Transcript Moral Development…

CHAPTER 8
SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRESCHOOL
YEARS
Learning Objectives
FORMING A SENSE OF SELF
Psychosocial Development: Resolving the
Conflicts
Psychosocial development encompasses changes in
individuals’ understanding of both themselves and others’
behavior
•Preschool years largely encompass what Erikson called
the initiative-versus-guilt stage , which lasts from around
age three to age six
– INITIATIVE = desire to act independently from
parents and becoming autonomous
– GUILT = guilt of unintended consequences resulting
in shame and self-doubt
Self- Concept in the Preschool Years:
Thinking about the Self
Self-concept or identity: Set of beliefs about what we are
like as individuals
•Preschooler self-concept
– Not “accurate”
– More optimistic
– Overestimates of abilities
•Tasks
– Becoming their own person
– Making own decisions
– Shaping kind of person they are becoming
Cultural Influence
• View of self culturally bound
– Collectivist Orientation: Asian
– Individualistic Orientation: Western
• View of self family tied
• View of self individually directed
Developing Racial and Ethnic Awareness
Developmental Diversity
• Racial and ethnic identity begins to formalize
• Differences in skin color noticed early in life
• Cultural meaning attached to differences comes later
Developmental Diversity
By age 3-4 years many preschoolers:
• Differentiate races
• Mirror social attitudes
Race Dissonance
Minority children indicate preferences for majority
values or people
• Result of powerful influence of dominant white culture
• NOT disparagement of own racial characteristics
Ethnic Identity
• Emerges somewhat later than racial identity
– Usually less conspicuous than race
• Preschoolers who were bilingual, speaking both Spanish
and English, are more apt to be aware of ethnic identity
Gender Identity
• Sense of being male or female
• Well established by preschool years
• Same-sex preferences appear in many cultures
• By age 2 years:
– Consistently label themselves and others as male and
female
Gender Constancy
Kohlberg (1966)
– By age 4-5, children develop understanding of gender
constancy
• Belief that people are permanently males or females
because of fixed, unchangeable biological factors
• Gender schemas occur well before gender constancy is
understood
Gender and Play
Differences noted in play of male and female
preschoolers
• Males:
– More rough and tumble play
– Same sex playmate preference around 3
• Females:
– Organized games and role playing
– Same sex playmate preference around 2
Gender Expectations
• Expectations about gender-appropriate behavior more
rigid and gender-stereotyped than adults up to 5 years
• Gender outweighs ethnic variables
Snips, and snails….
Preschoolers expect boys to
demonstrate:
Competence
Independence
Forcefulness
Competitiveness
Sugar and spice...
Preschoolers expect girls to
demonstrate:
Warmth
Expressiveness
Nurturance
Submissiveness
Theoretical Perspectives on Gender
• Biological
– Inborn, genetic factors
produce gender
differences
• Psychoanalytic
– Gender differences
result of moving
through series of
stages related to
biological urges
• Social learning
– Gender related
behavior learned from
observations of
others’ behaviors
• Cognitive
– Gender schemes form
lens through which
world is viewed
Psychoanalytic Perspective on Gender
• Males and females go through different identification
process
• Identifying with same sex parents enables child to adopt
parents’ gender attitudes and values
Social Learning Perspective on Gender
• Gender related behaviors and expectations learned from
observing others
• Books, media, television perpetuate gender related
behavior and expectations
Cognitive Perspective on Gender
• Gender schema or cognitive framework organizes
relevant gender information
• Preschoolers begin developing “rules” about what is
right and inappropriate for males and females
Bem There…Done That
• Sandra Bem and androgynous children
– Encouraged to follow gender roles that encompass
characteristics thought typical of both sexes
– Male-appropriate and female-appropriate traits
Four Approaches to Gender Development
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• According to Erikson's ____ development theory,
preschool-age children move from the ____ -versusshame-and-doubt stage to the ____ -versus-guilt stage.
• During the preschool years, children develop their ____
____, beliefs about themselves that they derive from their
own ____, their parents’ ____, and ____.
• Racial and ethnic awareness begins to form in the ____
years.
• Gender awareness also develops in the preschool years.
Explanations of this phenomenon include ____, ____,
____, and ____ approaches.
Review and Apply
APPLY
• What sorts of activities might you
encourage a preschool boy to
undertake to encourage him to
adopt a less stereotypical gender
schema?
