© 2009 allyn & bacon publishers 8 social and personality development in early childhood this...

© 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

8Social and Personality Development in Early ChildhoodThis multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:

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• Freud– Anal Stage

• Toilet training battles• Control over bodily functions

– Phallic Stage• Oedipus or Electra Complex

– Identification with the same sex parent

Theories of Social and Personality Development Psychoanalytic Perspectives


• Erikson– Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt

• Centered around toddler’s new mobility and desire for autonomy

– Initiative versus Guilt• Ushered in by new cognitive skills• Developing conscience dictates boundaries

Theories of Social and Personality Development Psychoanalytic Perspectives


• Social and emotional changes facilitated by enormous growth in cognitive abilities.

• Person Perception– Ability to classify others

• Make judgments about children similar to adults

• Use traits to describe people or patterns of behavior

• Preschooler perceptions may vary from day to day.

Theories of Social and Personality DevelopmentSocial-Cognitive Perspectives


• Understanding Rule Categories

– Social conventions • Rules that serve to regulate behavior

– Moral rules• Regulations based on individual or society’s

sense of right and wrong

– Preschoolers respond differently to social rules and moral rules between 2 and 3

– Understanding develops on basis of increased cognitive capabilities and adult emphasis of moral transgressions



• Understanding Others’ Intentions– Recent research suggests that children do

understand intentions to some degree.

• Understand that punishment is for intentional acts

• Can make judgments about actors’ intentions when faced with abstract problems and with punishment

• But still can be bound by consequences in their judgments



Figure 8.1 A Test of Children’s Understanding of Intentionality

FIGURE TO COME


• Self-Concept– Categorical Self

• Focus on visible characteristics

– Emotional Self• Acquisition of emotional self-regulation

– Associated with peer popularity– Lack of control associated with aggression– Ability to obey moral rules– Associated with emergence of empathy

– Social Self• Child sees self as player in social games

– Learns many social scripts, which provide appropriate situational behaviors

Personality and Self-Concept


• Psychoanalytic Explanations– Identification with same sex parent

• Social-Cognitive Explanations– Linked to gender-related behavior

• Becomes motivated to exhibit same-sex behaviors

– Parents shape sex role behaviors and attitudes

• Gender Schema Theory– Learn gender scripts

– Learn likes and dislikes of own gender

– Develops a complex view of other gender

Gender Development


• Gender identity – Child’s ability to label his or her own sex correctly

• Gender stability– Understanding that you are the same gender

throughout life

• True gender constancy– Recognition that someone stays the same gender even

though appearances may change with clothing

Gender DevelopmentGender Concept Sequence


Figure 8.2 Gender Stereotyping in a Child’s Drawing


• Cross-cultural gender stereotypes– Women associated with gentleness, weakness,

appreciativeness, and soft-heartedness– Men associated with aggression, strength, cruelty, and

coarseness.– Children learn these stereotypes by 3 or 4

• Can assign stereotypical behaviors to jobs, toys, and activities

– By age 5, children begin to associate personality traits with gender

Gender DevelopmentSex-Role Knowledge


• Develops earlier than ideas about gender– 18 – 24 months – children prefer sex-stereotyped toys– Age 3 – children prefer same-sex friends

• Learn from older same-sex children• Sex-typed behaviors are learned differently.

– Girls use an enabling style• Supporting a friend, expressing agreement, making

suggestions

– Boys use a constricting or restrictive style• Derails inappropriate interactions, bringing them to an end

Gender DevelopmentSex-Typed Behavior


Figure 8.3 Gender and Playmate Preferences


• Securely attached preschoolers exhibit fewer behavior problems

• Insecurely attached children display more anger and aggression at daycare and preschool

• By age 4, children form goal-corrected partnerships– Relationships continues to exist even when the

partners are apart

Family Relationships and StructureAttachment


• Diana Baumrind– Focused on 4 dimensions

• Warmth or nurturance• Clarity and consistency of rules• Maturity of expectations and demands• Communications between child and parent

– Three parenting styles• Authoritarian• Permissive• Authoritative

• Maccoby and Miller add uninvolved, neglecting

Parenting Styles


Figure 8.4 Control, Acceptance, Parenting Style


• High levels of demand and control• Low levels of warmth and communication

• Consequences– Children do well in school– Have lower self-esteem– Typically less skilled with peers– Some appear subdued– Others show high aggressiveness– Traits last well into high school

Parenting StylesAuthoritarian


• High in warmth and communication• Low in demand and control

• Consequences– Do slightly worse in school during adolescence

– Likely to be more aggressive

– Somewhat more immature

– Less likely to take responsibility

– Less independent

Parenting StylesPermissive


• High in warmth and communication• High in demand and control

• Consequences– Most consistently positive outcomes– Children show higher self-esteem– More independent– More likely to comply with parental requests– Show more altruistic behaviors– Self-confident and achievement oriented– Get better grades in school

Parenting StylesAuthoritative


• Maccoby and Martin add the Uninvolved Type– Low in levels of demand and control

