Concrete and Abstract Dimensions of Diverse Adolescents’ Social-Emotional Meaning-Making,and Associations With Broader Functioning

Abstract

Adolescence is a sensitive period of social-emotional growth, when new abilities for abstract thinking also emerge. Especially among youth from under-resourced communities, how do adolescents’ proclivities to engage in abstract meaning-making about the social world manifest, alongside more concrete interpretations? How is meaning-making associated with other aspects of social and cognitive functioning? We interviewed 65 adolescents (aged 14–18) from low-SES urban neighborhoods about compelling mini-documentaries depicting teenagers. We also measured real-world social-emotional functioning and a range of cognitive capacities. Qualitative analyses, followed by exploratory factor analysis, revealed that, when reacting to the stories, every participant invoked: (1) concrete meaning-making, involving context-dependent reactive, or contagious feelings and advice giving; and (2) abstract meaning-making, involving perspectives, values, reflections, and curiosities that transcend the story context. Quantified concrete and abstract meaning-making scores were normally distributed, uncorrelated and unrelated to SES. Even controlling for IQ and demographic variables, concrete meaning-making predicted youths’ reporting more satisfying relationships and desired daily affective experiences, while abstract meaning-making was associated with greater working memory, executive functioning, long-term memory, social reasoning, and creativity. Findings tie theoretical dimensions of adolescent development to modern youth’s concrete and abstract construals and demonstrate that these construals may be associated with different developmental affordances.

Keywords

social emotions adolescence abstract thinking creativity social relationships mixed-methods

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Psychological Association. (2021, October 29). Apology to people of color for APA’s role in promoting, perpetuating, and failing to challenge racism, racial discrimination, and human hierarchy in U.S. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/racism-apology?fbclid=IwAR3I5c9VjOd5eN5Y2v2Eyi3UHClPsQAtz0CtWye2EkBnCY_gMkwNyZfDRtY

Barker

J. E.

Semenov

A. D.

Michaelson

Provan

L. S.

Snyder

H. R.

Munakata

(2014). Less-structured time in children’s daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 593. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593

Batson

C. D.

(2009). Two forms of perspective-taking: Imagining how another feels and imagining how you would feel. In Markman

Suhr

J. A.

(Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental simulation (pp. 267–280). Psychology Press.

Brackett

(2019). Permission to feel: Unlocking the power of emotions to help our kids, ourselves, and our society thrive. Celadon Books.

Braun

Clarke

(2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Brittian

A. S.

Lerner

R. M.

(2013). Early influences and later outcomes associated with developmental trajectories of Eriksonian fidelity. Developmental Psychology, 49(4), 722–735. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028323

Bruner

(1990). Acts of meaning (The Jerusalem-Harvard lectures). Harvard University Press.

Buchanan

N. T.

Perez

Prinstein

M. J.

Thurston

I. B.

(2021). Upending racism in psychological science: Strategies to change how science is conducted, reported, reviewed, and disseminated. American Psychologist, 76, 1097–1112. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000905

Butler

Yang

X. F.

Laube

Kühn

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

(2018). Community violence exposure correlates with smaller gray matter volume and lower IQ in urban adolescents. Human Brain Mapping, 39(5), 2088–2097. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23988

10.

Camarota

S. A.

Griffith

Zeigler

(2017). Mapping immigration’s impact on public schools. Center for Immigration Studies. https://cis.org/Report/Mapping-Impact-Immigration-Public-Schools

11.

Case

(1985). Intellectual development: Birth to adulthood. Academic Press.

12.

Craik

F. I. M.

Tulving

(1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology General, 104(3), 268–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.104.3.268

13.

Creswell

J. W.

(2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches. SAGE Publications.

14.

Damon

(2008). The path to purpose: Helping our children find their calling in life. Simon and Schuster.

15.

Darling-Hammond

Flook

Cook-Harvey

Barron

Osher

(2020). Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24, 97–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2018.1537791

16.

Dewey

(1896/2013). My pedagogic creed. In Flinders

D. J.

Thornton

S. J.

(Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (4th ed., pp. 29–35). Routledge.

17.

Eisner

E. W.

(1991). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. MacMillan.

18.

Erikson

E. H.

(1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. WW Norton & Company.

19.

Fischer

K. W.

Bidell

T. R.

(2006). Dynamic development of action and thought. In Damon

Lerner

R. M.

(Eds.), Theoretical models of human development. Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 1, 6th ed., pp. 313–399). John Wiley & Sons.

20.

Gorman

(2021). The hill we climb: An inaugural poem for the country. Penguin.

21.

