child dev chapter 9
initiative versus guilt-
According to Erikson’s theory, the stage in early childhood during which children face the challenge of continuing to declare their autonomy and existence as individuals but in ways that begin to conform to the social roles and moral standards of society.
identification,
a psychological process in which children try to look, act, feel, and be like significant people in their social environment.
what happened by the time children enter pre-school...
By the time children enter preschool, most boys and girls differ in both what they play and how they play. Most have distinctly different toy preferences, and most boys are more active and rough-and-tumble, whereas most girls tend to be more verbal and nurturing. Even their selection of playmates becomes gender-typed, and they are more likely to have more positive attitudes toward their own gender.
The Self as Agent
-At the end of infancy children’s self-understanding consists of the knowledge that they are an entity that is separate and distinct from other people, and that they can exert some control over aspects of their environment
-Self-recognition and the self as an agent in early childhood
Through the mirror test, children have shown an ability to recognize themselves as distinct individuals- they look though mirrors and view their reflections and researchers see if they can recognize them.
Socialization and Personality
-One important theme in child development research involves understanding
individual and unique developmental pathways in social and emotional development
-During the early childhood years children and their significant others each play
an active role in co-constructing children’s pathways of socialization and their personality formation
Socialization:
The process by which children acquire the standards, values, and knowledge of their society
Personality formation:
The process through which children develop their own unique
patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving in a wide variety of circumstances
The Developing Self: An Erickson Approach
-What is the crisis of development during early childhood in Erikson’s stage model of development?
-What are some examples of children’s activities that reflect this conflict?
An Early Sense of Personal Identity
-The “I” self and the “Me” self (tells about who I am)
-The “I” self is a subjective sense of being a particular individual that exists over time
-The “Me” self is a one’s sense of objective characteristics of the self
-Young children’s self-descriptions often focus on the “Me” self
-These self-descriptions are often highly specific, loosely connected, and unrealistically
positive
- A child’s sense of self is fluid and shifting as opposed to coherent and organized
- Children sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between what they “want” to do and
what they are “able” to do
The Crisis of Selfhood in Early Childhood
-According to Erik Erikson, early childhood is a time when children are resolving
the crisis of initiative vs. guilt
-This crisis consists of recognizing one’s autonomy in a way that takes into consideration the moral standards of a cultural community
-Erikson suggested this crisis is often shown in children’s choices of activities At this age children are eager to join with adults and peers in constructive activities (e.g., building “forts” or baking cookies)
-Children are beginning to recognize and believe in their value as social
participants
The Concept of Gender Identity
-During early childhood, children very quickly develop ideas about boys and girls
In preschools, many studies have documented distinct differences between boys
and girls in what they play, how they play, toy preferences, and affiliative behaviors
-Gender Segregation:
The observed preference of girls to play with other girls and boys to play with other boys that emerges in early childhood
-Gender Identity:
Children’s understanding of their own gender and the roles and behaviors they associate with their gender.
Gender Role:
Set of beliefs about how boys/men and girls/women should behave
Psychodynamic Differentiation and Identification:
Boys differentiate from their mothers and identify with their fathers through the resolution of the Oedipus complex. Girls’ resolution of the Electra complex results in identification with their mother, with the attempt to differentiate from her being short-circuited.
Social Learning Modeling and differential reinforcement:
Boys and girls observe and imitate sex-typed behaviors of males and females, respectively, because they are rewarded for doing so.
Constructivist Conceptual Development:
Children develop sex-role constancy (an understanding that their sex remains the same), and sex-role identity then begins to guide their thoughts and actions
Gender Schemas and observation and Imitation:
As in cognitive-developmental theory, children form concepts—gender schemes that they use to process gender-relevant information. As in social learning theory, observation and imitation play roles.
Cultural Mediation:
The acquisition of gender roles occurs as children’s activities are organized (mediated) by cultural conceptions and stereotypes of gender.
