Ch. 6 Flashcards
Emotion regulation
- personality and the emerging self
- relationships, friendship, play, popularity
- self-esteem, types of aggression, and bullying
- prosocial behavior
Jean Piaget’s stage 3: concrete operational
- think abstractly about inner states (theory of mind)
- become less egocentric and more
- become more self-aware through self-reflection and comparison to others and begins to care what others think and can modify behavior to “fit in and be accepted” if they feel they cannot change (do not have confidence) to “fit in,” they may find a group with negative influences where no one fits in and they do not have to exert the effort. sometimes
Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stage 4: industry vs. inferiority
- industry: children feel that they can work toward a goal
- self esteem: based on the value the child places on a particular dimension or dimensions and how they feel about themselves and their capabilities or do they feel inferior comparatively speaking to others in their “same bracket” as Erikson said
Emotional regulation:
capacity to manage one’s emotional state
- maturing frontal lobe contributes to development of self regulation abilities
- important for social and emotional success
problematic temperamental tendencies
- externalizing: a personality style that involves acting on one’s immediate impulses and behaving disruptively and aggressively
- internalizing: a personality style that involves intense fear, social inhibition, and often depression
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Stages of Psychosocial Dev.
Life stage:
- infancy (birth to 1yr)
- toddlerhood (1-2yrs)
- childhood (3-6yrs)
primary task:
- basic trust vs. mistrust
- autonomy vs. shame and doubt early initiative vs. guilt
- middle childhood (6rs to puberty)
- adolescence (teens into 20’s)
- young adulthood (20s to early 40s)
- middle adulthood (40s to 60s)
- late adulthood (late 60s and beyond)
Industry vs. Inferiority
- indentity vs role confusion
- intimacy vs isolation
- generativity vs stagnation
- integrity vs despair
self awareness
the ability to observe our abilities and actions from an outside Frame of reference and to reflect on our inner state
self esteem
evaluating oneself as either “good” or “bad” as a result of comparing the self to other people
initiative vs guilt
erik Erikson’s term for the preschool psychosocial task involving actively taking on life tasks
Susan Harter (1999)
- believed that when children reach concrete operations, they realistically evaluate their abilities and decide whether they like or dislike the person they see
- children draw on 5 areas to determine their self esteem: scholastic competence (academic talents), behavioral conduct (obedience or being “good”), athletic skills (performance at sports), peer likability (popularity), and physical appearance (look)
industry vs inferiority
erikson’s term for the psychosocial task of middle childhood involving managing our emotions and realizing that real world success involves hard work
Susan Harter and self perception scale for children
Hart in 1985 designed a set of instruments for measuring self esteem in several age groups
- assesses self evaluations in specific domains and various stages of development
- children 8 yrs and older assesses opinions of overall worth and self evaluation in 5 critical domains:
- scholastic competence
- athletic competence
- social acceptance
- behavioral conduct
- physical appearance
- children presented w/ two related statements, one describing a competent child and the other a less competent child. they answer if the statement is “really like me” or “sort of true for me” for 6 items in six areas
- examiners see a global self worth and differences from one domain to the next
- from the results examiners construct a profile of their self worth
Harter’s self perception for children con’t
global changes in self awareness
- 3 yr old self descriptions focus on external facts
- 4th grader’s self descriptions are: internal and psychological, anchored in feelings, abilities, and inner traits
self esteem develops
- evaluating oneself as good or bad
- declines during early elementary school
learned helplessness
a state that develops when a person feels incapable of affecting the outcome of events, and so gives up without trying
- common in those with internalizing problems
- leads to depression
self esteem distortions
pt. 1
externalizing problems: child may exhibit unrealistically high self esteem
- emotional acting out
- real problem ignoring, lack of need to improve
- continued failure
self esteem distortions
pt. 2
internalizing problems: child may exhibit overly low self esteem
- overly self critical
- inflate failures
- see failure when it does not exist
enhance self efficacy
- mom is socializing her child to tackle challenging tasks and promoting feelings of competence by praising child for being such a “hard worker”
- I can succeed if I work hard (erikson’s industry)
- be aware of vygotsky’s zone of proximal development
- reinforce child’s effort toward a realistic goal no matter how small (especially if it is building to a larger goal)
- insure Maslow’s unconditional positive regard (UPR) not conditional as in most families
- ignore bad behaviors (John Locke and b. f. skinner) if not on your “5 never do list” like hitting someone else or being deceitful and never give physical punishment
promote accurate self perceptions
- set realistic goals using skinner’s theory of shaping if goals are multi level and difficult to achieve (getting A’s when child is at a C level or promoting behaviors that will gain friends)
- if child fails, gently give accurate feedback
- express care
- do not reinforce a child for merely “breathing” but reinforce when meaningful to promote more enhanced self efficacy and taking more psychological healthy risks
prosocial behavior
aspect of moral conduct that includes socially desirable behaviors such as sharing, helping and caring and cooperating; often used interchangeably with altruism by new researchers.
