Ch. 10 Early Childhood Psychosocial

Factors that affect development of emotion regulation

• maturation

  • emotion regulation improves every year

• learning

  • in zone of proximal development, children learn from mentors, who offer tactics for managing emotions

• culture

  • children regulate emotions in accord with their national culture as well as their family one

Effortful control

• the ability to regulate one’s own emotions and actions through effort, not simply through natural inclination

• more dificult when in pain, tired, or hungry

Initiative vs. Guilt

• emotion regulation is part of Erikson’s third developmental stage

• initiative

  • saying something new, beginning a project, expressing an emotion

• guilt

  • depends on what happens after the initiative

Pride and Prejudice

• young child self-concept includes being proud of all their attributes, including age, size, and maturation

• seek to understand which differences among people are significant

Intrinsic Motivation

• advances creativity, innovation, and emotional well-being

• all of Eriksons psychosocial needs are intrinsic

Imagination

• apparent when children invent dialogues for their toys

• concentrate on creating a work of art

• converse with imaginary friends

Extrinsic Motivation

• comes from outside the person

Play

• solitary - age 1

  • child plays alone, unaware of other children playing nearby

• onlooker - age 2

  • a child watches others play

• parallel - age 3

  • children play in similar ways but not together

• associative - age 4

  • children interact, sharing toys, but not taking turns

• cooperative - age 5

  • children play together, creating dramas or taking turns

Two types of play

• solitary

• social

  • rough and tumble - looks rough and children seem to tumble over one another

  • sociodramatic play - children act out various roles and plots

    • arises from intrinsic motivation

  • if social play is prevented, children are less happy and less able to learn

Caregiver differences

• expressions of warmth

  • warm and affectionate? cold and critical?

• strategies for discipline

  • parents vary in how they explain, criticize, persuade, and punish

• expectations for maturity

  • parents vary in expectations for responsibility and self-control

• communication patterns

  • some parents listen patiently, others demand silence

Parenting styles

• Authoritarian parenting

  • word is law; not questioned

  • misconduct has strict punishment, usually physical

  • clear rules and high standards

  • discussion about emotions is rare

• Permissive

• Authoritarian

• Neglectful/uninvolved parenting

Authoritarian

• word is law; not questioned

• misconduct has strict punishment, usually physical

• clear rules and high standards

• discussion about emotions is rare

Permissive

• few demands

• discipline is lax

• expectations are low

• acceptance is high

Authoritative

• set limits, but are flexible

• consider themselves as guides, not authorities

• not friends

Neglectful/uninvolved

• do not know or care what their children do unless it impacts them

• may lack capacity to be involved caregivers

• unconcerned

Physical punishment

• becoming less common

• children who are not spanked are more likely to develop self-control and become less aggressive

Time out

• should not be done in anger or for too long

• only works if child enjoys time in when the child is engaged with parents or with peers

Prosocial behavior

• helpfulness and kindness without any obvious personal benefit

  • expressing concern

  • offering to share

    • including a shy child in a game

Antisocial behavior

• intentionally hurting other people

Antipathy

• feelings of dislike or even hatred for another person

• leads to antisocial actions

  • includes verbal insults

  • social exclusion

  • physical assaults

Aggression has four forms

• instrumental

• reactive

• relational

• bullying

Instrumental aggression

• hurtful behavior that is aimed at gaining something that someone else has

  • toy, place in line, turn on the swing

• apparent from age 2-6

• involves objects more than people

• normal

Reactive aggression

• an impulsive retaliation for a hurt (intentional or accidental) that can be verbal or physical

• indicates a lack of emotion regulation

• characteristic of 2 year olds

• stops at age 5

Relational aggression

• nonphysical acts, such as insults or social rejection, aimed at harming the social connections between the victim and others

• involves a personal attack and thus is directly antisocial

  • can be hurtful

  • more common as children become socially aware

  • “You can’t be my friend”

Bullying aggression

• unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attack, especially on victims who are unlikely to defend themselves

• in both bullies and victims, a sign of poor emotion regulation

• adults should intervene before school years

Transgender

• children who have a gender identity that is not what they were assigned at birth

• parents may need help learning how to protect their child

Gender binary

• idea that there are two opposites

  • male and female

Psychoanalytic theory

• Freud called the period from ages 3-6 the phallic stage

  • boys become aware of their male sexual organ

Oedipus complex

• unconscious desire of young boys to replace their fathers and win their mother's exclusive love

Behaviorism

• virtually all roles, values, and morals are learned

• gender distinctions result from reinforcement, punishment, and social learning

Cognitive theory - gender schema

• 5 year olds develop their own concept of male and female differences

• categorize male and female as opposites

• Piaget pre operational stage, appearance is stronger than logic

Sociocultural Theory

• parents influence gender roles

Evolutionary Theory

• sexual passion is basic drive because reproduction is needed for every species to continue

• seeking to attract the other sex