Week 9: family, peers and personality development Flashcards
What similarities are seen between individuals and the partners they choose?
Ethnicity
Age
Level of education
SES
What may the similarities between people and their partners be really due to?
May be reflective of how people meet
In Australia, most people are married by what age?
Mid-thirties
How many of marriages in australia end in divorce?
46%
What are the three types of marriage?
Equal partner relationship: both have equal roles
Conventional marriage: old fashioned, only the man works
Junior partnership: women are typically younger and are beautiful, the man typically has money
What are the top 10 characteristics for long term partners?
Warmth and kindness Expressiveness/openness Sense of humour Sexual passion Similarity in attitudes and values Exciting persoanlity Ambition Intelligence Similar interest in leisure activities Similar social skills
Explain the trends in the median age entering marriage?
Men, on average, are 2 years older than women - although this is narrowing
There has also been a reduction in marriage as people are getting married later
Explain the trends in the number of divorces?
They have increased steadily
massive spike in 1975 - no fault divorce laws came in and no longer had to prove their partner cheated etc,
Have again been decreasing because people arent getting married as much to begin with
How many couples in Australia cohabit prior to marriage?
3/4
Increasing numbers as a long-term alternative to marriage
Explain age trends in people living with their partner before marriage?
It is very common in young people - this drops off with age, people are waiting a lot longer to get married
What percentage of cohabitating couples are same-sex? and how many of these households have children present?
0.5% with only 11% having children
Same-sex couples that live together prior to marriage are more likely to….
Break up within 10 years
Having a child brings…
conflict to a couple
If mothers experience mismatches their experience, what happens?
They may have mood instability and experience declines in relationship satisfaction
In single parenthood, what are the main differences between families that thrive and those that struggle?
They:
- accept challenges and responsibilities
- give priority to the parenting role
- use consistent authoritative parenting strategies
- emphasise open parent-child communication
- foster individuality
- recognise the need for self-nurturance
- establish family traditions
What percentage of men may never marry?
27%
What percentage of women may never marry?
23%
Explain how childlessness has increased over generations?
There may be delays in childbearing and attitudes which allow couples to not have children
Infertility is also an issue
Explain early articulators and postponers in childlessness
Early articulators - emphasise early on that they do not want to have kids
Postponers - plan to have kids later on
How does late childbearing promote differences in family in middle adulthood?
Delated childbearing causes midlife parents to still have teenage or younger children at home
Other married people are happier, healthier and longer-lived than…
Than widowed or divorced people of the same age
Why are older widowed men more likely to remarry than older women?
Widowed women are happier - perhaps don’t have to do as much cooking and cleaning as before, as well as typically confiding in their adult daughters or female friends - men typically confide in their wife and have conventionally not had to do much cooking or cleaning
Women also live longer - there are more women available to get married to
What are vertical relationships?
Adult and child relationships
What are horizontal relationships?
Peer relationships
Peer relationships are…
An essential feature of childhood
Why are peer relationships important?
They encourage the development of self-regulating behavior
They are vital for adequate social-emotional development
By interacting with their peers, children learn to
- regulate emotions
- interact and communicate with same-sex parents
- develop skills for forming close personal relationships
At what age do friendships begin to develop?
3 years
Friendships at 3 years are based around…
The desire to play, fun and companionship
What does friendship evolve to being more about?
Goes from toys and fun to loyalty and intimacy
What did Damon & Hart suggest were the 3 stages in children’s view of friendship?
- Others’ behaviours (4-7yrs) this is about playing together
- Trust (8-10yrs)
- Psychological closeness (11-15yrs) - liking someone for who they are and what they do
What do friendships provide a child with?
Provide them with information about the world, themselves and others
Provide emotional support
Reduce chances of being bullied
Provide them with the skills to be able to control and interpret their own emotions
Provide training for interacting with others
Increase their range of experiences
Friendships promote…
development from ego-centrism
What do children need to do to gain peer acceptance?
Need to conform to group norms
What do close friends provide?
A more intimate level of disclosure, support and trust
The structure of what influences friendship formation and stability?
School/classroom structure
What personal characteristics influence friendship formation and stability?
