PSYC 315: Week 3 ~ Self, Family, & Peers

What is the self?

A conceptual system of one's thoughts and attitudes about oneself, incorporating everything known about oneself.

What are some components of the self?

• gender

• physical appearance

• possessions

• values & beliefs

• preferences

• psychosocial characteristics (e.g. temperament)

How do 3–4-year-olds understand themselves?

Through concrete, observable characteristics related to physical attributes and activities.

Age 3-4 sense of self

• unrealistically positive view of themself

• focused on 1 dimension at a time - don’t think about abstract things like belief systems

• sense of self overtime coincides w/ first autobiographical memories

  • aided by the stories of other people who knew them before the time period

Why are children's conceptions of self refined during primary school?

They increasingly engage in social comparison.

Middle to late primary school sense of self

• Start to understand there's diff aspects of who they are as a person

• Conceptions of self begin to become integrated and more broadly encompassing

Integrated sense of self (middle to late primary school)

• Start to see diff identities being relevant to one another, intercepting in their mind

• Preferences and values start to become more integrated

Broadly encompassing sense of self (middle to late primary school)

• Start thinking about multiple dimensions at one time

At middle to late primary school age, even after engaging in social comparison, kids still tend to…?

be overly positive in their self-assessments of their abilities.

What do older children increasingly use to evaluate their abilities?

Objective performance.

How can objective performance influence children's interests?

They may focus on things they are good at and abandon interests where they know they perform worse than others.

What becomes increasingly important as children approach adolescence?

Social comparison.

How do children increasingly view themselves as adolescence approaches and what does it lead to in the child?

Through the eyes of their peers and their evaluations of them => makes children vulnerable to low self-esteem

How do adolescents tend to think about themselves?

In terms of a variety of selves depending on the context - they may act differently around parents, peers, teachers, and other groups

Why can having different selves become stressful for adolescents?

They may struggle to reconcile inconsistencies between the values reflected in each version of themselves.

Early adolescence sense of self

Thinking about the self is characterized by a form of egocentrism called the personal fable

What is personal fable and what does it lead to?

A form of egocentrism in early adolescence involving preoccupation with what others think of them - leads to an imaginary audience

What is the imaginary audience?

The belief that everyone is focused on the adolescent's appearance and behaviour.

Middle teens sense of self

Adolescents recognize and often agonize over contradictions in them acting on inconsistent values and beliefs depending on context they’re in.

What is the challenge adolescents in their middle teens face regarding their sense of self?

They lack the cognitive skills to reconcile this crisis - integrate their recognition of these contradictions into a coherent conception of self

Late adolescence and early adulthood sense of self

Becomes both more stable and less determined by what others think.

• Means more consistency in values you reflect depending on context of situation

• Reflect internalized personal values, beliefs, and standards

What in an adolescent’s environment is super important in helping them make a transition towards a stable sense of self?

Adult support.

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

• Heavily influenced by Freud

  • Unconscious processes that affect us

  • Early life experiences are important

• 8 stages from infancy to late adulthood (only covering first 5)

• At each stage, there's some crisis that kids are confronting - if crisis is not solved, child will struggle with that aspect of their sense of self carrying onto next stage

First 5 Stages of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

1. Basic trust vs. mistrust (yr 1)

2. Autonomy vs. shame & doubt (1-3.5yrs)

3. Initiative vs. Guilt (4-6yrs)

4. Industry vs. Inferiority (6-puberty)

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence - early adulthood)

When does basic trust vs. mistrust occur?

Year 1.

What can failure to resolve basic trust vs. mistrust lead to?

Difficulty forming healthy relationships, particularly intimate relationships, throughout life.

When does autonomy vs. shame and doubt occur?

1–3.5 years.

What is developing during autonomy vs. shame and doubt?

Independence through abilities such as walking, running, language, and communication.

Challenge in the 2nd stage of Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development lies with ______

Role of parents.

What role do parents play in autonomy vs. shame and doubt?

Parents may restrict children because of safety concerns, limiting independent exploration.

How can excessive parental restriction affect autonomy?

Children may internalize the belief that they cannot act independently, producing shame and doubt => may fail to resolve crisis

What is autonomy internalized from?

Feelings that one can act on the world and be okay.

When does initiative vs. guilt occur?

