Individual & Family Development Midterm Flashcards

Based on the study guide that prof Rachel provided

The Nature of Development: What are biological processes?

Produce changes in an individual’s physical nature

The Nature of Development: What are cognitive processes?

Involve changes in an individuals thinking, intelligence, and language

The Nature of Development: What are socioemotional processes?

Involve changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, chages in emotions, and changes in personality

The Nature of Development: How do biological, cognitive, and socioemotional proecesses interact/influence one another?

• These processes are often bidirectional (e.g. biological processes can influence cognitive)

• The human being is integrated, mind & body are interdependent

• Example: Baby smiling in response to parents touch

  • Biological: physical nature of touch & baby’s response

  • Cognitive: the ability to understand and react

  • Socioemotional: the emotions elicited in baby and influence of smile on interactions

The Nature of Development:What is the meaning of bidirectional influences?

Developmental provesses can influence one another in opposite directions

• Example: bio. processes can influence cog. processes, and vice versa

Characteristics of Development: What is meant by multidimentional development?

• Within three dimensions of development (bio, cog, soc) there are many components (e.g. cog dimension–memory, processing speed)

• Throughout dev., changes occur in every dimenson

• Changes in one dimension affect dev. in other ones

Characteristics of Development: What is meant by developmental plasticity?

Plasticity is the capacity for change

Characteristics of Development–Contextual Influences: What are normative age-graded influences?

Similar for individuals in certain age group

• Examples: puberty, menopause (bio); starting school, retirement (soc)

Characteristics of Development–Contextual Influences: What are normative history-graded influences?

Common to certain generation due to historical circumstances

• Examples: Great Depression, WWII, COVID

Characteristics of Development–Contextual Influences: What are nonnormative life events?

Unusual occurences that majorly impact someone’s life

• Examples: teen pregnancy, house fire, winning the lottery

Characteristics of Development: How do biology, culture and individual experiences interact?

Development comes from biological, individual, and cultural factors influencing each other.

• Example #1: People make sense of world through cutural norms, values & beliefs

• Example #2: Power dyamics & gender roles can impact dev. by shaping expriences people pursue

The Lifespan Perspective: Why is development considered lifelong?

Age-related change continues throughout adulthood–we don’t just experience these in childhood

The Lifespan Perspective: What are the three goals of human development?

1. Growth

2. Maintenance

3. Regulation of loss

The Lifespan Perspective: How do we distinguise between chronological, biological, psychological, and social age?

• Chronological age: years since birth

• Biological age: age in terms of biological health

• Pyschological age: person’s adaptive capacities compared with those of others of the same chronological age

• Social age: connectedness with others and the social roles people adopt

The Lifespan Perspective: What are the differences between normal, pathological, and succcessful aging?

Normal Aging: most individuals; psych functioning peaks in early middle age, remains stable until 50s/60s, then declines through early 80s

Pathological Aging: people who show greater than average decline as they age through adult years

Successful Aging: people whose positive physical, cognitive, and socioemotional is maintained longer

Central Debates in Development: What is the nature vs nurture question?

Concerns the extent to which dev. is influenced by nature and by nurture

• Nature–biological inheritance

• Nurture–environmental experiences

Central Debates in Development: What is the stability-change issue?

Involves the degree to which early traits and characterists persist or change over time

Central Debates in Development: What is the continuity-discontinuity issue?

Focuses on the degree to which development involves either gradual, cumulative change (continuity) OR distinct changes (discontinuity)

Development & Social Work: How do social, cultural, and environmental contexts influence development?

Person-in-environment: dev. shaped by systemic, relational, and physical settings; people cannot be understood apart form environment

• Culture & Ethnicity: Beliefs/values/traditions guide worldview & norms

• Socioeconomic Status: Unequal access to resources, ed., healthcare, etc…

• Gender & Social Roles: Shape identity, privilege, barriers

• Social Policy: Gov’t & community influence citizen welfare, interventions for vulnerable pop.

Development & Social Work: Why are developmental theories useful in SW practice?

They help us understand how an individual’s past and current biological, cogntive, and socioemtoional experiences shape their present functioning and future outcomes

Development & Social Work: What is important to recognize when applying theories to an individual’s experiences?

Theories offer different perspectives, and may not fully explain an individual’s experiences

Understanding Developmental Theories: What is the purpose of developmental theories in explaining and predicting human behaviour?

