FIU Higher Rates of Depression in Early Childhood to Early Adolescence Discussion
I’m stuck on a Psychology question and need an explanation.
Please reply to the following posts (posts 1 and 2) 200 words each reply.
Post 1
In early childhood to early adolescence higher rates of depression is seen as an emotional trend. Gradually self-esteem increases in late adolescence and early childhood , a dip in self-esteem at puberty is found for children of every child of every ethnicity and gender. It’s been really transparent that more and more how children are finding themselves depressed. Some adolescents sink into major depression , a deep sadness and hopelessness that disrupts all normal regular activities. The cause of this is theories to be linked to genes and early care. Also puberty is something that may trigger myriad physical and emotional ups and downs. This may push vulnerable kids, especially girls to fall subject to this despair. Many adolescents repeatedly thinking and talking about past experience is called rumination; this can contribute to depression as well.
The second problem an adolescent may face is delinquency and defiance. A moody adolescents could be both depressed and delinquency because externalized and internalized behaviors are closely connected during that year. It has been seen that oftentimes adolescents have falsified about actually committing a crime before the age of 20. Why might this happen, due to brain immaturity it sort of like a pride they take up amongst peers, and others without understanding the severity of the long term consequences. There are other causes of delinquency such as stubbornness, for example children who run away fall victim to petty thieves or even prostitution. Shoplifting also can lead to arson and burglary, this where things become significant to them. Lastly but also something that happens a lot is bullying. Bullying can lead to crimes like assult , rape, and murder.
The last problem that an adolescent has is drug use and abuse. Hormonal surges, cognitive immaturity , and the brain’s reward make adolescents particularly attracted to psychoactive drugs. I agree with this because we can see an elevation in adolescents trying out drugs and even glorifying drugs. However things such as marijuana I feel is okay for an adolescent to try out because of its medical properties and it being a natural plant. Now I say this because as a teenager that is all my friends ever did and at one point my curiosity pulled me into trying it. Now it was an amazing experience, but there are many effects that each individual may encounter when taking such a plant , but if we look at more synthetic drugs I think that is the issue alot if adolescents face. Adolescents are in a sensitive time where experimenting, daily use, and eventual addiction of psychoactive drugs may be prevalent.
Describe methods that could be used to prevent each of them
There are quite a few methods I personally feel can help prevent some of these problems from happening. The best way to reduce adolescent crimes is to notice a change in behaviors as early as possible before puberty happens. Having strong and protected social relationships, emotional regulations, and moral values from childhood may keep many teenagers from jail. Now I’m not a parent but I am the oldest out of my siblings and one way I have been able to help my siblings from facing any problems is leading by example with my actions. I am not perfect and I am very transparent with my siblings and people around me, that people make mistakes but you have to learn from them. Another method is to have that open line of communication with adolescents at an early age so that they can build a level of comfortability with family members and friends. Also staying informed on certain topics and discussions that you can create with a teenager to open that level of dialogue. Lastly counseling is a great way to help prevent any problems from arising, having your child go to a counselor can help them with not only their daily changes in life but also outside factors that may influence or disturb their environment.
Post 2
Chapter 16 discusses some of the challenges and problems adolescents face during this stage. Some of these are not just mood swings, unsettling behavior, or just negative emotions. The challenges that adolescents face range from depression, delinquency and defiance and variations in drug use.
Depression is a disorder that causes feelings of loneliness, sadness, loss of interest and affects the individual’s feelings, thinking, and even their behavior. There are many reasons for teenagers to feel depressed. Depression affects each individual different depending on the culture, family dynamics and gender. Some adolescents experience major depression, this type of depression last two weeks or more. There’s also rumination which contributes to depression, it is repeatedly thinking and talking about past experiences. Girls tend to ruminate more than boys.
-Some ways to prevent depression in adolescents is for all parties involved in the child’s life, including parents, teachers, and community (soccer coach, club leaders etc) to have a partnership. Communication is crucial in this stage and a teenager not having anyone to count on makes it hard for them to get it out. School counselors should be more available to them and topics such as these should be discussed more often with them.
Delinquency and Defiance is another problem adolescents face. This problem is a combination of bouts of anger and “acting out” by breaking the law. Research shows that boys are three times more likely to be caught, arrested, convicted than girls. There are two types of teenage lawbreakers. Adolescence-limited offenders these juvenile delinquent criminal activity stops at age 21. The other is life-course-persistent offenders, a person’s whose criminal activity begins in early adolescence and continues throughout life, a career criminal.
-Some ways to prevent Delinquency and defiance is having a childhood family relationship since very young, especially for girls. Another way is strengthening human relationship and moral education. Also, parents being involved and attentive to their children helps in reducing or preventing Delinquency and Defiance from their teenager.
