Chapter 6 lifespan canvas notes

CHAPTER 6: EARLY CHILDHOOD

CONTENTS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1

KEY TERMS 2

CHAPTER OUTLINE 4

LECTURE LAUNCHERS, DISCUSSIONS, AND ACTIVITIES 23

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT DEVELOPMENT 32

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS 33

Revel VIDEOS 33

JOURNAL PROMPTS AND SHARED WRITING QUESTIONS 34

HANDOUTS 35

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Section 1

6.1 Summarize the physical growth and change that takes place during early childhood.

6.2 Describe the changes in brain development that take place during early childhood and the aspects of brain development that explain “infantile” amnesia.

6.3 Identify the main nutritional deficiencies and the primary sources of injury, illness, and mortality during early childhood in developed and developing countries.

6.4 Specify the main changes in gross and fine motor abilities during early childhood.

6.5 Describe the development of handedness and identify the consequences and cultural views of left-handedness.

Section 2

6.6 Explain the features of Piaget’s preoperational stage of cognitive development.

6.7 Explain what “theory of mind” is and the evidence for how it develops during early childhood.

6.8 Identify the ways that cultural learning takes place in early childhood.

6.9 Identify the features that are most important in preschool quality and explain how they reflect cultural values.

6.10 Summarize early intervention programs and their outcomes.

6.11 Explain how advances in vocabulary and grammar occur in early childhood.

6.12 Specify how children learn pragmatics in early childhood, and identify how these social rules are culturally based.

Section 3

6.13 Identify advances in emotional understanding and self-regulation during early childhood.

6.14 Describe moral development in early childhood, including empathy, modeling, and morality as cultural learning.

6.15 Summarize the roles that parents and peers play in gender socialization, and explain how gender schemas lead to self-socialization.

6.16 Specify the four types of parenting “styles” and identify the cultural limitations of this model.

6.17 Describe the main cultural variations in how parents discipline young children, and explain how cultural context influences children’s responses to discipline.

6.18 Explain the meanings of Mead’s social stages from infancy through early childhood.

6.19 Identify the most common features of sibling relationships worldwide, and describe how children with no siblings differ from other children.

6.20 Explain how the quality of friendships changes from toddlerhood to early childhood, and describe the role of play and aggression in young children’s friendships.

6.21 Identify the rates and consequences of media use in early childhood.

KEY TERMS

Section 1

stunting

corpus callosum

cerebellum

reticular formation

infantile amnesia

anemia

handedness

Section 2

preoperational stage

conservation

reversibility

centration

egocentrism

animism

classification

theory of mind

early intervention program

sensitive period

grammar

pragmatics

Section 3

emotional self-regulation

undercontrol

externalizing problems

overcontrol

internalizing problems

initiative vs. guilt

socialization

gender constancy

gender roles

gender schema

self-socialization

parenting styles

demandingness

responsiveness

authoritative parents

authoritarian parents

permissive parents

disengaged parents

reciprocal or bidirectional effects

filial piety

familismo

time out

psychological control

corporal punishment

child maltreatment

foster care

only child

peers

instrumental aggression

hostile aggression

relational aggression

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Section 1: Physical Development

A. Growth from Age 3 to 6

1. The pace of physical development slows in the period from toddlerhood to early childhood.

2. Bodily Growth

LO 6.1 Summarize the physical growth and change that takes place during early childhood.

a. From ages 3 to 6 the typical child in a developed country grows 2–3 inches per year and adds 5–7 pounds.

b. The typical 3-year-old is about 35 inches tall and weighs about 30 pounds; the typical 6-year-old is about 45 inches tall and weighs about 45 pounds.

c. Most children add more muscle than fat, and children lose their remaining “baby fat.”

d. Average heights and weights in early childhood are considerably lower in developing countries, due to lower nutrition and higher likelihood of childhood diseases.

i. Children who are malnourished and consequently are short for their age have experienced stunting.

ii. Stunting has long-term physical and cognitive affects.

e. Differences in socioeconomic status influence gains in height and weight in early childhood,

f. Given roughly equal levels of nutrition and health care, individual differences in height and weight gains during childhood are due to genetics.

g. By age 3, children have a full set of 20 baby (primary) teeth that will later fall out and be replaced by their permanent teeth, a process that lasts until about age 13.

i. Children in most developing countries have more tooth decay due to a lack of fluoride and access to dental care than children in developed countries do.

ii. In developed countries, most children go to the dentist, but a diet with a lot of sugars and starches and inconsistent dental care results in about 40% of children having a cavity between ages 2 and 5.

3. Brain Development and “Infantile” Amnesia

LO 6.2 Describe the changes in brain development that take place during early childhood and the aspects of brain development that explain “infantile” amnesia.

a. By age 6, the brain is about 90% of its adult weight. The growth of the brain, particularly the frontal lobes, is still more rapid than that of the rest of the body. It consists primarily of an increasing number of synaptic connections between neurons and increased myelination.

b. Substantial myelination most notably takes place in four brain structures:

i. The corpus callosum (the bundle of neurons connecting the right and left hemispheres of the cerebral cortex)

ii. The cerebellum (a structure at the base of the brain involved in balance and motor movements)

iii. The reticular formation (a part of the brain involved in attention)

iv. The hippocampus (a structure that facilitates memory)

c. Most people experience infantile amnesia and can remember little or nothing that happened before ages 4 or 5. Theories vary as to why this happens, but apparently this is at least partly due to the immaturity of the hippocampus in infancy and toddlerhood.

i. We do retain language, habits and general information learned before age 4; this is known as semantic memory.

ii. Most if not all of our memories for unique events vanish; this is known as episodic memory.

d. Some researchers have proposed that individualistic cultures promote greater attention to personal experiences and consequently more and earlier autobiographical memories.

4. Health and Safety in Early Childhood

LO 6.3 Identify the main nutritional deficiencies and the primary sources of injury, illness, and mortality during early childhood in developed and developing countries.

a. Nutrition and Malnutrition

i. The appetites vary a lot from one day to the next during early childhood. Generally, children will learn to like the foods that are presented to them regularly and their parents and cultural beliefs influence their attitudes about foods.

ii. Children in developing countries experience nutritional deficiencies, but a surprisingly high percentage of children in developed countries do as well.

1) Calcium is the most common nutritional deficiency in the United States.

2) In a study of children in the United States, African American and Latino children had lower intake of calcium as compared to White children and their diets included more soda and fast food.

iii. About 80% of children in developing countries experience malnutrition.

1) The most common types of malnutrition in developing countries are lack of protein (25% of children) and iron.

2) Protein can result in two fatal diseases: marasmus and kwashiorkor.

