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Chapter 10 - Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood (Peer…
Chapter 10 - Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood
Erikson's Theory: Initiative vs Guilt
INITIATIVE vs GUILT: psychological conflict of the preschool years; begins once kids have a sense of autonomy; conscience is formed by identifying with the same sex parent and adopting their standards
Kids have a sense of purposefulness; are eager to tackle new tasks; join in activities with peers and discover what they can do with the help of adults; make large strides in conscience development
Negative outcome: An overly strict superego (conscience) that causes children to feel too much guilt because they have been threatened, criticized, and punished excessively by adults. Play and efforts to master new tasks break down.
Benefits of play for preschoolers
Creates a small social organization who must cooperate to achieve common goals
Permits preschoolers to try new skills with little risk of criticism or failure
Self-Understanding
SELF-CONCEPT: refers to the set of attributes, abilities, attitudes and values that an individual believes defines who he or she is.
Influences their preferences for activities and social partners and their vulnerability to stress
Based on physical and observable characteristics
Secure attachment increases the likelihood of a favorable self-concept; parents are more likely engaging in elaborative reminiscing about personally experienced events, helping the kids understand themselves.
Eventually, preschoolers are able to view themselves as persisting over time.
Cultural differences in personal storytelling
Differences in storytelling: Chinese parents tell more stories about misdeeds, efforts of misbehavior on others, involved direct teaching of proper behavior. Irish parents - downplayed misbehavior, attributed it to spunk/assertiveness
Most American parents believe that favorable self-esteem is crucial, but Chinese adults regard self-esteem as unimportant.
Emergence of Self-esteem
SELF-ESTEEM: the judgements we make about our own worth and the feelings associated with those judgments
Preschoolers generally rate their own ability as HIGHER than their actual competences and UNDERESTIMATE the difficulty of tasks - they have difficulty distinguishing between their desired and actual competence
High self-esteem increases initiative to master new skills rather than be self-defeating
Emotional Development
EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE grows between ages 2-6
Increase in ability to self-regulate emotionally
More often experience self-conscious emotions and empathy, contributing to their developing sense of morality
Increase in emotional understanding, better able to talk about feelings and respond
Understanding Emotion
Children this age can correctly judge the causes of many basic emotions and recognize that thoughts and feelings are interconnected
Parents can facilitate how kids understand emotion by: labelling emotions, explaining emotions, expressing warmth and enthusiasm during conversation, using lots of emotion words, prompting emotional thoughts and providing explanations of why people are sad
Pretending is an excellent context for early learning about emotions, parents can intervene and model, increasing gains in sensitivity to their sibling's emotional perspective
Four ways in which emotional knowledge helps children get along with their peers
Related to willingness to make amends after harming another
Related to constructive responses to disputes with agemates
Related to friendly, considerate behavior
Increased references to feelings when interacting with playmates, increased liking by peers
Emotional Self-Regulation
Language helps emotional self-regulation as they can talk about what they will do to adjust their level of arousal to a more comfortable level. Over time, emotional outbursts will decline
If kids can successfully inhibit their impulses and shift their attention they demonstrate fewer problem behaviors. We encourage kids to communicate positive feelings and inhibit unpleasant ones
Characteristics of emotionally reactive children
Find it difficult to shift attention away from disturbing events
Find it harder to inhibit feelings
How can parents foster preschoolers' emotional self-regulation
Use verbal guidance (suggest and explain emotion-regulation strategies)
Preparing children for difficult experiences by describing what to expect and coping strategies to help
Fears common in early childhood
Monsters/ghosts
Darkness
Self-conscious emotions
Preschoolers experience self-conscious emotions more often than toddlers do
Shame is associated with feelings of personal inadequacy and is linked with maladjustment
Guilt is related to positive adjustment because it helps children resist harmful impulses
Empathy and Sympathy
Empathy serves an important motivator of PROSOCIAL or ALTRUISTIC behavior - actions that benefit another person without any expected reward for the self
EMPATHY: Feeling with another person and responding emotionally in a similar way
Sometimes, empathizing with an upset peer or adult escalates children into personal distress
SYMPATHY: Feelings of concern or sorrow for another's plight
Parents model sympathy and empathy by being warm, encouraging emotional expression showing concern for their feeling, demonstrate the importance of kindness, intervene when kids display inappropriate emotions.
