Soc Dev Research Psy 211

Social Development Research

Jarred Pacheco

PSY/211

January 27, 2011

Week 3

Sarah James-Felton

MWFYS04

I chose this topic and article because I have been interested in the way the brain works and how our brain changed when we age and mature.

Development during Adolescence of the Neural Processing of Social Emotion.

Adolescence

* The period of social and psychological development during which social awareness and behavior undergo profound change as well as alterations in hormone levels and social environment.

* Another possible cause of these changes in social behavior could be the anatomical development in brain areas involved in social cognition, including the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), the superior cortex, and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ).

Social emotions

* Social emotions are defined as emotions that require the representation of mental states.

* Examples are embarrassment, guilt, shame, and pride.

* In order to feel embarrassment you must represent someone else’s belief that you have acted foolishly. In contrast, basic emotions such as disgust and fear only require the awareness of one’s own somatic state.

Brain activity between adolescence and adulthood during social emotion processing

* FMRI study was designed to investigate whether a similar developmental change in activation pattern occurs for metalizing in an emotional context.

* Investigations in changes in brain activity between adolescence and adulthood during social emotion processing show that different parts of the brain are used when making social decisions in adolescence than the parts used in adult hood.

References

Burnett, Stephanie, Geoffrey Bird, Jorge Moll, Chris Frith, and Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. 2009. "Development during Adolescence of the Neural Processing of Social Emotion." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 21, no. 9: 1736-1750. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 27, 2011)....