Developmental Flashcards
What are three key ingredients of pro social behaviour?
-altruism
-empathy
-morality
what is altruism?
A genuine concern for the welfare of others and willingness to act on that concern
What is empathy?
A person’s ability to experience the emotions of other people.
What is morality?
The ability to distinguish right from wrong, and (sometimes) act on that distinction. Experience pride in virtuous conduct, but shame over acts that violate standards
what are three key moral principles?
-avoid hurting others (supress/avoid aggression)
-prosocial concern (altruism via sharing, comforting, and helping others)
-personal commitment to abide by rules (comply with social rules of conduct, learn right from wrong)
What three dimensions is moral development considered in?
Affective component – emotions
Cognitive component – reasoning
* Stressed by cognitive-developmental theorists (e.g. Piaget; Kohlberg).
* Cognitive growth and social experiences improve rules/norms understanding
Behavioural component – action
what does Piaget’s theory of moral development study?
Studied children’s’ understanding of (1) respect for rules and (2) concepts of justice
Describe the three key stages in Piaget’s theory of moral development:
Premoral Period: Pre-school age
Little concern or awareness of rules. Make up
own rules.
Stage 1: Heteronomous Morality- Age 5-10 years “Under the rule of another.” Strong respect for rules, cannot be altered. Authority figures. Actions judged by consequences, not intent. Punishment for its own sake, not tailored to act.
Stage 2:
Autonomous Morality- By age 10-11
Social rules are arbitrary agreements that can be challenged, changed, and sometimes violated. Intent is important. Tailored punishment. Assume morality is fully developed.
what is a core criticism of Piaget’s Theory?
Underestimates the competence of
children to understand intentionality.
Argues capability to apply intentionality to moral judgements only developed in later childhood (10 yrs >).
But research by Killen et al. (2011) shows that young children
aged 3-7 can:
* Assign more blame when act was intentional than accidental.
* Rated intentional acts as ‘more bad’ than accidental acts
what is intentionality?
Intentionality is a core aspect of making moral judgements.
ie. Theory of mind, move away from egocentrism, other perspectives
What does MoToM stand for?
morally-relevant theory of mind test
How does MoToM compare to Piaget’s stages of development?
Ability to interpret intentionality shown in younger children than Piaget proposed.
Suggests that young children CAN
distinguish between intentions and outcomes and apply those to moral judgement
How are MoToM scenarios different to Piaget’s scenarios?
in MoToM scenarios there is a clear victim and a potential transgressor. There are also justification questions to assess level of harm perceived
What was the focus ages for Kohlberg’s Theory of moral development?
expands on Piaget’s theory, beyond childhood ages 10-16
Which choice task did Kohlberg use to investigate moral development in older children?
Moral dilemmas requiring choice between obeying rules or disobeying rules while serving a human need. Focus on rationale used
to justify decision
What are the three stages of Kohlberg’s moral development?
Pre- conventional
1. Punishment and obedience: It’s OK to do it if you don’t get caught.
2. Self-interest (egocentric): If it feels good, do it.
Conventional
3. Comply with social expectations: Moral behaviour that pleases, helps, or
approved by others.
4. Uphold Social-order: Do your duty, social rules and laws and
worth preserving.
Post- conventional
5. Social-contract: Distinction between morality and legality.
6. Individual principles of conscience: One’s own ethics, universal justice, dignity.
What bias’ are proposed in criticism of Kohlberg’s Theory?
Age: not as applicable to young children
Cultural: Post-conventional morality not found to exist in some societies. Highest stages are Western ideals
Gender: Theory developed from sample of only male participants. Carol Gilligan argues different gender-typing and expectancies lead to different moral orientations
What is aggression?
Defined as any form of behaviour intended
to injure or harm a living being who is
motivated to avoid such treatment
What are two broad types of aggression?
- Hostile aggression – goal is to harm.
- Instrumental aggression – means to another end.
What is the difference between Overt and relational Aggression?
Relational Aggression is Indirect, psycho-social, harder to observe
Overt Aggression: Direct, physical
What are reasons suggested for 2-3 year old males being more physically and verbally aggressive than females?
- Rougher play with parents.
- More negative parental reaction to aggressive behaviours of daughters.
- Gender-typing of toys
Is aggression a stable attribute?
- Aggressive toddlers likely to be
aggressive 5 year olds. - Aggression between 3 years and 10 years old predicts aggression and antisocial behaviour later in life.
What drives reactive vs proactive aggression?
