Explain from a Social, Cognitive and Physical Development Perspective Why Adolescents Are Susceptible to Poor Decision-Making.

722 Words3 Pages
Asking why adolescents are susceptible to poor decision making is a very broad question. Dividing it into three main areas and looking at these should make it a lot easier for us to grasp. The areas that will be discussed in the essay are why poor decision making occurs from social, cognitive and physical development perspectives. During adolescents people have many large decisions to make that can affect them later on in life. Understanding what affects decisions is vital if we are to gain an insight to an adolescent’s life. In order to speak about adolescents and decision making we must first understand the meanings of both terms. Miller and Byrnes describe decision making as a process in which a person chooses a course of action when having two or more to choose from while pursing their goals (2001). An adolescent is described as a young person in the process of developing from a child to an adult. This should help us understand better what we are discussing. The first area to look at is the physical side as this is one where major changes occur in an adolescent body. During puberty we mature sexually and are inundated with hormones that cause us to rapidly develop physically. As adolescents begin to mature their frontal lobes are also developing and with these developments we have improved judgment, impulse control and are able to plan for the long term (Myers 2012, p.199). Obviously something that would seriously affect decision making is not having the ability to plan for the future. This would cause people to make decisions based on how it affects them at the time and not how it could affect them in the future. From a cognitive development stage viewpoint as an adolescent we are learning to think about what others are thinking and imagining what people are thinking about them. While maturing many begin thinking about an ideal world and comparing that to
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