- appears as early as preschool
- more frequent in elementary school
empathy
feeling the exact emotion that another person is experiencing
sympathy
a state necessary for acting prosocially, involving feeling upset for a person who needs help
doing good: prosocial behavior pt.1
individual and gender variations:
- fewer variations by sex when viewing scenes of strong human emotions (EEG findings)
- females may be more attuned to others’ distress
doing good: prosocial behavior pt.2
decoding prosocial behavior in a deeper way:
- children need to mute empathetic feelings into sympathetic response
- superior information processing skills
- few or no externalizing or internalizing problems
- model altruism : “a motivational state with the goal of increasing another’s welfare”
doing good: prosocial behavior pt.3
attend
- to child’s prosocial behavior
- attribute the kind act to the child’s personality
doing good: prosocial behavior pt.4
reinforce:
- altruistic behavior and displays of empathy and sympathy
doing good: prosocial behavior pt.5
use inductive discipline:
- scaffold altruism
- intervene when child behaves in a hurtful, negative way
doing good: prosocial behavior pt.6
model:
- prosocial behaviors in most important to parents: “do as I do and not merely what I say”
induction
the ideal discipline style for socializing prosocial behavior, involving getting a child who has behaving hurtfully to empathy with the pain he has caused the other person
shame
a feeling of being personally humiliated
guilt
feeling upset about having caused harm to a person or about having violated one’s internal standard of behavior
shame and guilt are both “self conscious” relationship oriented emotions, they have opposing effects
shame = withdraw from people, diminishes us guilt = connects us to people, can cause us to act prosocially and emotionally enlarge
aggression
any hostile or destructive act
> physical aggression peaks at about age 2 1/2
> declines with onset of emotional regulation (maturing frontal lobes)
proactive aggression
- acts that are actively instigated to achieve a goal
> emotionally cool and more carefully planned
> push another child, grab his toy, and happily go play with it
reactive aggression
- acts that occur in response to being frustrated or hurt
> furious, disorganized, impulsive response
> push a child, grab his toy, and then throw the toy down
> goal want not to have or get the toy but to display aggression
direct aggression
- everyone can see it
- at its peak about 2 or 3; declines as children get older
- more common in boys, especially physical aggression
frustration-aggression hypothesis
when human beings are thwarted, we are biologically primed to retaliate or strike back
relational aggression
- carried out indirectly, through damaging or destroying the victim’s relationships
- occurs mainly during elementary school nd may be at its peak during adolescence
- it is common throughout adult life
pathway to producing problematic aggression
- difficult (exuberant) temperament may evoke power-assertion disciplinary techniques
- rejection from teachers and peers
- child may possess a hostile attributional bias
- boys more likely than girls to be labeled aggressive and to have externalizing problems
hostile attributional bias
- the tendency of highly aggressive children to see motives and actions as threatening when they are actually benign
play and pretending
rough and tumble play:
- excited shoving, wrestling, and running around
- most apparent with boys
pretending or fantasy play:
- emerges at end of sensorimotor stage
- initially, scaffolded by parent/caregiver
- evolves into collaborative pretend play around age 4 (theory of mind is present)
pretending allows children to:
- furthers understanding of social norms
- offers the adult world insights into what children may be thinking
- gives sense of control and can practice adult roles
purposes of pretending
- allows children to practice adult roles
- allows child a sense of control
- furthers understanding of social norms
- offers the adult world insights into what children may be thinking
what contributes to gender stereotyped play pt.1
biological underpinnings - role of testosterone
what contributes to gender stereotyped play pt.2
socialization of traditional gender specific behaviors
what contributes to gender stereotyped play pt.3
cognition impacts: sandy bee’s 1981 gender schema theory - childrens cognitive representations of the characteristics associated with being male or female and categorize gender stimuli (people, toys and activities) as “for boys or girls.” schemas result from two factors: 1. child’s inborn tendency to organize and classify information from the environment 2. preponderance of gender distinguishing cues such as clothing, names and occupations that make concepts identifiable. the child then adopts one of the schemas - girl or boy.