Theories provde an interellated set of principles that help explain how & why developmental changes occur

• They offer different perspectives and have both strengths AND limitations

Psychoanalytic Theories (unconsious)–Freud: What are the roles of the id, ego, and superego? (Freud)

• Id (The Instincts): Pleasure principle; demands immediate gratification

• Ego (The Reality): Reality principle; acts as the rational mediator

• Superego (The Morals): Ideal self and conscience; develops through societal and parental standards

Psychoanalytic Theories (unconsious)–Freud: What is psychosexual development?

Freud’s idea that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and sexual impulses passses through five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and gentinal

Psychosocial Theories Erikson: What is psychosocial development?

Eight stages of development (shaped by biopsychosocial):

1. Trust versus mistrust (0-1)

2. Autonomy versus shame and doubt (2-3)

3. Intiative versus guilt (3-5)

4. Industry versus inferiority (middle & late childhood, 6-puberty)

5. Identity versus identity confusion (Adolesence, 10-20)

6. Intimacy versus isolation (Early adulthood, 20s, 30s)

7. Generativity versus stagnation (Middle adulthood, 40s, 50s)

8. Integrity versus despair (60+)

Psychosocial & Psychoanalytic Theories: What are the key differences between Freud & Erikson’s perspectives on development?

• Freud claims personality shaped in first 5 years of life; Erikson argued that developmental change occurs across the lifespan

  • Essentially, diff approach to stability vs. change

• Freud said dev. in psychosexual stages; Erikson said dev. in psychosocial stages

Cognitive Developmental Theories (conscious) – Piaget: What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development, and how did he believe thinking changed across the lifespan?

Piaget believed that how a child thinks, rather than how much they know, changes as they grow & determines stage of dev.

1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2): Coordinate sensory experienced with physical actions

2. Preoperational Stage (2-7): Represent world w/ words & images

3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11): Reson logically about concrete events

4. Formal Operational Stage (11+): Reason in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways

Cognitive Developmental Theories (conscious) – Vygotsky: What is Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory?

In Vygotsky’s view, culture and social interaction guide cognitive development

• dev. is inseperable from social & cultural activites

Cognitive Developmental Theories (conscious): What is information processing theory?

Emphasizes that individuals manipulate info, monitor it, and stragetize about it

• Their capacity for processing gradually increases, rather than through distinct stages

Behavioural & Social Cognitive Theories–Skinner: What is Skinner’s operant conditioning theory? What is operant conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment?

In Skinner’s view, a key aspect of dev. is behaviour, NOT thoughts & feelings

• Operant conditioning: Consequences of a behaviour produce changes in the behaviours reoccurence

• Reinforcement: A behaviour followed by a rewarding stimulus is MORE likely to occur

• Punishment: A behaviour followed by a punishing stimulus is LESS likely to occur

Behavioural & Social Cognitive Theories–Bandura: What is Bandura’s social cognitive theory? What is observational learning?

Behavioural, environmental, and person/cognitive factors are the key factors in development

• Observational Learning: Learning through observing what others do

Behavioural & Social Cognitive Theories–Bandura: What is the relationship between behaviour, personal/cognitive factors, and the environment?

It is a reciprocal, NOT one way relationship

• Personal factor: Persons confidence they can control their success

• Cognitive factor: Strageies for achieving success

• Environment: Another child’s behaviour

Ethological Theories: What is Ethological theory?

Behaviour is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods in development

• John Bowlby: attatchment to caregiver over first year of life has important consequences throughout lifespan

Bioecological Theories–Bronfenbrenner: What is Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory?

Development reflects the influence of several environmental systems; these interact to influence dev.

1. Microsystem: Where you live, genetics

2. Mesosytem: Relations b/w microsystems (e.g. relationship of family experiences to peer experiences)

3. Exosystem: Links b/w social setting where you do not have active role & your immediate context (e.g. child’s home life affected by parent’s work life)

4. Macrosystem: The culture you live in

5. Chronosystem: the patterning of environmental events and transitions throughout life (e.g. divorce)

Humanistic Approaches – Carl Rogers: What is the humanist approach? What did Carl Roger’s believe?

Believe that people work had to become the best they can be

• Carl Rogers: for people to grow & function, you need: openness, acceptance, and empathy

Humanistic Approaches – Rogers: What is congruency vs incongruity?

