Exam 3 11.1 - Social and Personality Development in Childhood

Anxious Attachment

an insecure attachment style characterized by a deep fear of abandonment, low self-esteem, and a chronic need for reassurance in relationships

Attachment Style

Based on early caregiver bonds, defines how adults connect and behave in relationships.

Authoritarian Parenting Style

a strict, high-demand style characterized by rigid rules, low responsiveness, and a "my way or the highway" approach

Authoritative Parenting Style

A parenting style characterized by high (but reasonable) expectations for children’s behavior, good communication, warmth and nurturance, and the use of reasoning (rather than coercion) as preferred responses to children’s misbehavior.

Avoidant Attachment:

insecure attachment pattern characterized by a strong desire for independence, discomfort with emotional intimacy, and self-reliance.

Caregiver Sensitivity

the sensitive way in which caregivers respond to the needs of their infants

Conscience

The cognitive, emotional, and social influences that cause young children to create and act consistently with internal standards of conduct.

Effortful Control

A temperament quality that enables children to be more successful in motivated self-regulation.

Family Stress Model

A description of the negative effects of family financial difficulty on child adjustment through the effects of economic stress on parents’ depressed mood, increased marital problems, and poor parenting.

Gender Schemas

Organized beliefs and expectations about maleness and femaleness that guide children’s thinking about gender.

Goodness of Fit

The match or synchrony between a child’s temperament and characteristics of parental care that contributes to positive or negative personality development. A good “fit” means that parents have accommodated to the child’s temperamental attributes, and this contributes to positive personality growth and better adjustment.

Mary Ainsworth

did strange situation procedure - observing reunions after separation, she identified three attachment styles: secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant, measuring how children use caregivers as a secure base.

Secure Attachment

The child explores freely, is distressed by the mother's absence, avoids the stranger alone, and greets the mother warmly upon reunion, easily comforted

Insecure-Avoidant Attachment

The child shows little to no distress when the mother leaves, treats the stranger similarly to the caregiver, and shows little interest upon the mother's return.

Insecure-Resistant (Ambivalent) Attachment

The child shows extreme distress upon separation, resists the stranger, and acts ambivalent or angry toward the mother upon return, seeking contact but resisting it.

Permissive Parenting Style

high responsiveness and warmth but very low demands, structure, or discipline

Secure Attachment

An infant’s confidence in the sensitivity and responsiveness of a caregiver, especially when he or she is needed. Infants can be securely attached or insecurely attached.

Social Referencing

The process by which one individual consults another’s emotional expressions to determine how to evaluate and respond to circumstances that are ambiguous or uncertain.

“Strange Situation”: experiment by Mary Ainsworth to define attachment styles

• The Setup: A small, unfamiliar room with toys where a mother (or caregiver), child, and researcher interact through eight structured, three-minute segments.

• Key Behaviors Observed: Separation anxiety (distress upon leaving), willingness to explore, and the child's reaction upon the mother's return (the reunion).

• The "Stranger": An unknown adult enters the room during the experiment to test stranger anxiety.

Temperament

Early emerging differences in reactivity and self-regulation, which constitutes a foundation for personality development.

Theory of Mind

Children’s growing understanding of the mental states that affect people’s behavior.

Uninvolved Parenting Style

low responsiveness and low demandingness, where parents meet basic needs like food and shelter but are emotionally detached, distant, and uninvolved in their child's life

How do nature and nurture interact to influence social and personality development in childhood?

1. Attachments between children and their parents is biologically natural, which prompt children’s benefit from learning, security, guidance, warmth, and affirmation that close relationships provide 

2. Infants securely attach when parents respond sensitively to them, while they become insecurely attached when care is inconsistent or neglectful 

3. Security of attachment is important cornerstone of social and personality development, because children who securely attached found to develop stronger friendships with peers, more advanced emotional understanding and early conscience development, more positive self-concepts, compared to insecurely attached children

4. As children age, parents with high but reasonable expectations, communicate w/ children have authoritative parenting style 

5. Those who are less-constructive, uninvolved, or permissible lead to authoritarian parenting styles 

6. Family stress model and how financial difficulties and other relationships can lead to poor parenting

How do social relationships impact the development of kids’ social skills and personalities?

1. Social interaction with another child who is similar in age, skills, and knowledge provokes the development of many social skills that are valuable for the rest of life

2. Children learn to initiate and maintain social interactions with others, learn to manage conflict, and coordination of goals and understanding 

3. Can also be challenging, such as being accepted by others, bullying, social comparison - lead to later behavior problems 

How does social understanding evolve throughout childhood?

1. Before 1, infants aware other people have perceptions, feelings, and other mental states that affect behavior - social referencing - baby looks at mother’s face with confront with unfamiliar face (if mother is calm, baby responds positively, if mother is distressed, baby responds distressed) 

2. Babies begin to develop theory of mind and begin to understand that people have different mental states; social understanding grows significantly as children’s theory of mind develops 

3. Developing social understanding based on children’s everyday interactions with others and careful interpretation of what they see and hear 

What is the relationship between temperament and personality development?

1. Temperament (early-emerging differences in reactivity and self-regulation) is foundation for personality development, it interacts with influence of experience from moment of birth via parental care to shape personality 

2. Personality shaped by goodness of fit between child’s temperament and characteristics of environment 

3. Personality develops in temperament as children mature biologically, and children’s self-concept, motivations to achieve or socialize, their values and goals, coping styles and other qualities make up one’s personality 

How do the three commonly studied attachment patterns differ across cultures?insecure-resistant/ambivalent: cling to caregivers 

1. insecure-resistant/ambivalent: cling to caregivers 

2. Insecure avoidant: ignore caregiver

3. Secure attachment: children will explore room in presence of caregiver 

4. 60% middle-class children in US have secure attachments with caregivers 

5. Japanese and Korean children have different proportions of insecure attachment 

6. Studies in Mali showed that 69% displayed secure attachment 

7. When separated, Ugandan children will protest more than US children bc they are used to be near their mothers 

What are the consequences of secure/insecure attachment in diverse relationship types?

1. secure child-caregiver attachments are associated with more positive peer relationships in middle childhood and positive romantic relationships in adolescence ans adulthood 

2. Little research done in immigrant children, but those who receive parental warmth predicted friendship intimacy with same-sex friends in middle adolescence 

3. Children who have insecure attachments to their parents have a difficult time regulating their emotions and have unhealthy internal working models for how relationships should work

4. The longer African Americans live in poverty during adolescence, the more likely they are to experience accelerated cellular aging between the ages of 20 and 27.

How does social cognition affect diverse peer relationships?

1. False-belief theory of mind (ToM) - recognize that others have belief different from their own 

2. Most children acquire ToM at age 4 or 5, some cultures see delays in this development 

3. Cultures focus on individualistic values develop ToM faster than those who don’t use much mental state reasoning with children 

4. Family stressors, lack of education resources, and authoritarian practices and brought by low SMS can lead to ToM delay