Week 9 - Psychosocial Theories

Question 1

What is social development?

Answer 1

The gradual acquisition of certain skills e.g., language, interpersonal skills, attitudes, relationships, and behaviour that enable the individual to interact with others and to function as a member of society

Question 2

Theories of social development

Answer 2

Attempt to account for
Emotion, personality, attachment, self, peer relationships, morality

Question 3

Sigmund Freud

Answer 3

Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis

Question 4

Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

Answer 4

• Freud believed that many of his patients’ emotional problems originated
  in their early childhood relationships
• “Psychosexual” because he believed that even young children have a sexual
  nature that motives their behaviour

In each successive stage, children encounter conflicts in a erogenous zone - if needs aren’t met children may become fixated on those needs

Question 5

Basic Features of Freud’s Theory

Answer 5

Freud’s theory posits a series of universal developmental
stages in which psychic energy becomes focused in
different erogenous zones

Question 6

Consciousness levels

Answer 6

Conscious - achievable information
Preconscious - easily accessible
Unconscious - drives behaviour and personalities

Question 7

ID, ego, superego

Answer 7

ID - Pleasure principle: seek pleasure, avoid pain, Acts on impulses and desires - Infant-like

Ego - Reality principle: rational thought and problem solving - mediates between ID and superego - later first year

Superego - Break on the id (Suppresses the id) largely unconscious, develops in childhood, societal conduct, structure, morality

Question 8

Psychosexual theory

Answer 8

Early childhood experiences have a major impact on personality, Go through psychosexual stages across life in pursuit of satisfaction, How children navigate these stages influences their personality

Question 9

Psychosexual stages

Answer 9

Oral - 0-18 months - if not resolved, may engage in oral activities like nail biting or smoking later on

Anal stage - 2-3 years - may lead to preoccupation with cleanliness, being rigid, or very sloppy

Phallic stage - 3-6 years - obsessed with genitals - Efforts to cope with strong sexual desires leads to emergence of superego

Latency stage - 6-12 years - Superego takes control of impulses - Sexual desires hidden away in the unconscious

Genital stage - adolescence to adulthood - mature attitudes, want to start family - sexual energy redirects itself towards peers

Question 10

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial theory

Answer 10

Accepted basic tenants of Freud’s theory, but emphasized the role of social factors - cultural influences, contemporary issues, juvenile delinquency

Emphasized development over the lifespan (birth to late life)

Question 11

Trust vs. Mistrust

Answer 11

First year - Developing trust in other people is the crucial issue

if not solved, difficulty forming intimate relationships later in life

Question 12

Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt

Answer 12

1–3½ years
The challenge is to achieve a strong sense of autonomy while adjusting to increased social demands.
Am i a free agent acting on my world?

if children are subjected to punishment or ridicule, may come to doubt their abilities

Question 13

Initiative vs Guilt

Answer 13

4-6 years
Resolved when the child develops high standards and
the initiative to meet them without being crushed by
worry about not being able to measure up.

challenge is balancing initiative and guilt

Question 14

Industry vs Inferiority

Answer 14

6 - puberty
The child must master cognitive and social skills, learn
to work industriously, and play well with others.
learn to work and to cooperate with peers

failure can lead to feelings of inadequacy or inferiority

Question 15

Identity vs Role Confusion

Answer 15

Adolescence

Adolescents must resolve the question of who they
really are or live in confusion about what roles they
should play as adults.

must resolve questions of who you are or live in confusion about roles played as adults

Question 16

Intimacy vs Isolation

Answer 16

Early adulthood

Attempt to form affectionate relationship(s), typically
romantic relationships.

Question 17

Generativity vs Stagnation

Answer 17

Middle adulthood

Adults attempt to keep contributing to the world
through work, child-rearing, or other productive work.

Question 18

Integrity vs Despair

Answer 18

Late life

Elderly need to decide whether they are satisfied with
how they lived their lives.