when is gender segregated play firmly entrenched?
- by age 7
- girls: calm, more subdued play, nurturing themes and play collaboratively; relate one to one
- boys: rambunctious play, superhero/warrior themes, try to establish dominance and enjoy competition and rigid gender specific rules for play
relationships: friendships
- core qualities: similarity, trust, emotional support
- friendships stimulate personal development
> help child to learn to manage emotions
> help child to handle conflicts
> friends protect and enhance the developing self
Harry Stack Sullivan (1953): personality theorist
- believed that a best friend fulfills the developmental need for self validation and intimacy that emerges at around age 9
- also believed that this special relationship serves as a stepping stone to adult romance
popularity
is a group concern that requires rising to the top of the social totem pole
- can be linked to being relationally aggressive
friendship
involves relating with a single person in a close one to one way
popular categories
popular: most liked
average: middle range status
rejected: may be socially anxious, have internalizing or externalizing tendencies, not fir in with dominant group
Jacob Moreno (1889-1974) and sociometry theory
sociometry - comes from the latin "socius" for social and "metrum" measure - gave children a class list and asked "who would you really like to come to your birthday party." from there devised a sociometric configuration showing popularity, likability, and friend preferences
bullying
situation in which one or more children (or adults) harass or target a specific child for systematic abuse
bullying pt2
- child has been bullied and likely has authoritarian dominant father and submissive mother
- always picks on someone smaller and ‘weaker” than him
- parallels freud’s defense mechanism, displacement
bullying: two categories
- bully victim: exceptionally aggressive children who repeatedly bully and get victimized
> may demonstrate both externalizing and internalizing tendencies - classic victim (internalizing)
> anxious, shy, low on the social hierarchy, unlikely to fight back
cyberbullying
aggressive behavior repeatedly carried out via electronic media
> ensures large, amorphous audience that multiplies distress
> emotionally easier to conduct; removes all inner controls
cyberbullying motives
- revenge
- recreation
- social rewards or reinforcement from peers
interventions: attacking bullying and helping rejected children
dr. dan owleus (1931-)
- research professor of psych from Norway, is often considered the “pioneer” in bullying research. he has spent several decades researching the issue of bullying to help keep children safe in schools and other settings. today, dr. olweus is best known for the most researched and widely adopted bullying prevention program in the world, the olweus bullying prevention program
olweus bullying prevention program pt1
- inspired by research by Heinemann (1972) whose research is considered to be the first investigation of group aggression among schoolchildren - called it “mobbing”
- olweus took this research further and took a national survey in Norway in 1983
- found that 15% of those attending elementary school and secondary schools (7-16yrs old) were involved in “mobbing” (bullying) behaviors. also found that 9% were victims, and 7% were perpetrators. over 50% reported being victimized by someone older than themselves
olweus bully prevention program pt2
- administration plan a school assembly to discuss bullying early in the year
- form a bullying prevention committee composed of children from each grade. teachers and students on high alert for bullying behaviors
- the goal is to develop a school-wide norm not to tolerate peer bullying
parents of shy children
- foster a secure attachment
- during preschool, connect your temperamentally shy child with a friend
parents of children with externalizing disorders
- display loving, sensitive parenting
- minimize power assertion
- teach emotional regulation skills and reattribution of biases
