Emotional and Cognitive Socialization Outcomes
Values
Values, as introduced in Chapter 2, are qualities or beliefs that are viewed as desirable or important. Certain basic human values are enshrined in the laws of most civilized societies. The Ten Commandments are an example of basic human values, some of which (“Thou shalt not kill”) are also found in laws. Other values are basic to a particular society. An example of a basic societal value is the Bill of Rights, which lists the rights and freedoms (freedom of speech, for instance) assumed to be essential to people in our society.
Values can include such related characteristics as attitudes or morals that affect our behavior. Values are outcomes of socialization. Some of our values reflect the values of our parents, our teachers, our religion, our culture, our profession, or our friends. Some reflect what we have read or seen on TV or film, as well as what we have directly experienced. Values, whether societal or personal, can change over time.
Values Are Affected by Societal Perceptions
The concept of normality is an example of a societal perception because, according to Sophie Freud (1999), it is based on societal norms at a given time, as well as who is perceived as deviating from those norms. Values also affect how society deals with such deviations. In the United States, it is common to provide psychological help, social services, or medical care for those who deviate from what is considered the norm, such as those who have emotional problems, or those who have financial problems, or those who are ill. However, in other times and in other cultures, values of personal privacy would prevent individuals with problems from divulging confidences and personal feelings to a stranger. Yet it would be acceptable for individuals to turn to family and/or religion for help.
In the United States, deviations from normal are labeled (such as bipolar disorder) in order to provide formal and appropriate help (diagnosis and treatment). Labels, however, are really value judgments influenced by chronosystem factors such as politics, economics, and technology. For example, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual no longer lists homosexuality as a disorder. As a response to current times, added to the manual's list of pathologies are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Values Are Affected by Personal Perceptions
Tamra placed more value on what her friends thought than what her parents thought. Her parents, on the other hand, placed more value on obeying the law and following the community policy in regard to minors drinking alcohol than on Tamra's saving face with her friends.
In the pop culture, as portrayed by the media, much value is placed on drinking alcohol as a means of having fun, whereas in certain religious and cultural groups, drinking alcohol is considered sinful. Thus, some people might experience conflict in social situations.
As soon as children can understand language, they have access to their parents’, as well as their culture's, values. As children develop cognitively and can interpret the meaning of their social interactions and real experiences, they begin to construct their own values, which will change and be redefined as they get older.
Values Clarification
One technique is known as values clarification—the process of discovering what is personally worthwhile or desirable in life. This process can help individuals understand their own moral codes, their attitudes and motives, their prosocial or antisocial behavior, their gender roles, and themselves. For example, in teaching about the founding of the United States, a factual discussion might explore dates and events; a conceptual discussion might discuss emigration and freedom of religion; whereas a values discussion might address questions like these: What is so important to you that if it were taken away, you would leave your country? If you left, what would you take with you? A values clarification exercise can be found in the chapter activity.
Values clarification involves making decisions—choosing among alternatives. Sometimes the process is difficult because values may conflict. For example, Bill and Joy had to choose between their values of respect for the law and family harmony; Tamra had to weigh her value of preserving friendship as opposed to that of respecting the law.
Attitudes
Values are really the basis for attitudes. An attitude, as introduced in Chapter 2, is a tendency to respond positively (favorably) or negatively (unfavorably) to certain persons, objects, or situations. Attitudes are composed of beliefs, feelings, and behavior tendencies. Most psychologists agree that attitudes determine what we attend to in our environment, how we perceive the information about the object of our attention, and how we respond to that object. Thus, attitudes guide behavior. The In Context box exemplifies the diversity of attitudes regarding sports team mascots.
Prejudice is an attitude. The word means “prejudgment.” It generally refers to the application of a previously formed judgment to some person, object, or situation. It can be favorable or unfavorable. Usually, prejudice comes from categorizing or stereotyping. The Seminole Tribal Council believes the NCAA is being prejudiced in deciding which mascots are inappropriate.
A stereotype, as introduced in Chapter 9, is an oversimplified, fixed attitude or set of beliefs that is held about members of a group. Stereotypical attitudes usually do not allow for individual exceptions. The reason for the NCAA ban is to minimize stereotyping of ethnic groups.
