LEARNING OUTCOME 10.8 Justify ways in which thinking skills can be developed and fostered
during adolescence.
Thinking — the mental manipulation of information — undergoes significant changes during adolescence,
as witnessed in Piaget’s reasoning tasks. The attainment of formal operations allows a marked
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expansion in the thinking skills of adolescents, which are applied not only in the school setting but in
non-academic, practical and social situations as well.
Adolescence is a period characterised by increased problem-solving activity, as adolescents are faced
with numerous challenges. They may be asked to respond to problems as distinctive as analysing the
impact of the Napoleonic wars on the development of European political systems, to fixing the exhaust
on the secondhand car they have bought, to working out how best to resolve a conflict with their best
friend over liking the same boy in their class.
Critical thinking
One aspect of thinking during adolescence, critical thinking, has received particular attention from
theorists and researchers. Critical thinking involves thinking reflectively and creatively; keeping one’s
mind open to new possibilities and viewpoints; exploring the profound meanings of ideas and issues; and
making personal commitments to beliefs, after deep reflection (Brooks & Brooks, 2001; Keating & Sasse,
1996). The cognitive processes that contribute to the development of critical thinking during adolescence
include greater speed, automaticity and capacity for information processing, a greater knowledge base
in wide-ranging knowledge domains, increased ability to combine different pieces of knowledge, and
a greater number and usage of strategies and metacognitive abilities. The elements essential to critical
thinking include King and Kitchener’s (1994) fundamentals.
- Basic operations of reasoning. To think critically, a person must be able to apply logical argument,
classify, deduce conclusions, and generalise from the specific to the universal and vice versa. - Domain-specific knowledge. In applying reasoning to a problem in a specific area, an individual first
needs to understand certain facts or possess knowledge about the topic. For example, to evaluate a
proposal for a fairer system of taxation, a student would need to understand the elements and operations
of the existing tax system. - Metacognitive knowledge. Effective critical thinking requires metacognitive monitoring, with individuals
evaluating when and if they fully understand a concept or a problem, knowing if they need more
or new information, and predicting the degree of effort involved in gathering and learning new information. - Values, beliefs, and dispositions. Thinking critically means valuing fairness and objectivity. It means
having confidence that thinking does lead to solutions. It also means having a persistent and reflective
disposition when thinking.
Research has found that secondary students understand these elements of critical thinking and
increasingly see it as a legitimate goal in their schooling (Nicholls, Nelson, & Gleaves, 1995). From
figure 10.5, it is apparent that memorisation as a strategy for learning is seen as less legitimate
for students in the early secondary years, compared to primary school students. Indeed, secondary
school students in Nicholls et al.’s (1995) study felt that critical thinking was more likely than
memorisation to excite students about their studies, and would stimulate them more in peer-based
learning.
The greater value placed on critical thinking skills may be a function of both the cognitive development
of adolescence and the more complex academic material and intellectual tasks that high school
students must deal with. Early in adolescence, critical thinking is only beginning to emerge, and young
teenagers often display a self-serving bias, where they are able to apply emerging logic and reasoning
skills more easily to ideas that they have reservations about, than to those which they trust and initially
favour (Klaczynski & Narasimham, 1998). Thus, at the beginning of this developmental period, adolescents
have a less objective and open-minded approach to ideas than later in their teenage years.
Critical thinking is a skill that must be learned and practised in order for it to develop, and is highly
dependent on a solid base of more fundamental verbal and numerical skills established during childhood.
Without a firm intellectual base, critical thinking is unlikely to develop during the high school
years (Keating, 2004). Past studies have shown that fewer than 50 per cent of Year 11 students develop
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effective critical thinking skills (Klaczynski & Narasimham, 1998). Addressing this issue, high schools
in Western industrialised nations such as Australia and New Zealand now place a high value on critical
thinking, and educators are devising more school-based programs to foster the qualities needed for critical
thinking. Indeed, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (2011) lists critical
and creative thinking as one of the seven general capabilities to be fostered by the Australian National
Curriculum.
FIGURE 10.5 Students’ ratings of appropriateness of critical thinking as a goal of schooling
Older students increasingly perceived critical thinking to be a more appropriate goal of schooling
than did younger students, whereas the obverse was found for memorisation as a learning strategy
and educational goal. These results are probably a reflection of the burgeoning cognitive skills of
adolescents, and the more complex intellectual tasks of secondary school.
