Exam 2 Flashcards
Supporting the development of positive emotion/self regulation during early childhood is important because:
Predicts later adjustment and school readiness (e.g., Bub & Birmingham, under review)
– Predicts later risk taking (e.g., Steinberg, 2007)
– Evidence of both within domain (e.g., cognitive self-regulation
predicting academic outcomes) and cross-domain (e.g.,
behavioral self-regulation predicting academic outcomes)
associations (e.g. Jones, Bub, & Raver, 2014)
•Dysregulation has been implicated in a range of negative outcomes
– e.g., behavior problems, depressive symptoms, academic failure, etc.
Although we do not have a single, clear definition of emotions, there are a set of agreed upon features of emotion. Which of the following is reflected in that list?
Biologically based
- Has evolved over time
- Broadly labeled as a response system.
- Specifically described as a tool by which we appraise experiences, register the significance of the experience, and subsequently respond to the experience
- Fluid and often unseen
- Emotion is a process: A constant interaction between an individual and his/her environment
Which of the following statements most accurately reflects the definition of emotion regulation:
Behaviors and skills, both conscious and unconscious, that modulate, inhibit, or enhance emotions and experiences as a means to accomplish goals and function and society.
- Simply put, emotion regulation is a process of increasing (i.e., up-regulating) or decreasing (i.e., down-regulating) our positive and/or negative emotions in response to a situation.
Bub and colleagues (2016) examined the long-term benefits of self-regulation for body mass index and general health and found:
It’s consistently related to weight gain/obesity, individuals who are better able to delay gratification tend to gain weight more slowly and are less likely to be obese.
Self regulation measured in preschool predicts lower (better/healthier) BMI
- have long term benefits for both overall physical health and sleep (fewer sleep problems) in childhood and adolescence
Kochanska et al. (1996) examined associations between inhibitory control and internalization and found:
that both early and concurrent inhibitory control observed by mothers predicts preschool internalization of social expectations
- Found that self regulation predicts later internalization of socially acceptable behaviors
inhibitory control measures are highly positively correlated with internalization behaviors later in life
- marshmallow & stroop test –> if they had control and could inhibit the desire to eat the first marshmallow and instead wait until they had 2, predicted better life outcomes
- no inhibitory control predicts depression, poor physical health, etc.
- Individual differences in temperament/emotion regulation play an important role in the emergence of socialization and a child’s understanding of social rules.
According to research by Eng (2012), which of the following groups suppress their emotions the most?
- East Asians in Japan suppress their emotions the most?
East Asians in japan, east Asian americans, and European americans were illustrated on the graph in the week 5 notes
According to Steinberg (2007), risk-taking occurs more often among adolescents than adults because:
PSYCHOSOCIAL MATURATION HYPOTHESIS: Risk taking in adolescence is thought to be the product of two aspects of the brain:
o One that is sensitive to social and emotional stimuli and is reshaped by pubertal changes (socio-emotional)
o One that promotes executive functions (planning and self regulation) and matures gradually (cognitive control)
- During adolescence the socioemotional component is more dominant than cognitive control
- The presence of peers make risky behaviors and situations more rewarding
According to Steinberg (2007), which of the following would be the most effective way to prevent risky behaviors among adolescents?
Interventions should focus on limiting opportunities for immature judgment to have harmful consequences
- raising the price of cigarettes
- more vigilantly enforcing laws governing the sale of alcohol
- expanding adolescents’ access to mental health and contraceptive services
- raising the driving age
all of these would likely be more effective in limiting adolescent smoking, substance abuse, pregnancy, and automobile fatalities than strategies aimed at making adolescents wiser, less impulsive, or less shortsighted
Logical reasoning reaches maturity at approximately __________ years old, while psychosocial development reaches maturity at approximately ___________ years old.
16, 25
Definitions of morality emphasize concepts from the following fields:
- Cognition: Explicit concepts of right and wrong
Reasoning about the right course/s of action
Biases that influence moral thinking - Affect: Feelings like guilt, concern for distress in others (empathy)
Predicting emotional consequences (for self and others)
- Behavior: How do we act when we: Face moral dilemmas? judge others? Face temptation to lie, cheat, steal, etc.? Related: Prosocial behavior and altruism
SO we can think about morality as:
o Knowing right from wrong
o Behaving in accordance with these values
o Feeling good about our behaviors
o Or feeling guilty about falling to live up to moral standards
The main difference between the Social Intuitionist Model and Piaget or Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Judgment is:
Social Intuitionist Model: Suggests that morality derives more from intuition in a given social situation than from moral reasoning and that responses to many moral situations are automatic.