Self-actualization occurs when a person’s “ideal self” is congruent w/ their behaviour

Humanistic Approaches – Maslow: What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

It suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic biological and psychological needs before moving on to higher-level personal growth

Bottom to top:

1. Physiological

2. Safety

3. Belonging & Love

4. Esteem

5. Cognitive

6. Aesthetic

7. Self-actualization

Contemporary Approaches: What is the main idea of positive psychology?

Focuses on alternative methods of obtaining health & happiness

Contemporary Approaches: What is examined by neuroscience & neuroplasticity?

Examines how the brain maps our personal narratives

Contemporary Approaches: What is the main idea of dynamic systems theory?

Development is probabilistic and emerges out of complex interactions b/w the developming person and their environment

Emotional Development in Infancy: What is the difference between primary emotions and self conscious emotions?

Primary emotions: First 6 months of life; surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust

Self-conscious emotions: jealousy, empathy, embarrassment, pride, shame, guilt

Emotional Development in Infancy: How do biological & environmental factors inluence emotional development? (+ Emotion linked interchanges)

Emotion linked interchanges: provide foundation for infant attatchment to parent & are critical for learning to experience/regulate emotions

• Biological Factors: innate wiring is demonstrated by universal facial expressions across cultures & natural smiling in infants blind from birth

• Environmental Factors: caregivers & infants engage in reiprocal, mutually regulated interactions

Emotional Development in Infancy: What is the importance of crying/smiling/fear as early forms of emotional communication? (+ emotional socialization)

Emotional socialization: allows infants & caregivers to bond and coordinate their social interactions

• Crying: most important way newborns communicate with world

Behavioural & Social Cognitive Theories: How do we distinguish between learning through consequences and learning through observation?

**Learning through Consequences (Skinner's Operant Conditioning):**
• Behaviour is shaped directly by the external stimuli that immediately follow it.
• Rewarding stimuli (*reinforcement*) increase the likelihood of the behaviour recurring, whereas punishing stimuli decrease it.

**Learning through Observation (Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory):**
• People cognitively represent the actions of others and adopt those behaviours through *modelling* and *imitation*.
• Direct external reinforcement is not required for learning to occur.

Emotional Development in Infancy: What is the importance of crying, smiling, and fear as early forms of emotional communication?

Emotional Socialization: Enables infants and caregivers to form emotional bonds and mutually coordinate interactions.

Crying: The most vital communication tool newborns possess.

• Three distinct forms: basic cry, anger cry, and pain cry.

Smiling:

• Reflexive smile: Appears in the first month during sleep, without external stimulation.

• Social smile: Emerges around 2 months of age as an intentional response to an external stimulus (such as a caregiver's face).

Fear:

• One of the earliest emotions, appearing around 6 months and peaking around 18 months.

• Reflects an innate evolutionary predisposition to rapidly detect threatening stimuli.

Emotional Development in Infancy: What are stranger anxiety, separation protest, and social referencing?

Stranger Anxiety: Most common expression of infant fear; dependent on environmental, proximity to mother, and stranger characteristics.

Separation Protest: Crying and distress shown when caregiver departs; occurs across cultures.

Social Referencing: “Reading" emotional cues in trusted adults to know how to act in ambiguous situations.

Emotional Development in Infancy: How do infants develop emotional regulation and what is the role of caregivers?

Emotion Regulation: Developing capacity to inhibit/moderate the intensity & duration of emotional arousal.

Developmental Progression:

• First Year: Relies mostly on external soothing from caregivers; infants gradually develop simple self-soothing behaviours e.g. thumb-sucking.

• Second Year & Beyond: Toddlers use language, verbal expressions, and cog. strategies (such as redirecting attention) to manage distress.

Role of Caregivers: Responsive soothing in first year modifies infant's neurobiological stress systems and builds foundational security.

Temperament: What is temperament and how does it influence individual differences?

Definition: • An individual's characteristic behavioural style and typical manner of responding emotionally.

Core Influences: • Dictates individual differences in reactivity & self-regulation

Temperament – Chess and Thomas: What are the three basic temperament classifications?

Temperament: An individual's behavioural style and characteristic way of responding emotionally.

• Influences differences in how quickly and intensely infants react to emotions and how effectively they self-regulate.

Temperament – Kagan: What is behavioural inhibition?

Inhibition to the unfamiliar: Reacting to aspects of unfamiliarity (strangers, novel toys/rooms) with avoidance, distress, or subdued affect, beginning around 7 to 9 months.