5
4
3
2
1
0
1–2 3–4 5–6
School year level
Very
unfair
Very fair
Rating of fairness
7–8
Fairness of emphasising
individual memorisation
Fairness of emphasising
critical thinking
Source: Adapted from Nicholls et al. (1995).
Programs vary in the thinking skills they emphasise and the degree to which they are integrated into
the school curriculum, with some programs taught as a stand-alone subject — much like English or
maths — drawing content from several subject areas. Alternatively, critical thinking is taught as part of
a subject, such as English literature. Experts agree on several general principles that enhance the quality
of critical thinking programs in schools. Firstly, critical thinking should be taught directly and explicitly,
since it does not develop by osmosis (Keefe & Walberg, 1992). Without an understanding of critical
thinking skills, students will experience difficulty in learning such skills from observing a teacher using
them. Secondly, good stand-alone programs for teaching critical thinking offer plenty of practice in solving
actual problems, since describing the elements of critical thinking alone does not turn students into
skilful thinkers. To accommodate the need for extended practice, the most successful educational programs
last at least a full academic year, and often extend thinking skills into other subjects to broaden the
effects of the program. Thirdly, successful programs create an environment conducive to critical thinking.
Teachers should model important critical thinking skills, by thinking aloud while they explain a solution
to a problem. Teachers should also convey confidence in students’ thinking ability while stimulating open
and constructive criticism of ideas. A useful technique is to reverse roles, inviting different students to
act as a teacher or a constructive critic (Slavin, 1995). Most critical thinking programs tend to minimise
traditional bookwork, in favour of active instruction that gives students on-the-spot feedback about the
quality of their thinking processes.
The role of information technology in the development of critical thinking has recently been recognised.
For example, the Australian School Library Association states that ‘A national digital information
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literacy focus within the Australian National Curriculum will enable progressive development of individual
skills to a higher level of thinking, creativity and innovation’ (Bonano, Wall, & Clarke, 2011, p. 4).
At a practical level, widespread computer use in most secondary school subjects can also have a significant
impact on the development of critical thinking skills. In a study of West Australian adolescents,
McMahon (2009) found a significant correlation between the use of computer technology and the development
of critical thinking skills in Year 9 students. Moreover, the greater their technological skill level,
the greater was the degree of higher level thinking. McMahon conjectures that information technology
expertise — including an understanding of Boolean logic, top-down approaches to solving problems and
exploring data manipulation from novel dimensions—all impact general critical thinking skills that were
manifest at a tertiary level in this study. McMahon found a positive and significant correlation between the
length of use of computer technology from primary school onwards and critical thinking skills in Year 9.
So, long-term access to computer technology and concomitant skills in finding information from a wide
range of sources might also contribute to the attainment of critical thinking skills during adolescence.
Following a comprehensive literature review, Carmichael and Farrell (2012) undertook a case study to
review the development of critical thinking skills of university students using a website. It was concluded
that success in developing critical thinking skills is dependent on the development levels of the students,
as well as their experience and engagement with the technology.
Critical thinking programs draw heavily on research findings and theories of cognitive development
concerning the adolescent years. One important theoretic foundation for critical thinking programs is
Piaget’s cognitive–developmental theory, with its focus on the development of logic and reasoning.
Information-processing theory, with its focus on specific ways of organising ideas and coordinating
new ideas with pre-existing ones, is also an important theoretical guide to designing such programs.
Moreover, the social and cultural context of cognitive development in adolescence is vital in understanding
how other people and social settings affect thinking during adolescence. For instance, in
multicultural classrooms, such as those in many Australian and New Zealand secondary schools,
cultural differences and misunderstandings can complicate teachers’ efforts to encourage critical
thinking skills.
Decision making
Another type of thinking that is a particular focus for development during adolescence is decision making.
As a transitional period between childhood and adolescence, the teenage years call for an increased level
and frequency of decision making, including issues such as subject choices in school and whether to
take on a part-time job, and the sort of employment to pursue; as well as many health-related decisions,
including whether to experiment with drugs or reject them, and when or whether to embark on sexual
relationships. Thus, decision-making ability can be vital to the future wellbeing and vocational success
of many teenagers.