Peer Relations
Types of play
NONSOCIAL ACTIVITY: unoccupied, onlooker behavior and solitary play
Aimless wandering, hovering near peers, and functional play involving immature, repetitive motor action - cause of concern
PARALLEL PLAY: a limited form of social participation in which a child plays near other children with similar materials but does not try to influence their behavior
COOPERATIVE PLAY: An advanced type of social interaction in which children orient toward a common goal
ASSOCIATIVE PLAY: A form of social interaction in which children engage in separate activities but exchange toys and comment on one another's behavior
Some preschoolers with low rates of peer interaction are not socially anxious - they may simply prefer to play alone, their activities are positive and constructive. When they play with others, they show socially skilled behavior.
Sociodramatic play lets children act out and respond to each other's pretend feelings; explore/gain control of fear arousing experiences, negotiate and compromise rules. Practice allows kids to better understand others' feelings and regulate their own.
Cultural differences: collectivist societies have kids playing together in large groups and more positive valuations of shyness, value play less and provide fewer props for play
First Friendships
A friend is "someone who likes you" and who you play with a lot.
Friendship does not yet have a long term, enduring quality based on mutual understanding. They give more reinforcement to their friends, play in more complex ways, are more cooperative and emotionally expressive
Social Problem Solving
Resolution of peer conflicts promotes development during early childhood as they provide invaluable learning experiences in resolving disputes constructively - to work out their differences through negotiation and to continue interacting.
Steps in the SOCIAL PROBLEM SOLVING MODEL proposed by Crick and Dodge
Interpret social cues
Formulate social goals
Notice social cues
Generate possible problem solving strategies
Evaluate probable effectiveness of strategies
Enact response
Behavior of children regarding problem solving skills
UNSKILLED: Hold biased social expectations - attend selectively to social cues and misinterpret other's behavior. Social goals often lead to strategies that damage relationships.
SKILLED: Interpret social cues accurately, formulate goals that enhance relationships and have lots of effective problem-solving strategies
With age, kids move from grabbing, hitting or insisting that other child does what they want; and are now moving to friendly persuasion and compromise.
Parental Influences on Early Peer Relations
Ways that parents directly influence their child's social relationships
Providing play opportunities - show children how to initiate peer contracts
Offer guidance on how to act toward others
Parent-child attachment: warm, sensitive communication that contributes to attachment security have increased peer networks, warmer friendships and more harmonious peer relations
Parent-child play: promotes per interaction skills when parents interact with their child, they increase play competence
Foundations of Morality: most theories of moral development believe that 1) at first, child's morality is externally controlled by adults, but 2) then it becomes regulated by inner standards and they have their own principles of good conduct. Psychoanalytic theory is concerned with the emotional side of conscience, social learning theory is concerned about social learning theory and cognitive-developmental theory is concerned with the ability to reason about justice and fairness
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE
INDUCTION or INDUCTIVE DISCIPLINE: special type of discipline that supports conscience development by pointing out the effects of the child's misbehavior on others
By emphasizing the impact of the child's actions on others, induction encourages empathy and sympathy, which motivates prosocial behavior
Giving children reasons for changing their behavior encourages them to adopt moral standards because those standards make sense
Induction give children information about how to behave that they can use in future situations.
