Which of the following are the social characteristics of Adolescents? A.…

Concept

Developmental characteristics are classified by the main process they express. Social development concerns relationships, group belonging, cooperation, influence, and participation with other people.

Cognitive development instead concerns internal mental processes such as imagination, memory, reasoning, and abstraction. The same adolescent may develop in both domains, but each listed characteristic is classified by its dominant process.

Application

1. Development of imagination concerns forming and manipulating mental representations, so it is primarily a cognitive characteristic.

2. Group loyalty expresses identification with and commitment to a peer group, a relationship-based social characteristic.

3. Development of leadership concerns influencing, coordinating, and taking responsibility within a group, so it is social.

4. Development of memory concerns encoding, retaining, and recalling information, so it is primarily cognitive.

5. Increase in friendly relationships concerns widening and deepening interpersonal bonds, so it is social.

Contrast

• B, C and E only contains the three relationship- and group-oriented characteristics without adding the cognitive characteristics.

• A, C and D only combines the group-oriented leadership characteristic with imagination and memory, which are cognitive processes.

• A, B, C and D only includes two cognitive processes, imagination and memory, along with the group-oriented characteristics.

• D and E only combines the cognitive process of memory with the interpersonal development of friendly relationships.

Cross-check

Applying the classification criterion, B involves group belonging, C involves influence within a group, and E involves interpersonal bonds; A and D involve mental processing. Therefore, the social characteristics are B, C and E only.