The article selected to support the argument that the adolescent brain makes risk-taking among adolescents inevitable is titled “Risk, Adaptation and the Functional Teenage Brain”, written by Sercombe. The article provides the scientific information that during the phase of adolescence, the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for “mature self-regulation” is not fully developed which leads to a perfect “storm of opportunities” for “risky behavior” in adolescents (Sercombe, 2014). The study also increasingly considers that the adolescent brain undergoes significant changes during the time of early adolescence, which makes adolescents more focused on inclusion based on the patterns of brain development and maturation.
The article selected to refute the argument that the adolescent brain makes risk-taking among adolescents inevitable is “The Mismeasurement of Youth: Why Adolescent Brain Science is Bad Science”, written by Bessant and Watts. The authors argue that there is no explicit evidence to claim that the adolescent brain makes risk-taking among adolescents inevitable or that adolescent behaviour is different from adult behaviour. They suggest that visual evidence supporting structural or functional differences in adolescent brains relies on naïve assumptions as the adolescent brain is scientifically proven immature and broken, which contradicts the notion of inevitable risk-taking due to predictable differences between adolescents and adults (Bessant & Watts, 2015).
In my opinion, the adolescent brain can lead to risk-taking because of the lack of experience, but it is equipped to make decisions like adults. In terms of brain development during adolescence, I believe that the brain has greater activity in reward-related regions, making risk-taking more rewarding for them than it is for adults. The argument that the adolescent brain makes risk-taking among adolescents inevitable is not absolute in my perspective, as effective education during early adolescence can mitigate risk-taking behaviours. Thus, the argument that adolescent risk-taking is inevitable is not appropriate. It can be probable as it is evident that external factors like education can play a significant role in shaping adolescent behaviour and decision-making.
References
Bessant, J., & Watts, R. (2015). The mismeasurement of youth: Why adolescent brain science is bad science. Biologising the Social Sciences, 87–102.
Sercombe, H. (2014). Risk, adaptation and the functional teenage brain. Brain and Cognition, 89, 61–69.
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