3) Severely iron-deficient children have anemia, which causes fatigue irritability, and attention problems.

b. Illness and Disease

i. In developing countries, the most common causes of death in early childhood are illnesses and diseases, including pneumonia, malaria, and measles. Malnutrition is also a contributing factor.

ii. Mortality rates in early childhood are much higher in developing countries than in developed countries but have declined substantially in recent years due to improved food production and vaccine programs.

iii. Individuals in developed countries have greater access to food and medical care, including vaccinations, to help them survive. For the most part, children have minor illnesses that decline with age as their immune systems strengthen over time with exposure.

c. Injuries

i. High activity levels and immature cognitive development make young children prone to injuries.

ii. The most common cause of injury in early childhood is falling, followed by being struck by an object or person, being bitten by an animal or insect, and being cut or pierced.

iii. Boys are more likely than girls to become injured because their play tends to be rougher.

iv. Injury rates and death due to accidents are higher in developing countries because they do not have stringent, government-enforced safety codes.

v. Young children in developing countries are more likely to die from illness and disease rather than injuries.

vi. In developed countries, accidental injuries are the leading cause of death for young children because so few die from illness or disease.

B. Motor Development

1. Gross and Fine Motor Skills

LO 6.4 Specify the main changes in gross and fine motor abilities during early childhood.

a. In early childhood, gross motor skills are a continuation and refinement of the skills learned in toddlerhood. They can throw a ball farther and more accurately, jump farther, and climb stairs without support, and their running speed increases as does their ability to stop suddenly or change direction.

b. Fine motor skills also continue to be refined, and some new skills are added. Children learn to draw something others can recognize and write their first letters and short words. They also learn to dress themselves, brush their teeth, use scissors, and cut foods with a knife.

2. Handedness

LO 6.5 Describe the development of handedness and identify the consequences and cultural view of left-handedness.

a. Handedness is a clear preference for using the left or right hand in gross and fine motor activities. While it becomes more obvious during early childhood, it is apparent even prenatally.

b. About 90% of people are right handed.

c. Research on handedness shows that there are genetic (adoption studies) and environmental influences (twin studies) that determine handedness.

d. Handedness is also influenced by culture. In many cultures, being a lefty is seen as dangerous and evil and left-handed children are switched to using their right hand for most of their fine motor activities.

e. Left-handed children are more likely to have problems learning to read and to have other verbal learning disabilities; left-handed people have a lower life expectancy and are more likely to die in accidents.

f. Left-handedness is also associated with excellence and even genius in some fields; they are likely to have strong visual–spatial abilities.

II. Section 2: Cognitive Development

A. Theories of Cognitive Development

1. Piaget’s Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development

LO 6.6 Explain the features of Piaget’s preoperational stage of cognitive development.

a. According to Piaget, the preoperational stage marks a critical turning point in development because thinking becomes representational.

b. In this stage, children’s use of language to symbolically represent the world frees them to think beyond their immediate sensory experiences.

c. Piaget viewed the preoperational stage of cognitive development (ages 2–7) as prone to a variety of errors because they are not yet able to perform mental operations, cognitive procedures that follow certain logical rules.

d. These errors include conservation, classification, egocentrism, and animism.

e. Conservation

i. Conservation is the principle that the amount of a physical substance remains the same even if its physical appearance changes.

ii. Piaget tested this with water in identical and different-sized glasses.

iii. Piaget interpreted children’s conservation errors as indicating two kinds of cognitive deficiencies: a lack of reversibility, or the ability to mentally reverse an action, or centration, being too focused on one aspect of something.

f. Egocentrism

i. Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish between your own perspective and another person’s perspective.

ii. Piaget demonstrated egocentrism using the “three mountains task,” which he devised with his colleague, Barbel Inhelder.

iii. Animism is the tendency to attribute human thoughts and feelings to inanimate objects and forces. It is one aspect of egocentrism.

g. Classification

i. Classification errors occur because children have difficulty understanding that objects can be simultaneously part of more than one “class” or group.

ii. Piaget demonstrated this using a drawing of blue and yellow flowers. He concluded that classification errors are a result of centration and a lack of reversibility.

h. Evaluating Piaget’s Theory

i. There are two key critiques of Piaget’s theory of preoperational thought:

1) It underestimated children’s cognitive capabilities.

2) Development is more continuous and less stage-like.

ii. Many studies over the past decades have shown that children ages 2–7 are cognitively capable of more than Piaget recognized.

iii. Research has shown that the development of cognitive skills in childhood is less stage-like and more continuous than Piaget believed.

2. Young Children’s Social Cognition: The Development of Theory of Mind

LO 6.7 Explain what “theory of mind” is and the evidence for when it develops during early childhood.

a. Theory of mind is the ability to understand thinking processes in oneself and others.

i. By age 2, as they begin to use language more, children show increasing recognition that others have thoughts and emotions that can be contrasted with their own.

ii. By age 3, children know it is possible for them and others to imagine something that is not physically present, an understanding that becomes the basis of pretend play for many years to come.

b. A common approach to testing young children’s theory of mind involves false-belief tasks. Three-year-olds have a hard time with these tests, but they improve with age, and most 5-year-olds get it correct because they can take another person’s perspective.

c. In the few false-belief studies in developing countries, some have found a delay in children’s acquisition of false-belief reasoning; however, these studies rely on highly language-dependent tasks.

d. Researchers have also explored testing for understanding of false beliefs in research with infants and toddlers. A number of researchers have used fiolation-of-expectation tasks to examine toddlers’ understanding of where a person with a false belief about the location of an object will search for the object.

3. Cultural Learning in Early Childhood

LO 6.8 Identify the ways that cultural learning takes place in early childhood.

a. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning views cognitive development as a social and cultural process; children learn through the social process of guided participation.

b. Young children have the capacity for learning culturally specific skills.

c. In many cultures, by 5–6 years of age, children learn skills that help them contribute to family functioning through direct instruction and observing and participating in these duties.

d. In developed countries, parents teach cultural learning using guided participation to prepare their children for doing household tasks and formal schooling.

e. Cultural learning in developed countries is different from cultural learning in traditional cultures:

i. In developed countries, children are away from their families for much of the day.

ii. In addition, in developed countries many complex, adult activities are not accessible to children, so there is a limit to which children can learn these skills through guided participation.

B. Early Childhood Education

1. Traditionally in many cultures, formal schooling begins at about age 7, but in developed countries, about three-fourths of children 3–5 years of age are enrolled in group child care, preschool, or kindergarten.

2. The Importance of Preschool Quality

LO 6.9 Identify the features that are most important in preschool quality and explain how they reflect cultural values.

a. Children generally benefit cognitively and socially from attending preschool, including higher verbal and math skills and stronger performance on measures of memory and listing comprehension.

b. Children from low-income families especially benefit cognitively from preschool.

c. Children who attend preschool are generally more independent and socially confident than children who remain home, but those who attend have also been observed to be less compliant, less respectful toward adults, and more aggressive than other children.

d. Quality makes a substantial difference in how preschool affects children. Key features of high-quality preschool programs include education and training of teachers, class size and child–teacher ratio, age-appropriate materials and activities, and teacher–child interactions.

e. A quality program will emphasize developmentally appropriate educational practices, which includes exploring and discovering through unstructured play.

i. The Montessori preschool program is known for its high-quality and developmentally appropriate practices, and the children who attended this type of program showed more improved social and cognitive development than more traditional preschools.

f. Although preschool is typical in developed countries, the structure varies widely by country.

i. In the United States and China, the emphasis in preschool is on early academic training resulting in cognitive benefits.

ii. In most of Europe and especially in Japan, the social benefits of preschool, like cooperation and sharing, are emphasized. Although there is no academic training in Japanese preschool, their older students consistently score high in reading, math, and science.

