SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

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CHAPTER 11

• SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

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EMOTIONAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

• The Self
• Initiative vs. guilt With the increase of
  energy, children begin to explore their world.
  Erikson believes that their mistakes, if punished
  without reason, can unleash guilt, thereby
  lowering the childs self-esteem.
• Self-understanding Childs cognitive
  representation of self, the substance and content
  of the childs self-conceptions. At
  approximately 18 months of age, the child becomes
  aware of the self mostly in physical terms.

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Emotional Development

• Developmental timetable of young childrens
  emotion language and understanding increased
  use of emotion language adept at telling their
  feelings at four to five years they begin to
  reflect on their emotions demonstrate a growing
  awareness about the controlling of emotions.
• Self-conscious emotions Children being aware of
  themselves as distinct from others. Pride and
  guilt become more common in early childhood
  years.
• Regulation of emotion Children begin to
  regulate and manage their emotions, especially by
  shifting the focus of ones attention.
• Helping children understand emotions Children
  need to express their emotions in a
  non-threatening environment educators must
  provide outlets and support for studying emotions
  (books, stories, plays, etc).

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Moral Development

• What is moral development? Rules and
  conventions about what people should do in their
  interactions with other people. Three domains
  are examined on this topic with children how
  children reason, how they actually behave, and
  how they feel about moral matters.
• Piagets view of how childrens moral reasoning
  develops Through his observations of children 4
  to 12 years old, he concluded that children think
  in two distinct stages
• Heteronomous morality displayed by younger
  children justice and rules are unchangeable
  properties of the world outside the control of
  peoples lives and consequences of the behavior
  have a great force.
• Autonomous morality displayed by older children
  where child becomes aware that rules and laws
  are crated by people, so one must consider the
  intentions of the actor as well as consequences.

Continued
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• Imminent justice A concept held by the
  heteronomous thinker that if a rule is broken,
  punishment is immediate.
• Moral behavior Influenced extensively by the
  situation the totally honest and totally
  dishonest child does not exist as a result.
• Moral feelings In the psychoanalytic view of
  moral development, self-punitiveness of guilt is
  responsible for keeping children from committing
  transgressions they seek to avoid guilt.
  Empathy in moral development results when the
  person can understand how another feels and
  possibly anticipate a feeling as a result of an
  action. Some believe that this empathetic
  ability forms a base for the childs gradual
  acquisition of values.

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GENDER
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• What is gender? The social and psychological
  dimensions of being male or female. Gender
  identity acquired by the age of three is the
  sense of maleness or femaleness, whereas gender
  role is a set of expectations that define that
  identity.
• Biological influences chromosomes, hormones,
  brain, and evolution.
• Chromosomes 46 the 23rd pair is either two
  XXs or an XY that creates the male.
• Hormones secretion of androgens male sex
  hormones that, in low levels, format the female
  embryos sex organs.
• Estrogens, the main female sex hormones play
  a role in puberty. Levels of hormones have been
  found to affect femininity and masculinity in
  animas, but environmental factors of behavior
  prevent applying this conclusion to humans.
• Brain sex differences found in the brain (i.e.,
  female processing information in both sides of
  the brain).
• Evolutionary psychology evolutionary aspects
  produce differences in gender behavior (i.e.,
  male competitiveness led to male dominance in
  reproduction, female selection of mates linked to
  parenting, therefore preferring long-term
  relationships).
• Social influences The culture imposes aspects
  of femaleness and maleness on infants and
  children, thereby establishing the gender
  separation (i.e., blue for males, pink for
  females).

