WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

Why do 2-year-olds have more sudden tempers, tears, and terrors than 6-year-olds?

If a child never plays, is that a problem?

Should girls play with trucks and boys with dolls?

What happens if you never punish a child?

Emotional Development

Emotional regulation

Ability to control when and how emotions are expressed

Possibly due to connections between limbic system and prefrontal cortex

Most important psychosocial accomplishment between ages 2 and 6

Initiative versus guilt

Erikson's third psychosocial crisis

Children undertake new skills and activities and feel guilty when they do not succeed at them.

Emotional

Development

Protective optimism• Consists of positivity bias that

helps young child try new

things

• Begins around age 3

• Belief about child self worth

tied to parental confirmation

A Poet and We Know It

She is the proud winner of a national

poetry contest. Is she as surprised,

humbled, and thankful as an adult? winner

would be?

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Emotional Development

Self-esteem

Person's evaluation of his or her own worth, either in specifics or in general

Self-concept

Person's understanding of who he or she is, incorporating self-esteem, physical appearance, personality, and various personal traits

Brain Maturation

Neurological advances

• Growth of prefrontal cortex at about age 4 or 5

• Myelination of the limbic system

Improved behaviors and abilities

• Longer attention span

• Improved capacity for self-control

• Social awareness and self-concept become stronger

Proud Peruvian

In rural Peru, a program of early

education (Pronoei) encourages

community involvement and traditional

culture.

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Emotional Development: Motivation

Intrinsic motivationDrive, or reason to pursue a goal

Comes from inside a person

Seen when children invent imaginaryfriends

Extrinsic motivationDrive, or reason to pursue a goal

Arises from the need to have achievements rewarded from outside

Culture and Emotional Control

Goals for emotional regulation appear to

be important in certain cultures.• Overcome fear (United States)

• Modify anger (Puerto Rico)

• Temper pride (China)

• Control selfishness(Japan)

• Overcome impatience (Native American communities)

• Modify disobedience (Mexico)

Seeking Emotional Balance

Lack of emotional regulation may be an early sign of psychopathology.

Externalizing problems

• Involves expressing powerful feelings through uncontrolled physical or verbal outbursts, as by lashing out at other people or breaking things

Internalizing problems

• Involves turning one's emotional distress inward, as by feeling excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless

Emotional Regulation

Neurological and hormonal effects•Boys tend to be aggressive (externalizing)

•Girls tend to be anxious (internalizing)

Psychopathology is not typical!•Children of both sexes usually learn to regulate their emotions as their brains mature and their parents nurture them

Learning Emotional Regulation

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Age or Gender?

Probably both. Brother and sister are reacting typically for their age and sex, as the 4-year old boy moves his book away from his sister, who cries rather than grabbing it.

Culture may be a factor, too, as these sibling are in Korea, where physical fighting between siblings is not allowed.

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Play

Play is universal and the most productive and enjoyable activity that children undertake.

Two general kinds of play: pretend play and social play.

Increasingly complex social play is due to brain maturation coupled with many hours of social play.

Form of play changes with age and culture.

Culture and Cohort

Basic play is similar in every culture and is

experience-expectant.

Some specifics reflect culture and SES and

are experience-dependent.

Play

Playmates• Are people of about the

same age and social status

• Provide practice in

emotional regulation,

empathy, and social

understanding

• Are preferred play partners

over parents

Play Ball!

In every nation, young children play with

balls, but the specific games they play

vary with the culture.

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Types of Play: Parten (1932)

•Solitary play: A child plays alone, unaware of any other children playing nearby.

•Onlooker play: A child watches other children play.

•Parallel play: Children play with similar toys in similar ways, but not together.

•Associative play: Children interact, observing each other and sharing material, but their play is not yet mutual and reciprocal.

•Cooperative play:Children play together, creating and elaborating a joint activity or taking turns.

Active Play

Rough-and-tumble play•Mimics aggression with no intention to harm

•Contains expressions and gestures signifying that the child is “just pretending”

•Is particularly common among young males

•Advances children's social understanding but increases likelihood of injury

•May positively affect prefrontal cortex development

Drama and

Pretending

Sociodramatic play

enables children to:

–Explore and rehearse the

social roles

–Test their ability to explain

–Practice regulating their

emotions

–Develop a self-concept

–Create gender-related play

themes

Joy Supreme

Pretend play in early childhood is

thrilling and powerful.

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Challenges for Adults

Caregiving styles: Dimensions

Expressions of warmth

Strategies for discipline

Communication

Expectations for maturity

Baumrind’s Styles of Caregiving

Authoritarian parenting: High behavioral standards, strict punishment of misconduct, and little communication (Baumrind)

Permissive parenting: High nurturance and communication but little discipline, guidance, or control (Baumrind)

Authoritative parenting: Parents set limits and enforce rules but are flexible and listen to their children (Baumrind)

Styles of Caregiving

A fourth style is sometimes mistaken for the

permissive style, but is different.

