《10到25岁》介绍(3)
说明：我正在连载《10到25岁》这本书的原文和翻译。本文是介绍部分的第3篇。
之前的部分：
The Ten-to-Twenty-Five-Year-Old Brain 10至25岁的大脑
It might seem like the best way to deal with a ten-year-old would have nothing to do with the best way for dealing with a twenty-five-year-old. At ten, kids usually don’t show any outward signs of puberty; at twenty-five, they could have been in the armed forces for seven years. But looks can be deceiving. In fact, there are hidden neurobiological and motivational similarities across the age range from ten to twenty-five.
与10岁孩子交往的方式似乎与25岁成年人交往的方式毫无关联。在10岁时，孩子们通常不会表现出任何青春期的外在迹象；而在25岁时，他们可能已经在军队中服役了七年。但外表可能会欺骗人。事实上，在10至25岁的年龄范围内，存在着隐藏的神经生物学意义上和动机意义上的相似性。
Age ten roughly corresponds to the start of pubertal maturation, which is biology’s alarm clock for adulthood. Puberty starts a cascade of changes in hormones, the brain, the body, and in social life, all of which are aiming toward creating adults who can contribute to their group’s survival. Neuroscientists know that this cascade continues to be influential well into the midtwenties. The connective architecture of the twenty-four- or twenty-five-year-old brain is still affected by its surroundings. This does not mean that the twentysomething brain is irredeemably immature. It means that it’s still adapting, not yet stuck in its ways. This makes sense when you realize that the current global economy, which prizes ever-more-technical training, has caused the transition to a stable adult career to happen later and later in life, even later than for every prior generation of humans. Young adults’ brains continue to adapt to the environment because it’s good for their (and society’s) survival. This means that the brains—and motivations—of young people ages ten to twenty-five have far more in common than most people realize. That’s good news because we can draw lessons from a wide variety of situations to learn general principles that, when implemented, could make our interactions with the next generation go better—and make our lives easier in the process.
10岁左右大致对应青春期成熟的开始，这是生物学的成年闹钟。青春期引发了一系列激素、大脑、身体和社会生活的变化，所有这些变化都旨在创造能够为其群体生存做出贡献的成年人。神经科学家知道，这种连锁反应的影响力一直持续到二十五岁左右。24岁或25岁大脑的连接结构仍然受到其周围环境的影响。这并不意味着二十多岁的大脑是不可救药的不成熟。这意味着它仍在适应，尚未固步自封。当你意识到当前的全球经济，重视越来越多的技术培训，导致过渡到稳定的成年职业生涯的时间越来越晚，甚至比以往任何一代人类都要晚时，这就说得通了。年轻人的大脑继续适应环境，因为这有利于他们（和社会）的生存。这意味着10至25岁年轻人的大脑和动机比大多数人意识到的有更多的共同点。这是个好消息，因为我们可以从各种情况中吸取教训，学习一些普遍原则，当这些原则付诸实践时，可以改善我们与下一代的互动方式，并在此过程中让我们的生活变得更轻松。
What is the important change in ten-year-olds that continues to shape their motivation at least until their midtwenties? It is the motivation to experience feelings of status and respect. Neuroscientists have shown that during puberty the brain becomes attuned to social status and respect. It craves socially rewarding experiences, sometimes even before the rest of the body has shown the other major signs of puberty. The onset of puberty—-specifically gonadarche, which brings us to reproductive maturity and regulates hormones such as testosterone and estradiol—-has a powerful effect on the reward-seeking regions of the brain (such as the region called the nucleus accumbens, which is rich in dopamine-receptive neurons). This gives our brains cravings for experiences such as pride, admiration, and respect and makes our brains averse to socially painful experiences, such as humiliation or shame. From the onset of puberty until we take on adult roles in society, we develop appetites for deeper and more meaningful experiences of respect—-or, as the cultural anthropologists call it, earned prestige.
