute dependence on parents with dependence
on peers
Multiple viewpoints, hypothetical thinking
Conformity to peers highest in early-middle adolescence; may
peak at age 14
Value Autonomy
Morals, right and wrong
Abstract principles – requires higher level reasoning
Lawrence Kohlberg; stages based on Piaget’s stages
Interested in HOW moral decisions are made, more than exactly
WHAT decision is made
Preconventional, conventional, postconventional
Teens who volunteer for service activities score higher on measures
of moral reasoning
Scoring higher on prosocial moral reasoning = more sympathetic
and empathic
Kohlberg, cont’d
use of higher reasoning develops during adolescence
Promoted by authoritative parenting
Higher reasoning IS associated with higher moral behavior
But most subjects studied DON’T use postconventional all the
time
Carol Gilligan
Contrast to Kohlberg
Argued that females develop a “different voice”
Justice vs Care orientation
Care: view society as functioning
through the interconnection of human relationships
Gilligan’s research shows both men and women CAN use both justice and
care principles when making moral decisions, but they are likely to FIRST
use the typical gender-specific principles
Independence vs interdependence
Important Terms, Concepts and Individuals
The following terms are listed as they appear in the chapter:
autonomy
mesosytems
emotional autonomy
exosystems
behavioral autonomy
macrosystems
value autonomy
self-reliance
Anna Freud
Lawrence Kohlberg
detachment
preconventional moral reasoning
individuation
conventional moral reasoning
Peter Blos
post conventional moral reasoning
enabling behavior
justice orientation
constraining behavior
Carol Gilligan
peer pressure
care orientation
ecology of human development
prosocial moral reasoning
microsystems
Multiple Choice Questions - Please circle the correct answer.
1. Which developmental theorist proposed that toddlerhood was
important for the development of autonomy?
a. Anna Freud
b. Peter Blos
c. Lawrence Kohlberg
d. Erik Erikson
2. The process by which the young adolescent achieves independence by
severing emotional ties with parents is know as:
a. individuation
b. self-reliance
c. detachment
d. expatriation
3. Which theorist believed that severing emotional ties with parents
was important for the establishment of autonomy in adolescence?
a. Anna Freud
b. Peter Blos
c. Lawrence Kohlberg
d. Erik Erikson
4. The form of autonomy that involves making decisions and carrying
through with them is:
a. emotional autonomy
b. behavioral autonomy
c. value autonomy
d. decisive autonomy
5. The aspect of emotional autonomy that tends to emerge last is:
a. viewing parents outside the role of parents
b. becoming less dependent on parents for assistance
c. realizing that parents are not all powerful and all knowing
d. becoming intimate with people other than parents
6. Which type of parenting tends to be associated with children who
are dependent on their parents and unable to function on their own?
a. Authoritative
b. Authoritarian
c. Permissive
d. Indifferent
7. Adolescents are most likely to turn to adults for advice on:
a. what courses to take
b. what to wear
c. what music to listen to
d. where to hang out
8. Susceptibility to peer pressure peaks around the age of:
a. 12
b. 14
c. 16
d. 18
9. Fuligni and Eccles found that adolescents that are the most peer
oriented have parents that are:
a. warm
b. open to opinions
c. strict
d. disinterested in parenting
10. The type of moral reasoning in Kohlberg's theory that is oriented
toward the consequences that follow behavior is called:
a. preconventional reasoning
b. conventional reasoning
c. postconventional reasoning
d. prosocial reasoning
11. In Kohlberg's theory, the most typical form of moral reasoning displayed
by adults is:
a. preconventional reasoning
b. conventional reasoning
c. postconventional reasoning
d. prosocial reasoning
12. Research has found that the most rare form of moral reasoning in
Kohlberg's framework is:
a. preconventional reasoning
b. conventional reasoning
c. postconventional reasoning
d. prosocial reasoning
13. Which theorist claimed that Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning
was gender biased?
a. Anna Freud
b. Carol Gilligan
c. Nancy Eisenberg
d. Jacquelynne Eccles
14. Prosocial moral reasoning involves:
a. laws
b. empathy
c. justice
d. individual rights
15. Over the course of adolescence, political thinking becomes all of
the following except:
a. more independent
b. more concrete
c. more principled
d. more organized
16. The type of autonomy that is most closely associated with moral
reasoning is:
a. emotional autonomy
b. behavioral autonomy
c. value autonomy
d. none of the above
17. Realizing that your parents aren't all knowing and all powerful
is known as:
a. detachment
b. distantiation
c. de-idealization
d. nondependency
18. The term used to describe the healthy process that takes place between
the adolescent and parents in the establishment of emotional autonomy
is:
a. detachment
b. distantiation
c. individuation
d. nondependency
19. Enabling parental behavior includes all of the following except:
a. exploring adolescent's thinking
b. explaining one's thinking
c. making judgmental comments
d. tolerating differences of opinion
20. Strength of peer pressure:
a. decreases throughout the course of adolescence
b. increases throughout the course of adolescence
c. increases until middle adolescence and then decreases
d. is difficult to measure and has never been successfully graphed
21. In Bronfenbrenner's ecological approach to development, which level
contains the immediate settings of adolescents?
a. Microsystem
b. Mesosystem
c. Exosystem
d. Macrosystem
22. Gilligan calls the moral perspective that involves attention to
others and responsiveness to human need:
a. justice orientation
b. law and order orientation
c. prosocial orientation
d. care orientation
23. Involvement in organized religion tends to ______ from early to
late adolescence.
a. decrease
b. increase
c. remain the same
d. increase and then decrease
24. When compared with adolescents whose parents have not divorced,
adolescents whose parents have divorced begin to de-idealize their
parents _______.
a. earlier
b. at about the same time
c. later
d. at the time of the divorce
25. The healthy development of autonomy is associated with _______ parenting.
a. indifferent
b. permissive
c. authoritarian
d. authoritative
True/False Questions - Mark each statement either True (T) or False (F).
