Final Exam
Chapter 11
• Secular growth trend
Changes in body over generations
Observable changes in physical development of children over time
Nutrition, healthcare, and lifestyle influence this physical development
• Flexibility of children in middle childhood
Middle childhood: increased flexibility in motor skills
Allows to engage in various activities and games
As development continues, they can try new ways of cooperating, competing, winning, and losing in games with rules
• Gender differences in growth patterns
Girls shorter and lighter than boys until age 9
Girls have earlier growth spurts
Contributes to variation in height/weight
• Gains pruning and organization of brain *
Occur due to a combination of synaptic connections, myelination, and synaptic pruning
Results in greater lateralization of cerebral hemispheres and more complex abilities
Brain weight increases by 10% with growth in white matter and gray matter which contribute to improved cognitive and behavioral functions
White matter: myelinated nerve fibers
Gray matter: neurons and supportive materials
• Healthy diet and better cognitive performance
Healthy diet = better cognitive performance
Focus better after healthier foods
Proper nutrition supports brain development, with neurotransmitters and hormones influencing cognition and behavior
Good diet necessary for energy and brain function
• Influences on overweight and obesity
Heredity
Environment
Low SES and cultural food environment
Low physical activity
Television viewing
Responsiveness to food cues
Parents feeding practices
Overfeeding or overly controlling food
Overeating
All lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes
• Effective interventions for childhood obesity (family interventions)
Promotion of healthy behavior
Improving diet and encouraging physical activity
Educating parents of proper nutrition and encouraging family support, children are more likely to get healthier habits
Family intervention successful at lowering obesity rates
• Ear infections in middle childhood (growth of the Eustachian tube)
Decrease ear infections after development of Eustachian tube
Eustachian tube matures and helps reduce the occurrence of otitis media (common middle ear infection during childhood)
• Myopia
AKA nearsightedness
Influenced by heredity, early biological trauma, low birth weight, eye strain, and SES
Prevalent during developmental stage
• Effective treatments for enuresis (bedwetting)
Medication and urine alarms
Meds can help manage bedwetting, urine alarms can wake up children before they begin to urinate, a method of conditioning that make them wake up before wetting the bed
• Risk factors for asthma *
High sensitivity to bronchial tubes, genetic predisposition, and environmental factors like exposure to allergens and irritants
Most common chronic disease in childhood (2% of children in the US)
Its an inflammation in the airways, leading to symptoms like wheezing, coughing, and difficulty breathing
• Advances in writing in middle childhood
By age 6: alphabet, numbers 1-10
Ability to copy 2-D shapes and beginnings of depth cues
Difficulties with 3-D shapes
• Advances in motor skills and influences *
Improvements in flexibility, balance, agility, and force
Influenced by more efficient information processing, leading to enhanced motor performance
Individual differences observed by child's ability to engage in games with rules, reflecting advancements in perspective taking and providing opportunities for trying various methods of cooperation, competition, and dealing with wins/losses
• Gender differences in motor skills
Observed through children’s play
Rough and tumble play (friendly chasing and play fighting) more common in boys
Dominance and hierarchy, group ordering and who could win conflicts
Influenced by biological factors and social expectations
• Rule-oriented games and perspective taking
Reflects through perspective taking
Children learn how to understand and follow rules in games which require considering other people's views
Helps try different ways of cooperation, competition, and wins/loss
Crucial for social interactions and relationships
• Rough-and-tumble play
Play fighting and chasing
Preschool years and peaks in middle childhood
Dominance, hierarchy, conflict predictions
Common among various mammals and cultures
Chapter 12
• Changes from pre-operational to the operational stage
More logical, flexible, organized thinking
Conservation, classification, seriation, spatial reasoning, hierarchies
Transition from egocentrism to a broader perspective
Operational Stage: perform mental operations on concrete objects but struggle with abstract concepts
• Limits in the concrete operational thought
Struggle with abstract thought/problems
Work out logic separately rather than applying it to general logical principles
Ages 7-11
More logical, flexible and organized thinking stage
• Second-order beliefs
Definition: understanding that someone can have beliefs about other people's beliefs
Develop in middle childhood
Grasp that other people can have different opinions, even if they’re not accurate
Key aspect of cognitive development in this stable
• Academic self-efficacy
Definition: one's belief in their ability to succeed academically
Schooling promotes the development, memory, executive functioning, and theory of mind in middle childhood
Indirectly effect academic self-efficacy by enhancing the child’s ability to learn, problem solving skills, and understand others’ and own mental processes
• Cognitive self-regulation and self-efficacy
Middle childhood: development of self-regulation and self-efficacy
Conscious of how mental strategies work, appreciate the impact of interactions on cognitive development
Improvement in memory strategies such as rehearsal, organization, and elaboration
All help with memory
Schooling plays a significant role in promoting the development of memory strategies, cognitive development, and cognitive self-regulation
