THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN SEVENTH EDITION Cynthia Lightfoot

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN, SEVENTH EDITION Cynthia Lightfoot, Michael Cole, and Sheila R. Cole Chapter 9: Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood

Chapter Overview I. Identity Development II. A New Moral World III. Developing Self-Regulation IV. Understanding Aggression V. Developing Prosocial Behaviors VI. Taking One’s Place in the Social Group

Social and Emotional Development • Two Paths: 1. Socialization 2. Personality Formation

Social and Emotional Development • 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 situations.

I. Identity Development • Identification: A psychological process in which children try to look, act, feel, and be like significant people in their social environment. • Includes acquisition of sex-role and ethnic identities

Sex-Role Identity • • • Psychodynamic View Social Learning View Cognitive-Development View Gender Schema View Cultural View

Psychodynamic View • Sigmund Freud – Still influential, even though not always substantiated by evidence – Assumes young children are caught in hidden conflicts between their fears and desires.

Psychodynamic View • Phallic Stage: The period around the fourth year when children begin to regard their own genitals as a major source of pleasure.

Phallic Stage • Mental conflicts with same-sex parent – Oedipus complex – Electra complex

Social Learning View • Emphasizes two processes: – Modeling • The process by which children observe and imitate individuals of their own sex. – Differential Reinforcement • The process by which girls and boys are differently rewarded for engaging in genderappropriate behavior.

Cognitive-Development View • Central Idea: – A child’s own conceptions are central to the formation of sex-role identity. • Jean Piaget • Lawrence Kohlberg – Three Stages

Kohlberg’s Three Stages 1. Basic Sex-Role Identity: - Labeling oneself as a boy or girl 2. Sex-Role Stability: - Understanding the stability of sex roles over time 3. Sex-Role Constancy: - Understanding their sex remains the same no matter what the situation

Gender Schema View • Includes features of both social learning and cognitive-developmental theories. • Gender Schema: A mental model containing with information about males and females that are used to process gender-relevant information.

How Gender Schemas Work

Cultural View • Cultural gender categories mediate – Children’s organization of activities – Way children relate to environment • Methods of mediation – Content • Which behaviors specifically male or female – Extent of rigidness of gender categories

Ethnic Identity • Ethnic identity: A sense of belonging to an ethnic group, and the feelings and attitudes that accompany the sense of group membership. • Parents can communicate different sorts of ethnicity-related messages

Personal Identity • Personal identity: – I-self: A person’s subjective sense of being a particular individual who exists over time and who acts and experiences the world in a particular way – Me-self: A person’s sense of his or her objective characteristics such as appearance and abilities that can be objectively known

Personal Identity • Cognitive limitations in young children: – Focus on the objective self – Disconnected – Unrealistically positive – Fluid and disjointed

I. Apply – Connect – Discuss • Visit a major toy store and look for evidence of social categories of gender and ethnicity. • What sorts of toys are marketed for boys, girls, or children of specific ethnic backgrounds? • How might these toys mediate children’s behavior?

Apply – Connect – Discuss • Visit the children’s section of a public library and look for similar evidence of social categories in books appropriate for 3 - to 5 -year-olds (you might enlist the help of the librarian). • What similarities and differences do you note between books and toys?

II. A New Moral World • Three perspectives – Psychodynamic View – Cognitive-Development View – Social Domain View

Psychodynamic View • Sigmund Freud • Source of moral sense: – Internalization of the moral standards of our parents (especially same-sex parent) • Personality Mental Structure – Id – Ego – Superego

Cognitive-Development View • Jean Piaget • Heteronomous morality – Early childhood – External authority – Objective consequences • In middle childhood: – Autonomous morality • Freely chosen morals

Social Domain View • Emphasizes different type of right and wrong • Social domain theory – Moral rules – Social conventions – Personal sphere rules • Cultural variations

II. Apply – Connect – Discuss • Erikson believed that identity development and moral development are closely related. • Using material presented in this chapter, pull together evidence for his argument.

III. Developing Self-Regulation • Self-Regulation: The ability to control one’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions.

Self-Regulation and Play • Importance of play – Vygotsky – Sociodramatic play

Regulating Emotions • Controlling feelings • Controlling and understanding emotion expressions • The influence of culture

III. Apply – Connect – Discuss • We argued in Chapter 6 that one of the earliest purposes of emotion regulation was to maintain intersubjectivity. • Review pages 205 -209 and discuss the similarities and differences between infancy and early childhood in the purposes and consequences of emotion regulation.

IV. Understanding Aggression • Two main categories of aggression: – Hostile aggression: • intended to hurt someone in some way – Instrumental aggression: • intended to achieve a particular goal

Forms of Aggression • Physical aggression • Teasing – By age 2, more likely to tease siblings than hurt them physically • Relational aggression

Gender Differences • Boys: – More often use direct, physical aggression • Girls – Use more relational aggression: • Indirect aggression aimed at excluding a child or harming their friendships

Causes of Aggression • Biological contributions • Social and cultural contributions • Emotional and cognitive contributions

Biological Contributions • Evolutionary Factors – Competition for resources – Development of dominance hierarchies • Physiological Factors – Testosterone

Social and Cultural Contribution • Imitation of others – Rewarded for behaving aggressively – Influence of parents • Cross-cultural studies – The work of Douglas Fry

Emotional and Cognitive Contribution • Focus more on how children think and feel • Emotional reactions to events and emotion regulation depend on: – Interpretation of the social context – Ability to understand others’ emotions and intentions

IV. Apply – Connect – Discuss • Based on evidence presented in this section, design an activity for preschoolers that might reduce their aggressive behavior.

V. Developing Prosocial Behaviors • Prosocial Behavior: Voluntary actions intended to benefit others, such as sharing, helping, caregiving, and showing compassion.

Empathy • Empathy: The sharing of another person’s emotions and feelings. • Relationship to egocentrism

Sympathy • Sympathy: Feelings of sorrow or concern for another. • More likely to lead to prosocial behavior • Personal Distress: A self-focused emotional reaction to another person’s distress.

V. Apply – Connect – Discuss • From a Vygotskian perspective, what might account for whether children react to someone’s distress with their own personal distress or with sympathy?

VI. Taking One’s Place in the Social Group • Increasing abilities: – understanding others’ mental states – regulating social relations – individual ways of thinking and feeling