3. Preschool as a Cognitive Intervention

LO 6.10 Summarize early intervention programs and their outcomes.

a. Early intervention programs are designed to help young children who are at risk of poor academic outcomes due to low socioeconomic status.

i. Project Head Start is the largest early intervention program; about 1 million American children ages 4 to 6 are enrolled each year. The program provides 1 or 2 years of preschool and other services, including free meals and health care. Parents receive health care and job-training services.

ii. In the 1990s a new program, Early Head Start, was initiated for low-income families and their children from infancy to age 3.

iii. High Scope Preschool Project is a full-day, 2-year preschool program for children from low-income families.

b. Some early intervention programs have had long-term positive effects on children’s development, but, again, the effects depend greatly on the quality of the program and the social support the child receives from his or her family.

C. Language Development

1. Advances in Vocabulary and Grammar

LO 6.11 Explain how advances in vocabulary and grammar occur in early childhood.

a. Children’s vocabularies expand immensely in early childhood, from the average 3-year-old’s vocabulary of about 1,000 words to about 2,500 words at age 6.

b. Early childhood is a sensitive period for language learning, when the capacity for learning new words is pronounced.

c. Their ability to use fast mapping helps them to form a mental map of interconnected sets of word categories and then connect words to categories based on context.

d. They readily grasp the distinctive system of rules of grammar for their language simply through hearing and using language in the course of a typical day.

2. Pragmatics: Social and Cultural Rules of Language

LO 6.12 Specify how children learn pragmatics in early childhood, and identify how these social rules are culturally based.

a. Pragmatics, the social rules of language, guide us in knowing what to say—and what not to say—in a given social situation. Pragmatics include knowledge of when to speak, what to say and how to say it, whom to listen to, and how to interpret statements where what is meant is different from what is said.

b. At age 2, children understand basic pragmatics. By age 4, children are sensitive to the characteristics of their conversational partner and adjust their speech accordingly. Manners are more common and consistently used.

c. All cultures have their own rules for what kinds of speech can be used in many or kinds of situations.

III. Section 3: Emotional and Social Development

A. Emotional Regulation and Gender Socialization

1. Emotional Regulation

LO 6.13 Identify advances in emotional understanding and self-regulation during early childhood.

a. Early childhood is a key time for the development of emotional self-regulation, which is the ability to control one’s emotions, which is crucial to social relations.

i. Across cultures, early childhood is a time when expectations for emotional self-regulation increase.

ii. Development of the frontal cortex of the brain promotes this process.

b. We also see a decrease in emotional outbursts as children learn strategies for handling their emotions.

i. Strategies include leaving an intense situation, talking to themselves, redirecting attentions, and seeking comfort.

ii. These strategies are part of what researchers call effortful control.

c. Achieving a good level of self-regulation is a difficult balance.

i. Some children undercontrol their emotions, resulting in externalizing problems, primarily for males.

ii. Some children overcontrol their emotions, resulting in internalizing problems, primarily for females.

d. Successful emotional regulation means developing a level of effortful control that is between the two extremes.

i. Erikson noted that in the early childhood stage of initiative vs. guilt, children need to learn emotional control without being so tightly regulated that they feel excess guilt and their ability to undermine activities is undermined.

ii. Different cultures have different views of what optimal emotional control is.

2. Moral Development

LO 6.14 Describe moral development in early childhood, including empathy, modeling, and morality as cultural learning.

a. The capacity for empathy increases in early childhood, which leads in turn to an increase in prosocial behavior and contributes to understanding basic moral principles.

b. Early childhood is also a time when children learn much of their culture’s detailed, moral rules and are able to anticipate the potential consequences for violating such rules.

c. Socialization, the process by which children acquire the behaviors and beliefs of the culture they live in, is important to the acquisition of moral rules and expectations.

d. By age 5, most children understand the moral standards of their culture, and their views change little from childhood to adolescence to adulthood; however, moral standards vary by culture.

e. Children learn moral rules through explicit instruction or hearing or reading stories.

f. Young children also learn morality through custom complexes, in which every customary practice of a culture contains the customary practice and its underlying cultural and moral beliefs.

i. A variation on the custom complex can be found in the American research on modeling, which has found that children tend to model their behavior on the behavior of others they observe.

ii. They are especially likely to model behavior that they have seen rewarded.

g. Children also contribute to the socialization of others, strengthening their commitment to the moral rules and expectations.

h. Around ages 3–4, children show the beginnings of a capacity for moral reasoning using their beliefs in justice and fairness and later in knowing the difference between the truth and a lie.

i. Moral judgments tend to be based on fear of punishment.

3. Gender Development

LO 6.15 Summarize the roles that parents and peers play in gender socialization, and explain how gender schemas lead to self-socialization.

a. Gender Identity and Gender Socialization

i. The concept of gender identity, the understanding of oneself as male or female, is more rigid during early childhood, which may be due to cognitive limitations.

ii. By ages 6 or 7 children exhibit gender constancy, an understanding that femaleness and maleness are biological and cannot change.

iii. Children in early childhood may cling to their ideas of appropriate gender roles for fear of changing their gender.

b. Gender Socialization

i. Parents play an active role in delivering cultural gender messages to their children.

ii. Parents’ role in gender socialization continues in early childhood through what they say and give to their children, through their approval or lack thereof based on the children’s behavior, and through modeling.

iii. Fathers and peers are important to gender socialization.

1) Fathers tend to be stricter on boys than girls with regard to conforming to gender roles.

2) Peers may reject someone who violates gender role expectations.

c. Gender Schemas and Self-Socialization

i. A gender schema is a gender-based cognitive structure for organizing and processing information about the world.

ii. Gender is one of our most important schemas from early childhood onward.

iii. Gender schemas influence how we interpret the behavior of others and what we should expect from them. Children (and even adults) seek out information that is consistent with their gender beliefs while ignoring information that is inconsistent.

iv. Self-socialization is the process of trying to maintain consistency between gender schemas and behavior in a way that conforms to culturally appropriate gender role expectations.

B. Parenting

1. Parenting Styles

LO 6.16 Specify the four types of parenting “styles” and identify the cultural limitations of this model.

a. Parenting styles are the practices that parents exhibit in relation to their children and their beliefs about those practices.

b. Four Parenting Styles

i. American parenting research has emphasized the dimensions of demandingness (degree to which parents set down rules and expectations for behavior and require compliance from their children) and responsiveness (degree to which parents are sensitive to their children’s needs and express love, warmth, and concern for them).

ii. Various scholars have combined the two dimensions to describe different parenting styles. The most widely used conception is the one articulated by Diana Baumrind in her research on middle-class White American families:

1) Authoritative parents are high in demandingness (with explanation) and responsiveness and they are loving and warm.