Development of Attitudes
Social experiences, including observation and interaction, provide children with a perspective of the macrosystem in which they live (Brown, 2010; Brown & Bigler, 2005). Children come to know attitudes about culture, religion, socioeconomic status (SES), gender, disability, and age by watching TV, by hearing significant adults talk and seeing how they behave, and by noticing differences in neighborhood facilities (schools, theaters, sidewalks) and practices (employment, discrimination, violence).
The development of attitudes is influenced by age, cognitive development, and social experiences (Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001). Researchers (Brown & Bigler, 2005; Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001) suggest that attitudes about diverse cultural groups develop in the following sequence:
♦ Phase I—awareness of cultural differences, beginning at about age 2½ to 3
♦ Phase II—orientation toward specific culturally related words and concepts, beginning at about age 4
♦ Phase III—attitudes toward various cultural groups, beginning at about age 7
As children develop cognitively, they begin to categorize (assimilate and accommodate) similarities and differences. However, research (Quintana, 2011) shows that children acquire racial attitudes prior to developing the ability to categorize people by race; their initial attitudes reflect society's biases. Reviewing many studies of European American children's attitudes toward other groups, Aboud (1988) and colleagues (Aboud & Amato, 2001) reported that 4- to 7-year-old European American children were already aware that “White” was the cultural identity favored by their society. They referred to other groups as “bad” or with negative characteristics. Children of color were reported to have ambivalent feelings about their cultural identity. Young children understand the hierarchy of status and privilege in the United States (Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001).
transgender an umbrella term for individuals whose gender identity or gender expression and behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth
gentler identity refers to a person's internal sense of being male, female, or something else
Many identities fall under the transgender umbrella. Often, transsexual people alter, or wish to alter, their bodies through hormones, surgery, and other means to make their bodies as congruent as possible with their gender identities. This process of transition through medical intervention is often referred to as sex or gender reassignment, but more recently is also referred to as gender affirmation. Some individuals who transition from one gender to another prefer to be referred to as a man or a woman, rather than as transgender.
According to a report by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (Task Force, 2011) entitled Injustice at Every Turn, the pervasive and severe discrimination faced by transgender people was confirmed. Out of a sample of nearly 6,500 transgender people, the report found that transgender people experience high levels of discrimination in employment, housing, health care, education, legal systems, and even in their families. Anti-discrimination laws in most U.S. cities and states do not protect transgen-der people from discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression.
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The Task Force (2011) found that 63% of participants in the survey had experienced a serious act of discrimination—events that would have a major impact on a person's quality of life and ability to sustain her- or himself financially or emotionally. These events included the following:
♦ lost job due to bias
♦ eviction due to bias
♦ school bullying/harassment so severe that the respondent had to drop out
♦ teacher bullying
♦ physical assault due to bias
♦ sexual assault due to bias
♦ homelessness because of gender identity/expression
♦ lost relationship with partner or children due to gender identity/expression
♦ denial of medical service due to bias
♦ incarceration due to gender identity/expression
Influences on Attitude Development
The family, peers, media, community, and school all play a role in the development of attitudes.
Family
Parents have a large impact on children's attitudes and values. For example, a study of fourth- and fifth-grade children and their parents confirmed that children identify with their parents' attitudes (Sinclair, Dunn, & Lowery, 2005; Quintana, 2011). Cultural prejudice also follows this general pattern. The cultural prejudices of elementary schoolchildren representing diverse groups tend to resemble those of their parents. Studies of young children show that those with the most prejudicial attitudes have parents who are authoritarian, use strict disciplinary techniques, and are inflexible in their attitudes toward right and wrong (Aboud, 1988; Aboud & Amato, 2001). Thus, rigid parental attitudes foster similar attitudes in their children.
Modeling. One explanation for the resemblance of children's and parents' cultural attitudes is that children develop attitudes through role modeling. Children identify with models who are powerful and admirable. Through the process of identification, they begin to assume the attitudes of the people they would like to emulate (parents, relatives, friends, fictional heroes or heroines, television and movie characters, rock stars).
