Developmental Psychology Exam 2

Self-concept

set of attributes, abilities, attitudes, and values that an individual believes defines who they are
Largely consist of observable characteristics and develop into emotional attitudes
Sensitive parent-child relationship fosters more positive, coherent early self-concept

Self esteem

judgements about our own worth and feelings associated with those judgements
Aspect of self-concept
Most important because they affect our emotional experiences, future behavior, and long term psychological adjustment

Emotional competence

ability to talk about feelings and to respond appropriately to others' emotional signals
Involves skills with emotional self-regulation
Tend to emphasize external factors over internal states, balance changes with age

Prosocial, altruistic behavior

actions that benefit another person without any expected reward for the self

Sympathy

feelings of concern or sorrow for another's plight
Greatly influenced by temperament and the conditions under which they were raised

Nonsocial activity

unoccupied, onlooker behavior and solitary play

Characteristics of Childhood Friendships

friends can change from day to day depending on positive or social interactions, children with a mutual friendship are better adjusted and more socially competent
serves as a secure base from which to develop new relationships

Psychoanalytic theory of morality

emphasizes emotional side of conscience development, in particular the identification of guilt as motivators of good conduct, children acquire ready-made standards of good conduct
Superego identifies with same-sex parent, adopts moral standards of that parent
Children obey this superego to avoid guilt

Induction

adult helps to make the child aware of feelings by pointing out the effects of the child's misbehavior on others, very effective on genetically empathetic children

Empathy-based guilt

expressions of personal responsibility and regret such as "i'm sorry I hurt them", particularly effective

Social Learning Theory of morality

focuses on how moral behavior is learned through reinforcement and modeling, most influential during early years, children acquire ready-made standards of good conduct

Warmth and responsiveness

having generous models increases prosocial responses, more likely to copy behaviors from adults who display these positive actions
Fosters long term goals of acting kindly towards others

Competence and power

children admire and therefore imitate those who are confident/sure of themselves, especially older peers and adults

Consistency between assertions and behavior

when models say one thing and do another, children generally choose the most lenient standard of behavior
I.e. announcing that it is important to help others but rarely engage in helpful acts

Cognitive developmental perspective of morality

emphasizes thinking and children's ability to reason about justice and fairness, children as active thinkers about social rules

Corporal punishment

physical force thhat inflicts pain but not injury, often transfered to the next generation, spans the SES spectrum but elevated in disenfranchised families
Early corporal punishment predicted externalizing behavior in preschoolers of diverse temperaments, negative outcomes were greater for difficult children

Time out

alternative to criticism, slaps, and spankings that reduce the side effects of punishment, involves removing children from immediate setting such as sending them to their rooms until they are ready to act appropriately

Withdrawal of privileges

alternative to criticism, slaps, and spankings that reduce the side effects of punishment, preventing child from engaging with things like watching their favorite TV show when they are in trouble

Consistency
Warm parent-child relationship
Explanations

Three ways to increase effectiveness of mild punishment:

Among white families, externalizing behaviors predicted physical punishment in 1st through 3rd grade
Among African American families, externalizing behaviors was unrelated to physical punishment

Ethnic Differences in Consequences of Physical Punishment Case Study

Moral imperatives

protect people's rights and welfare, preschoolers use these to distinguish between social conventions and matters of personal choice (children find it more wrong to steal an apple than to eat ice cream with your fingers)

Social conventions

customs determined solely by consensus, such as table manners and politeness rituals

Matters of personal choice

choice of friends, hairstyle, and leisure activities, all of which do not violate rights and are up to the individual

proactive/instrumental aggression

most common purpose of aggression in which children act to fulfill a need or desire such as obtaining an object or privilege
Unemotional attack on another to achieve goal

reactive/hostile aggression

purpose of aggression in which child elicits an angry, defensive response to provocation or a blocked goal, intends to hurt another person

Physical aggression

harming others through physical injury (direct) or destroying property (indirect)

Verbal aggression

harming others through threats of physical aggression, name-calling, or hostile teasing
Always direct

Relational aggression

damages another's peer relationships through social exclusion, malicious gossip, or friendship manipulation
"Do what I say or I won't be your friend" is direct
"Don't play with her; she's a nerd" is indirect