2) Authoritarian parents are high in demandingness but low in responsiveness and they emphasize obedience.

3) Permissive parents are low in demandingness but high in responsiveness; they have few clearly set expectations and rarely discipline their children. They are also warm and loving.

4) Disengaged parents are low in both demandingness and responsiveness. They are emotionally detached from their children.

c. The Effects of Parenting Styles on Children

i. According to research findings, authoritative parenting produces the most favorable outcomes, such as independence, self-assuredness, creativity, and social skills.

ii. Other parenting styles are all associated with some negative outcomes such as behavioral, emotional, and social problems.

d. A More Complex Picture of Parenting Effects

i. The relationship between parenting styles and children’s development is complex due to reciprocal or bidirectional effects between parents and children.

ii. Children’s behavior may evoke a certain parenting style or cause a parent to modify his or her parenting style based on the outcomes of previous attempts.

e. Parenting Styles Worldwide

i. The authoritative parenting style is very rare in non-Western cultures.

1) In traditional cultures, parents expect their authority to be obeyed, without question and without requiring an explanation.

2) This is true in nearly all developing countries as well as developed countries outside the West.

3) In Asian cultures, children are expected to respect, obey, and revere their parents throughout their whole lives. This is called filial piety.

4) This concept also exists in the Latino culture and is referred to as respeto but is combined with familismo, which emphasizes the love, closeness, and mutual obligations of Latino family life.

ii. This does not mean that non-Western cultures are authoritarian; the parenting-styles model is a cultural model rooted in the American majority culture and does not apply well to most other cultures.

iii. Even within American society, the authoritative style is mainly dominant among White, middle-class families; each minority culture has its own distinctive form of warmth, but all tend to emphasize obeying parental authority rather than explanation and negotiation.

2. Discipline and Punishment

LO 6.17 Describe the main cultural variations in how parents discipline young children, and explain how cultural influences children’s responses to discipline.

a. Usually, it is during early childhood when children are first disciplined for inappropriate behavior, because it is believed that they know what they should be doing by then

b. Cultural Variations in Discipline

i. Cultures vary widely on the nature of discipline, and the consequences of discipline vary widely.

ii. In Western majority cultures, the approach to discipline in early childhood tends to emphasize the authoritative approach of explaining the consequences of misbehavior and the reasons for discipline.

1) For young children, discipline often involves taking away privileges or going in time out.

2) Parenting researchers recommend that parents explain the reasons for discipline, be consistent, and be timely (immediate).

iii. In some cultures, parents discipline by withdrawing love and shaming. 1) This is used by Japanese mothers.

2) While that works well in Japan’s culture, where it fits neatly into a larger system of cultural beliefs about duty and obligations to others, researchers have described the same method used in Western countries as psychological control.

c. Physical Punishment and Its Consequences

i. Physical or corporal punishment has quite different effects on children, depending on the cultural context.

ii. In the United States and Europe, researchers have found a correlation between physical punishment and a wide range of antisocial behaviors but only for White children. The opposite was true of African American children.

iii. The explanation for the outcomes produced with White children should address the rarity of physical punishment and thus it is ill-received. When it is used, it is often used in anger thus producing worse outcomes because children perceive a loss of parental control.

iv. In contrast, mild, physical punishment followed by an explanation and parental warmth is widespread among African Americans and in traditional cultures and tends to be very effective and productive.

d. Child Abuse and Neglect

i. Child maltreatment physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect of children

ii. Children’s risk factors for physical abuse include difficult temperament, aggressiveness, and being overly active and more difficult to control.

iii. Parental risk factors for physical abuse of children include poverty, unemployment, and single motherhood.

1) Stepfathers are more likely to be abuse than biological fathers are.

2) Child abuse is correlated with spouse abuse.

iv. Children who have experienced physical abuse are at risk for not meeting some social and cognitive developmental milestones and for experiencing negative outcomes later in life.

v. Children who are abused are often removed from the abusive parent, either informally in traditional cultures with placement with safe relatives or formally in Western cultures with placement in foster care, group homes, or with relatives.

vi. Prevention programs for parents with risk factors for abuse, such as the Nurse–Family Partnership (NFP), have been shown to be successful in reducing abuse and neglect.

C. The Child’s Expanding Social World

1. Mead’s Classifications of Childhood Social Stages

LO 6.18 Explain the meanings of Mead’s social stages from infancy through early childhood.

a. According to Margaret Mead’s research and what followed, children around the world are socialized similarly as they progress from lap children (ages 0–2) to knee children (ages 3–4) to yard children (ages 5–6), with greater levels of freedom at each age as their social worlds expand.

2. Siblings and “Only” Children

LO 6.19 Identify the most common features of sibling relationships worldwide, and describe how children with no siblings differ from other children.

a. On average, there is a 2- to 4-year gap between siblings. Thus, children in early childhood often experience the birth of a sibling.

b. Jealousy toward young siblings is common worldwide in early childhood, but children also love their siblings and like to dote on them and act as their teacher.

c. Middle-childhood siblings care for and teach younger siblings but also command and dominate them, sometimes physically punishing them. Sibling conflict can be beneficial in advancing young children’s theory of mind.

d. In the United States, about 20% of children have no sibling.

e. “Only children” fare well compared to children with siblings, but some have poorer social skills. Even in China, where there has been concern about the social effects of the government’s “one child” population policy, children tend to fare well and have no social deficits.

3. Peers and Friends

LO 6.20 Explain how the quality of friendships changes from toddlerhood to early childhood, and describe the role of play and aggression in young children’s friendships.

a. Peers are persons who share some aspect of their status in common, such as age. In contrast, friends are people with whom one develops a valued, mutual relationship.

b. Peer and friend relations are usually strictly segregated by same-sex gender associations during early childhood, but mixed-age peer play groups are common in traditional cultures and rare in Western cultures.

c. Play in Early Childhood

i. Simple social play and cooperative, pretend play becomes more complex in the course of early childhood.

ii. Play becomes increasingly sex-segregated as young children get older.

iii. Boys generally engage in high-activity, aggressive, competitive, “rough-and-tumble” play, whereas girls’ play tends to be quieter and more cooperative.

iv. By early childhood, there are distinct differences among children in how successful they are at using the social skills required for play in a group setting.

v. Play is widespread across cultures, but in some cultures, there is less time for play as parents involve children in work that sustains the family. In general, children in traditional cultures have some time for play, but often their play is structured and directed by older children. Outside the West, children don’t typically play with adults.

d. Aggression

i. As children move into the world of peers, they encounter more competition for resources, which can lead to conflict and aggression.

ii. Instrumental aggression, is involved when a child wants something and uses aggressive behavior or words to get it.

iii. A child exhibiting signs of anger and an intention to harm others is displaying hostile aggression.

iv. Instrumental and hostile aggression can be expressed in several ways:

1) Physical aggression includes hitting, kicking, pushing, or striking with an object.

2) Verbal aggression is the use of words to hurt others.

