Social Development Notes

Introduction to Social Development

Apologies and Congratulations
  • Apologies for audio issues in the previous lecture.
  • Congratulations to those who attended the previous lecture in person.
Overview of Human Development Series
  • This is the third lecture in a series on human development.
  • The goal is to understand how people become who they are throughout their lifespan.
  • The focus of this lecture is on social development, emphasizing its importance alongside cognitive and physical development.
  • The topic of social development will be covered in two parts, today and tomorrow.

Three Big Questions in Human Development

Nature vs. Nurture
  • To what extent is development influenced by genetics (nature) versus environment (nurture)?
  • Social development is influenced by both genetics and environment.
  • The current conversation may lean more towards the nurture aspect.
Stages vs. Continuous
  • Does human development occur in distinct stages, or is it a continuous, incremental process?
  • The answer is likely a combination of both.
  • The lecture may discuss stages, but it's important to remember this is an oversimplification.
Critical Periods vs. Optimal Periods
  • Are there critical windows of development that are essential for certain skills, or are they more optimal periods where development is most effective?
  • These questions should be kept in mind when discussing social development.

Five Influences on Social Development

  • Parenting style.
  • Attachment.
  • Culture.
  • Temperament.
  • Socialization.

Importance of Attachment and Early Development

Attachment Theory
  • Attachment theory is a foundation for understanding social development.
  • Early relationships with primary caregivers are crucial.
John Bowlby
  • John Bowlby is the founding father of attachment theory.
  • Attachment is the enduring tie of affection children form with primary caregivers.
  • Attachment has an ongoing influence on a person's development.
Four Types of Attachment
  • Developed by Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.
1. Secure Attachment
  • Infant seeks comfort from the primary attachment figure (typically the mother).
  • The primary caregiver is a reliable source of comfort.
2. Avoidant Attachment
  • Infant shuts off their needs for attachment because their needs are not reliably met.
  • Infant avoids the primary caregiver and closes themselves off to affection.
3. Ambivalent Attachment
  • Infant has difficulty being soothed and is not as reliable as secure attachment.
  • Infant is open to receiving attachment but has a barrier up.
4. Disorganized Attachment

  • Infant doesn't know how to react and is in two minds.

  • Infant reacts unpredictably when needing or being offered comfort.

  • Most infants fall into the secure attachment category.

  • Secure attachment positively influences future resilience and development outcomes.

  • Lack of secure attachment doesn't destine a child to hardship, but it increases the probability of difficulties.

Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation

Strange Situation Experiment
  • Mary Ainsworth, a student of John Bowlby, developed the strange situation to assess attachment styles.
  • The experiment involves observing how the child reacts when the primary caregiver leaves, a stranger tries to soothe them, and the caregiver returns.
Secure Attachment and the Strange Situation
  • A child's distress when their caregiver leaves is a positive sign of secure attachment.
  • When the caregiver returns, the child is eager to reunite with them.
Outcomes of Secure Attachment
  • Better self-control.
  • Greater peer acceptance.
  • More competent behavior (based on teacher reports).
  • Higher academic achievement.
  • Higher self-esteem.
Outcomes of Insecure Attachment
  • Lower quality relationships.
  • Lower self-esteem.
  • Lower motivation to learn.
  • Less satisfying interactions with others.
Outcomes of Disorganized Attachment
  • More impulsivity.
  • More disruptive and aggressive behaviors in later childhood.

The 4 S's of Attachment

Daniel Siegel's Summary
  • Daniel Siegel, a neurobiologist, summarizes attachment literature with 4 S's to summarize the attachment:.
  • Safe: Providing a sense of security.
  • Seen: Having their needs seen.
  • Soothed: Being emotionally soothed when distressed.
  • Secure: Which leads to secure attachment.

Internal Working Model

Definition
  • Internal working model: beliefs and expectations that a child develops about others based on formative experiences.
  • If a caregiver is loving and soothing, the child internalizes that they can trust others to meet their needs and that people are safe. It shapes the beliefs and expectations.
Impact on Future Relationships
  • Influences whether an individual believes they are lovable.
  • Influences whether other people can be trusted.
  • Creates a self-reinforcing cycle that can be positive or negative.