Gotlieb

Yang

X. F.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

(2021a). Default and executive networks’ roles in diverse adolescents’ emotionally engaged construals of complex social issues. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 17(4), 421–429. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsab108

22.

Gotlieb

Yang

X. F.

Immordino-Yang

M. H

. (In preparation). Beyond IQ, Diverse adolescents’ transcedent thinking predicts subsequent brain development and young adult achievement and well-being.

23.

Gotlieb

R. J. M.

Yang

X. F.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

(2021b). Measuring learning in the blink of an eye: Adolescents’ neurophysiological reactions predict long-term memory for stories. Frontiers in Education, 5, 594668. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.594668

24.

Guilford

J. P.

(1971). The nature of human intelligence. McGraw-Hill.

25.

Guilford

J. P. C.

Merrifield

P. R.

Wilson

R. C.

(1978). Alternate uses: Manual of instructions and Interpretations. Sheridan Psychological Services.

26.

Gutiérrez

K. D.

Rogoff

(2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x032005019

27.

Haatveit

B. C.

Sundet

Hugdahl

Ueland

Melle

Andreassen

O. A.

(2010). The validity of d prime as a working memory index: Results from the “Bergen n-back task”. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 32(8), 871–880. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803391003596421

28.

Habermas

de Silveira

(2008). The development of global coherence in life narratives across adolescence: Temporal, causal, and thematic aspects. Developmental Psychology, 44(3), 707–721.

29.

Halford

G. S.

(1982). The development of thought. Psychology Press.

30.

Hall

G. S.

(1904). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. Appleton & Company.

31.

Hantzopoulos

(2016). Restoring dignity in public schools: Human rights education in action. Teachers College Press.

32.

Hatfield

Cacioppo

J. T.

Rapson

R. L.

(1994). Emotional contagion. Cambridge University Press.

33.

Hill

N. E.

Redding

(2021). The end of adolescence: The lost art of delaying adulthood. Harvard University Press.

34.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

(2015). Emotions, learning, and the brain: Exploring the educational implications of affective neuroscience (the Norton series on the social neuroscience of education). WW Norton & Company.

35.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

(2016). Emotion, sociality, and the brain’s default mode network: Insights for educational practice and policy. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(2), 211–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732216656869

36.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

Christodoulou

J. A.

Singh

(2012). Rest is not idleness: Implications of the brain’s default mode for human development and education. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(4), 352–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612447308

37.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

Darling-Hammond

Krone

C. R.

(2019). Nurturing nature: How brain development is inherently social and emotional, and what this means for education. Educational Psychologist, 54(3), 185–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2019.1633924

38.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

Knecht

D. R.

(2020). Building meaning builds teens’ brains. Educational Leadership, 77(8), 36–43.

39.

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

McColl

Damasio

(2009). Neural correlates of admiration and compassion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(19), 8021–8026. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0810363106

40.

Jia

Hirt

E. R.

Karpen

S. C.

(2009). Lessons from a faraway land: The effect of spatial distance on creative cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(5), 1127–1131.

41.

Kaufman

S. B.

Quilty

L. C.

Grazioplene

R. G.

Hirsh

J. B.

Gray

J. R.

Peterson

J. B.

DeYoung

C. G.

(2016). Openness to experience and intellect differentially predict creative achievement in the arts and sciences. Journal of Personality, 84, 248–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12156

42.

Kegan

(1982). The evolving self. Harvard University Press.

43.

Kohlberg

Gilligan

E. C.

(1971). The adolescent as a philosopher: The discovery of the self in a post-conventional world. Daedalus, 100(4), 1054–1087.

44.

Lerner

R. M.

(1982). Children and adolescents as producers of their own development. Developmental Review, 2(4), 342–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(82)90018-1

45.

Levine

L. J.

Pizarro

D. A.

(2004). Emotion and memory research: A grumpy overview. Social Cognition, 22, 530–554. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.22.5.530.50767

46.

Liberman

Trope

(2008). The psychology of transcending the here and now. Science, 322(5905), 1201–1205. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1161958

47.

Lincoln

Y. S.

Guba

E. G.

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry. SAGE Publications.

48.

Margolin

Vickerman

K. A.

Ramos

M. C.

Serrano

S. D.

Gordis

E. B.

Iturralde

Oliver

P. H.

Spies

L. A.

(2009). Youth exposed to violence: Stability, co-occurrence, and context. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 12(1), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-009-0040-9

49.

Matthews

J. S.

Banerjee

Lauermann

(2014). Academic identity formation and motivation among ethnic minority adolescents: The role of the “self” between internal and external perceptions of identity. Child Development, 85(6), 2355–2373. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12318

50.

