Chunk #109 — The Theory of Urgency — The Role of Positive and Negative Urgency During Adolescence — Heightened Emotionality and Disposition Toward Rash Action During Adolescence
It is possible that an adolescent spike in urgency actually has its roots in evolutionarily-driven adaptive functions. Although full consideration of this possibility is beyond the scope of this paper, it does appear to be the case that adolescence-limited increases in emotionality and risk-taking occur across species (Spear, 2000). Adolescents of multiple species find they are more distressed by their current circumstances, are more likely to take risks when distressed, are more reactive to their parents, are eager to see new things and take risks, and are compelled to do so with same-age peers (Spear, 2000). As a set, these changes may help enable adolescents to take on the next, crucial developmental step: leave the natal home (Spear, 2000). Humans move from childhood, when leaving home is unthinkable, to adolescence, when leaving home is possible and often desirable. Unfortunately, this apparently normative pattern does not appear to fit the context now faced by human adolescents. Their apparent experience of these tendencies generally does not, and likely should not, propel them from home. Perhaps the typical means for them to express these tendencies in the absence of their original raison d'etre tend toward the maladaptive.
