Soc Dev in Middle Childhood

Perspective taking

• The capacity to imagine what other people may be thinking and feeling (theory of mind)

• kids can imagine how others view themselves

• children become better at incorporating these messages into their self-definitions

Self-development

• Refined self-concept

• organize behaviors and internal states into general dispositions

• describe themselves in terms of psychological traits

• emphasizing competencies instead of specific behaviors

• school children begin to make social comparisons

• judge their appearance, abilities, and behaviors in relation to those of others

Self-esteem at ages 6-7

• Hierarchically structured

• contexts of evaluation

• classrooms, playgrounds, and peer groups

• three self esteems

• academic, social, and physical

Self-esteem at ages 7-8

• formed at least 4 separate self-esteems

• academic competence

• social competence

• athletic competence

• physical competence

• now can combine separate self-evaluations into an overall sense of self-esteem

• physical appearance is primary through adolescence

changes in self-esteem

• drops during the first few years of elementary school due to social comparisons

• most children appraise their characteristics and compliances realistically

• from 4-6th grade, self-esteem rises for the majority of children

High self esteem

• consistently better liked by their peers

• creates positive cycle of better self-image

low self esteem

• problems with peers

• have psychological disorders

• be involved in antisocial behavior

• do poorly in school

Authoritative influence on self-esteem

• children feel especially good about themselves

• recognize flaws and are okay with them

Authoritarian influence on self-esteem

• communicates a sense of inadequacy to children

• children feel they cannot manage things themselves

permissive influence on self-esteem

• promotes a “feel good” attitude no matter how children behave

• creates a false sense of self-esteem

achievement related attributions prior to age 7

• unrealistically optimistic

• incremental view of ability

• ability is changeable and increases with effort

achievement related attributions age 8-12

• distinguish ability from effort

• entity view of ability: ability is a stable trait

Mastery orientation

• attribute failures to unstable causes

• persist after failures, increase effort

Learned helplessness theory

• attribute failures to stable and internal factors

• stop trying

• tends to persist over time

how does learned helplessness develop?

• criticize ability when failure occurs

• can be changed relatively easily through attribution restraining

• i.e. criticize lack of effort when failure occurs

• success attributed to ability alone, not effort

Self-conscious emotions

• pride and guilt become clearly integrated with personal responsibility

• feelings are now experienced in the absence of adult monitoring

pride

• motivates children to take on further challenges

guilt

• prompts them to make amends and strive for self-improvement as well

peer groups

• composed of peers who form a social unit

• generally have shared values, standards of behavior, and social structure of leaders and followers

peer group organization

• similarity

• gender

• ethnicity

• popularity

• proximity

peer culture

• specialized vocab

• dress code

• place to “hang out” during leisure hours

sociometric technique

• peers asked to evaluate one another’s likability

• e.g. sort pictures of peers into different piles: like, dislike

Parenting style impact on peer acceptance

• children raised by authoritative parents are more likely to be liked by peers

• authoritarian and uninvolved parents are likely to have children who are disliked by their peers

attractiveness impact on peer acceptance

• attractive kids are rated by kids they don’t know as nice

• unattractive kids are rated by kids they don’t know as aggressive and mean

• attractive children generally are more popular than unattractive children

social skills impact on peer acceptance

• correlated with better social acceptance

• easier to talk to

siblings impact on peer acceptance

• younger siblings more popular than older siblings

• learn social skills from older siblings

• learn how to please older siblings to keep them engaged in play

popular pro-social

• combine academic and social competence

• many likes, few dislikes

popular antisocial

• exploit others

• usually “tough” boys who are athletically skilled, but poor students

• peers view them as “cool” perhaps because of their athletic prowess and sophisticated social skills

rejected aggressive

• engage in high rates of conflict, hostility, and hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive behavior

• deficient in social understanding

• don’t understand how to ask for things

rejected withdrawn

• passive and socially awkward

• because of their submissive interaction style, they are at risk for abuse by bullies

contriversial kids

• Hostile and disruptive, but also engage in high rates of positive, prosocial acts

neglected kids

• considered shy by their classmates

• not less socially skilled than other children

• outcomes: usually well adjusted, illustrates other paths to emotional well-being besides the outgoing, gregarious personality

importance of peer acceptance

• powerful predictor of current and later psychological adjustment

• rejected kids are likely to be:

• unhappy

• alienated

• poor achieving

• low self-esteem

• poor school performance

• dropping out, antisocial behavior

• delinquency in young adulthood

Hostile aggression

• behavior that intentionally inflicts harm on another person

relational aggression

• attempting to hurt another’s social status

• increases in middle childhood

• females display more than males

• percentage of aggression displayed

• males show more raw numbers (frequency of occurance)

Rough and tumble play

• no direct intent to harm another person

• NOT a form of aggression

Bandura social learning

• aggression is learned by observing and imitating the behavior of others

• acquisition of aggressive responses:

• observational learning

• direct experience

• kids aggressive behavior is reinforced

• reinforcement of one type of aggression leads to an increase in the display of other forms

factors of maintaining aggression

• aggression is reinforced for achieving non-aggressive goals

• useful as a means of terminating other’s noxious behavior

• socially sanctioned by aggressive peers

• highly aggressive kids tend to cluster together

• encourage and reinforce aggression to solve conflicts

• intrinsically rewarding the aggressor

• aggressive kids value outcomes of aggression more than non-aggressive peers

• aggressive acts seen as a source of pride

Dodge’s social information processing theory

• what separates aggressive from non-aggressive children is a hostile attributional bias

• tendency to view harm done under ambiguous circumstances as having stemmed from hostile intent by harmdoer

• results in over attributing hostile intention to peers

• these kids retaliate

Excitation transfer

• arousal can be transferred from one source to another

• if the second event involves anger or frustration

• the arousal from the first event will make the person angrier or more frustrated during the second

• no matter the origin of the first event

biological factors of aggression

• genes

  • e.g. high hostility kids demonstrate a hostile attributional bias

  • personality (e.g. temperament)

• hormones

  • low cortisol associated with high aggression

  • testosterone not associated with aggression in humans

• brain development

  • e.g. in comparison to adults, in children, the emotional centers affect behavior more than logical centers

identification with the aggressor

• youth wish to be like the observed aggressor because they can do things the child cannot

• believe in and value the similarities between the aggressor and themselves

parental disciplinary practices impact on aggression

• spanking, threats, humiliation

• love withdrawal

• lack of parental monitoring

media violence impact on aggression

• not enough evidence to cause aggressive behavior

risk factors for aggression

• peers, personality, parents, biology, neighborhood, mental illness

• characteristic or condition that increase the likelihood of a negative outcome

sibling roles

• provide one another with companionship

• help with difficult tasks

• changes in middle childhood

• parents increase comparison (traits, abilities, accomplishments)

• may lead to sibling rivalry

• rate of conflicts is greater with siblings than with peers

why sibling rivalry occurs

• parental comparisons

• parental favoratism

• research indicated that the “favorite” kid may be the least favorite

• changes accompanying the birth of second child: less cuddling, less attention, fewer interactions

• preparing child for birth can reduce sibling rivalry

moral panic

• an exaggerated fear that an object, event, or an activity is to blame for a real world problem

features of moral panic

• extreme claims come before data

• exaggerated claims of (potential) real-world damage caused by media

• public calls for supporting the moral panic

• calls for research that advance a particular ideology/ policy/ plan rather than objective research

the goldilocks effect

• each generation believes their childhood experiences were well balanced

• e.g. the media of the current children is out of control

save the children mentality

• children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of media

• those that suggest otherwise are morally bankrupt