Why Are They So Weird [Paperback]

Barbara Straunch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

As Strauch reveals, scientists now recognize that there is a biological component to why teenagers are so likely to slam the door and hide out in their rooms at the least provocation. There is a reason they are articulate and idealistic one moment, and incoherent and self-centered the next, or are so attracted to drugs, alcohol and high speeds. And it's not just hormones. New studies show that far from stopping growing at seven or eleven, the brain undergoes a complete rewiring - particularly the frontal cortex, the part of the brain that governs logic and emotions - in adolescence. WHY ARE THEY SO WEIRD? offers a well-informed and entertaining roadmap to that exhilarating, infuriating and sometimes terrifying time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Strauch is the health and medical science editor for THE NEW YORK TIMES. Prior to that she was a reporter, feature writer and science writer for fifteen years, including at NEW YORK NEWSDAY, where she directed the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Union Square subway crash. She is also the mother of two teenage daughters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Pod (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747568480
• ISBN-13: 978-0747568483
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,857,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but seriously short on objectivity, May 20, 2003

By 

Karl (England, Great Britain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Are They So Weird? (Paperback)

The author is a health and science editor on the New York Times, and the ability to express complex ideas in an easily accessible fashion is clear throughout the book. So why only 2 stars?

Although there are plenty of interesting facts and figures in this book, it suffers from a very serious case of "tunnel vision" - in several respects.

Firstly the author seems to regard the highly controversial field of so-called evolutionary psychology as being totally reliable. Unfortunately this is not the case, and so we end up with utterly fatuous "explanations" such as this:

Why does the natural waking period for adolescents tend to start and end later in the day?

"Maybe at one point in our history it was important for young people, with good vision and strength, to be more awake and alert later in the day to protect the tribe ... Something is going on that makes adolescents sleep differently than younger kids or older adults"

Despite the fact that this is totally unsupported speculation, albeit by a university-based sleep researcher, it is quoted without the slightest mention that it is reverse logic: Everything is down to evolution, so this MUST have an evolution-based explanation, even if we don't actually have one.

An even more wondrous comment comes from an anthropologist:
"Adolescence is fairly recent ... And it developed because it was a survival mechanism for the species."

Explanation? None.
Supporting evidence? None.

(For a multi-faceted review of Evolutionary Psychology check out "Alas, Poor Darwin", Rose & Rose, eds. ISBN 0-099-28319-0.)

The second bias follows directly on from the first, namely that the book heavily favours evidence that supports a genetic cause for just about everything. Even when nurture is allowed in we seem to end up with the argument that environmental influences simply trigger genetic propensities.

And what about this piece of self-contradiction within a single paragraph:

"Generally we follow a twenty-four-hour cycle, a time frame probably set when amoebas reacted to the turn of the earth on its axis. Studies of those who've volunteered to live in caves or dark labs, though, find that most will push the cycle a bit out of sync, to about 25 hours..."

Sorry? We've inherited a twenty-FOUR hour cycle from our distant ancestors, YET when left without external controlling influences we revert to a twenty-FIVE hour clock? Where did we get THAT from?

As usual there is no discussion of the evolutionist "explanation".

This second bias appears to be due, in part, to the author's unquestioning acceptance of studies of identical twins. Which is unfortunate, to say the least, given the questionability of such studies as outlined in "They ...You Up" (asterisks as in the original) a new book by child psychologist Oliver James which tackles many of the same topics.

The third bias follows from the first two - adolescence is discussed in almost total isolation. This is hardly surprising, of course, since the notion that adolescent changes are almost entirely genetically based means that the pre-teenage years become irrelevant. To judge from this book the first decade of human life is of little or no account, and the biological and neurological changes which mark the onset of adolescence must somehow "wipe the board clean" so that we effectively start as brand new people at around age 10-12.

Not only is this psychological nonsense, but some of the thinking that arises from such ideas is potentially extremely damaging. One researcher, described as a "behavior professor", is cited (but not directly quoted) as saying that once young people have the functioning parts there is little reason for teenagers to refrain from having sex. Indeed, we are told that the professor "concluded that [the] reticence [of teenagers who don't opt to have sex as soon as they have the 'functioning parts'] must have been due to an immature brain." (pages 158-9).

Apparently for some the fact that we have far more complex and sophisticated brains than we could possibly need for mere survival - and are NOT utterly dominated by our instincts - is a mere bagatelle. Coming from a country that is already amongst the world leaders for unwanted teenage pregnancies and the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, that might warrant the raising of an eyebrow or two.

Well-written, interesting, but ultimately very deeply flawed.
Best consumed with a king-sized helping of healthy scepticism.