A theory that is central to decision making is Tversky and Kahneman’s (1974) prospect theory, which
deals with individuals’ assessments of risk in decision making. The theory proposes decision-making
behaviour that is dependent upon the individual’s perceptions of the balance between potential risks and
potential gains. These behaviours can be seen on many television game shows. For example, risk-aversive
behaviour is demonstrated when a contestant opts to secure a more certain money prize which is a lower
amount than a bigger prize that has less chance of being secured. On the other hand, a contestant might
be confronted with a situation where they are certain to lose a particular prize amount and alternatively
they are then offered a fifty–fifty chance of losing this same amount or even shorter odds (i.e. a greater
chance) of losing a much larger amount. In such situations, people will often opt for a greater chance of
losing the much larger amount rather than opting for less chance of losing the smaller amount. This is
termed risk-seeking behaviour. Prospect theory is relevant to the period of adolescence, because it is a
period of experimentation and hence risk-taking. This theory may therefore help to explain some of the
risk-seeking behaviours seen in teenagers.
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Adolescent learner drivers often display greater improvements in cognitive driving skills than adult learner drivers, but
the over-representation of young people in the road death toll suggests the skills are not translated to everyday driving.
One of the most important findings connected to the theory is that it is perceptions of risk that are
most important in decision making, regardless of the actuality of the risk involved. Research has demonstrated
that the actual risks of death and injury posed by natural causes (such as heart disease) tend to
be underestimated, while those posed by unnatural causes (such as homicide) tend to be overestimated
(Bernstein, 1996). Moreover, Tversky and Kahneman (1974) argue that recognition of risk-related cognitive
biases of various kinds is crucial in understanding individuals’ decision-making processes. Biases due
to retrievability of instances are relevant to risk-taking behaviour; for example, when personal perceptions
of the probability of having a motor accident are increased by seeing an accident along the highway. Such
biases may be employed to good effect in road safety training courses, where the salience of accidents
is increased by having motor accident victims present their histories, or by taking participants to police
compounds where wrecked vehicles are impounded.
Despite the presence of cognitive biases that may spuriously influence decision making, rendering it
less than objective, research has shown that decision-making competency increases with age over the
period of adolescence. Teenagers are increasingly able to generate different options, to view them from
different perspectives, to accurately predict outcomes, and to critically evaluate the credibility of different
sources of information (Keating, 2004). However, decision making is generally easier when emotional
arousal is low. The tendency for emotional intensity to be higher during the teenage years means that
adolescent decision making is often clouded by feelings, and so is less open to rationality and thus more
susceptible to the cognitive biases outlined by prospect theory (Dahl, 2004). As well, simply having the
cognitive capability to make decisions does not necessarily mean that they will in fact be carried out.
An example of this type of dissonance can be seen in driver training, when a considerable number
of technical decisions — such as when to make a right-hand turn, whether to let another motorist have
right of way and how far away to place the car from a motorist in front — have to be made in a short
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time period. Driver training courses often show course-specific improvements in adolescents’ cognitive
driving skills that are frequently superior to the improvements made by adults. However, road tolls generally
involve a disproportionate number of young drivers — attesting to a lack of translation of these
skills to the everyday driving habits of adolescents. How adolescents manage decision making in actual
driving situations and other decision-making settings needs further investigation (Fantino & Stolarz-
Fantino, 2005).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Investigate how the Australian National Curriculum fosters critical thinking skills. Which particular areas of
the curriculum have this as a goal? How successful do you think teachers will be in implementing these
skills?
10.9 Moral development
LEARNING OUTCOME 10.9 Provide a critique of how theorists conceptualise moral development.
Abbey was looking forward to the end-of-year school social. Boys from two nearby schools were officially
invited to attend the social, and many of Abbey’s friends had already been invited by boys they knew.
Abbey did not have a date for the evening. She did not really know any boys that well, apart from the
friends her younger brother Nicholas brought home. But they were far too young — she would not even
consider inviting one of her kid brother’s friends along and make herself a laughing stock. She thought it
was better to go alone and just take her chance on finding a date on the night. Aside from looking forward
to it, she was also feeling a bit apprehensive about the social. What if all her friends were with boys?
