Module 5: Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood

Content

1. Influence and development of emotional self-regulation at this stage

2. Parenting styles and their impact on child’s behaviour and development

3. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory at this stage

4. Similarities and differences of moral development

5. Development of self-understanding

6. Different types of play

7. Development of gender identity

Erikson and Self-Conscious Emotion

Erikson’s psychosocial theory encapsulates the many changes that occur during this time

In early childhood children develop:

• A confident self-image

• More effective control over their emotions

• New social skills

• Foundations of morality

• Gender identity

Initiative vs Guilt

Play: allows children to take initiative without fear of criticism or failure

Initiative: core ego property of purpose

Able to:

• Broaden skills through play

• Cooperate to meet common goals

• Lead and follow

Is built through warm and sensitive parenting

Guilt: core pathology of inhibition

If efforts are criticised, minimised, stifled, self-initiated efforts become source of embarrassment

• Fearful

• Hang on the fringes of groups

• Over-dependence on adults

• Restricted development of play

Development of Self

• Self-Concept: set of attributes and qualities that define the self - emerges 3-5yr

  • First based on observable characteristics (3.5yr) - what they like doing, what they can do

  • By 5yr favourable self-concept emerges

• Positive feedback from others helps to create positive self-concept

• Increasing sensitivity to praise and blame - self-conscious emotions

• Facilitated by language development

• Understanding of uniques psychological characteristics

• Fostered by warm supportive parenting

• Tied to long-term outcomes, including health and professional achievement

Emotional Development: Emergence of Empathy

• Feeling with another

• Motivates altruism, prosocial behaviour

• Related to cognitive development - increases in perspective-taking & reliance on words

Temperament

• Sociability, assertiveness, emotional regulation → Empathy, altruism

• Poor emotion regulation → overwhelmed by own feelings, so less altruistic or empathetic

Role of Parenting: Warmth and sensitivity, model empathy, teach importance of kindness, encourage emotional regulation, encourage emotion descriptions and discussion

Empathy drives pro-social behaviour, which is extremely important for successful socialisation in early childhood

Play

Play: behaviour that is intrinsically motivated, freely chosen, process-oriented, and pleasurable - enhances all domains of development

Psychoanalysts: helps child master anxieties & conflicts

Piaget: aids cognitive development, independent discovery, perspective0taking through peer interaction, moral development through understanding rules

Vygotsky: development of social rules, self regulation

Modern early education overemphasises classroom based reading, writing, and counting activities, leaving out the extremely important aspect of play.

• Average age to learn to read is 6.5yr

• By 3rd grade, there is no difference between early and late readers

Solitary Play (2-3yr)

• As child develops, should be progressing through different types of play

• Continued solitary play in pre-schoolers is associated with immaturity, impulsivity and poor emotional regulation, inhibited temperament

• Pre school boys risk negative evaluation, but girls less so

Play Categories

• Functional Play: simple repetitive motor movements (up to 2yr)

• Constructive Play: creating or constructing something (3-6yr)

• Make-Believe Play: acting out everyday and imaginary roles (2-6yr)

Play transforms from solitary to parallel, with multiple kids playing alongside each other, to co-operative - playing all together

Friendships

• Capacity to form friendships associated with academic achievement, greater social competence, and more positive adjustment

• Friendships skills are shaped by family

• First friendships are usually: lacking mutuality, arbitrary, fleeting, mixed gender

• With development preference for same sex friendship rises, but a lot of benefits associated with mixed gender friendships

Moral Development

Morality: principles concerning distinction between right and wrong behaviour, attitudes, beliefs, good vs bad; develops from external regulation to internalised rules and standards

Components:

• Cognitive: increased knowledge and acceptance of rules, capacity for moral reasoning

• Behavioural: increased prosocial behaviour (sharing toys)

• Affective: increased empathy

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Development of superego via identification with same sex parent - children obey superego to avoid guilt.