The third is Variations in Drug Use, teenage years is a sensitive time for experimentation of drugs. Drug use before full development is likely to harms the body and brain growth. Adolescents deny that they will become addicted to the drug(s). Early use and abuse of drugs makes depression, sexual abuse, bullying and addiction more likely (Merikangas & McClair, 2012; Mennis & Mason, 2012).
-Education and intervention are a great prevention for variations in drug use and abuse. Educating kids when they are young helps at least to understand why you shouldn’t use drugs. Not advertising alcohol or cigarettes products on any media, as Canada is doing can also help. Parent involvement is also crucial because if parents have a great relationship with the teenager, then the parent can share information and give advice to their child.
For the following posts (posts 3,4) 70 words each reply.
Post 3
Psychologists like Pavlov, Thorndyke, Watson, and Skinner dedicated part of their work to the Behavioral Theory of Addiction. They agreed on the idea that all behavior is learned thus lending credence to an environmental perspective. There are three modes of behavioral control: The pavlovian approach, Goal-directed action, and Habit. Pavlovian approach refers to environmental stimuli associated with reward. Goal-directed action consists of repeated stimulation that leads to increased activity. Continued behavior regardless of consequences refers to Habit.
There are five aspects of use addressed by the Behavioral Theory: Initiation, Continuation, Addiction, Recovery, and Relapse. Initiation may occur when an individual’s coping abilities are overwhelmed. Social Learning Theory states that substance abuse is a function of positive norms, expectations, and modeling from family members and peers. The continuation aspect sees the client has dependent on a positive feeling or reward. Self-medicate and other chemicals can perform as reinforces. Meanwhile, the addiction aspect is sustained by habit and reinforcement.
The change aspect, also known as Recovery, implicates a behavior change. This aspect breaks the habit and replaces rewards gained by constant use. There different ways to break the habit. One way is to present the stimulus continued until a negative result is obtained. Another way is to present the stimulus several times until the individual learns not to respond in the usual way. Additionally, the habit can be substituted by a new habit that is non-destructive like a hobby, a sport, or a religion.
The relapse aspect of use involved situational antecedents, which can be a time, place, a specific person, or emotional status. Antecedents are important to determine the cause of the behavior. Additionally, in this aspect, the cognitive behavior process is based on the interaction between the person and their environment. There are three categories for triggers: drinking a small amount of alcohol, exposure to alcohol-related cues, and stress.
Post 4
Drug experimentation might be viewed by behaviorists as a function of undesirable behaviors caused by the weak or absent social controls, such as deviant friends or lack of supervision. For example, a rebellious kid takes a puff of a cigarette even though he or she has been told never to smoke. Individuals might try a drug to succumb to the perceived rewards of drug use, for example, a teenager who drinks alcohol for the first time as an initiation to be part of a peer group. Therefore, initial use of a drug may occur when an individual’s coping abilities through the interaction of personality sets, learned responses, and current circumstances, are overwhelmed.
Continued use is generally seen as dependent on a positive experience or other reward, such as group inclusion or relief from anxiety, though researchers are beginning to examine whether the chemicals themselves act to enforce the continued use of the drug. The release of dopamine acts as a positive reinforcement for drugs because many drugs have the ability to increase the opening in synapses made in various parts of the brain. Essentially substances can cause a person to feel good because of the dopamine release thus resulting in both a positive reinforcement and a positive association between the feeling good and the substance. This works on several levels not just within the brain but behaviorally. The substance user will continue to use even though it is clearly causing problems.
The loss of control over substance use is not experienced by all people and those with a high behavioral impulsivity trait might accelerate from action to habit to substance use disorders more frequently than those without the high impulsivity traits. Addictive behavior is maintained by reinforcement. Several principles of reinforcement are active in behavior formation and maintenance including addictive behaviors. The more rewarding a positive and experiences degraded the likelihood that the behavior leading to that experience would be repeated. The greater the frequency of obtaining positive experiences through drug consumption, the more likely that drugs will be consumed again.
Recovery involves a change to break the cyclical pattern of substance abuse and may include replacing the rewards game by continued use. One way to break a habit is to present the drug to the individual until negative effects results or aversive conditioning. A second way to break a habit is to introduce the drug selectively until the user learns overtime not to respond in a habitable manner. Finally, the last way to break a habit is to replace it with a new habit “switching drugs” is commonly reported by individuals in recovery and may include overeating, a relationship dependency, sexual compulsions, or even use of another drug. In this case treatment would focus on searching for rewards that are non-destructive such as hobbies, exercise, education, support groups, and spirituality.
The drug user’s whole life is dominated by drug related activities, planning to use, talking about it, and being with other users. Therefore, it is not surprising that the treatment is difficult. Personality motivation and habits are particularly important in bringing about a relapse to drug usage. There is a spontaneous recovery of behaviors learned in the past with motivation to abstain becomes weaker than the motivation to use drugs. Unable to feel good without drugs for months during withdrawal an individual gets immediate reinforcement from drug taking behavior.