Instruction. One way children learn attitudes is by instruction. Young children accept as true the statements of their parents and others they admire because, with their limited experience, they are not apt to have heard anything different.
Reinforcement and Punishment. The socializing techniques of reinforcement and punishment are also involved in the way children learn attitudes. For example, it has been demonstrated that attitudes toward cultural groups can be influenced simply by associating them with positive words (reinforcement), such as happy or successful, or negative words (punishment), such as ugly or failure. Also, positive and negative remarks by friends influence prejudicial attitudes (Aboud, 1988; Aboud & Amato, 2001).
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The following is a typical developmental sequence of how children become prejudiced.
♦ Awareness—being alert to, seeing, noticing, and understanding differences among people even though they may never have been described or talked about. Children model behavior they observe in adults they look up to.
♦ Identification—naming, labeling, and classifying people based on physical characteristics that children notice. Verbal identification relieves the stress that comes from being aware of or confused by something that you can't describe or no one else is talking about. Identification is the child's attempt to break the adult silence and make sense of the world. Children mimic what they see, hear, and read about.
♦ Attitude—having thoughts and feelings that become an inclination or opinion toward another person and their way of living in the world. Children may displace their feelings onto others who are less powerful.
♦ Preference—valuing, favoring, and giving priority to one physical attribute, person, or lifestyle over another, usually based on similarities and differences. Children understand the world from the perspective of their own experience.
♦ Prejudice—holding a preconceived hostile attitude, opinion, feeling, or action against a person, ethnic group, or their lifestyle without knowing them. Children generalize their personal experiences to the world.
Peers
Peers influence attitudes and behavior. Children compare the acceptability of their beliefs with those of their friends. Children compare their characteristics with those of the in group and the out group; they are more likely to be prejudiced against the out group (Brown, 2010). Because preadolescent children have a great need to identify with the peer group, someone who is culturally different or who has a disability is often excluded (Brown, 2010; Gollnick & Chinn, 2012). However, studies have shown that prejudice may be reduced by equal status contact between majority and minority groups in the pursuit of common goals (Oskamp, 2000).
Other attitudes influenced by peers involve dress, dating, personal problems, and sex (Sebald, 1986, 1989).
Mass Media
Television and Movies. Children and adolescents frequently cite television as a source of information that influences their attitudes about people and things (Comstock & Scharrer, 2007; Singer & Singer, 2012). “You see so much violence that it's meaningless. If I saw someone really get killed, it wouldn't be a big deal. I guess I'm turning into a hard rock,” said an 11-year-old. “When I see a beautiful girl using shampoo or a cosmetic on TV, I buy them because I'll look like her. I have a ton of cosmetics,” said a 13-year-old. Several studies have reported that middle and high school students rate the mass media as their most important source of information and opinions, even more important than their parents, teachers, and friends (Singer & Singer, 2012)
Books. Books are influential in attitude formation. Consider the controversy some books stir up, resulting in their removal from library shelves (Norton & Norton, 2010). For example, in the 1960s, Garth Williams' The Rabbit's Wedding (1982) was criticized because the illustrations showed the marriage of a black rabbit and a white rabbit. In the 1970s, Maurice Sendak's (1970) In the Night Kitchen was taken off some library shelves because the child in the story was nude. In the 1980s, Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo, which was first published in 1899 and had enjoyed much popularity over the years, was attacked for being offensive to African Americans because of the story line and crudely drawn figures of characters with stereotypical features.
Community
Community customs and traditions influence attitudes. For example, an American custom regarding privacy is to label public restrooms for Men or Women; other countries do not have such designations. This is an example of gender discrimination. (Why is the line to the ladies' room always much longer than the line to the men's?) Before the U.S. civil rights movement, it was customary in communities in the South to have signs designating racially segregated bathrooms (White, Colored). This is an example of race discrimination. Today, many community facilities are age-segregated. Signs that say “Adults Only” or charging different prices at the movies based on age are examples of discrimination. Children thus acquire attitudes that represent the status quo in their environment.
