Early Childhood: Psychosexual

Emotional Development

  • Emotion Regulation

    • Ability to control when and how emotions are expressed

    • Outbursts ideally stop by age 6

    • Closely tied to the emotions expressed by other people

  • Effortful control

    • Ability to regulate one’s emotions and actions through effort, not simply through natural inclination

    • May protect from stress

  • Initiative versus guilt

    • Erikson’s 3rd developmental stage

    • Children undertake new skills and activities

    • Children learn to rein in pride and avoid crushing guilt

  • Pride and Prejudice

    • Children are proud of their attributes

    • Children seek to understand that the differences among people are significant

  • Self-Esteem

    • Person’s evaluation of his or her own worth, either in specifics or in general

  • Self-Concept

    • A person’s understanding of who they are, incorporating self-esteem, physical appearance, personality, and various personal traits

  • Protective Optimism

    • Consists of positivity bias that helps young child try new things

    • Begins around age 3

    • Belief about child's self-worth tied to parental confirmation

  • Intrinsic Motivation

    • Drive, or reason to pursue a goal

    • Comes from inside a person

    • Seen when children invent imaginary companions

  • Extrinsic Motivation

    • Drive, or reason to pursue a goal

    • Arises from the need to have achievements rewarded from outside

Screen Time

  • Screen time is associated with childhood obesity, emotional immaturity, ADHD, slow language development, reduced sleep, and impaired emotion regulation

Baumrind’s Styles of Caregiving

  • Authoritarian parenting

    • High behavior standards, strict punishment and little communication

    • Tend to be conscientious, obedient, and quiet but unhappy

    • May feel guilty or depressed and blame themselves

    • May reel as adolescents leave home before age 20

  • Permissive parenting

    • High nurturance and communication but with little discipline, guidance, or control

    • Lack of self-control; inadequate emotional regulation

    • Immature and lack friendships

    • May still be dependent on parents in early adulthood

  • Authoritative Parenting

    • Parents set limits and enforce rules but are flexible and listen to their children

    • Are successful, articulate, happy with themselves, and generous with others

    • Are well-liked by teachers and peers, especially in societies in which individual initiative is valued

  • Neglectful/uninvolved parenting

    • Parents are indifferent toward their children and unaware of what is going on in their children’s lives

    • Tend to be immature, sad, and lonely

    • May have high rates of injury and abuse

Physical Punishment

  • Corporal punishment (hitting/spanking) is controversial and is illegal in some countries

  • More common in lower-income nations

  • In the US, physically punished children are more likely to become disobedient, bullies, law-breakers, and violent

Teaching Values

  • Children’s focus on outcome makes children intensely concerned about what is fair

  • As they gain in social understanding, children become better at understanding intentions

Prosocial and Antisocial Emotions

  • Empathy

    • An understanding of other people’s feelings and concerns

  • Prosocial behavior

    • Helpfulness and kindness without any obvious personal benefit

  • Antipathy

    • A hatred or disgust of some other people

  • Antisocial behavior

    • Verbal insults, social exclusion, and physical assaults

  • Aggression

    • Instrumental Agression

    • Reactive Aggression

    • Relational Aggression

    • Bullying Aggression

Sex and Gender

  • Sex differences

    • Biological differences between males and females, in organs, hromones, and body shape

  • Gender differences

    • Differences in male and female roles, behaviors, clothes, and so on that arise from society, not biology

    • Gender identity usually develops in early childhood

    • Children use gender labels by age 2 and believe some gender roles by age 4

    • Gender-based preferences for toys and activities tend to be reinforced by cultures

  • Behaviorism

    • Gender differences are learned through all roles, values, and morals

      • Product of ongoing reinforcement and punishment

      • “Gender-appropriate” behavior rewarded more frequently than “gender-inappropriate” behavior

  • Social learning theory

    • Children notice the ways men and women behave and internalize the standards they observe

  • Cognitive theory

    • Children’s thinking patters offer an alternative explanation for the strong gender identity of 5-year-olds

    • Gender Schema

      • Child’s cognitive concept about sex differences

      • Based on their observations and experiences

      • Young children categorize themselves and everyone else as either male or female, and then they think/behave accordingly

  • Sociocultural theory

    • Stresses the importance of cultural values and customs

    • Some cultural aspects are transmitted through the parents, as explained with behaviorism, but much more arises from the larger community

    • By age 6, children are astute “gender detectives”

  • Evolutionary theory

    • Holds that sexual attraction is crucial for humankind’s most basic urge to reproduce

    • Suggests that men and women signal their sex through traditional gendered displays