Androgen

hormone regulating the development of male characteristics, accounts for activity level, irritability, and impulsivity, sex difference in aggression is small but more likely to act directly

Estrogen

hormone regulating the development of female characteristics, accounts for activity level, irritability, and impulsivity, sex difference in aggression is small but more likely to act indirectly

Gender typing

refers to any association of objects, activities, roles, or traits that one sex or the other in ways that conform to cultural stereotypes, seen as rigid and inflexible
Can occur at very young ages
Explained by social learning theory and cognitive-developmental theory

Gender schema theory

third perspective on gender typing that combines elements from social learning theory and cognitive-developmental theory on development of gender typing
Explains how environmental pressures and children's cognitions work together to shape gender-role development

Gender Schematic Child

child who frequently makes gender highly relevant.

Gender Aschematic Child

child who seldom views the world in gender-linked terms

Gender Salience Filter

asks: Am I thinking about gender?

Gender Schema Filter

initial evaluation of information as relevant for one's own gender
i.e. gender schematic child asks "should boys play with dolls"
gender aschematic child asks "do I like this toy?"

Generic utterances

indirect cues about gender stereotypes, refer to all same-sex individuals as alike ignoring expectations

In-group favoritism

strengthens gender segregation and gender-stereotyped activities, boys and girls separate and receive more positive evaluations from those of the same gender

Gender identity

image of oneself as relatively masculine or feminine in characteristics, good predictor of psychological adjustment

Androgyny

scoring high on both masculine and feminine personality characteristics

Gender constancy

full understanding of the biologically based permanence of one's gender, including realization that sex remains the same even if clothing, hairstyle, and play activities change

Children can express discomfort with their gender assigned at birth
Recommended by therapists to follow child's lead, they know themselves best
Can reduce problematic behavior
One approach of gender dysphoria therapy is directed at lessening cross-gender identity and behavior, increasing comfort with natal sex
Yields poor results, heightened distress to efforts to suppress or deny identified gender

Transgender Children Case Study

Both cultures: parents discussed pleasurable holidays and family excursions in similar ways + similar frequency
Chinese parents 5x more likely to tell long stories about preschoolers' misdeeds, conveyed with warmth and caring, emphasized impact of misbehavior on other
Irish parents referring to transgressions were downplayed, attributing them to spunk and assertiveness, cast shortcomings in positive light, maybe to promote self esteem

Cultural Variations in Personal Storytelling: Implications for Early Self-Concept Case Study

Gender dysphoria

strongly identifying with other sex, experience substantial distress, 1.5% in boys 2% in girls
Sex difference has to do with greater acceptannce of gender nonconformity in girls
Will persist throughout life if untreated

Child-rearing styles

combinations of parenting behaviors that occur over a wide range of situations, creating an enduring child-rearing climate

Authoritative child-rearing style

most successful approach, involves high acceptance and involvement, adaptive control techniques, and appropriate autonomy granting
Uses disciplinary encounters as teaching moments to prompt self regulation
**Suppresses tendency to overprotect the child**

Authoritarian child-rearing style

low acceptance and involvement, high in coercive control, low in autonomy granting
"Do it because I said so"

Psychological control

aspect of authoritarian child-rearing style, attempting to take advantage of children's psychological needs by intruding on and manipulating verbal expressions, individuality, and attachments to parents

Permissive child-rearing style

warm and accepting but uninvolved, either overindulgent or inattentive, instead of granting autonomy gradually they allow children to make their own decision at an age that they are not yet capable of doing so

Uninvolved child-rearing style

combines low acceptance and involvement with little control and general indifference to issues of autonomy
Emotionally detached and depressed with little time or energy for children
Usually referred to as neglect

Physical abuse

assaults such as kicking, biting, shaking, punching, or stabbing, that inflict physical injury
Accounts for 18% of reported cases

Sexual abuse

fondling, intercourse, exhibitionism, commercial exploitation through prostitution or production of pornography, and other forms of sexual exploitation
Accounts for 9% of reported cases

Neglect

failure to meet a child's basic needs for food, clothing, medical attention, education, or supervision
Accounts for 80% of reported cases

Emotional abuse

acts that could cause serious emotional harm, including social isolation, repeated unreasonable demands, ridicule, humiliation, intimidation, or terrorizing
Accounts for 9% of reported cases

Kohlberg procession of gender

Gender identity --> gender stability --> gender constancy

Kohlberg

theorist who claimed individuals went through a series of stages in the process of moral/gender development.