• Phonics vs. whole language approach
Phonics: relationship between sounds and letters
Whole language: meaning and context
Combining both is more effective for children learning reading skills
• Number sense vs. drill in computing (and which is most beneficial)
Number sense: allows children to grasp mathematical concepts more deeply and apply them to various contexts
Stronger foundation for mathematical understanding
Number sense better than drill in computing because drill computing really only promotes memorization
• IQ testing and predicting academic performance
Improvements in memory strategies, attention, and executive functioning during middle childhood potentially impact IQ and academic performance positively
Better problem solving skills, ability to retain information better, and enhanced academic performance get reflected in IQ results
• Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
Three aspects:
Analytical
Creative
Practical Intelligence
Focus on problem solving abilities and practical application of knowledge
Middle childhood: cognitive development and mental processes contribute to the development of the intelligences as they enhance problem solving skills and practical application
• Gardner’s intelligences and unique development and basis
Piaget's theory of cognitive development during middle childhood (Concrete Operational Stage)
Development of logical thinking, organization, and understanding of mental processes
Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences: focuses on the intelligences
Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, spacial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic
Can develop during Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
• Stereotype threat & ethnic differences in IQ
Stereotype threat: people feel at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their group can impact performance, including IQ score, especially in marginalized groups
Ethnic difference causes: socio-economic status, access to resources, cultural bias in testing, and educational opportunities
• Cognitive advantages of bilingual speakers
Enhanced executive functioning, attention control, and memory skills
Increased cognitive flexibility and better at multitasking (due to ability to switch languages)
Control of 2 different languages = cognitive advantage and exercise of the brain's executive functioning
Better problem solving skills and focus
• Code-switching
Code switching: alternating between 2+ languages or varieties of language in conversation
“Customer service voice”
Requires cognitive flexibility and understanding of different language systems
Better understanding of how interactions among multiple variables affect cognitive performance
Chapter 13
• Industry vs. inferiority in middle childhood
Develop a sense of competence and mastery in their abilities
May feel inadequate if efforts fall short
Impacts self esteem and motivation negatively
• Self-conscious emotions in middle childhood
Pride, guilt, and shame
Influenced by personal responsibility, motivating to take challenges, make amends, and contribute to adjustment problems when adults aren't around
• Better emotional understanding in middle childhood
Children improve their emotional understanding based on internal states rather than external events
More aware of circumstances that evoke mixed emotions, and appreciating contradictory emotional cues in others
Supported by cognitive developments and social experiences
Rise in empathy
• Influences on self-esteem
Parents
Teachers
Teachers’ messages
Cultural value
Gender
Ethnicity
media exposure
Child-rearing practices
Achievement related attributions
Importance of encouraging children to strive for realistic goals
• Social comparisons
Older children compare themselves to multiple people at once and then show a shift toward evaluating themselves based on competences rather than behavior
• More realistic self-esteem in middle childhood
Differentiate their self esteem into categories like academic, social, physical, athletic competence
High self esteem → positive traits, low self esteem → negative behaviors like depression, anxiety, and antisocial behavior
• Different types of coping
Problem-centered coping, emotional-centered coping, emotional self efficacy
• More nuanced understanding of self-concept
Self concept becomes more refined
General dispositions
8-11: evaluate themselves based on competence than behavior, then comparing themselves to multiple individuals
• Mastery-orientation and learned helpless children and influences
Mastery oriented children credit success to ability, believe ability can improve with effort and focus on learning goals
Helpless children attribute failure to ability and success to uncontrollable factors, leading to giving up on tasks before even trying
Influences include:
Family
Teachers
Cultural beliefs
Gender stereotypes
• Influence of emotional understanding and empathy on social relationships
Gains in emotional understanding and empathy supported by cognitive development /social experience contribute to more complex and psychologically based friendships
Children more aware of emotions and can interpret contradictory cues in others are more likely to have high quality friendships based on trust
• Parental sensitivity and emotional self-regulation
Problem centered coping: dealing with a stressful situation by identifying the problem, then taking action to address it
Helps build confidence in choices
Emotion centered coping: manage emotions related to stress, focusing on regulating emotions rather than the problem itself by seeking emotional support, positive thinking, and relaxation tactics
Develops coping skills to deal with challenges
Emotional self-efficacy: plays into overall self esteem. One's own belief to regulate their emotions effectively.