Ethnic Identity:
A sense of belonging to an ethnic group and the feelings and attitudes that
accompany this sense of group membership
-In many cultural communities, children have early experiences with people from many
different ethnicities
-These experiences can make ethnicity very salient at a young age for many children (particularly minority children)
-In this way, ethnicity can become part of a child’s self-view and an important part of a child’s society or community
-Research into the development of ethnic identity has often focused on understanding the
different characteristics that children associate with their own ethnicity, and how these
associations can be related to their developing self-esteem.
The Influence of an Ethnic Identity
-Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark (1950) conducted an influential study into the consequences of children’s ethnic identities
-Both Caucasian and African American children were presented with “black” and “white” dolls and asked a series of questions
-The Clarks reported that children were able to distinguish between the
dolls, and that African American children preferred the “white” dolls
Phallic stage-
In Freudian theory, the period beginning around the age of 3 or 4 years when children start to regard their own genitals as a major source of pleasure.
Electra complex-
According to Freud, girls go through a very different process of sex-role identity development. The key event in the development of a girl’s sex-role identity is her discovery that she does not have a penis: The girl is “mortified by the comparison with boys’ far superior equipment” (Freud, 1933/1964, p. 126). She blames her mother for this “deficiency” and transfers her love to her father. Then she competes with her mother for her father’s affection.
Differential reinforcement-
In acquiring gender roles and identities, the process by which girls and boys are rewarded for engaging in ways that are considered gender appropriate in their culture.
Gender schema-
A mental model containing information about boys and girls that are used to process gender-relevant information.
Research on Ethnic Socialization
-Another common research topic on ethnic identity has concerned the ways in
which parents and children communicate with one another about ethnicity
Researchers have described two major kinds of messages in ethnic socialization
1) Cultural socialization: focuses on creating pride in one’s ethnic heritage
2) Preparation for bias: emphasizes potential experiences of discrimination and
prejudice
-Research on cultural socialization suggests that children whose parents promote
ethnic pride and provide a home rich in culture tend to have stronger
cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills and fewer behavior problems.
What is Self-Regulation?
-Another well researcher topic in social development during early childhood concerns children’s skills of self-regulation
-Self-Regulation: The ability to control one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
-Begins in regulating sleep and crying, but gradually expands and deepens to include more of the social world
-Continues throughout life and interacts with all domains of development
-Originally children are regulated by others, but gradually they internalize these skills and become able to regulate their own behavior.
Regulating Our Thoughts and Actions
Regulating our thoughts and actions involves a number of distinct processes such as:
Intentionally focusing our attention
-Remembering to perform a particular task
-Planning a solution to a problem
Inhibiting other thoughts from interfering with a plan
During early childhood a major component of self-regulation development involves learning effortful control
Effortful control consists of the ability to inhibit an action that is already underway (e.g. Simon says)
Many young children have difficulty doing this, especially in exciting situations
Studies of children in a number of countries suggest that skills in effortful control are associated with academic
performance and social adjustment, and that girls tend to exhibit higher levels than boys
Skills in effortful control are also influenced by cultural values and socioeconomic circumstances.
Self-Regulation Through Play
-Many researchers (influenced by Vygotsky) suggest that another major function of play in early childhood involves supporting developments in self-regulation
-Through play, children learn to separate the objects they play with from their thoughts and
feelings about those objects
-This involves regulating one’s thoughts and actions
- In the play, children are pretending that an object has a different identity, and they are using this imaginary identity to guide their behavior towards it
-This involves skills like inhibition and planning that are a part of self-regulation
Parallel Play:
A limited form of social play in which a child plays near other children and with similar materials, but does not attempt to influence the other participants Thought to be related to egocentrism, each child is focused on their own perspective
Symbolic (Imaginary) Play:
Play in which one object stands for, or represents another
Involves mental representation and deferred imitation. Also, involve regulating thoughts by believing the object is something else and acting accordingly.
