Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Development

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Chapter 10Early ChildhoodSocial and Emotional
Development
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Early Childhood Social and Emotional
Development Truth or Fiction?

• Parents who are restrictive and demand mature
  behavior wind up with rebellious children, not
  mature children.
• There is no point in trying to reason with a
  4-year-old.

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Early Childhood Social and Emotional
Development Truth or Fiction?

• Firstborn children are more highly motivated to
  achieve than later-born children.
• Children who are physically punished are more
  likely to be aggressive.

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Early Childhood Social and Emotional
Development Truth or Fiction?

• Children who watch 2 to 4 hours of TV a day will
  see 8,000 murders and another 100,000 acts of
  violence by the time they have finished
  elementary school.
• Children mechanically imitate the aggressive
  behavior they view in the media.

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Early Childhood Social and Emotional
Development Truth or Fiction?

• The most common fear among preschoolers is fear
  of social disapproval.
• A 2 1/2-year-old may know that she is a girl but
  still think that she can grow up to be a daddy.

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Influences on Development

• Parents, Siblings, and Peers

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What Are the Dimensions of Child Rearing?

• Warmth Coldness
• Degree of affection and acceptance of child
• Parental warmth relates to
• Development of moral conscience
• Positive emotional and social well being
• Restrictiveness Permissiveness
• Degree to which parents impose rules and control

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What Techniques Do Parents Use to Restrict Their
Childrens Behavior?

• Induction
• Reasoning child will understand what to do in
  similar situation
• Power Assertion
• Spare the rod, spoil the child
• Withdrawal of Love
• Threats or isolation of child

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What Are the Parenting Styles Involved in the
Transmission of Values and Standards?

• Authoritative Parents
• High on Warmth, High on Restrictiveness
• Self-reliance, independence, high self-esteem and
  social competence
• Authoritarian Parents
• Low on Warmth, High on Restrictiveness
• Less socially competent, lower self-reliance and
  self-esteem

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What Are the Parenting Styles Involved in the
Transmission of Values and Standards?

• Permissive Parents
• Permissive Indulgent
• High warmth, low restrictivenss
• Less competent in school but fairly high in
  social competence and self-confidence
• Permissive neglecting
• Low warmth, low restrictiveness
• Least competent, responsible and mature children

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Developing in a World of Diversity

• Individualism, Collectivism, and Patterns of
  Child Rearing

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Figure 10.1 The Self in Relation to Others from
the Individualist and Collectivist Perspectives
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What Kinds of Influence Do Siblings Have on
Social and Personal Development in Early
Childhood?

• Positive Aspects
• Cooperation
• Teaching
• Nurturance

• Negative Aspects
• Conflict
• Control
• Competition

• Siblings imitate each other
• Conflict may enhance social competence and
  self-identity
• As siblings age, relationship becomes more
  egalitarian and conflict declines

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What Kinds of Influence Do Siblings Have on
Social and Personal Development in Early
Childhood?

• Adjusting to Birth of Sibling
• Both positive and negative reaction to stress of
  new sibling
• regression
• increased independence and maturity
• Preparation of child to new sibling shows less
  sibling rivalry

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What Does the Research Say About the Effects of
Being a First-born or an Only Child?

• First-born children
• More highly motivated to achieve, more
  cooperative, adult-oriented
• Show greater anxiety, less self-reliant
• More likely to have imaginary playmate
• Later-born children
• Tend to be more popular with peers
• More rebellious, liberal and agreeable
• Parenting style may differ between first- and
  later-born children

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What Is The Influence of Peers on Social and
Personal Development in Early Childhood?

• By age 2, children
• Imitate anothers play
• Engage in social games
• Show a preference for playmates
• Preschool friendships
• Characterized by shared, positive experiences,
  feelings of attachment
• Show higher levels of interaction, prosocial
  behavior, positive emotions
• Based on experiences shared toys, activities,
  and fun

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Developing in a World of Diversity

• The Case of the (In)Visible Father

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Social Behaviors

• In the World, Among Others

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What Do Developmentalists Know About Childs Play?

• Play based on cognitive development (Piaget,
  1951, 1962)
• Functional Play repetitive motor activity
• Symbolic Play pretend play
• Constructive Play draw or make something
• Formal Games games with rules

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What Do Developmentalists Know About Childs Play?

• Six types of play (Parten, 1932)
• Nonsocial (Children do not interact)
• Unoccupied Play
• Solitary Play
• Onlooker Play
• Social (Children influenced by others as they
  play)
• Parallel Play
• Associative Play
• Cooperative Play

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How Does Prosocial Behavior Develop?

• Empathy - sensitivity to the feelings of others
• From infancy, babies cry when they hear other
  children cry
• May be reflexive or the start of empathy
• By second year, approach others in distress and
  try to help
• Unresponsive empathy more aggressive behavior
  in school years
• Girls show more empathy than boys
• Social learning or genetic?
• Perspective-Taking

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Influences on Prosocial Behavior

• Reinforcement of behaviors
• More positive peer response
• Responsibility
• Household chores and caring for siblings
• Observation of behaviors of peers
• Parental interactions
• Parenting style

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How Does Aggression Develop?

• Aggression in preschoolers
• Frequently instrumental or possession-oriented
• Usually causes rejection by peers
• Aggression at 6- or 7-years
• Hostile and person-oriented
• Aggressive behavior appears to be stable over time

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What Causes Aggression in Children?