In Piaget and Kohlberg’s theories, changes occur in moral development over time in a person and they view children as dependent on adult authority
- Cognitive processes only come into play when we must justify our decisions
- Piaget and Kohlberg: rationale or thought structure used to justify decision
According to Piaget’s stages of moral development, the progression from the heteronomous stage to the autonomous stage is best characterized by which of the following:
Characterized by increasing realism, and shift in focus on outcomes (in heteronomous stage) to intentions ( in autonomous stage)
- in autonomous stage: rules are socially constructed and able to be challenged, rules can be changed with the agreement of others, breaking a rule in service of the larger good is seen as acceptable otherwise breaking rules is not ok, punishment should be administered flexibly, it is also important to consider intentions
Heteronomous Stage (4-7 years old):
o Children have developed a clear respect for rules
o View rules as stemming from authority figures (Parents, teachers, police, older children, God, etc.)
o Rules are seen as unchangeable
o Following rules is good, breaking rules is bad
o The intentions of those involved are not considered
- more damage if worse, even if unintended
- belief in punishment for own sake
Autonomous Stage (8-9 years old):
o Characterized by increasing relativism (i.e., understanding that morality is culturally, societally, and/or historically influenced and thus not absolute)
o View rules as socially constructed and therefore open to challenge
o Rules can now be changed but only with the agreement of others
o Breaking a rule in service of the larger good is seen as acceptable; otherwise breaking rules is not ok
o The intentions of those involved are considered
o Punishment for transgressions should be administered flexibly (i.e., punishment should fit the crime and circumstances)
- intention to break a rule is far worse than greater damage
- begin to favor punishments that fit “crime”
- understand that many wrong acts go unpunished
Piaget outlined three stages of moral development, including the “premoral”, “heteronomous”, and “autonomous” stages. Which of the following best describes the heteronomous stage?
Heteronomous Stage (4-7 years old):
o Children have developed a clear respect for rules
o View rules as stemming from authority figures (Parents, teachers, police, older children, God, etc.)
o Rules are seen as unchangeable
o Following rules is good, breaking rules is bad
o The intentions of those involved are not considered
- more damage if worse, even if unintended
- belief in punishment for own sake
Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s models of moral development suggested that early moral reasoning is largely mandated by rules handed down from figures of authority (e.g., parents, teachers, the government). Social Domain Theory (Smetana’s work) challenged this idea by showing that:
Social Domain Theory: Views moral development not as a developmental progression per se but instead as a process that derives both from moral cognition/understanding and the social context, especially the peer context
Showed that preschoolers understand that moral transgressions (hitting, shoving, stealing, throwing water, not sharing) are wrong regardless of rules or authority figures –> showed more response to moral transgressions
- Suggests that children understand morality at much younger age and isn’t determined wholly by adult rules
- Suggests they understand/know moral transgressions, and that they learn conventional transgressions
- preschool children are aware that some stuff is wrong, regardless of rules or authority figures
If Piaget/Kohlberg was right, children should have instead shown more response to conventional transgressions (belief that what adults say is wrong is wrong) than moral (what is inherently wrong).
Kohlberg’s pre-conventional stage of moral development is best described by which of the following statements:
Preconventional Morality: (obedience and punishment) a childlike approach to right and wrong?
1) What is rewarded is right and what is punished is bad
• Focus on outcomes not intent
• “Heinz should not steal the medicine because he will be put in prison”
2) What is good for me is good for you - reciprocity of needs
• “Heinz should steal because he will be really happy if he saves his wife’s life”
According to the Infant Morality Study, the idea that even infants have a sense of morality derives from findings suggesting:
- Even infants/toddlers seem to have a rich set of cognitive tools and behavioral proclivities that allow them to understand complex social concepts (intention, sharing) and behave prosocially
- they can tell who is trying to help the blocks, have a sense of morality, innate?