Children who consistently experience induction may form a script for the negative emotional consequences of harming others
Discipline that relies too heavily on threats of punishment or withdrawal of love makes children so anxious and frightened so they cannot think clearly enough to figure out what they should do
There is a modest genetic contribution to empathy and prosocial behavior
Impulsive kids do not respond to power assertion; building secure attachment and correcting misbehavior via induction
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Operant conditioning is insufficient for children to acquire moral responses: most prosocial acts (sharing, helping) occur so rarely at first that reinforcement cannot explain rapid development, children learn to behave morally mostly through MODELLING
Characteristics of models who children willingly follow
competence and power
consistency between assertions and behavior
warmth and responsiveness
Punishment promotes immediate compliance but does not produce long-lasting changes in children's behavior
Undesirable side effects of harsh punishment
Aggression
Antisocial behavior
Depression
Depression
Poor academic performance in childhood and adolescence
Alcohol abuse
Weak internalization of moral rules
Criminality
Partner and child abuse in adulthood
Early corporal punishment predicts externalizing behavior problems in preschoolers of diverse temperaments
Alternatives to harsh punishment
Time out
Withdrawal of privileges
Ways that increase the effectiveness of punishment
Warm parent-child relationship
Explanations for punishment
Consistency
How effective discipline encourages good behavior: children show firmer conscience development after they are exposed to effective discipline - expressing empathy after transgressions, behaving responsibly, playing fairly in games and considering others' welfare.
Examples of positive discipline
Use transgressions as opportunities to teach
Reduce opportunities for misbehavior
Provide reasons for rules
Arrange for children to participate in family routines
Compromise and demo problem solving
Encourage mature behavior
Be sensitive to child (tired, ill or bored)
Physical punishment: highest among low-SES minority parents
In black families, corporal punishment is culturally approved, generally mild, delivered in a context of parental warmth, and aimed at helping children become responsible adults
Difference in cultural approval of physical punishment
White: consider physical punishment to be wrong, so when they resort to it, they are often highly agitated and rejecting of the child. Associated with personal aggression.
Black families: Aimed at helping children become responsible adults. Kids view it as a practice carried out with their best interests in mind.
COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE: views children as ACTIVE THINKERS about social rules; other views focus on how children acquire ready made standards of good conduct
Preschoolers able to distinguish between
SOCIAL CONVENTIONS: customs determined solely by consensus ex: table manners and dress style
MATTERS OF PERSONAL CHOICE: things do not violate or harm others, are not socially regulated and therefore are up to the individual
MORAL IMPERATIVES: which protect people's rights and welfare
How do young children learn to make distinctions between moral imperatives and social conventions
Actively try to make sense of them. After a moral offense, peers respond with strong negative emotion, describe their own injury or loss, tell another child to stop or retaliate. They begin to notice that violation of social convention elicit less intense peer reactions.
Features of parent communication that help children reason about morality
Warm, sensitive parental communication and observation
Adult-child discussions of moral issues
Social experiences and disputes are necessary to workout feelings
Development of Aggression
Two general types of aggression
PROACTIVE or INSTRUMENTAL AGGRESSION: aimed at obtaining an object, privilege, or space with no deliberate intent to harm. More benefits and fewer costs for engaging in destructive acts. Likely to think that aggression "works." Use aggression to advance their own goals and unconcerned about causing suffering in others.
REACTIVE or HOSTILE AGGRESSION: intended to hurt another person. See hostile intent where there is none. If they feel threatened, they are especially likely to interpret accidents as hostility. They may make unprovoked attacks.
