Developing the Self

1
chapter topics
class topics

• theories of social development
• biological
• cultural
• cognitive
• infancy
• caregiver attachment
• patterns of attachment/effects
• effects of separation/isolation
• childhood
• socialization
• caregiver interactions
• parenting styles
• moral development
• process of internalization
• principle of minimal sufficiency
• empathy
• moral reasoning
• moral conduct

• theories of social development
• biological
• cultural
• cognitive
• infancy
• caregiver attachment
• cross-cultural issues
• childhood
• caregiver interactions
• functions of play
• gender differences in experience
• adolescence
• independent identity
• sexual explorations
• adulthood
• love and family
• employment
• growing old

2
social development in infancy
attachment effects

• effects of attachment style
• fairly stable personality characteristics (for
  first few years)
• secure attachment (15 mths) outgoing/popular/we
  ll adjusted _at_ 3.5
• cause/effect issue early attachment/temperament/
  social environment
• role of the father
• strange-situation infants show less
  distress/enthusiasm
• attachment differences between parents
• mothers stress more verbal versus physical
  interactions (care/comfort)
• fathers stress more physical interactions
  (playmate)
• causes nature versus nurture

3
social development in infancy
effects of early maternal separation

• lasting psychological damage?
• bowlby
• early separation later emotional insecurity
• continuity of this attachment relationship
  critical for later mental health
• consequences of this belief
• social
• working mother guilt
• legal
• keeping kids in abusive/neglectful homes
• educational/day care ambiguous results
• kids in day care less compliant, more insecure
  attachment
• due to greater independence/self-reliance or
  insecure attachment
• match/outstrip non-day care kids in sociability,
  persistence, achievement
• critical issue quality of the day care

4
social development in infancy
effects of complete lack of attachment

• rhesus monkey research
• isolated (completely) for periods of 3 months to
  1 year (empty steel chamber)
• 3 months little or no effect
• longer periods
• huddled, self-clasping, rocking behavior
• unable to interact with other monkeys
• effects continued through adulthood - even
  lacked parental skills
• humans raised in inadequate institutions
• humans primates similar developmental
  patterns expect similar deficits?
• orphanages adequate nutrition/bodily care,
  inadequate sensory/social care
• separated for 8 months (quarantined)
• after 3 or 4 mths no different to children in
  normal homes
• thereafter serious impairment
• social apathy, withdrawn, clasping self,
  rocking, emotionless
• language and abstract thinking deficits

5
social development in infancy
reversibility of the effects of early deprivation

• rhesus monkey research
• isolated for 6 months to 1 year placed with
  normally reared monkeys
• therapist monkeys 3 months younger (not
  aggressive but social)
• initially patients behaved as before,
  completely recovered after 6 months
• BUT ex-isolates much more susceptible too
  stress
• abused/neglected/ignored their first offspring
  (perfectly normal to the rest)
• human rehabilitation
• overcrowded orphanage with few staff little
  individual attention
• at 18 mths some children moved to an institution
  for mentally retarded women
• more stimulating environment - each child
  adopted by an adult effects
• increased IQ scores vs a decrease of those
  remaining in the orphanage
• average social/occupational level vs those in
  the orphanage
• conclusions
• infancy/childhood experiences vital foundation
  for later social relationships
• certain social patterns (ability to form
  attachments) are acquired
• these form prerequisites for later ones

6
social development in childhood
socialization
process by which children learn the thought
behavior patterns characteristic of their society

• cross-cultural similarities
• social stability
• cross-cultural differences
• values particular to societies
• agricultural versus hunting based societies
• within-culture differences
• middle class parents
• stress internal controls/self-control
• lower-class parents
• obedience - an external form of control

7
social development in childhood
mechanisms of socialization

• schools of thought
• reinforcement theory contingency oriented
• social learning theory observational/imitational
  learning
• cognitive developmental theory emphasizes the
  role of understanding
• agents of socialization
• parents and parenting styles
• autocratic
• permissive
• authoritative-reciprocal
• influence of parental style on children
• influence of children on parental style
• mutual influence
• temperament
• cause and effect issues

8
social development
moral development

• socialization
• process by which children learn the thought
  behavior patterns characteristic of their
  society
• aim instill moral values that are
  internalized
• internalization
• freud self-punishment
• misbehavior punishment and anxiety
• most internalization parents who punish the
  most
• principle of minimum sufficiency
• mild threat versus overwhelming threat
• explains effects of parenting styles on kids
• moral conduct
• avoiding evil versus doing good?
• empathy versus sympathy