School
Schools influence attitude formation. A review of various studies (Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Sadker, Zittleman, & Sadker, 2012) illustrated how gender-role stereotyping is perpetuated in schools. Schools that separate male and female activities and encourage boys to play in the “block corner” or take science classes and girls to go to the “housekeeping” area or take English classes, for example, are teaching children which activities are gender appropriate. Teachers who project their gender-typed expectations on boys and girls reinforce traditional gender-role behavior (Good & Brophy, 2007).
Classroom organization can be very effective in influencing attitudes toward others.
Changing Attitudes about Diversity
One of the purposes of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (amended in 2004) was to include children with disabilities in public school. Teachers had to revise prior stereotypical attitudes; they might have had to emphasize abilities rather than disabilities (Heward, 2012)—for example, “Kevin is a third grader who reads in a fourth-grade book and who needs assistance with physical tasks” rather than “Kevin is wheelchair-bound and requires an aide.”
After two weeks, the children's levels of prejudice were measured again. All the groups that had been exposed to any of these techniques showed less prejudice than did children in the control groups. Four to six months after the experiment, a second posttest showed that the children who had learned to perceive differences in the culturally diverse faces and those who had heard the stories about culturally diverse children had more positive attitudes than those in the other two groups. Younger children showed more gains than older children.
Numerous studies have explored educational ways to change children's attitudes, especially regarding diversity (Aboud et al., 2012; Jones & Foley 2003). A classic example (Katz & Zalk, 1978) of techniques used to counter the culturally biased attitudes of second and fifth graders (as determined by a test) follows.
- Increased positive intercultural contact. Children worked in interethnic teams at an interesting puzzle and were all praised for their work.
- Vicarious intercultural contact. Children heard an interesting story about a sympathetic and resourceful African American child.
- Perceptual differentiation. Children were shown slides of a culturally diverse woman whose appearance varied depending on whether or not she was wearing glasses, which of two different hairdos she was wearing, and whether she was smiling or frowning. Each different-appearing face had a name, and the children were tested to see how well they remembered the names.
Apparently, prejudicial attitudes can be changed by enabling children to have positive experiences (both real and vicarious) with cultural minorities. When an adult mediates the experience by pointing out individual differences, it is especially effective. Thus, children learn to view people as individuals rather than as representatives of a certain group with certain fixed characteristics.
Attitude effects were found to be mixed with an overall count of the positive changes (40%), nonsignificant changes (50%), and negative changes (10%) in attitude. Most of the effects were observed with children from the majority ethnic group rather than a minority one: 67% of the attitude effects were positive, and media/instruction and contact were equally effective at influencing these changes. These findings show promising avenues for future research by highlighting the characteristics of various interventions that should be replicated and extended.
Motives and Attributions
A motive, as introduced in Chapter 2, is a need or emotion that causes a person to act. To be motivated is to be moved to do something. An attribution, as introduced in Chapter 2, is an explanation for one's performance. “Do you attribute an Olympians athletic ability to training, genetics, or both?”
People are motivated to act by the urge to be competent or to achieve, according to famous psychologist Robert White (1959). People of all ages strive to develop skills that will help them understand and control their environment, whether or not they receive external reinforcement. The inborn motive to explore, understand, and control one's environment is referred to as mastery motivation, as introduced in Chapter 2. This is illustrated when infants and toddlers open cabinets, empty out drawers, drop things in the toilet. Whereas mastery motivation is believed to be inborn, achievement motivation is thought to be learned.
Whereas mastery motivation is believed to be inborn, achievement motivation is thought to be learned. Children learn via socialization what are considered acceptable and unacceptable performance standards in their culture, as well as how to evaluate their behavior accordingly. Introduced in Chapter 2, achievement motivation, the learned motivation to be competent, expresses itself in behavior aimed at approaching challenging tasks with the confidence of accomplishment—for example, the child who tries out for the choir saying, “Oh, I know I'll make it.”
achievement motivation refers to the learned motivation to achieve mastery of challenging tasks
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Ryan and Deci (2000) distinguish between achievement motivation that is intrinsic (doing an activity for inherent satisfaction or enjoyment) and extrinsic (doing an activity to attain some separable outcome, to get a reward or avoid punishment). As people act to pursue different goals, why are some driven primarily intrinsically and others extrinsi-cally? Explanations can be divided into two categories:
♦ Within-person (intrinsic) changes result from cognitive or emotional maturation, such as becoming more curious as one is able to learn more and becoming more competent as one is able to master more.