McAdams

D. P.

(2013). The psychological self as actor, agent, and author. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8, 272–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612464657

51.

Miles

M. B.

Huberman

A. M.

(1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. SAGE.

52.

Morelli

S. A.

Ong

D. C.

Makati

Jackson

M. O.

Zaki

(2017). Empathy and well-being correlate with centrality in different social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(37), 9843–9847. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702155114

53.

Nagaoka

Farrington

C. A.

Ehrlich

S. B.

Heath

R. D.

(2015). Foundations for young adult success: A developmental framework. Concept paper for research and practice. University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/foundations-young-adult-success-developmental-framework

54.

Nasir

N. I.

(2011). Racialized identities: Race and achievement among African American youth. Stanford University Press.

55.

Nicholson

L. M.

Slater

S. J.

Chriqui

J. F.

Chaloupka

(2014). Validating adolescent socioeconomic status: Comparing school free or reduced price lunch with community measures. Spatial Demography, 2(1), 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03354904

56.

Osterman

K. F.

(2000). Students’ need for belonging in the school community. Review of Educational Research, 70(3), 323–367. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543070003323

57.

Patton

M. Q.

(2002). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (3rd ed.). SAGE.

58.

Rad

M. S.

Martingano

A. J.

Ginges

(2018). Toward a psychology of Homo sapiens: Making psychological science more representative of the human population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(45), 11401–11405. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/hfs3e

59.

Riveros

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

(2021). Toward a neuropsychology of spiritual development in adolescence. Adolescent Research Review, 6(3), 323–332. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-021-00158-1

60.

Rogers

T. B.

Kuiper

N. A.

Kirker

W. S.

(1977). Self-reference and the encoding of personal information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(9), 677–688. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.35.9.677

61.

Rumble

A. C.

Van Lange

P. A. M.

Parks

C. D.

(2010). The benefits of empathy: When empathy may sustain cooperation in social dilemmas. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(5), 856–866. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.659

62.

Schacter

D. L.

Graf

(1986). Effects of elaborative processing on implicit and explicit memory for new associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition, 12(3), 432. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.12.3.432

63.

Scheibe

English

Tsai

J. L.

Carstensen

L. L.

(2013). Striving to feel good: Ideal affect, actual affect, and their correspondence across adulthood. Psychology and Aging, 28(1), 160–171. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030561

64.

Selman

(2003). The promotion of social awareness: Powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice. Russell SAGE Foundation.

65.

Stake

(2005). Qualitative case studies. In Denzin

N. K.

Lincoln

Y. S.

(Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443–466). SAGE.

66.

Steinberg

(2014). Age of opportunity: Lessons from the new science of adolescence. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

67.

Sternberg

R. J.

Lubart

T. I.

(1992). Buy low and sell high: An investment approach to creativity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.1992.tb00002.x

68.

Suárez-Orozco

Motti-Stefanidi

Marks

Katsiaficas

(2018). An integrative risk and resilience model for understanding the adaptation of immigrant-origin children and youth. American Psychologist, 73(6), 781–796. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000265

69.

Trope

Liberman

(2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–463. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018963

70.

Tsai

J. L.

Ang

J. Y.

Blevins

Goernandt

Fung

H. H.

Jiang

Elliott

Kölzer

Uchida

Lee

Y. C.

Lin

Zhang

Govindama

Haddouk

(2016). Leaders’ smiles reflect cultural differences in ideal affect. Emotion, 16(2), 183–195. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000133

71.

Tsai

J. L.

Knutson

Fung

H. H.

(2006). Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(2), 288–307. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.2.288

72.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). The condition of education 2018 (NCES 2018-144). Concentration of Public School Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch.

73.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD). (2017). “State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education,” 2000–01 and 2015–16; and National Elementary and Secondary Enrollment Projection Model, 1972 through 2027. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_203.50.asp?referer=raceindicators

74.

Walton

G. M.

Cohen

G. L.

(2007). A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 82–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.82

75.

Wechsler

(2011). Wechsler abbreviated scale of Intelligence–second edition (WASI-II). NCS Pearson.

76.

Wolcott

H. F.

(1987). On ethnographic intent. In Spindler

Spindler

(Eds.), Interpretive ethnography of education: At home and abroad (pp. 37–57). Psychology Press.

77.

Yang

X. F.

Pavarini

Schnall

Immordino-Yang

M. H.

(2018). Looking up to virtue: Averting gaze facilitates moral construals via posteromedial activations. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 13(11), 1131–1139. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsy081