Developmental psychology/Chapter 11/Cognitive Development

Contrary to Piaget's findings, cognitive developments take place even after the age of 18.

Postformal thought - more "practical, flexible, dialectical" than formal operational. They combine "emotional/pragmatic aspects" to their "abstract thinking". They use both thinkings, intuitive and analytical, a lot wiser than teenagers do. It is more practical and contains wiser and more critical thinking compared to a teenager's way of emotionally and impulsively reacting.

This is proven since young adults take decisions contrary to their cultures, such as racial prejudice and marriage age. Rational thoughts overcome emotional thoughts, such as unnoticed racism vs. racial tolerance. Some might, unfortunately, fall down into a stereotype threat, where one may change their behavior or appearance so they are not stereotyped. The idea of the possibility of being stereotyped hinders cognition by increasing anxiety, compromises the hippocampus, clogs memory, and finally: disrupts the brain.

"Steele suspected that African American males who know the stereotype that they are poor scholars will become anxious in educational settings. Their anxiety may increase stress hormones that reduce their ability to respond to intellectual challenges.

"Then, if they score low, they protect their pride by denigrating academics. They come to believe that school doesn’t matter, that people who are “book smart” are not “street smart.” That belief leads them to disengage from high school and college, which results in lower achievement. The greater the threat, the worse they do".

"When star athletes unexpectedly underperform (called “choking”), stereotype threat arising from past team losses may be the cause".

Benefit of college?

College has historically been a place of increased cognition. It also improves health and wealth. The longer one is in college and stays in the workforce field, their estimated monetary sum increases. Schools with the lowest graduation rates are popular because of the intuitive thinking of teens and their marketing strategies. Money is a motivating factor for college dropouts & parental SES is the biggest factor when deciding if someone will attain a degree or not. High SES --> most likely, and the opposite is true.

The difference between a freshman and senior's way of thinking:

• The freshman thinks in absolutes, yes/no, right/wrong [simplistic dualism]
• The senior realizes the different perspectives and are open for thinking - believe that professors are not the end point of education [relativism]

Scientist William Perry (1980s) found that college did a good job at advancing one's thinkings based on his studies.

Now... are his studies still relevant?

There are a lot of arguments against Perry's findings. Through modern studies, students study less and do less work and even skip classes. This leads to less knowledge gained. The approach of the college system may also play a role into decreasing knowledge exhibited by college students. Being motivated to go to college is crucial to doing well and graduating. For many students, the "goal of college is" financial or for social reasons vs. cognitive reasons. Some people may believe that learning the skill set needed for a desired job is a much more valuable goal than college.

Colleges are a lot more diverse. This can lead to cognitive advances through deep dialogue between various groups of people. Colleges are a lot more diverse than they were 20 years ago. An example of this is the acceptance of homosexuals.