Lifespan Development: Exam #2 Flashcards
Temperament
Individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions, and characteristic ways of responding; is moderately stable over the lifespan.
Chess and Thomas’s Temperament Classification
- Easy child (40%)
- Difficult child (10%)
- Slow-to-warm-up child (15%)
- Unclassified (35%)
- Based on 9 dimensions of temperament.
Nine Dimensions of Temperament
- Rhythmicity
- Adaptability
- Activity Level
- Threshold of responsiveness
- Quality of Mood
- Distractibility
- Attention Span/Persistence
- Approach/Withdrawal
- Intensity of Reaction
Rothbart and Bates’s Temperament Classification
Based on the idea that individuals can engage in a more cognitive, flexible approach to stressful circumstances
Extraversion/Surgency
- Rothbart and Bates
- Activity level high
- Impulsive
- Positive anticipation
- Sensation seeking
Negative Affectivity
- Fear
- Frustration
- Sadness
- Discomfort
Effortful Control (Self-regulation)
- Attentional focusing
* Shifting, can soothe oneself
Biological Foundations and Experience of Temperament
- Children inherit a physiology that biases them to have a particular type of temperament, but this is modifiable through experience (Kagan).
- Contemporary view: temperament is a biologically based but evolving aspect of behavior.
Gender, Culture, and Temperament
- Parents may react differently to an infant’s temperament depending on gender.
- Different cultures value different temperaments.
Goodness of Fit and Parenting
• The match between a child’s temperament and the environmental demands the child must cope with.
Attachment
A close emotional bond between two people
Freud and Attachment
Infants become attached to the person that provides oral satisfaction.
Harlow and Attachment
Contact comfort preferred over food.
Erikson and Attachment
Trust arises from physical comfort and sensitive care.
Bowlby’s Stages of Attachment: Birth to 2 months
Instinctively direct attachment to humans, non-discriminatory.
Bowlby’s Stages of Attachment: 2 to 7 months
Focused on one figure, usually primary caregiver.
Bowlby’s Stages of Attachment: 7 to 24 months
Specific attachments develop and seek contact with regular caregivers.
Bowlby’s Stages of Attachment: 24+ months
Consider other’s emotions and feelings before they take action.
Secure Attachment
Caregiver is secure base to explore from, mildly protest when separated, seeks out upon return.
Insecure Avoidant
Avoid caregiver; non distressed when she leaves, no interest upon return.
Insecure Resistant
Cling to then resist caregiver but very clingy in strange situation room. Cry when she leaves but resist upon return.
Insecure Disorganized
Tend to be very fearful around caregiver and strong pattern of avoidance. May appear dazed and confused.
Caregivers of Insecurely Attached Infants
- Rejecting leads to avoidant attachment style.
- Inconsistent leads to resistant attachment style
- Neglectful/Abusive leads to disoriented attachment style.
- Depression in caregiver can lead to any of these if they are not responsive to infant.
Gross Motor Skills
- Age 3: Simple movements
- Age 4: More adventurous
- Age 5: Hair-raising risks
Fine Motor Skills
- Age 3: Still clumsy
- Age 4: Improved fine motor coordination
- Age 5: Body coordination
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
- Ages 2 to 7
- Operations are reversible mental actions (e.g. John is Donna’s brother. Who is John’s sister?)
- Children represent the world with words, images, and drawings.
- Children form stable concepts and begin to reason.
- Children engage in magical beliefs (when they don’t understand something, it “must be magic”).
Piaget’s Preoperational Substages
- The Symbolic Function Substage
* The Intuitive Thought Substage
The Symbolic Function Substage
- Child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present.
- Egocentrism: cannot distinguish one’s own perspective from someone else’s
- Animism: the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action
The Intuitive Thought Substage
- Piaget said that children are unaware of how they know what they know.
- 4 to 7 years of age.
- Children use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to questions.
- Have difficulty understanding events that cannot be seen and negotiating traffic.
Centration and the Limits of Preoperational Thought
- Centration: Centering attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.
- Conservation: Altering a substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties.
Vygotsky’s Theory
- Children think and understand primarily through social interaction.
- Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): Range of tasks that are too difficult for the child alone but that can be learned with guidance.
- Scaffolding: Changing the level of support during a teaching session.
Vygotsky’s Theory: Language and Thought
- Private speech: Use of language for self-regulation.
- Children use speech to communicate socially and to help them solve tasks.
- Inner speech becomes their thoughts.
- More private speech = more social competence.
Vygotsky’s Theory: Teaching Strategies
- Vygotsky’s theory can be applied to education:
- Assess child’s ZPD
- Use the child’s ZPD in teaching
- Use more-skilled peers as tutors
- Place instruction in a meaningful context
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
- Ages 7 to 11.
- Children can perform concrete operations and reason logically, and are able to classify things into different sets.
- Conservation occurs because children now able to consider several characteristics at once.
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
- Autistic disorder to Asperger syndrome
- Autistic children typically exhibit difficulty establishing social relationships, communication problems, stereotypical & repetitive patterns of behavior, restricted interests.
- Asperger children typically exhibit good verbal abilities, but poor ability to read social cues, have obsessive repetitive routines, and be preoccupied with very narrow interests.
Self Esteem
Global evaluations of the self.
Improving Self Esteem
- Identify causes of low self-esteem
- Provide emotional support and social approval
- Engage in joint family activities
- Help child achieve in domains important to the child
- Provide help when necessary
- Help child learn coping strategies
- Household should be harmonious
- Model self-esteem
Self Concept
- Domain-specific evaluations of the self.
- e.g. athletic, academic, physical, social
- Self-esteem may be tied to having positive self-concept(s) in domain(s) that matter to the child.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
- Based on Piaget’s cognitive stages.
