PSY210: 5. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood Flashcards
Childhood Obesity
increasing in years
Health Risks for Obese Children
More likely to be overweight adults Lifelong health risks
! high blood pressure, cholesterol ! respiratory problems
! diabetes
! liver, gall bladder disease
! sleep, digestive disorders ! cancer
! early death
unlikely to become a regular weight adult
you have to keep a healthy lifestyle
severe health effects
Psychological and Social Consequences of Obesity
Feeling unattractive Stereotyping Teasing
Social isolation Depression
Emotional problems School problems Problem behaviours Reduced life chances
feel unattractive because society doesn’t value them
associate negative characteristics: dumb, lazy, no self control
Psychological and Social Consequences of Obesity
bullying, fewer friends, anxiety issues, low self esteem, poorer in school
act out in response, aggressive - behavioural problems - drinking
less vocational opportunities
Causes of Obesity in Middle Childhood
Overweight parents: Genes??? Low SES Parents’ feeding practices ! overfeeding ! overly controlling Child’s Behaviours: !Low physical activity = cause and consequence !Sleep patterns Television = 2 reasons
Causes of Obesity in Middle Childhood
parents more likely to be eating junk food
healthy food is really expensive, parents don’t know what’s nutricious
restricting food intake -
no autonomy - don’t know how to make the decisions
teaching children what is appropriate intake
once obese - less energy to be active - cycle
too little - more time to eat, too tired to be physically active, disrupts internal regulatory systems
displacement: tv - not moving, ads for fast food
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
The concrete operational stage lasts from the age of about 6 or 7 to 11 or 12
• In this stage, the child develops the ability to understand constant factors in the environment
• The concrete operational child understands rules and the reasons for them - thinks logically
understand + apply rules
engage in concrete operations (thoughts) - can manipulate thoughts
engage in rule based behaviour in something you can see
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
A hallmark of the concrete stage is understanding conservation
“Conservation is recognizing that objects can be transformed visually or physically, yet still be the same in number, weight, substance, or volume
rule that children can now understand
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
Classification- aware of classification hierarchies and can focus on relations between a general and two specific categories at the same time
• Seriation - The ability to order items along a quantitative dimension
• Spatial Reasoning • Directions
• Cognitive maps
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
are there more brown buttons than buttons? - in front of them
seriation: sticks before child at diff lengths - order them from smallest to largest
outcome of being able to think logically
internally represent reality as long as you experience it yourself
can give you directions - can spatially locate themselves in space
as they move through middle childhood - they can draw maps
Key Information-Processing Improvements
Increase in information- processing speed & working memory capacity
Gains in inhibition Both may be related to
brain development.
speed synapses fire, can recall info
WM now at an adult-like state
day/night task increases steadily - inhibit behaviour
synaptic pruning + myelination - less clutter - more effective
Attention in Middle Childhood
Attention becomes more ! selective
! adaptable ! planful
attention guided by environment early
in middle childhood - inhibitory = ability to focus
nature of task changes - can change what our goal directed behaviour is going to be
mistakes in categorization decrease as they go through
can organize how to direct cognitive efforts - search tasks
Development of Memory Strategies
Rehearsal (early grade school) repeating information to oneself
Organization (early grade school) grouping related items together
Elaboration (end of middle childhood)
! creating a relationship between pieces of information not in same category
Development of Memory Strategies
they use memory strategies - in order
organization + elaboration happen later on because WM improves then
as processing speed increases - keep info closer - less decay - rehearsal
become aware of how mind works - taught memory stategies
Erikson’s Theory: Industry versus Inferiority
Industry
Developing a sense of competence at useful skills
School provides many opportunities
Inferiority
Pessimism and lack of confidence in own ability to do things well
Family environment, teachers, and peers can contribute to negative feelings
Erikson’s Theory: Industry versus Inferiority
pessimism: too hard - beyond my ability
school - make children compete with one another
realize that they aren’t the best - compare themselves to peers
support + reinforcement from parents
Changes in Self-Concept During Middle Childhood
More balanced, refined Social comparisons Feedback
Ideal and real self Reference social groups
self concepts - personality, skills, preferences
refined + balanced self concept
early childhood - immediate self concept
know strengths + weeknesses
Changes in Self-Concept During Middle Childhood
school helps them balance + refine because they are get reinforcement, evaluations, social comparison
ideal self - potential, expectations
real self - in the moment
realize expectations of parents
higher self esteem = higher self efficacy
identify with groups - make it part of who you are - evaluate whether that’s what you want
Hierarchical Structure of Self-Esteem in Middle Childhood
self esteem - what they care about + are they good at it
physical appearance is the primary predictor of self-esteem
society tells them physical appearance is important
they listen to what society, parents, teachers, peers say is important
Hierarchical Structure of Self-Esteem in Middle Childhood
- Academic competence, social competence, physical/athletic competitions and physical appearance
- Received physical appearance correlates more strongly with overall self-worth and any other self-esteem back there
- Emphasis on appearance has major implications for young people’s overall satisfaction with themselves
Influences on Self-Esteem
Child-rearing practices Attributions
! mastery-oriented
! learned helplessness
Attributions = explanations for the causes of behaviour
Achievement-Related Attributions
Reason for Success Reason for Failure Mastery- Oriented Effort Controllable factors Can be changed by working harder Learned helplessness External factors Ability ! CANNOT be changed by working hard
Achievement-Related Attributions
attribution about a child’s performance - what caused it?