The characteristics of the friend (attractiveness, intelligence)
Relationship with the friend (satisfaction and commitment)
What characteristics are typical of children who are rejected by peers?
Those that are disruptive and aggressive
Those that are socially withdrawn
Other kids don’t want to play with them or may label them
Once a child has been labelled, what is difficult?
To be accepted by peers and developing skills peers provide
Peer rejection as a child leads to what later in life?
Social difficulties
Explain Crick and Dodge’s information processing model of social competence. How does it relate to children rejected by their peers?
- Attend to social cues
- Interpret cues
- Clarify desired outcome
- Recall/generate strategies to respond
- Decide and enact response
Rejected children can have problems at any one of these steps but number 2, interpreting cues, is the most common difficulty
What can lead to improvements in Crick and Dodge’s information processing model of social competence?
Social skills training can be used to help with any of these steps
What weakens in peer relationships during adolescence?
Gender segregation
What did Dunphy say were the 2 types of adolescent groups?
Cliques - small groups of 3-9 members who are close to each other
Crowd - clique members are also a part of a wider group
Explain cliques, crowds and how gender segregation weakens
Cliques may begin as mostly same sex (little-no merging of cliques into crowds)
Bow and girl clicks become aware of each other and begin to socialise
High status boys and girls come together to form a mixed-sex clique - those leftover distribute themselves into other mixed-sex groups =loosely linked crowds
May disintegrate as couples form
In free play, children are 4x more likely to play in same sex groups. Why might this be?
May be due to compatibility of interaction styles and activities
Why are friendships in adolescence important?
Provide social and emotional support at stressful times
Promote autonomy
Helps to define sense of self
Influence development
In adult hood, people rely on friendships more than family for…
Support and intimacy
In adulthood, what can friendship provide you?
Enjoyment Validation Intimacy Acceptance Stimulation Trust Companionship
Encourage health supporting behaviour
Friendship in adulthood is associated with…
Well-being, mental health and self-esteem
Are there any gender differences in social support network composition in adulthood?
No. There were no gender differences
How do older adults define friendship?
Behavioural aspects Cognitive processes (appraisal of friendship) Affective components (happy, joy, love) Structural characteristics Proxy indicators (frequency and length of time)
What is personality?
The characteristics and qualities typical of an individual
What is personality development?
The extent to which values, interests and preferences that are then reflected in behaviours change across the lifespan
What are the 3 components of personality as proposed by freud’s psycho sexual approach
The id, ego and superego
What is the id?
It is present at birth, and unconscious
Impulsively tries to satisfy biological needs
What is the ego?
It is rational, conscious and problem solves
- Develops as infants learn to delay gratification
What is the superego?
The moral and ethical component
By what age does Freud’s psychosexual approach suggest all parts of personality are developed?
Age 5
What are frueds psychosexual stages?
Oral (b-1) - feeding and weaning
Anal (1-3) - Elimination and toilet training
Phallic (3-6) - Gender roles and moral development
Latency (6-12) - Physical and intellectual activities
Genital (12-a) - onset of puberty, mature sexual relationships
What does Freud suggest is occurring throughout his psychosexual stages?
There is conflict between the id, ego and superego
If fixation occurs to any of the stages, there can be implications for personality development
What was Erikson’s approach to personality development?
Also had psychosocial stages with conflicts (contain harmonious and disruptive concepts - need to find a balance)
The way you resolve conflict determines your personality
What is the behaviourist approach to personality?
Rejects that personality comes form internal conflicts
Seen instead as the sum of all learned associations
What is the social cognitive approach to personality?
Learning new information from watching other people
Claims personality development occurs through a persons social world, including self regulation
(Bandura)
What are Bandura’s 3 steps to personality development?
- Self-observation: monitoring our own behaviour
- Judgement: compare our behaviour with traditional or self-defined standards
- Reward or punishment, according to the judgement
What is the trait approach to personality?
Traits are internal psychological dispositions that remain largely unchanged throughout the lifespan and across situations
These traits determine differences between individuals
What are Eysenck’s gigantic 3?
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Psychoticism
Can be high or low in these traits
What is the 5 factor model of personality?
5 personality traits or factors Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Agreeableness Conscientiousness
