9. Early Childhood - Social and Personality Development

Early childhood

_____________ - Ages 2-6, called "stepping out phase" as this is where you separate attachment from caregivers

• Social development arguably most notable change in early childhood

• Oppositional loners → Cooperative playmates

• “Stepping out” phase

Psychoanalytic theories

__________________ - Internal drives are the driving force behind developmental change in social and emotional domains

• With socialization, child must begin to adapt their driving inner forces to the social demands around them

• Early childhood: child has to learn to take responsibility for their behaviour

Psychosexual stages of development (OAPLG)

Psychoanalytic theory → Freud

___________ - Two stages during this period: anal stage (1-3 years) and phallic stage (3-6 years)

• Anal stage = toilet training

• Phallic stage = foundation for gender and moral development by identifying with same-sex parent

Early childhood = time when young children 1) gain control of bodily functions; 2) renegotiate relationship with parents in preparation for entering peer relationships

Psychosocial stages of development

Psychoanalytic theory → Erik Erikson

_______________ - Agreed with Freud's view on bodily control and parental relationships— Different emphasis, this time with a desire for autonomy & initiative

• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt stage: centres on toddler's desire for autonomy driven by newfound mobility

• Initiative vs. guilt stage: centres on desire to take initiative driven by new cognitive skills, especially ability to plan

  • Developing conscience determines boundaries of initiative

Key to healthy development: balance between child's desire for autonomy and emerging skills, and parents' need to protect child and control child's behaviour

_{Social-cognitive perspectives}

_______________ - Social and personality development in early childhood are related to cognitive improvements

• Development of metacognition and theory of mind are particularly relevant

• Person perception

Person perception

_{Social-cognitive perspectives}

_{_______________ -} ability to classify others

• Age 5 years:

  • Can use simple trait labels to describe others

  • Make judgements similar to those of adults

  • Make statements about other people's patterns of behaviour

  • Use observations to classify others into groups

  • Observations and categorizations are much less consistent than those of older children because based on most recent interactions

  • Use observable characteristics to categorize others

  • Cross-race effect: more likely to remember faces of people of own race

  • Recognize themselves as "little kids"

  • Self-segregation by gender

Understanding rule categories

_______________ - Children start to respond differently to violations of social conventions and moral rules (Begins at 2-3 years)

• View certain violations of rules more seriously than others – just like adults

• Say that stealing and physical violence are wrong, even if there is no explicit rule against them at preschool or in home

• Develops because of increasing ability to classify and because of adults’ tendency to place more emphasis on moral transgressions (vs. social-convention violations) when punishing them

Understanding intentions

• Piaget thought young children could not differentiate; later research showed he was wrong

• Understand that intentional wrongdoing is punished more than unintentional rule transgression

• Children can make judgements about others’ intentions in face of abstract problems and personal motivation to avoid punishment

• Limitation: will factor in outcomes when determining intention

Family relationships and structure

_____________ - Arguably the most influential factors in early childhood development. Tension between continuity and change – still as attached as when an infant while also trying to establish independence

• Start of individuation – process of becoming distinct, separate person

• Age 2-3 years: attachment as strong but less obvious

  • Wandering further from safe base

  • Manage separation anxiety by creating shared plans

• Attachment quality predicts behaviour

• Attachment relationship changes ~4 years

  • Understand that relationship keeps existing when caregiver isn’t there

  • Internal model generalizes

• New sources of conflict

  • 2 years: recognize that independent contributor to caregiver-child relationship

• Still comply with caregiver requests most of the time; struggle most with requests to delay or engage in self-care

Parenting

_________________ - Families respond differently to increasing demands for independence

• Early conceptualization by Baumrind determined four dimensions of family functioning

  • Warmth/nurturance

  • Clarity and consistency of rules

  • “Maturity demands” or level of expectations

  • Communication between parent and child

Children with warm/nurturant parents are more securely attached and fare better on a range of outcomes. Children whose parents clearly and consistently apply rules are less likely to be defiant

• Optimal control: not overly restrictive, explain reasoning, avoid use of physical punishments, and have high expectations

• Open and regular communication between parent and child associated with positive outcomes

Baumrind’s Parenting Styles (PAAN)