Reactive: driven by emotion.
impulsive; hostile, retaliatory aggression; high arousal; wary of others
Proactive: driven by goals.
planned or considered aggression; requires forethought and delayed behaviour; produces tangible benefits, eg. enhances self-esteem; rewarding; bullying.
How can aggression result from immature moral reasoning?
Egocentric bias is pronounced:
Individual places own concerns as
central and most important.
Normal among young children but
with maturation children should shift
from ‘self-centred’ to ‘other-centred’
to take other perspectives
Self-serving ‘Cognitive distortions’:
provide justification for aggressive
behaviours
- Hostile Attribution Bias (assuming the
worst)
- Blaming others and external causes
- Minimise feelings of guilt and regret by
creating own labels and interpretations
Describe moral disengagement?
a process of convincing yourself that ethical
standards don’t apply to you at a certain time or in a particular context.
What are three ways of cognitive re framing of aggression to be morally acceptable under certain circumstances?
*Displacement: actions are dictated by a separate authority and are not one’s
own
* Diffusion: in a group setting can believe others to be equally responsible.
* Dehumanisation: victim no longer considered a person
with feelings and thoughts, seen more as an object than a living being
How can moral development and concepts be culturally specific ?
Children learn about morals and values from family, friends, community.
i.e. different self-concepts, emotional
expectations, and value orientations. ‘Moral identity’.
Micro (family, immediate community) and macro (region, country) levels
How can moral reasoning predict aggressive behaviour?
Constructed view of the world based on past experiences and own
interpretation.
More favourable attitudes to aggressive behaviour predicts actual aggressive behaviour
What are risk factors of aggression development?
Temperament, executive functioning, and emotion dysregulation.
* Social Information Processing (SIP)
* Coercive home environment and parenting.
what is temperament?
Tendency to respond in a certain way across situations.
* Considered a precursor of personality.
how does temperament change over the course of a person’s life?
Individual differences in temperament emerge very early and remain relatively stable over time
what are the five major temperament attributes in babies?
Activity level, irritability, soothability, fearfulness, sociability
‘Higher rates of mother-child conflict’ is associated with what?
difficult temperament
Three clusters of temperament traits that raise the risk of aggression:
- Tendency for dysregulated and negative emotional reactions (Control of anger and frustration is a major achievement in early
socialisation, by middle childhood (6-12 years). Reactive more than proactive aggression. - Fearlessness, daring, sensation seeking
3.Low prosociality (Less respect for rules, Less empathy or care for others, Less guilt, Proactive more than reactive)
Describe the study where Ostrov et al. (2023) found emotion dysregulation to be a key risk factor in reactive and proactive physical and relational aggression:
*300 children age 3-5 years in pre-school and
school, over 4 years.
* Free-play observations (trained researchers).
* Teacher ratings of: emotion dysregulation,
empathy, rules response, fearlessness & daring.
* Physiological (skin conductance, breathing-
resting state arousal).
What is emotion dysregulation?
inability to control and modulate emotional reactions. Especially problematic when those behaviours violate social norms
What is the roles of executive function (EF)?
*inhibition: restraint of motor or verbal responses.
* Working memory updating: hold and manipulate information over short periods of time.
* Shifting: alternate between mental rule states or tasks.
* Planning: goal-directed action
In what ways do executive functions in early childhood correlate with increased risk of aggressive behaviours?
- Difficulties regulating behaviour, especially anger and irritation.
- Physical aggression mainly; relational findings mixed.
- Reactive more than proactive aggression (Rohlf et al., 2018).
- Impulsivity, lack of ability to plan and inhibit potent responses
What is the importance of developing cognitive control in adolescence ?
Development of greater cognitive control in adolescence shown to protect against tendency for maladaptive anger responses
Anger-Induction Study (Krage 2020)
-what were the two behaviour classifications?
- what was the anger able to predict?
-Two behaviour classifications:
1. Maladaptive: venting anger, focus
on the frustrating blocks.
2. Adaptive: solution seeking
-More maladaptive anger correlated
with higher teacher ratings of physical
and relational aggression 6 months
and 2 years later.
* Also predicted problems with friends
why is accurate procession of social information crucial for human interaction and adequate socialization?
- understand others’ intent, emotions, messaging.
- take into account contextual factors.
- decide how to respond to them.
Problems arise when there is misunderstanding.
Social Information Processing difficulties can make it hard for certain children to find non-aggressive solutions to problems
Stages of Social Information Processing model:
stages 1 and 2: Expect intent was
negative (Hostile Attribution Bias)
* Search and find social cues to confirm this:
self-fulfilling cycle.