Parenting Styles

Four Main Parenting Styles

  • Authoritarian.
  • Permissive.
  • Authoritative.
  • Uninvolved.
1. Authoritarian Parenting
  • Parents impose standards and are the boss (my way or the highway approach).
  • Associated with lower independence, lower self-esteem, greater vulnerability to stress, and low sense of control in children.
2. Permissive Parenting
  • Parents impose little control, letting children be as they are and make their own decisions.
  • Outcomes include lower self-reliance and impulse control and a greater risk of substance abuse.
3. Authoritative Parenting
  • Parents set and enforce standards but allow children to have input and respect their views, which is more of a two-way street.
  • Results in better self-control, academic competence, curiosity, and sociability.
4. Uninvolved Parenting
  • Parents put their needs above the children's needs.
  • Leads to lower self-esteem and more aggressive behavior.
Caveats
  • Parenting styles can influence outcomes, but culture and temperament are also key considerations.
  • There's no such thing as perfect parenting.
  • Research on parenting styles is complex and dynamic.
  • Psychology is not 1 + 1 = 2 due to the impact of complex dynamic interaction.
  • There are often better outcomes with secure attachment and authoritative parenting styles.
  • Current recommendation: take a guided approach where the parent is a source of security and guidance, not a dictator or enabler of complete free rein.
Best Version of You As a Parent
  • Goal is to be the best version of yourself as a parent for each child, recognizing that children may respond differently to the same style.

Temperament

Definition
  • Temperament is an infant's natural mood, disposition, and emotional reactivity to events.
Three Temperaments
  • Easy.
  • Slow to warm up.
  • Difficult.
1. Easy Temperament
  • Typically happy-go-lucky, responds well to affection, and can go with the flow.
2. Slow to Warm Up Temperament
  • Can be happy but requires more predictability and structure.
  • Transitions may be more challenging.
3. Difficult Temperament
  • Hard to please, hard to settle, hard to soothe, and may struggle to sleep.
Temperament as Building Block of Personality
  • Temperament is a long-lasting influence.
  • It's possible to predict later personality from an infant's temperament.
  • Temperament is an important consideration in social development because of how it predisposes individuals to develop socially.

Socialization

Definition
  • Socialization is the process by which children learn society's rules, beliefs, values, skills, attitudes, and behaviors.
Factors Influencing Socialization
  • Temperament.
  • Attachment style.
Examples of Socialization
  • Gender norms.
  • Religious beliefs and values.
Socialization as Ongoing Process
  • Socialization is a constant interplay between the individual and their culture and environment.
  • Individuals may challenge societal norms and values.
  • The influence of socialization increases as the child moves into school age, adolescence, and adulthood.

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

Overview
  • Erikson's theory includes eight stages throughout life, each characterized by a dilemma to be resolved.
  • The line between the stages are blurred.
Eight Stages
1. Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1 year)
  • Can I trust people?
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1-3 years)
  • Can I exert my free will?
3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years)
  • Can I do things without getting into trouble?
4. Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12 years)
  • Do I have the skills it takes?
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18 years)
  • Who am I?
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early Adulthood)
  • Am I going to do life with a partner or alone?
  • Secure attachment can influence this stage.
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood)
  • What am I contributing to the world?
8. Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood)
  • Do I feel at peace with the decisions I've made?
General Points
  • The theory positions it as a stage-like process.
  • It's an influential theory to consider when understanding how people develop.

Quick Recap

  • Secure attachment leads to stronger relationships and resilience.
  • Guided parenting styles usually bring the best results.
  • Temperament influences outcomes and is associated with attachment.
  • Socialization is an ongoing process where children learn to function in society.
  • Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development are important to frame that process.

