CHAPTER 14

SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE AND

LATE CHILDHOOD

EMOTIONAL AND PERSONALITY

DEVELOPMENT

The Self

The development of self-understanding – Middle childhood sees a shift from the defining of external characteristics to internal characteristics. Children also employ social comparison – distinguishing themselves from others.

The role of perspective-taking in self-understanding – The child begins to see through others’ perspective.

Self-esteem and self concept

What are self-esteem and self-concept? A child begins to weigh her self-worth and focuses on the self.

Research on self-esteem – The child increasingly compares himself with peers. Depression is common in this stage of development.

Increasing children’s self-esteem – Identification of the causes of low self-esteem, emotional support, achievement, and coping are all strategies to increase a child’s self-esteem.

Industry vs. inferiority – Erikson’s fourth stage – this is an especially difficult time for children who are just below average in achievement.

Emotional Development

Developmental changes – Able to understand emotions of pride and shame; can experience more than one emotion in a given situation; able to have a greater perspective on events leading to emotional reactions; can suppress or conceal emotions more successfully; uses self-initiated strategies to cope.

Emotional intelligence – ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them – Daniel Goleman.

Coping with Stress

Age changes – older children can more accurately appraise a stressful situation

Removing one stressor – helps a child to cope

Teaching children how to cope effectively – has success in helping children govern their emotions. Coping with death – children given high-quality care by surviving family members experience less separation distress.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development – Children internalize or

begin to control their values and feelings from within; they are making judgments at this age that impact their

moral development.Continued…

Level 1: Preconventional Reasoning – Stage 1: Heteronomous morality is tied to punishment – simply obey adults. Stage 2: individualism, instrumental purpose – pursuing their own interests but allowing others to do the same – right is an equal exchange.Level 2: Conventional Reasoning – Stage 3: mutual interpersonal expectations – individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty – seeking to be thought of as “good.” Stage 4: social systems morality – based on social order, law, justice – respect for the social order.Level 3: Postconventional reasoning – highest level – individual recognizes alternative moral courses – Stage 5: social preserve a person’s rights and values. Stage 6: universal ethical principles – individual follows his or her conscience – a more universal application of morality.

Kohlberg’s Critics

Moral thought and moral behavior – Many people propound one moral code while living another.

Culture and moral development – Kohlhberg’s stages are devoid of considerations for cultural norms.

Family process and moral development – He believed that the family process was essentially unimportant, arguing that parent-child relations were power-oriented; he put more stock in peer relations.

Gender and care perspective – Kohlberg is accused of understanding a person’s willingness to care in terms of their connectedness to others.

Prosocial behavior and altruism – Positive aspects of moral behavior such as showing empathy or behaving altruistically.

Altruism – Helping someone else unselfishly; children develop a belief that sharing is obligatory and gradually express more objective ideas about sharing.

GENDER

Gender stereotypes – Broad categories reflecting our impressions or beliefs about males and females. Generally considered to be pervasive.

Gender similarities and differences – Differences are average, overlap, and attributable to biological and sociocultural factors.

Physical similarities and differences – Females are more immune to infection because of higher levels of estrogen, have more elastic blood vessels. Males grow 10 percent higher and stronger. Brain shows emotional and physical expression more active in females.

Socioemotional similarities and differences – One researcher believes that boys and girls grow up in different worlds of talk (i.e., boys games have winners and losers and boast, whereas girls play in small groups and tend to develop friends) – girls are more relationship-oriented.

Continued…

Gender controversy – Although many would see no differences, science tells us that indeed there are differences.

Gender-role classification – There are specific expectations for girls and boys; this is changing to an androgynous world where there is an equal presence of female and male characteristics. Some argue that we should not teach androgyny, but rather gender-role transcendence, where an individual’s competence should be conceptualized on a person basis; and that gender needs to be considered in context, especially in countries where male or female role is completely predesigned (e.g. Muslim countries).

FAMILIESParent-child issues – As children grow more independent, there appear to be more issues that can cause tension. Some of them are bedtime irregularities, temper tantrums, sibling fighting, eating behaviors, and manners. Discipline becomes focused at this time.

StepfamiliesTypes of stepfamilies – three types; stepfather, stepmother, and complex. There are three types of relationships: (1) neo-traditional – following divorce the new family settles in as a non-divorced family; (2) matriarchal – custodial mother manages without stepfather’s help; and (3) romantic – an unrealistic approach that usually is disappointing.Adjustment – Children adjusting to stepfamilies have the same problems as children in divorced families: early sexual activity, academic problems, and lower-self-esteem.Latchkey children – These children left alone after school often become involved in negative sometimes criminal, activities. They tend to “grow up too fast.”

PEER RELATIONS

Peer Statuses – Children of middle childhood are often classified as “types” such as: popular – someone’s best friend, rarely rejected by peers; neglected – not usually someone’s best friend and generally disliked by peers; controversial – someone’s best friend but also disliked by peers.

Bullying – A prevalent problem, especially among children of this age group. Researchers have found that bullies display certain characteristics – intrusive, demanding but unresponsive parents, prone to eventual criminal activity. Victims are often depressed and have lower self-esteem through adulthood.

Social Cognition – A complex set of scripts are engaged as children of this age navigate social situations. This has come to be known as social cognition – an ability to socially interact effectively.

Friends – serve six functions: companionship, stimulation, physical support, ego support, social comparison and intimacy/affection.

SCHOOLSContemporary Approaches – How children learn is a topic always under discussion – the direct-instruction approach is teacher-centered and is characterized by a power-down executive strategy of instruction. The cognitive constructivist approach, Piagetian in origin, stresses a child’s engagement of knowledge and understanding. The social constructivist approach, Vygotskyian in origin, stresses a collaboration with others to produce knowledge and understanding.

The Transition to Elementary School – there is a changing view of how children learn, especially in elementary school, and that view is centered on the developmental needs of children. As they transition from home to school, the need to attend to their developmental styles of learning is acute. Traditional schooling offers subject-centered topics to which the students attend, whereas constructivist schooling seeks to construct relationships among all topics to foster understanding.

Socioeconomic Status and Ethnicity– The education of students from low-socioeconomic

backgrounds – A great many of our nations schools are under-funded and offer substandard education in substandard environments. This inequity results largely from how schools are funded. Students from these schools are more likely to drop out, less likely to find high-paying jobs in adulthood, and more likely to have social problems – from divorce to criminality.

– Ethnicity – Because 90 percent of the teachers in American schools are non-Latino White, a widening gap is forming as the minorities of African-American, Asian, and Latino students continues to grow at an exponential rate. This problem is exacerbated by large concentrations of minority students in urban areas where substandard schooling dominates. (See Santrock p. 463-64 for strategies to improve relations between ethnically diverse students).