♦ Socially mediated (extrinsic) changes result from contexts children experience as they grow, such as family, school, or peer group, and the accompanying feelings of autonomy or control (Wigfield, Eccles, Schiefele, Rosser, & Davis-Kean, 2006).
locus of control one's attribution of performance, or perception of responsibility for success or failure; may be internal or external
Achievement Motivation (Mastery Orientation)
In a classic study to assess the differences in strengths of people's achievement motives, David McClelland and his colleagues (1953) developed a projection technique using selected picture cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The technique assumes that when asked to write stories about the pictures, people will project their feelings about themselves onto the characters in the pictures shown to them.
The assessment of the stories involves noting references to achievement goals (concern over reaching a standard of excellence). Subjects who refer often to achievement goals are rated high in achievement motivation; subjects who rarely or never refer to achievement goals are rated low.
The pictures show such scenes as two men (“inventors”) in a shop working on a machine, a young boy and a violin, or a boy sitting at a desk with an open book in front of him. Participants are asked to answer the following questions about the pictures:
- What is happening? Who are the persons?
- What were the circumstances leading up to the situation in the pictures?
- What are the characters thinking? What do they want?
- What will happen? What will be done?
Achievement motivation or mastery orientation are often correlated with actual achievement behavior (Bandura, 1997; Wigfield et al., 2006). The motivation to achieve, however, may manifest itself only in behavior that the child values. For example, a child's high motivation to achieve may be exhibited in athletics, but not in schoolwork. Thus, different situations have different achievement-attaining values for children as well as adults (O'Keefe, Ben-Eliyahu, & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2013; Wigfield et al., 2006).
Parenting practices influence achievement motivation in that if standards set are unrealistic (too high or too low), then motivation tends to be low, whereas if standards set optimally challenge the child by providing tasks that can be done with effort (not too easy) so that the accomplishment is meaningful, motivation tends to be high (Burhans & Dweck, 1995; Pomerantz et al., 2007). Such tasks are referred to as developmentally appropriate.
According to Wigfield and colleagues (2006), the child-rearing environment of children who show high achievement motivation includes developmentally appropriate timing of achievement demands (early, but not too early, and continuing encouragement), high confidence in the child's abilities, a supportive affective family environment (orientation toward exploration and investigation as well as positive feedback), and highly motivated role models.
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One's expectation of success is related to
♦ one's history of success or failure
♦ one's perception of how difficult the task is
♦ the attributions for one's performance.
Children with high expectations for success on a task usually persist at it longer and perform better than children with low expectations. Studies have found that children with high IQs and high expectations of success in school did, in fact, get the highest grades, whereas children with high IQs and low expectations received lower grades than children with low IQs and high expectations (Eccles, 1983; Wigfield et al., 2006). In addition to child-rearing practices, discussed previously, teaching styles and communication affect children's attributions. When teachers are caring, supportive, and emphasize the learning process over performance outcomes, as well as give feedback, children tend to be motivated to achieve and expect success (Daniels, Kalkman, & McCombs, 2001; O'Keefe et al., 2013).
Locus of Control
Recall that locus of control relates to one's attribution of performance, or sense of personal responsibility for success or failure; it may be internal or external. Individuals who have strong beliefs that they are in control of their world, that they can cause things to happen if they choose, and that they can command their own rewards have an internal locus of control. These people attribute their success (or failure) to themselves. Individuals who perceive that others or outside forces have more control over them than they do over themselves have an external locus of control. These people attribute their success (or failure) to factors outside themselves.
internal locus of control perception that one is responsible for one's own fate
external locus of control perception that others or outside forces are responsible for one's fate
One factor influencing people's control beliefs is the perceived relationship between their actions and their successes or failures (Skinner, 1995; Skinner & Greene, 2008). The more successful a person is at accomplishing tasks, the more likely it is that the person will feel “in control”; feeling “out of control” is more likely when failures outnumber successes. Achievement is related to whether people believe they control the outcome.