Question 19

John Watson’s Behaviourism

Answer 19

Development determined by child’s environment through (classical) conditioning (pairing of stimuli) - top-down - Little Albert - when a rat was paired with frightening noises, the child become scared of the rat itself

Parents solely responsible for raising children

Question 20

What did John Watson argue for?

Answer 20

Feeding schedule (feed infants at the same time each day and the baby wouldn’t cry in between)

How? Via distance and objectivity
❖ “treat children as if they are young adults”
❖ “if you must, kiss them once on the forehead”

Question 21

current perspecticves on psychoanalytic theories

Answer 21

• Freuds - mental life occurs outside of the realm of consciousness - fundamental to modern cognitive science and neuroscience
• Erikson’s - quest for identity in adolescence provides foundation for lots of research on adolescence
• Weakness of both theories - major theories too vague to be testable, many specific elements are regarded as questionable

Question 22

BF Skinners Operant Conditioning

Answer 22

Development determined by child’s environment through (operant)
conditioning

Reinforcement
Punishment
Repeat behaviours that lead to favourable outcomes - reinforcement - suppress those that result in unfavourable outcomes - punishment

Parental attention can be reinforcement
Time-out takes away attention and extinguishes behaviour

Behaviour modification therapy - ignoring a child playing alone will reinforcement them to play with their classmates

Question 23

Time-Out for Children

Answer 23

No empirical evidence to show that time-out is ineffective or harmful

The analysis of child discipline from a mental health perspective is important because we know that the quality and effectiveness of parental socialization, especially parental discipline, are associated with lifelong mental and social health (Kessler et al., 2010).

Question 24

How to employ time-out effectively

Answer 24

1. Use time-out for deliberate behaviour (e.g., mistakes or accidents shouldn’t
   be disciplined)
2. Parent-child attachment should not be threatened
3. Time-out should end when the child has achieved self-regulation (teaches
   them an important self-regulation skill that improves mental health over
   time)
4. Time-out should have an explicit goal for correcting a behaviour
5. Explanation should accompany the time-out
6. Should not be arbitrary—should follow behaviour that is wrong within a
   child’s family or within society (“do it because I said so”)
7. Time-out should be applied equally and fairly across siblings in the family

Question 25

Intermittent reinforcement

Answer 25

Sometimes reinforcing, sometimes not

Makes behaviours resistant to change

Question 26

Behaviour modification

Answer 26

Reinforcing certain behaviours that you want the child to engage in

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) to manage various symptoms of autism spectrum disorder

Highly effective in teaching basic communication, games, sports, social interaction, daily living and self-help skills

Question 27

Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

Answer 27

Emphasizes observation and imitation as the primary mechanisms of development

Vicarious reinforcement - bobo doll - children who had seen the model punished imitated the behaviour less than those in the other groups

Reciprocal determinism - active role of children in their own development - interaction between children and their environment

Question 28

social learning theory weakness

Answer 28

Weakness - not focused on brains or minds - lacks attention to biological influences, minimizes impact of perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language development

Question 29

Bobo Doll Experiment

Answer 29

Preschool children initially watched a short film in which an adult model performed highly aggressive actions on an inflatable Bobo doll

Children across conditions learned via observation and vicarious reinforcement influenced their behaviour

When the model was rewarded, children showed more aggressive behaviour toward the doll than when the model was punished.

Across all conditions, boys behaved more aggressively than girls did

Question 30

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 30

The acknowledgement that the child plays an active role in
their own development, whereby their own interests and desires influence their social environment and vise versa.

Question 31

learning theories

Answer 31

• Emphasize continuity - no qualitatively different stages in development
• Focus on mechanisms of change - learning principles, such as reinforcement and observational learning

Question 32

Selman’s Stage Theory of Role Taking

Answer 32

Role taking: thinking from another’s perspective

Role taking (or perspective-taking) is really important for forming social relationships and solving problems in society

Children’s social cognition is limited by their role taking

Stages of role taking that build upon one another

Question 33

Selman’s Theory - Stages

Answer 33

0 - 3-6 - Egocentric - Understand people had different opinions but confuse others’ opinions with their own

1 - 6-8 - Social-Informational - Recognize that others can have differing perspectives, but they think this is because they don’t have the same information as they do.