3) Relational aggression (social aggression) involves damaging another person’s reputation among peers through social exclusion and malicious gossip.

v. There is evidence that physical aggression peaks in toddlerhood, and it is more common among boys than girls

vi. In general, individual differences for the propensity to display aggression remain stable over time. Nurturing, responsive parents can mitigate that effect for children who tend to be aggressive, which is especially important to do during early childhood.

vii. In most cultures, aggressive play or rough housing is common, particularly among boys.

viii. Both verbal and relational aggression increase during early childhood as language ability and cognitive and social understanding increases.

4. Media Use in Early Childhood

LO 6.21 Identify the rates and consequences of media use in early childhood.

a. In early childhood, children’s media world expands greatly, especially in developed countries.

b. American children ages 2–8 use media about 3½ hours a day, including television, electronic games, and recorded music.

c. The Negative Impacts of Television Use: Violence and Advertising

i. Television is popular all over the world; in the United States, children ages 2–8 watch an average of 2 hours a day of TV, DVDs, and videos.

ii. Researchers have shown that children’s programming is violent, even more so than adult programming, even though most of the violence depicted is mild, animated situations.

iii. Abundant evidence shows that watching TV violence increases aggressive behavior in young children.

iv. Young children ages 3–6 are especially vulnerable to the effects of TV violence because they are more likely to model the behavior of others.

v. Young children are especially susceptible to advertising because many commercials seem like programs to them and they try to influence their parents to buy the products they see.

vi. There is concern that TV advertising is one influence behind the growing epidemic of obesity in children.

d. The Beneficial Effects of Educational Television

i. Educational programs, including Sesame Street, can have positive effects on young children’s development in language, math, and prosocial behaviors.

e. Electronic Games and Music

i. Electronic games and recorded music are important in young children’s lives.

1) American children ages 2 to 4 average 21 minutes a day playing electronic games; by ages 5 to 8, that time doubles.

2) Boys play electronic games more than girls do, and they prefer fighting and sports games while girls prefer adventure and learning games.

ii. Listening to music is important in early childhood for the development of responses to music, as children first connect musical sounds with specific emotions.

LECTURE LAUNCHERS, DISCUSSIONS, AND ACTIVITIES

Section 1 Infantile Amnesia Lecture Launcher and Activity

Begin by having each student think about and write down his or her first memory and age at the time of the event. Have some students share their memories in class, or collect their papers and read some aloud. Note that none of the students produced memories from infancy; in fact, most (all) were for children who were older than 2 or 3 years of age. Introduce the following lecture material:

Piaget told the story of his earliest memory of being nearly kidnapped when he was 2 years old. He could recall sitting in his carriage watching his nurse protect him from a kidnapper. He recalled her being scratched on the face. He even remembered the policeman, who wore a short coat and carried a white stick, chasing the kidnapper away. When Piaget was 15, his old nurse wrote to his parents and confessed that she had made up the whole story. Thus, it seems that early memories are tricky. In fact, most psychologists believe that early memories are hazy or nonexistent before the age of 3.

This phenomenon is called infantile amnesia. Many people claim they can recall events from before the age of 3; however, experts believe, like Piaget, that their “memories” are reconstructions based on family photos, stories, dreams, and their imaginations. Why can’t we remember early events from infancy when we obviously have memories for names, faces, and procedures from those times? Freud believed that children do not recall early memories because these memories are traumatic, as children are repressing sexual and aggressive urges.

Another theory is that the area of the brain that is critical for storage of events, the hippocampus, is not well developed in infancy. This theory is supported by studies of infants’ sleeping. Newborns spend more than 8 hours a day in REM sleep. This cycle is different in infants than in adults—in infants the sleep cycles occur in 50- to 60-minute periods and begin with REM sleep, whereas in adults REM occurs only after slow-wave sleep. By the age of 2, infants spend only

3 hours a day in REM sleep. A leading theory of why infants need so much REM sleep is that it stimulates nerve growth in the hippocampus. By the age of 2, memories can begin to be integrated in meaningful ways (and thus be recalled). Cognitive developmentalists further believe that since language is required to store and retrieve memories, infants, with only emerging language skills, cannot yet form the conceptual categories, or schemas, necessary to organize and retrieve memories. Finally, some developmental psychologists believe that a sense of self is crucial for storing and recalling memories about one’s experiences. Research indicates that a sense of self does not emerge until the second year of life.

Refer back to the students’ first memories. Make note that many of the memories were emotionally vivid; that is, they were either positively or negatively charged. We are more likely to recall intense events rather than the mundane, partially through the involvement of the amygdala.

Sources:

Howe, M. L., & Courage, M. L. (1993). On resolving the enigma of infantile amnesia. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 305–326.

Nelson, K. (1992). Emergence of autobiographical memory at age 4. Human Development, 35, 172–177.

Winson, J. (1997). The meaning of dreams. Mysteries of the Mind [Special issue of Scientific American], 58–67.

Additional Source:

Peterson, C., Warren, K. L., & Short, M. M. (2011). Infantile amnesia across the years: A 2-year follow-up of children’s earliest memories. Child Development, 82, 1092–1105.

Section 1 Activity: Children’s Diets

Have students move into small groups and generate a list of the foods that they believe are most commonly consumed by American children. Then have them generate a list of all the foods that would be best for children to consume. Ask them to note the differences between these two lists and generate ideas on how to get children to eat healthier foods. Have a representative from each group present an idea while you write the ideas on the board, and rotate through the groups until all ideas have been listed.

Section 1 Lecture Launcher and Activity: Left-Handedness

Begin by having students who are left-handed raise their left hands. Then have someone calculate what percentage of the class is left-handed.

A great deal of research reveals that the two hemispheres of the brain are lateralized, or dominant for different functions. This means that one-half of the brain is more specialized or proficient in certain abilities than the other. Hand usage is an interesting example of lateralization. Most people (90%) are right-handed and have dominant motor control in their left hemisphere. There are some intriguing differences between right- and left-handed populations:

 Males are more likely to be left-handed than females.

 There is a higher proportion of left-handers among architects, engineers, university mathematics teachers, mathematics students, artists, astronauts, chess masters, and performing musicians than in the general population.

 According to Jerre Levy, 60% of left-handers have their speech and language control in their left hemisphere (as do right-handed people). These tend to be left-handers who write with a hooked hand posture.

 Forty percent of left-handers have speech and language controlled in their right hemispheres. These lefties tend to write with their hands in an upright posture.

 Reading disabilities, stuttering, autism, immune diseases, migraine headaches, allergies, eczema, and some categories of intellectual disability are more prevalent in left-handers than in right-handers.

 Left-handers are more likely to be precocious, mathematical, and less skilled at verbal tasks (except for analogies). 

 Young people are more likely to be left-handed than elderly people (Gilbert & Wysocki, 1992; Halpern, 1992). Coren and Halpern (1991) call this the “elimination hypothesis,” suggesting that left-handers are more accident-prone and more prone to immune diseases. Others believe this is an example of social patterns forcing lefties to become right-handed (Harris, 1993).