effort - high self esteem in line with ability
learned helplessness - ability - factors they can’t control
child reflects on failure - stupid
focus on effort - high level of self esteem in line with ability
ability - its their fault - can’t address problem
Emotional Development in Middle Childhood
Problem-Centred Coping Situation is seen as changeable Difficulty is identified Decision made on what to do Emotion-Centred Coping Used if problem-centred coping does not work
Emotional Development in Middle Childhood
Internal, private, and aimed at controlling distress when little can be done about outcome
Goal is emotional self- efficacy
situation - what can i do in the future?
emotion centred - reevaluate emotional reaction - can’t control event
adjust expectations, able to reformulate how they see the situation, how they feel about a situation
Changes in Moral Views
Flexible moral rules
! lying not always bad ! truth not always good
Clarify link between moral imperative and social convention
! more respect for conventions with purpose
! consider intentions
understand diff betw moral + social convention
greater respect for social convention - realize their purpose
Changes in Moral Views
understand that social convention is also important - value to society
manners becomes better
early childhood: judge moral imperatives as better than others - consequences
understand the importance of intention
Morality and Aggression
How do school age children reason about the morality of physical and relational aggression?
Murray-Close, Crick, & Galotti (2006)
• 639 4th and 5th Graders
• Moral judgments for physical and relational aggression.
• Physical > Relational, Sex differences,
deem physical aggression as worse - gossiping
Morality and Aggression
girls judge relational aggression as worse than boys do
girls experience it more than boys do
understand morality based on them experiencing is
don’t experience it - requires more effort to actively think about it
Peer Relationships
Peer Groups:
Formed from proximity, similarity
Peer culture
! behaviour, vocabulary, dress code
! can include relational aggression and exclusion
culture of ideals, joined goal
develop sense of identity, behaviour, dress
single child can shift whole group to be more aggressive
want cohesive structure
Peer Acceptance
Degree to which a child is viewed by peers as a worthy social partner Popular popular-prosocial popular-antisocial Rejected rejected-aggressive rejected-withdrawn Controversial Neglected
Peer Acceptance
popular prosocial - 10, anti-social - everyone likes them, but i don’t like them
rejected - negative, aggressive - hostile towards other kids, withdrawn - socially isolated, also aggressive
controversial - polarized views, good social skills, but also engage in relational aggression
neglected: middle of everything, don’t stand out
value social skills, physical + academic competence
Peer Acceptance
top - smart, physical capable, social skills
rejection continues on - how to form friendship in middle childhood, informs how they make friendhps later on in life
abnormal level of aggression is rejected - boys, girls, physical, relational
Friendship in Middle Childhood
Personal qualities, trust become important
More selective in choosing friends ! choose friends similar to self Friendships can last several years
! must learn to resolve disputes Type of friends influences
development
! aggressive friends often magnify antisocial acts
Friendship in Middle Childhood
trust: tell them things about yourself, secrets
not just share activities, more selective
choose friends based on similarity - physical attributes + behaviours
similar in academic, physical, social ability, gender, race
see friendship as a form of reinforcement - make feel good about selves
start to last for years, excellent learning place for conflict resolution
might adapt to bad behaviour - how can they reject kid if they are them
Gender Typing in Middle Childhood
Gender stereotypes
! extend stereotypes to include personalities and school subjects
! more flexible about what males and females can actually do
Gender identity (3rd–4th grade)
! boys strengthen identification with “masculine” traits
! girls’ identification with “feminine” traits declines
Gender Typing in Middle Childhood
for boys - gender stereotyping becomes stricter - society is quicker to correct them
gender stereotyping for girls are more flexible - allowed to explore
in adolescence there’s a pushback to strict stereotyping
children can be aware of cultural expectations if we talk to them about it
