Chapter 8: Exam 2 Flashcards
Two broad dimensions of child-rearing
*Warmth - Coldness
*Restrictiveness - Permissiveness
Upbringing, beliefs, or genetics reflect one’s parenting style.
Warm Parents
Affectionate (hug and kiss), caring and supportive, and less likely to use physical discipline
*Children are more likely to develop standards of conduct and a moral sense of consciousness.
Cold Parents
Few feelings of affection and complain about children’s behavior
Restrictive Parents
Impose rules and watch their children closely, consistent control and firm enforcement of rules having positive consequences for the child, combined with solid support and affection. (authoritative style)
***However, if physical punishment, interference, or intrusiveness arises, children may begin to become disobedient, rebellious, and have low cognitive levels
Permissive Parent
Supervise the children less, allow them to do what is “natural” like making noises, treat toys carelessly, and experiment with their bodies.
How parents enforce restrictions
Parents tend to use:
a. Induction method
b. Power-assertive method
c. Withdrawal of Love method
For enforcing restrictions
Inductive Method
Teach knowledge that will enable children to generate desirable behavior on their own with “reasoning” or explain why one kind of behavior is good, and another is not.
*Fosters Prosocial behavior such as helping and sharing
Power-assertive Method
Including physical punishment and denial of privileges. Justified by the statement, “Spare the rod, spoil the child” (involves the authoritarian parent as well as the child’s behavior)
*Associated with lower acceptance by peers, poorer grades, and more antisocial behavior in children
Withdrawal of Love Method
Isolate or ignore misbehaving children, can be more threatening than physical punishment.
*Fosters compliance but also instills guilt and anxiety
Baumrind Grid of four parenting styles
a. Authoritative
b. Authoritarian
c. Permissive - Indulgent
d. Rejecting - Neglecting
Parenting style may change due to situations
Authoritative
A child-rearing style in which parents are restrictive and demanding yet communicative and warm. Reason with children and provide strong support and feelings of love.
*Children are self-reliant and independent, have high self-esteem, high levels of activity, exploratory behaviors, and social competence
Authoritarian
A child-rearing style in which parents demand submission and obedience. Motto: “Because I say so.”
*Children are anxious, irritable, and restrained in their social interactions. As adolescents, they might be conforming and obedient but have low self-reliance and self-esteem. Maybe less friendly and less spontaneous.
- Sons of these parents are relatively hostile and defiant.
Permissive - indulgent
A child-rearing style in which parents are warm and not restrictive. Easy-going and unconventional (warmth and support) accompanied by high nurturance.
*Children less competent in school but high in social behaviors.
Rejecting - Neglecting
A child-rearing style in which parents are neither restrictive and controlling nor supportive and responsive.
*Children are least competent, responsible, or mature. Less competent in school and show more misconduct and substance abuse than children of more restrictive, controlling parents
Power Assertion
- Likely due to stress
- Child’s aggressive behavior
- When the parent believed the child knew the rules and could behave appropriately
Parenting Good Practices
- Preschoolers comply better when asked to do something rather than to stop doing something (redirection)
- Engage the child in something else when they are involved are displaying inappropriate behavior (redirection)
True or Fiction
Parents who demand mature behavior wind up with rebellious children, not mature children
Fiction
As long as parents are not severe with the children, consistent controls and firm enforcement of rules can have positive consequences for their children
Influence of Siblings
Serve many functions:
*physical care
*emotional support
*nurturance
*offering advice
*serving as role models
*providing social interaction that helps develop social skills
*making demand & imposing restrictions
Sibling’s Pros and Cons
Positive: Cooperation, teaching, and nurturance
Negative: Conflict, control, and competition
Conflict between siblings
Occur when:
- Parents play favorites
- The relationships between the parents and children are troubled
Adjusting to the birth of a sibling
Often a source of stress for preschoolers because of changes in family relationships
Regression
A return to behavior characteristic of earlier stages of development (clinging, crying, or toilet accidents)
Birth Order - First Born
Firstborns are more highly motivated to achieve than later-born children.
They appear to perform better academically and are more cooperative (obtain higher IQ & SAT scores)
Studies suggest that they are more adult-oriented and less aggressive
However, they show greater anxiety levels and somewhat less self-reliant
True or Fiction
First-born children are more likely motivated to achieve than later-born children
True
Research shows that first-born children are more motivated to achieve than later-born children. However, the difference is a group difference and does not apply to all first- or later-born children.
Birth Order - Later Born
*They may learn to be more aggressive in competing for the attention of their parents and older siblings.
*Self-concepts are lower than those of first-born or only children, but social skills they acquire from dealing with their family position seem to translate into greater popularity with peers.
