Chapter 7: psychosocial development in early childhood Flashcards
Parent-Child Relationships
Individualistic cultures
Collectivist cultures
Individualistic cultures
– Parents left to their own devices
– Lack of guidelines can lead to stress, loneliness, indecisiveness, self-doubt
Collectivist cultures
– Parents have less autonomy
– More community and family support
Baumrind’s Parenting Styles (4)
Authoritarian
• Control and unquestioning obedience
Permissive
• Parents value self-expression and self-regulation
Authoritative
• Value child’s individuality, as well as restraint
Neglectful or Uninvolved (Maccoby & Martin)
• Parental needs are most important
Outcomes of parenting styles
Variations in Parenting Styles
- Parents not necessarily consistent in ‘types’
- Style varies according to:
- Specific circumstances
- Duration of parenting and birth order
- Changes and stresses in family
- Temperament of child
Inconsistencies between parents can lead to confusion or ‘playing one against the other’
Cultural Variations of parenting styles
Different parenting styles shown to have more positive outcomes in some cultures
• Chao (1994): Asian American families
• Acceptance of chiao shun (training) indicates appropriate respect of elders
African American and Hispanic
• More authoritarian parenting associated with positive outcomes
Child Neglect and Abuse
Neglect
• Deprivation of food, clothing, shelter, medical care
• Deprivation of psychological or emotional needs
Abuse
• Physical injury, sexual interference, psychological harm
- Long-term effects continue into adulthood
- Explanations draw on internal working models of parents
Who is Mandated to Report Abuse?
Relationships with Siblings
- Provide opportunities for socialisation
- Distinct from parent-child relationships
- Relationships affected by numerous factors including birth order and spacing and sex of siblings
- Firstborn children tend to be more adult- oriented, conforming, anxious
- Sibling rivalry may be evident in later years
The Only Child
Research
- Sometimes stereotyped as self-centred or spoilt
- Concern that development might be adversely affected by being sole focus of parental attention
• Research does not support stereotypes of only children being selfish, lonely, spoiled, or maladjusted.
• Research does suggest higher achievement in:
- Self-esteem
- Positive personality
- Achievement motivation
• Academic success
The Family Context
- Sibling relationships don’t occur in isolation – influenced by family context
- Negative behaviours linked to parent-child relationship and parents marital relationship
- Reduced hostility following the birth of younger sibling if parents prepare child for the new arrival and involve them in activities
- Sibling relationships during the pre-school years can set the scene for relationships later in life
Peer Relationships
- Children’s social worlds expand outside of family in the preschool years
- Enable development of social skills that may not necessarily be acquired from family relationships
- Peer relationships characterised by equality of power and competence
- Learn important skills such as sharing, conflict resolution and understanding of others’ thoughts
Conceptions of Friendship
- Friends spend more time playing with emotional expressiveness, reciprocity, and interdependence
- By 3-4 years, majority of children have 1-2 friends
- Early friendships typified by shared activities and the exchange of toys
- Lack qualities such as loyalty
• Growth in trust and mutual support as school age approaches
Saracho and Spodek (1998) define play as:
- Intrinsically, not extrinsically motivated
- Process-, not product-oriented
- Creative and non-literal
- Having implicit rules
- Spontaneous and self-initiated
- Free from major emotional distress
Parten’s Social Dimensions of Play
- unoccupied play
- solitary play
- onlooker play
- parallel play
- associative play
- cooperative play
Grusec and Lytton’s Cognitive Typology
- functional play
- constructive play
- pretend play
- games with rules
Theories of Play
psychoanalytic (Freud, Erikson)
social learning (Bandura)
Psychoanalytic (Freud, Erikson)
- Opportunity to gain mastery over anxieties
- Repetition compulsion
- Catharsis
- Acting out trauma may be used in play therapy
Social learning (Bandura)
• Roles learned through direct, vicarious or self reinforcement
• Particularly important for gender roles
Theories of Play
Ethological
Cognitive (Piaget, Vygotsky)
Ethological
• Similar to animal behaviour – evolution of intelligence?
• Physical activity play:
- Rhythmic stereotypes
- Exercise play
- Rough-and-tumble play
Cognitive (Piaget, Vygotsky)
• Symbolic play extends possibilities
• Social and cognitive development
Ethology:
the science of animal behaviour
Prosocial Behaviour
Other-directed actions
• Sharing, reassuring, protecting, helping
• Altruistic, no expectation of reward
Empathy
• Emotional, behavioural, cognitive (theory of mind)
Sympathy more likely to lead to prosocial action
Early temperament predicts prosocial behaviour
Antisocial Behaviour
Agression forms (4)
• Intentional negative acts against others
Aggression takes several forms:
- *• Instrumental:** achieve a goal
- *• Hostile:** directly or indirectly cause harm
- *• Reactive:** spontaneous physical harm
- *• Proactive:** premeditated acts
- Boys more physically aggressive (i.e., overt), girls more verbally aggressive (i.e., relational)
- Particular harmful effects of relational aggression and role in bullying
Development of Aggression
Temperament
Parenting style
Media
Temperament
• ‘Difficult’ babies experience more conflict
Parenting style
• Permissive, uninvolved and authoritarian parenting associated with higher aggression
• Authoritative parenting associated with prosocial behaviours
Media
• Viewing violence may remove inhibitions
• Controversial
Controlling Aggression
- Early intervention and work with family
- Teach authoritative parenting style and prosocial behaviours
- Establish structure and consistency
- Provide social problem-solving and assertiveness training to combat hostile bias
- Address potential marital problems
Gender Identity
- Awareness that one is male or female
- Develops in the context of society
- Behavioural differences – choices of:
- Toys
- Play activities
- Playmates
Gender-Role Development
gender roles
gender typing
• Difference between gender and sex
Gender roles
- Societal expectations of males and females
- Different from each other and conform to stereotypes
- Preconceived generalisations about male or female
behaviour
Gender typing
• Process of acquiring gender-consistent behaviours
• Social behaviours of girls and boys different from early age
Biological Theories of Gender Role Development
female
male
parental investment theory
criticism
- Evolutionary focus on natural selection
- Female nurturance associated with childbearing role
- Male aggression and dominance associated with hunter/provider role
- Parental Investment Theory - passing on genetic material
- Hormonal influences - example of CAH
Fails to acknowledge current social environment
Learning Theories of Gender-Role Development
- Gender roles and behaviour learnt through reinforcement, modelling, self-regulation
- Observation and imitation
- Role appropriate behaviour positively reinforced, role inappropriate behaviour negatively reinforced
- Boys more likely to be negatively reinforced for gender inappropriate behaviour than girls
- Reinforcement and modelling from parents, peers and media
- Children portrayed as passive recipients
Cognitive Theories of Gender-Role Development
Kohlberg (1966)
• Gender labelling: assign labels “boy”, “girl”, “man”, “woman” to individuals based on appearance
- Gender stability: realisation that gender remains the same
- Gender constancy: awareness that one will always be male or female
Martin and Halverson (1981, 1987)
• Develop own gender identity, then build a gender-role schema, increasing complexity
Cognitive theories minimise social and cultural effects
Androgyny
- Gender roles are flexible
- Males and females can integrate traditional role-typed behaviours
Bem (1977): Sex Role Inventory
- Masculine
- Feminine
- Androgynous
- Undifferentiated
Effects and Implications of Androgyny
- Androgynous people better adjusted (Bem, 1981, 1987; Lamke, 1982)
- Reduces effects of stereotypes and promotes gender equity
- Contributes to understanding of homosexual orientations
- Minimising differences may reduce need for specific support
- Post-androgyny: gender-role transcendence
