Chapter 8 - Summary Developmental Psychology PDF

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Chapter notes for the online program REVEL for the textbook Developmental Psychology....

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Child-Rearing Styles: combinations of parenting behaviors that occur over a wide range of situations, creating an enduring child-rearing climate o Authoritative Child Rearing: most successful approach that involves high acceptance and involvement, adaptive control techniques, and appropriate autonomy granting  Acceptance and involvement: is warm, responsive, attentive, and sensitive to child’s needs  Control: makes reasonable demands for mature behavior and consistently enforces and explains them  Autonomy Granting: permits child to make decisions when ready, encourages child to express thoughts, feelings, and desires, and engages in joint decision when child disagrees  Children seem to have an upbeat mood, self-control, task persistence, cooperativeness, high self-esteem, social and moral maturity, and favorable school performance o Authoritarian Child Rearing: low in acceptance and involvement, high in coercive control, and low in autonomy granting  Acceptance and Involvement: is cold and rejecting and frequently degrades child  Control: makes excessive demands for mature behavior, uses force and punishment; often exercises psychological control  Autonomy Granting: makes decisions for child, rarely listens to child’s point of view  Children are likely to be anxious, unhappy, and low in self-esteem and self-reliance and react with hostility  Boys: high rates of anger and defiance  Girls: dependent and overwhelmed by challenging tasks o Permissive Child Rearing: warm and accepting but uninvolved  Acceptance and Involvement: warm but overindulgent or inattentive  Control: lax in behavioral control; makes few or no demands for mature behavior  Autonomy Granting: permits child to make many deacons before child is ready  Children tend to be impulsive, disobedient, and rebellious and overly demand and dependent on adults, showing less persistence on tasks, poorer school achievements, and more antisocial behavior o Uninvolved Child Rearing: combines low acceptance and involvement with little control and general indifference to issues of autonomy; at it’s extreme, becomes neglect  Acceptance and Involvement: emotionally detached and withdrawn  Control: is lax in behavioral control; makes few or no demands for mature behavior  Autonomy Granting: is indifferent to child’s decision making and point of view

Children display many problems; poor emotional self-regulation, school achievement difficulties, depression, and antisocial behavior What Makes Authoritative Child Rearing Effective? o Warm, involved parents who are secure in expectations model caring concern as well as confident, self-controlled behavior o Children are more likely to comply with and internalize control that appears fair and reasonable o Authoritative parents make demands and grant autonomy; foster favorable selfesteem and cognitive and social maturity o Supportive aspects of authoritative style create powerful source of resilience, protecting children from negative effects of family stress and poverty Cultural Variations o Many factors contribute to good parenting: personal characteristics of both child and parent, SES, access to extended family and community supports, cultural values and practice o Chinese parents are more controlling; more directive in teaching and scheduling children’s time to foster self-control and high achievement  Still express affection and concern, but more often shame a misbehaving child, withdraw love, and use physical punishment o Hispanic, Asian Pacific Island Families, and Caribbean families of African or East Indian origin place firm insistence on respect for parental authority that is paid with high parental warmth Child Maltreatment o Types of Maltreatment  Physical Abuse: assaults, such as kicking, biting, shaking, punching or stabbing that inflict physical injury  Sexual Abuse: fondling, intercourse, exhibitionism, commercial exploitation through prosistutixn or pornography and other forms of sexual exploitation  Neglect: failure to meet child’s basic needs for food, clothing, medical attention, education or supervision  Emotional Abuse: acts that cause serious emotional harm, social isolation, repeated unreasonable demands, ridicule, humiliation, intimidation, or terrorizing o Parents commit 90% of abusive incidents o The Family: children whose characteristics make them more challenging to rear are more likely to become targets; include premature or sick babies and children who are temperamentally difficult, inattentive and overactive, or have developmental problems; whether children are maltreated is largely dependent on parents’ characteristics  Many parents are less skillful in handling discipline confrontations; suffer from biased thinking (attributing baby’s crying to a stubborn or bad disposition) and feel powerless in parenting  Abusive parents react to stressful situations with high emotional arousal and might couple with: low income, low education, unemployment, 