Lecture Part 2

Self-Concept

Definition
  • Self-concept is an organized view of ourselves or a way of representing information about our self.
  • A person's sense of themselves is not always based on logic or reality.
Infant Self-Concept
  • Infants are not born with a sense of who they are.
  • We can't just ask them directly.
Red Dot Experiment
  • A famous experiment to explore self-concept is the red dot experiment; it started looking at Chimapzees.
  • Chimpanzees touch their forehead, suggesting they recognize the mirrored image as themselves.
  • Humans don't have that until 15-24 months.
  • At age 3, children don't recognize themselves in a video with a sticker on their forehead or a red dot.
  • Even up to ages 4-5, they recognize themselves only if shown the video within minutes.
Development of Self-Concept
  • Starts slowly and simply.
  • Toddlers categorize themselves in concrete dimensions.
  • Around age 8, kids define themselves based on internal psychological attributes, ways of thinking, feeling, and personality.
Influence of Media and Genetics
  • Media has an impact on self-concept (e.g., body issues).
  • Genetics and the genetic outcomes have effects on self-concept.
  • Heritability coefficients for self-concept and self-esteem increase during childhood and adolescence.
Social Interactions and Self-Concept
  • Infants recognize that social interactions are reciprocal.
  • Children connect behavior to responses from others.
  • Focus on others is simple in early childhood.
  • The end of childhood, beginning of adolescence, transitions out of that egocentric childhood brain into a flourishing understanding of others.
Perspective Taking and Theory of Mind
  • Perspective taking: The ability to understand other people's views or perspectives.
  • Theory of mind: An implicit set of ideas about the existence of mental states and feelings of other people.
  • Theory of mind develops between ages 2 and 4.

Moral Development

Piaget's Theory
  • Piaget made observations of moral development from watching kids playing games with marbles.
  • He suggested there are two stages to moral development.
1. Morality of Constraint
  • Children conform to societal rules that they view as unchanging.
  • Judgment is mainly based on salient characteristics.
2. Morality of Cooperation
  • Moral rules can be changed if they're not appropriate to the occasion.
  • There's a shift from rigidity to intention, what individual wants instead of what they feel confortable saying.
  • Rules should be about keeping social interactions safe, fair, and comfortable.
Kohlberg's Theory
  • Kohlberg agreed with Piaget that changes in moral reasoning result from changes in cognitive structures.
  • He assessed moral quandaries with hypothetical dilemmas.
    • For every dilemma, you are violating the law or helping someone in need.
Heinz Dilemma
  • A dilemma where a man named Heinz must decide whether or not to steal a drug that could save his wife's life.
Stages of Moral Development
1. Pre-Conventional Morality
  • Children follow moral rules either to avoid punishment or obtain reward.
2. Conventional Morality
  • Children define what is right and wrong by the standards they have learned from other people.
3. Post-Conventional Morality
  • Morality of abstract, self-defined principles that may or may not match dominant morals of the time.
Table of Reasons to Steal vs. Reasons Not to Steal
*   Pre-Conventional: steal if he likes her a lot. Not steal because he will get caught
*   Conventional: Steal because everyone will think he is a terrible person if he does not. Not steal because everyone will think he is a criminal if he does steal.
*   Post-Conventional: Steal because at least he knew the law was unjust, and he did the right thing; and also, he can live with himself.
    Do not steal because he will lose self-respect; he cannot live with his conscience; other people might say this was ok, but that is all they say.

Moral Behavior

  • Moral behaviors are learned through conditioning and modeling.
  • Moral development can be measured in terms of prosocial behavior.
Development of Moral Systems
  • Discovery through trial and error.
  • Deliberate instruction that certain actions will either be reinforced or punished.
  • Vicarious conditioning: If they see the reaction happen to someone else.
  • Direct tutelage: If something happens directly to the child.
  • People acquire expectancies about the outcomes of behaviors under different circumstances.
Cultural Influences on Moral Behaviors
  • Children raised in individualistic cultures behave more selfishly.
  • In collectivist cultures, empathy and concern for others are more apparent.
Information Processing Theory
  • Does not propose stage-like moral development.
  • Moral thinking is seen as a component process.
  • Here is a series of moral judgements.

Emotion and Morality

Role of Emotions
  • Emotions play a critical factor of moral development.
Psychodynamic Theories
  • Psychodynamic theorists support both guilt and empathy.
  • States moral development occurs through identification of morals from others and internalization of particular morals.
  • There's adoption of what parents and guardians value.
  • There is the mum-and-dad-on-my shoulder approach, where individuals don't do something simply because it displeases their guardians.