Types of hostile aggression
RELATIONAL AGGRESSION: Social exclusion, malicious gossip, or friendship manipulation
PHYSICAL AGGRESSION: pushing, kicking, hitting, or punching others; destroying other's property
VERBAL AGGRESSION: harms others through threats of physical aggression, name-calling, or hostile teasing
Gradually, verbal aggression replaces physical aggression. Boys displays overall rates of aggression that are much higher than girls; girls more likely to be targets of hard physical discipline and parental inconsistency
Negative outcomes for highly aggressive children
Social skills deficits (loneliness, anxiety, depression, poor quality friendships)
Antisocial activity in middle childhood and adolescence
Higher risk for internalizing and externalizing difficulties
Cycles of aggression: Begins with forceful discipline where parent threatens, criticizes, and punishes, the child whines, yells, and refuses until the parent gives in. Parent and child get relief from stopping unpleasant behavior of the other, so the behaviors repeat and escalate
How to break cycle of hostility between family members
Children
Model and coach more successful ways of relating to peers
Practiced taking others' perspectives and then lashing out decreased
Parents
Learn not to give into kids and pair commands with reasons
Replace insults and spanking with more effective punishmnets
Violent content in children's programming occurs at above average rates - kids are likely to imitate TV violence because they believe that much TV fiction is real and accept what they see uncritically
The more violence they see, they become habituated to violence and respond with reduced arousal to real-world instances and tolerating more aggression in others
Strategies parents can use to regulate children's access to violent media
Avoid using TV/computer time as a reward
Talk to kids about what they see on TV
Limit TV viewing and computer use
Link TV content to everyday learning experiences
Model good media use
Use a warm, rational approach to child rearing
GENDER TYPING: refers to any association of objects, activities, roles, or traits with one sex or the other in ways that conform to cultural stereotypes
Gender-Stereotyped Beliefs and Behaviors
Gender stereotypes of preschoolers are RIGID - they do not understand that characteristics ASSOCIATED WITH one's sex (activities, toys, occupations, hairstyle, and clothing) do not DETERMINE whether a person is male or female
Biological Influences on Gender Typing
Sex differences in play and personality traits widespread among mammalian species
increased physical aggression in males
female emotional sensitivity
male activity level is high
preference for same-sex playmates
Sex hormones affect human play styles, leading to rough, noisy movements among boys and calm, gentle actions among girls
Girls exposed to high levels prenatally display more masculine behavior
Environmental Influences on Gender Typing
Parents give kids gender specific toys; reinforce certain types of behaviors; play and talk to kids of each gender differently during play
Boys are more clearly gender stereotyped. Parents are more insistent that boys conform to gender roles - tolerate less "cross-gender" behavior in sons; shown more concern when boys act like a sissy rather than when a girl acts like a tomboy
Preschool teachers give girls more encouragement to participate in adult-structured. Boys are attracted to play areas where adults are minimally involved. More disapproval/discipline with boys, teachers negotiate more with girls
Peer rejection is greater for boys who frequently engage in "cross-gender" behavior
Different styles of social influence promoted within gender-segregated peer groups
Boys: Large-group play, use commands, threats and physical force, unresponsive to speech
Girls: play in pairs so show greater concern with a partner's needs; use requests, persuasion.
Factors that work together to sustain gender segregation and the gender typing that occurs within it
IN-GROUP FAVORITISM: more positive evaluations of members of one's own gender
"two distinct subcultures" - separate social worlds of boys and girls with shared knowledge, beliefs, interests and behaviors
Belief in the correctness of gender-segregated play
GENDER IDENTITY: an image of oneself as relatively masculine or feminine characteristics; measure this by asking kids to rate themselves on personality traits ranging from traditionally masculine to traditionally feminine.
ANDROGYNY: refers to a type of gender identity in which the person scores highly on both masculine and feminine personalty characteristics
Female traits are not highly valued by society, androgynous individuals are more adaptable to situations, helping them best help them realize their potential
Perspectives on the emergences of gender identity
Social Learning: behavior comes before self-perceptions. They first acquire gender-typed responses through modeling and reinforcement and only later organize these behaviors into gender-linked ideas about themselves
Cognitive-Developmental: Self-perceptions comes before behavior. They acquire a cognitive appreciation of the permanance o their sex (GENDER CONSTANCY) and use this knowledge to guide their behavior
GENDER CONSTANCY: refers to the understanding that sex is biologically based and remains the same even if clothing, hairstyles, and play activities change
Gender constancy mastered through the following process
GENDER CONSISTENCY - realization that gender is not altered by superficial changes in clothing or activities