Parenting

__________________ - Four types -

1. Permissive/indulgent: high in nurturance; low in maturity demands, control, and communication

2. Authoritarian/power-assertive: high in control and maturity demands; low in nurturance and communication

3. Authoritative/reciprocal: high in nurturance, maturity demands, control, and communication

4. Neglectful/uninvolved: low in nurturance, maturity demands, control, and communication

Macoby & Martin proposed variation: two dimensions

• Degree of demand or control

• Amount of acceptance vs. rejection

3 intersect well with Baumrind’s fourth type

Discipline

Parenting

_____________ - to help the child develop self-control, moral character, and proper conduct

• Problems:

  • Hard to establish the types of punishment that are effective, and the intensity and frequency that are effective.

  • Any form of discipline that is too extreme or frequent can constitute child abuse

• Best practice recommendation in Canada: minimal nonphysical interventions, limiting situations that will require intervention

Family structure

_______________ - Dominant structure in Canada = children living with married parents

• Most children raised in a single parent family have good outcomes, though outcomes differ by child's age

  • No association with problems in children aged 2-3 years

  • Associated with twice the rates of several negative outcomes in children aged 4-11

  • Single parents report high levels of chronic stress which may contribute

  • Strengths: strong parent-child bonding, and high resilience, maturity, problem-solving, and emotion regulation in children

• Difficult to explain higher rates of problems among children raised by grandparents because often precipitated by trauma

Same-sex parents:

• No poorer outcomes compared to heterosexually-partnered parents

• Strengths: children are better psychologically adjusted and have better academic performance; parents are more welcoming of diversity, less likely to impose gender stereotypes, and more nurturing of young children

• Key variable: how parents interact with child

Divorce

Family structure

____________ - Prevalence has declined— Most happen during child-rearing period. Very difficult for children = ACE

• Some negative effects are because of factors that existed prior to this

• Divorce difficult due to numerous related factors

• Generally, children living post-separation do well, though they do have a higher prevalence of psychological, emotional, and behavioural problems

• Often problems in first few years post-separation

• Can influence long-term outcomes

Peer relationships

_______________ - early childhood (2-6yrs) is a critical period in social skills development, specifically in this topic.

Play is important for social skills development

• Group entry: observing others to figure out what they are doing and then trying to become a part of it

• Parten (1932) identified the social dimensions of play through an observational study:

  • Solitary play

  • Onlooker play

  • Parallel play

  • Associative play

  • Cooperative play

Group entry

Peer relationships

________________- observing others to figure out what they are doing and then trying to become a part of it

Types of Play (SOPAC)

Peer relationships

_______________ - Parten (1932) identified the social dimensions of play through an observational study:

• Solitary play: playing alone

• Onlooker play: watching another child play

• Parallel play: playing side by side

• Associative play: pursuing own activity but engaging in short, spontaneous social interactions

• Cooperative play: working together with several others to accomplish a goal

1) Solitary play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

____________ - playing alone

2) Onlooker play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

______________ - watching another child play

3) Parallel play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

______________ - playing side by side

4) Associative play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

_______________ - pursuing own activity but engaging in short, spontaneous social interactions

5) Cooperative play

Peer relationships → Types of play (SOPAC)

_______________ - working together with several others to accomplish a goal

Aggression

________________ - behaviour intended to harm another person or damage an object – intentionality is key.

Almost all young children engage in some aggressive behaviour towards adults, peers, and siblings

• Patterns of aggression:

  • Physical aggression peaks at ~2 years and declines during preschool years

  • Indirect aggression: increases through preschool years – 11 years

  • Physical aggression predicts indirect aggression

Causes of aggression

Aggression

______________ - Genetics, reinforcement, modelling, potential heredity basis, epigenetics

• Apparent genetic component – runs in families

• Harsh punitive parenting

  • Predicts across childhood

  • True regardless of gender and family income

  • Increase or decrease in punitive parenting corresponds with increase or decrease in aggression

  • Unclear which way the association goes

• Reinforcement

• Modelling

  • Real-life aggressive models (vs. violent media) has more impact

  • May learn that aggression is a way to solve problems

• Potential hereditary basis

• Epigenetics

  • Opposite premise: children are inherently aggressive

  • Environmental factors can modify this tendency

Prosocial behaviour

_______________ - voluntary behaviour intended to help another person (Emerges at 2-3 years)

• Some increase with age while others decrease

• Children with better emotion regulation display more empathy and altruism

• Variations associated with different types of parenting

  • Modelling prosocial behaviour, drawing child's attention to the feelings of others, clear explanations and rules about what to do and not to do, & providing prosocial attributions = more altruistic children