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alcohol and drug use, marital conflict, overcrowded living conditions, frequent moves, and extreme household disorganization The Community: abusive and neglectful parents are isolated from formal and informal social supports; many have learned to mistrust and avoid other and are poorly skilled at establishing and maintaining positive relationships  More likely to live in unstable, rundown neighborhoods that provide few links between family and community; lack lifelines and have no one to turn to for help The Larger Culture: cultural values, laws, and customs profoundly affect chances that child maltreatment will occurs when parents feel overburdened Consequences of Child Maltreatment: impair development of emotional selfregulation, empathy and sympathy, self-concept, social skills, and academic motivation  Children show serious adjustment problems, and cognitive deficits  Sense of abandonments results in low self-esteem, high anxiety, selfblame, efforts to escape from extreme psychological pain  At school, these children are noncompliant, poorly motivated, and cognitively immature that interferes with academic achievement  Chronic abuse is associated with central nervous system damage, and blunt children’s normal physiological response to stress Preventing Child Maltreatment  Providing social support to families eases parental stress; Parents Anonymous helps child-abusing parents learn constructive parenting practices  When parents are unlikely to change their abusive behaviors, separating the child from their parent and legally terminate parental rights is the justifiable course of action

8.1: Erikson’s Theory: Initiative v. Guilt 

Initiative v. Guilt: psychological conflict of early childhood, which is resoled positively through play experiences that foster a healthy sense of initiative and through development of a superego (conscience) that is not overly strict and guilt-ridden o Play: way for children to learn about themselves and the social world; creates a small social organization of children who try out meaningful roles and skills and who must cooperate to achieve common goals  Acquire more moral and gender-role standards of society o Negative outcome of early childhood is overly strict ego that causes children to feel guilt because they’ve been threatened, criticized, and punished by adults

8.3: Emotional Development 

Understanding Emotion o 3-year-olds tend to apply one label to all positive facial expressions of emotion and another to all negative expressions

4-5 year olds emotion labeling differentiates 3-5 year olds are good at inferring how others are feeling based on their behavior; beginning to realize that thinking and feeling are interconnected o Preschoolers effectively relieve others’ negative emotions; overall, have ability to interpret, predict, and change others’ feelings o The more parents label and explain emotions, the more “emotion words” children use and the better developed their emotion understanding; discussions of negative experiences or disagreements are helpful because there are more elaborative dialogues that validate children’s feelings while helping them appreciate emotional perspectives of others  Help children reflex on the causes and consequences of emotion while modeling mature communication skills o Acknowledging others’ emotions and explaining their own enhance quality of relationships Emotional Self-Regulation o Language contributes to gains in emotional self-regulation o As children use strategies, emotional outbursts decline, and gains in executive function (inhibition and flexible shifting of attention) contributes greatly to managing emotions in early childhood o Parents in tune with own emotional experiences tend to be supportive of preschoolers, offering suggestions and explanations of emotion-regulation strategies that strengthen children’s capacity to handle stress  Adult-child conversations that prepare children for difficult experiences by discussing what to expect and ways to handle anxiety also foster emotional self-regulation  Helping Children Manage Common Fears of Early Childhood  Monsters, ghosts, and darkness: reduce exposure to frightening stories and TV programs; search child’s bedroom to assure there are no monsters and use night-lights and tuck in child with toy or sit next to bed  Preschool or Child Care: may have separation anxiety; offer sense of warmth and care while gently encouraging independence; provide support by accompanying child and gradually lessening amount of time parent stays  Animals: do not force child to approach animal, but let child move at own pace  Intense Fears: most likely a phobia, and requires counseling Self-Conscious Emotions: feelings that involve injury to or enhancement of sense of self o Depend on parents, teachers, and others who matter to them to know when to feel proud, ashamed, or guilty, often viewing adult expectations as rules you HAVE to follow o When parents comment on worth of child and performance, children experience self-conscious emotions intensely; when parents focus on how to improve performance, they induce moderate, more adaptive levels of shame and pride and greater persistence on difficult tasks o o

