Understanding teenage angst

The way teenagers think is going to come under scrutiny at a lecture that is open to the public on Monday 30 April.

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (pictured), from University College London, is delivering the 2018 Sluckin Lecture: Adolescence as a Sensitive Period of Social Brain Development.

Professor Blakemore’s lecture will look at how adolescence is often characterised by seemingly irrational behaviours such as risk-taking and impulsivity.

However, she argues that these can be interpreted as adaptive and rational if one considers that a key developmental goal of this period of life is to mature into an independent adult in an unstable and changing social world.

Professor Andrew Colman from the University of Leicester’s School of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour said: “We welcome Professor Blakemore to deliver her talk in the distinguished Sluckin lecture series. We look forward to hearing her thoughts on a subject that is highly interesting and will help increase our understanding on a fascinating topic.”

The Sluckin Lecture is an annual event at the University of Leicester to commemorate Professor Wladyslaw Sluckin (1919–1985), one of the original members of the University of Leicester’s Department of Psychology and Head of Department from 1973 until his retirement in 1984. He was Editor of the British Journal of Psychology from 1967 to 1973. He had a lasting influence on generations of students and colleagues and remains an inspiration to the School of Psychology and to British psychology in general.

The lecture takes place on Monday 30 April 2018, from 5.00 – 6.00 pm in the Chetwode Lecture Theatre, ground floor, George Davies Centre, Lancaster Road, Leicester LE1 7HA.