Chapter 7 Flashcards
Self
*cognitive construction; thus influenced by the child’s level of cognitive development
Self-Concept
*multi-dimensional
-Self-system is dynamic & changes throughout development
Initially limited by poor perspective taking & limited ability to integrate context
-Expanded perspective taking allow the child to compare his/her behavior according to others’ standards
-Child’s anticipation of another’s reaction, be it reward or punishment, becomes internalized & later adopted as self-regulatory guidelines
-By adolescence, “contradictory” qualities become further integrated to inform a more complex personality
One’s overall sense of self
a composite of several related, but not necessarily overlapping, elements that are evaluated by the individual to determine self-esteem.
Academic Self-concept
- Further divided into specific school subject areas such as math, science, English, & social studies
- Artistic self-concept more recently proposed
Nonacademic self-concept
- Divided into social, emotional, & physical self-concepts
- Physical self-concepts is further divided into physical ability & physical appearance
Self Esteem
global evaluations of the self; aka self-worth or self-image
Children with high self esteem
- Moderate correlations between school performance & self-esteem
- Have greater initiative (can lead to positive or negative outcomes)
- Are prone to both prosocial and antisocial actions
Harter (1999; 2006) documents the powerful association between physical appearance and overall self-esteem for older children, adolescents, college-aged students, & adults
- Physically attractive people tend to receive a consistently large amount of positive reflected appraisal
- Harter also noted that the greater discrepancy between adequacy in some domain & importance in that domain, the greater the negative impact on self-esteem
Four Ways to Improve Self Esteem
- Identify causes of low self esteem; ID & value areas of competence
- Provide emotional support and social approval; alternatives good
- Help children achieve
- Help children cope; better to face a problem rather than avoid it
Self Efficacy
- Belief that one can master a situation and produce favorable outcomes (“I can.”)
- Students with low self efficacy often avoid challenging activities (Schunk, 2008); students with high efficacy are more likely to expend effort & persist longer at learning
Development of Self Understanding
- During middle and late childhood:
- Defining one’s “self” shifts to using internal characteristics or personality traits.
- Children recognize social aspects of the self (Harter, 2006); socially reference by group affiliation
- Social comparison increases (what can I do compared to him or her?) & is especially strong in the absence of objective standards of performance; children tend to compare themselves to others who are most similar to them
Understanding Others
- Children show an increase in perspective taking
- Especially important for the development of prosocial or antisocial attitudes & behavior
- Children become increasingly skeptical of others’ claims; older children understand that others’ self-reports may involve socially desirable tendencies
Self-enhancing bias
*most people are motivated to maintain moderately positive beliefs about themselve- is good thing in most cases
Strategies for protecting one’s self-esteem differ depending on children’s level of self-esteem
*Low self-esteem-> prefere situations that are rich in positive reinforcement
*High or moderate levelsof self esteem -> less variation in responsiveness to adult reinforcement styles
“Downward” social comparisons
- comparing themselves to less competent or less successful peers when their own self-esteem is at stake
- Protect the child from negative self-evaluations
Self Regulation
- Increased capacity for self-regulation in middle and late childhood
- Characterized by deliberate effort to manage one’s behavior, emotions, & thoughts
- Linked to developmental advances in the prefrontal cortex
Industry vs. Inferiority (Erikson)
- Industry: children become interested in how things work & encouraged in their efforts
- Inferiority: parents who see their children’s efforts as mischief may encourage inferiority
- School is very important in the development of a sense of industry
Emotion Development Changes
- Improved emotional understanding
- Increased understanding that more than one emotion can be experienced in a particular situation
- Increased awareness of the events leading to emotional reactions
- Ability to suppress or conceal negative emotional reactions
- Use of self-initiated strategies for redirecting feelings
- A capacity for genuine empathy
Coping with Stress
Older children utilize more coping strategies (especially cognitive @ age 10–purposeful distraction, reframing) (Saarni & others, 2006)
Coping with stressful events
- Reassure children re: their safety & security
- Allow children to retell events & be patient in listening to them
- Encourage children to talk about feelings as they are ready
- Protect children from re-exposure to frightening situations
- Help children make sense of what happened
Parent-Child Relationships
- Parents spend less time with children during middle and late childhood
- Nonetheless, parents serve as gatekeepers and provide scaffolding as children learn to regulate their own lives (Huston & Ripke, 2006)
- Parents have a strong influence on child’s school achievement and extracurricular activities
- Parents use less physical forms of punishment as children age; instead, deprivation of privileges
- Transfer of control from parent to child results in coregulation
Self-esteem slide
- self-fulfilling prophecy
- Adults who believe that girls have lower self-esteem than boys may convey this impression to girls in subtle but powerful ways.