10岁孩子开始发生了重要的变化，且至少持续到他们二十五岁左右，不断的塑造他们的动机。这个重要的变化是什么？答案是渴求地位感和尊重感。神经科学家已经证明，在青春期，大脑会对社会地位和尊重变得敏感。它渴望体验社会奖励，有时甚至在其他身体部位显示出青春期的主要迹象之前。青春期的开始——特别是性腺发育，使我们达到生殖成熟并调节睾酮和雌二醇等激素——对大脑的奖励寻求区域（如富含多巴胺受体的神经元区域，称为伏隔核）有强大的影响。这使我们的头脑渴望诸如自豪、钦佩和尊重等体验，并厌恶社会痛苦的体验，如羞辱或耻辱。从青春期开始直到我们在社会中承担成年角色，我们发展出对更深层次、更有意义的尊重体验的渴望——或者，正如文化人类学家所称的，挣得的声望。
Any time young people interact with socially powerful people—-managers, parents, educators, or coaches—-status and respect come to the foreground. Because young people feel sensitive to differences in status, they are subtly reading between the lines with each thing we say, trying to interpret the hidden implications of our words, to find out if we are disrespecting or honoring them. This creates a pervasive disconnect between what adults intend to communicate when we speak and what young people can hear from our words. This is what happened in the control group in the wise-feedback study and in Alex’s experiences at the hospital. Young people received critical feedback that came from a good place but they heard it as, You’ve not good enough, and I’m looking down on you. We say one thing, they hear another, and we fight over that misinterpretation, fueling one of the most common forms of conflict between the generations.
每当年轻人与社会上有权势的人——经理、父母、教育者或教练——互动时，地位和尊重就会浮出水面。因为年轻人对地位差异敏感，所以他们会在我们说的每一件事中微妙地字斟句酌，试图解读我们话语中的隐含意义，以弄清我们是否在轻视或尊重他们。这造成了成年人说话意图与年轻人听到内容之间的普遍脱节。这就是在智慧反馈研究的对照组和亚历克斯在医院中的经历中所发生的情况。年轻人收到了出于好意的批评反馈，但他们听到的却是：“你还不够好，我看不起你。”我们说一件事，他们听到另一件事，我们为此误解而争执，助长了一种常见形式的代际冲突。
This status-and-respect hypothesis, which I first proposed with my collaborators Ron Dahl and Carol Dweck in the mid-2010s, contradicted society’s popular view of adolescence as an inevitably frustrating developmental stage. Our hypothesis held that adolescents simply have a different set of needs that aren’t being met.
这个地位和尊重假设，是我与我的合作者罗恩·达尔和卡罗尔·德韦克在2010年代中期首次提出的，它与社会的普遍看法相矛盾，后者认为青春期是不可避免的会令人沮丧的发展阶段。而我们的假设认为，青少年只是有一组尚未满足的、与成人不同的需求。
After all, we don’t say that infancy is an inherently bad age because babies cry and fuss. Instead, we understand that they have developmental needs for sleep and food that must be met so they can grow and thrive. We find out if babies are hungry or tired, and then we feed them or put them down for a nap. Status and respect are to a young person what food and sleep are to a baby—-core needs that, when satisfied, can unlock better motivation and behavior. Meeting young people’s developmental needs prevents the worst kids-these-days behaviors that get under adults’ skin. If we appreciate these needs, then as parents, teachers, managers, or coaches who support young people, we’ll all be able to spend more time being proud of what they accomplish, assured that they are becoming capable members of society, and less time pulling our hair out.
毕竟，我们不会因为婴儿哭泣和烦躁就说婴儿期是一个本质上不好的年龄。相反，我们明白他们有睡眠和食物的发展需求，这些需求必须得到满足，以便他们能够茁壮成长。我们会弄清楚婴儿是否饿了或困了，然后给他们喂食或让他们小睡。地位和尊重对年轻人来说，就像食物和睡眠对婴儿一样——是核心需求，当这些需求得到满足时，可以激发更好的动机和行为。满足年轻人的发展需求可以防止最糟糕的“现在的孩子”行为，这些行为让成年人感到头疼。如果我们重视这些需求，那么作为支持年轻人的父母、教师、经理或教练，我们都将能够花更多的时间为他们的成就感到自豪，确信他们正在成为社会的有能力的成员，而花更少的时间抓狂。
The wise-feedback study pointed to a way to solve the mentor’s dilemma: by conferring status and respect on young people. But it was also unsatisfying because it tested just one sentence. I wanted to know: How can leaders go from a onetime note to a whole relationship—-or even a whole culture—-characterized by high standards and high support? Once I walked out of my laboratory and started talking to real-life practitioners, I started seeing wise-feedback-like tactics making a real difference in young people’s lives. One of the most unexpected places I saw this was in the world of coaching young National Basketball Association (NBA) players.
智慧反馈研究指出了解决导师困境的一种方法：赋予年轻人地位和尊重。但它也不尽如人意，因为它只测试了一个句子。我想知道：领导者如何从一次性的反馈便条行为，转变为对整个关系——甚至整个文化——赋予高标准和高支持的特征？一旦我走出实验室，开始与实际从业者交谈，我开始看到类似智慧反馈的策略在年轻人的生活中产生了真正的影响。我看到这种影响最意想不到的地方之一是指导年轻美国职业篮球联赛（NBA）球员的世界。