• Puts infants and young children at higher risk for developing social anxiety later on.

Temperament: What is effortful control (self-regulation) and why is it important?

Effortful Control (EC): An infant inhibits a dominant response to execute an adaptive, subdominant response.

High Effortful Control: Enables children to prevent emotional arousal from becoming overwhelming; Characterized by flexible attention & self-soothing strategies.

Low Effortful Control: Leaves children easily agitated, intensely emotional, and struggling to self-regulate when frustrated.

Temperament: How do heredity, experience, culture, and parenting influence the expression of temperament?

Biological Foundations: Biological predispositions provide the baseline for temperament.

Experience & Parenting: Environmental responsiveness determines whether temperamental vulnerabilities are mitigated or amplified over time.

Gender & Cultural Influences: Cultural values dictate which temperamental traits are encouraged (e.g., quiet reserve vs. active assertiveness); Parents socialize boys and girls differently based on cultural gender expectations regarding emotional expression.

Temperament: What is goodness of fit and why is adapting caregiving important?

Goodness of Fit: The match between a child's temperament and environmental demands & caregiver support.

Key Caregiving Strategies:

• Respect individuality: Accept child's natural pacing

• Structure the environment: Provide predictable routines

• Avoid negative labelling: Refrain from branding a child as "problematic".

Personality and the Developing Sense of Self – Erikson: What are trust versus mistrust and autonomy versus shame and doubt?

• Trust versus mistrust (1st year): Infants must learn they are cared for–sets expectation that world is safe.

• Autonomy versus shame and doubt (2nd year): Toddlers assert their independence to do what they can do

Personality and the Developing Sense of Self: How does caregiving support trust and autonomy?

**Fostering Trust:**
• Consistent, sensitive physical comfort and emotional availability teach the infant that their needs will be met reliably.

**Supporting Autonomy:**
• Caregivers provide a safe environment where toddlers can do things independently (feeding, dressing, exploring).
• Caregivers avoid taking over tasks out of impatience or shaming the child for mistakes or accidents.

Personality and the Developing Sense of Self: How does self-recognition emerge in infancy?

Early Self-Awareness: Attentiveness to mirror reflections appears as early as 3 months of age.

Mirror / Rouge Technique: Rouge placed on infant's nose before placing them before a mirror.

• Under 12 months: Infants do not realize the reflection is themselves.

• 15 to 18 months: A noticeable increase in self-directed touching of the nose occurs.

• By 24 months: The vast majority of toddlers demonstrate clear self-recognition by touching their own nose rather than the mirror glass.

Social Development and Attachment: How do infants develop social awareness, joint attention, and goal-directed understanding?

Social Orientation: From birth, infants show preference for face-like patterns; face-to-face play flourishes between 2 and 3 months.

Joint Attention (Gaze-Following): Looking where another person looks happens 6-12 months; Vital for realizing people have independent perspectives

Goal-Directed Understanding: Toward the end of first year, infants recognize others act intentionally to achieve goals

Social Development and Attachment: What is attachment and what did Freud, Erikson, and Bowlby propose?

**Definition of Attachment:**
• A close, enduring emotional bond between an infant and their specific primary caregiver(s).

**Freud's Perspective:**
• Claimed attachment stems from *oral satisfaction*—the infant attaches to whoever feeds them.

**Erikson's Perspective:**
• Emphasized that *physical comfort and sensitive, responsive care* in the first year build trust and attachment.

**Bowlby's Ethological Perspective:**
• Stressed that infants and caregivers possess an *innate biological predisposition* to form attachments to ensure survival and protection.

Social Development and Attachment: What was the significance of Harlow's research on contact comfort?

Harlow's Monkey Experiments:

• Infant monkeys separated from mothers at birth and reared w/ surrogate mothers: bare wire that dispensed milk, & one warm, soft terrycloth that did not dispense food.

Key Finding:

• Preferred spending their contact time clinging to the soft cloth mother, going to it when frightened.

• Demonstrated that contact comfort, not feeding or oral gratification, is the primary foundation of attachment.

Social Development and Attachment: What are Bowlby's four phases of attachment development?

**Phase 1 (Birth to 2 Months):**
• Infants instinctively direct attachment behaviours toward human figures generally; strangers and parents elicit similar smiling or crying.