FRIENDS AND FAMILY: PRESCHOOLERS’
SOCIAL LIVES
Preschoolers’ Social Lives
• Increased interactions with the world at large
• Peers with special qualities
• Relationships based on companionship, play,
entertainment
• Friendship focused on completion of shared activities
A Friend Indeed…
You Can't Come to my Birthday Party!
View of friendship evolves with age and older
preschoolers
• See friendship as continuing state and stable
relationship
• Begin to understand concepts such as trust, support,
shared interest
Playing by the Rules: The Work of Play
• Children are interested in maintaining smooth social
relationships with friends
• Children try to avoid and/or solve disagreements
Learning to Play… Playing to Learn
Play is critical to the overall
development of young children
• Changes over time
• Becomes more sophisticated, interactive,
cooperative
• Gradually more dependent on social and
cognitive skills
Categorizing Play
• Functional play: simple, repetitive activities typical of 3year-olds that may involve objects or repetitive muscular
movements
• Constructive play: activities in which children
manipulate objects to produce or build something
Building…inside and out!
By age four, children engage in constructive play that:
• Tests developing cognitive skills
• Practices motor skills
• Facilitates problem solving
• Teaches cooperation
Social Aspects of Play
Parten (1932)
Parallel Play
Onlooker Play
• Children play with similar toys,
in a similar manner, but do not
interact with each other
• Children simply watch each
other play
Solitary Play
Associative Play
• Children play by themselves
• Children interact with one
another in groups of two or
more
• Children share or borrow toys or
materials, but do not do the
same thing
Cooperative Play
• Children play with one another,
take turns, play games, and
devise contests
Preschoolers’ Play
The Smallest Great Pretenders
Nature of pretend, or make-believe, play changes
during the preschool period:
• Becomes increasingly unrealistic and more imaginative
• Change from using only realistic objects to using less
concrete ones
Comparing Play Complexity
What are you thinking, anyway?
Preschoolers’ Theory of Mind
•Using their theory of mind, preschool children are able to
come up with explanations for how others think and
reasons for why they behave the way they do
– Imagine things not physically present
– Pretend and react to imagined events
– Know that others have this capability
– Begin to understand motives
– Most have incomplete understanding of “beliefs”
– Some can solve false belief problems
Emergence of Theory of Mind
Emergence related to:
• Brain maturation
• Hormonal changes
• Developing language
• Opportunities for social interaction and pretend play
• Cultural background
Preschoolers’ Family Lives
Many preschoolers face increasingly complex world
but for most children not a time of upheaval and
turmoil
• Increased number of single parent headed families
• Still most children do not experience upheaval and
turmoil
• Strong, positive relationships within families encourage
relationships with other children
Effective Parenting:
Teaching Desired Behavior
AUTHORITARIAN
• Exhibit controlling,
rigid, cold style
• Value strict,
unquestioning
obedience
AUTHORITATIVE
• Set firm, clear,
consistent limits
• Allow disagreement
and use reasoning,
explanations,
consequences
• Supportive
parenting
Effective Parenting:
Teaching Desired Behavior
PERMISSIVEINDIFFERENT
• Uninvolved in
children's lives
• Set few limits
PERMISSIVEINDULGENT
• Involved with
children
• Place little or no
limits or control
on children's
behavior
Parenting Styles
Does parental discipline style result in
differences in child behavior?
See how they grow…
• Authoritarian parents = withdrawn, socially awkward
children
• Permissive parents = dependent, moody, low social
skilled children
• Uninvolved parents = emotionally detached, unloved,
and insecure children
• Authoritative parents = independent, friendly, selfassertive, and cooperative.
Remember…
• Baumrind research findings chiefly apply to Western
societies
• Childrearing practices that parents are urged to follow
reflect cultural perspectives
– nature of children
– role of parents
• No single parenting pattern or style is likely to be
universally appropriate or likely invariably to produce
successful children
Child Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment
• Five children are killed daily by caretakers
• 140,000 are physically injured
• Three million are abused or neglected annually in U.S.
Types of Child Abuse
True or False?
Child abuse can occur in any home or child care setting!
Stressful environments increase likelihood for
abuse
Substance
abuse
Poverty
High levels
of marital
discord
Singleparent
homes
What else?
