PSY210: 5. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

Question 1

Childhood Obesity

Answer 1

increasing in years

Question 2

Health Risks for Obese Children

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Psychological and Social
 Consequences of Obesity

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Psychological and Social
 Consequences of Obesity

Answer 4

bullying, fewer friends, anxiety issues, low self esteem, poorer in school
act out in response, aggressive - behavioural problems - drinking
less vocational opportunities

Question 5

Causes of Obesity
 in Middle Childhood

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Causes of Obesity
 in Middle Childhood

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Key Information-Processing Improvements

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Attention in 
 Middle Childhood

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Development of 
 Memory Strategies

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Development of 
 Memory Strategies

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Erikson’s Theory:
 Industry versus Inferiority

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Erikson’s Theory:
 Industry versus Inferiority

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Changes in Self-Concept 
 During Middle Childhood

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Changes in Self-Concept 
 During Middle Childhood

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Hierarchical Structure of 
 Self-Esteem in Middle Childhood

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Hierarchical Structure of 
 Self-Esteem in Middle Childhood

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

Influences on Self-Esteem

Answer 21

Child-rearing practices Attributions
! mastery-oriented
! learned helplessness
Attributions = explanations for the causes of behaviour

Question 22

Achievement-Related Attributions

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Achievement-Related Attributions

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Emotional Development in Middle Childhood

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Emotional Development in Middle Childhood

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Changes in Moral Views

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Changes in Moral Views

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Morality and Aggression

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Morality and Aggression

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Peer Relationships

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Peer Acceptance

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Peer Acceptance

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Peer Acceptance

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Friendship in Middle Childhood

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Friendship in Middle Childhood

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Gender Typing in
 Middle Childhood

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Gender Typing in
 Middle Childhood

Answer 37

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