- By 6 months of age, infants distinguish between helpers and hinderers
- By 10 months, infants prefer helpers
- These preferences are judgments, not self interest
Which of the following is NOT a limitation of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development:
Issues with Kohlberg’s Theory:
Later stages of development are rarely found among people in traditional or rural communities
- perhaps people in collectivistic cultures place social harmondy head of individual rights
- What Kohlberg viewed as “conventional” thinking could also be viewed as a sophisticated framework in its own right
Developed his theory based primarily on the white men he studied early on
He viewed moral development as a steady upward march, in other words, when someone reaches a higher stage, he/she is not likely to reason at a lower stage
- this does not seem reasonable (what about young children?)
Eventually had to drop level 6 (Moral decisions are made on the basis of abstract moral principles)
- not enough people attained this stage
cultural bias, the consideration of a set of cultural norms in one society without adequate consideration of how (or even if) the same norms can effectively be applied to a different culture. Kohlberg’s critics note the fact that his theory of moral development borrows heavily from moral theories from Western culture (e.g., the universality of rights and entitlements) without a clear explanation on how the theory can be applied to non-Western cultures.
Viewed young children as dependent on adult authority
Aggression is most accurately described by which of the following statements:
Aggression: Hostile or violent behavior or acts towards another
- unprovoked attacks
- physical, verbal, mental, or emotional
- sometimes directed at self
aggression is normally unintentional, generally not a repetitive action, and can be adaptive (or maladaptive) at times
Aggression Purposes
- express anger
- intimidate others or assert dominance
- response to fear or threat
- reaction to pain
Which of the following aggression-reduction strategies is most clearly derived from
social information processing perspectives?
Strengthen social-emotional skills, emotional regulation training, and problem solving skills, using Making Choices Programs
- Encode social cues
- Interpret social cues
- Formulate a social goal
- Strategize reaction (generate problem solving strategies)
- Select reaction (evaluate the likely effectiveness of strategies and select a response)
- Implement it (enact response)
The most important finding in Caspi et al. (2002) was:
o MAOA appears to play a relatively little role in antisocial behavior when children are not maltreated or when they experience some level of maltreatment
o BUT at high levels of MAOA, severely maltreated youth are less anti social than severely maltreated youth at low levels of MAOA
- people with low levels of MAOA that were severely maltreated were more likely to become aggressive/antisocial
o MAOA (high levels) is a protective factor suggesting genes and environment matter
o Maltreated children with a genotype conferring high levels of MAOA expression were less likely to develop antisocial problems
One of the key differences between aggressive behaviors and bullying is:
Bullying is about social capital, not just physical power:
Bullying is intentional and chronic rather than aggressive behavior which is not continual or individually directed
being or becoming popular with your peers
being more popular than the children you harass
a relationship of control
In their subgroup analyses of social avoidance and social withdrawal, Coplan et al. (2013) found that compared to all other subtypes, avoidant (i.e., shy and preference for solitude) children demonstrated:
- Avoidant children: high social avoidance, low social approach these children have no desire to be in a social setting and prefer solitude
- Compared with other groups of children, these “avoidant” children reported the highest levels of negative affect, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety and the lowest levels of positive affect and overall well-being.
Misperceptions about bullying in the media include all of the following EXCEPT:
These are all misperceptions: Bullying is an epidemic Bullying-suicide are linked Bullies are young criminals Bullies need to be punished Bullies derive from dysfunctional families
According to Wolke et al. (2013), after controlling for childhood family hardships and childhood psychiatric problems, the long-term effects of bullying seemed to be worst for those children who were:
bully-victims,
In accordance with Olweus definition of bullying, long-term effects of peer victimization were worse when the bullying:
Was a victim-bully: bullied and was bullied and when there was an: a. unequal power dynamic b. intentional action c. chronic condition
According to Coplan et al. (2013), peer problems seemed to be worst for those children who exhibited:
high social avoidance and low social approach [avoidant children]
Which of the following would NOT be considered a predictor of aggression:
Social isolation is predictor of aggression
Lack of emotional/regulatory dependence on a parental figure predicts aggression
Childhood maltreatment from parents
Negative peer response to social withdrawal
Evidence supporting the notion that anti-social behavior (e.g., aggression) is relatively stable across the lifespan includes:
- Stability of Aggression (Olweus, 1979, Psychological Bulletin)
- Marked individual differences in habitual aggression level manifest themselves early in life, certainly by the age of 3. - genetics and Early Adversity leads to Later Antisocial Behavior (Van Goozen et al.)
- Predicting Criminality from Aggression, higher rates of criminality from aggressive males
- Social Withdrawal in Later Childhood