Another factor related to control beliefs is age. As children get older, their understanding of causality and explanations for outcomes becomes more differentiated. Whereas 7- and 8-year-olds tend to consider all possible factors—luck, effort, ability, task difficulty—in explaining performance, 11- and 12-year-olds tend to put more emphasis on external factors, such as luck and task difficulty, than on internal factors, such as ability and effort, in attributing locus of control.
A classic locus-of-control scale that is used to study the internal-external dimension of personal responsibility was developed by Julian Rotter (1966, 1971). The Internal-External Scale is constructed so that each item can be scored as internal or external. Some sample items are given in the In Practice box, “Measuring Locus of Control.” Subjects are to indicate, in each pair of statements, the more appropriate of the two.
Learned-Helpless Orientation
Martin Seligman presented evidence in his books Helplessness (1975), Learned Optimism (1990), and Flourish (2012) that people become passive and lose motivation when placed in situations where outcomes are unaffected by their behavior. These people believe they are pawns of external circumstances; as a result, they have learned helplessness. A learned-helpless orientation is the perception, acquired through negative experiences, that effort has no affect on outcomes.
learned-helpless orientation the perception, acquired through negative experiences, that effort has no affect on outcomes
Helplessness has been observed to appear in infancy. Research on infants shows that infants exposed to mobiles that spin independent of their actions do not learn to control new mobiles presented to them that can be activated by turning their heads. In contrast, infants exposed to stationary mobiles and to mobiles that spin contingent upon their actions (head or arm moving) evidence no difficulty in learning to control the new mobiles.
As children get older and the number of their experiences with objects and people increases, their perceptions of being able to control outcomes and their ability to understand cause and effect influence when, and if, they manifest a learned-helpless orientation as opposed to a mastery orientation (Fincham, 2008; Wigfield et al., 2006). Figure 11.3, earlier in this chapter, summarizes the factors involved in attributions for performance and their relation to actual performance.
In a series of classic studies on learned-helpless orientation, Dweck and colleagues found that when children believe their failures are due to uncontrollable factors in themselves, such as lack of ability (“I failed the math test because I'm dumb in math”), their subsequent task performance deteriorates after failure (Dweck, 1975; Dweck & Bush, 1976; Dweck & Gillard, 1975; Dweck & Reppucci, 1973; Elliot & Dweck, 1988).
Apparently, girls and boys get different messages in school about ability and effort (Sadker et al., 2012). In several classic studies, Dweck and colleagues (Dweck & Bush, 1976; Dweck & Gillard, 1975) found that girls are more likely than boys to demonstrate learned helplessness that comes from attributing lack of ability to themselves. Boys more often tend to believe that when they do not do well, it is because they have not worked hard enough. Since the boys and girls scored similarly on achievement tests, it can be inferred that ability was similar, but that the attributions for failure were different.
In sum, if parents and teachers praise children for their effort when they succeed but question their ability when they fail, the children are less likely to persist at challenging tasks, thereby developing a learned-helpless orientation. If parents and teachers praise children's abilities when they succeed and emphasize lack of effort when they fail, the children are more likely to persist at challenging tasks, thereby developing achievement orientation. Thus, if adults treat children as if their mistakes can be remedied by their own actions, the children are likely to reflect this opinion of themselves and behave accordingly.
In sum, the cultural value that effort leads to achievement explains lower incidences of learned helplessness; whereas the cultural value of fixed intelligence leads to increased incidences of learned helplessness. Both values exist in the U.S., so depending upon which one is stronger in a family can explain the development of a learned-helpless orientation in the child.