4–6 years.

How do children view their parents during initiative vs. guilt?

They put parents on a pedestal, want to emulate them, and internalize their rules.

What causes guilt during initiative vs. guilt?

Feeling unable to meet parents' expectations or follow the rules they set.

What helps children develop initiative?

Parents who are not overly controlling or excessively punitive.

What is initiative?

Having high standards and believing one can act in the world rather than fearing inability to meet expectations.

When does industry vs. inferiority occur?

6 to puberty.

What does industry vs. inferiority involve?

Developing a sense of competence versus excessive feelings of inadequacy.

What is social competence?

The ability to navigate social relationships and interact with peers, teachers, and others beyond caregivers.

What is cognitive competence?

Becoming more efficient at basic processes and handling challenging tasks.

What produces a sense of industry?

Feeling good about oneself and one's ability to achieve goals.

How can negative peer feedback affect children during industry vs. inferiority?

They may internalize it as a feeling of inadequacy.

When does identity vs. role confusion occur?

Adolescence through early adulthood.

What is the central challenge of identity vs. role confusion?

Adolescents recognize inconsistencies in who they are but struggle to reconcile them.

What is the successful outcome of identity vs. role confusion?

Identity achievement: developing a stable sense of who one is.

What did Marcia propose about identity development?

Adolescents/young adults may develop an identity or experience one of several negative outcomes.

Marcia’s negative outcomes from adolescents/young adults not developing an identity

1. identity moratorium

2. identity foreclosure

3. identity diffusion

What is identity moratorium?

Exploring different identities without being sure who one is, including one's values and beliefs.

What is identity foreclosure?

Committing to an identity before seriously considering whether it is truly desired.

What can contribute to identity foreclosure?

Pressure from parents to become a particular type of person from a young age. e.g. pushing a particular career or only allowing a child to participate in a certain sport.

What can identity foreclosure lead to?

A person may later feel incomplete, as though something is missing or they are not doing things for themselves.

What is identity diffusion?

Not making progress toward developing an identity and not caring about doing so.

What is negative identity?

Adopting values and beliefs opposite to those held by people around you.

What did Erkison argue for the importance of?

a psychosocial moratorium.

What is a psychosocial moratorium?

A timeout period when adolescents are not expected to take on adult roles and can pursue self-discovery.

What evidence contributed to Erikson's work?

Autobiographical memories and the influence of the unconscious mind.

Influences on identity formation

• Approach parents take with their children

• Individual's own behaviour e.g. drug use undermines teens' abilities to develop healthy identities

• Larger social context e.g. SES

• Historical context e.g. war, famine, global conflict

What are the three primary functions of families?

1. Survival of offspring

2. Economic function

3. Cultural training

What is the survival function of families?

Parents provide vigilance and care for children to help keep them alive.

What is the economic function of families?

Parents fulfill an economic role in supporting children and family life.

What is the cultural training function of families?

Families teach norms for behaviour and what it means to fit into the society where the child is raised.

How do family dynamics change across development?

• Children become increasingly oppositional as they get older.

• Parents change their parenting as children become more oppositional.

What is socialization?

How children acquire values, standards, skills, knowledge, and behaviours appropriate to their cultural roles.

What are the three primary ways parents socialize children?

1. Parents as Direct Instructors

2. Parents as Indirect Socializers

3. Parents as Social Managers

Parents as direct instructors

Parents intentionally and explicitly convey something to the child.

Parents as indirect socializers

Parents influence children through how they react or emote toward things the child is interested in - child internalizes what they think parent values & believes

• differential engagement

• often not intentional, but can be e.g. choosing not to react to something

• modelling

What is differential engagement?

Parents engage differently with different child behaviours or interests, influencing what children learn.

How can choosing not to react be a form of indirect socialization?

A parent's intentional lack of reaction can communicate what they value or believe.

Parents as social managers

Parents strongly influence how children spend their time throughout childhood.

e.g. Choosing sports, deciding how often children spend time with certain peers, and deciding what activities to drive them to

2 dimensions of Baumrind's parenting styles

1. Supportiveness/warmth

2. Control/demandingness

What is supportiveness and warmth?

Being responsive to the child's needs.

What is control and demandingness?

Setting attainable expectations and enforcing, determining, or promoting those expectations.

