Week 14: Social and Emotional Development Flashcards
3 Perspectives about Social and Personality Development in Childhood
- Social context in which each child lives, especially relationships that provide security, guidance, and knowledge
- Biological maturation: development of social and emotional competencies
- Developing a representation of a child’s self and the social world around them
What is the Development of Family Relationships
- Development of relationships is a biologically natural process
- Has evolved in humans because they promote children’s motivation to stay close to those who care for them
- Occurs in nearly all infants: securely attach to parents when parents respond sensitively, insecurely attached when care is inconsistent/neglectful
“Strange Situation”
Brief separation of infant from caregiver; child is left alone to play in a room and a caregiver later comes back; reaction to caregiver’s return is dependent on level of attachment (may be welcoming, clingy, rejected, etc)
Security of Attachment
Infant’s confidence in the sensitivity and responsiveness of a caregiver (secure vs. insecure)
- Secure attachment often leads to advanced emotional understanding and early conscious development
High warmth/responsiveness with low expectations/control = (parent wise)
Permissive
Low warmth/responsiveness with low expectations/control = (parent wise)
Uninvolved
Low warmth/responsiveness with high expectations/control = (parent wise)
authoritarian
High warmth/responsiveness with high expectations/control = (parent wise)
authoritative
Children Peer Relationships
- Must socially interact with other children to manage conflict, play, etc
- Challenges: self-esteem from peer acceptance (peer rejection can often lead to later behaviour problems), bullying, peer victimization, pressure to fit in, social comparison leading to lack of worth
- Increased focus on psychological intimacy in adolescence
Children Social Understanding
- Familial and peer relationships cause children to develop expectations for specific people, understandings of how to interact with ppl, development of self-concept
- Social understanding begins by end of first year
(awareness others have perceptions, feelings, and other mental states)
Social Referencing
A person consults another person’s expressions to determine how to evaluate and respond to ambiguous and uncertain circumstances
- E.g. mom sad = baby sad even tho they don’t know why
Late preschool years developmental understanding
Child begins to understand that another’s beliefs can be mistaken rather than correct, that memories can affect feelings, and that emotions can be hidden from others
Reason: Kids are keen, sensitive observers and make connections to derive inferences about mental states
Temperament
Early emerging differences in reactivity and self-regulation which constitutes a foundation for personality development
- Biologically based, but interacts with influence of experiences from birth (e.g. level of supportive parental care)
Goodness of fit
Match between child’s temperament and characteristics of parental care that contributes to positive/negative personality development
Ex: good fit would be adventurous child w adventurous parents
Development of conscience
Cognitive, emotional, and social influences that cause young children to create and act consistently with internal standards of conduct
- Emerges from young child experiences with parents
- Involves biologically-based temperament