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Western children: intense shame is associated with feelings of personal inadequacy and with maladjustment; guilt is related to good adjustment, and helps children resist harmful impulses, and it motivates a misbehaving child Empathy and Sympathy o Motivates prosocial/altruistic behavior: actions that benefit another person without any expected reward for the self; rely more on words to communicate empathic feelings  Empathizing does NOT yield acts of kindness and helpfulness but, instead, escalates into personal distress to some adults  Empathizing does not lead to sympathy (feelings of concern or sorrow for another’s plight) o Children who are sociable, assertive, and good at regulating emotion are likely to help, share, and comfort others in distress o Empathic concern strengthens in the context of a secure parent-child attachment relationship; when parents respond to preschoolers’ feelings with empathy and sympathy, children react with concern to others’ distress  Parents can teach children the importance of kindness and can intervene when they display inappropriate emotion o

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8.5: Foundations of Morality and Aggression 

Conscience begins to form in early childhood; child’s morality is externally controlled by adults that is gradually regulated by inner standards

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Psycoanalytic Theory: emotional side of conscience development o Children form a superego, and obey this superego to avoid guilt; moral development is completed by 5-6 years of age o Inductive Discipline: type of discipline in which adult helps make child aware of feelings by pointing out the effects of child’s misbehavior on others  Preschoolers with warm parents who use induction are more likely to refrain from wrongdoing, confess and repair damages after misdeeds, and display prosocial behavior  Success in induction lies in its power to motivate children’s active commitment to moral standards  Discipline that relies too heavily on threats of punishment or withdrawal of loves makes children anxious and frightened o Child’s Contribution  More empathic children evoke less power assertion from parents and are more responsive to induction  Temperament is important; mild, patient tactics promote guilt reactions in anxious, fearful preschoolers; with fearless children, ensuring warm, harmonious relationship and combining firm correction of misbehavior with induction develops conscience development; children with low anxiety can be developed by having a close parent-child bond o Role of Guilt

Guilt motivates moral action, but is not that only force that compels morality  Empathy based guilt: expressions of personal responsibility and regret; associated with stopping harmful actions, repairing harmful actions, repairing damage caused by misdeeds, and engaging in future prosocial behavior Social Learning Theory: moral behavior is learned through reinforcement and modeling o Importance of Modeling  Models are most influential in the early years; at end of childhood, children who have had consistent exposure to caring adults tend to behave prosocial whether or not a model Is present  Reinforcing children with attention or praise appears unnecessary to induce them to help others; most 2 year olds will READILY help an unfamiliar adult obtain an out-of-reach object, regardless if their parent encourages them or not  However, giving a child material rewards undermines their prosocial responding, and the child who helps comes to expect something in return for helping and rarely helps spontaneously o Effects of Punishment  Necessary if an immediate incident has happened-a child ran onto the streets  However, the more harsh threats, angry physical control, and physical punishment children experience, the more likely they are to develop serious, lasting problems; effects of repeated harsh punishments  Model aggression  Induces chronic sense of being personally threatened, which promotes children to focus on own distress instead of sympathizing  Causes children to avoid punitive parent, who has little opportunity to teach desirable behaviors  Children whose parents used corporal punishment (physical force that inflicts pain but not injury) are more accepting of it  Corporal punishment is more frequently used among the less-educated, economically disadvantaged parents o Alternatives to Harsh Punishment  Time out: form of mild punishment that involves removing children from immediate setting until they are ready to act appropriately  Withdrawal of privileges: removing privileges allows parents to avoid harsh techniques that can intensify into violence  Increase effectiveness of mild punishment by:  Consistency  Warm parent-child relationship  explanations o Positive Relationships, Positive Parenting (more)  Building a mutual respectful bond with child, letting child know ahead of time how to act, and acknowledging mature behavior 