• Neglectful/uninvolved parenting: Parents are

indifferent toward their children and unaware of

what is going on in their children's lives

(Sternberg)

Long-Term Effects of

Parenting Style

On the basis of these dimensions, Baumrind identified long-term effects of different parenting styles.

• Children of authoritarianparents

• Children of permissiveparents

• Children of authoritativeparents

• Children of neglectful/uninvolved parents

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Characteristics of Parenting Styles Identified

by Baumrind

Communication

Style Warmth Discipline Expectations

of Maturity Parent to Child Child to Parent

Authoritarian Low Strict, often

physical High High Low

Permissive High Rare Low Low High

Authoritative High

Moderate, with

much

discussion

Moderate High High

Problems with Baumrind’s Styles

Little economic, ethnic, or cultural diversity in

sample

More focus on attitudes than daily

interactions

No recognition of loving, authoritarian parents

No recognition permissive parent verbal

guidance

Child's contribution overlooked

Cultural Variations

Parental influence

Three-way interaction influences outcome of

any parenting style

• Child's temperament

• Parent's personality

• Social context

Becoming Boys and

Girls

Sex differences

Biological differences between males and females, in organs, hormones, and body shape

Gender differences

Differences in the roles and behaviors that are prescribed by a culture for males and females

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Theories of Gender Development

Psychoanalytical Theory

•Phallic stage: Freud's third stage of development, when the penis becomes the focus of concern and pleasure.

•Oedipus complex: Unconscious desire of young boys to replace their fathers and win their mothers'exclusive love.

•Superego: Judgmental part of the personality that internalizes the moral standards of the parents.

Theories of Gender

Development

Electra complex: Unconscious desire of girls to replace their mothers and win their fathers' exclusive love

Identification: Attempt to defend one's self-concept by taking on the behaviors and attitudes of someone else

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Theories of Gender

Development

Gender differences

•Product of ongoing reinforcement and punishment

•Are learned through all roles, values, and morals

"Gender-appropriate"

•Rewarded more frequently than "gender-inappropriate" behavior

Social learning theory

•Children notice the ways men and women behave and internalize the standards they observe.

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Theories of Gender Development

Cognitive theory

•Offers an alternative explanation for the strong gender identity that becomes apparent at about age 5

Gender schema

•Child's cognitive concept or general belief about sex differences

•Based on his or her observations and experiences

•Young children categorize themselves and everyone else as either male or female, and then they think and behave accordingly.

Theories of Gender Development

Sociocultural theories

Stresses importance of cultural values and

customs

Proposes that transmission of cultural aspects

from larger community and parents

Note influence of norms and preference change as

cultures change

Theories of Gender Development

Universal theories

Humanism stresses the hierarchy of needs.

Children increasingly strive for peer admiration.

Evolutionary theory posits that sexual passion is

basic human drive related to essential urges to

survive and reproduce.

Which Is Best?

Theorists differ in their explanations and interpretations of gender differences

Some emphasize biological and brain differences, others stress the impact of culture.

Each of the major developmental theories strives to explain the ideas that young children express and the roles they follow.

No consensus has been reached.

Moral Development

Emotional and social maturation are the

foundations for morality.

Nature perspective

• Morality is genetic outgrowth of natural bonding,

attachment, and cognitive maturation.

Nurture perspective

• Culture is crucial to the development of

morality.

Moral Development

Prosocial behavior

Extending helpfulness and kindness without any

obvious benefit to oneself: Increases from age

3 to 6

Empathy

Understand the emotions and concerns of another

person, especially when they differ from one's own

Moral Development

Antisocial actions

Deliberately hurting

another person, including

people who have done no

harm: Declines beginning

at age 2

Antipathy

Feelings of dislike or even

hatred for another person

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General Types of Aggression

Researchers recognize four general

types of aggression.

Instrumental aggression

Reactive aggression

Relational aggression

Bullying aggression

Physical Punishment

Some researchers believe that physical punishment is harmless; some do not

Physical punishment increases obedience temporarily, but also increases the possibility of later bullying, delinquency, and abusive behavior.

Physical punishment correlates with delayed theory of mind and increased aggression.

She Understands

Children who are spanked remember the pain and anger, but not the reason for the punishment.

It is better for parents to explain what the misbehavior was.

However, sometimes explanations are not understood.

Other Forms of Discipline

Psychological control

• Disciplinary technique that involves threatening to withdraw love and support and that relies on a child's feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents

Psychological control correlations

• Higher parent control; lower child math scores

• Depressed child achievement, creativity, social acceptance

• Increased relational aggression

Discipline: Exclusion

and Conversation

Time-out

•Disciplinary technique in which a

child is separated from other people

and activities for a specified time.

Evaluation of effectiveness

confounded by different styles/uses of

time-out

Induction

Disciplinary technique in which

parents talk to child in attempt to

understand misbehavior

Recommended if internalized

standard of right and wrong is goal

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No Simple Answer

Methods of discipline vary in consequences

and effectiveness, depending on

temperament, culture, and the adult–child

relationship.

What do you think is the best way to

discipline children? Why?