Friendships

_______________ - Playmate preferences begin as early as 18 months

• Age 3 years: ~20% have a stable playmate

• Preschool-age children show more mutual liking, reciprocity, extended interactions, positive behaviour, and supportiveness with friends

• Having a friend in early childhood is associated with social competence

Personality/temperament

_____________ - combination of innate temperament with knowledge gained about temperament-related behaviour during childhood

• Through social interactions, children learn that certain behaviours result in rejection and others in acceptance

• Operant conditioning → Motivated by behaviours that will allow you to be accepted in a group versus behaviours that do not

Self-concept (CES)

________________ - three types of understanding self

• 18-24 months: starting to develop categorical and emotional selves

• 2-6 years: continues + addition of social self

• Gender differences begin to appear

1. Categorical self

2. Emotional Self

3. Social Self

1) Categorial self

Self-concept (CES)

_____________ - Describe themselves on a range of dimensions in a very concrete way

• Internal working model for social relationships

2) Emotional self

Self-concept (CES)’

__________________ - Better at understanding their own emotion

Association between labeling and explaining emotions and vocabulary

• Acquisition of emotional regulation

• Empathy

• Moral emotions

3) Social self

Self-concept (CES)

_____________ - Increasing awareness of self as an actor in social interactions

• Scripts develop by age 2 – now child begins to understand their role in these scripts

• Begins to understand their place in the family

• Helps child become more independent

Sex

___________ - the biological traits you are born with

Gender

_____________ - self-identity, who you are attracted to, etc.

• It’s not “who you are attracted to”, no clue why a PROFESSOR has the wrong definition of this term

Kohlberg’s Stages of Gender Development

Social-cognitive theories (gender)

_________________ - Emphasize the caregivers’ role in shaping sex-role behaviours and attitudes

• Gender identity: Label own sex correctly and identify others by gender (2yrs)

• Gender stability: Understanding that people stay the same gender throughout life (4yrs)

• Gender constancy: Understanding that someone stays the same gender even though they may change their appearance (<4yrs)

Gender Schema Theory

Social-cognitive theories (gender)

__________________ - Information-processing approach. Development of gender framework is basis of gender development

Begins as soon as child recognizes differences between male and female and can recognize own gender

• Once schema starts to form, will assimilate many experiences to it

• Underlies gender scripts and sex-typed behaviours

Gender stereotypes

Gender and sex

________________ - Stereotyped ideas develop soon after infancy

• Rigidity emerges late in early childhood; by age 9 years, understand there is a difference between what is usual and what is wrong

• At 5-6 years children essentialize gender as significant; they later understand that these rules are conventions and so gender-role concepts become more flexible

• Between ages 5-11 years: gender stereotyping declines though knowledge and spontaneous stereotyping are still high

Sex-typed behaviour

Gender and sex

______________ - Different patterns of behaviour exhibited by boys vs. girls

• Emerges earlier than ideas about sex roles

• Preference for sex-stereotyped toys by 18-24 months - before can identify own sex or gender

Gender + peer interactions

Gender and sex

______________ - Same-gender interactions differ in quality

Interactions involve instruction and modelling of gender-appropriate behaviour

• Girls: take an enabling style

  • Supporting, expressing agreement, making suggestions

  • Fosters more equality and intimacy and keeps the interaction going

• Boys: take a constricting or restrictive style

  • Inhibits the partner and shortens or ends the interaction

• Boys don’t respond to girls’ enabling style → conditioning → avoiding future interactions with boys

Cross-gender behaviour

Gender and sex

________________ - Behaviour atypical for their gender in their culture. More common among girls than boys because more tolerated by others

• Tomboyishness may foster assertiveness in girls

• Sex-typed behaviours are stable across early and middle childhood

• Cross-gender behaviour in early childhood predicts feelings of differentness from peers in adolescence

• Children as young as two identify as trans

• Best practice is to support and affirm their identities