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PSYC 125 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

2/26/2013 LECTURE 5: Early Childhood:

(~2 – ~6 )

Socioemotional Development

Dr. Bart Moore bamoore@napavalley.edu

Office hours Tuesdays 11:00-1:00 Office: 1031G

Early Childhood Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  Emergence of the ‘Self’ –  Emotional development –  Moral development –  Gender awareness

•  Family Life –  Aspects of parenting –  Child maltreatment –  Sibling relationships –  Differences between families

•  Everything else –  Peer relationships –  Play –  Influence of media

Questions? Material? Course business?

Practice Question

Which major developmental psychologist believed that language and scaffolding were most important for early cognitive development

A)  Frasier Crane

B)  Jean Piaget

C)  Tracy Jordan

D)  Lev Vygotsky

E)  Dr. Phil

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Practice Question

Which glass would a child in Piaget’s ‘preoperational stage’ say has more liquid?

A)  Right glass

B)   Left glass

C)   They are the same, dummy!

D)  Purple goo goo gaa gaa

Early Childhood Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  Emergence of the ‘Self’ –  Emotional development –  Moral development –  Gender awareness

•  Family Life –  Aspects of parenting –  Child maltreatment –  Sibling relationships –  Differences between families

•  Everything else –  Peer relationships –  Play –  Influence of media

The Self

•  Initiative versus guilt

–  Children use their perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language skills to make things happen

–  On their own initiative, then, children at this stage exuberantly move out into a wider social world

–  The great governor of initiative is conscience

–  Initiative and enthusiasm may bring guilt, which lowers self-esteem

The Self

–  Increased awareness of ‘self’ reflects expanding mental sophistication

•  Self-understanding: Substance and content of self-conceptions

–  Related to theory of mind & understanding mental privacy

•  Understanding others

–  General shift away from egocentrism

–  Children start perceiving others in terms of psychological traits

–  Children begin to develop an understanding for joint commitments

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Emotional Development

•  Young children begin to express (and feel) more emotions

–  Pride, shame, embarrassment, and guilt are examples of self-conscious emotions

–  Influenced by parents’ responses to children’s behavior

Emotional Development •  Understanding emotions

–  Children’s increased understanding of emotion is linked to an increase in prosocial behavior

–  Children begin to understand that the same event can elicit different feelings in different people

• Related to theory of mind (mental privacy)

Emotional Development

•  Regulating emotions

–  Parents typically take an emotion-coaching or an emotion-dismissing approach

–  Ability to modulate emotions benefits children in their relationships with peers

–  By age 5 most children can manage emotions according to social standards

Moral Development

•  Moral reasoning

–  Feelings of anxiety and guilt are central to moral development

–  Heteronomous morality: The first stage of moral development in Piaget’s theory, occurring from approximately 4 to 7 years of age

• Justice and rules are conceived of as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people

–  Autonomous morality: children (10 and older) become aware that rules and laws are created by people

• we should consider the intentions as well as the consequences

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Moral Development

–  Immanent justice: Concept that if a rule is broken, punishment will be meted out immediately

–  Parent-child relations, in which parents have the power and children do not, are less likely to advance moral reasoning

• Rules are handed down in an authoritarian manner

Moral Development

•  Moral behavior develops because of:

• reinforcement,

• punishment,

•  Imitation

•  Various factors are important in the child’s development of self-control

• Cognitive, physical, & emotional

Gender

•  Gender identity: The sense of being male or female, which most children acquire by the time they are 3 years old

•  Gender role: A set of expectations about how females or males should think, act, and feel

•  Gender typing: Acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

•  Gender identity is important for peer relationships

• Gender composition of children’s groups

• Group size

•  Interaction in same-sex groups

Gender: biological influences

•  Biological influences

–  Chromosomes

–  Hormones

• Androgens (testosterone)

• Estrogens (estrogen, estradol)

–  Evolution

• Different genders have different roles for ensuring species survival

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Gender

•  Cognitive influences

–  Gender schema theory: Gender typing emerges as children gradually develop gender schemas of what is gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate in their culture

