“All Gas and No Brakes!”: Helpful Metaphor or Harmful Stereotype?
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In this essay, I consider the concurrent emergence of a new generic metaphor for the adolescent condition and suggest that, given the familiar notions of a poorly controlled (or even totally out-of-control) state of being it invokes, its endorsement by “teen brain” supporters seriously compromises assertions of even-handed promotion of adolescents’ strengths and weaknesses. Of course the riposte to this might be that metaphors matter much less than “hard facts,” and such imagery should be seen merely as helpful (even mildly humorous) conceptual shorthand for complex science. Do a few “mere words,” therefore, truly warrant special attention? Believing they do, and that this metaphor constitutes a significantly undesirable contribution to the way Western adults are being persuaded to think and talk about young people, I first offer an eclectic sampling of its use and then consider its potential influence with reference to the general role of metaphor in constructing developmental understandings.
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Researchers have at times reasoned by analogy, comparing patterns of brain change and popular ideas about adolescent development.
“we suggest that the field has sometimes been arguing by analogy – in the sense that conclusions are drawn based on similarities between the pattern of these brain changes (including their hypothesized neuropsychological implications) and folk psychologies of adolescent development [19].”
From Arrested development? Reconsidering dual-systems models of brain function in adolescence and disorders (2012) · cites this paper as [19]
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- Authors
- Payne, M. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Waikato (NZ)
- Corresponding author
- Payne, Monica A.
- Venue
- Journal of Adolescent Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-12-12
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-17
- ISSN
- 0743-5584 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-6895
- OpenAlex
- W2056093654
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Adolescent Research (publishedVersion)
- Research Commons (University of Waikato) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Psychology of Development and Education
- Keywords
- adolescent development, metaphor, adolescent identity, developmental understanding
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