Amygdala Vs Teenagers

Teens want to be more involved with people their own age since they understand what they could be going through, instead of their parents or any other adult. Teens act different towards each other than they do with their elders. The two have different brains which causes them to react differently in most scenarios. While processing emotions, adults have greater activity in their frontal lobes than do teenagers. Adults also have lower activity in their amygdala than teenagers. In fact, as teenagers age into adulthood, the overall focus of brain activity seems to shift from the amygdala to the frontal lobes. There was a very relevant biological example in the book which was an experience of a young girl whose best friend told another friend a secret she promised to keep to herself.

Now imagine if that girl’s parent or boss did that exact same action. Do you think she’d react the same way? Definitely not. The difference between teens and adults is that adults will talk it over and calmly discuss the problem while teens will yell and shout while throwing fists in order to solve the problem. An example used in the book was “Teenage mind is like an empty house that needs furnishing, walls and a roof”. As adolescents, they will need time to figure out who they really are as people. They need to figure out their interests and hobbies therefore they will stick with their peers rather than their elders. My social example is that teens usually have common interests with their peers which make them connect better with each other than they would with