social and personality development in middle childhood

Social and Personality Development in Middle Childhood

Chapter 10:

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Theories of Social and Personality Development

• Self-Concept

• Advances in Social Cognition

• The Social World of the School-Aged Child

• Influences beyond Family and Peers

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

10.1 How did the psychoanalytic theorists characterize the middle childhood years?

10.2 What are the main ideas of the trait and social-cognitive theorists?

10.3 What are the features of the psychological self?

10.4 How does self-esteem develop?

10.5 How does children’s understanding of others change in middle childhood?

10.6 How do children in Piaget’s moral realism and moral relativism stages reason about right and wrong?

10.7 How does self-regulation affect school-aged children’s relationships with their parents?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES (con’t)

10.8 What changes occur in children’s understanding of friendships during this period?

10.9 In what ways do boys and girls interact during the middle childhood years?

10.10 What types of aggression are most common among school-aged children?

10.11 How do popular, rejected, and neglected children differ?

10.12 What factors contribute to resilience and vulnerability among poor children?

10.13 How do television, computers, and video games affect children’s development?

THEORIES OF SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY

DEVELOPMENT

Psychoanalytic Theories

Freud: the challenge is to form emotional bonds

with peers and move beyond sole earlier formed

bonds.

Erikson: the challenge is to develop a sense of

competence and willingness to work toward goal.

▪ Industry versus inferiority stage


DEVELOPMENT

Trait Approach

What trait or traits describe you best?

THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS

Extraversion

Agreeableness

ConscientiousnessNeuroticism

Openness


DEVELOPMENT

Social-Cognitive Perspectives

Bandura and Reciprocal Determinism

• Three components

▪ Person component (traits)

▪ Behavior

▪ Environment

• These three mutually influence one another.

BANDURA’S DETERMINISM MODEL

Figure 10.1 Bandura’s Determinism Model

THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS

SELF-CONCEPT

The Psychological Self

Psychological self: a person’s understanding of

his or her enduring psychological characteristics

• More complex

• Comparisons in self-descriptions

• Less tied to external features

SELF-CONCEPT

Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy: an individual’s belief in his or her

capacity to cause intended events

• Social comparisons

• Encouragement from valued sources

• Actual experiences

SELF-CONCEPT

The Valued Self

The Nature of Self-Esteem

SELF-CONCEPT

Self-Esteem

Key Components

• Discrepancy between what one desires and

perceived achievement

• Perceived support from important people

SELF-CONCEPT

Origins of Self-Esteem

• Direct experience with success or failure

• Labels and judgments from others

• The value a child attaches to some skill or quality

is affected by peers’ and parents’ attitudes.

ADVANCES IN SOCIAL COGNITION

Self-Concept

The Child as Psychologist

• Focuses on internal traits and motivations of

others

• Better understanding that same person plays

different roles in life

• Less emphasis on external appearance

SELF-CONCEPT

Moral Reasoning: Piaget

Moral reasoning: Judgments about the rightness

and wrongness of specific actions

• Moral realism

• Moral relativism

ENCOURAGING MORAL REASONING

Lickona posits that the development of mature moral reasoning takes many years.

• Parents and teachers can support this development in 6- to 12-year-olds in a variety of ways:

• Require decisions for what is wanted.

• Praise utilization of social conventions.

• Couple punishment with explanations.

• Teach about reciprocity.

• Provide meaningful choices.

• Encourage obedience based in love and respect, not fear.

• Challenge egocentrism.

• Encourage charitable projects.

Reflection

1. Which of Lickona’s suggestions are most

relevant to the situation in which Marisol’s

mother found herself?

2. Do you agree with Andrea that it was necessary

to punish the girl? If so, what additional steps do

you think Andrea should take to help Marisol

learn the importance of respecting others’

property?

THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE SCHOOL-AGED

CHILD

Family Relationships

Parental Expectations

• Parents recognize children’s increasing abilities

to self-regulate.

• Culture may play a role in the age of expected

behaviors.


CHILD


Parental Expectations

• Boys are given more autonomy.

• Girls are held more accountable.

• An authoritative parental style most often

produces socially competent children.

ONLY CHILDREN, BIRTH ORDER, AND CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT

Only children reach adulthood just as well adjusted as children with siblings.

• Resource dilution hypothesis: Progressive watering down of parental material and psychological resources with each birth

• Only and first-born children may get more of the kind of attention from parents that is critical to cognitive development.

• Sibling relationships appear to make positive contributions to children’s social and emotional development.