2 - 8-10 - Self-reflective - Begin to think from another person’s viewpoint

3 - 10-12 - Third-party perspective - Systematically compare own viewpoints to others’

4 - 12+ - Societal role taking - Compare another’s viewpoint to that of “generalized other”

mirrors changes identified by Piaget

Question 34

Dodge’s Social Information Processing Theory

Answer 34

Information processing→ taking social information and interpreting it in some way

Focus on children’s aggressive behaviour

Presents stories, kids say if it was hostile or an accident

Question 35

Hostile attribution bias

Answer 35

Tendency to interpret other people’s ambiguous behaviours as
antagonistic or hostile

Cyclical effects
Interpret hostility → React with aggression → Face more rejection → interpret more hostility

Question 36

Dweck’s Theory of Self-Attributions and Achievement Motivations

Answer 36

How children respond to challenges (focused on the academic domain) is due to their divergent achievement motivations.

Underlying achievement motivations are attributions children make about their self-worth

Performance goals - Seek assessment, want rewards, externally motivated, influences thoughts on self-worth

Learning goals - Growth mindset, seek improvement in competence, focus on process

Question 37

views of intelligence - dweck’s theory

Answer 37

• Incremental view of intelligence - belief that intelligence can be developed through effort - motivated by a desire for mastery - generally expects her efforts to be successful
• Entity view of intelligence - belief that intelligence is fixed - not succeeding leads her to feel bad and doubt her abilities and self worth

Question 38

Orientation Phase

Answer 38

Incremental/mastery orientation - based on effort and learning - not on how others evaluate - enjoy challenge of a hard task - “You put in great effort!” “Keep trying!” - praising effort

Entity/helpless orientation - base their sense of self worth on the approval they receive - or do not receive - from other people about their personal qualities - “You’re so smart!” - praising them

Question 39

theories of intelligence

Answer 39

Entity theory of intelligence - thinking about oneself in the idea that intelligence is fixed an unchangeable - success or failure in academic situation on how smart one is - focus on outcomes, not learning from mistakes

Incremental theory of intelligence - intelligence can grow as a function of experience - academic success achievable through effort and persistence - believe they can do better in the future by trying harder

Question 40

Contributions of Social Cognitive Theories

Answer 40

Children are active seekers of information about the world

Social experiences affect how they interpret information BUT Not much emphasis on biology (but beginning to change)

Question 41

ecological theories

Answer 41

• themes of nature and nurture interaction, the importance of sociocultural context, continuity of development, active role of child

Question 42

ethology

Answer 42

• study of behaviour from an evolutionary context - understand behaviour in terms of its survival value
• Imprinting - when baby becomes attached to mother at first sight - requires baby encounters it’s mother during a specific sensitive period
• Newborns orient to face shapes, sounds, tastes, and smells familiar to their womb experience

Question 43

evolutionary psychology

Answer 43

• applies Darwinian concept
• Certain genes predispose us to behave in ways that solved adaptive challenges
• These individuals were more likely to survive and pass on their genes
• Play is an evolved platform of learning - motor and social skills
• Parental investment theory - parents are motivated to perpetuate their genes, which can happen only if their offspring survive long enough to pass those genes to the next generation - Cinderella effect is when maltreatment rates are higher from stepparents

Question 44

Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model

Answer 44

Childs environment is a set of structures - each structure represents a different level of influence on development - child at centre - interacts with environmental forces - levels vary in immediacy of effects but every level impacts development

Microsystem - Child directly participates- parents, technology, peers, school
Mesosystem - Interconnection of microsystem entities
Exosystem - Settings the child doesn’t interact with directly - legal system, neighborhood, mass media, school board
Macrosystem - abstract ideologies, culture, class, laws
Chronosystem - time

Question 45

How much TV do children watch?