*Tend to be more rebellious and liberal
Peer Relations
*Foster social skills - sharing, helping, taking turns, & dealing with conflict
*Groups teach how to lead and how to follow
- Physical & Cognitive skills develops as well as emotional support
By age 2, children imitate one another’s play and engage in social games (like follow the leader). They begin to show preferences for particular playmates (as early signs of friendships)
Friendship
Characterized by shared positive experiences and feelings of attachment
Play-Child’s Play
*Meaningful, pleasurable, and internally motivated
*Helps promote motor skills and coordination
Dramatic Play
Play in which children enact social roles. Supports the development of cognitive qualities like curiosity, exploration, symbolic thinking, and problem solving
Piaget kinds of play that increase cognitive complexity
- Functional Play
- Symbolic Play
- Constructive Play
- Formal Games
Functional Play
Repetitive motor activity, such as rolling a ball, running and laughing
(Sensorimotor stage)
Symbolic Play
AKA: Pretend play, imaginative play, or dramatic play
End of the sensorimotor stage and increases during early childhood. Children create settings, characters, and scripts
Constructive Play
Children use objects or materials to draw something or make something, such as tower of blocks
Formal Games
Games with rules (board games) involving motor skills, such as hopscotch, ball games involving sides or teams and video games.
Parten 6 types of play among 2 & 5 year olds
*Unoccupied play
*Solitary play
*Onlooker play
*Parallel play
*Associative play
*Cooperative play
Nonsocial play
Solitary forms of play
*Solitary play
*Onlooker Play
Children do not interact socially (2 - 3 years old)
Social play
Play in which children interact with and are influenced by others
*Associative play
*Cooperative play
Becomes common by age 5, girls are more likely than boys to engage in social play
Parallel Constructive Play
Many 4 and 5 year olds spend a good deal of time (working on puzzles or building blocks near other children)
Gender Differences in Play
*Boys spend more time than girls in play groups of five or more children and in competitive play
*Girls are more likely than boys to engage in arts, crafts, and domestic play
Prosocial Behavior
Behavior that benefits other people, generally without expectation or reward (aka altruism)
*Sharing, cooperating, helping others, and comforting others in distress
Linked to empathy and perspective taking by preschoolers and early school year children
Empathy
Sensitivity to the feelings of others and is connected with sharing and cooperation
Perspective Taking
Skills improve with age, and do so with prosocial skills.
Among children of the same age, those with better-developed perspective-taking abilities also show more prosocial behavior and less aggressive behavior.
Influences of Prosocial Behavior
Peers of nursery school children who are cooperative, friendly, and generous respond more positively to them than they do to children whose behavior is self-centered.
Aggression
Behavior intended to hurt or injure another person
Aggressive Behavior Development Patterns
- Preschoolers tend to use aggression to obtain the toys and situations they want
(However, they do learn to resolve conflicts by sharing rather than fighting)
*By age 6 or 7 their aggression may become hostile and person-oriented (either by name-calling or physically attacking)
These patterns are generally stable and predictive of social and emotional problems later on (especially among young boys)
Aggressive children of both genders are more likely to to have criminal convictions as adults, to abuse their partners, and drive while drunk.
Theories of Aggression
It appears to result from a complex interplay of biological factors and environmental factors (such as reinforcement & modeling)
Genetic Factors
Maybe involved in aggressive behavior, including criminal and antisocial behavior
Genes may also do their work at least in part, through the male sex hormone testosterone - which is connected with feelings of self-confidence, high activity levels and the negative side - aggressiveness.
Cognitive Research - Primary School Children
(Aggression Theory)
Found that children that believe in the legitimacy of aggression are more likely to behave aggressively when they are presented with social provocations
*They are found to be lacking in empathy and the ability to see things from the perspective of other people
*Fail to conceptualize the experiences of their victims and are thus less likely to inhibit aggressive impulses
Social Cognitive Explanations
(Aggression Theory)
Focus on environmental factors such as reinforcement and observational learning
*When children repeatedly push, shove, and hit to grab toys or break into line, other children usually let them have their way. Thus creating rewards for acting aggressively makes the child continue the aggressive means.
*Physically aggressive parents serve as models for aggression and also stoke their children’s anger.
True or Fiction
Children who are physically punished are more likely to be aggressive than children who are not
True
Perhaps punitive parents model punitive behavior and instill hostility in their children.
Media Influences
Bandura & Ross Study
Suggests the powerful influence of televised models on children’s aggressive behavior.
Observational Learning
Children learn from observation and TV violence supplies models of aggressive “skills” which children may acquire
Disinhibition
Punishment inhibits behavior
Disinhibit
To encourage a response that has been previously suppressed
*Conversely, media violence may disinhibit aggressive behavior, especially when characters “get away with it”
Increased Arousal
Media violence and aggressive video games increase viewers’ levels of arousal. We are more likely to be aggressive under high levels of arousal.