Socio-dramatic Play:
Make-believe play in which two or more participants enact a variety of related social roles. Requires a shared understanding of what the play situation involves that is often negotiated. Children behave according to roles in a pretend world, but also organize and direct their own and others’ behavior from “outside” this world. One study of children in preschools found that children who engaged in a lot of sociodramatic play in the fall showed high levels of self-regulation several months later
Regulating our Emotions
-Another important part of self-regulation concerns learning to regulate our emotions, which involves:
-Understanding what emotional states are
-Understanding how expressions affect others
-Understanding how to manage one’s own emotions
-During early childhood children often develop strategies to manage their emotions
Some strategies involve the avoidance of aversive emotional information
(e.g., closing eyes, putting hands over ears) Others involve distracting oneself from negative events, or reinterpreting experiences (e.g., “Mommy will be right back”)
-Many researchers are focusing on how to teach children ways of managing
emotions that are more effective than avoidance and distraction (e.g.,
mindfulness training)
Differential reinforcement-
In acquiring gender roles and identities, the process by which girls and boys are rewarded for engaging in ways that are considered gender appropriate in their culture.
Modeling-
In acquiring gender roles and identities, the process by which children observe and imitate individuals of the same sex as themselves.
Ethnic identity-
Refers to a personal sense of belonging to an ethnic group—a group defined according to cultural heritage, including cultural values, traditions, and language—and the feelings and attitudes one holds regarding one’s sense of belonging to that group
Culture and Emotional Regulation
-Caregivers in different cultural communities have different expectations and provide differently
resources for children relating to emotional regulation
-Some research suggests that: Children in the United States are
socialized to strive for, and take pride in, personal achievements
-Children in China are encouraged to strive to meet social obligations and to
feel honored in doing so.
Controlling Emotions in Social Situations
-Learning to control emotions and express them in socially appropriate ways is
a complex task for young children
White bias study- The children, who were 3 years old and older, were presented with pairs of dolls representing the two ethnic groups and were asked to choose “which boy would you would like to play with” or “which girl you don’t like.” The Clarks reported that most of the youngest children could distinguish between the categories of dolls and, more importantly, that African American children of all ages seemed to prefer the white dolls, a phenomenon that has come to be called “the white bias”
Socioemotional competence:
The ability to behave appropriately in social
situations that evoke strong emotions
-Includes a developing awareness of one’s own emotional state and the emotional
states of others, as well as the realization that outward expressions of emotion do
not necessarily reflect inner emotional states.
-Research in the US suggests that preschool children who display the
characteristics of socioemotional competence are better liked by both their
peers and their teachers.
Personal identity-
A person’s sense of his or her self as persisting over time (I-self), as well as a sense of personal characteristics such as appearance and abilities that can be objectively known (me-self)
autobiographical memory-
A personal narrative that helps children acquire an enduring sense of themselves.
ID=
In Freudian theory, the mental structure present at birth is the main source of psychological energy. It is unconscious and pleasure-seeking and demands that bodily drives be satisfied.
Ego=
In Freudian theory, the mental structure that develops out of the id as the infant is forced by reality to cope with the social world. The ego mediates between the id and the social world, allowing children to control and regulate behavior.
Superego=
In Freudian terms, the conscience. It represents the authority of the child’s parents and sits in stern judgment of the ego’s efforts to hold the id in check. It becomes a major force in the personality in middle childhood.
Heteronomous morality-
Piaget’s term for young children’s tendency to define morality in terms of objective consequences and externally imposed controls.
Social domain theory-
The theory is that the moral domain, the social conventional domain, and the personal domain have distinct rules that vary in how broadly the rules apply and in what happens when they are broken.
display rules-
A social or cultural group’s informal conventions regarding whether, how, and under what circumstances emotions should be expressed.
relational aggression-
Aggression intended to harm someone’s friendships or exclude an individual from the group
The study, conducted in the Netherlands with families with 3-year-old children, found that fathers with strong traditional gender stereotypes (associating women with family and men with careers) were more likely to be physically controlling of their sons when the boys misbehaved, and their sons engaged in higher levels of aggressive behavior at the age of 4 compared to sons of fathers who did not maintain strong gender-role stereotypes. Interestingly, fathers with strong.