**Phase 2 (2 to 7 Months):**
• Attachment becomes focused on one primary figure (usually the primary caregiver) as the baby learns to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar faces.

**Phase 3 (7 to 24 Months):**
• Specific attachments form; increased locomotor skills allow babies to actively seek contact with their caregiver and maintain physical proximity.

**Phase 4 (24 Months Onward):**
• Children become aware of others' feelings, goals, and plans, taking these into account when forming their own social actions.

Attachment Patterns and Caregiving: What is Ainsworth's Strange Situation and what is its purpose?

Ainsworth's Strange Situation: • A measure of infant attachment involving eight episodes of separations & reunions w/ caregiver & unfamiliar adult.

Clinical Purpose: • Evaluates how infant uses caregiver as a secure base for exploration, how they respond to caregiver leaving/returning.

Attachment Patterns and Caregiving: What are the four attachment patterns?

**Securely Attached:**
• Uses caregiver as a secure base to explore; protests mildly when caregiver departs, but seeks contact and is quickly comforted upon reunion.

**Insecure Avoidant:**
• Shows insecurity by avoiding the caregiver; shows little distress when the parent leaves and actively ignores or turns away upon their return.

**Insecure Resistant (Ambivalent):**
• Clings anxiously to the caregiver and fails to explore; cries loudly when parent leaves, yet pushes away or shows anger upon reunion.

**Insecure Disorganized:**
• Appears dazed, confused, and fearful; exhibits contradictory behaviours (such as approaching while looking away), often associated with trauma, abuse, or extreme neglect.

Attachment Patterns and Caregiving: What is the importance of caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness?

Caregiver Sensitivity: Secure attachment linked to caregivers who read infant cues accurately, respond promptly and warmly

Caregivers of Insecure Infants:

• Avoidant: Tend to be unavailable, rejecting, or overstimulating/intrusive.

• Resistant: Tend to be inconsistent

• Disorganized: Often neglectful, abusive, or dealing with unresolved trauma.

Attachment Patterns and Caregiving: How do cultural and environmental contexts influence attachment?

**Cultural Context:**
• Western models emphasize a one-on-one (dyadic) attachment between infant and mother.
• Many global and Indigenous cultures feature collective caregiving where infants develop secure attachments to multiple family and community members simultaneously.
• Security remains developmentally important worldwide, even though the specific network of caregivers varies across cultural settings.

Attachment Patterns and Caregiving: Do early attachment experiences determine later development?

Developmental Cascades:

• Early attachment provides foundation, but is not biologically deterministic.

• Developmental Cascades: Connections across bio/cog/soc/environmental contexts accumulate over time to shape functioning.

• Consistent positive caregiving through childhood can buffer against insecurity, & later family trouble can disrupt secure attachment.

Family and Social Contexts: What is the family as a system of interconnected relationships?

Family Systems Theory: family is a constellation of subsystems defined by generation, gender, and role

Reciprocal Influences: Each subsystem exerts both direct effects (e.g., harsh parenting affecting the child) and indirect effects (e.g., marital conflict undermining parental warmth and triggering child behaviour issues).

Family and Social Contexts: What is reciprocal socialization?

Definition: Bidirectional socialization process in which children socialize their parents just as parents socialize their children.

Key Concepts:

• Synchrony: Closely coordinated, mutual social interaction between caregiver and infant (like a conversational dance).

• Scaffolding: Adjusting the level of support to fit the child's current performance level to help them master a new skill.

Family and Social Contexts: What are the challenges and adjustments associated with the transition to parenthood?

**Disequilibrium:**
• The arrival of a newborn requires major adaptation in identity, daily routines, division of domestic labour, and careers.

**Relationship Dynamics:**
• Many couples experience a drop in marital satisfaction due to sleep deprivation, financial pressures, and less intimate couple time.
• Couples with strong communication and shared expectations navigate the transition far more smoothly.

Family and Social Contexts: What are the roles of maternal/paternal caregiving, parental leave, and childcare?

Maternal vs. Paternal Caregiving: Mothers spend more time on physical caretaking and routine tasks; fathers interact more through physical play.

Parental Leave: Public policies allow parents to maintain job security while bonding with infants.

Childcare: High-quality childcare fosters enhanced development, particularly for low-SES families.

Developing a Sense of Self – Erikson: What are initiative versus guilt and industry versus inferiority?