GENDER LABELING - correct naming of one's own and others' sex
GENDER STABILITY - understanding that gender remains the same over time
Gender constancy is unlikely to be responsible for children's gender-typed behavior - it is appears to early that its initial appearance must result for modelling and reinforcement
GENDER SCHEMA THEORY: an information processing approach to gender typing that combines social learning and cognitive developmental features. It explains how environmental pressures and children's cognitions work together to shape gender-role edevelopment
GENDER SCHEMAS: masculine or feminine categories that they use to organize their experiences and to interpret their world. Once kids label their own gender, they select gender schemas consistent with it and apply those categories to themselves
Reducing Gender Stereotyping in Young Children
Teachers can make sure that kids play in mixed-gender structured or unstructured activity
Avoid language that conveys gender stereotypes and shield children from media presentations that do the same
Limit traditional gender roles in their own behavior; provide nontraditional alternatives
CHILD REARING AND EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: three factors that differentiate between effectiveness of child-rearing styles...1) acceptance and involvement, 2) control, 3) autonomy granting
Child rearing styles
PERMISSIVE: warmth and acceptance combined with overindulgence or inattention; impulsivity, disobedience, rebellion, dependent and nonachieving, antisocial behavior
UNINVOLVED: low acceptance and involvement, little control, and general indifference to autonomy; poor emotional self-regulation, poor school achievement, antisocial behavior
At its extreme, becomes NEGLECT (child maltreatment)
AUTHORITATIVE: high acceptance and involvement, adaptive control techniques, and appropriate autonomy granting; upbeat mood, self-control, persistence, cooperativeness, high self-esteeem, academic success
Most successful child-rearing approach as when parents intervene patiently but firmly, they promote favorable adjustment, setting the stage for a positive parent-child relationship
Reasons that authoritative parenting is effective
Kids are increasingly likely to comply with control that seems fair and reasonable
Allowing appropriate autonomy builds self-esteem, cognition, and maturity
Warm, involved parents provide models of caring concerns and confident, self-controlled behavior
Powerful source of resilience, protecting kids from the negative effects of family stress and poverty
AUTHORITARIAN: low acceptance and involvement, high coercive control, and low autonomy granting; anxiety, low self-esteem and self-reliance, hostile reactions to frustration, high anger, dependence in girls, poor school performance
Engage in PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL where parents intrude on and manipulate children's verbal expression, individuality, and attachments to parents
Cultural variations in parenting practices
HISPANIC AND ISLANDERS: insistence on respect for parental authority paired with high parental warmth. Fathers spend lots of time with children and their authoritativeness predicts literacy/math skills.
AFRICAN AMERICAN: Expect immediate obedience and control. Controlling strategies are linked to increases in cognition and social competence. Physical punishment is used sparingly and combined with warmth and reasoning
CHINSESE: high levels of involvement and control. Direct teaching, heavy scheduling to foster self-control and achievement. When upset, they may use shame, withdraw love and use physical punishment
Contextual factors that contribute to successful parenting: personal characteristics of the child and parent. SES, access to extended family and community supports, cultural values and practices, and public policies
Child maltreatment
Four types
SEXUAL: fondling, intercourse, exhibitionism, porno production, prostitution
NEGLECT: failure to meet basic needs for food, clothing, medical attention, education or supervision
PHYSICAL: assaults that inflict physical injury
EMOTIONAL: social isolation, repeated unreasonable demands, ridicule, humiliation, intimidation or terrorizing
Parents commit more than 80% of abusive incidents
Characteristics that increase likelihood of abuse
Child: Premature/sick baby, difficult temperament, inattention, oversensitivity, developmental problems
Consequences of child maltreatment for abused children: low self-esteem, high anxiety, self-blame, escapism. Noncompliance, poor motivation, cognitive immaturity interfere with academic achievement, further decreasing chances for life success
Family Environment: low SES, homelessness, marital instability, social isolation, partner abuse, frequent moves, large families with closely spaced children, overcrowded living conditions, disorganized household, lack of steady employment
Parent: mental health concerns, history of abuse, alcohol/drug abuse, belief in harsh discipline, low SES
Reasons why most abusive parents are isolated from supportive ties
Mistrust/avoid others and are poorly skilled at establishing and maintaining positive relationships
More likely to live in unstable neighborhoods that provide few links between family and community
Judges often hesitant to remove child from the family
Some attachment exists between abused children and parents
Legal systems view children as parental property rather than as human beings in their own right
Government intervention into family life is viewed as a last resort