* Rapid angry response
stages 2-6: Less expectation of hostility.
* Logical assessment that
aggressive response would be most effective.
* Confident of positive outcome.
What factors are associated with increased hostile attribution bias?
emotionality, inadequate emotion understanding, and poor emotion regulation
ability
How might steps of the Social Information Processing Model be influenced by individual differences?
- Current emotional state may drive what social cues are more salient and how they are interpreted.
- Overwhelmingly strong emotions that are hard to control can impair ability to focus on alternative interpretations of and responses to a situation
How can a coercive home environment encourage aggression in children?
- Out of control behaviour, unruly, defiant.
- Atypical family environment.
- Social climate the child feeds into.
- Constant struggle and conflict.
- Little talk, mostly negative talk.
- Negative reinforcement maintains this environment
Four parenting styles:
-Authoritarian
-Authoritative
-Permissive
-Neglectful
Do parenting styles have a role in aggressive behaviour problems in children?
Parenting styles act as a risk or a protective factor for the development of aggressive behaviour problems in children
Describe the Two Dimensions of Parenting that have a role in aggression in children:
- Parental Warmth: protective factor.
* Affection, support, and acceptance of the child’s experience and behaviour.
* Positive socio-emotional resources and role modelling. - Behaviour control/coercion: risk factor.
* Harsh and controlling, strict rules and punishments.
* Negative interactions promote antisocial behaviour, learned and transferred
outside the home
How does parental warmth promote good emotion regulation development?
Fosters trust, easier to regulate appropriately, psychological safety
Most frequent reason for child mental health outpatient referrals:
Aggression
What is conduct disorder?
Repeated, persistent patterns of antisocial,
aggressive, or defiant behaviour, worse than
normal for that age.
* More extreme and problematic as child gets older & more independent.
* Serious rule (and law) violations at home, school, community.
Risk factors of conduct disorder:
- Being male
- Living in urban environments
- Poverty
- Family History of conduct disorder
- Family History of mental illness
- Having other associated psychiatric disorders
- Parents with an alcohol or drug addiction
- A dysfunctional home
- History of experiencing traumatic events
- Being abused or neglected
What can parents and teachers do to support children with conduct disorder?
- Create non-aggressive environments to reduce chances for conflict.
- Reduce or eliminate anything that might reinforce aggression, eg don’t make the aggressive act rewarding in any way > proactive aggression in particular.
Incompatible-response technique:
- Ignore all but the most serious aggressive behaviours
- Reinforce positive acts e.g. sharing
Time-out: for more serious behaviours
* Avoids escalating conflict and
reinforcement
* Best when combined with positive
reinforcement
How can parents and teachers model and coach young people with conduct disorders?
- Help look for nonhostile cues to reappraise the situation.
- Help the child find alternative solutions to conflict.
- Help the child be more aware of others’ feelings; promote empathy
In what way can aggression interventions be effective?
*Social-cognitive competencies
* Interpersonal problem solving
* Parenting skills
* Coping with stress
* Home / school climate
What aggression interventions worked best according to review by Farrington et al (2017)?
-General (multi-factor) programs: best effects with those that included parenting skills training and behavioural modelling
-Family programs more successful with children under 15 years old
-In schools, universal school-wide programs worked better than small- group ones; multi-faceted worked better than targeted
-Anti-bullying programs worked better with younger children (age5-12 years) than older children.
- Start early when children are young
What are Overt aggression interventions focused on?
(a) Parent Management Training (PMT)
-The Family environment
(b) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
-The Child
Describe Parent Management Training (PMT):
- Operant conditioning principle
- Positive reinforcement.
- Appreciates multiple interacting risk factors and pathways to childhood anger/irritability.
- PMT aims to improve family interaction patterns that maintain and support tantrums, aggression, and noncompliance.
- Mainly with parents but sometimes children are involved.
What is taught/suggested in Parent Management Training (PMT)?
-Identify why the child is behaving aggressively /angrily
-Communicate instructions and directions
effectively (verbal skills)
-Give praise for positive and appropriate behaviour
-Ignore maladaptive attention-seeking behaviour
-Use consistent approaches to dealing with disruptive behaviours
What does CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) target in children with conduce disorders?
difficulties in emotion regulation and social problem-solving
Where does some of the controversy stem from with Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA)?
Debate on what is ‘desired’ behaviour, eg fitting societal ‘norms’
How does CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) support anger control and management?
Anger Control & Management Training:
* Monitor emotional arousal.
* Cognitive reappraisal and relaxation.
* Practice socially appropriate responses.
* Can help with hostile attribution bias.
