Teen Brain and Decision Making Essay Sample

Teenagers tend to make rash decisions, for many different reasons. Adolescents often can be victims of relentless peer pressure, whilst their brains are also developing. This can cause limited rational thinking. Research indicates that while teenagers should be responsible for some of their actions, they should not be responsible for the majority of their choices, as they do not have adequate decision-making abilities.

Adolescent’s brains are still developing in their teen years, causing rash decisions to often be made. Teens shouldn’t be held completely responsible for their actions because they don’t have the ability to control their thinking. “The plasticity of the adolescent brain permits environmental influences to exert particularly strong effects on cortical circuitry. While this makes intellectual and emotional development possible, it also opens the door to potentially harmful influences” (Konrad et al. 425). Adults in the same situation as adolescents will often act more reasonably. This  occurs due to brain development. The prefrontal cortex, which makes reasonable decisions, isn’t fully developed in teen brains, but it is in the brains of adults. Not only are adolescent brains developing, “hormones also have a particularly powerful influence over norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin, fluctuating hormonal levels can lead to sudden, dramatic mood swings” (Welsh and Bennett 64).  Hormones can cause massive behavioral change in adolescents. It affects mood and behavior in teens. Clearly, adolescents don’t have adequate control over their brains at this stage of life.

A teen’s peer influences, as well as the influences of others, can have a huge impact on their behavior in adolescence. They can be influenced greatly by the people around them. Oftentimes “during the teen years, the power of one’s social circle can become stronger than the influence of one’s family. Many people fear rejection by their peers and give in to pressure, hoping to be accepted” (“Peer Pressure”). Teens are influenced more by their peers than their parents. Their brain wants their peers to accept them, whilst many parents already do. The peers take the most important priority in the minds of an adolescent. Teens often are influenced by the decisions their friends and social influences make.  For example, in a study performed to study peer influence, scientists had a group of teens pick the length of the line. One person was experimented on, the other group members were told to pick wrong. When with the group, the one being experimented on picked the same as them, but alone, they were correct. They later commented that “they did not want to be ridiculed, ostracized, or thought peculiar by the rest of the group if they gave an opinion against the majority view” (Darity 201). When alone, teens can have good decision making skills and strong mental stability, but when joined in a group those can become warped. It’s no longer important to get the right answer, only to get the one your friends picked to make sure their peers still like them. This is how peer influence works. Proving that teens can’t control their impulses, they’re blinded by their need to be liked by their peers.

Teens should be held somewhat responsible for their actions, it’s not their fault. Their influences have a huge impact on their behavior. Also, in situations that are particularly emotionally laden (e.g., in the presence of other adolescents or when there is the prospect of a reward), the probability rises that rewards and emotions will affect behavior more strongly than rational decision-making processes” (Konrad et al. 428). When promised a reward, either respect from their peers, or others, this causes the emotional part of the brain to overrule the reasonable section. They can’t particularly control this, but being shown that it’s wrong will help an adolescent learn. “Many adolescents and young adults are prone to take risks and enjoy extreme emotions. [...] In Germany, for example, 62% of all deaths among persons aged 15 to 20 are due to traumatic injury” (Konrad et al. 425). The brain is underdeveloped in adolescent years. This causes many functions that their reasonable part of the brain handles in adulthood, to be controlled by the emotional part of their brain. This oftentimes can cause decisions to be emotionally driven.  Teens can’t control themselves, leading to irresponsible decisions, they shouldn’t be completely blamed for what happens as a result of their actions.