Chapter 10 - Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood Flashcards
Erikson’s Theory: Initiative versus Guilt
in Erikson’s theory, the psychological conflict of early childhood
Want a child to have a healthy sense of initiative, and not be too guilt-ridden
Young children have a new sense of purposefulness and make strides in conscience development
Play as a means through which young children learn about themselves and their social world
Self-understanding
The development of language enables children to talk about their own subjective experiences
Self-concept
Self-esteem
Self-concept
the set of attributes, abilities, attitudes, and values that an individual believes defines who he or she is
Attachment to care giver is important (elaborative reminiscing leads to better autobiographical memory which helps sense of self-concept.)
Foundations of Self-Concept
Preschoolers tend to define themselves in concrete terms, based on physical attributes, abilities, and possessions
• They often understand the meaning of words such as “shy”, but tend not to apply trait labels to themselves
• They can identify their psychological traits in forced-choice paradigms
Self-esteem
Self-esteem - the judgments individuals make about their own worth and the feelings associated with those judgments
Among the most important aspects of self-development because they affect our emotional experiences, future behavior, and long term psychological adjustment.
By age 4, preschoolers already have several self-judgments for different domains
They have difficulty distinguishing between their actual and desired competence, though
The typical high self-esteem of preschoolers seems to be adaptive
• It helps them maintain a sense of initiative during a period of development in which many new skills must be mastered
Emotional competence
Emotional competence - emotional abilities such as
• Emotional understanding
• Emotional self-regulation
• Development of self-conscious emotions and empathy
Understanding Emotion
Being able to talk about feelings
Being able to respond appropriately to others’ emotional signals
cognitive
• Preschoolers refer to causes, consequences, and behavioural signs of emotion
• Preschoolers have some ability to predict future actions of a playmate based on emotional expression
• Preschoolers have difficulty in situations that provide conflicting cues to emotions
• They know that thinking and feeling are connected
social
• Parent who label emotions, explain them with warmth, use more emotional words, prompting of emotional thoughts, frequently agnonage child’s emotions
• Resolving disagreements where they discussed emotions, negotiated and compromised.
• Make believe play
• They may try to alter another’s emotion
Changes in the way preschoolers refer to causes, consequences, and behavioural signs of emotion
They become more accurate and complex in their judgments over time
By age 4 to 5, they correctly judge the causes of many basic emotions
Preschoolers tend to emphasize external factors over internal states in their explanation, but this balance changes with age
Why do preschoolers have difficulty in situations that provide conflicting cues to emotions
As with other tasks, we see centration
Over time, they get better at finding potential explanations to resolve conflicting cues
Parents can scaffold children’s emotional understanding by:
- By labelling emotions in conversations, and talking about their causes
- By acknowledging the preschooler’s emotions
- By talking about diverse emotions
- By talking about feelings and reaching compromises during family conflicts
- By promoting secure attachment, which is related to warmer and more elaborative parent-child narratives
- By encouraging make-believe play with siblings, which is related to increased understanding of emotions
Emotional self-regulation
Emotional self-regulation - the ability to control the expression of emotion
• Also, to some extent, the ability to control the level of an emotion
Increases as children learn strategies for regulation, including verbal strategies that become possible as their language skills develop
Effortful control, especially the ability to inhibit impulses and shift attention, is also very important in managing emotions
Learn from watching parents and verbal guidence
Effortful control in managing emotions
Effortful control, especially the ability to inhibit impulses and shift attention, is also very important in managing emotions
• 3-year-olds who can distract themselves when frustrated tend to be cooperative at school-age
• Effortful control at 3 predicts skill at portraying an emotion that isn’t felt, as well “masks”
Children who experience negative emotions intensely
- Have greater difficulty inhibiting their feelings and shifting attention away from disturbing events
- Are more likely to be anxious and fearful, or to respond with irritation to others’ distress
- Are more likely to react angrily or aggressively when frustrated
- Are more likely to get along poorly with teachers and peers
Self-Conscious Emotions
Self-conscious emotions emerge, and are linked to self-evaluation by age 3
At this age, though, children still depend on adults to indicate what situations merit different self-conscious emotions
More sensitivity to praise or blame and the possibility of such feedback.
Beginning in early childhood intense feelings of shame is associated with feelings of feelings personal inadequacy and maladjustment, withdrawal and depression as well as intense anger and aggression
Guilt when it is appropriate and not accompanied by shame is related to good adjustment. It helps children resist harmful impulses and motivates a child to repair damage
When parents judge a child’s worth based on performance of a task, we often see
- More intense self-conscious emotions
- More shame in failure situations
- More pride after success
When parents focus on effort and strategy, rather than the child’s worth, we see
- More moderate, healthy levels of pride and shame
* Greater persistence at difficult tasks
Among Western children, shame and guilt is associated with
Among Western children, shame is associated with
• Feelings of personal inadequacy
• Maladjustment—withdrawal, depression, and intense anger and aggression toward people who participated in the shame-evoking situation
Guilt is associated with good adjustment if
• It occurs in appropriate circumstances
• Isn’t accompanied by shame
Guilt may help children resist harmful impulses, and to repair damage when they have misbehaved
Prosocial, or altruistic behaviour
Prosocial, or altruistic behaviour - actions that benefit another person without any expected reward for the self
This can be encouraged or discouraged by empathy, depending on how the person experiences it
Preschoolers start to use more words to communicate empathic feelings – indicates more reflective level of empathy.
Empathy can lead to
- Sympathy - feelings of concern or sorrow for another’s plight
- Personal distress (aka self-oriented distress)
A child who is sociable, assertive, and good at regulating emotion is more likely to…
A child who is less skilled at regulating emotion is more likely to…
A child who is sociable, assertive, and good at regulating emotion is more likely to display sympathy and prosocial behaviour
• Helping, sharing, and comforting
A child who is less skilled at regulating emotion is more likely to react with personal distress and to be overwhelmed by these feelings
• Frowning, lip biting, increased heart rate, and a sharp increase in brain-wave activity in the right hemisphere
Three factors that help the development peer relations in early childhood
During early childhood, children tend to become
• More self-aware
• More effective at communicating
• Better at perspective-taking
Types of play
3 step
- Nonsocial activity - unoccupied, onlooker behaviour and solitary play
- Parallel play - a limited form of social participation in which a child plays near other children with similar materials but does not try to influence their behaviour
- Associative play - a form of true social interaction, in which children engage in separate activities but interact by exchanging toys and commenting on one another’s behaviour
And/or
Cooperative play - a type of social interaction in which children orient toward a common goal, such as acting out a make-believe theme or working on a project together
Later steps do not replace earlier ones.
With nonsocial activity in particular, the type of activity is important
Wandering, hovering near peers (without interacting), and functional play involving immature, repetitive motor action, can be cause for concern
• Many parents will then be overprotective and critical, rather than patiently encouraging their children to approach peers
Constructive activities like building, art, puzzles, or reading, are not signs of poor adjustment
Sociodramatic play
An advanced form of coopertave play
Becomes common over preschool years
Supports cognitive, emotional and social development