Self-Efficacy
As introduced in Chapter 2, self-efficacy is the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes. It is related to empowerment (enabling individuals to have control over resources affecting them), as well as to concepts discussed earlier in this chapter, such as achievement motivation, internal locus of control, history of and attributions of success/failure, and learned helplessness. Whereas helplessness is the belief that “I can't,” self-efficacy is the belief that “I can” (Maddux & Volkmann, 2010).
self-efficacy the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes
Albert Bandura, known for his social cognitive theory (involving learning via observation and modeling), has elaborated on these concepts (achievement motivation, locus of control, and learned helplessness) to formulate a performance-based valid predictor of students' learning—namely, their perceived capability on specific tasks (Bandura, 1997, 2000). Self-efficacy differs from the aforementioned concepts in that it not only can explain present performance but also can predict future performance.
Self-efficacy beliefs provide students with a sense of personal agency—the realization that one's actions cause outcomes. Self-efficacy beliefs motivate learning because they enable students to use such self-regulatory processes as goal setting, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and strategy use (Maddux & Volkmann, 2010; Zimmerman, 2000). Efficacious students embrace challenging goals. They are better at monitoring their working time, more persistent, less likely to reject correct hypotheses prematurely, and better at solving conceptual problems than inefficacious students of equal ability.
personal agency the realization that one's actions cause outcomes
The most significant influence on self-efficacy beliefs is actual experience—successfully performing tasks, solving problems, making things happen. Next is vicarious experience—observing others execute competent behavior. Also influential are verbal instruction, encouragement, and feedback on performance. Finally, physiological reactions, such as fatigue, stress, or anxiety, may distort an individuals' perceptions of their capabilities at a particular time or while engaged in a certain activity; some examples are “writer's block,” an athletic “slump,” and math anxiety (Maddux & Volkmann, 2010).
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Self-efficacy measures can be used diagnostically to improve academic motivation (Zimmerman, 2000). Following are some teaching strategies to improve children's self-efficacy (Schunk, 2011; Stipek, 1996).
- Provide instruction in specific learning strategies, such as highlighting, summarizing, and outlining, to enable students to focus on a task.
- Help students make short-term, as well as long-term, goals, guiding them to evaluate their progress by regularly providing feedback.
- Make reinforcement contingent on performance of specific tasks; reward students for mastery of a task rather than mere engagement in one.
- Give encouragement: “I know you can do this.”
- Provide positive adult and peer role models who demonstrate efficacious behavior—coping with challenging tasks, setting goals, using strategies, monitoring their effectiveness, and evaluating performance.
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is the value one places on one's identity. It is related to self-efficacy in that one's identity, or self-concept, incorporates many forms of self-knowledge and self-evaluative feelings (Zimmerman, 2000). It must be kept in mind that most of the research on self-esteem is in the context of European American society, which is individualistic. Now, however, cross-cultural research has provided an understanding of how self-esteem is conceptualized in collectivistic cultures, namely that it is viewed in terms of worthiness to the group, rather than in achievement competencies (Mruk, 2006).
self-esteem the value one places on one's identity
Self-esteem can be described as high or low. Some view self-esteem as a global perception of the self, whereas others view it as multidimensional, consisting of (1) scholastic competence, (2) athletic competence, (3) social competence, (4) physical appearance, and (5) behavioral conduct, in addition to global self-worth (Harter, 2006, 2012). Occasionally, the terms positive self-concept or negative self-concept are used to describe self-esteem.
Development of Self-Esteem
As children grow, they accumulate a personal, complex set of evaluations about themselves. They know how they look; they know what they are good at doing and what they are poor at doing. They also know what they would like to look like (“I hope I grow taller than my dad”) and what they would like to be doing (“I'm going to be a dancer when I grow up”). As children grow, they begin to understand how they are viewed by others. During the process of socialization, people internalize the values and attitudes expressed by their significant others and, as a result, express them as their own.
Power—the extent to which one has control or influence over one's life and that of others. Alice is able to minimize or discount the teasing of others; Zelda is sensitive to others' judgments. She takes them as confirmation of her self-image of helplessness.
In a classic investigation of the level of self-esteem of hundreds of fifth- and sixth-grade European American, middle-class boys (see Table 11.1), Coopersmith (1967) concluded that the following factors contribute to the development of self-esteem:
♦ Significance—the way one perceives she is loved and cared about by significant others. Alice feels significant; Zelda does not.