Who would she hang out with? It could be really embarrassing. Her friend Maria was boasting about the
boy that had invited her already — he was really good looking and was a very good single-sculls rower.
Maria was already referring to James as her boyfriend. She told Abbey that they had been to the movies
together a few times, and she often hung out with James and his friends on the weekends.
Abbey’s mother dropped her off outside the door of the school hall where the social was being held.
Abbey was feeling apprehensive, but then she spotted Maria waving to her from the far side of the hall.
She crossed quickly to where Maria was standing, and there in front of her was one of the most handsome
boys she had ever seen. He had the sort of athletic body she had always admired. Maria introduced her
to James. Abbey and James had plenty to talk about, both being involved in exercise. During the evening
James smiled at Abbey many times. Even when he was dancing with Maria, James kept glancing at Abbey
in a manner that made her feel like she was the only person in the room. When he asked her to dance he
got so close that her whole body felt electrified, and when he said goodnight after the social, he looked
at her in a very meaningful way. Abbey hoped that Maria had not noticed. The next day Abbey received
a telephone call. It was James. He wanted to meet with her alone at the local park.
In making a decision regarding whether she should meet with James, Abbey had to consider her own
desires and feelings, as well as her rights and responsibilities, what she understood as ethical standards,
her own behavioural expectations and the relationship between herself and other people, including her
best friend, Maria. The decision she would make and the justification she would find for her decision
involves a cognitive process called moral reasoning. Moral reasoning is the process of applying reasoning
to situations and decisions that involve right and wrong. Moral reasoning changes developmentally,
giving rise to qualitatively distinctive responses depending on the age of the individual. Thus, children,
adolescents and adults show different levels of moral development.Moral development not only involves
the cognitive component of moral reasoning, but also changes in moral or ethical behaviour, and changing
feelings about moral matters. Abbey was experiencing all of these aspects in the situation she was
faced with.
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The cognitive component of moral development has been studied extensively, first by Piaget. In his
landmark book The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932), Piaget concentrated on moral development in
young children. The developmental stages identified by Piaget are described in the chapter on physical and
cognitive development in early childhood. Elkind based his research on egocentrism on Piaget’s work,
and then Kohlberg and Gilligan later extended Piaget’s original formulations about morality within a
cognitive–developmental context to later stages of development, including adolescence. Elkind, Kohlberg
and Gilligan’s work is now discussed in detail.
Elkind’s egocentrism
Elkind’s research built on the theory of Piaget. He completed extensive research in the areas of perceptual,
cognitive, and social development. Self-absorption is fairly typical of adolescents. During the
teenage years, young people seem preoccupied with their own thoughts, feelings and issues. Elkind (1978)
labelled teenage self-absorption as adolescent egocentrism, and recognised two phenomena that help
to explain the egocentric behaviours displayed during adolescence. The imaginary audience describes
teenagers’ preoccupation with the reactions of others. In exercising their new-found perspective-taking
ability, they often fail to differentiate between how they feel about themselves and how others feel about
them, confusing the two points of view. The personal fable is a notion that the adolescent’s own life
embodies a special story that is both heroic and completely unique (Elkind, 1985). Adolescents may
believe that they are destined for fame and fortune by virtue of what they consider to be an unparalleled
combination of personal charm and talent. This inflated opinion by adolescents of their own importance
and spurious notions of their total and absolute uniqueness is often accompanied by an idea that no-one
else can possibly understand them, particularly their parents (Elkind, 1994). The personal fable can lead
to unrealistic ambitions and to inevitable failures that may plunge adolescents into the depths of despair.
As well, when combined with sensation-seeking, the personal fable may give rise to beliefs of invincibility
and, thus, risk-taking behaviours, such as unprotected sex, experimentation with drugs and dangerous
driving (Greene et al., 2000).
American psychologist Jean Twenge has recently expanded Elkind’s original notions about adolescent
egocentrism, sounding social alarm bells in her bestselling book Generation Me (2006). Based on her
research into self-esteem, depression and anxiety in late adolescents and young adults, Twenge found
that generation Y was significantly higher in narcissistic traits than were baby boomers or generation X.
