Middle Childhood Development and Moral Reasoning

Vocabulary flashcards covering physical growth, Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems, parenting styles, friendship formation, cognitive and psychosexual theories, Kohlberg's moral development, distributive justice, and self-control during middle childhood.

Middle Childhood

The developmental period spanning ages $5\text{--}9$ years characterized by steady physical growth, refining motor skills, and expanding social and cognitive horizons.

Physical Growth Rate in Middle Childhood

A slowed rate of physical growth where children gain $2\text{--}3\text{ inches/year}$ and $4\text{--}6\text{ pounds/year}$, appearing generally thinner than at other stages of development.

Sleep Need in Middle Childhood

A requirement of $8\text{--}10\text{ hours/night}$, which is less sleep needed than at any other time prior to adulthood.

Skeletal Development (Middle Childhood)

A developmental process marked by continuous ossification and the loss of primary teeth between approximately $7\text{--}12\text{ years}$ of age.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory

A developmental model describing how a child's development is influenced by concentric, interacting environmental layers ranging from immediate settings to cultural values and historical time.

Microsystem

The innermost environmental layer that directly surrounds the individual child, including family, school, peers, church group, health services, and the neighborhood play area.

Mesosystem

The system comprised of the relationships and interactions connecting different microsystem settings, such as the interaction between family and school.

Exosystem

External settings and social structures that do not contain the child directly but still indirectly impact them, such as parental work, friends of family, mass media, legal services, neighbors, and social welfare services.

Macrosystem

The overarching cultural context surrounding an individual, consisting of the broader attitudes, values, laws, and ideologies of the culture.

Chronosystem

The temporal dimension of development that includes sociohistorical conditions and the timing of environmental transitions or life events across a person's lifespan.

Social Comparison

The process of assessing one's own abilities, attributes, and traits against those of peers, serving as the basis for self-evaluation in middle childhood.

Involvement Dimension (Baumrind)

A dimension of parenting that captures the degree of warmth and responsiveness versus coldness and detachment displayed toward a child.

Control Dimension (Baumrind)

A dimension of parenting that ranges from being overly strict and demanding to being excessively lax and lacking discipline.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style high in both control and involvement, characterized by firm rules combined with warmth and open communication, considered the most effective style.

Authoritarian Parenting

A parenting style characterized by high control and low involvement ('BECAUSE I SAID SO'), which can cause children to become sneaky, lack respect for rules, and rebel when away from home.

Permissive Parenting

A parenting style characterized by high involvement but low control, offering few boundaries or punishments and often leading children to struggle with self-control and boundaries.

Uninvolved Parenting

A parenting style characterized by low control and low involvement ('Like I care?'), predisposing children to face numerous social, emotional, and life challenges.

Helicopter Parenting

A parenting approach characterized by constant monitoring, hovering, and intense over-involvement in a child's life, representing a more extreme variation than authoritative parenting.

Snowplow Parenting

A parenting style in which parents step in to eliminate all obstacles, solve challenges, and clear the path ahead for their child rather than letting the child problem-solve.

Friendships at Ages $4\text{--}7$

Early childhood peer relationships primarily founded on shared activities, mutual play interests (such as playing with Legos), and geographic convenience.

Friendships at Ages $8\text{--}10$

Middle childhood relationships that shift toward a foundation of mutual trust and dependability.

Friendships at Ages $11\text{--}15$

Adolescent relationships built on social and emotional intimacy, mutual vulnerability, and shared personal values.

Phallic Stage (Freud)

Freud's psychosexual stage from ages $3\text{--}7$ characterized by hyper-focus on gender roles and categorized societal roles (such as men as providers), though now considered debunked.

Latency Stage (Freud)

Freud's psychosexual period extending from age $7$ to the onset of adolescence, described as a hidden, quiet state of sexual drive.

Industry vs. Inferiority (Erikson)

Erikson's psychosocial crisis spanning ages $6$ to adolescence, where children seek confidence through meaningful work and responsibilities (e.g., line leader) but risk feeling inadequate when comparing themselves to peers or older siblings.

Concrete Operational Stage (Piaget)

Piaget's cognitive stage occurring between ages $6\text{--}11$ during which children master logical mental operations, including conservation and seriation tasks.

Kohlberg's Levels and Stages of Moral Development

A sequential framework describing how moral reasoning advances across three levels (preconventional, conventional, postconventional) and six developmental stages.

Preconventional Level

The earliest level of moral reasoning in Kohlberg's theory, where moral judgments are based on external consequences and personal interests, comprising Stage 1 and Stage 2.

Stage 1: Avoidance of Punishment

The first moral stage under Kohlberg's preconventional level where actions are judged solely by whether they will be caught and penalized.

Stage 2: Instrumental Purpose

The second moral stage under Kohlberg's preconventional level, wherein right action is determined by self-interest and reciprocal deals.

Conventional Level

The intermediate level of moral reasoning focused on conforming to social norms, pleasing others, and maintaining legal and societal order, comprising Stage 3 and Stage 4.

Stage 3: 'Good Boy-Nice Girl' (Interpersonal Cooperation)

A moral stage within the conventional level where moral decisions are driven by social approval and what other people will think of one's actions.

Stage 4: Social Order Maintenance

A moral stage within the conventional level where decisions are based on upholding societal laws and accepting legal consequences to maintain social functioning.

Postconventional Level

The highest level of moral reasoning where judgments are guided by abstract principles, universal human rights, and social contracts that transcend specific laws, comprising Stage 5 and Stage 6.

Stage 5: Social Contract

A postconventional moral stage where rules and laws are viewed as flexible instruments to uphold human life and rights, allowing exceptions when human life is at stake.

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle

An extremely rare postconventional stage focused on self-sacrificing, universal ethical principles (exemplified by figures like Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa), later dropped by Kohlberg due to lack of empirical representation.

Age Trends in Kohlberg's Moral Reasoning

The developmental trajectory of moral reasoning across ages $10\text{--}36$, demonstrating the early decline of Stages 1 and 2, the adolescent predominance of Stage 3, and the rise of Stage 4 reasoning in early adulthood.

Distributive Justice: Equality

The earliest phase of distributive justice, developing at ages $5\text{--}6$, where fairness is defined as giving everyone identical amounts.

Distributive Justice: Merit

The second phase of distributive justice, developing at ages $6\text{--}7$, where resources are distributed according to who deserves them based on effort or performance.

Distributive Justice: Benevolence

The advanced phase of distributive justice, emerging around $8$ years of age, where allocations account for special disadvantage or need (e.g., giving extra pizza to someone who is hungry).

Compliance

A primary form of self-regulation emerging at $12\text{--}18\text{ months}$ where a toddler demonstrates the capacity to obey explicit adult directives and prohibitions.

Delay of Gratification

The ability to forego immediate, smaller rewards in favor of larger, future rewards, which improves through childhood and is shaped by temperament, parenting, and SES factors.

Altruism

Prosocial behavior that involves helping or assisting others with no expectation of an external reward (such as participating in Angel Trees or recycling).

Cooperation

Prosocial behavior involving individuals working together toward a common goal, which confers an evolutionary advantage by aiding in the survival of the species.