Largely discredited, but guilt does play role in development of conscience

Social Learning Theories

• Focus is behavioural

• Operant conditioning: positively reinforce desired behaviour, punish undesired

Punishment is effective for immediate obedience

• But, provides aggressive model

• Correlated with avoidance of parent, increased reactive aggression, self-focus/lack of empathy, increased anti-social behaviour, weak moral development, poor academic achievement

• Adolescence and beyond: mental health issues, delinquency, partner and child abuse

Fear of punishment and loss of parental love does not necessarily increase moral behaviour

Rather than forcing morality onto a child, it is more effective to help them grow their own morality, internalise it. Externalising it will likely mean that a child is only going to partake in moral behaviours when prompted by parents through punishment, or when is likely to be found out.

Effective Discipline

Inductive Discipline: adult points out the consequences of child’s behaviour on others, which involves:

• Reasoning about effects of misbehaviour

• Provides information about right behaviour

• Directs attention towards others’ feelings

Warm induction is associated with pro-social behaviour, and is effective from 2yr as long as language is age appropriate.

Timeouts: involves removing the child from a situation where misbehaviour occurred and placing them in a quiet, distraction-free space for a short period.

• The goal is not punishment, but to allow the child to calm down, reflect, and regain self-control.

• For it to be effective, the timeout should be brief (1 minute per year of age), predictable, and followed by a discussion of what went wrong and how to make better choices.

Time-ins: focuses on connecting with the child during or after a difficult moment rather than isolating them.

• The adult stays with the child, helps label emotions, and models calming techniques (e.g., deep breathing).

• This method encourages emotional understanding and fosters a secure attachment by showing empathy and guiding the child through emotional experiences.

Important Factors in Discipline

• Consistency: applied predictably and consistently, always matched with follow-through from parent

• Discipline must match the offending behaviour

• Warm parent relationships: children desire to regain and restore parental warmth

• Explanations: reasons for receiving punishments

• Inductive Reasoning: explanation of effect of misbehaviour, provide information about correct behaviour, direct attention towards others’ feelings

Parenting Styles

Baumrind (1971): influential research based on observations of parent-child interactions; Found three parenting behaviours that differentiate parenting styles

1. Warmth (acceptance and involvement)

2. Control (demand and limit setting)

3. Autonomy granting

Baumrind’s Parenting Styles Chart

Authoritative Parenting:

• Achievement oriented

• Independent/self-reliant

• Good peer relationships

• Good coping and emotional adjustment

• Internalised moral standards, self-control

Authoritarian Parenting:

• Low self-esteem, poor self-concept

• Unhappy, anxious about comparing self to others

• Poor academic performance because lack initiative

• Poor social skills

• Reactive aggression

• Particularly harmful for boys

• But protective in urban African-American families

Permissive (Indulgent) Parenting

• Socially incompetent

• Lack self-control, egocentric

• May be aggressive, domineering, non-compliant

• Overly dependent on teachers

• Poor academic performance, lack of persistence, especially for boys

Uninvolved (Neglectful) Parenting

• Socially incompetent

• Low self-esteem

• Lack self-control, cannot handle independence

• Poor academic achievement

• Associated with truancy and delinquency in adolescence

Gender Role Development

Gender Typing: association of objects, traits, activities, roles to a particular gender, conforming to cultural stereotypes - begins in preschool

At 2yr categorical self emerges (boy/girl) and strengthens with age into rigid rules; strong opposition to gender stereotype violations - at 3-6yr children reject other children who violate gender stereotypes

Parental Factors:

• Direct and indirect reinforcement of stereotypical behaviours

• Boys are more strongly gender-typed, particularly by fathers

Teachers:

• Direct and indirect influences

• More overall attention given to boys

Boys play in larger groups which requires more dominance, girls play in pairs, which requires more interaction and cooperation

Gender Identity: the image of ourselves as either masculine or feminine (androgynous - high on both parameters)

Social Learning Theory: acquired through modelling, then reinforced, then consolidated into self-concept

Cognitive-Developmental Theory: self-perceptions drive behaviour

• Weak evidence: gender stereotyping occurs prior to understanding of gender constancy (i.e., an understanding that sex remains static even if behaviours indicating gender change)