Influences self esteem and perceive/respond to emotional challenges, which in turn affects self worth and confidence
• Friendships in middle childhood – defining feature
Trust is defining feature
Friendships become more complex, selective, and psychologically based
High quality friendships are more stable
• Emotional self-regulation and peer relationships
Shift between problem-centered and emotion-centered coping strategies, leading to emotional self-efficacy
Peer relationships become more complex and children's development depend on the nature of their friends
• Internal states and emotions
School-ages children more likely to explain emotions by referring to internal states rather than external events
Increased awareness
Supported by cognitive development and social experiences which lead to gains in empathy
• Moral understanding in middle childhood and the adaptiveness of guilt
Middle childhood: children develop flexible application of moral rules through actions, intentions and context
Guilt prompts a desire to make amends and self improve
• Girls’ and boys’ identification with “masculine” and “feminine” personality traits
Identification with “masculine” and “feminine” influenced by socialization
Gender stereotyping by age 5, then adult-like by age 11
Adults treating children differently based on sex influences this development
• Gender differences in school subjects and occupations
Gender stereotyped beliefs influence children’s preferences and performance
EX: Girls more likely to draw female scientists in the US, showing a shift in recent years
• Peer culture
Formed based on proximity and similarity
Unique values, standards, dress codes, specialized vocab, and places to socialize
Lead to exclusion of peers who deviate and may involve relational aggression
Chapter 11
• Secular growth trend
Changes in body over generations
Observable changes in physical development of children over time
Nutrition, healthcare, and lifestyle influence this physical development
• Flexibility of children in middle childhood
Middle childhood: increased flexibility in motor skills
Allows to engage in various activities and games
As development continues, they can try new ways of cooperating, competing, winning, and losing in games with rules
• Gender differences in growth patterns
Girls shorter and lighter than boys until age 9
Girls have earlier growth spurts
Contributes to variation in height/weight
• Gains pruning and organization of brain *
Occur due to a combination of synaptic connections, myelination, and synaptic pruning
Results in greater lateralization of cerebral hemispheres and more complex abilities
Brain weight increases by 10% with growth in white matter and gray matter which contribute to improved cognitive and behavioral functions
White matter: myelinated nerve fibers
Gray matter: neurons and supportive materials
• Healthy diet and better cognitive performance
Healthy diet = better cognitive performance
Focus better after healthier foods
Proper nutrition supports brain development, with neurotransmitters and hormones influencing cognition and behavior
Good diet necessary for energy and brain function
• Influences on overweight and obesity
Heredity
Environment
Low SES and cultural food environment
Low physical activity
Television viewing
Responsiveness to food cues
Parents feeding practices
Overfeeding or overly controlling food
Overeating
All lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes
• Effective interventions for childhood obesity (family interventions)
Promotion of healthy behavior
Improving diet and encouraging physical activity
Educating parents of proper nutrition and encouraging family support, children are more likely to get healthier habits
Family intervention successful at lowering obesity rates
• Ear infections in middle childhood (growth of the Eustachian tube)
Decrease ear infections after development of Eustachian tube
Eustachian tube matures and helps reduce the occurrence of otitis media (common middle ear infection during childhood)
• Myopia
AKA nearsightedness
Influenced by heredity, early biological trauma, low birth weight, eye strain, and SES
Prevalent during developmental stage
• Effective treatments for enuresis (bedwetting)
Medication and urine alarms
Meds can help manage bedwetting, urine alarms can wake up children before they begin to urinate, a method of conditioning that make them wake up before wetting the bed
• Risk factors for asthma *
High sensitivity to bronchial tubes, genetic predisposition, and environmental factors like exposure to allergens and irritants
Most common chronic disease in childhood (2% of children in the US)
Its an inflammation in the airways, leading to symptoms like wheezing, coughing, and difficulty breathing
• Advances in writing in middle childhood
By age 6: alphabet, numbers 1-10
Ability to copy 2-D shapes and beginnings of depth cues
Difficulties with 3-D shapes
• Advances in motor skills and influences *
Improvements in flexibility, balance, agility, and force
Influenced by more efficient information processing, leading to enhanced motor performance