Halpern (1992) comments that it is interesting that differences in skills related to handedness parallel gender differences in abilities!

Although no one knows what causes left-handedness, the latest research suggests that genetics, fetal positioning, and cultural factors each play a role (Grimshaw & Wilson, 2013).

Conclude by having students share their observations of any patterns they noticed among left-handers and whether or not it is consistent with the patterns noted here and in the text.

Sources:

Coren, S., & Halpern, D.F. (1991). Left-handedness: A marker for decreased survival fitness. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 90–106.

Gilbert, A. N., & Wysocki, C. J. (1992). Hand preference and age in the United States. Neuropsychologia, 30, 601–608.

Grimshaw, G. S., & Wilson, M. S. (2013). A sinister plot? Facts, beliefs, and stereotypes about the left-handed personality. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 18, 135–151.

Halpern, D. F. (1992). Sex differences in cognitive abilities (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Harris, L. (1993). Do left-handers die sooner than right-handers? Psychological Bulletin, 113, 203–234.

Watkins, M. (1995). Creation of the sinister: Biological contributions to left-handedness. Harvard Society for Mind, Brain, and Behavior.

Section 2 Activity: NAEYC Accredited Versus State Licensed Preschools

For this activity, students will investigate the differences between preschools accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and those that are licensed by a state. Have students find out what the licensing requirements are for their state preschools. What are the benefits to sending children to a preschool accredited by NAEYC? What might prevent parents from sending their children to a NAEYC-accredited preschool? Students should type up a brief report of their findings. After the activity, you may want to hold an in-class discussion. You may also want students to compare requirements across states as worker qualifications and provider/child ratios vary widely. Students find this very interesting, especially when they are planning to become parents in the future or are already the parents of young children.

You can find links to state licensing requirements by visiting the website Daycare.com (https://www.daycare.com) and clicking on “Licensing Requirements” in the center of the page.

Section 2 Lecture Launcher: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Young children sometimes have difficulty recalling information. A 1995 study suggested that drawing can enhance children’s memories for events.

Sarnia Butler, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, led a study involving 5- and 6-year-olds who took a field trip to a fire station. While there, the children clambered on the fire engines, watched drills performed by the firefighters, tried on the firefighting gear, and even watched as one of their chaperones slid down the fire pole, much to the displeasure of the tour leader, who reprimanded her. (This event, and several others, were prearranged ahead of time.) Both one day and one month later, the children were asked about their outing. Those children who were asked to draw and describe the events of that day—how they got there, what they saw, the events that transpired—accurately reported much more information than those children who were simply asked to tell what happened. This effect was not observed among 3- to 4-year-olds, although among both groups drawing did not appear to increase errors in recall.

This research indicates that memory for pleasant events may be increased by coupling words and pictures. It remains to be seen whether the same effect would hold for negative events. If so, this technique may hold promise for boosting children’s recall of abuse, incest, or other traumatic events.

Source:

Staff. (1995). Kids draw on their memories. Science News, 148, 111.

Section 2 Lecture Launcher: Genie Wiley: Understanding the Sensitive Period in Language Development

In 1970, a 13-year-old girl was discovered in Los Angeles. Her name was Genie, and the conditions in which she was found were appalling. Genie had been treated like an animal since the age of 20 months. She was confined to a small, curtained room and spent most of her days strapped to a potty chair, unable to move except for her hands and feet. At night, Genie was confined in a cage-like crib and restrained in a straightjacket-type garment. She had no bowel or bladder control, could not stand in an erect posture, was severely malnourished, and was unable to chew solid food. Genie was also mute; she could not speak and could not understand language. The only sounds she had ever heard were those made by her father on the occasions he beat her for crying or making noises. Genie had been held prisoner by her father, a man who never spoke to her and would not allow anyone else to do so.

Genie was removed from her father’s custody and taken to Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, where she was nursed back to physical health. She underwent psychological evaluation to determine her mental status and level of cognitive functioning, including her ability to produce and comprehend language. Following all necessary assessments, psychologists embarked on the task of teaching Genie language. Because Genie was attempting to acquire language at age 13, her psychologists were presented with a unique opportunity to study the critical period theory relative to learning language, the notion that there is a time early in a child’s life when language learning must begin, if language is to be learned at all. Genie was far past that proposed critical period. Further, she knew no grammar and had virtually no language ability.

The researchers working with Genie approached the task of teaching her language in much the same manner they would teach a younger child, by direct exposure to spoken language as a function of engagement in daily activities. Initially, Genie would speak only one or two words at a time, but she did progress, up to a point. Though she eventually progressed to the degree of combining two and three words into phrases, she never progressed beyond the level of a 3- or 4-year-old child in her language abilities and never made the progression from simple words to grammatically correct sentences.

The fact that Genie actually did acquire some facility for language denied support for the hypothesis that there is a critical period for language acquisition and that this period falls somewhere between age 2 and puberty. However, Genie’s failure to attain fluency and grammar did point to the potential for an optimal period for language acquisition, a period that, if missed, would result in failure ever to attain complete facility for language. Unfortunately, no more specific information could be gained from Genie’s experiences, because her lack of facility for language could be attributable to her severely malnourished state, the emotional and physical abuse suffered at the hands of her father, and her social isolation as much as to a potential optimal period for language acquisition.

By age 24, Genie had received 11 years of special education and rehabilitation, as well as foster care, yet her language capability remained short of that expected in a 5-year-old child. Did Genie miss her critical period for language acquisition? We do not know. Her plight has offered many insights to developmental psychologists, but many final answers remain elusive.

Students interested in learning more about this issue may want to watch the TLC documentary Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children (2002) and /or the feature-length dramatic film about Victor of Aveyron, The Wild Child (1970).

Section 2 Lecture Launcher and Discussion: Understanding Bilingual/Bicultural Young Children

A lecture and/or discussion of linguistically diverse children might be of value, especially if there are a number of education majors in your class. Meeting the needs of bilingual/bicultural children is a growing challenge for educators. It is now widely acknowledged that language minority students constitute an increasing proportion of our young learners in the United States. In response to this trend, the field of bilingual early childhood education has evolved primarily in two directions: one emphasizes formal language learning instruction, while the other emphasizes natural language acquisition. Most experts in the field suggest that educators need to incorporate practices that enhance, enrich, and optimize educational opportunities for speakers of other languages. Soto’s article discusses a variety of successful instructional approaches, a host of misconceptions about young learners, and some practical applications for those working with preschoolers. Have students discuss the pros and cons of each direction of learning another language.

Source:

Soto, L. D. (1991). Understanding bilingual/bicultural young children. Young Children, 42, pp. 30–36. (Reprinted in Child Growth and Development, Annual Editions 1995/1996. Guilford, CT: Dushkin/Brown & Benchmark.)

Section 3 Lecture Launcher: Young Children’s Understanding of Everyday Emotions

During the preschool years, children begin to form their self-concept and, according to Erikson, experience the feeling of independence, shame, or guilt. A related area of interest is children’s understanding of emotions. Children experience a host of emotions, ranging from everyday feelings of frustration, anger, and happiness to those associated with traumatic experiences such as divorce or death. Children’s understanding of emotions changes with age and is influenced by parents and teachers. Children come to know that it is possible to experience more than one feeling at a time and that one can hide one’s emotions, as well as how to read others’ emotional states.