• Evolutionary theory
• Struggle for survival
• Biological factors
• Genetic factors
• Testosterone
• Temperament
• Cognitive factors
• Inaccurate interpretation of others behavior
• Lack of empathy and perspective-taking

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What Causes Aggression in Children?

• Social Learning
• Reinforcement and Observational Learning
• Media Influences
• Classic study on influence of televised models of
  aggression
• Television is a major source of informal
  observational learning

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How Do Depictions of Violence Contribute to
Aggression?

• Observational learning
• Disinhibition
• Increased arousal
• Priming of aggressive thoughts and memories
• Habituation

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Other Factors Related to Aggression

• Violent video games
• Parental behavior
• Substance abuse
• Paternal physical punishments
• Single motherhood
• Absence of or rejection by parent

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Personality and Emotional Development
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How Does the Self Develop During Early Childhood?

• Categorical Self external traits
• Age groupings
• Sex
• Self-Esteem
• High value attached to themselves
• Secure attachment and mothers sensitive to their
  needs
• By age 4, begin evaluative judgments
• Cognitive and physical competence
• Social acceptance by peers and parents

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Eriksons Initiative Versus Guilt

• Eriksons stage of psychosocial development
• Strive to achieve independence from parents
• Strive to master adult behaviors
• Children begin to internalize adult rules
• Fear of violating rules may cause guilt
• Support to explore helps develop initiative

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A Closer Look

• Helping Children Cope With Fears

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What Sorts of Fears Do Children Have in the Early
Years?

• Number of fears peaks between 2 1/2 and 4 years
• Decline in fears of
• loud noises, falling, sudden movement and
  strangers
• Most likely to have fears about
• animals, imaginary creatures, the dark and
  personal safety
• In middle childhood, fears become more realistic

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Are There Boys Toys and Girls Toys?

• By 18-months child shows more preference for
  gender-stereotyped toys
• Girls are more likely to stray from stereotypes
• May represent social prestige of masculine in
  American culture
• Gender differences in play activities
• Boys prefer vigorous outdoor, rough and tumble
  play
• Girls prefer arts and crafts, domestic play

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Why Do Children Show Early Gender Preferences in
Choice of Toys and Activities?

• Biological factors
• Boys slightly greater strength and activity
  level
• Girls slightly greater physical maturity and
  coordination
• Differences in treatment by adults
• Children seek appropriate labels for toys and
  play
• Peer, parental, adult criticism

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Why Do Children Choose to Associate With Peers
of Their Own Sex?

• Boys play - more oriented toward dominance,
  aggression and rough play
• Girls seek out other girls to protect against
  this behavior
• Boys are not responsive to girls suggestions
• Unpleasant to interact with unresponsive playmate
• Boys may view girls as inferior

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Development of Gender Roles and Sex Differences
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What Are Stereotypes and Gender Roles?

• Behavioral expectations based on gender
• In American culture
• Feminine gender roles- dependence, gentleness,
  helpfulness, warmth, emotionality,
  submissiveness, home-orientation
• Masculine gender roles aggressiveness,
  self-confidence, independence, competitiveness,
  competence in business, math and science

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How Do Gender Roles Develop?

• Stages of development of gender roles
• 2 - 2 1/2 years accurate identifying pictures
  of boys and girls
• 3 years display knowledge of gender stereotypes
• Traditional stereotypes about activities,
  occupations, personality traits
• View their own gender more positive

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What Are The Origins of Sex Differences in
Behavior?

• Evolution and Heredity
• Sex differences are result of natural selection,
  adaptation
• Survival set passed through genes (heredity)
• Result parental investment model
• Organization of the Brain
• Hippocampus and Navigation
• Males use both hemispheres and rely on geometry
• Females use right hemisphere (with right
  prefrontal cortex) and rely on landmarks
• Right-brained or Left-brained
• Left and right hemispheres more specialized in
  men

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What Are The Origins of Sex Differences in
Behavior?

• Sex Hormones
• Prenatal influence on behavioral influences
• Social Cognitive Theory
• Observational learning and socialization
• Parental influence

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Lessons in Observation Gender

• When do children typically develop a sense of
  gender identity?
• Do the children depicted in the video give
  responses that you would expect from a preschool
  child in regard to gender identity and constancy?
• Why or why not?

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Lessons in Observation Gender

• Do the children in the video show stereotypic
  gender role expectations?
• Cite examples to support your answer.
• How do children develop gender role stereotypes?
  
• Are preschool children typically flexible or
  inflexible in their ideas, regarding gender typed
  behavior? Why?
• Give examples from the video that are consistent
  with your responses.

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Kohlbergs Cognitive Developmental Theory Of
Gender Typing

• Form concepts about gender and fit behavior to
  those concepts
• Gender Identity
• Knowledge that one is male or female
• Gender Stability
• People retain their sex for life
• Gender Constancy
• Sex does not change, even if people modify
  behavior or dress
• Conservation of gender related to development
  of conservation
• Once child has achieved gender stability and
  constancy, they seek to behave in ways consistent
  with their sex

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Bems Gender Schema Theory

• Use sex as one way of organizing their
  perceptions of the world
• Gender schema - cluster of concepts about male
  and female traits
• Gender identity brings gender appropriate
  behavior
• Child acts in ways consistent with the gender
  schema

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What is Psychological Androgyny?

• High in masculine traits only masculine
• High in feminine traits only feminine
• Neither strong masculine or feminine
  undifferentiated
• High in both masculine and feminine
  psychologically androgynous
• Better social relations, superior adjustment,
  greater creativity