Chapter 10- Psychosocial Development in Middle Childhood

Representational systems

The broad, inclusive self-concepts that integrate aspects of the self. Characterized by breadth, balance, and the integration and assessment of various aspects of self.

Industry vs. Inferiority

Children must learn the productive skills their culture requires or else face feeling of inferiority. Parents must allow their children to begin to try things on their own or else they lead their children to feelings of inferiority.

Emotional development

Older children are more aware of their own and other people’s feelings. There are improvements in:

• Better regulation or control of emotions

• Become more empathetic

• Display more prosocial behaviors

Emotion regulation

Effortful (voluntary) control of emotions, attention, and behavior

Coregulation

A stage that include parental oversight as well as the child’s moment-to-moment self-regulation

Internalizing behaviors

Anger turned inward- includes anxiety, fearfulness, and depression

Externalizing behaviors

Anger turned outward- includes aggression, fighting, disobedience, and hostility

Divorce is stressful for children. Stress comes from:

• Marital conflict (parents fighting)

• Parental separation, with one parent leaving the home

• Potential move to a new home for some or all of the children, possible loss of friends

Cohabitating families

When unmarried partners live together, and/or raise children together

Positive peer influences

• Developing social skills, leadership and communication skills

• Developing a sense of belonging and identity

Negative peer influences

• Possibly developing prejudice: unfavorable attitudes regarding outside groups

• Fostering antisocial tendencies through negative conformity

Microaggressions

These are derogatory comments and/or gestures made against those with a historically marginalized identity

Multiracial aggressions

These are when multiracial people may experience microaggressions against their mixed racial identities by those who identify with one racial group

Selman’s Stages of Friendship

• Stage 0: Momentary “playmateship“

• Stage 1: One-way assistance

• Stage 2: Two-way fair-weather cooperation

• Stage 3: Intimate, mutually shared relationships

• Stage 4: Autonomous

Stage 0: Momentary “playmateship“

Undifferentiated: “She lives on my street.“

Stage 1: One-way assistance

Unilateral: “He’s my friend because he always says ‘yes’ when I want to borrow his toys.“

Stage 2: Two-way fair-weather cooperation

Reciprocal: “A friend is someone who plays with you when you don’t have anybody else to play with.“

Stage 3: Intimate, mutually shared relationships

Mutual and possessive: “It takes a long time to make a close friend, so you feel bad if your friend is trying to make other friends, too.“

Stage 4: Autonomous interdependence

“A good friendship is a risk you have to take, and you have to support and trust and give, but you have to be able to let go, too.“

Instrumental aggression

Aggression aimed at achieving a goal (to get what they want).

Hostile aggression

Aggression intended to hurt another person

Hostile attribution bias

A tendency to perceive others as trying to hurt them and to strike out in retaliation or self-defense.

Bullying

Aggression becomes bullying when it is deliberately, persistently directed against a particular target (the victim)

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)

A pattern of defiance, disobedience, and hostility toward adult authority figures lasting at least 6 months and going beyond the bounds of normal childhood behavior

Conduct disorder (CD)

A persistent, repetitive pattern, beginning at an early age, of aggressive, antisocial acts, such as truancy, setting fires, habitual lying, fighting, bullying, theft, vandalism, assaults, and drug and alcohol use.

Separation anxiety disorder

A condition involving excessive, prolonged anxiety concerning separation from home or from people to whom a person is attached

Social phobia/Social anxiety

Extreme fear and/or avoidance of social situations

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Anxiety not focused on any single target. Anxiety about everything.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Anxiety aroused by repetitive, intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses, often leading to compulsive ritual behaviors.

Childhood depression

A disorder of mood that goes beyond normal, temporary sadness

Resilient children

Children who weather adverse circumstances, function well despite challenges or threats, or bounce back from traumatic events

Protective factors in resilient children include:

• The child’s temperament or personality

• Compensating experiences

• Reduced risk