Almost every country in the world has a proper distinction between a minor and adults used to conduct legal purposes. In the United States, the distinction between adults and minors became quite apparent when the Supreme Court considered cases of involving the legal status of juveniles. From then on, the legal status of juveniles has undergone scrutiny by psychological sciences where there has been discussion about the policies set for juveniles. All developed societies today have a distinction between adults and minors and this creates a distinction regarding who is permitted to purchase alcohol, drive, and vote. While this applies to all societies, there have been issues regarding whether if arrested, the minor should be tried as an adult. There are those that observe that there should be no distinction between childhood and adulthood while others provide psychological evidence regarding the evidence. The analysis of psychological development is useful in setting public policy by showing that adolescents have a difference in emotional and cognitive development compared to adults.
Analysis of the cognitive and emotional development of adolescents show that when compared to adults, they hda different levels of development. Steinberg et al. (2009) identified that adolescents develop cognitive ability earlier compared to the way they show social and emotional maturity. The study observes that adolescents would easily make logical and cognitive decisions such as terminating a pregnancy but would face difficulty in making decisions that require emotional and social maturity such as mitigating criminal responsibility. From the given analysis, the conclusion that the authors arrive at is that a separation line cannot be established between adulthood and adolescence. The observation is that there are different domains of functioning of the adolescent’s brain that is different from the adult’s brain that should be considered when making public policy.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The opinion that there are differences in cognitive and emotional development has been refuted by the opinion that logical and psychological brain functions develop along complex pathways. Fischer, Stein, and Heikkinen (2009) observed that cognitive abilities developed into adult stage and that psychosocial skils stop develop at the age of 16. The argument raised by the authors objected the observations held by Steinberg et al. (2009) and noted that the nature of their study involved a biased assessment and capturing only a segment of the pathway lead to a false observation in age patterns. The view has the implication of changing public policy as juveniles can be included in capital punishment because they have experienced psychosocial development from the time they were born.
While the arguments raised regarding the fact that development takes place through multifaceted and complex variables across different individuals may appear true, the arguments would not be useful in the legal context. Steinberg et al. (2009) responded to the arguments raised by Fischer et al. (2009) and observed that the arguments would not be helpful in the legal context. Steinberg et al. (2009) provide further evidence by showing that adolescents develop cognitive capabilities years before they experienced adult psychosocial maturity.
Analysis of Different Countries
The debate regarding whether cognitive and psychosocial development are different among adults and adolescents can be solved by analysis of different populations in order to remove bias. Icenogle et al. (2019) assessed 5,227 individuals that were from 11 countries. The study observed that cognitive capacity reached developed by age 16 and was similar to that of adults while psychosocial maturity fully developed at age 18. This created a clear maturity difference and gap existing between emotional and cognitive development. The study further noted that while juveniles may make deliberative and logical decisions at the age of 16, they may experience decision-making that could be labeled as “immature” when faced with arousing situations. The study concludes by observing that it would be reasonable to have the difference in age boundaries that should serve different legal purposes. The clear distinction should be made different for matters that involve cognitive capacity and different for matters where psychosocial maturity plays a role.
Hot and Cold Cognition
The difference in development has also been differentiated by referring to them as hot and cold cognition. Cold cognition denotes the mental processes that calls for the deliberation in high levels of emotion while hot cognition denotes the process where deliberation is unlikely or difficult as the it is in an affectively charged situation. Figner, Mackinlay, Wilkening, and Weber (2009) analyzed 13 to 19 year olds and observed the characteristics of their decision making abilities under hot and cold conditions. The studies showed that the need for arousal predicated risky behavior in the hot conditions while executive functions were used to predict the use of information in the cold condition. The results showed that there was a differential involvement in both the affective and deliberative processes indicating the difference in cognitive and emotional development.
Neuroimaging Studies
Neuroimaging studies have also been used to show that cognitive and emotional development occur at different ages. Cohen et al. (2016) made use of emotional and functional neuroimaging to be able to assess the impact of negative and positive arousal on cognitive control. The results from the studies showed that there was a reduced cognitive functioning under both prolonged and a brief negative arousal of emotions among adolescents age between 18 and 21 compared to adults that were above the age of 21. The specific reduction in performance of the neuroimaging studies showed that there was a decreased activity of the fronto-parietal circuitry which affected cognitive control Additionally, the study observed that there was an increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex that was involved in emotional processes (Cohen et al., 2016). These findings suggested that there was a developmental difference between the cognitive capacity and emotional situation that involved with dynamic changes in the structuring of the brain.
The studies showed that adolescence is a sensitive age as it is a time when decisions are vulnerable to emotional influences. One circumstance that can be used to set public policy is when adolescents have been involved in emotional arousal and social influences. The studies indicated that the emotional development of adolescents is different from that of the development of adults. Emotional development appeared to start taking place between the age of 18 and 21. Public policy should thus distinguish between cognitive and emotional development because adolescents have their cognitive and emotional development taking place at different ages. The supported point of view was that held by Steinberg because it was support with empirical data regarding neuroimaging of the brain.
In conclusion, cognitive and emotional development take place at different stages in the adolescent life and this should be used to dictate public policy. The analysis of the different studies indicated that while cognitive development may have developed through logical reasoning at the age of 16, emotional development did not take place until when an individual was about the age of 18. Adolescents remained thus vulnerable to negative influences in social and high arousal situations. While some studies observed that development is involved multifaceted and complex approach, this was not supported with adequate research. Public policy should thus consider the difference in cognitive and emotional development in adolescents. Adolescents should thus not be charged as adults in situations that experienced emotional and social pressures.
References
Cohen, A. O., Breiner, K., Steinberg, L., Bonnie, R. J., Scott, E. S., Taylor-Thompson, K., ... & Silverman, M. R. (2016). When is an adolescent an adult? Assessing cognitive control in emotional and nonemotional contexts. Psychological Science , 27 (4), 549-562.
Figner, B., Mackinlay, R. J., Wilkening, F., & Weber, E. U. (2009). Affective and deliberative processes in risky choice: age differences in risk taking in the Columbia Card Task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , 35 (3), 709.
Fischer, K. W., Stein, Z., & Heikkinen, K. (2009). Narrow assessments misrepresent development and misguide policy: Comment on Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, and Banich (2009).
Icenogle, G., Steinberg, L., Duell, N., Chein, J., Chang, L., Chaudhary, N., ... & Oburu, P. (2019). Adolescents’ cognitive capacity reaches adult levels prior to their psychosocial maturity: Evidence for a “maturity gap” in a multinational, cross-sectional sample. Law and human behavior , 43 (1), 69.
Steinberg, L., Cauffman, E., Woolard, J., Graham, S., & Banich, M. (2009). Are adolescents less mature than adults?: Minors' access to abortion, the juvenile death penalty, and the alleged APA" flip-flop.". American Psychologist , 64 (7), 583.
Steinberg, L., Cauffman, E., Woolard, J., Graham, S., & Banich, M. (2009). Reconciling the complexity of human development with the reality of legal policy: Reply to Fischer, Stein, and Heikkinen (2009).
