Similarities in brain development among kids and adolescents

Watch the video(s): Inside the Teenage Brain at the following website. The video is about 1 hour and broken down into sub-parts. Use the video and your textbook (Section 3: Structures of the Brain and Their Functions, and Section 5: Brain Damage, Plasticity, and Repair) to answer the items below.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/view/

The brain undergoes many changes during a child’s development.

List the similarities that occur in brain development when a child is young (including prenatally), .and when s/he is an adolescent. Be sure to address the following three areas

Brain growth
Pruning (to make brain more efficient)
Relationships

List the differences that occur in brain development when a child is young (including prenatally), .and when s/he is an adolescent.

Brain growth
Pruning (to make brain more efficient)
Relationships

In what ways do you feel your brain is still developing? Explain.

In what ways do you feel your brain has reached its potential? Explain.

SECTION II (15 points)

This section focuses on Moral Development. See section 6 of chapter 8 in your textbook.

This assignment involves two moral dilemmas. Read each scenario and answer the questions listed below the dilemmas.

Brian is really having difficulty on his organic chemistry exam. He is absolutely stumped on one of the problems, and he can feel his level of anxiety rising rapidly. He knows that if he can’t pass this one exam, he won’t pass the class. If he can’t pass this class, he won’t be getting into medical school. It will be the end of a life-long dream. Suddenly, he realizes that he can see Rochelle’s test paper clearly. She’s the best student in class and certainly has the right answer. He quickly and discretely copies her answer and then takes a big sigh of relief.

One morning Jane was driving to work, and as per usual she was running a bit late, so she drove about 15 miles per hour faster than the speed limit. Jane reached down to change the CD, when all of a sudden her car hit something solid. Jane’s car spun to a stop, but not before several more cars ran into her and each other in an attempt to avoid the accident.

As Jane looked up and out of her car, she saw that she had hit a person, and that the person is not looking very good. In fact, Jane is sure that the person is dead. Jane shakily got out of her car, and looked around at the damage that had been caused. Several cars were badly smashed up, but more importantly Jane realized that she had killed someone with her careless driving.

As Jane stood back in shock, a woman came up to her with tears running down her face, and obviously very shook up. As a natural reaction, Jane asked her what was wrong. She gave Jane a funny look, and then she explained that she just ran over someone. Jane asked her where this person is, and she pointed toward the person that Jane had run over!

Jane didn’t understand why, but for some reason this woman thought that she caused this accident and killed the person, when in fact Jane was well aware that she was the cause. As the paramedics and police arrived, the shook up woman told the authorities that she killed the person, and the police did not question the women’s claim since the body was thrown next to her car. Jane told the officers that she blacked out and did not remember what happened, and then remained quiet while the other woman claimed responsibility.

Describe Kohlberg’s Stage Theory, including a summary of each of the three levels.

For each dilemma, list all of the reasons you can think of for why the main character should have acted as s/he did, and then list all of the reasons you can think of for why this individual should not have acted as s/he did. When you think of reasons to list, keep in mind that it is not necessary that you agree with each reason. It is only necessary that the reasons offer a possible justification for the action. Also, keep in mind that in both cases, it is possible to think of many different reasons.
After you have listed all of the possible reasons for each dilemma, go back and classify each reason according to Kohlberg’s three levels of moral development (p 315 in textbook).

Look at the levels of reasons you provided and a) summarize the results; and b) describe your reactions to classifying the reasons to Kohlberg’s levels
- Did a particular level have more reasons than the others?
- Do you think that your results relate to the moral reasoning people use in real life?
Based on what you’ve learned about moral development, what advice would you give parents who are trying to teach their children about right and wrong?

Your assignment should be several (at least 5) paragraphs in length. Follow the American Psychological Association’s (APA) guidelines for writing a paper: 1 inch margins on top, bottom and both sides; 12 point font in Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier; double spaced (with no extra spaces between paragraphs), and left justified text. Write using YOUR OWN WORDS (no quotes, writing is from you alone) and make sure that your writing flows from one paragraph to another. Of course, check to make sure that your paper covers each question/concept and always proof-read your work. All this information is in your syllabus.) This assignment is worth 25 points, and will be graded on completeness, quality of content, and adherence to format requirements. Remember that points will be taken off for poor writing. See the Rubric for Written Work document at the bottom of the Bb page under Course Documents. Your writing mechanics will be corrected and you will be given two scores: one for the total points you earned and a second for the points you lost, based on your writing (clarity and logical flow, grammar and spelling errors, and sentence structure). To avoid losing any points on writing, please bring your completed assignment to the Noel Studio for Academic Creativity for help before you post it to Bb.

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Section 1

Similarities in brain development among kids and adolescents

A person’s brain developments during childhood and adolescent stages have several similarities. One of these similarities is that the brain development process is influenced by the environment that the individual is in. In childhood stage, brain changes as a result of repeated stimulation. These stimulations are usually brought about by the environment that the kid is in. At the adolescent stage, the combination of a person’s environment and unique brain usually influences the way in which an……………

APA

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