Continued
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• Psychoanalytic and social cognitive theories
  Emanates from the Freudian concept of a young
  childs sexual attraction to the opposite-sex
  parent a concept generally disbelieved today.
  The social cognitive theory of gender believes
  that gender characteristics are imposed through
  reward and punishment and are reinforced by
  peers.
• Parental influences Children identify with the
  roles played by their parents, especially by that
  of the father. Parents often impose gender types
  through rearing practices (e.g., girls
  babysitting, boys doing yard work).
• Peer influences Children show a clear
  preference for being with and liking same-sex
  peers, and evidence indicate that children teach
  each other about gender roles.
• School and teacher influences Documentation
  verifies that boys receive more attention in many
  aspects of education.
• Media influences The media is a major source of
  gender stereotyping from television
  characterization of male/female roles to
  extensive profiling of femaleness and maleness in
  print advertising.
• Cognitive influences The cognitive gender
  developmental theory occurs when children have
  accepted gender as a concept with specific
  characteristics. Once the conception is
  germinated, they organize their world
  accordingly. The gender schema theory presents
  gendering as a model followed by beliefs of
  appropriate and inappropriate practices related
  to gender.
• The role of language in gender development
  Speaking and reading to young children often
  carry cues that are distinctly feminine and
  masculine and act as reinforcements of the
  stereotype.

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FAMILIES
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• Parenting
• Parenting styles The Baumrind styles of
  parenting
• Authoritarian A controlling style of parenting
  where there are strict limits and consequences.
  Top-down, there is no discussion. These children
  are unhappy, fearful and anxious.
• Authoritative Encourages independence but with
  limits established through verbal interchange.
  These children are often cheerful, self-directed,
  achievement-oriented.
• Neglectful Parent is uninvolved in the childs
  life. These children are frequently truant, have
  low self-esteem, and are immature.
• Indulgent Highly involved in the childs life
  with few demands or controls. These children
  often have behavior problems, lack respect, and
  are low-achievers.

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• Child Abuse Within families, child abuse is on
  the increase in the United States despite a
  greater focus by law enforcement officials on
  detection.
• The multifaceted nature of abuse There are many
  different types of abuse physical and sexual,
  lack of supervision, medical, educational, and
  nutritional neglect.
• Severity of abuse A very small minority of
  children suffer the vile and unspeakable abuse
  highlighted in the media however, the range of
  abuse is marked by degrees of severity from
  physical injury to psychological harm.
• The Cultural context of abuse Abuse is high in
  the United States, possibly because of a cultural
  perspective that a childs discipline requires a
  physical application.
• Family influences How children are disciplined
  can later influence how they, as parents,
  discipline their children. Research points to
  the intergenerational aspect of abuse.
• Developmental consequences of abuse Abused
  children show the effects in many ways, but
  especially in attachment, where they appear
  disorganized and cannot respond competently to
  distress or positive approaches by peers.
  Maltreated children also display anxiety,
  depression, conduct disorder, and delinquency.

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• Parenting Nature or Nurture? It is fairly
  conclusive that neither parenting nor heredity
  alone is responsible for development it sis in
  interactive process.
• Good parenting takes time and effort Santrock
  here argues that presently there is an emphasis
  by parents on quick-fix parenting through
  packaging artificial means of spending time with
  their children.

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Sibling Relationships and Birth Order

• Sibling relationships because more than 80
  percent of American children have siblings, there
  is evidence that these relationships have an
  impact on development. There is also evidence
  that in industrialized countries sibling
  responsibility is less, or different, from that
  of non-industrialized countries.
• Birth order Birth order certainly creates a
  variance in relationships within the family.
• Firstborns and later-borns Firstborns tend to
  receive a great deal of attention until the
  second child arrives. This places stress on the
  firstborn and interferes with their routine. It
  also affects the sibling relationship because the
  older child is considered dominant and competent.
  Hence children evolve with different
  characteristics.
• The only child Contrary to the stereotype, the
  only child is often achievement-oriented and
  displays a desirable personality.
• Birth order as a predictor of behavior
  Researchers conclude that because of the high
  variability of factors influencing behavior,
  birth order alone cannot accurately predict
  behavior.

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• The Changing Family in a Changing Social World
  The United States has the highest number of
  single-parent families in comparison with most
  other countries.

• Working parents Todays parents are responding
  to a modern culture in which a working mother is
  an indigenous factor. An incorrect assumption is
  that time away from home and the child is
  detrimental.

