Chapter 8: Socioemotional Development in Early Childhood Flashcards
Emotional and Personality Development
Children’s developing minds and social experiences produce remarkable advances in the development of:
- The self
- Emotional maturity
- Moral understanding
- Gender awareness
The self
Individual versus guilt
- Children use their perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language skills to make things happen
- On their own initiative, then, children at this stage exuberantly more out into a wider social world
- Initiative and enthusiasm may bring guilt which lowers self-esteem
The self continued
Self-understanding and understanding others
- Physical activities are central component of the self in early childhood
- Unrealistically positive self descriptions
Self-Understanding
Cognitive representation of self, substance and content of self-conceptions
The self continued
Understanding others
- Children start perceiving others in terms of psychological traits
- Children begin to develop an understanding for joint commitments
- Young children are not as egocentric as depicted in Piaget’s theory
Emotional Development
- Expressing emotions
- Understanding emotions
- Regulating emotions
Expressing emotions
Pride, shame, embarrassment, and guilt are examples of self-conscious emotions
- During the early childhood years, emotions such as pride and guilt become more common
- Influenced by parents’ responses to children’s behavior
Understanding emotions
- Children’s understanding of emotion is linked to an increase in prosocial behavior
- Children begin to understand that the same event can elicit different feelings in different people
- By age 5 most children show a growing awareness of the need to manage emotions according to social standards
Regulating emotions
- Plays a key role in children’s ability to manage the demands and conflicts they face in interacting with others
- Parents can be described as taking an emotion-coaching or an emotion-dismissing approach
- Ability to modulate emotions benefits children in their relationships with peers
Moral Development
-Thoughts
-Feelings
-Behaviors
Regarding rules and conventions
Moral feelings
- Feelings of anxiety and guilt are central to the account of moral development
- Learning how to identify a wide range of emotional states in others, and to anticipate what kinds of action will improve another person’s emotional state, help to advance children’s moral development
Moral reasoning
Heteronomous morality: The first stage of moral development in Piaget’s theory, occurring from approximately 4 to 7 years of age
-Justice and rules are conceived of as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people
Autonomous morality
In Piaget’s theory, older children (about 10 years of age or older) become aware that rules and laws are created by people and that in judging an action one should consider the actor’s intentions as well as the consequences
Immanent justice
Concept that if a rule is broken, punishment will be meted out immediately
- Parent-child relations, in which parents have the power and children do not, are less likely to advance moral reasoning
- Rules are handed down in an authoritarian manner
Moral behavior
- Processes of reinforcement, punishment, and imitation explain the development of moral behavior
- Situation influences behavior
- Cognitive factors are important in the child’s development of self-control
Conscience
Moral thought, feeling, and behavior
Parenting
- Relational quality, parental discipline, proactive strategies, conservational dialogue
- Introduce kids to mutual obligations
Gender
- Gender Identity
- Gender role
- Gender typing
- Biological Influences
- Social Influences
- Cognitive Influences
Gender Identity
The sense of being male or female, which most children acquire by the time they are 3 years old
Gender role
A set of expectations that prescribes how females or males should think, act, and feel
Gender Typing
Acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role
Biological Influences
- Chromosomes
- Hormones
- Evolution
Social Influences
Social theories of gender
- Social role theory
- Psychoanalytic theory
- Social cognitive thoery
Social role theory
Gender differences result from the contrasting roles of women ad men
Psychoanalytic theory
Preschool child develops a sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent
Social cognitive theory
Children’s gender development occurs through observation and imitation of what other people say and do
Gender continued
- Gender molds important aspects of peer relations
1. Gender composition of children’s groups
2. Group size
3. Interaction in same-sex groups
Cognitive Influences
Gender schema theory
Gender schema theory
Gender typing emerges as children gradually develop gender schemas of what is gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate in their culture
Parenting
- Baumrind’s parenting styles
- Parenting styles in context
- Punishment
- Coparenting
Parenting styles in context
Authoritative parenting conveys the most benefits to the child and the family as a whole
Punishment
- Corporal punishment is linked to lower levels of moral internalization an mental health
- Handle misbehavior by reasoning with the child, especially explaining the consequences of the child’s actions for others
Coparenting
Support that parents give each other in raising a child
Coparenting
Support that parents give each other in raising a child
Child Maltreatment
Types of child maltreatment
- Physical abuse
- Child neglect
- Sexual abuse
- Emotional abuse
Child Maltreatment Continued
- Context of abuse
- Developmental consequences of abuse
Context of abuse
About 1/3 of parents who were abused themselves when they were young go on to abuse their own children
Developmental consequences of abuse
Adolescents who experienced abuse or neglect as children are more likely to engage in violent behavior and substance abuse
Sibling Relationships and Birth Order
- Sibling Relationships
- Birth Order
Sibling Relationships
Important characteristics
- Emotional quality of the relationship
- Familiarly and intimacy of the relationship
- Variation in sibling relationships
Birth Order
Compared with later-birth children, firstborn children have been described as more adult-oriented, helpful, conforming, and self-controlled
Changing Family in a Changing Society
- Working parents
- Children in divorced families
- Gay male and lesbian parents
- Cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic variations
Working Parents
Children of working mothers engage in less gender stereotyping and have more egalitarian views of gender than do children of nonworking mothers
Children in divorced families
Children from divorced families show poorer adjustment than their counterparts in never-divorced families
Changing Family in a Changing Society continued
- Many of the problems experienced by children from divorced homes begin during the predivorce period
- Frequent visits by the noncustodial parent usually benefit the child
- Children with a difficult temperament often have problems in coping with their parents’ divorce
- Income loss for divorced mothers is accompanied by increased workloads, high rates of job instability, and residential moves
Gay male and lesbian parents
Most children from gay and lesbian families have a heterosexual orientation
Cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic variations
- There are trends toward greater family mobility, migration to urban areas
- Ethnic minority parents are less educated and more likely to live in low-income circumstances
Continued
- Lower-SES parents:
1. more concerned that their children will conform to society’s expectation
2. create a home atmosphere in which it is clear that parents have authority over children, among others - Higher-SES parents:
1. more concerned with developing children’s initiative and delay of gratification
2. Less likely to use physical punishment, among others
Peer Relations, Play, and Television
- Peer relations
- Play
- Television
Peer Relations
- Provide a source of information and comparison about the world outside the family
- Good peer relations can be necessary for normal socioemotional development
Play
- Play therapy is used to allow the child to work off frustrations and to analyze the child’s conflicts and ways of coping with them
- Important context for the development of language and communication skills
Types of Play
- Sensorimotor
- Practice
- Pretense/Symbolic
- Social
- Constructive
- Games: Activities that are engaged in for pleasure and have rules
Television
- Many children spend more time in front of the television set than they do with their parents
- Extent to which children are exposed to violence ad aggression on television and video games raises special concerns
- Television can also teach children that it is better to behave in a positive, prosocial way