What us Social Skills Training (SST)?
- Based on Social learning theory (Bandura, 1973)
- Enhance social behaviours that can be used instead of aggression.
- Help develop more positive friendships with non-aggressive peers.
- Targets weak verbal skills, poor conflict resolution skills
What is Problem Solving skills Training (PSST)?
*Modelling.
* Role-playing.
* Positive reinforcement of appropriate behaviour.
* Teaching alternative behaviours.
* Child sessions but parents can observe and learn how to support.
* Homework to do.
what is the effectiveness of social skills training (SST) and Problem solving skill training (PSST)?
Both showed reduced aggression.
* Problem-solving training showed greater reduction of Hostile Attribution Bias.
* Social skills training showed greater improvement in anger control skills.
What are difficulties faced by people with Relational aggression issues?
- Social problem-solving.
- Emotion regulation.
- Academic.
- Predicts future psychosocial maladjustment
What is relational aggression?
-non-physical aggression in which one manipulates or harms another’s social standing or reputation.
-Direct (“I don’t want to be your friend”) or indirect (spreading rumours behind backs to influence others’ opinions)
-Associated with problematic friendships, rejection, depressive symptoms, and school avoidance.
Why might Relational aggression be complex to address?
Can be highly associated with physical aggression which makes this complex to address.
What are similarities between overt/physical and relational aggression?
- Hostile attribution bias.
- Favourable evaluations of aggressive solutions.
- Considerable social influence within their peer group.
- Adept at social manipulation, influential, popular within certain circles – high status.
Describe early childhood friendship project involving puppets (Ostrov et al., 2009):
- Classroom-based, children aged 3-5 years. 6 weeks.
- Designed to reduce both relational and physical aggression and increase prosocial
behaviours
-Puppet shows: social skills, friendships
-Weekly participatory activities to reinforce social skills. Role-playing
-Concept activities: e.g. small group art or picture books
-Reinforcement: Praise during free- play (from a puppet and adult)
How effective was Early Childhood Friendship Project in tackling aggression?
Large positive effects on relational aggression and moderate effects on physical aggression.
But requires larger samples.
What is I Can Problem Solve?
-formally called interpersonal Cognitive Problem solving (ICPS)
-evidence-based universal primary prevention program that helps children as young as four learn
-perspective taking, alternative solution thinking, consequential thinking
-a really long and intensive school-based programme
What was Social Aggression Prevention Programme (SAPP) designed for?
to reduce girls’ use of social aggression and increase skills in empathy, social problem solving, and prosocial behaviours
Who did analysis suggest that Social Aggression prevention Programme (SAPP) would be more effective for?
may be more effective for high-risk girls in
social problem solving, prosocial behaviours, and empathy.
Three aggression intervention design considerations:
Age-appropriate
* Verbal skills, parental / teacher involvement, report tasks, medium.
Aggression-appropriate
* Physical and relational aggression, proactive vs reactive aggression.
Community-appropriate
* Include key community individuals when designing the intervention
(teachers, counsellors, education psychologists, police officers, parents).
What is the role of play?
-play facilitates cognitive, social, and emotional development
-role taking and mature social judgements
-conflict management
How does play important for theory of mind?
-role taking highlights different perspectives of self and others
-sharing
-compromise
-Increase emotional sensitivity to self and others
Why are friends/peers important for child development?
*Friends and peers are an important part of
socialisation.
* Provide the social context in which self-concept,
identity, and appreciation of others develop
How do peer influences differ at different stages?
– Infancy & toddlerhood: Limited influence (mostly family /caregivers).
– Childhood: Main interaction with peers is through play; still less important than family.
– Teenagers: Growing influence of peers.
What do Piaget’s stages of play reflect?
Reflect developing capacity to think symbolically
Piaget’s three stages of play…
1) Functional play: sensorimotor (up to age three), Nonsymbolic practice games
2)Symbolic play: preoperational (3-6 years), make believe and pretend games
3)Games: Concrete Operational (7 years plus), games with rules
Describe Functional Play:
- Repeating motor routines.
- Throwing, opening, closing, filling, tipping
Describe Symbolic Play:
- Pretend play
- Change the function of objects using imagination.
- Role-playing.
