Transcript Temperament - Wayne Community College

Chapter 9
Understanding the
Reasons Positive and
Negative Behavior
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Defining Problem Behavior
• Adult-centered definitions of misbehavior focus
on effect child’s behavior has on the adult
• Child-centered definitions of misbehavior…
– Consider appropriateness or inappropriateness of
actions
– Focus on ability level, motives and long-term wellbeing
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Children misbehave because
they…
—Are bursting with energy and joy
—Do not understand what we expect
—Cannot do what we expect
—Feel bored, tired or miserable
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Children misbehave because
they…
(Continued)
—Are desperate for attention
—Are overwhelmed by frustration
—Are angry or resentful
—Feel totally hopeless or helpless
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Dysfunctional Behavior
• Compulsive, inappropriate, or selfdestructive behavior
• Uncooperative social interactions
• Hazardous actions
• Improper use of environment
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Inappropriate Behavior
–Behavior not desirable in a specific
situation
–It does not suggest fault or blame
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Inappropriate behavior is…
—Not in the best interest of the child
—Troublesome
—Sometimes unsafe
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Functional Behavior
• Appropriate actions that serve some
productive or positive function
• Cooperative social interactions
• Safety-conscious actions
• Proper use of environment
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Socialization
• The process by which children learn
acceptable behavior
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Components of Moral
Development
•
•
•
Empathy
Conscience
Altruism
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Methods to support children’s
moral development
•
•
•
•
Provide nurturing and support
Set limits
Model appropriate behavior
Teach democratic decision-making and
discussion
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Stages of Moral Development
• Morality
– ability to distinguish right from wrong and act
accordingly
• Moral development
– process by which human beings learn to monitor their
own actions
– deciding whether a tempting behavior is appropriate or
inappropriate
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Stages of Moral Development
(continued)
• Moral affect
– Internalization of moral values from adult role models
– Feelings associated with guilty or clear conscience
• Moral reasoning
– Thinking processes for deciding what is or is not
moral behavior
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Stages of Moral Development
(continued)
• Preconventional morality
• Lawrence Kohlberg’s first stage of morality
– Children perceive right and wrong in terms of what the behavior
will do for them.
• “Will action get what I want?”
• “Will action avoid what I don’t want?”
– Explaining reasons for rules fosters moral development.
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Stages of Moral Development
(continued)
• Conventional morality
• Kohlberg’s second stage of morality
– Develop self-control and learn to get along with others
– Focus on simplistic perceptions of goodness and
badness
– Desire to please others
– Try to follow rules of family and community
– Begin to adopt ethical standards of important role
models
– Attachment, love and respect trigger internalization of
values
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Stages of Moral Development
(continued)
• Postconventional morality
• Kohlberg’s highest stage of morality
– Older children and adults develop internal
conscience
– Conscience hinges on internalized principles
and values that guide behavior
– Focus on being responsible part of cooperative
society
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Justice Orientation
• Perspective in which integrity tends to be
the dominant “moral compass” for making
autonomous, independent and selforiented ethical and principled decisions
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Responsibility Orientation
• Perspective in which sensitivity to others,
interpersonal involvement and ethical and
moral decision-making reflect…
– Loyalty
– Responsibility
– Self-sacrifice
– Peacemaking
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Judging
• The process of using perceptions to create
conclusions and value judgments
• Some adults judge children’s behavior
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Induction
• The process of stimulating children’s
understanding of the reasons for choosing
one behavior over another
• The process of thinking about the impact a
behavior will have
• Some adults use inductive reasoning to
help children learn self-control
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Guidance
• Positive child guidance focuses on…
– Child’s ability level
– Severity and intent of behavior
– Possible reasons for behavior
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Underlying Causes of
Problem Behavior
• Inappropriate
expectations
• Misunderstood
expectations
• Immature selfcontrol
• Gleeful abandon,
group contagion
• Boredom
• Fatigue and
discomfort
• Desire for recognition
• Discouragement
• Frustration
• Rebellion
©Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Temperament
– Three main types:
• Easy
• Difficult
• Slow to warm up
– Emotions are felt, but reactions to the
emotions are learned.
– Appropriate responses to an emotion need to
be taught.
Temperament
Children are born with their natural style of interacting with or reacting to
people, places, and things—their temperament
•
•
•
•
•
•
Biological Predisposition
Rhythmical functioning
Circadian rhythmicity
Interest in novelty
Approach to new situations, curiosity
Inclination to “outside’ or “inside”
Goodness of fit
• Relationship with caregiver’s style:
• Good fit, or poor fit
• Parent adapts caregiving to child’s
unique characteristics
• Parent modifies expectation
Temperament
Chess & Thomas
• Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess began a
classic longitudinal study in the 1950s regarding
infant temperament.
• The study focused on how temperamental
qualities influence adjustment throughout life.
• Chess and Thomas rated young infants on a
variety of characteristics, such as activity level,
mood, sleeping and eating patterns, and
attention span.
Temperament
Chess & Thomas
• The found that most babies could be
categorized into one of three groups:
– Easy
– Difficult
– Slow to warm-up
• About one third of all infants tested were
characterized as average babies because they
did not fit neatly into one of these three
categories (Thomas & Chess 1977).
Temperament
• Easy babies readily adapt to new experiences, generally
display positive moods and emotions and also have
normal eating and sleeping patterns.
• Difficult babies tend to be very emotional, irritable and
fussy, and cry a lot. They also tend to have irregular
eating and sleeping patterns.
• Slow-to-warm-up babies have a low activity level, and
tend to withdraw from new situations and people. They
are slow to adapt to new experiences.
• Thomas and Chess found that these broad patterns of
temperamental qualities are remarkably stable through
childhood.
Temperament
• Most experts agree that temperament does have
a genetic and biological basis; but researchers
also agree that environmental experiences can
modify a child's temperament.
• Adults can encourage new behaviors in children,
and with enough support a slow-to-warm-up
child can become less shy, or a difficult baby
can become more emotionally stable.