Chromosomal, Gonadal, Hormonal, Internal Reproductive, and Brain sex

Facets of biological sex, Fausto-Sterling 2012

Dittmar et al

asked if barbie encourages young girls to want to be thin
compared children seeing plus sized model doll to barbie, control group saw no dolls
assessed on body image: those who saw barbie commented on wanting to be thinner and on their insecurities, significantly in younger girls

examined children's bedrooms between girls and boys,
boys had more vehicles, sports equipment, military toys, and more educational art materials, decorated with animal motifs
girls had dolls, doll houses, domestic toys, decorated with flowers with lace and fringe
children are raised in gender typed environments

Rheingold and Cook (1975)

had undergrads evaluate boys and girls toys, asked whether certain toys were suitable for each gender (measured as strongly feminine to strongly masculine)
made sets of 3 toys in each category
second group of undergrads graded sets of 3 toys
found feminine toys were rated on physical attractiveness, nurturance, and domestic skill
masculine toys were rated as competitive, violent, exciting, and somewhat dangerous
toys that were rated to be educational were rated as either neutral or moderately masculine

Blakemore and Centers (2005)

went into little kids rooms to catalogue closely, not much changed from Rheingold and Cook
boys had more vehicles, clothing was red white and blue, pacifiers were blue, blue was the most common color for bedding
girls had more dolls, clothing was mostly pink with multicolored pastels, pacifiers were pink, also had jewelery, yellow was the most common color for bedding
etc.
overwhelmingly, female relatives decorate rooms for both sexes

Pomerleau, Boldue, Malcuit, and Cossette (2004)
wtf are all of these french names

studied older kids' room content and questionnaire about what was in the rooms and what they would like
girls: more stuffed animals, more pictures of people,
boys: sports items, things for building and things they built,
both boys and girls were influenced by older siblings, pop culture, boys said they were influenced by activities and their family for decoration

Randall et al (2007)

Common immunizations

DTP, MMR, IPV, HIB, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, Chickenpox, Flu, Pneumococcal

Dominant cerebral hemisphere

reflected by handedness and the greater capacity of one side of the brain to carry out a skilled motor action
Left handedness is suppressed by a right handed genetic bias, even if the parent is left handed
Involves practice

cerebellum

structure that aids in balance and control of body movement, contributes to dramatic gains in motor development

Reticular formation

structure in the brainstem that maintains alertness and consciousness

Amygdala

processes novelty and emotional information
Sensitive to facial emotional expressions

Hippocampus

vital role in memory and images of space that help us find our way

Pituitary gland

located at base of the brain, plays crucial role by releasing two hormones that induce growth (growth hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone)

Growth hormone (GH)

hormone necessary for development of almost all body tissue

Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)

hormone that prompts thyroid gland in neck to release thyroxine, necessary for brain development and for GH to have its full impact on body size

Self help skills

permitted by fine motor skills, Success requires longer attention span, memory of intricate steps, dexterity to perform tasks
(i.e. most complex of these is tying shoes, mastered by age 6)

Scribbles

facet of drawing permitted by development of fine motor skills, gestural, child's hand movements contain intended representations rather than drawing itself

First representational forms

facet of drawing permitted by development of fine motor skills informed by semiotics, scribbles start to become pictures, children notice they've made a recognizable shape and label it
Major milestones occur when children use lines to represent the boundaries of objects

More realistic drawings

facet of drawing permitted by development of fine motor skills, contain more conventional human and animal figures with the head and body differentiated
Older preschooler's drawings contain perceptual distortion meant to convey depth

Children in asian cultures advance over western children in drawing skills
Due to high value artistic competence, adults encourage children and guide them in mastering basic skills, modeling, etc.
West encourages creative liberties more than skill development

