Chapter 8 Flashcards
The Nature of the Child
Drive for independence from parents expands the social world.
In middle childhood, children want to do things themselves.
Self-concept
The Nature of the Child
- Ideas about self that include intelligence, personality, abilities, gender, and ethnic background
- Ages 6 and 11 (average)
Erikson’s Stage Theory: School age (6-12 years)
- Conflict: Industry vs. Inferiority
- Resolution or “Virtue:” Competence
- Culmination in old age: Humility; acceptance of the course of one’s life and unfulfilled hopes
Social Comparison
Abilities: Social Comparison
Involves tendency to assess one’s abilities, achievements, social status, and other attributes by measuring them against those of other people, especially one’s peers
• Children value the abilities they have and become more realistic.
• Recognition of prejudice and affirming pride in gender and background increases.
Self-concept becomes influenced by…
Abilities: Social Comparison
opinions of others, materialism, and superficial attributes
Industry versus inferiority
The Nature of the School-Age Children
– Fourth of Erikson’s psychosocial crises
– Characterized by tension between productivity and
incompetence
Children attempt to…
The Nature of the School-Age Children
master culturally valued skills and develop a sense of themselves as either industrious or inferior, competent or incompetent.
Signs of Psychological Maturation Developing Between Ages 6 and 11
- Responsibly perform specific chores
- Manage a weekly allowance and activities
- Complete homework
- Attempt to conform to peers
- Express preferences for after-school hours
- Accept some responsibility for pets, younger children
- Strive for independence from parents
Culture and Self-Esteem
• Cultures and families differ in which attitudes and accomplishments they value.
• Emerging self-perception benefits academic and social competence.
• Praise for process—not static qualities—encourages growth.
– Incremental versus entity concept of growth
3 factors that influence attitudes about
self-esteem
(Protect or Puncture Self-Esteem?)
Culture, cohort, and age
Traditional research findings suggest
Protect or Puncture Self-Esteem?
unrealistically high and unrealistically low self-esteem
– Reduces effortful control
– May lead to lower achievement and increased aggression
Some current research links
Protect or Puncture Self-Esteem?
low self-esteem with increased aggression; other findings link inflated self-esteem with male bullying and aggression.
Resilience
Resilience and Stress
Capacity to adapt well to significant adversity and to
overcome serious stress
Important components
Resilience and Stress
Dominant ideas about resilience from 1965 to present day
• Resilience is dynamic
• Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress
• Adversity must be significant
Resilience is dynamic
Resilience and Stress
a person may be resilient at some periods but not at others.
Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress
Resilience and Stress
if rejection by a parent leads a child to establish a closer relationship with another adult, that child is resilient.
Adversity must be significant
Resilience and Stress
Resilient children overcome conditions that overwhelm many of their peers.
Cumulative Stress
• Accumulated stresses over time is more devastating than an isolated major stressor, e..g., disruptive home, hunger
• Daily hassles can be more detrimental than isolated
major stress
• Social context imperative
– Child soldiers
– Homeless children
– Separation after natural disaster
Factors contributing to resilience
Cognitive Coping
- Child’s interpretation of events: How they process and internalize traumatic events
- Support of family and community
- Personal strengths such as creativity and intelligence: Nature and Nurture
- Avoidance of parentification
Parentification
When a child acts more like a parent than a child. This may occur if the actual parents do not act as caregivers, making a child feel responsible for the family
Family function (Family Function / Structure)
- The way a family works to meet the needs of its members
* Function is more important than structure but harder to measure
During middle childhood, families help children by
Family Function / Structure
- Providing basic material necessities
- Encouraging learning
- Helping them develop self-respect
- Nurturing friendships
- Fostering harmony and stability
Family structure (Family Function / Structure)
- Legal and genetic relationships among relatives living in the same home
- Includes nuclear family, extended family, stepfamily, and others.
Diverse Family Structures
- Two-Parent Families
- Single-Parent Families
- More Than Two Adults
Two-Parent Families
Diverse Family Structures
- Nuclear family
- Stepparent family
- Adoptive family
- Grandparents alone
- Two same-sex parents
Single-Parent Families
Diverse Family Structures
- Single mother or father (never married)
- Single mother or father (divorced, separated, or widowed)
- Grandparent alone
More Than Two Adults
Diverse Family Structures
- Extended family
* Polygamous family
Single-Parent Family
Diversity of Family Structures
- Consists of only one parent and his or her children under age 18.
- 31 percent of all U.S. school-age children; rates of structure changes depend on age of child
- More than half of U.S. children will live in a single-parent home for at least a year.
Extended family
Diversity of Family Structures
- Family consisting of parents, their children, and other relatives living in one household
- 10 percent of U.S. school-age children
- Family type distinction based on who lives in same household
Polygamous family
Diversity of Family Structures
• Family consisting of one man, several wives, and the
biological children of the man and his wives
– 10 percent of children in some nations (not U.S.)
