3-103 - The New Science of Adolescent Behavioral Change: Psychological and Hormonal Methods for Leveraging Social Motivation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Adolescence is a maturational period characterized by heightened social motivations, such as the motivations for social status, autonomy, and respect (Blakemore, 2008; Crone & Dahl, 2012; Somerville, 2013; Steinberg, 2014), stemming in part from a surge in testosterone, a marker of pubertal maturation. Often, adolescent social motives are thought to work against adult-sanctioned behavior, as when a concern for social status leads adolescents to reject common wisdoms.
The present symposium begins with the presumption that social motives can be leveraged for positive behavior change. It brings together three lines of work that utilizes innovative methods for doing this, and then offers a discussion from a pre-eminent scholar of adolescence. The first presentation will investigate high school social media rejection. A longitudinal field experiment shows that changing the subjective meaning of status threats—by altering adolescents’ implicit theories of personality—can promote optimism and reduce retaliation following rejection. The second session will present a longitudinal experiment showing that framing healthy eating as aligned with adolescent values of autonomy and social justice can reduce 8th graders’ junk food consumption. The third will present a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled laboratory experiment showing that autonomy supportive, respectful instructions can boost college students’ compliance with important yet inconvenient and unpleasant medical instructions.
Finally, the discussant will provide an integrative summary of recent advances in brain, hormone and behavioral sciences. The discussion will explore the adolescent window of opportunity for social-reorienting, and propose a research agenda for an integrative developmental science of adolescent behavior change.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Hae Yeon Lee, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

Discussant

• Ronald E. Dahl, University of California, Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• No “likes?” That’s okay: Buffering adolescents from social media rejection by changing implicit theories of personality - Presenting Author: Hae Yeon Lee, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

• Sticking it to the Man: Harnessing Adolescent Values to Motivate Healthier Eating - Christopher J. Bryan, University of Chicago; David S. Yeager, University of Texas at Austin; Presenting Author: Cintia P. Hinojosa, University of Chicago; Aimee Chabot, Duke University; Holly Bergen, University of California-San Diego; Mari Kawamura, University of California-San Diego; Fred Steubing, Canyon Middle School

• The adherence-autonomy dilemma: Effects of testosterone administration and autonomy-supportive framing on medical adherence - Presenting Author: Quinn A. Hirschi, University of Texas at Austin; Robert A. Josephs, University of Texas at Austin; David S. Yeager, University of Texas at Austin