Chapter 10: Exam 3 (Skipped) Flashcards
Theories of Social and Emotional Development in Middle Childhood
Major theories of personality have had less to say about this age group than about other periods of childhood and adolescence.
Latency Stage
In psychoanalytic theory, the fourth stage psychosexual development, characterized by repression of sexual impulses and development of skills
*Freud believed sexual feelings are repressed during this period because children focus on developing intellectually, socially, and other culturally valued skills.
Industry versus Inferiority
A stage of psychosocial development in Erickson’s theory occurring in middle childhood. Mastery of tasks leads to a sense of industry, whereas failure produces feelings of inferiority.
a.) acquisition of cognitive and social skills
children who master the challenges of
the middle years develop a sense of
industry or competence.
b.) children who have difficulties in school
or with peer relationships may develop
a sense of inferiority.
Social Cognitive Skills
*Focus on the importance of rewards and modeling in middle childhood.
*Children during these years, depend less on external rewards and punishments and increasingly regulate their own behavior.
Cognitive-Developmental Theory and Social Cognition
Coinincides with concrete operations because of a decline in egocentrism and an expansion of the capacity to view the world and oneself from other people’s perspectives. [positive effect on child’s social relationships]
*children with better perspective-taking skills ted to have better peer relationships
Social Cognition
Development of children’s understanding of the relationship between the self and others.
Self-esteem
*Preschoolers tend to see themselves as generally “good at doing things” or not
*By 5 to 7 years old, children are able to judge their performance in 7 areas:
1. physical ability
2. physical appearance
3. peer relationships
4. parent relationships
5. reading
6. math
7. general school performance
*By 12 or 13, children’s self-esteem declines throughout middle childhood, reason for decline:
-children compare themselves with other children and arrive at a more honest and critical self-appraisals.
*Adolescence, self-esteem increases
Positive Self-Concepts
*Girls have more positive self-concepts in areas of reading, general academics, and helping others.
*Boys have more positive self-concepts in math, physical ability, and physical appearance.
*Children with low self-esteem more likely to have authoritarian or rejecting-neglecting parents.
- Children with favorable self-images have parents who are restrictive, involved, and loving.
*Social acceptance by peers is related to self-perceived competence in academic social and athletic domains.
Truth or Fiction
Children’s self-esteem tends to rise in middle childhood.
Fiction
It tends to decline, reaching a low ebb at 12 or 13, as children confront more realistic evaluations of their strengths and shortcomings.
Learned Helplessness
An acquired (hence, learned) belief that one is unable to control one’s environment
*Children tend to quit following failure, whereas children who believe in their own ability persist or change their strategies.
*They believe success is due more to ability than effort and they have little ability in a particular area (persistence seems futile)
*typically obtain lower grades and IQ scores and achievement tests.
The Family
Family continues to play a key role in socializing the child, although peers, teachers, and other outsiders begin to play a greater role.
Parent-Child Relationship
Concerns during middle childhood:
* school-related matters
* assignment of chores
* Peer activities
Parents do less monitoring and direct feedback than they did in the preschool years
Coregulation
A gradual transfer of control from parent to child, beginning in middle childhood.
*Mothers’ interactions with school-aged children revolve around caregiving, and the fathers are more involved in recreation.
[Overall, they spend less time with middle childhood children]
Lesbian and Gay Parents
Research on Parenting Falls into 2 categories:
1. general adjustment of children
2. whether children of lesbian/gay parents are more likely than other children to become lesbian or gay themselves
Patterson Research Findings:
*Psychological adjustments of children of lesbian/gay parents is comparable to that of children of heterosexual parents
- Lesbian/Gay men are as likely to sustain positive family relationships (despite the stigma)
Psychological adjustment is superior in communities which there is social support
Transgender
Referring to people who feel as though they are persons of the other sex ‘traped’ in the body of the wrong sex. Some transgender individuals (also called ‘trans’) are content to adopt the clothing and cosmetic appearance of people of the other sex; others undergo hormone treatments and surgery to achieve the body shape and external physical traits of persons of the other sex.
Generation X or Generation Ex? What happens to children whose parents get divorced?
More than one million American children experience this each year
(40% European Americans / 75% African Americans)
Children of divorced parents are likely to have:
*Conduct Disorders
*Poor grades in school
*abuse drugs
Children respond to is worst during the first year and rebound after a couple of years
Life in Stepfamilies
More than one in three American children will spend part of his or her childhood in a stepfamily.