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Cognitive-Developmental Perspective: emphasizes thinking of children’s ability to reason about justice and fairness o As early as preschool years, children make moral judgements; as long as researchers emphasize people’s intentions, 3 year olds say that a person with bad intentions is more deserving of punishment that a well-intentioned person; also protest when they see one person harming another o At age 4, children know that a person who expresses an insincere intentions lying o Distinguish Moral Imperatives (rules and expectations that protect people’s rights and welfares) from Social Conventions (customs determined by consensus within a society) and Matters of Personal Choice (concerns such as choice of friends, hairstyle, and leisure activities, which do not violate rights and are up to the individual)  3 and 4 year olds reveal moral violations are more wrong than violation of social conventions o Moral reasoning tends to be rigid, emphasizing salient features and consequences while neglecting other important information; have difficulty distinguishing between accidental and intentional transgressions  Morally relevant social experiences are vital, contributing to gains in theory of mind and moral understandings and their integration  Children who are advanced in moral thinking tend to have parents who adapt their discussions about fighting, honesty, and ownership to what their children can understand Other Side of Morality: Development of Aggression o Proactive Aggression: type of aggression in which children act to fulfill a need or desire-to obtain an object, privilege, space or social rewards, such as adult or peer attention- and unemotionally attack a person to achieve their goal; tend to decrease as preschoolers’ improved capacity to delay gratification enables them to resist grabbing for others’ things o Reactive Aggression: angry, defensive response to provocation or blocked goal, which is meant to hurt another person; in verbal and relational forms rise over early and middle childhood o Come in three forms:  Physical aggression: harm others through physical injury; rises sharply between ages 1-3 and then diminishes  Verbal aggression: harms others through threats of physical aggression  Relational aggression: damages another’s peer relationships through social exclusion, malicious gossip, or friendship manipulation o By 17 months, boys are more physically aggressive than girls; beginning preschool years, girls concentrate most aggressive acts in relational category, but boys display overall rates of aggression that are much higher than girls o Children who are emotionally negative, impulsive, and disobedient and who score low in cognitive abilities are at risk for early, high rates of physical or relational aggression o The Family as Training Ground for Aggressive Behavior  Families with anger and punitiveness create a conflict-ridden family atmosphere and an “out-of-control” child; the parent threatens or punishes

child, the child angrily resists until the parent “gives in” and the behaviors repeat and escalate  Generate anxiety and irritability among other family members, who join in the hostile interactions; body are more likely to be targets of harsh, inconsistent discipline because they are more active and impulsive and harder to control  When children who are extreme in these characteristics are exposed to emotionally negative, inept parenting, their capacity for emotional selfregulation, empathic responding, and guilt after transgression is seriously disrupted; acquire distorted view of world o Media Violence and Aggression  In the U.S. an estimated 6-% of television programs contain violent scenes; violent screen media increases the likelihood of hostile thoughts and emotions and of verbally, physically, and relationally aggressive behavior  Preschool and young school age children more likely to imitate screen media violence because they believe that it is real  Violent media fare can have lasting negative consequences: aggressive behavior into adulthood  20-30% of preschoolers and 50% of school age children experience no limits on media usage; regulate screen media by:  Limiting screen media  Avoid using screen media as a reward  When possible, watch TV and view online content with children, helping them understand what they see  Link TB and online content to everyday learning experiences  Model good media practices o Helping Children and Parents Control Aggression  Treatment for aggressive children is best begun early, before their behavior becomes well-practiced and difficult to change  Incredible Years: parents complete 18 weekly group session that teach positive parenting techniques  Relieving stressors that stem from economic disadvantage and neighborhood disorganization and providing family with social supports help prevent childhood aggression...