Transcript developmental 2008 SocialECMC(04)

Social Development
Early and Middle Childhood
Personality
Self-esteem
Divorce and Children
Friendships
Personality Development:Erikson
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Early Childhood
Initiative vs. Guilt
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Middle Childhood
Industry vs. Inferiority
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Play fosters initiative and
develops a conscience
that is not too strict.
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Play develops new skills.
Negative outcome is guilt
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Energy directed toward
mastering knowledge
and intellect
Inferiority in related to a
feeling of incompetence
Emergence of Self-Esteem
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Self-esteem: Early Childhood
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Sense of self-worth
Related to the emergence of self-conscious emotions
Preschoolers usually rate own ability high.
High self-esteem
initiative
Criticism undermines self-esteem.
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Development of Self-Esteem
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Middle Childhood
Changes in Level of Self-Esteem
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Drops in first years of elementary school.
More realistic self-appraisal
From fourth to sixth grade, self-esteem rises.
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Development of Self-Esteem
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Hierarchically Structured
 Contexts of evaluation: Classrooms, playgrounds, and
peer groups
 Age 6 to 7, three self-esteems—academic, social, and
physical
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Influences on Self-Esteem
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Children with high social self-esteem are better
liked by peers.
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Academic self-esteem predicts school
achievement.
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Aggressive children are less liked
Early reading approaches in Whole Language stress
success and reinforcing exploration of text and books
Child-Rearing Practices
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Authoritative child-rearing style leads to positive selfesteem
Authoritarian parenting leads to more negative selfesteem
Indulgent/Permissive parenting leads to poor selfregulation, non-compliance, poor respect for others
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Developmental consequences of
maltreatment
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Poor emotional regulation
Attachment problems
Problems in peer relations
Difficulty adapting to school
Other forms of problems such as depression,
anxiety, and down the road, personality
problems and delinquency
Moral Development
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Definition: Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding
standards of right vs. wrong
Heteronomous Morality, stage 1 age 4 to 7
 Justice and rules are unchangable properties of the world
(Kohlberg’s Preconventional Reasoning)
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Autonomous Morality, stage 2 age 10+
 Rules and laws are created by people, person’s intent and
consequences are important. Individuals abide by interal
standards that still come from others (Kohlberg’s Conventional Reasoning)
 Example: Which is worse, breaking 12 cups by accident or 1 cup
while stealing a cookie?
Kohlberg’s Postconventional Reasing
 Morality internalised as rights and principles transcend law, e.g.,
speeding to get someone to the hospital.
Problems with Kohlberg
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Too much emphasis on thought and not behavior
Cultural biases
Family processes
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Kohlberg thought it was unimportant, but in fact some
parents teach moral behavior by stressing the impact of
behavior on someone else’s feelings
Too rule- and justice-based, may be gender-biased
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Carol Gilligan has stressed caring behavior within
relationships as a basis of moral behavior, something girls
are known to do
Prosocial behavior and altruism
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Unselfish behavior that helps others
Young children “share” for social play and imitation,
not empathy
They initially share things to “get their way” part of
the time
This requires “future-oriented thinking” as
gratification needs to be delayed
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E.g., do you want $10 today or $20 next week?
Sharing, perspective-taking, recognising the
emotions of others, and adult reinforcement is all
important
Divorce and children: Purposes of a
Custody and Access Assessment
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The purpose of a custody and access assessment is to assess
children’s needs and make recommendations when birth parents can
not agree on what is in the children’s best interests and well-being.
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developmental, physical, medical, socio-emotional, and cognitive needs.
Separation: Separation agreements, access, interim orders, Family
Court
Divorce: “Final” determination in Divorce decrees when all unresolved
matters are determined, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia
Parenting Capacity: Questions are child protection issues, initiated
through Family and Children’s Services or through parents themselves,
child may be in F&CS care, Family Court
Over-riding principle is CPA’s Ethical Code
Family Conflict is negative for children regardless of whether
families are intact or not – there is no magic solution of “staying
together for the sake of the children”
Definitions
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Custody: Legal guardianship. Includes physical
care of the child and decision-making over
education, religion, activities, and health care
Access: Living/access arrangements. The
opportunity to visit or have contact with the child.