NO RULE OF THUMB
Some Risks:
*Greater risk of being physically abused by a stepparent
*Higher incident (by factor of 8) of sexual abuse by stepparents
Reason for these risks:
Evolutionary Psychologists suggests - We have as though we want our genes to flourish in next generation and as step parents we are less devoted to rearing other people’s children.
Should We Remain Married “For the sake of the children”
Research shows that severe parental bickering is linked to the same kind of problems that children experience when the parents separate or divorce.
They display a biological “alarm reaction”: their heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating rise sharply.
The effects of Maternal Employment
Today 3 out four mothers of children under age 18 are employed, as 4 out of 5 divorced, separated, or widowed mothers.
The common belief is that mom’s being in the workforce rather than at home leads to deldelinquency
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Found:
Maternal employment per se made no difference, but delinquencies were linked to lack of supervision.
Positive: children of working mom’s tend to be more prosocial, less anxious, and flexible in their gender role stereotypes.
Truth or Fiction
The daughters of employed women are more achievement-oriented and set higher career goals for themselves than the daughters of unemployed women.
True
One possible explanation is that the mothers serve as role models for their daughters
Peer Relations
As children move into middle childhood, peers take on more importance than family
Peers as Socialization Influence
Children profit from experience with peers because peers have interests and skills that reflect the child’s generation
Peers provides practice in cooperating, relating to leaders, and coping with aggressive impulses including their own.
Peer Acceptance and Rejection
Popular children tend to be attractive, mature for their age, and successful in sports or academics.
*Socially speaking they are friendly, nurturant, cooperative, helpful, and socially skillful with high self-esteems
Children who are aggressive and disrupt group activities are sometimes rejected by peers.
Truth or Fiction
in middle childhood, popular children tend to be attractive and relatively mature for their age.
True
Although - in the case of attractiveness, the statement applies more to girls than to boys.
Development of Friendships
Preschool/Early middle childhood years are based on geographic closeness or proximity. They are superficial, quickly formed, and easily broken. {what matters are the shared activities}
Between 8 and 11, they recognize the importance of friends meeting each other’s needs and possessing desirable traits, picking friends who are similar in behavior and personality.
Cyberbullying
The use of electronic devices such as cell phones, computers, and tablets to transmit threatening and taunting messages
Entry into School
School readiness involves 3 critical factors
1. The diversity and inequity of children’s early life experiences
2. Individual differences in young children’s development and learning
3. The degree to which schools establish reasonable and appropriate expectations of children’s capabilities when they enter school.
The School Environment
Research Summaries indicate that an effective school has the following characteristics:
*an active, energetic principle
*an orderly but not oppressive atmosphere
*empowerment of teachers; that is, teachers are participating in decision making
*teachers with high expectations that children will learn
*a curriculum that emphasizes academics
*frequent assessment of student performance
*empowerment of students; that is, students are participating in setting goals, making decisions, and engaging in cooperative learning activities
One Key Factor: Class Size
Teachers Influence on Student Performances
Achievement is enhanced when teachers expect students to master the curriculum, allocate most of the available time to academic activities and manage the classroom effectively.
Most effective teachers ask questions, give personalized feedback, and provide opportunities for drill and practice.
*Also linked to the emotional climate of the classroom
Pygmalion Effect
A positive self-fulfilling prophecy in which an individual comes to display improved performance because of the positive expectations of people with whom he or she interacts.
Self-fulfilling Prophesy
An event occurs because of the behavior of those who expect it to occur.
- Classic experiment by Rosenthal and Jacobson suggests that teachers’ expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies
Ways teachers can help motivate all students to do their best
*Make the classroom and the lesson interesting and inviting
*Ensure that students can profit from social interactions
*Make the classroom a safe and pleasant place
*Recognize that students’ backgrounds can give rise to diverse patterns of needs
*Help students take appropriate responsibility for their successes and failures
*Encourage students to perceive the links between their own efforts and their achievements
*Help students set attainable short-term goals
Sexism
Discrimination or bias against people based on their gender
A classic Review of more than 1,000 research publications concluded:
*Many teachers pay less attention to girls than boys, especially in math, science, and technology classes.
*Many girls were subjected to sexual harassment – unwelcomed verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature – from male classmates, and many teachers ignored it.
*Some textbooks still stereotype or ignore women, portraying males as the movers and shakers in the world.