Research suggests that talking about feelings is important for children in learning about emotions and how to manage them, especially in preschool populations. Kuebli’s article is a rich source of information for a lecture on emotional development. It provides an excellent overview of the general nature of emotional experiences, children’s early emotion vocabulary and concepts, and the manner in which children discuss emotions. Ideas for facilitating children’s understanding of their own and others’ emotions are also provided.

In addition, you might bring an assortment of children’s books with emotional-related themes to class or ask students to bring in books they found. For instance, there are books for preschoolers about divorce, death, anger, being sad, losing a friend, moving, having a birthday, winning a prize, feeling good, and more. You can circulate these, have students read them, and then have students discuss them. Trelease’s book, a beloved classic since 1982, includes an extensive list of children’s books and a summary of each.

Sources:

Kuebli, J. (1994). Young children’s understanding of everyday emotions. Young Children, March, 36–47. Reprinted in Child Growth and Development, Annual Editions 1995/1996. Guilford, CT: Dushkin/Brown & Benchmark.

Trelease, J. (2013). The read-aloud handbook (7th ed.). New York: Penguin Books.

Section 3 Lecture Launcher: Hormones and Toy Preferences

An early characteristic of gender-role stereotypes is the preference for playing with sex-typed toys. Studies of individuals with the genetic disorder congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a condition characterized by high levels of adrenal androgens during prenatal development, reveal that CAH women exhibit traditional male characteristics (for example, more active and rougher play, a preference for masculine activities, and a greater spatial ability than their female relatives). Most studies of this type, however, rely on interview data, rather than direct observation.

To remedy this methodological shortcoming, Berenbaum and Hines (1992) studied 37 children (26 girls and 11 boys) with CAH and 33 unaffected male and female relatives, all between the ages of 3 and 8. The dependent variable, toy preference, was measured as the amount of time spent playing with either masculine (e.g., helicopter, cars, construction blocks), feminine (e.g., dolls, kitchen supplies, toy telephone), or neutral toys (e.g., books, board games, jigsaw puzzle). Although the control girls and boys showed large differences in toy preferences along sex-typed lines, CAH girls showed a significant preference for masculine toys (compared to the control girls) and also played with feminine toys less often than did the controls. Parental surveys and medical data indicated that these results could not be attributed to differential treatment or disease factors. The researchers concluded that, although the data are consistent with an androgen influence on sex-typed toy choices, it is not necessarily because hormones have a direct influence on these choices. Hormones may affect toy choices indirectly, perhaps through an influence on activity level, motor skills, abilities, or temperament.

Source:

Berenbaum, S. A., & Hines, M. (1992). Early androgens are related to childhood sex-typed toy preferences. Psychological Science, 3(3), 203–206.

Section 3 Activity: Gender Socialization

Divide your class into discussion groups. Give each group about 20 minutes to come up with a list of all the ways our modern society (parents, peers, relatives, siblings, teachers, media, etc.) socializes young children to be masculine or feminine. To get their creative juices flowing, write the following items on the board:

When the baby is born

When the baby comes home from the hospital

Toys and books

Birthday parties, Christmas, Halloween, etc.

Television

Occupations

Section 3 Lecture Launcher: Corporal Punishment

The use of corporal punishment as a means of correcting inappropriate behavior in children is a topic that has been debated by social scientists for a very long time. Students understandably have varying opinions, as well. Along these lines, Gershoff’s meta-analysis of corporal punishment studies (2002) yielded some interesting results. She analyzed data from 88 different studies. Based on her analyses, she recommended that parents refrain from using spanking. Was this recommendation warranted based on the data? This is an excellent time to incorporate a refresher on research methods regarding operational definitions (many of the studies do not agree on a single, specific, definition of corporal punishment) and the problems with correlational versus experimental research. In addition, you can reinforce that psychology is a science and it is important to have informed, educated opinions based on research when addressing issues like these, but it is necessary to understand how the research was conducted.

Source:

Gershoff, E. T. (2002). Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 128(4), 539–579.

Section 3 Lecture Launcher: The Consequences of Sexual Abuse

Two independent studies reported at the 1995 meeting of the American Psychiatric Association found evidence that severe childhood sexual abuse leaves a permanent mark on the brain. The researchers in both cases used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the hippocampus, a brain structure involved in organizing memory, in groups of women. The studies found that the hippocampal volume of women who had suffered severe sexual abuse as children was smaller than that of women who were comparable in age but who had not been abused. Both groups of women were recruited from the same women’s health clinic where they were receiving general care.

The research teams suggest that this cerebral alteration may predispose people to experience dissociation and to develop the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other investigators have reported similar reductions in hippocampal volume among Vietnam combat veterans suffering from PTSD. However, the point at which the reduction takes place is not clear, especially given that many adults who develop PTSD have experienced prior traumas.

If the severe traumas of child sexual abuse or combat release stress hormones that harm the hippocampus, it may account in part for the fragmented memories experienced by many people suffering from PTSD. However, it is also known that many trauma survivors display no memory disruptions, dissociation, or symptoms of PTSD. This has led some researchers to speculate that a genetic predisposition to react strongly to extreme stress may also be implicated, especially in men. Further research will hopefully clarify this link between behavior and brain.

If you or any of your students suspect that a child is a victim of any kind of abuse, call 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453). This is the toll-free number of Childhelp USA, an organization that offers help, counseling, and referrals for victims of child abuse. You may want to offer several local phone numbers of abuse hotlines for your students.

Source:

Bower, B. (1995). Child sex abuse leaves mark on brain. Science News, 147, 340.

Section 3 Activity: Media Influences on Gender Role Development

One activity that is consistently popular with students is to have them explore a variety of media for views of sex-role development, gender identity, and the portrayal of gender stereotypes. Books (including children’s books as well as books aimed at parents), toys, movies, videos, newspapers, magazines (including children’s magazines), television shows (especially children’s cartoons), and advertisements are all suitable subjects for analysis. After gathering a variety of sources, students should write a short paper applying principles from the text and lecture to their examples. What common themes or stereotypes did they find throughout? Are there many instances of sex-typed behavior? Are there certain kinds of media that break stereotypic portrayals? What influences will these portrayals likely have on the development of gender identity and gender role awareness in children? It might be particularly instructive to compare older media sources, if available (e.g., magazines, television shows, movies, or books that are 10 to 15 years old), with current ones. Which stereotypes seem to be firmly rooted in our culture and resistant to change? In what ways have stereotypes changed in the past decade? Because television is such an influential medium, particularly with respect to children, your students should enjoy analyzing gender portrayals in various types of programming, comparing and contrasting children’s educational shows (e.g., Sesame Street, Super Why!), cartoons (e.g., Arthur), action shows (e.g., Ben10), and situation comedies (e.g., Fuller House). Students’ papers can also form the basis for a lively class discussion on this important topic.