Answer 45

Children less than 2 years should watch no TV

By age 2, children watch about 2.4 hours of TV per day (17 hours per week)

60% rate of touchscreen device use in children younger than 3

What about “background television”?

Question 46

Recommendations for TV amounts

Answer 46

American Academy of Pediatrics and Canadian Pediatric Society

Children 2–5 years should watch no more than 1 hours/day

On average, spend 4.6 hours/day

Children 6 to 16 years should watch no more than 2 hrs/day

On average, spend 6- to 11-year-olds spend 4 hours/day

Question 47

Why is media a problem for children?

Answer 47

More screen time = Less time interacting with others, Miss out on important social opportunities (e.g., less able to self regulate), Lower quality learning (language) [babies cannot learn from screens! Do not have symbolic representation]

Digital media socializes kids when you cannot control what they watch (e.g., YouTube)

Decreasing physical activity
Lower quality sleep

Question 48

When can screen time be beneficial?

Answer 48

When parents and babies/toddlers engage in digital content together (e.g.,
sing along song, exploring apps together)

When media has limits (Family Media Plan)

When exposure to advertising is limited

When parents pay attention to messages (e.g., gender, body image, violence, diversity) and limit negative or inappropriate content

When kids watch high quality educational programming at the right age

Question 49

Slow paced programs

Answer 49

Slow-paced realistic educational shows (e.g., Sesame Street, Blue’s clues)
Goals to, Promote thinking skills Characterized by, Few scene changes,
clear transitions, Repetition, focus on education, Audience participation

Sesame Street related to Better school readiness Particularly for low SES children

Blue’s Clues related to
Better problem solving, story comprehension, pattern recognition

Question 50

Fast paced and fantastical shows

Answer 50

Fast-paced and fantastical (e.g., SpongeBob)

Focus on Entertainment, not education, Findings (Lillard and Peterson, series of studies)
Compared children watching fast-paced, educational, realistic shows to play activities
Tested executive function after watching the show.
Children who watched SpongeBob did worse than those who watched other shows.
Why? Fantasy material = difficult to process and taxes children on subsequent tasks

Question 51

Does violent media increase aggression?

Answer 51

Small-to-medium?
Small and insignificant?

Most recent, less controversial meta-analysis:
Used longitudinal studies, lag = ~1 year
Effect still small, but meaningful
Strongest effect in early to mid adolescence

Question 52

How might violent media promote violent behaviour?

Answer 52

Increasing aggressive thoughts

Dampening of empathic concern (desensitization)

Question 53

reasons that media violence might have an impact

Answer 53

• Seeing actors engage in aggression teaches aggressive behaviour and inspires imitation, viewing aggression activates the viewers own aggressive thoughts, feelings and tendencies, media violence is exciting and arousing for youth, frequent long term exposure leads to emotional desensitization - reasons it may have an impact

Question 54

Benefits of social media

Answer 54

○ Perceived increases in social capital
○ Opportunities for personal disclosure
○ Greater feelings of connectedness to friends
○ Identity development

Question 55

Costs of social media

Answer 55

Unwelcome interactions
Cyberbullying (victims and perpetrators)
Increase in depressive symptoms. Why?
■ Particularly when night time use reduces sleep
Worse self-esteem, body image
■ Clearest among those who already seek others’ approval and reassurance

Question 56

developmental social neuroscience

Answer 56

• HPA axis is impacted by adverse rearing conditions
• Children show atypical response in social situations if they received abherrent care
• Leaving orphanage settings has a resilient effect on children’s brains - more white matter

Question 57

effects of pornography

Answer 57

• exposure to porn makes children and teens more tolerant of aggression in women and more accepting of premarital and extramarital sex
• Most effective weapons against various negative effects of media - microsystem - parental control