Individual differences observed by child's ability to engage in games with rules, reflecting advancements in perspective taking and providing opportunities for trying various methods of cooperation, competition, and dealing with wins/losses
• Gender differences in motor skills
Observed through children’s play
Rough and tumble play (friendly chasing and play fighting) more common in boys
Dominance and hierarchy, group ordering and who could win conflicts
Influenced by biological factors and social expectations
• Rule-oriented games and perspective taking
Reflects through perspective taking
Children learn how to understand and follow rules in games which require considering other people's views
Helps try different ways of cooperation, competition, and wins/loss
Crucial for social interactions and relationships
• Rough-and-tumble play
Play fighting and chasing
Preschool years and peaks in middle childhood
Dominance, hierarchy, conflict predictions
Common among various mammals and cultures
Chapter 12
• Changes from pre-operational to the operational stage
More logical, flexible, organized thinking
Conservation, classification, seriation, spatial reasoning, hierarchies
Transition from egocentrism to a broader perspective
Operational Stage: perform mental operations on concrete objects but struggle with abstract concepts
• Limits in the concrete operational thought
Struggle with abstract thought/problems
Work out logic separately rather than applying it to general logical principles
Ages 7-11
More logical, flexible and organized thinking stage
• Second-order beliefs
Definition: understanding that someone can have beliefs about other people's beliefs
Develop in middle childhood
Grasp that other people can have different opinions, even if they’re not accurate
Key aspect of cognitive development in this stable
• Academic self-efficacy
Definition: one's belief in their ability to succeed academically
Schooling promotes the development, memory, executive functioning, and theory of mind in middle childhood
Indirectly effect academic self-efficacy by enhancing the child’s ability to learn, problem solving skills, and understand others’ and own mental processes
• Cognitive self-regulation and self-efficacy
Middle childhood: development of self-regulation and self-efficacy
Conscious of how mental strategies work, appreciate the impact of interactions on cognitive development
Improvement in memory strategies such as rehearsal, organization, and elaboration
All help with memory
Schooling plays a significant role in promoting the development of memory strategies, cognitive development, and cognitive self-regulation
• Phonics vs. whole language approach
Phonics: relationship between sounds and letters
Whole language: meaning and context
Combining both is more effective for children learning reading skills
• Number sense vs. drill in computing (and which is most beneficial)
Number sense: allows children to grasp mathematical concepts more deeply and apply them to various contexts
Stronger foundation for mathematical understanding
Number sense better than drill in computing because drill computing really only promotes memorization
• IQ testing and predicting academic performance
Improvements in memory strategies, attention, and executive functioning during middle childhood potentially impact IQ and academic performance positively
Better problem solving skills, ability to retain information better, and enhanced academic performance get reflected in IQ results
• Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
Three aspects:
Analytical
Creative
Practical Intelligence
Focus on problem solving abilities and practical application of knowledge
Middle childhood: cognitive development and mental processes contribute to the development of the intelligences as they enhance problem solving skills and practical application
• Gardner’s intelligences and unique development and basis
Piaget's theory of cognitive development during middle childhood (Concrete Operational Stage)
Development of logical thinking, organization, and understanding of mental processes
Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences: focuses on the intelligences
Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, spacial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic
Can develop during Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage
• Stereotype threat & ethnic differences in IQ
Stereotype threat: people feel at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their group can impact performance, including IQ score, especially in marginalized groups
Ethnic difference causes: socio-economic status, access to resources, cultural bias in testing, and educational opportunities
• Cognitive advantages of bilingual speakers
Enhanced executive functioning, attention control, and memory skills
Increased cognitive flexibility and better at multitasking (due to ability to switch languages)
Control of 2 different languages = cognitive advantage and exercise of the brain's executive functioning
Better problem solving skills and focus
• Code-switching
Code switching: alternating between 2+ languages or varieties of language in conversation
