Debating the Teen Brain (2/2)

Laurence Steinberg is a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He says stronger laws, and stronger parental control, are needed to protect teens from themselves. That includes raising the age for driving. He says research finds that teenage brains are not fully equipped to control behavior. Other scientists, however, say there is not enough evidence to make a strong case for such findings.

Psychologist Robert Epstein, a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, notes that teen behavior differs from culture to culture. He says behavior depends for the most part on socialization. As he sees it, if teenagers are with adults more, and treated more like adults, that will lead to better, safer behavior.

But is that always true? Mike Males at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco is a co-founder of youthfacts.org. He suggests that all of this talk lately about "brainless" teens could possibly be an attempt to take away attention from the reality.

Writing this week in the New York Times, he says it is middle-aged adults -- the parents -- whose behavior has worsened. In his words, "if grown-ups really have superior brains, why don't we act as if we do?"

参考译文：

劳伦斯·斯坦是费城坦普尔大学的一位心理学教授。他指出需要更完善的法律及家长更严格的监督来保护青少年，包括上调驾车的年龄。他声称研究发现青少年的大脑还没有完全具备控制行为的能力。尽管如此，另一些科学家说这一发现并没有有说明力的例子来证明。

一位访问圣地亚哥加州大学的心理学者罗伯特·爱泼斯坦注意到青少年的行为因文化不同而产生差异。他说行为绝大部分依赖于社会。正如他看到的，如果青少年常与成人接触，并把他们当成人一样对待，长此以往，他们的行为举止也就会日趋成熟稳重。

但总是正确的吗？在旧金山上的青少年犯罪审判中心的迈克·马累是youthfacts.org的创办人之一。他指出近来所有关于"愚笨"的青少年的讨论可能减弱大家对本质的关注。

刊登在这周的纽约时报上，他指出作为中年人的父母的行为日趋恶化。借用他的话，如果成年人真的有个高级的大脑的话，为什么我们的行为与此不符呢？