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  • Essay / A study on psychological development

    The following article reviews two studies in the field of developmental psychology; more specifically, it focuses on adolescent antisocial behavior. The researchers from these two studies published their results in reputable psychology journals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first study involved children in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The researchers interviewed 163 participants (72 men and 91 women). The survey listed 23 antisocial behaviors, and young adolescents indicated whether they had ever participated in each activity. Then, each subject indicated how often they had engaged in these activities over the past year. Due to significant differences between men's and women's responses to 33% of the yes/no questions, the researchers conducted factor analyzes by gender. This study found that there are many different reasons for adolescent antisocial behavior. Researchers found that adolescent males tended to be more violent than female adolescents. Women who engaged in violence did not direct their aggression toward individuals as men did. Antisocial women tended to engage in other types of deviant behavior, such as class cutting and drunkenness, more than their male counterparts. Additionally, men were more specialized in deviant behavior; the reasons for their actions seemed clearer. Men who engaged in violent behavior were different from those who engaged in property damage and other types of crimes. From the results of this research, it can be concluded that antisocial behavior is gender specific; men and women engage in different types of deviance. The second study had similar results; however, he went further in explaining the causes of adolescent antisocial behavior. Researchers conducted a longitudinal study of 314 third, fourth, and fifth grade students. Later, when these children entered ninth and tenth grades, the researchers returned to conduct more in-depth assessments. Eighty-five percent of initial participants did not participate in the second half of the study; however, the researchers conducted analyzes and found that these dropouts did not alter their results. Researchers used several types of tests. When initially studying the children, they used a peer social preference test, which asked children to rate their peers and decide which ones made good playmates. They also used the children's academic and behavioral ratings. teachers, in which teachers rated their students' academic performance, as well as the child's level of popularity among other children. In addition to these surveys, teachers completed Student Assessment Inventories (PEI) and the Walker McConnell (WMC) Social Competence and Academic Adjustment Scale for each student. The IEP is a list of 34 behaviors, and teachers check off all the behaviors that apply to each student. The WMC is a list of 43 behaviors, and teachers determine how often a child engages in deviant behavior, using a scale of one to five. The researchers also used classroom and playground observations. When studying adolescent children, researchers asked subjects to fill out surveys, contact authoritiesto obtain police records, conduct structured interviews with adolescents, and ask their participants' mothers to rate their children's problem behaviors using a scale similar to the self-report. investigation report. This study also detected a gender difference in antisocial behavior. Researchers found that men who reported fighting with peers and suffering peer rejection tended to be antisocial. Predictors of female antisocial behavior caused problems in lower grades and problems in school work. Both studies detected a gender difference in adolescent antisocial behavior; However, the first study focused more on the types of deviance each gender engages in while the second study dealt more with the predictors and reasons behind the behaviors. The first study briefly discussed the reasons. He said men tend to be clearer about why they participate in certain behaviors, while it's murkier about why a woman does it. The second article sort of says the same thing. It's easy to understand why a man becomes antisocial. Those who do were tormented by their peers when they were young. Due to the first persecutions, they go on a rampage. The behaviors don’t stop there; they continue until adolescence. In contrast, the antisocial behavior of adolescent girls seems to be more of a mystery. According to the second study, girls who become antisocial experienced academic problems and caused problems in the early years of school. They don't seem as deviant as their male counterparts. One reason for their behavior is academic problems, which seem unrelated. The first study concluded that female antisocial behavior was generally not violent and, if it was, it was not directly targeted at specific people. This may be because the root of the problem, as the second study suggests, is not personal in nature. The problem is academic failure, which undermines their self-esteem. Maybe they don't blame people for their faults, but they blame themselves. The researchers involved in the second study appear to have conducted their research using better means than the first group of researchers. The first study relies solely on adolescent students' responses to a survey. This is a one-time test and therefore cannot provide as much information as a longitudinal study. In addition, it only takes into account self-assessment. Even if the adolescents were completely honest in answering the questionnaire, they do not necessarily know themselves well enough to objectively evaluate their actions. A common phenomenon among individuals at this stage of life is adolescent egocentrism, where the individual feels that the world revolves around them. The adolescents participating in the study may not view their behaviors as deviant or harmful. They may underestimate the extent of the damage they cause through such behavior. In this article, I learned that there is clearly a gender difference in adolescent antisocial behavior. The studies, however, raise some questions. First, to what extent does nature influence the gender difference, and what kind of role does nurture play? Additionally, I wonder why poor academic performance causes women to behave antisocially, and why academic performance does not affect their male counterparts.