ABSTRACT
Think back to when you were thirteen. Can you picture it? Now, think about the way you used to think. This is not a riddle or some crazy psychological experiment. I want you to think about how your thinking is different now, compared with the way you used to think as a teenager. Not just the content, because clearly as adults, we focus on things that perhaps did not occupy our thoughts as teens. Rather, think about the process itself, and the quality and efficiency of your thoughts. To say that both the quality and quantity of our thinking changes vastly as we get older is a huge understatement. The same is true for the changes in cognition when you compare a child’s thought processes to those of an adolescent. In this chapter I will cover several issues that we nerdy psychologists love to ponder, research, and debate. I want to share with you how changes in the way teens think play out in real life when it comes to their perspectives and their decision making.
