Exam 3 (Chapters 7-10)

left handed children (10%)

both hemispheres, parts of the right and left sides of the brain that process language work better in tandem, more in creative professions, more gifted, link with mental health conditions

right handed children (90%)

left hemisphere

development of the prefrontal cortex

rapid growth of the prefrontal cortex, hemispheres continue to lateralize

lateralization of the hemisphere during this stage

left hemisphere especially active: language skills and handedness

factors related to childhood injuries

gender and temperament, poverty, single parenthood, low parental education, international differences, teenage parents, shortage of high-quality childcare

gross motor development (which motor skills will improve during this stage)

balance improves, gait smooth and rhythmic by 2, upper- and lower-body skills combine into more refined actions by age 5, greater speed and endurance

Piaget's preoperational stage

2-7, gains in mental representation (make-believe play, symbol-real-world relations), limitations in thinking (egocentrism, lack of conservation, lack of hierarchical classification)

Criticisms of Piaget’s preoperational stage

disagreement over whether a pre operational stage really exists, some experts deny the stage approach and others support a flexible stage notion—a related set of competencies develops over an extended period

Important limitations in preoperational thinking

Egocentrism, Lack of Conservation, Difficulty with hierarchical classification

Egocentrism

failure to distinguish others’ viewpoints from one’s own

Lack of Conservation

Understanding that physical characteristics remain the same when appearance changes

Difficulty with hierarchical classification

a child's ability to solve problems of class inclusion marks the beginning of the period of concrete (logical) operations at about seven or eight years of age

Piaget

Cognitive development occurs as children actively explore and interact with their

environment

Vygotsky

Social interactions and guidance from others support cognitive development

Private speech (ecocentric speech)

foundation for all higher cognitive processes, serves as a self-guiding function; increases during challenging tasks, gradually internalized as silent inner speech

Scripts

memory for familiar everyday events

autobiographical memory

memory for one time events, improves with cognitive and conversational skills, influence of adult interaction: (elaborative style: fosters organized and detailed personal stories), (repetitive style: weak at promoting autobiographical recall)

Scaffolding

Adults aid learning by adjusting support to child’s level of performance, effectiveness varies culturally

(Initiative) vs guilt

new sense of purposefulness, eagerness to try new tasks and join activities, play permits trying out new skills, strides in conscience development

initiative vs (guilt)

overly strict superego/conscience causing too much guilt, related to parental threats/criticism/punishment

Parallel play

plays near other children with similar materials, does not try to influence them

Associative play

engages in separate activities, exchanges toys and comments

Cooperative play

orients with peers toward a common play goal

Proactive (instrumental) aggression

meant to help the child get something he/she wants, self initiated

Reactive (hostile) aggression

meant to hurt someone, defensive response to provocation

Verbal aggression

direct, threats of physical aggression, name calling, teasing

Relational aggression

direct/indirect, social exclusion, malicious gossip, friendship manipulation

Self-awareness

supports self-concept

Self-esteem

self-judgment and associated feelings, influences: emotional experiences, future behavior, long-term psychological adjustment

Psychoanalytic theory of morality

freud (superego and guilt), new evidence (induction, empathy-based guilt)

Social learning theory of morality

modeling moral behavior, punishment

Cognitive-developmental theory of morality

children as active thinkers about social rules

Empathy

feeling same/similar emotions as another person

sympathy

feeling concern or sorrow for another’s plight

Emotional development and friendships

Parents who understand their own emotions can model strategies for regulating emotions

and managing stress and friendships between ages 2 and 5 are often changeable rather than fixed

Typical growth

approximately 2–3 inches in height and 5 pounds in weight per year

What is nutrition and what areas it can influence

well-balanced, plentiful diet provides energy for successful learning and physical activity, IQ/cognition/focus/test-taking affected by diets high in sugar and processed foods + diets low in iron and folate

Factors associated with childhood obesity

overweight parents, low SES, parental feeding practices (overfeeding, overly controlling), insufficient sleep, low physical activity, television, eating out

What contributes to gender differences in motor development

girls better at fine-motor skills, boys better at gross-motor skills (sports)

Games with rules v other types of play (what must the child be able to do in order to

participate in this type of play successfully)

(sports, invented games) and rough and tumble play (establishes dominance hierarchy)

Piaget's concrete operational stage

thinking is more logical, flexible, but children still struggle

with abstract thought

Decentration

focusing on several aspects of a problem, and relating them

Reversibility

thinking through a series of steps and then mentally reversing direction

Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory

includes three types of intelligence (analytical, creative, and

practical)

analytical intelligence

apply strategies, acquire task-relevant and metacognitive knowledge, engage in self-regulation

creative intelligence

solve novel problems, make processing skills automatic to free working memory for complex thinking

practical intelligence

adapt to, shape and/or, select… environments to meet both personal growth and the demands of one’s everyday world

Group intelligence tests

allow testing of large groups, require little training to administer, useful for instructional planning, identify students who need individual testing

individual intelligence tests

require training and experience to administer, provide insights about accuracy of score, identify highly intelligent children and children with learning problems

Erikson: Industry

sense of competence at skills and tasks; combines several developments (positive but realistic self concept, pride in accomplishment, moral responsibility, cooperative participation with age mates)

Erikson: Inferiority

pessimism and lack of confidence in own ability to do well, others’ negative responses can contribute

What does Erikson’s sense of industry combine?

a positive but realistic self concept, pride in accomplishment, moral responsibility and cooperative participation with age mates

Self-concept: How do children refine their self-concept

by organizing their observations of behaviors and internal states into general dispositions and making social comparisons with others

Influences on self-esteem

culture/gender/ethnicity, child-rearing practices, attributions (mastery-oriented, learned-helplessness), process praise vs. person praise

Factors that may influence learned-helplessness attributions

person praise (emphasizes child’s traits), teaches children that abilities are fixed, parents believe child is incapable, unsupportive teachers, gender stereotypes, cultural values

Problem-centered coping

appraises situation as changeable, identifies difficulty, decides what to do

Emotion-focused coping

uses when problem centered coping doesn’t work, internal/private/aimed at controlling distress when little can be done about the outcome

Changes in moral understanding in middle childhood

flexible moral rules (lying not always bad and truthfulness not always good, considered intentions and context), better understanding go varied reasons for deception (gains in recursive perspective taking), linking moral imperatives and social conventions (violations of purposeful social conventions are regarded as closer to moral transgressions

Only children

higher in self-esteem and educational attainment (closer relationships with parents who may exert more pressure to achieve), less well accepted in peer group (lack of practice in conflict resolution)

Friendships and peer relationships in middle childhood

personal qualities (trust) become more important, more selective in choosing friends (similar to self), fairly stable + can last several years, type of friends affect development and behavior