Importance of symbolic play:
-Pretend play becomes increasingly JOINTLY
constructed
-Two conditions of joint construction that helps develop friendships:
* (1) Sharing feelings and experiences
* (2) Negotiating conflicts
-Learn how to both lead and follow
-Multiple perspective taking between them, others, different characters
Describe play and social interaction from 6 months to 4 years:
6-12 months: Parallel play
12-18 months: simple pretend play, talking, smiling and some interaction
18-24 months: Reciprocal play, action based role reversals in social games (peek a boo, chase)
2.5 -3:Cooperative social play, role taking, games eg. mum and baby but little planning or rules
3.5-4: Complex social pretend play, planned pretend play, assign roles to players, modify this if play breaks down
How can you tell if a child is de-centring and becoming other centred?
If they start commenting on psychological attributes as opposed to just describing others through physical attributes
Piaget’s cognitive development milestones for Pre-operational (3-6 years):
Focus on most salient perceptual aspects. Describe others in very concrete and observable terms eg appearances, possessions. Physical comparisons
Piaget’s cognitive development milestones for Concrete Operational (7-10 years):
Others have different points of view; allows them to look beyond surface appearances of people and to infer underlying aspects such as regularities in conduct, psychological traits. Psychological comparisons
Piaget’s cognitive development milestones for Formal Operational (12-14 years):
Logical and systematic thinking, abstractions; mental inferences and deeper psychological comparisons between people
Selman’s Stages of Social Perspective Taking:
- Egocentric perspective (3-6 yrs)
Unaware of any perspective other than their own. Their feelings will be shared by others - Social-Informational role-taking (6-8 yrs)
Can recognise that people can have perspectives that differ from their own. BUT only because they have received different information to themselves. - Self-Reflective role-
taking (8-10 yrs) Know that there can be conflict between their and others’ points of view, even with the same information. Both can take perspective of the other. BUT child can’t consider own and other perspective at the same time - Mutual role-taking
(10-12 yrs) Can simultaneously consider own and other perspective and know that others can do the same - Societal role-taking
(12-15 yrs +) Perspectives made in comparison to social system expectancies and norms.
- Societal role-taking
Describe the Holly Dilema:
Holly is 8 and she likes to climb trees.
One day she falls but is unhurt. Her Dad saw her fall and is upset and asks her to promise not to climb any more trees. she promises
Later that day Shawn’s kitten is stuck in a tree.
Among her friends Holly is the best climber. But she has promised her Dad
Kids are asked how they would respond
How would a child in Egocentric Perspective stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
Assume Holly will save kitten. And her Dad will be happy because he likes kittens (because they like kittens)
How would a child in Social-Informational
role-taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
“If he didn’t know why she climbed the tree, he would be angry. But if he knew why she did it, he would realise that she had good reason.”
How would a child in Self-Reflective role-
taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
She’ll climb the tree and Dad will understand reason. But also understands that Dad would not have wanted her to climb it
– Dad’s concern perspective
How would a child in Mutual role-taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
Perspective of disinterested 3rd party. “Holly wanted to get the kitten… but she knew she wasn’t supposed to climb trees. Holly’s father knew that Holly had been told not to climb trees, but he couldn’t have known (about the kitten)
How would a child in Societal role-taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
Does not think Holly should be punished, treating animals kindly is important and justifies her act, and her Dad should recognise this.
What are the two functions of imitation?
(1) a learning mechanism through which infants gain new skills and knowledge about the world.
(2) a social function through which they engage in social and emotional exchanges with others
When does early imitation begin?
8 to 12 months given a model is present
What is differed imitation?
by two years:
* Ability to reproduce the actions of another in the future.
* Important milestone.
* Construction of symbolic representations of experiences, via retrieval of these from memory.
In typical development what imitation do infants to toddlers show?
- infants show imitation of vocalisations and facial expressions.
- Object-focused play (by age 1) > action imitation with toys.
- By age 2, imitation games involve a wider range of affective gestures (eg shrugging).
What is reciprocal imitation?
plays key role in early peer interactions
* Same action on same object as another > increase and sustain social interaction.
* Coordination of emotional responses > facilitates interactions.
* Refined for development of more sophisticated play skills
(eg symbolic play)
Why is reciprocal imitation important?
- Communicates social interest in others.
- Shared affective (emotional) experience.
- Conversational turn-taking.
What were adult views on The Case for Play in Schools?
-Social and emotional benefits; negotiating, problem solving, conflict management, compromise, fear and risk, building friendship
Cognitive and academic benefits; increased attention when return to class (especially in ADHD children), better class behaviour, more concentration and less fidgeting
What are children’s views on The Case For Play In Schools?
-most children enjoy playtime
-playtimes associated with freedom
-children want play times to be longer with more to do and fewer rules
-children felt playtime should not be removed as a punishment
-having someone to play with is important but some children prefer to play alone