• Initiative versus guilt (early childhood, ages 3–5): Children use skills to make things happen on their own initiative; overly strict punishment leads to guilt.

• Industry versus inferiority (middle and late childhood, 6–puberty): Children direct energy toward mastering skills; negative feedback or struggle can foster feelings of inferiority.

Developing a Sense of Self: How does children's self-understanding change from early to middle childhood?

Early Childhood: Children describe themselves using observable, physical attributes (e.g., "I have brown hair," "I can run fast").

Middle and Late Childhood: Descriptions about internal psychological characteristics (e.g., "I am honest," "I am shy").

• Social comparison becomes prominent—children evaluate themselves relative to peers.

Developing a Sense of Self: How do we distinguish between self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy?

Self-Concept: Evaluations of the self in distinct areas (e.g., academic, athletic, physical appearance).

Self-Esteem: Overall evaluation of self-image (e.g., "I am a good person").

Self-Efficacy (Bandura): The belief one has capability to master a specific situation and produce positive outcomes ("I can do this").

Developing a Sense of Self: What influences children's self-esteem and how can it be increased?

Foundations & Influences: Early parental warmth, peer acceptance; Low self-esteem correlated w/ depression, and delinquency.

Two Core Strategies to Improve Self-Esteem:

• Identify causes of low self-esteem

• Provide emotional support and social approval

Developing a Sense of Self: How does self-regulation develop during childhood?

Self-Regulation: Deliberate efforts to manage one's own behaviour, thoughts, and emotions.

Developmental Shift (Ages 3 to 7): Children progress from externally guided/assisted regulation to internalized, self-imposed cognitive-behavioural control.

Brain Development: Directly linked to maturation within the prefrontal cortex.

Developing a Sense of Self: How do perspective-taking and skepticism develop in childhood?

Perspective-Taking:

• To step into another person's shoes and understand their thoughts and feelings.

• Essential for developing empathy and&navigating relationships.

Developing Skepticism:

• In middle/late childhood, children realize that people dont always tell whole truth.

• They learn to evaluate sources of information and identify bias or ulterior motives.

Developing a Sense of Self: How does social categorization contribute to awareness of discrimination?

Self-Categorization: As children recognize what makes them unique, they categorize themselves into social groups (gender, race, ethnicity).

Awareness of Discrimination: Once children identify with social groups & compare themselves, they realize their differential status & treatment; may experience prejudice

Gender Development: How do we distinguish between gender identity, gender roles, and gender stereotypes?

**Gender Identity:**
• The personal, deeply held sense of being male, female, or another gender along the spectrum; typically established by age 3.

**Gender Roles:**
• Cultural expectations prescribing how females or males should think, act, and feel.

**Gender Stereotypes:**
• Broad, oversimplified generalizations and beliefs about the characteristics of males and females.

Gender Development: What are the four main social theories of gender development?

Social Role Theory (Eagly): Gender differences arise from contrasting social roles, division of labour, and power hierarchies between men and women in society.

Psychoanalytic Theory of Gender (Freud): • Preschool children develop sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent, renounce it around age 5 to 6, and identify with the same-sex parent.

Social Cognitive Theory of Gender: • Gender development occurs through observing and imitating others, combined with rewards and punishments for gender-typed behaviour.

Gender Schema Theory: • Gender typing emerges as children actively organize their world into cognitive schemas of culturally "appropriate" versus "inappropriate" behaviour.

Gender Development: How do parents, peers, and cultural expectations influence gender development?

**Parental Influences:**
• *Mothers:* Tend to socialize daughters to be more obedient and responsible, focusing on relational connection.
• *Fathers:* Pay more attention to sons, encourage physical and intellectual achievement, and enforce gender conformity more strictly.

**Peer Influences ("Gender School"):**
• Peers reward sex-typed play and reject cross-gender behaviour.
• Boys experience significantly greater social pressure to conform to traditional gender norms than girls.

Gender Development: How do gender stereotypes and social expectations influence children?

Stereotype Pervasiveness: By elementary school, children aware of which occupations & behaviours are socially linked to each gender.

Developmental Impact: Rigid stereotypes can restrict children's perceived career paths, academic choices, and emotional expression. • Cross-gender interests in boys often elicit immediate peer teasing or parental disapproval.

Gender Development: What are the key gender similarities, differences, and the concept of androgyny?

**Cognitive & Brain:**
• Brains are remarkably similar; girls average slightly better verbal skills, processing speed, and academic marks; boys average higher spatial visualization.