ONLY CHILDREN, BIRTH ORDER,

AND CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT

Critical Analysis

1. What kinds of sibling relationships would harm

rather than help a child’s social and emotional

development?

2. In what kinds of situations might you expect only

children to show social skills that are superior to

those of children who have siblings?


CHILD


Only Children and Siblings

Only children

▪ As well adjusted as children with siblings

Siblings

▪ Positively contribute to children’s social and

emotional understanding


CHILD

Friendships

• Peer importance increases in middle childhood.

• A “best friend” emerges.

• Friendships depend on reciprocal trust by age

10.

• Friends help with problem solving and conflict

management.

A 10-YEAR-OLD’S EXPLANATION

OF FRIENDSHIP

Figure 10.2 A 10-Year-Old’s Explanation of Friendship

GENDER SEGREGATION

Cultural Influence

• Age of appearance

• Playmate preference

• Playmate style by gender


CHILD

Gender Segregation

• Boundary violations

• Play group composition by gender

• Play focus

• Cooperative play


CHILD

Patterns of Aggression

Physical aggression declines

Verbal aggression continues to increase

Anger increasingly disguised

Aggression increasingly controlled

Gender differences over time


CHILD


Relational Aggression

• Aimed at damaging another person’s self-

esteem or peer relationships

• Ostracism or threats of ostracism, cruel gossip,

or facial expressions of disdain

Retaliatory Aggression

• Aggression to get back at someone who has hurt

you


CHILD


• Girls display more relational aggression.

• Both boys and girls increase retaliatory

aggression.

Can you think of examples to illustrate each kind of

aggression?


CHILD

Bullying and Conduct Disorder

Bullying

• Complex form of aggression

• A bully routinely aggresses against one or more habitual victims.

Conduct Disorder

• Psychological disorder

• Children’s social and/or academic functioning is impaired by patterns of antisocial behavior

• Includes bullying, destruction of property, theft, deceitfulness, and/or violations of social rules

BULLIES AND VICTIMS

With age, children tend to take on consistent

roles—perpetrator, victim, assistant to the

perpetrator, reinforcing onlooker, nonparticipant

onlooker, defender of the victim

• Actors in each role contribute to future

aggressive interactions.

• Research demonstrates that focus on the

behavior of children who occupy all roles

(including victims) may be contribute to effective

intervention.

What do you think?

You Decide

Decide which of these two statements you most agree with and think about how you would defend your position:

1. Programs that seek to reduce bullying among school-aged children should include a component that teaches victims to be more assertive in the face of bullying.

2. Programs that seek to reduce bullying among school-aged children should focus on changing the bully’s behavior and helping him or her to understand how damaging bullying is to its victims and to the emotional climate of the social setting in which it occurs.


CHILD

Social Status

Social status: an individual child’s classification as

popular, rejected, or neglected


CHILD

Social Status


CHILD

Two Types of Rejected Children

How are these types of rejected children alike? How

are do they differ?

Withdrawn/rejected children

Aggressive/rejected children


CHILD

Two Types of Rejected Children

Neglected or Rejected

Very different from their peers, shy, highly creative

INFLUENCES BEYOND FAMILY AND PEERS

Poverty

• Childhood poverty rate

• The rate is higher for younger children.

• Characteristics of parents in poverty

POVERTY AND AGE

Figure 10.3 Poverty and Age


Poverty

Children in Poverty

• More often ill

• Lower average IQ scores

• Perform poorly in school

• Exhibit more behavior problems


Inner-City Poverty

Protective Factors for Resiliency

• High IQ of child

• Competent adult parenting

• Effective schools

• Secure initial attachments

• Strong community helping network

• Stable parental employment

• Strong sense of ethnic identity


Inner-City Poverty

Children of inner-city poverty may grow up . . .

• Exposed to street gangs and street violence

• In over-crowded homes

• Subject to more abuse and drug use

• Witnessing or becoming victims of more violent

crimes

• Subject to PTSD

TRUE OR FALSE?

There is a causal link between viewing violent

television and aggressive behavior in children.

Age Trends in Children’s Media Device Ownership, Parents’

Rules for Media Use, and Time Spent Using Media

TELEVISION

Prosocial Behavior

• Enhanced by quality programs that teach

children moral and social values

▪ Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

▪ Sesame Street

COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET

• Economic differences

• Uses

• Gender differences

VIDEO GAMES

• Influences on child behavior

• Violent content and game preferences

• Critics of video game research

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