• Per-child income may be reduced
• Step-sibling role is challenging for many
Connecting Structure and Function: Nuclear Families
- Generally function best
- Better educational, social, cognitive, and behavioral child outcomes
- Mate selection and income related to nuclear families and child well-being
- Parental alliance
- Positive effects beyond childhood
Adoptive and same-sex parent families
Connecting Structure and Function: Other Two-Parent Families
– Typically function well, often better than average nuclear families.
– Vary tremendously in ability to meet children’s needs.
Stepparent families
Connecting Structure and Function: Other Two-Parent Families
– Some function well; positive relationships more easily formed with children under 2; more difficult with teenagers
– Solid parental alliance more difficult to form
– Child loyalty to parents often undermined by disputes
Same-sex couple families
Connecting Structure and Function: Other Two-Parent Families
– Generally children develop well
– Limited long-term studies
Skipped-generation families
Connecting Structure and Function: Other Two-Parent Families
Generally lower income, more health problems, less stability
Connecting Structure and Function: Single-Parent Families
– On average, structure functions less well
– Lower income and stability
– Stress from multiple roles
– Benefit from community support
Family Trouble (two factors)
Two factors increase the likelihood of dysfunction in every structure, ethnic group, and nation.
• Low income or poverty
• High conflict
Many families experience both!
Poverty: Family-stress model
Family Trouble
- Any risk factor damages a family only if it increases the stress on that family.
- Adults’ stressful reaction to poverty is crucial in determining the effect on the children.
Wealth
Family Trouble
- Generally more income correlates with better family functioning.
- Reaction to wealth may cause difficulty; parental reaction is key.
Conflict
Family Trouble
- Family conflict harms children, especially when adults fight about child rearing.
- Fights are more common in stepfamilies, divorced families, and extended families.
- Although genes have some effect, conflict itself is often the main influence on the child’s well-being.
The Peer Group
• Particular habits, styles, and values that reflect the set of rules and rituals that characterize children as distinct from adult society
– Fashion
– Language
– Peer culture
Friendship
Friendship and Social Acceptance
• School-age children value personal friendship more than peer acceptance.
• Gender differences
– Girls talk more and share secrets.
– Boys play more active games.
Older children
Friendship and Social Acceptance
- Demand more of their friends.
- Change friends less often.
- Become more upset when a friendship ends.
- Find it harder to make new friends.
- Seek friends who share their interests and values.
Popular and Unpopular Children
Particular qualities that make a child liked or disliked depend on culture, cohort, and sometimes the local region or school.
• China 1990 to 2013
– Changes in value of shyness
• U.S. 2012
– Outgoing, friendly, cooperative, well-liked
– Later, dominant and aggressive behaviors may appear
Neglected, not rejected children
Unpopular Children
- Neglected by peers, but not actively rejected
- Ignored, but not shunned
- Do not enjoy school; but psychologically unharmed
Aggressive-rejected children
Unpopular Children
Disliked by peers because of antagonistic, confrontational behavior
Withdrawn-rejected children
Unpopular Children
Disliked by peers because of their timid, withdrawn, and anxious behavior
Bullying
Bullies and Victims
Repeated, systematic efforts to inflict harm through physical, verbal, or social attack on a weaker person
Bully-victim
Bullies and Victims
- Someone who attacks others and who is attacked as well
* Also called a provocative victim because he or she does things that elicit bullying, such as stealing a bully’s pencil
Types of Bullying
- Physical (hitting, pinching, or kicking)
- Verbal (teasing, taunting, or name-calling)
- Relational (destroying peer acceptance and friendship)
- Cyberbullying (using electronic means to harm another)
Children show a variety of skills
Children’s Moral Values
- Making moral judgments.
* Differentiating universal principles from conventional norms.
Influences on moral development
Children’s Moral Values
- Peer culture
- Personal experience
- Empathy
Pre-conventional, Stage 1
Kohlberg’s levels of moral thought
Obedience and punishment
– Based on avoiding punishment, a focus on the consequences of actions, rather than intentions; intrinsic deference to authority
Pre-conventional, Stage 2
Kohlberg’s levels of moral thought
Individualism and exchange
– The “right” behaviors are those that are in best interest of oneself; tit for tat mentality
Conventional, Stage 3
Kohlberg’s levels of moral thought
Interpersonal relationships
– “Good boy / Good girl” attitude, sees individuals as filling social roles
Conventional, Stage 4
Kohlberg’s levels of moral thought
Authority and social order
– Law and order as highest ideals, social obedience is a must to maintaining a functional society
Post-conventional, Stage 5
Kohlberg’s levels of moral thought
Social contract
– Begin to learn others have different values; realization that law is contingent on culture
Post-conventional, Stage 6
Kohlberg’s levels of moral thought
Universal Principles
– Develop internal moral principles; individual begins to obey these above the law
Three common values among 6- to 11-year-olds
What Children Value
- Protect your friends.
– Loyalty to peers often chosen over adult standards of behavior. - Don’t tell adults what is happening.
- Don’t be too different from your peers.