The data were the responses of 16 000 United States college students to the Narcissistic Personality
Inventory between 1982 and 2006 (Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, 2008). Based on
these generational analyses, Twenge (2006) maintains that today’s youth have become unhealthily selffocused
to the point of narcissism. Young people now hold dangerously unrealistic beliefs about their
‘specialness’, importance and uniqueness; and have developed a sense of entitlement that has little hope
of fulfilment in the social and economic climate of today. In a follow-up volume with co-author W. Keith
Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic (2009), Twenge expands her narcissism thesis to Western society in
general, and to age groups other than adolescents and young adults. The authors claim that narcissism
has risen alarmingly, based on contemporary surveys of 37 000 American college students. In support
of this contention, Twenge and Campbell also cite sociological evidence of a quantum shift in Western
society’s values to encompass the ‘me’ culture — a fivefold increase in plastic surgery in the last decade,
the rise of Facebook and other self-promoting social media, the ubiquity of reality TV shows that promise
instant public recognition, and the endorsement of celebrity cults with ‘famous-for-being-famous’ people
achieving prominence that is no longer linked to any kind of achievement (such as the Kardashians
and Paris Hilton). Individual examples of excessive self-absorption are also provided in The Narcissism
Epidemic, such as a teenager wanting a major road blocked to traffic so that a marching band could
precede her entrance on a red carpet to her sixteenth birthday party.
Psychologists argue that a certain amount of narcissism is healthy and essential for personal development
and vocational advancement (e.g. Boyd, 2010). However, certain narcissistic traits — such as
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unreasonable demands and expectations of others, lack of empathy, grandiosity, status-seeking, superficial
and manipulative interpersonal styles, materialism, and avoidance of effort — all compromise individual
adjustment and interpersonal relationships. At their extreme, narcissistic traits can manifest as a serious
personality disorder. Twenge and Campbell provide evidence of a rising malaise in youth, with increased
rates of anxiety and depression, as well as impoverished social relationships, linking this phenomenon to
the concomitant rise in narcissism (Twenge, 2000; Twenge & Campbell 2001, 2008).
Twenge and Campbell (2009) lay the blame for the increase in narcissism squarely at the feet of the selfesteem
movement which began in the 1970s and burgeoned in the following decades. Concern over low
self-esteem and its detrimental consequences spurred parents and educators to build children’s self-esteem
with messages of their ‘specialness’, and to bestow rewards on them in the absence of any achievement.
However, the authors argue that such a regime primes adolescents and young adults for disappointment
and disillusionment, when their inflated expectations are inconsistent with the reality of everyday life
challenges and failures. Thus, the self-esteem movement, according to Twenge and Campbell, has
resulted in increased depression and anxiety — the detrimental outcomes that it originally sought to
diminish.
Twenge and Campbell’s thesis has not gone unchallenged. Reviewers of the The Narcissism Epidemic
criticise its somewhat simplistic association between the self-esteem movement and today’s narcissism
and accompanying social ills. For example, the increase in depression and anxiety in young people
today is likely to be influenced by multiple factors at both individual and societal levels, not simply
the result of a disappointed and over-inflated ego. Moreover, Trzesniewski, Donnellan, and Robins
(2008) challenged Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, and Bushman’s (2008) findings with results
that indicated no significant generational changes in narcissism between 1982 and 2008. Twenge and
colleagues have responded by pointing out confounds in Trzesniewski et al.’s analysis. Re-analysing
the data to correct for this anomaly, they have found persistent generational increases in narcissism
(Twenge, 2010).
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Controversies aside, the question remains as to whether the demonstrated generational increases in
narcissism are indeed a phenomenon of concern, indicating increasing psychopathology in today’s youth.
Perhaps it should be viewed within the context of the developmental experience of ‘generation me’ —
an experience that differs greatly from that of previous generations, who showed much lower levels of
narcissism. Young people in the twenty-first century, unlike their parents and grandparents, have grown
up with terrorism as a daily event, the AIDS epidemic, the global financial crisis, and increasing uncertainty
about the future. In the face of such overwhelming challenges, perhaps an inward self-focus is
understandable.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Twenge and Campbell’s findings focus on American adolescents and young adults. Do you think their
concerns about adolescent narcissism should extend to Australian youth? Investigate Australian research
in this area to evaluate the cross-cultural applicability of the assertions found in The Narcissism Epidemic.
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