DP- Social and Personality Development in Middle Childhood

Industry-versus-inferiority:

(Ages 6 to 12)

-competence and meeting social challenges

-Difficulties can lead to feelings of failure and inadequacy and to withdrawal

from academics and peers

Self-concept

Everything we think and believe about ourselves

• Influenced by childhood experiences and evaluations by others

Social comparison:

the desire to evaluate one’s own behavior, abilities, expertise,

and opinions in comparison to others

upward social comparisons

to evaluate their abilities against

those who appear to be more proficient and successful than they are.

downward social comparisons

with others who are less

competent or successful to protect their self-esteem

Self-esteem:

overall and specific positive and negative self-evaluation

Self-esteem: Middle Childhood

-increasingly compare themselves to others

-• Children develop their own standards

• Higher for some areas and lower in others

• Exploring and resolving one’s ethnic racial identification boosts self-confidence

morality:Emotions - Feelings

Feelings regarding right or wrong actions that motivate moral thoughts

morality:2. Cognitions - Thoughts

• How we think about right and wrong and make decisions about how to

behave

morality:3. Behavioral component - Behaviors

How we behave when confronted with a moral dilemma

Kohlberg-Preconventional morality

(Stages 1 and 2): people follow rigid rules based on

punishments or rewards

Kohlberg-Conventional morality

(Stages 3 and 4): people approach problems in terms of

their own position as good, responsible members of society

Kohlberg-Postconventional morality

(Stages 5 and 6): people invoke universal moral

principles that are considered broader than the rules of a particular society

Basing Friendship on Others’ Behavior

• Occurs around 4 to 7 years of age.

• Children see friends as others who like them and with whom they share toys and activities.

• They do not take others’ personal qualities into consideration.

Stage 2: Basing Friendship on Trust

• Occurs around 8 to 10 years of age.

• Children begin to take others’ personal qualities into consideration and base friendship on mutua

Stage 3: Basing Friendship on Psychological Closeness

• Occurs around 11 to 15 years of age.

• Friendship is based on intimacy, loyalty, and some exclusivity; feelings of closeness involve mutual

disclosure.

social status

• Popular – most often liked

• Rejected – disliked by other children

• Neglected – neither liked nor disliked

• Controversial – liked by some, disliked by others, can be

aggressive

• Strongest influence on popularity is social skills

• Rejected children tend to be more aggressive

Bullying

Bullying is more prevalent in middle school than in high school, and

cyberbullying has increased dramatically.

Four types of bullying:

Verbal, physical, relational, cyber bullying

Emotional intelligence:

the set of skills that underlies the accurate

assessment, evaluation, expression, and regulation of emotions

COREGULATION

parents and children jointly influence children’s behavior

• Sibling relationships have important influence.

• For good: support, companionship, and security

• For bad: strife, sibling rivalry peaks