- Proposed 3 levels and 6 universal states of moral development.
- Developed stages based on interviews using moral dilemmas.
Kohlberg’s Level 1
- Lowest level
- Preconventional Reasoning
- No internalization of moral values
- Controlled by external rewards and punishments
Kohlberg’s Level 1, Stage 1
- Heteronomous morality
* Moral thinking is often tied to punishment
Kohlberg’s Level 1, Stage 2
- Individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange
- Individuals pursue their own interests but also let others do the same.
- If I share my cookie with Susie today, tomorrow she’ll share her candy.
Kohlberg’s Level 2
- Conventional Reasoning
- internalization is intermediate
- Individuals abide by certain standards (internal), but they are the standards of others (external), such as parents or the laws of society.
Kohlberg’s Level 2, Stage 3
- Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity
- Individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty to others
- Children want to be seen by parents, teachers as “nice kid”
Kohlberg’s Level 2, Stage 4
- Social systems morality
- Understanding the social order, law, justice, and duty.
- Don’t steal stuff from school or we won’t have it for gym class.
Kohlberg’s Level 3
- Postconventional Reasoning
- The highest level
- Morality is completely internalized and is not based on others’ standards.
- Personal moral code
Kohlberg’s Level 3, Stage 5
- Social contract or utility and individual rights
- Values, rights, and principles transcend the law
- e.g. the right to marry another race before laws had been changed
Kohlberg’s Level 3, Stage 6
- Highest stage
- The person has developed a moral standard based on universal human rights
- When conflict between law and conscience, person believes conscience should be followed (draft avoiders).
Influences on Kohlberg’s Stages
- Cognitive development
- Experiences dealing with moral questions/conflicts
- Parental modeling and communication about moral issues
- Peer interaction and perspective taking are crucial
Gender Stereotypes
Broad categories that reflect general impressions and beliefs about males and females
Gender Role Classification
- Individuals can have both masculine and feminine traits
- Androgyny – presence of positive masculine and feminine traits in the same person
- Androgynous individuals are more flexible, competent, and mentally healthy
Gender in Context
- Traits people display may vary with the situation (e.g. males and females choose different situations to be helpful in)
- Culture determines gender appropriateness
Baumrind’s Parenting Styles
- Authoritative
- Authoritarian
- Indulgent
- Neglectful
Authoritative Parenting
- Accepting
- Responsive
- Demanding
- Controlling
- May be most effective type for variety of reasons
- Children are: independent, socially competent, confident, achievement-oriented, friendly, cooperative, cope well with stress, cheerful. All this leads to popularity with peers and other adults.
Authoritarian Parenting
- Rejecting
- Unresponsive
- Demanding
- Controlling
Indulgent Parenting
- Accepting
- Responsive
- Undemanding
- Uncontrolling
Neglectful Parenting
- Rejecting
- Unresponsive
- Undemanding
- Uncontrolling
Gender and the Care Perspective
- Carol Gilligan argues that Kohlberg’s theory of moral development does not adequately reflect relationships and concern for others.
- justice perspective vs. care perspective
Justice Perspective
A moral perspective that focuses on the rights of the individual; individuals independently make moral decisions.
Care Perspective
The moral perspective of Carol Gilligan, which views people in terms of their connected ness with others and emphasizes interpersonal communication, relationships with others, and concern for others.
Play
- A pleasurable activity that is engaged in for its own sake.
- Facilitates language development as children talk/work out rules while playing
Freud/Erikson and Play
- Helps child master anxieties and conflicts
* Play therapy
Piaget and Play
• Play advances cognitive development; a way to practice competencies and skills
Vygotsky and Play
• An excellent setting for cognitive development, especially imaginary play which leads to creativity
Berlyne and Play
• Satisfies our exploratory drive; we like to experience new things
Sensorimotor Play
Exercises infant’s sensorimotor schemes.
Practice Play
The repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned or mastered
Pretense/Symbolic Play
- Child transforms the physical environment into a symbol (e.g. ironing board became the grocery conveyor belt).
- Pretend play is an important aspect of young children’s development because children learn social roles, cooperation.
Social play
- Involves interaction with peers
* Teaches turn-taking, new skills
Constructive Play
Children engage in the self-regulated creation of a product or a solution (e.g. building stuff, art projects, etc.).
Games
Activities that are engaged in for pleasure and have rules.
Peer Statuses
- Popular Children
- Average Children
- Neglected Children
- Rejected Children
- Controversial Children
Popular Children
Well liked
Average Children
Majority of children fit into this category. Not popular, but not rejected, either.
Neglected Children
Almost invisible to others. Tend to be very shy.
Rejected Children
Nobody wants to play with them.
Controversial Children
The child virtually swings from being popular to rejected depending on who is being asked. Might bully/punch others and say they were just playing, etc.
Friends
Important because kids with friends are less likely to suffer from psychological problems, achieve more academically, higher self-esteem.
Six Functions of Friendship
- Companionship: Someone to do things with.
- Stimulation: Entertainment.
- Physical support: Loaning lunch money, letting them stay over if they need to.
- Ego support: Make them feel good about themselves.
- Social comparison: Can be good or bad. What one friend has that you don’t have and vice versa.
- Affection and Intimacy: Kicks in during adolescence, e.g. girls saying I love you to one another.
Initiative vs. Guilt (Erikson)
- Preschool age.
- Children have figured out that they are independent and begin to make their own choices.
- Choices parents disapprove of (or kid thinks they’ll disapprove of) lead to guilt and may impede independence.
Industry vs. Inferiority (Erikson)
- Industry: children become interested in how things work.
* Inferiority: parents who see their children’s efforts as mischief may encourage inferiority.