– Low in levels of warmth and communication

– Consequences• Most consistently negative outcomes

• Disturbances in social relationships

• More impulsive and antisocial in adolescence

• Less competent with peers

• Much less achievement-oriented in school

Parenting Styles


Figure 8.5 Parenting Style and Grades


• Authoritative Parents– More likely to be involved in child’s school

– Inductive discipline• Strategy in which parents explain to the child why

a punished behavior is wrong

• Helps children in preschool to gain control of their behavior and gain perspective of other’s feelings

Parenting Styles

Effects


• Authoritative pattern

– More common in white families

– Least common among Asian Americans

– More common among middle class

– Usually more common among intact families

– Positive outcomes seen in all ethnic groups

Ethnicity, Socio-Economic Status and Parenting Styles


Figure 8.6 Social Class, Ethnicity, and Parenting Style


• Authoritarian pattern– Asian Americans

• Associated with high levels of school achievement in Asian American children

• Helps children to succeed economically

• Helps to enable children to maintain ethnic identity



• Authoritarian pattern

– African American families

• Aware of social forces such as racism that impede social success

• Adopt authoritarian pattern to enhance children’s potential for success

• High correlation between authoritarian pattern and self-control among African American children

• More common among poor families



• What kind of parenting style was used to raise you? What effects did it have on your development? What style will you use as a parent?

• What can single parents do to improve the developmental progress of their children?

Questions to Ponder


• Family Structure: Diversity in Two-Parent and Single-Parent Families– Only 50% of U.S. children live with both biological parents

– 20% to 30% of two-parent families are created when a divorced or never-married parent marries another person

– Many children from two-parent families have experienced single-parenting

– Since the 1990’s, higher numbers of single mothers are middle class professionals

– Teenage mothers are likely to live with parents

Family Relationships and Structure


Figure 8.7 Ethnicity and Family Structure


• More common among African Americans and Native Americans– These groups have higher rates of births to single mothers

• 75% of births are to mothers over age 20

• Single mothers are less likely to marry

• A lack of economic opportunities for men hinders their taking on family responsibilities

• Grandparents and other relatives traditionally help support single mothers

Family Structure and Ethnicity

Single Parents


Figure 8.8 Ethnicity and Births to Unmarried Women


• Custodial Grandparents– Stresses of parenting and the physical effects of aging

cause more anxiety and depression in grandparents

• Gay and Lesbian Parenting– Concerns about children’s sex-role identity and

orientation are not supported by research

Their children do not differ from other children on measures of cognitive and social development

Other Types of Family Structures


• Exhibit declines in school performance

• Show more aggressive, defiant, or depressed behaviors

• More likely to engage in criminal behavior in adolescence

• Children in step-parent families have higher rates of delinquency, more behavior problems, and lower grades

Divorce

Impact on children


• Higher risk of mental problems in adulthood

• Lack financial and emotional support needed for success in college

• Struggle with fears of intimacy in relationships

• More likely to divorce themselves

• Short term: effects are more severe for boys

Divorce

Impact on children


• Supports suggestion that optimal family structure is two biological parents

• Single parenting when poverty is an issue correlates with negative effects on development

• Children of single parents

– Twice as likely to drop out of high school– Twice as likely to have a child by 20– Less likely to have a steady job– Preschoolers are less cognitively and socially advanced

Family Structure EffectsPsychological research


• Solitary play– All ages of children

• Parallel play– 14 – 18 months

• Cooperative play– 3 – 4 years old

Peer RelationshipsPlay


• Associated with the development of social skills.

• Group entry– Poor group entry skills lead to aggressive behaviors

– Children with poor group entry skills often rejected by peers

– Social skills training helps to gain acceptance for rejected children

Peer RelationshipsPlay


• Behavior intended to hurt another

• Initial aggression in 2 – 3-year-olds– Hitting and throwing things

– Instrumental – intended to obtain something a child wants

• Older children– Hostile aggression – used to hurt another or to gain advantage

– With good verbal skills comes verbal aggression

– Physical aggression declines as dominance hierarchies emerge

Aggression


• Aggression-frustration hypothesis– Declines with communication skills

• Reinforcement and modeling of aggression

• Trait aggression – Personality style that develops as a way of life

• May have genetic basis• Seen in abusive families• Lack of affection in families

• Aggressive children lag behind in understanding other children’s intentions, can improve with training

Development of aggression


• Purpose is to help another person• Development of Prosocial Behavior

– Evident at 2 – 3 years of age– Some behaviors increase with age– Children who show altruistic behaviors are popular with peers

• Parental Influences– Loving and warm family climate– Explain consequences clearly to children– Provide prosocial attributions – positive statements about the

underlying cause for helpful behavior

Prosocial Behavior and Friendships


• Friendships

– Emerges by age 3

– By age 4, children spend 30% of time with another child

– Become more stable with time

– Early friendships related to social competence

Prosocial Behavior and Friendships

© 2009 allyn & bacon publishers 8 social and personality development in early childhood this...

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social rules

social scripts

sex parenttheories of

social gameslearns

judgmentstheories of

cognitive abilities

genderrelated behaviorbecomes

emotional changes