**Socioemotional:**
• Boys show more physical and direct verbal aggression; girls show equal or greater relational/indirect aggression.
• Females express and decode emotions more readily and show more prosocial behaviour.

**Androgyny (Sandra Bem):**
• The presence of both positive masculine and positive feminine characteristics in the same individual.
• Androgynous people are often more flexible, competent, and mentally resilient across different contexts.

Emotional Development and Regulation: How do emotional awareness, self-conscious emotions, and regulation develop in childhood?

**Emotional Awareness:**
• Children acquire a richer emotional vocabulary and learn to read complex facial and vocal cues.

**Self-Conscious Emotions:**
• Pride, shame, and guilt become frequent in early childhood as self-awareness matures; they are deeply influenced by parental reactions.

**Emotion Regulation:**
• Moving from external soothing to autonomous management of emotional intensity and expression.
• A core prerequisite for peer acceptance and executive functioning.

Emotional Development and Regulation: What is the difference between emotion-coaching and emotion-dismissing parenting?

Emotion-Coaching Parents: • Monitor negative emotions and view them as natural opportunities for teaching. • Assist the child in labelling feelings and coach them in problem-solving and healthy coping strategies.

Emotion-Dismissing Parents: • View their role as denying, ignoring, or quickly shutting down negative emotions (e.g., "Don't cry," "It's no big deal"). • Leads to poorer emotional regulation and social competence in children.

Emotional Development and Regulation: How does emotional regulation relate to social competence and peer relationships?

**Social Competence:**
• Children who regulate negative affect effectively are more popular, cooperative, and socially skilled.

**Peer Rejection:**
• Children with poor emotion regulation frequently act out with sudden aggression or withdrawal, leading to avoidance or active rejection by peer groups.

Emotional Development and Regulation: How does culture influence the expression and regulation of emotions?

Display Rules: Culture teaches children when, where, & what degree emotions are shown.

Interdependence vs. Independence:

• Collectivist cultures (e.g., China, Japan) often socialize emotional restraint to preserve group harmony.

• Western cultures emphasize emotional expression & assertiveness.

Emotional Development and Regulation: How do children cope with stress and what are the five coping categories?

**Three Types of Stressors:**
• *Social* (harsh parenting, bullying), *Environmental* (poverty, neighborhood violence), and *Physical* (illness, poor nutrition).

**Five Core Coping Categories:**
• *Problem Solving:* Taking action to modify or eliminate the stressor.
• *Positive Cognitive Restructuring:* Reframing the situation to focus on positive aspects.
• *Seeking Support:* Reaching out to trusted adults or peers.
• *Avoidance:* Disengaging or avoiding the stressful situation entirely.
• *Distraction:* Engaging in an alternate activity to manage overwhelming emotions.

Emotional Development and Regulation: How does emotional understanding become more sophisticated in middle and late childhood?

**Key Emotional Advances:**
• Understanding that a person can experience mixed or conflicting emotions simultaneously.
• Greater awareness of the underlying causes and triggers of emotional reactions.
• Ability to intentionally conceal or suppress negative emotional expressions.
• Use of self-directed strategies to redirect feelings and genuine capacity for deep empathy.

Moral Development: How does moral reasoning change with cognitive and social development?

**Cognitive Underpinnings:**
• As children move beyond rigid preoperational thinking, they shift from focusing solely on external consequences to considering internal intentions, social consensus, and ethical principles.

**Social Underpinnings:**
• Mutual peer interactions challenge children to negotiate, resolve disputes, and adopt others' perspectives.

Moral Development – Piaget: What is the difference between heteronomous and autonomous morality?

Heteronomous morality: views rules as sacred, and unchangeable handed down by authority figures.

• Children judge the goodness of action by consequences rather than underlying intentions.

Autonomous morality: views rules as flexible agreements, can be negotiated through mutual consent.

• Children judge right and wrong by evaluating a person's motives and intentions rather than just final outcome

Kohlberg: What are the three levels of moral reasoning?

Preconventional Reasoning (Lowest Level):

Morality is externally controlled; good and bad are interpreted based on external rewards, punishments, and self-interest.

Conventional Reasoning (Intermediate Level): • Individuals abide by internal standards, but they are the standards of others (family expectations, societal laws, maintaining social order).