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• Effects of divorce on children
• Childrens adjustment in divorced families
  Children of divorce show greater adjustment
  problems (i.e., more likely to have academic
  problems, be anxious, depressed, less socially
  responsible).
• Should parents stay together for the sake of
  their children? The prevailing intelligence is
  that there are too many ifs to conclusively
  answer that question.
• How much do family processes matter in divorced
  families? The research strongly supports the
  view that good parenting is key whether within or
  without a divorce situation. What roles do
  non-custodial parents play in the lives of
  children in divorced families? Greater
  participation in the childs activities by the
  non-custodial parent mitigates some of the
  negative effects of divorce.
• What factors are involved in the childs
  individual risk and vulnerability in a divorced
  family? Temperament, developmental status,
  gender, and custody situation are all factors.
  Children who are socially mature and responsible
  show less effect. Very young children are
  sometimes found to e at greater risk than older
  children.
• What role does socioeconomic status play in the
  lives of the children in divorced families?
  Income loss has a double impact on the custodial
  parent because she or he must leave the home for
  longer periods to make up for the loss of income,
  which also creates stress on the order of the
  family.

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Cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic variations
in families What seems to be emerging as a
truism is that love with moderate control is
the successful strategy for effective parenting.
The size of families varies with ethnic cultures
large and extended families are more common among
Latino families (19 percent vs. 10 percent for
White families).
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PEER RELATIONS, PLAY, AND TELEVISION
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• Peer Relations
• Peer group functions Defined as children of
  about the same age or maturity level, peers
  provide a source of information and comparison
  about he world outside of the family. Documented
  studies have shown that peer relations are
  necessary for normal social development, but
  these relations can also be negative.
• The distinct but coordinated worlds of
  parent-child and peer-relations Evidence
  supports the view that parental influence can
  affect peer relations and that parents who model
  aggression will yield it in their children,
  whereas parents who show meditation and coaching
  yield competency in their children regarding
  social relations.

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• Play
• Plays functions Play increases the probability
  that children will converse and interact with
  each other. Freud and Erikson believe it is a
  useful form of human adjustment, helping children
  to master anxieties and conflicts. Play therapy
  allows children to work off frustrations and
  allows the therapist to analyze conflicts and
  ways of coping.

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• Partens Classic Study of Play
• Unoccupied play child is not engaging
  performs actions without goals.
• Solitary play alone and independent and not
  caring for what others are doing.
• Onlooker play speaks with playing children but
  does not engage in the activity.
• Parallel play plays separately from others but
  with toys similar to those being used by the
  other children.
• Associative play socially interactive where
  children seem more interested in each other than
  in the activities.
• Cooperative play interactive play with a sense
  of group identity and organized activity. This
  is seen more in middle childhood and less in
  preschool years.

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• Types of Play
• Sensorimotor play Is where behavior by infants
  derives pleasure from exercising their
  sensorimotor schemas. From the early months
  through the second year, they enjoy playing with
  objects in varying ways.
• Practice play The repetition of behavior when
  new skills are being learned or when physical or
  mental mastery and coordination are required.
• Pretense/symbolic play In preschool it is the
  make-believe play engaged in by young children,
  which both Piaget and Vygotsky agree helps
  develop childrens imagination.
• Social play An involvement of social
  interaction with peers from casual to
  rough-and-tumble.
• Constructive play Combines senorimotor with
  symbolic representation of ideas.
• Games Activities for pleasure that include
  rules and often competition.

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• Television
• Televisions many roles Generally considered to
  be a negative influence that distracts children
  from learning through books, affects their views
  and perspective, deceives, and negatively
  educates children regarding stereotypes of
  gender, race, culture, and religion.
• Amount of television watching by children
  Generally, American childrens television
  watching is second in number of hours only to
  sleep.
• Effects of television on childrens aggression
  and prosocial behavior Many research studies
  and experiments have demonstrated the negative
  effects of viewing violence on television on the
  prosocial behavior patterns of young children.
  Some evidence suggests that television can also
  promote good prosocial behavior when programs
  reflect positive social strategies.
• Television and cognitive development Negative
  television aids the childrens script and schema
  development but in ways that are not always
  desirable. There is great promise for television
  to promote cognition through extensive use of
  visual and spatial arrangements.