Cultural Variations in drawing Case Study

universal beginnings in drawings

"Tadpole" shapes, Jimi children 10-15 years old are not always likely to be in school, draw gestural tadpoles
Once children realize that lines must evoke human features, they find solutions to figure drawings that follow general sequence

Early pretend play (preoperational)

has toddlers using only realistic objects, such as a toy telephone to talk into or a cup to drink out of, Imitation of adults, not yet flexible (i.e. refusing to pretend that a cup is a hat)

Later Pretend Play (preoperational)

After age 2, make-believe becomes more flexible and and objects such as a yellow stick can take on the fictional identity of a toothbrush

Dual representation

viewing a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol, informed by semiotics

Much of this contains unfamiliar elements or too many pieces of info for young children to handle at once, misses many naturally occurring instances of effecting reasoning
(i.e. 3 year olds show a clear awareness of others' perspectives, egocentrism is more of a tendency than a rigid POV)

Flaws in piagetian experimental problems

Magical Beliefs

decline between 4-8 years, think that magic accounts for events that they can otherwise not explain, Still able to entertain the idea that something they imagine can materialize, they may react with anxiety to scary stories, TV shows, and nightmares

2-5 year olds readily draw appropriate inferences about nonobservable characteristics shared by category members
I.e. told that birds have warm blood, stegosaurus has cold blood, they infer that pterodactyls have cold blood even if they more closely resemble birds
Native american children categorize based on different characteristics
I.e. wolves and eagles in same group since both are in forest

preoperational categorization misconception

neo-Piagetian theory

an approach that uses information-processing principles to explain the developmental stages identified by Piaget, emphasis on task-specific change

Discovery learning

piagetian educational principle, encourages children to discover for themselves thru spontaneous interaction with environment

Sensitivity to children's readiness to learn

piagetian educational principle, teachers introduce activities that build on children's current thinking, but do not try to speed up development by imposing new skills before children indicate readiness

Acceptance of individual differences

piagetian educational principle, teachers plan activities for individual children and small groups, not just for the whole class

Private speech

Vygotsky, children's self directed speech, aka egocentric speech
Children do more of this when tasks are appropriately challenging, after they make errors, or are confused as to how to proceed
Overtime, private speech goes underground and changes into whispers and lip movements

Guided participation

Vygotsky criticism, broader concept than scaffolding, refers to shared endeavors between more expert and less expert participants, without specifying the precise features of communication
Allows for variations across situations and cultures

Western societies teach children skills they need to become competent workers in schools
Children of Efe hunters in Congo and Mayan agricultural towns receive little to no schooling and participate in adult work
Yucatec Mayan children are highly competent in self care, and make-believe play is limited
Parents rarely converse or scaffold their learning

Children in Village and Tribal cultures Observe and Participate in Adult work Case Study

rule-use tasks

studies Categorization and sorting behaviors contribute to child's flexibility to shift their focus of attention depending on what's important in that moment

Memory strategies

deliberate mental activities that improve our chances of remembering
Improvement in recall is strongly associated with language development
Though preschoolers with good language skills recall poorly because they do not rehearse to remember, nor do they organize intentionally grouping items that are alike

Episodic memory

memory for everyday experiences

Semantic memory

information removed from context in which it was first learned that has become part of general knowledge base

Scripts

general descriptions of what occurs and when it occurs in a particular situation
First of these only contain a few acts, almost always recalled in correct sequence

Elaborative style

autobiographical memory style to elicit child's recall,
follows child's lead, asking varied questions and adding information to child's statements
Scaffolding

Repetitive style

autobiographical memory style to elicit child's recall, provides little information and keeps repeating the same question

Metacognition

"thinking about thought", what we use to interpret our own and others' behavior, used to improve our own performance on various tasks
By end of first year, babies view people as intentional beings

Theory of mind

comes from language, executive function, make-believe play, and social experiences
Quechua people of the Peruvian highlands have a language that lacks mental-state terms, children have difficulty with false belief tasks
Maternal "mind-mindedness" is positively associated with later performance on false-belief and other kinds of these tasks

Emergent literacy

children's active efforts to construct literacy knowledge through informal experiences