Chapter 10 - Social and Personality Development in Middle Childhood

Question 1

What is the theme for social and emotional development for middle childhood?

Answer 1

-self-perceived competence

Question 2

What is self-perceived competence? Example. (2)

Answer 2

-how well you think you are at certain things
Example: you are good at math and this changes the way you develop over time

Question 3

What did Erickson say children’s conflict were in the 7-11 age group?

Answer 3

-industry vs inferiority

Question 4

What is the industry vs inferiority stage? Example (2)

Answer 4

-children develop a sense of their own competence through mastery of culturally defined learning tasks
Example: children are learning to read during this age, they may feel competent of they may not

Question 5

What does the trait perspective say about social and emotional development of children aged around 7-11 years? What questions does it ask? (2)

Answer 5

-it focuses on individual differences in emotional responses to childhood experiences
-how can certain traits contribute to the development of feelings of competence?

Question 6

What are the 5 major dimensions in the big five personality traits? (5)

Answer 6

-openness vs. unimaginativeness
-conscientiousness (responsible, order) vs. irresponsibility
-extraversion (outgoing) vs. introversion
-agreeableness vs. disagreeableness
-neuroticism (tendency towards negative emotions and ups and downs) vs stability

Question 7

Describe how Bandura’s reciprocal determinism relates to social and emotional development in middle childhood.

Answer 7

-there is a complex interaction between personal factors, behaviours and environmental influences that cause us to develop unique characteristics in our social and emotional development and that if you change one thing you could end up with a different result

Question 8

What two new components occur during this age range for children’s self concepts? (2)

Answer 8

-psychological self
-valued self

Question 9

What is the psychological self?

Answer 9

-an understanding of one’s stable, internal traits and self-judgements of competency

Question 10

What is the valued self?

Answer 10

-your value of yourself as an individual

Question 11

As children develop, what happens to the psychological self? Example (2)

Answer 11

-it becomes less tied to external features or surface qualities and incorporates more complex feelings and idea
Example: 7-year old says I’m tall, blond and im smart
11 year old says I am a friendly person and I like dancing and performing. I’m tall and pretty.

Question 12

What is self-efficacy a part of and what is it?

Answer 12

-a part of the psychological self, your belief that you can accomplish something (related to feelings of competency)

Question 13

What are factors that influence self-efficacy according to Bandura? (3)

Answer 13

Peer models: children draw social comparisons
Encouragement: someone encourages you, especially respected people
Real life experiences: most powerful factor

Question 14

What is self-esteem part of and what is it?

Answer 14

-part of the valued self, and is the global evaluation of one’s own self-worth

Question 15

When does self-esteem develop from? Example (3)

Answer 15

-the amount of discrepancy between what a child values and what the child thinks they have achieved
-social support and acceptance
Example: being good at sports will only lead to positive self-esteem if the child values that skill

Question 16

How might parental expectations affect self-esteem?

Answer 16

-if a parent wants their child to go into law and doesn’t really support or accept their interest in art, the child may have lower self-esteem

Question 17

How can we support children in developing self-esteem?

Answer 17

-join them in the activities they love doing, coach or mentor them, do not apply our own childhood projections

Question 18

What does the understanding of internal experiences and ability to reason in middle childhood lead to?

Answer 18

-a better understanding of morality

Question 19

What develops alongside concrete operational reasoning?

Answer 19

-moral reasoning

Question 20

What are the two stages of moral development? (2)

Answer 20

-moral realism stage
-moral relativism stage

Question 21

What is the moral realism stage?

Answer 21

-black and white thinking, rules are inflexible

Question 22

What is the moral relativism stage?

Answer 22

-after age 8, children understand that many rules can be changed through social agreement, they know this because children have better understanding of the role of intentions

Question 23

What is middle childhood a time for increasing?

Answer 23

-independence and self-regulation

Question 24

What is self-regulation?

Answer 24

-conforming to behavioural standards without direct supervision

Question 25

How do children develop self-regulation? (2)

Answer 25

-parents model self-regulation
-high expectations for behaviour and parental monitoring

Question 26

What does having a best friend in middle childhood signify?

Answer 26

-indicator of social competence and development

Question 27

View of friendship moves from what around age 10?

Answer 27

-proximity (I’m friends because we are on the same soccer team) to reciprocal trust (both people trust each other)

Question 28

Describe the gender differences in form and style of play for girls and boys? (2)

Answer 28

Girls: play in pairs or smaller social groups; show high levels of compliance and self-disclosure
Boys: spread out over physical areas and more competitive play

Question 29

What is theme for both girls and boys in play during this age group?

Answer 29

-overall themes of cooperation

Question 30

During middle childhood, what are the trends for aggression?

Answer 30

-declining physical aggression but increasing indirect aggression (including relational aggression and retaliatory aggression)

Question 31

What is indirect aggression?

Answer 31

-non-violent aggression

Question 32

What is relational aggression?

Answer 32

-damaging another person’s self-esteem or peer relationships (gossiping)

Question 33

What is retaliatory aggression?

Answer 33

-aggression to get back at someone who has hurt you, especially because children at this age begin to understand intentions better

Question 34

Have prosocial problem solving programs been effective?

Answer 34

-decreases in physical and verbal aggression, increases in prosocial behaviour

Question 35

Do children take on more consistent roles in aggressive interaction during middle childhood?

Answer 35

-yes, roles like perpetrator, victim etc

Question 36

What are the three social statuses children categorize themselves into during middle childhood? (3)

Answer 36

-Popular, rejected (actively rejected by peers) and neglected (left out)

Question 37

What are the type of rejection during middle childhood? (2)

Answer 37

-withdrawn-rejected (they just withdraw to deal with it)
-aggressive-rejected (they respond through aggression or force)