Unit 6: Development in Middle Childhood (7-11 years) Flashcards
Between which ages do children grow at a steady rate and what does that mean? (before growth spurt)
7-11
5-8 cm, 2.5-3 kg per year
How does growth increase during the growth spurt?
5-10 cm
4.5-7 kg
Are younger children (2-3 y/o) in control of their attention?
no, their attention gets easily captured by distractors
Why might the ability to sustain attention improve gradually throughout childhood and early adolescence?
maturational changes of CNS
What is the brain structure necessary for sustaining attention and when is it fully myelinated?
reticular formation
puberty
Miller and Weiss conducted studies on the ability of children to resist distraction from task-irrelevant information. The found evidence that this ability improves, but during which ages?
7-13 years
How was the study by Miller and Weiss (ability to resist distractions) structured?
7, 10 and 13 year old’s had to remember locations of toy animals hidden behind a screen
when each screen was lifted to reveal the location of the animal, household objects were above or below each screen
What were the results for children of each age for the Miller & Weiss study (ability to resist distractions)?
7& 10 y/os: less accurate in remembering animals, more accurate in remembering household items (even if that wasn’t the goal of the task)
13 y/o: more accurate in remembering animals, less able to recall household items
-> better at ignoring task-irrelevant information
Miller & Weiss also showed meta-cognition. What is that and how did it show during the study?
knowledge somebody has regarding their own cog. processes
they understand what they have to do (were asked how to do the task), but were unable to do so
Meta-attention
4 y/o children understand that it is harder to pay attention to two people telling stories at a time than hearing one at a time
Meta-memory
4y/o: understand that some things are easier to remember than others
3-5 y/o: remembering many items is more difficult than remembering a few
Which belief of children between the ages of 3-5 suggests, that they view memory storage as a “mental copy” that won’t be lost over time?
belief that remembering sth over short period of time is as easy as over a long period
Towards which age do children form the (more accurate) understanding, that the mind holds interpretations of reality?
11
What’s one strategy to promote memory storage and retrieval?
mnemonics
What are two common types of mnemonics?
rehearsal
organisation
rehearsal
repeating sth until you remember it
Does the ability to implement rehearsal stay static?
no, it improves with age
-> 3-4: try to remember objects by looking carefully and labelling, without rehearsing
-> 7-10: can rehearse, the more they do so, the more they remember
Does rehearsal change with development?
yes
How does rehearsal change with development? (quantity)
5-8 y/o tend to rehearse one word at a time
12 y/o more likely to use active, cumulative rehearsal (multiple words in chunks)
Why are younger children speculated to be unable of using cumulative rehearsal?
limited working memory capacity doesn’t allow holding enough information to form clusters
What is organization and when do children begin using it?
grouping or classifying stimuli into meaningful clusters
-> easier to retain
9-10 years
Which are the 4 stages of development, which ages does each stage include and how do people progress from one stage to the next?
0-2: Sensorimotor intelligence
2-7: Preoperational thought
7-11: concrete operational
11-adulthood: formal operational
-> successful completion of previous stage necessary to advance
What do children accomplish during the pre-operational stage?
think in symbols
What do children accomplish in the concrete-operational stage
use of logic to solve concrete, current problems
What do children accomplish in the formal-operational stage?
solving abstract problems
What is mental seriation and which stage does it occur in?
putting objects in serial order
occurs in concrete operational stage
Which are the two types of errors children in the preoperational stage tend to make when attempting mental seriation?
incomplete ordering (successfully ordering most, but not all)
extension (ordering them so the tops of each stick extends higher than previous one
Transivity
understanding logical relations between series of objects
classification
logical assumptions on objects based on membership to a particular category
reversibility
ability to mentally reverse an action
What’s an example of reversibility? (maths)
understanding that numbers can be changed (addition) and returned to original state (subtraction)
Where are great improvements visible in children, when looking at language? When do these changes occur?
pragmatic system: appropriate and effective use of language in social situations
-> children become more sensitive to needs of others
-> understand humor, irony, etc.
6-11
Children below the age of 6 tell stories, assuming the other person has the same knowledge available as them. What is this called/ related to?
egocentrism: failing to understand that others have different perspectives
-> immature theory of mind
Resolving misunderstandings is also part of the pragmatic system. Is this skill also developed between 6-11?
no, it begins to develop before 3 years of age
What was the conclusion of Sauter et al. study concerning children between 5-10 years, and their ability to understand nonverbal and verbal vocalisations?
emotional content of words (irrespective of meaning) continues to develop throughout school years
Where does learning to detect humor have its roots?
infant-directed speech
Since humor is linked to child-directed speech, are deaf children effected negatively by not having this opportunity?
yes, they’re less sensitive to detecting humor due to fewer opportunities to learn subtleties of pragmatics in language
How do adults mostly answer the question “Who am I?”?
abilities, interests or characteristics, making us feel proud, ashamed, similar or different to others
What is self-concept and how does it develop?
consists of characteristics (physical,mental,emotional, etc.) we use to describe ourselves
develops by degrees (gradual and cumulative way)
What does the concept of ourselves and others help us with?
grouping people with common features
developing feelings towards groups
social identity
sense of identity derived from membership of social groups
feelings of belonging
expected behaviors, thoughts and attitudes
Is our self-concept static?
no, it’s under constant review and change
How do children of different ages describe their self-concept?
