Erikson, Piaget, and Parenting in Early

ChildhoodChapter 3: Part 1

Early Childhood

Guiding Questions• How did Erikson view young

children?• How do young children think

and understand according to Piaget?

• What are four commonly identified “styles” of parenting?

• What factors are associated with child maltreatment?

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development• Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt• 3 – 5 years• Goal to obtain purpose—healthy balance

between individual interests and the interests of others• Allow so responsibility and freedom• Emphasize that actions affect other people too• Talk about emotions of the child and others

Jean Piaget’s Perspectiveon Children’s Thinking

• Children desire to make sense of their experiences.

• Children construct their understanding of the world

• Children create theories like scientists• Though these theories are

incomplete, they make the world seem more predictable.

Jean Piaget’sStages of Cognitive Development

Stage Two: Preoperational Preschool & Early Elementary (2-7 years)

• Symbols are words and gestures that signify something else. They are representations.

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Limitations in Ability to UseMental Operations

• Young children are limited in their ability to mentally “manipulate” symbols or to use logical rules to understand many cognitive concepts.

• Conservation—mental ability to understand the quantity/mass of something does not necessarily change just because its appearance changes

• Centration—centering or focusing on only one aspect of a problem

• Reversibility

Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory

• Underestimates cognitive competence in infants and young children.

• Overestimates cognitive competence in adolescents• Vague with respect to processes and mechanisms of

change.• Does not account for variability in children’s

performance.• Undervalues the influence of the sociocultural

environment on cognitive development.

Common Parenting Behaviors

• Providing direct instruction--telling a child what to do, when, and why

• Modeling behavior• Counterimitation--learning what should not be

done by observing the behavior

• Providing feedback• Reinforcement--consequence that increases

the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated in the future

Common Parenting Behaviors

• Punishment--applying an adverse stimulus (spanking, grounding, scolding, yelling, etc.)

• Negative reinforcement trap--unwittingly reinforcing a behavior you want to discourage

• Time-out--punishment that involves removing children who are misbehaving from a situation to a quiet, unstimulating environment

The Four Parenting Styles

1) Authoritarian – high demands, low response

2) Authoritative – combines fair amount of demands and response

3) Permissive – high response, low demands

4) Disengaged/Uninvolved – low response and demands

Potential Effects of Parenting Styles in Some Samples of American Children

• Authoritative: Is best for “most American children most of the time,” tend to have higher grades and are responsible, self reliant and friendly

• Balance is key! Children typically thrive on a parental style that combines control, warmth, and affection.

• Authoritarian: Children may be unhappy and have lower self-esteem

• Permissive: Children tend to be impulsive with little self-control

• Uninvolved: Children often do poorly in school and are aggressive

Children’s Contributions

• Age--parents have to adjust their parenting as children age because the effectiveness of certain types of parenting change

• Temperament--as parents realize what type of temperament each child has, the style will have to be adjusted

• Behavior--children’s behavior helps determine how parents treat them, and the resulting parental behavior influences

Parenting Gone Wrong: Child Maltreatment

• Physical abuse--involving assault that leads to injuries including cuts, welts, bruises, and broken bones

• Sexual abuse--involving fondling, intercourse, and other sexual behaviors

• Emotional/psychological--involving ridicule, rejection, and humiliation

• Neglect--children do not receive adequate food, clothing or medical care

The Prevalence of Maltreatment

• 1 million children annually suffer from neglect or abuse• 60% are neglected• 15% are physically abused• 10% are sexually abused• 10% are psychologically abused

Risk Factors for Abuse or Neglect

• Cultural values and social condition in which parents rear their children

• Social isolation is another factor• Stress• History of abuse

More Risk Factors• Parents that maltreat children were usually

maltreated themselves• Often use ineffective parenting techniques and

have such high expectations their children could never reach

• Parental relationship is dysfunctional• Children who are often ill are at greater risk for

abuse• Stepchildren are also at higher risk

Effects of Abuse

• Abused children are usually more aggressive• Lower performance in school• Lower quality peer relationships• More likely to become depressed as they

reach adolescence• Despite the risks of these effects, some

children show ego-resilience in the face of this adversity

Preventing Abuse

• Acceptable levels of punishment must change

• Families can be taught more effective ways to cope with stressful situations

• Early childhood intervention programs• Parents who were maltreated need help to

have the knowledge to avoid it with their children