“Customer service voice”
Requires cognitive flexibility and understanding of different language systems
Better understanding of how interactions among multiple variables affect cognitive performance
Chapter 13
• Industry vs. inferiority in middle childhood
Develop a sense of competence and mastery in their abilities
May feel inadequate if efforts fall short
Impacts self esteem and motivation negatively
• Self-conscious emotions in middle childhood
Pride, guilt, and shame
Influenced by personal responsibility, motivating to take challenges, make amends, and contribute to adjustment problems when adults aren't around
• Better emotional understanding in middle childhood
Children improve their emotional understanding based on internal states rather than external events
More aware of circumstances that evoke mixed emotions, and appreciating contradictory emotional cues in others
Supported by cognitive developments and social experiences
Rise in empathy
• Influences on self-esteem
Parents
Teachers
Teachers’ messages
Cultural value
Gender
Ethnicity
media exposure
Child-rearing practices
Achievement related attributions
Importance of encouraging children to strive for realistic goals
• Social comparisons
Older children compare themselves to multiple people at once and then show a shift toward evaluating themselves based on competences rather than behavior
• More realistic self-esteem in middle childhood
Differentiate their self esteem into categories like academic, social, physical, athletic competence
High self esteem → positive traits, low self esteem → negative behaviors like depression, anxiety, and antisocial behavior
• Different types of coping
Problem-centered coping, emotional-centered coping, emotional self efficacy
• More nuanced understanding of self-concept
Self concept becomes more refined
General dispositions
8-11: evaluate themselves based on competence than behavior, then comparing themselves to multiple individuals
• Mastery-orientation and learned helpless children and influences
Mastery oriented children credit success to ability, believe ability can improve with effort and focus on learning goals
Helpless children attribute failure to ability and success to uncontrollable factors, leading to giving up on tasks before even trying
Influences include:
Family
Teachers
Cultural beliefs
Gender stereotypes
• Influence of emotional understanding and empathy on social relationships
Gains in emotional understanding and empathy supported by cognitive development /social experience contribute to more complex and psychologically based friendships
Children more aware of emotions and can interpret contradictory cues in others are more likely to have high quality friendships based on trust
• Parental sensitivity and emotional self-regulation
Problem centered coping: dealing with a stressful situation by identifying the problem, then taking action to address it
Helps build confidence in choices
Emotion centered coping: manage emotions related to stress, focusing on regulating emotions rather than the problem itself by seeking emotional support, positive thinking, and relaxation tactics
Develops coping skills to deal with challenges
Emotional self-efficacy: plays into overall self esteem. One's own belief to regulate their emotions effectively.
Influences self esteem and perceive/respond to emotional challenges, which in turn affects self worth and confidence
• Friendships in middle childhood – defining feature
Trust is defining feature
Friendships become more complex, selective, and psychologically based
High quality friendships are more stable
• Emotional self-regulation and peer relationships
Shift between problem-centered and emotion-centered coping strategies, leading to emotional self-efficacy
Peer relationships become more complex and children's development depend on the nature of their friends
• Internal states and emotions
School-ages children more likely to explain emotions by referring to internal states rather than external events
Increased awareness
Supported by cognitive development and social experiences which lead to gains in empathy
• Moral understanding in middle childhood and the adaptiveness of guilt
Middle childhood: children develop flexible application of moral rules through actions, intentions and context
Guilt prompts a desire to make amends and self improve
• Girls’ and boys’ identification with “masculine” and “feminine” personality traits
Identification with “masculine” and “feminine” influenced by socialization
Gender stereotyping by age 5, then adult-like by age 11
Adults treating children differently based on sex influences this development
• Gender differences in school subjects and occupations
Gender stereotyped beliefs influence children’s preferences and performance
EX: Girls more likely to draw female scientists in the US, showing a shift in recent years
• Peer culture
Formed based on proximity and similarity
Unique values, standards, dress codes, specialized vocab, and places to socialize
Lead to exclusion of peers who deviate and may involve relational aggression