What factors can cause parenting styles and practices to vary?

• child's age

• different children

• different caregivers

• child's reactions

How can a child's reaction affect parenting style?

Internalizing versus externalizing responses can influence how parents respond.

What does congruence/incongruence of parenting styles refer to?

Whether different parenting styles converge or diverge with child’s reaction of internalizing/externalizing it.

What factors can affect congruence between parenting styles?

Age and personality - agreeableness

What cultural framework is Baumrind's parenting-style framework based on?

Western culture.

What characterizes authoritative parenting?

High demandingness and high supportiveness.

How do authoritative parents involve children in expectations?

They involve children in discussion about what the expectations are.

How can emotional responsiveness appear with younger children?

Parents are emotionally available and reactive to their needs, even if the parent does not particularly care about the issue.

Typical Authoritative Parent Characteristics

• Have clear expectations, but ALSO consequences WITH follow-through

• allow children considerable autonomy within those limits - involve them in discussion abt consequences

• emotionally responsive to child’s concerns & needs

• respect child’s perspective

Authoritative: Typical Child Characteristics

• competent

• self assured

• popular

• high in coping skills

• in childhood: low in antisocial behaviours

• in adolescence: high in social and academic competence and positive behaviour, low in problem behaviour

What characterizes authoritarian parenting?

High demandingness and low supportiveness.

Authoritarian: Typical Parent Characteristics

1. 'My way or the highway', 'I make the money, I make the rules' parent

2. Nonresponsive to child’s needs

3. No space to have dialogue about issues child has with decision made by parent

4. Power, obedience, authority

5. Expect child to comply without question or explanation

6. Can be unrealistic in expectations, but no opportunity for child to engage in it in the process

7. Can be emotionally supportive, but in things that matter to them

Authoritarian: Typical Child Characteristics

• Children struggle more socially, not be as emotionally supportive with other people

• Low in social and academic competence in childhood and adolescence

• Early childhood - tend to be unhappy/unfriendly

  • boys affected more negatively than girls

• In academics, can be more likely to oppose figures of authority

What characterizes permissive parenting?

Low demandingness and high supportiveness.

Permissive: Typical Parent Characteristics

• Highly repsonsive to children’s needs

• No or little follow-through in rules from parents

• Do not require that their children regulate themselves or act in appropriate or mature ways

• Sometimes parents parent according to the way things made sense to them when they were the same age as their child

Permissive: Typical Child Characteristics

• in childhood:

  • impulsive, lack of self control

  • low in academic acheivement

• in adolescence:

  • engage in more misconduct and drug use

What characterizes uninvolved parenting?

Low demandingness and low supportiveness.

Uninvolved: Typical Parent Characteristics

• Not much expectations

• Not much emotional availability - sometimes rejecting/neglectful

• Don’t set limits for children’s behaviour

• Tend to be focused on own needs rather than children’s

Uninvolved: Typical Child Characteristics

• infants & toddlers: attachment problems

• children: poor peer relationships

• adolescents:

  • antisocial behaviour

  • poor self-regulation

  • internalizing problems

  • substance abuse

  • risky sexual behaviour

  • low academic and social competence

• depression, withdrawn

• If it happens early in. life -  struggle to build strong/close relationships with both peers & romantic interests later in life

• Learn 'people in positions of power don't really follow through with rules'

What child characteristic can influence parenting?

Temperament.

What is the direction of influence between children and parents?

bidirectional: parents affect children and children affect parents.

How can children's behaviour influence parents?

Children's behaviour can invite more parental behaviours of concern or focus, parents’ behaviours in response can reinforce noncompliant behaviour

What pattern involving spanking was discussed in the lecture?

Children spanked at age 1 show more acting out/aggression at 3 and are more likely to be spanked at 5.

Influences on parenting

• Environments invite a different style/approach to parenting

• E.g. more authoritarian parenting is more prevalent in environments with more safety issues → to protect children from unsafe living conditions

• Supportive relationships with others can moderate potential impact of parents who are low in warmth/supportiveness

What are cliques?

Groups that children voluntarily join.

What are middle-childhood cliques typically like?

About 3–10 children, usually of the same sex/gender/race.

How do cliques change later in childhood?

They increasingly consist of children who share values.