Postconventional Reasoning (Highest Level): • Morality is completely internalized; individuals recognize alternative moral courses, explore options, and decide based on universal ethical principles and human rights.

Moral Development – Turiel: What is Social Domain Theory?

Three Distinct Domains of Reasoning:

• Moral Domain: Rules protecting human rights, justice, and welfare; mandatory and unalterable (e.g., hitting or stealing is wrong).

• Social Conventional Domain: Arbitrary rules established by social consensus to maintain community order (e.g., raising your hand before speaking).

• Personal Domain: Choices left entirely to the individual's jurisdiction (e.g., choosing friends, clothing, or leisure activities).

Moral Development: How do fairness, empathy, and prosocial behaviour develop?

**Early Childhood:**
• Sharing is often done for self-serving reasons or because an adult insists.

**Middle and Late Childhood:**
• Children develop a mature concept of *fairness* based on equality (everyone gets the same), merit (rewards for extra effort), and benevolence (special consideration for disadvantaged peers).
• They show empathic concern for excluded peers and engage in spontaneous altruistic sharing.

Moral Development: How do interactions with peers and caregivers contribute to moral development?

**Peer Give-and-Take:**
• Mutual peer relationships allow for egalitarian negotiation, role-taking, and compromise where power is relatively equal.

**Caregiver Contribution:**
• Authoritative parents use reasoning and induction (explaining the consequences of a child's actions on others), which fosters internalized moral conscience rather than superficial compliance.

Parenting and Family Relationships – Baumrind: What are the four parenting styles?

Authoritative: High warmth, high control; establishes clear boundaries while encouraging independent thinking and open communication.

Authoritarian: Low warmth, high control; strict, punitive, and demanding unquestioning obedience ("Because I said so").

Indulgent (Permissive): High warmth, low control; highly affectionate and involved but imposes few demands, rules, or limits.

Neglectful (Uninvolved): Low warmth, low control; uninvolved in the child's daily life, displaying little commitment or supervision.

Parenting and Family Relationships: What are parental responsiveness and demandingness? – Parental Responsiveness (Acceptance/Warmth)

Responsiveness: The extent to which parents intentionally foster individuality, self-regulation, and self-assertion by being attuned, supportive, and acquiescent to children's needs.

Parental Demandingness (Control): • The claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family whole through maturity demands, supervision, discipline, and willingness to confront a disobeying child.

Parenting and Family Relationships: How do family relationships and parental conflict influence development?

**Parental Harmony:**
• Consistent marital warmth and cooperative coparenting provide a secure base and model healthy conflict resolution.

**High Parental Conflict:**
• Interparental hostility and domestic conflict undermine emotional security, triggering internalizing problems (anxiety, depression) and externalizing problems (acting out, aggression) in children.

Parenting and Family Relationships: How do socioeconomic circumstances and culture shape child development?

**Socioeconomic Status (SES):**
• Lower-SES parents face environmental stressors that often encourage an authoritarian style focused on obedience, while higher-SES parents focus more on cultivating autonomy and verbal negotiation.

**Cultural Diversity:**
• Authoritarian practices in some cultures (e.g., traditional Asian or Indigenous families) can reflect high parental concern and guidance rather than cold control, producing positive developmental outcomes within those cultural contexts.

Parenting and Family Relationships: How do parent-child relationships change as children become more independent?

**Shift to Coregulation:**
• In middle and late childhood, parents transfer control over moment-to-moment decisions to the child while maintaining overall supervision and guidance.

**Parents as Managers:**
• Parents increasingly act as resource managers—organizing opportunities, monitoring peer networks, structuring home study environments, and guiding academic achievement.

Peer Relationships and Play: How do peer relationships contribute to socioemotional development?

**Unique Role of Peers:**
• Provide a context of equal status where children learn reciprocal interaction, conflict negotiation, and perspective-taking outside adult authority.
• Offer crucial emotional support, validation, and a sense of belonging.

Peer Relationships and Play: What are the five peer status categories?

**Popular:**
• Frequently nominated as a best friend and rarely disliked by peers.

**Average:**
• Receives an average balance of positive and negative peer nominations.

**Neglected:**
• Infrequently nominated as a best friend, but not actively disliked (often shy or quiet).

**Rejected:**
• Infrequently nominated as a best friend and actively disliked by peers (at highest risk for serious adjustment problems).

**Controversial:**
• Frequently nominated both as a best friend and as being strongly disliked.