Gender: social influences

•  Social influences on gender

• Social role theory: Gender differences result from the contrasting roles of women and men

• Psychoanalytic theory: Preschool child develops a sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent

• Social cognitive theory: Children’s gender development occurs through observation and imitation of what other people say and do

Early Childhood Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  Emergence of the ‘Self’ –  Emotional development –  Moral development –  Gender awareness

•  Family Life –  Aspects of parenting –  Child maltreatment –  Sibling relationships –  Differences between families

•  Everything else –  Peer relationships –  Play –  Influence of media

Parenting

•  Diana Baumrind’s 4 styles of parenting:

–  AUTHORITARIAN parenting

• Restrictive (my way or else, “because I said so”)

–  Authoritative parenting

•  encourages children to be independent but still respect boundaries (‘do you know what you did wrong?’)

–  Neglectful parenting

• Uninvolved parents

–  Indulgent parenting

• No rules or penalties—freeform

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Parenting styles Parenting: punnishment

•  Punishment

–  Corporal punishment is linked problems with moral development and mental health

–  Best method is to handle misbehavior by reasoning with the child, especially explaining the consequences of the child’s actions for others

Child Maltreatment

•  Types of child maltreatment

–  Child neglect

• Failure to provide for basic needs

–  Physical abuse

–  Emotional abuse

• Verbal or psychological abuse

–  Sexual abuse

• Combination of physical and verbal abuse

Child Maltreatment

•  Developmental consequences of abuse

–  Adolescents who experienced abuse or neglect as children are more likely to engage in violent behavior and substance abuse

–  About 1/3 of parents who were abused themselves when they were young go on to abuse their own children

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Sibling Relationships and Birth Order

•  Sibling relationships

–  Important characteristics

• Emotional quality of the relationship

• Familiarity and intimacy of the relationship

•  Birth order matters!

–  firstborn children:

• adult-oriented

• conforming

• self-controlled

Changing Family in a Changing Society

•  Working parents

–  Children of working mothers:

• engage in less gender stereotyping

• have more egalitarian views of gender than do children of nonworking mothers

Changing Family in a Changing Society

•  Children in divorced families

–  Children from divorced families show poorer adjustment

–  Children with a difficult temperament often have problems in coping with their parents’ divorce

–  Income loss for divorced mothers is accompanied by increased workloads, job instability, and frequent moves

–  Frequent visits by the noncustodial parent usually benefit the child

Changing Family in a Changing Society

•  Gay male and lesbian parents

–  Most children from gay or lesbian families have a heterosexual orientation

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Family: socioeconomic status

–  Lower-SES parents ($$$$) :

• More concerned that their children conform to society’s expectations

• More likely to be Authoritarian parents

–  Higher-SES parents ($$$$):

• More concerned with developing children’s initiative and delay of gratification

• Less likely to use physical punishment

Early Childhood Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  Emergence of the ‘Self’ –  Emotional development –  Moral development –  Gender awareness

•  Family Life –  Aspects of parenting –  Child maltreatment –  Sibling relationships –  Differences between families

•  Everything else –  Peer relationships –  Play –  Influence of media

Peer Relations

•  Peer relations

–  Provide a source of information and comparison about the world outside the family

–  Good peer relations are usually necessary for normal socioemotional development

Play!

•  Play

–  Important context for the development of language and communication skills

–  Types of Play

• Sensorimotor play

• Practice play

• Symbolic play

• Constructive

• Social play

• Games: Activities that are engaged in for pleasure and have rules

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Media consumption by young children

•  Television

–  Many children spend more time in front of the television set than they do with their parents

–  Extent to which children are exposed to violence and aggression on television and video games raises special concerns

–  Television can also teach children that it is better to behave in a positive, prosocial way

Early Childhood Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  Emergence of the ‘Self’ –  Emotional development –  Moral development –  Gender awareness

•  Family Life –  Aspects of parenting –  Child maltreatment –  Sibling relationships –  Differences between families

•  Everything else –  Peer relationships –  Play –  Influence of media