Federal statute suggests parents with access rights
have access to information
Federal and Provincial Acts are useful, such as the
Divorce Act and Family and Children’s Services
Act
Over 90% of families create their own solutions,
C&A Assessments are thus by definition in
adversarial or complex cases
Societal bias: From “truechristian.com”
Nova Scotia Guidelines: Process of a C&A Assessment
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Files are current and exhaustive
Multiple avenues of data collection
Parents treated equally
Data should address children’s best interests only
Children’s wishes are assessed indirectly
Location of meetings: Use judgment
Avoid undue influence of lawyers and/or parents
Consult with child protection services as appropriate
Plans for feedback
Offer NO opinion on someone not assessed
Justice Canada Data from Stats Can: Distribution of minor children for whom there was a
custody order at divorce, according to the type of arrangement, Canada, 1970-2000
Stepfamilies
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Blended families
Women have a harder time integrating than
men
Stepfathers can act distant and disengaged
from stepchildren, act like “polite strangers”
Complex blended families
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Both parents bring children in, hardest on the
children
Simple stepfamilies
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Only one parent brings children in
PEER RELATIONS
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Advances in Peer Sociability (Parten)
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Nonsocial activity
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Unoccupied play, Onlooker play, and solitary play
Parallel play
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Plays near other children with similar materials
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Mimics but does not interact.
Highest level
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Associative play
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Engaged in separate activities, but interact
Both in sandbox, lending toys, but separate activities
Cooperative play
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Actions are directed toward a common goal
Building a town together, same activity
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Friendships: Middle Childhood
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Like each other's personal qualities and respond
to one another's needs
Trust is the defining feature. Violations of trust
are a serious breach.
Same age, sex, ethnicity, and SES
 Schools and neighborhoods can affect
friendships.
 Some social groups tend to be within gender
such as “Sparks”, some do not, such as soccer
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Peer Acceptance
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Assessed by self-reports of likeability and
sociometric ratings of others
Four types of response
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Popular children
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Rejected children
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Actively disliked
Controversial children
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Many positive votes
Positive and negative votes
Neglected children
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Seldom chosen
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Peer Acceptance
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Social behavior determines whether liked or
rejected
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Popular are sensitive, friendly, and cooperative
Rejected-aggressive are hostile, hyperactive,
inattentive, and impulsive
Rejected-withdrawn are passive and socially awkward,
at risk for abuse by bullies
Controversial are hostile and disruptive, but engage in
positive, prosocial acts
Neglected are well adjusted but shy
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Bullying
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Defined as an intent to hurt, repeated action, no
clear provocation, powere imbalance, and has
negative impact on the victim
Victims can be depressed, lose interest in
schoolwork, and even avoid school
Bullies are at risk to be abusive within later adult
relationships, harrass others
Intervention programs focus on identification of
problem behavior, use school-wide rules against the
behavior, form friendships with victims, and
disseminate anti-bullying messages
Start Friday
Gender
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Physical difference in size and strength, but only
after puberty
Males are more aggressive, but this is likely a
socialisation effect
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If aggression is defined as verbal assault, girls may be
more aggressive: would you rather be pushed down or the
subject of gossip?
Males are supposed to be better at math, maybe
due to visuo-spatial ability, but these differences are
very small and overdramatised
Education is correlated to androgyny
Social constructions are very powerful
Television and children
What does television do?
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Takes away time from reading, social play, physical
activity, creativity, expressive language
Can expose children to ethnic and other stereotypes
Gives false impression that “everything works out”
Can portray violent role models
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Behavior is modelled when consequences are not seen
Experiment was conducted in which cartoons had violence
removed and children watched these for 11 days:
Observed more violent acts in children whose cateeons
were not changed than those with these edits.
Parallel Research on Violence in
Videogames
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Anderson, B.A., & Bushman, B.J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on
aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal,
and prosocial behavior: a meta-analytic review of the scientific literature.
Psychological Science, 12, 353-9.
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violent video games increase aggressive behavior in
children and young adults.
Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and
females in laboratory and field settings support this
conclusion.
Exposure to violent video games increases physiological
arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings.
Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial
behavior.
Trends in Education
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Private schooling
School uniforms: Good or bad?
Early identification of reading readiness prior
to elementary registration
Reduction of religious affiliations of schools
(has this really happened?)
Compensating for SES issues, such as
breakfast and after-school programming
Ethnic diversity/ appreciation vs. segregation