3-5: physical/ external characteristics (likely due to language ability)
> 5: internal characteristics (feelings,etc.)
8: start using traits
14-16: use traits
16-18: make more references to self control
What is the developmental precursor of self-concept?
self-awareness
What is self-awareness?
ability to recognize ourselves as distinct from others with physical and mental properties
How does the rouge test work and how is it related to self-awareness?
red dot applied on child’s forehead
children < 15-18 months: amused at image, didn’t recognize themselves
children > 15-18 months: reached for own nose, suggesting self-awareness
Bullock and Lutkenhaus performed another test designed to measure self-awareness, using photographs of children. What were the results?
Only children between 18-24 months described photographs (of themselves) using words like I and me
Lews mentioned, that self awareness reflects in the subjective self. What is that?
awareness of:
- agency (how our actions affect objects and others)
- our experiences are unique
- identity has continuity
- self- reflexivity (ability to reflect on ourselves)
When does the subjective self begin to develop?
first months of life
-> rudimentary understanding of responsibility for some events entertaining them
When does the objective self develop, and what is it?
at around 2 years
recognizing the self in terms of characteristics used to describe groups of people (size, gender, etc.)
What is the looking-glass self?
we see ourselves reflected in other people’s behavior
-> children adopt opinions others have of them through repeated social interaction
What does self-esteem consist of?
self-evaluations and evaluations others made of us
Self-esteem follows a developmental trajectory. How do the evaluations change?
younger children: global evaluations (i am happy)
become more specific and differentiated toward late childhood
-> separate evaluations of different aspects (conduct, appearance, etc.)
Harter suggests that self-esteem is the result of a discrepancy between two internal assessments of ourselves. Which are they?
ideal self (what we’d like to be)
real self (what we are)
little vs. high discrepancy between ideal and real self
little: self-esteem tends to be high
high discrepancy: child doesn’t live up to standards
When does an increasingly consistent self-esteem develop?
8-10
Are our expectations and the degree of efficacy in different domains of life also relevant for self esteem?
yes
Which beliefs also determine a child’s self concept?
causes of successes and failure
Which are the causes Weiner suggested we tend to attribute success and failure to?
ability and task difficulty (stable)
effort and luck (unstable)
Which attribution of success and failure did Weiner suggest to be healthy?
success due to ability
failure due to effort
internal vs. external causes
internal: ability & effort
external: task difficulty & luck
locus of causality
is outcome caused by the child or not
-> conditions value of an outcome (internal locus = high value)
During which ages are children unrealistic optimists and why?
before 7
teacher and parents value effort over quality of work
-> children can succeed at anything
When does the distinction between ability and effort develop and why? Why can this be problematic?
8-12
teachers place more value on quality than effort
-> failure may be attributed to lack of ability
How do children learn social skills like emotional regulation and compromise?
interactions in peer groups
When do children already have a strong belonging to a group?
end of first school year (5-6)
How do boys and girls differ in the development of peer groups?
boys: activities in larger groups
girls: activities in smaller cliques
social status
extent to which a child is liked/ disliked or accepted/ rejected by peers
Are peer group acceptance and friendship the same?
no, popularity only concerns group’s perception of a child, not reciprocal relationships
Why is being accepted by peer groups important?
rejection can cause emotional distress
exclusion from participation limits development of social skills
How is social status typically studied?
- members of peer groups nominate each other from most to least liked (most accepted -> most rejected -> neglected)
- members of peer groups asked to rate extent to which they like/ dislike others (e.g. Likert scale)
- naturalistic observation ( children directly observed to see which children interact with each other and how often; popular -> rejected -> neglected)
How does attraction influence peer group acceptance?
more physically attractive and larger children tend to be more accepted
Which are some other examples (apart from attraction) that influence peer group acceptance?
academic competence
social skills
cooperative and supportive disposition
etc.
Which characteristics usually lead to peer group rejection?
aggressive, disruptive and uncooperative behavior: lack of social skills for compromise
timid, withdrawn behavior: avoid approaching peer groups
How do withdrawn and aggressive children differ in their beliefs of rejection?
withdrawn children know they’re disliked
aggressive children may think theyre liked
How do peer neglected children behave and why?
play by themselves or at fringes of larger groups
function of personality: prefer to be by themselves
-> neither liked nor disliked
What are family education styles characterized by?
level of affection and communication
degree of control and demands on children
What are the family education styles? (further explanation of page 59 of Unit 6)
Democratic
Permissive
Authoritarian
indifferent
Kohlberg’s model
Two components interacting in moral behavior:
- Social perspective: seeing things from own POV and others
- Moral content: influenced by child’s experiences in moral sitations
What are the stages of Kohlberg’s model? (lowest to highest)
Avoiding Punishment
Self-interest
good boy attitude
law and order morality
social contract
principle
What are the three moral levels and which stages of Kohlberg’s model do they include?
Preconventional (3-7): losest two
Conventional (8-13): middle two
Post-conventional (adulthood): highest two