Priming of Aggressive Thoughts and Memories
Media violence “primes” or arouses aggressive ideas and memories
Habituation
We become used to repeated stimuli. Children exposed to violence are more likely to assume that it is acceptable or normal and become desensitized.
True or Fiction
There is no scientific evidence that violence in the media contributes to aggression
Fiction
Studies going back half a century show that children imitate violence they observe in the media
Self-concept
One’s self-description and self-evaluation according to various categories, such as adolescent, or one’s gender and one’s skill
(Emerges gradually during infancy)
*One aspect of self-concept is self-esteem; children with high self-esteem are more likely to be securely attached and have parents who are attentive to their needs and show more prosocial behavior
Categorical Self
Definitions of the self that refer to external traits
Children as young as 3 years old are able to describe themselves in terms of behavior, and internal states that occur often are fairly stable over time.
Preschool children begin to make evaluative judgments about two aspects of themselves by age 4
- Cognitive and Physical Competence
- Social Acceptance by Peer & Parents
Becoming capable of self-regulation, controlling aggressive behavior, engaging on play with others, and focusing on cognitive tasks such as learning to count.
These capabilities are connected with the maturation of the brain and rearing practices of caregivers.
Initiative Versus Guilt
(Erikson)
Refers to early childhood years as the stage of initiative versus guilt
(as they develop a separate sense of themselves, they move out into the world and take the initiative in learning new skills)
*Parents can help children develop and maintain a healthy sense of initiative by encouraging their attempts to learn, explore, and not being unholy critical, and punitive.
Fears
Children’s fears change as they move from infancy into the preschool years
- Children grow more fearful of failure and criticism in school and in social relationships
- Girls report more fears and higher levels of anxiety than boys
True or Fiction
The most common fear among preschoolers is fear of social disapproval
Fiction
Preschoolers are more likely to fear animals, imaginary creatures, the dark, and personal danger than social approval
Stereotype
A fixed conventional idea about a group
*Creates demands and limits opportunities for both genders
Gender Roles
A cluster of traits and behaviors that are considered stereotypical of females and males
Gender-role stereotypes develops in stages:
- Children learn to label genders
(2 to 2 1/2 years of age, can identify pictures of girls and boys) - By age 3, they display knowledge of gender stereotypes of toys, clothing, work, and activities
*Generally agree that boys play with cars/trucks, help fathers, and tend to hit others
*Girls play with dolls, help mothers, and do not hit others
Gender Differences
Girls show somewhat greater verbal ability than boys, whereas boys show somewhat greater visual-spatial ability than girls.
Roles of Evolution and Heredity
Gender differences were fashioned by natural selection in response to problems in an adaptation that were repeatedly encountered by humans for over thousands of generations.
Genetic codes for traits helped our ancestors survive and reproduce structural gender differences such as those found in the brain and our body chemistry (hormones)
Question is, whether or not, evolution has also etched social and psychological gender differences in our genes
Organization of the Brain
Research in rats:
Males use the hippocampus in both the left/right hemispheres when they are navigating mazes.
Females rely on the hippocampus in the right hemisphere along with the right prefrontal cortex (evaluating info and making plans)
Largely genetically determined
Sex Hormone
Related to the prenatal levels of sex hormones
Researcher Auyeung, found higher-than-normal levels of testosterone in fetal environment (due to maternal stress) were related to more masculine-typed play among girls aged 8 1/2 years old.
Barrett found the same about girls but also that it decreased masculine-typed play in boys.
Social Cognitive Theory
Consider both roles of rewards and punishments (reinforcements) in gender typing and how children learn from observing others and decide which behaviors are appropriate for them.
Cognitive-Development Theory
Researcher Kohlberg, found that children form concepts about gender and then fit their behavior to the concepts (occur in stages and entwined with general cognitive development)
Gender typing involves three concepts
- Gender Identity
- Gender Stability
- Gender Constancy
Gender Identity
The knowledge that one is female or male
By age 3, many children can discriminate gender differences
Gender Stability
The concept that one’s gender is unchanging
Developed by age 4 or 5
True of Fiction
A 2 1/2-year-old may know that he is a boy but still think that he can grow to be a mommy
True
Yes, a 2 1/2 year old will likely have developed gender identity but not yet gender stability.
Gender Constancy
The concept that one’s gender remains the same despite changes in appearance or behavior
By the age of 5 to 7, recognize that people’s gender does not change, even if they change their dress or behavior.
Gender-Schema-Theory
The view that one’s knowledge of the gender schema in one’s society guides one’s assumption of gender-typed preferences and behavior patterns.
*Organizing their perceptions of the world (in terms of gender)
- Cluster of concepts about male/female physical traits, personality traits, and behaviors.
- Children come to see themselves as female/male as they begin to seek information concerning gender-typed traits and try to see and live up to them.
Typical Sibling Rivalry
Can contribute to better social competence and development of self-identity.