Sexual Harassment
Unwelcomed verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature
Social and Emotional Problems
Conduct Disorders, Depression, and Anxiety
Conduct Disorders
A disorder marked by the persistent breaking of rules and violations of the rights of others: such as lying, stealing, fire setting, truancy, cruelty to animals, and fighting
- occurs by 8 years old and more common among boys
*most are diagnosed with ADHD
Origins of Conduct Disorder
It may have a genetic component and other contributors:
*Antisocial family members
*deviant peers
*inconsistent discipline
*parental insensitivity to child’s behavior
*physical punishment
*family stress
Treatment of Conduct Behavior
Challenging, but (CBT) Cognitive behavioral techniques involving parent training hold promises
*profit from interventions in which there are consequences (such as time outs) for unacceptable behavior and positive social behavior is rewarded
Depression
Many children do not recognize depression in themselves until the age of 7 or so.
In some cases, depression is ‘masked’ by conduct disorder, physical complaints, academic problems and anxiety
5% - 9% of children seriously depressed in given year [equally common girls and boys]
Origin of Depression
Psychological and Biological explanations have been proposed.
*Social cognitive theorists: Explain depression in terms of relationships between competencies (knowledge and skill) and feelings of self-esteem
[children who gain academic, social, and other competencies have higher self-esteem, whereas perceived low levels of competence are linked to helplessness, low self-esteem and depression]
However, some competent children might not credit themselves because of excessive parental expectations
And perfectionist children maybe depressed because they cannot meet their own standards.
Attribution Style
The way in which one is disposed toward interpreting outcomes (successes or failures), as intending to place blame or responsibility on oneself or external factors.
Certain styles can contribute to helplessness and hopelessness and hence to depression.
Responses to test scores:
“It’s Me” - an internal attribution
“It’s the Test” - an external attribution
Truth or Fiction
Some children blame themselves for all the problems in their lives, whether they deserve the blame or not
True
(So do some adults) Children who are depressed are more likely to attribute the causes of their failures to factors that they are helpless to change.
Genetic Factors
A Norwegian Study of 2,794 twins estimated that the heritability of depression in females is 49% and 25% in males.
Neurological level, evidence suggests that depressed children (and adults) “underutilize” the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Serotonin
A Neurotransmitters that are involved in mood disorders such as depression
Treatment of Depression
Psychotherapy for depression tends to be cognitive-behavioral today. Children (and adolescents) are encouraged to do enjoyable things and build their social skills.
*Made aware of their tendencies to minimize their accomplishments, exaggerate their problems, and overly blame themselves for shortcomings.
Because depressed children may underutilize serotonin, drugs that increase the action of serotonin in the brain (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRI’s, such as Luvox, Provac, and Zoloft.
***Although, FDA warns there may be a link between their use and suicidal thoughts in children.
Childhood Anxiety
Show many kinds of anxiety disorders, and they are accompanied by depression in 50% to 60% of children.
*Phobias
*Separation Anxiety Disorder
*Stage Fright
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
An anxiety disorder in which anxiety appears to be present continuously and is unrelated to the situation.
*Many children show depression such as GAD in the absence of depression
Phobia
An irrational, excessive fear that interfers with one’s functioning.
Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
An extreme form of otherwise normal separation characterized by anxiety about separating from parents, SAD often takes the form of refusal to go to school.
Affects an estimated 4% to 5% of young children and young adolescents
(More often with girls and is associated with school refusal)
Children cling to their parents and follow them around the house, voice concerns about dying, and insist someone stay with them at bedtime.
(complain of nightmares and stomach aches on school days)
Occurs before middle childhood and becomes a significant problem in middle childhood when children are expected to adjust to school.
School Phobia
Fear of attending school, marked by extreme anxiety at leaving parents
Reasons for refusal of school:
*They perceive is as unpleasant
*Unsatisfying
*Hostile
*Bullying
*Concerned with doing poorly in school
*Or being asked a question in class (stage fright)
*High parental expectations
Treatment of Phobia or School Refusal
Except for the extreme case of bullying, threatening, or taunting; it is usually not better for children with school phobia to stay home.
If no actual threat, most professionals agree that the first rule in treatment or most cases of school phobia is to “Get the child back to school!”
Disorder often disappears once the child is back in school on a regular basis.
Truth or Fiction
It is better for children with school phobia to remain at home until the origins of the problem are uncovered and resolved.
Fiction
In most cases it is better to get the child back to school.