1. Adolescence is the first period in human development when autonomy issues arise.
2. Anna Freud believed that strained family relations were the norm in adolescence.
3. Behavioral autonomy involves developing a set of principles about right and wrong.
4. Detachment is the term currently used to describe the process that leads to the development of healthy autonomous functioning in adolescence.
5. De-idealization of parents does not begin to happen until mid adolescence.
6. Puberty appears to be one of the triggers of the individuation process.
7. Enabling parental behaviors are associated with healthy autonomous functioning in adolescence.
8. Adolescents reared authoritatively often rebel against their parents.
9. Young people reared in a permissive fashion can become psychologically dependent on their peers.
10. Adolescents tend to turn to their parents for educational and occupational advice.
11. Susceptibility to peer pressure first increases and then decreases during the course of adolescence.
12. Adolescents reared in authoritarian homes are more susceptible to positive peer influence than other adolescents.
13. Asian adolescents expect to be autonomous earlier than their Anglo counterparts.
14. The exosystem contains settings where adolescents are not typically found, but have an indirect effect on adolescent development.
15. Parents are more controlling of young adolescent males than young adolescent females.
16. In the Fuligni and Eccles study, parental strictness was highly associated with degree of peer orientation.
17. Adolescent females tend to report feeling more self-reliant than adolescent males.
18. Conventional moral reasoners tend to make reference to rewards and punishments as a basis for moral decision making.
19. Postconventional reasoning is the most typical form of moral reasoning found among adults in the United States.
20. Research has upheld the claim that Kohlberg's approach to moral reasoning is gender biased.
21. Prosocial moral reasoning involves thinking about issues like kindness and sympathy.
22. Carol Gilligan calls the female perspective on moral reasoning the care orientation.
23. During adolescence, political thinking becomes more abstract, more authoritarian and more organized.
24. Less than 50 percent of American adolescents pray.
25. Younger adolescents are more likely than older adolescents to attend church.
26. During early adolescence, active rebellion against parents is typical and normal.
27. The enhanced role taking abilities in adolescence tend to be related to improvements in decision making.
28. Older adolescents are no better than younger adolescents at considering the future consequences of current decisions.
29. Susceptibility to parental pressure during adolescence follows a curvilinear pattern.
30. An important proponent of the ecological approach to human development has been Urie Bronfenbrenner.
Matching Questions - Choose the term that most accurately fits the description.
___ 1. parent-child interactions that
a. emotional autonomy
emphasize explanation and tolerance
b. behavioral autonomy
of differences in opinion
c. value autonomy
___ 2. devised a stage theory of moral
d. Anna Freud
reasoning
e. detachment
___ 3. contains settings or context that
f. individuation
have an effect on adolescent
g. Peter Blos
development, but you typically don't
h. enabling behavior
find adolescents in these settings
i. constraining behavior
___ 4. involves being able to make
j. peer pressure
decisions and carry through with
k. mesosystem
them
l. exosystem
___ 5. psychoanalyst that emphasizes the
m. Lawrence Kohlberg
importance of individuation in early
n. preconventional moral
adolescence.
reasoning
___ 6. form of moral reasoning that
o. conventional moral
emphasizes punishment and rewards
reasoning
___ 7. form of autonomy that involves
p. post conventional
developing a set of principles
reasoning
regarding right and wrong.
q. justice orientation
___ 8. psychoanalytic theorist that believed
r. Carol Gilligan
that adolescents must sever
s. care orientation
emotional ties with family to
t. prosocial moral reasoning
become autonomous
___ 9. pressure to respond to peer opinions
and input
___ 10. involves the interactions between
contexts in the microsystem
___ 11. reasoning about issues like honesty
and kindness
___ 12. form of autonomy that involves
changes in one's close relationships
___ 13. involves severing ties with family
members in an effort to achieve
autonomy
___ 14. approach to morality that
emphasizes rules and standards
and values individual rights and
freedoms
___ 15. theorist who believed that
Kohlberg's approach to morality
was gender biased
___ 16. parent-child interactions that
emphasize devaluing and judgmental
responses
___ 17. form of moral reasoning that
involves reference to rules and legal
standards
___ 18. approach to morality that emphasizes
the connectedness and
interdependence of human beings
___ 19. form of moral reasoning
transcends social rules and standards
___ 20. relinquishing the dependencies of
childhood while taking increasing
responsibility for the self
Answer Key
Multiple Choice Questions
1. d 11. b 21. a
2. c 12. c 22. d
3. a 13. b 23. a
4. b 14. b 24. a
5. a 15. b 25. d
6. b 16. c
7. a 17. c
8. b 18. c
9. c 19. c
10. a 20. b
True/False Questions
1. F 11. T 21. T
2. T 12. F 22. T
3. F 13. F 23. F
4. F 14. T 24. F
5. F 15. F 25. T
6. T 16. T 26. F
7. T 17. T 27. T
8. F 18. F 28. F
9. T 19. F 29. F
10. T 20. F 30. T
Matching Questions
1. h 11. t
2. m 12. a
3. l 13. e
4. b 14. q
5. g 15. r
6. n 16. i
7. c 17. o
8. e 18. s
9. j 19. p
10. k 20. f