• Vague demarcation between permissible and
impermissible forms of physical violence
– Line between “spanking” and “beating” is not clear
– Spankings begun in anger can escalate into abuse
• Privacy of child care setting
• Unrealistic expectations
What Are the Warning Signs of Child Abuse?
So why then does abuse occur?
Children are more likely to be victimized when they are:
• Fussy
• Resistant to control
• Slow to adapt to new situations
• Overly anxious
• Frequent bedwetters
• Developmentally delayed
It is crucial to remember…
Labeling children as high risk for abuse does
not make them responsible for their abuse!
What do the experts tell us about causality?
Making
Up
Tension
Building
Abusing
Incident
CYCLE-OF-VIOLENCE HYPOTHESIS
argues that abused and neglected children suffer predisposes them to
be abusive adults
Psychological Maltreatment
Not all abuse is physical!
• Psychological maltreatment
– Occurs when parents or other caretakers harm
children's behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or physical
functioning
– May take form of neglect in which parents may ignore
or act emotionally unresponsive
– Not as easily identified without outward physical signs
What are consequences of psychological
maltreatment?
Some children survive and grow into psychologically
healthy adults
• Others suffer long-term damage
– Low self-esteem, depression, suicide
– Lying
– Misbehavior
– Underachievement in school
– Criminal behavior
Abuse and Brain Development: A Tragic
Relationship
Brains of victims
undergo permanent
changes
• Reductions in size of
amygdala and
hippocampus in
adulthood
• Changes due to
overstimulation of the
limbic system
Three Cheers for the Survivors!
A Closer Look at Resilient Children
Resilience
• Ability to overcome circumstances that place
child at high risk for psychological and/or
physical damage
Resilient children
• Exhibit ability to overcome circumstances that
place child at high risk for psychological and/or
physical functioning
Werner (1995)
Resilient infants
• Temperaments that evoke responses from wide variety
of caregivers
• Affectionate, easy going, good-natured
• Easily soothed as infants
• Able to evoke whatever support available in environment
Resilient children
• Socially pleasant, outgoing, good communication skills
• Relatively intelligent, independent
• Realistic
Disciplining Children
• For most children in Western cultures, authoritative
parenting works best
• Spanking is never an appropriate discipline technique
• Tailor parental discipline to the characteristics of the child
and the situation
• Use routines to avoid conflict
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• In the preschool years, children develop their
____ true friendships on the basis of personal
____, ____, and shared ____.
• The character of preschoolers’ ____ changes
over time, growing more ____, ____, and ____,
and relying increasingly on social skills.
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• There are several distinct childrearing styles,
including ____, ____, ____, and ____.
• Childrearing styles show strong ____
influences.
• Some children suffer ____ from their own
family members.
Review and Apply
APPLY
• What cultural and environmental factors in the
United States may have contributed to the shift
from an authoritarian parenting style to an
authoritative one since World War II? Is
another shift under way?
MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND AGGRESSION
Moral Development: Following Society's
Rights and Wrongs
Moral development = children's reasoning about morality,
their attitudes toward moral lapses, and their behavior
when faced with moral issues
Several approaches have evolved
• Piaget's view of moral development
• Social learning approaches to morality
• Genetic approaches to morality
Moral Development…
The case for right and wrong
• Changes in sense of justice and of right and wrong
• Changes in behavior related to moral issues
Theoretical Approaches: Piaget
HETERONOMOUS MORALITY
• 4 to 7 years
• Initial stage of moral development
• Rules seen as invariant, unchangeable,
and beyond child's control and/or influence
• Intentions not considered
• Believe in immanent justice (immediate
punishment for infractions)
Theoretical Approaches: Piaget
INCIPIENT COOPERATION STAGE
• 7 to 10 years
• Become more social and learn the rules
• Play according to shared conception of the
rules
Theoretical Approaches: Piaget
AUTONOMOUS COOPERATION STAGE
• Beginning at 10 years
• Become fully aware that rules may and can
be modified if people playing agree
What do Piaget's critics say?