♦ Competence—the way one performs tasks one considers important. Alice usually succeeds at tasks and is popular; Zelda rarely succeeds and has few friends.
♦ Virtue—how well one attains moral and ethical standards. Alice tells the truth; Zelda often lies to cover up her mistakes.
Level of Self-Esteem Inventory
More recent research concurs with Coopersmith's conclusions (Harter, 2006, 2012). Whereas Coopersmith measured overall self-esteem, Susan Harter (1990, 2006, 2012) measured the five specific areas of competence listed earlier, as well as general feelings of self-worth (“I am happy with myself”) in the Self-Perception Profile for Children. Harter found that self-esteem is well established by middle childhood. Children can make global judgments of their worth as well as distinguish their competencies.
Influences on the Development of Self-Esteem
Family
Many research studies confirm that parental approval is particularly critical in determining the self-esteem of children (Harter, 2006, 2012).
Coopersmith (1967) investigated children's treatment by significant others—those whose attitudes matter most when children are forming their self-concepts. He did this by examining the parenting practices employed by his subjects' fathers and mothers. He focused on acceptance of the child and affection exhibited, the kind and amount of punishment used, the level of achievement demands placed on the child, the strictness and consistency with which rules were enforced, the extent to which the child was allowed to participate in family decision making, the extent to which the child was listened to and consulted when rules were being set and enforced, and the extent to which the child was allowed independence.
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Coopersmith found some clear relationships between the parenting practices and self-esteem of sons. Parents of boys with high self-esteem were more often characterized as follows.
♦ Warm (accepting and affectionate). They frequently showed affection to their children, took an interest in their affairs, and became acquainted with their friends.
♦ Strict, but used nonco-ercive discipline. They enforced rules carefully and consistently. They believed it was important for children to meet high standards. They were firm and decisive in telling the child what he might or might not do. They disciplined their children by withdrawing privileges and by isolation. They tended to discuss the reasons behind the discipline with the children.
♦ Democratic. They allowed the children to participate in making family plans. The children were permitted to express their own opinions, even if it involved questioning the parents' point of view.
School
Keep in mind that the valued personality type in American culture is a responsible, self-reliant, autonomous, competent individual; the child who is reared to conform to these traits is likely to have high self-esteem. It has been found that students with higher self-esteem are more likely to be successful in school and achieve more than children with low self-esteem (Harter, 2006, 2012). This relationship shows up as early as the primary grades and becomes even stronger as the student gets older.
Peers
Children can be quite cruel to one another, as was discussed in Chapter 8. They tease and ostracize children who are different physically, intellectually, linguistically, or socially. Peer attitudes about “ideal” size, physique, and physical capabilities can influence children's self-esteem. Harter (2006, 2012) found that perceived physical appearance is consistently the domain most highly correlated with self-esteem from early childhood through adulthood, with no gender differences.
Mass Media
Where do children get their attitudes about ideal body and personality types? Advertising strategies on television and in magazines portray ideal physical stereotypes—handsome, mesomorphic, well-dressed men; beautiful, trim, well-dressed women. Advertising techniques often lead the viewer or reader to believe that the product advertised will produce or perpetuate ideal characteristics. For men, the TV emphasis is on strength, performance, and skill; for women, it is on attractiveness and desirability
Community
The community, especially the business community, may contribute to the differences found in the self-esteem of males and females. Even though there are wider occupational choices for women today, they still earn less than men and there still is sexism present in the workplace (Bennett, Ellison, & Ball, 2010). This means that women don't advance as quickly as men and that attitudes about women's capabilities are still generally stereotyped. Thus, for women entering the business community, there is often a drop in self-esteem (Basow, 2008).
The relation between an individual's social identity (culture, religion, social class) and that of the majority of the people in the neighborhood affects one's self-esteem (Harter, 2006, 2012; Martinez & Dukes, 1991; Rosenberg, 1975). For example, Rosenberg (1975) found that the Jewish children raised in Jewish neighborhoods were likely to have higher self-esteem than Jewish children raised in Catholic neighborhoods. He and others (Martinez & Dukes, 1991) also found that African American students in integrated schools were likely to have lower self-esteem than those in all—African American schools