Human Development, 4: Middle Childhood Flashcards
What is the difference between problem-focused and emotion-focused coping?
Problem focused coping is primary, and is aimed at solving the problem, like an resolving a disagreement or overcoming an obstacle. Emotion focused coping is secondary, and is engaged when problem focused coping ‘fails’. These include any strategy designed to attenuate or change the emotion without attention to the problem believed to be causing it. An example of emotion-focused coping: withdrawing and doing something else, distracting oneself, taking a break.
Describe moral development in the school years.
By middle childhood most children have internalized some rules of conduct, which generally leads them to become considerably more independent and trustworthy.
How does most children_s ability for decoding emotions develop between the ages of 6-11?
Most children at this age are beginning to understand the concept of complex mixed emotional responses, and the fact that adults often exert efforts suppress their true emotional reactions.
What cognitive attributional style is consistent with a schoolchild who attributes attributes his excellent soccer game to luck, but attributes his bad game to a lack of talent?
Learned Helplessness. This is the reverse of mastery oriented attributions, which attribute success to internal personal factors, and failure to external, unstable factors.
Describe the effects of child-rearing style on self esteem.
Authoritative parenting leads to the average highest and most stable self-esteem. Many children raised by permissive parents have unrealistically high self-esteem, that often leads them to become frustrated and defensive when they encounter difficulties outside the home. Authoritarian, controlling parents send children a message of inadequacy and incompetence which can lower their self-esteem.
What are the four aspects of school children’s self esteem, and which is most predictive of overall self-esteem?
Academic, Social, Physical-Athletic, and Appearance. The latter is most predictive of a child’s overall sense of self-worth.
How does the overall level of self esteem change in the school years, and why?
On average it decreases, because children are facing more difficult educational tasks and realistic feedback from their efforts, peers, and teachers. This normal effect does not mean it commonly declines to problematic levels, and it will rise again as children get used to school-age experiences and responsibilities, circa 4th grade.
What is Erikson’s psychosocial conflict of the middle childhood years? (and what does it mean?)
Industry vs. Inferiority. Industrious children have a “sense of competence at useful skills and tasks” that is aided by authoritative parenting and the development of initiative and autonomy in earlier stages. A pessimistic sense of Inferiority is said to result from excessive or harsh criticism from teachers, peers, parents; also, a possible effect of extensive bullying.
How egocentrism changes in middle childhood:
Improvements in childrens’ theory of mind during the 6th-11th years leads them to begin making more direct social comparisons, including an internal split between better-defined ideal and actual mental self-representations.
How do self-conscious emotions change in middle childhood?
In middle childhood, self conscious emotions become fully independent of adults’ presence and reactions. They can and do feel pride, guilt, and shame regardless of whether an authority figure is present to instruct, reward or punish them. *Children at this age who feel a pervasive sense of shame are at risk for major depression or aggressive patterns of behavior.
How do the cultural values of individualism and collectivism affect children’s self concept in middle childhood?
Individualistic societies’ children have a self concept that is composed of more personal experiences and perspectives. Collectivist societies’ children include more narratives that focus on their social groups’ activities, shared values, and perspectives.
How did Chinese mothers’ parenting affect cognitive test performance in the study described in your textbook?
Chinese mothers were more focused on avoiding failure and stressing high achievement compared to US mothers, who emphasized rewarding success and not attending to failures as much. As a result, the Chinese children obtain higher average test scores when they take the mental tests without their mothers present.
What is a common mistake parents make regarding a school-age child’s involvement in sports and athletics?
It is good for parents to encourage enjoying athletic pursuits in their own right, regardless of winning/losing or standings, so that they can develop a healthy habit of staying involved throughout the lifespan. However, parents who become overinvolved and overidentified with the child’s winning/losing or standing risk inducing anxieties that make the child less likely to continue to be involved in athletics throughout life.
How have attitudes toward recess changed in the US in the 21st century, and what are the effects?
In an attempt to meet high-stakes academic standards, many schools have shortened or even eliminated (at 7% of schools) recess. This appears to be an errant “solution” that is associated a subsequent rise in behavioral and academic problems. Children are more able to focus in the classroom after returning from a recess.
What is one limitation of the concrete operational stage of cognitive development?
While children make gains in understanding logical concepts and relationships in their environment, they have difficulty relating such principles to abstract ideas; hence the ‘concrete’ aspect of this stage.