• Accurate descriptions of how moral development
proceeds
• Underestimates of age at which children's moral
skills develop
Social Learning Approaches to Morality
• Focus on how environment produces prosocial
behavior
• Moral conduct learned through reinforcement
and modeling
• Preschoolers more apt to model behavior of
warm, responsive, competent, high prestige
adults and peers
More than mimicking
Children do more than simply mimic
unthinkingly
By observing moral conduct, children are
reminded of:
• Society's norms about importance of moral
behavior as conveyed by significant others
• Connections between particular situations and
certain kinds of behavior
• Abstract modeling
Genetic Approaches to Morality
• Particular genes may underlie some aspects of
moral behavior
• Preschoolers have genetic predisposition to
behave generously or selfishly
• Environment also plays role in determining
moral behavior
Empathy and Moral Behavior
Empathy lies at heart of some kinds of moral
behavior
• Roots of empathy grow as children's ability to monitor
and regulate their emotional and cognitive responses
increases
• Empathy and development
– Infants
– Toddlers
– Preschoolers
Emotional Self-Regulation
Preschool children improve in emotional control
• Around age 2
– Talk about feelings and engage in regulation
strategies
• Preschoolers
– Develop more effective strategies and sophisticated
social skills, learn to better cope with negative
emotions
– Learn to use language to express wishes
– Become increasingly able to negotiate with others
Aggression and Violence in Preschoolers:
Sources and Consequences
Aggression
• Intentional injury or harm to another person; relatively
stable trait
Early preschool years aggression
• Often addressed at attaining desired goal
• Declines through preschool years as does frequency and
average length of episodes
• Extreme and sustained aggression is cause of
concern
Kinds of Aggression
Instrumental
aggression
Relational
aggression
• Motivated by desire to
obtain a concrete goal
• Higher in boys than girls
• Intended to hurt another
person's feelings
through non-physical
means
• Higher in girls than boys
Explanations for Aggressive Behavior Among
Children
• FREUD: death drive
leads aggressive
actions and behavior
• SOCIAL-LEARNING:
prior learning shapes
aggression
• LORENZ: fighting
instinct found in all
humans
• COGNITIVE:
interpretation of others’
actions and situations
influences aggression
• SOCIOBIOLOGISTS:
strengthening species
drives aggression
Modeling Aggression
Viewing Violence on TV: Does It Matter?
Overwhelming weight of research evidence suggests that
observation of televised aggression does lead to
subsequent aggression
• Children's television programs actually contain higher levels of
violence (69 percent) than other types of programs (57 percent)
• In an average hour, children's programs contain more than twice as
many violent incidents than other types of programs
• Evidence supports the notion that observation of media violence can
lead to a greater readiness to act aggressively, bullying, and an
insensitivity to the suffering of victims of violence
Effects of Video Game or Internet Playing on
Children
Positive
Negative
Becoming an Informed Consumer of
Development
Increasing Moral Behavior and Reducing Aggression
•Provide opportunities to observe others acting in a
cooperative, helpful, prosocial manner
•Do not ignore aggressive behavior
•Help preschoolers devise alternative explanations for
others’ behavior
•Monitor preschoolers’ television viewing, particularly the
violence that they view
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• Piaget believed that preschoolers are in the ____
morality stage of moral development, in which ____
are seen as invariant and unchangeable.
• ____ ____ approaches to moral development
emphasize the importance of reinforcement for moral
actions and the ____ of models of moral conduct.
• ____ and other theories focus on children's empathy
with others and their wish to help others so they can
avoid unpleasant feelings of ____ themselves.
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• Aggression typically declines in ____ and ____
as children become more able to ____ their
emotions and to use language to ____
disputes.
• ____ and ____ regard aggression as an innate
human characteristic, while proponents of
social learning and cognitive approaches focus
on ____ aspects of aggression.
Review and Apply
APPLY
• If high-prestige models of behavior are
particularly effective in influencing moral
attitudes and actions, are there implications for
individuals in such industries as sports,
advertising, and entertainment?
EPILOGUE
Before moving on to the next chapter, this is an appropriate
time to take a about Alison Gopnik's two-year-old son, and
answer the following questions:
• In what ways do the actions of Alison Gopnik's son
indicate that he is developing a theory of mind?
•
Is Erikson's framework of moral development helpful in
interpreting the boy's actions in this instance? Why or
why not?
EPILOGUE
• Do you think the boy's reaction would have been
different if his father had collapsed on the couch after a
bad day instead of his mother? Why or why not? How
might social learning approaches to morality and the
concept of empathy explain the son's actions in helping
his mother?
• Can you discuss the boy's actions in terms of emotional
self-regulation?