Use Handout 6-1 to organize students’ viewing of children’s television programs for gender stereotyping.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT DEVELOPMENT

Hindsight Bias

Understanding the Concept

You must facilitate this exercise to introduce hindsight bias. Instruct students to work alone.

Classroom Version. Using Handout 6-2, make separate copies of each statement—leaving out the instructions at the top of the page. From a single stack, distribute the first statement to about half the class and the second statement to the other half. Instruct students to work alone.

Lecture Hall Version. Split the class up the middle of the seating area, forming Group 1 and Group 2. Instruct Group 2 to engage in an unrelated writing activity without looking at the board until told to do so. Put up Statement 1 (from Handout 6-2) and instruct Group 1 to view the statement and write answers to the questions. When Group 1 has finished writing, give them an unrelated writing exercise and instruct them not to view the board. Put up Statement 2 and instruct Group 2 to view it and write answers to the questions. Anyone who “cheated” and looked at the board should not participate in the discussion of the results.

Whether in the classroom or lecture hall, after students have written their answers, ask for those who agreed with the statement they received to raise their hands. Then ask for a show of hands of those who found the result surprising. Usually, only a few students will raise their hands to each of these inquiries. You should express surprise at this result and then proceed to demonstrate why by reading the two versions of the handouts. Often you will have to be quite explicit about the fact that students not only readily agreed with two opposite statements but found their version unsurprising. This leads to either a lecture on hindsight bias or presentation of Handout 6-3 (as a handout or online post). Students can discuss the concepts further in small groups or a discussion board.

Online Version. Using Handout 6-2, email the first statement to half the students in your class, and email the second statement to the other half. Instruct students to report their answers (not the question) in a discussion forum. Alternatively, use a survey to obtain student answers. After students have posted, describe the experiment and post the information on hindsight bias (Handout 6-3).

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Burnett, J., Anderson, W., & Heppner, P. (1995). Gender roles and self-esteem: A consideration of environmental factors. Journal of Counseling and Development, 73, 323–326.

Dodson, F. (1987). How to discipline with love. New York: New American Library.

Durkin, K. (1995). Developmental social psychology: From infancy to old age. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Elkind, D. (1988). Miseducation: Preschoolers at risk. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Elkind’s major theme is that our preschools use potentially harmful practices when they attempt to teach young children without knowledge of developmental stages and appropriate learning. Elkind discusses Erikson’s psychosocial stages in the context of developing appropriate preschool programs.

Hartup, W. (1989). Social relationships and their developmental significance. American Psychologist, 44(2), 120–126. As mentioned earlier, the entire volume 44 of American Psychologist is dedicated to child development issues with articles written by eminent child developmentalists. To order back issues, write: Order Department, APA, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002–4242.

Martin, C., Eisenbud, L., & Rose, H. (1995). Children’s gender-based reasoning about toys. Child Development, 66, 1453–1471.

Zimbardo, P. G., & Radl, S. L. (1981). The shy child: A parent’s guide to overcoming and preventing shyness from infancy through adulthood. New York: Dolphin/Doubleday.

Revel VIDEOS

Chapter Introduction: Early Childhood

Gross Motor Development in Early Childhood

Conservation Tasks

Egocentrism Task

Guided Participation Across Cultures

Gender Socialization

Development of Play Styles in Early Childhood

Research Focus: Shyness in China and Canada: Cultural Interpretations

Early Learning Specialist at an International Aid Organization

JOURNAL PROMPTS AND SHARED WRITING PROMPTS

Journal Prompts

Theories of Cognitive Development

Give two examples from this video, one from a traditional culture and one from an economically developed country, of cultural skills that are acquired in early childhood. For each example, briefly explain why this skill is likely only to be acquired in early childhood and not earlier.

End-of-Chapter Activities

Give an example of speech that violates the cultural rules of pragmatics, either from your own experience or an example you invent. Explain the underlying cultural norms that the speech violates.

Shared Writing Questions

Growth from Age 3 to 6

Consider the foods that you typically see on the “Kid’s Menu” in restaurants. How do these menus reflect cultural beliefs about food?

Theories of Cognitive Development

Do you see a relationship between centration and egocentrism? Explain.

Language Development

Can you think of examples of how pragmatics have changed in your culture, compared to a century ago?

Emotional Regulation and Gender Socialization

Describe a childhood story or fairy tale told in your culture that communicates a moral lesson.

Handout 6-1

Children’s Television Programs and Gender Stereotyping

For this assignment you are to watch a children’s television program (e.g., a cartoon, Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, Ben10). Answer the following questions.

Name of program

Day and time of program

Who was the primary audience for this show (girls or boys)?

Why would children like this show?

List any incidences of gender stereotyping (aggressive men, beautiful but weak women, violence, men working and women staying home, etc.).

What did you like about this show?

What did you dislike about this show?

Did the advertisements contribute to stereotyping?

Handout 6-2

Hindsight Bias: Questions

Instructor: Make copies of this page and cut the questions apart. Give half the class the first statement and give the second statement to the other half of the class.

Experts who study bullying have found that adolescent bullies score lower than normal on measures of self-esteem. Does this finding seem surprising? Yes___ No___

How might low self-esteem relate to bullying?

Experts who study bullying have found that adolescent bullies score higher than normal on measures of self-esteem. Does this finding seem surprising? Yes___ No___

How might abnormally high self-esteem relate to bullying?

_______________________________________________________________________

Handout 6-3

Hindsight Bias

Hindsight (looking back) means thinking about something that has already occurred. You may have noticed that when looking back, you wonder how anyone could have missed the obvious or made such foolish errors in thinking.

To become a critical thinker, you must know about our common human tendencies toward thinking errors and biases. You can think of a bias as an off switch in your brain. A thinking bias turns off your critical thinking circuits. A bias tells you that you don’t need to think, or even that you should not think, about a piece of information. Hindsight bias will switch off your brain if you are ignorant of it and if you don’t expend the mental energy to fight it.

How does hindsight bias work? Think of each word you are reading as receding into your (very recent) past. You may find that what you read seems obvious (like low—or is it high?—self-esteem in bullies). Since it seems obvious, you must already have known it. Since you already knew it, why would you think about it? If you already knew it, why exert any energy to remember it?

Many times, we did not already know it. Being human, we are likely to believe information that sounds good and appears logical enough. This is especially true if it appears to be from a source we consider legitimate. With our hindsight bias operating, we have no reason to pause and question, or to consider whether information is new to us. You can think of hindsight bias as the “Duh, who doesn’t know that?” or “Well, of course” response. Another frequent clue to hindsight bias is “They gave people money to study that? I could have told them the answer.”

So when hindsight bias is operating, we don’t recognize when information really is new to us or when it contradicts what we currently believe. The result is that we move on and revert quickly to our old, and possibly wrong, ideas.

What can you do to guard against the effects of hindsight bias? Knowledge that hindsight bias happens and some ideas about how to recognize it, combined with making the mental effort to check for it, will increase your CT (Critical Thinking) rating considerably.