Transcript Early Childhood: Psychosocial Development

Emotional development
Emotional regulation
 The main psychosocial accomplishment
 Development of limbic system and prefrontal cortex
Erikson’s third stage
 Initiative vs. guilt (Shame and doubt)
Emotional development
 Self-concept
 Appearance, personality, gender
 Connected to parents’ confirmation
Motivation
 Intrinsic = Internal (e.g. personal enjoyment)
 Extrinsic = Outside (e.g. praise or paycheck)
Seeking emotional balance
 Externalizing problems
 = Physical or verbal outbursts
 Male aggression
 Internalizing problems
 = guilt, shame, worthlessness
 Female anxiety
Play
 Universal & timeless
 Best playmates are peers (Which children prefer)
Types of play
 Solitary
 Child plays alone
 Onlooker
 Child watches others play
 Parallel
 Children play side-by-side
No interaction
 Associative
 Interact, share material
 Not reciprocal
 Cooperative
 Interactive
 Taking turns
Sociodramatic play
 Cooperative play
 Act out roles, themes & stories
 E.g. playing house or dress-up

Cops & robbers
 Helps
 Rehearse social roles
 Regulate emotions by pretending
 Develop self-concept
Challenges for parents
 Parenting styles
Baumrind’s 3 parenting styles
 Authoritarian
 Parent expects unquestioning obedience
 Often in low income families
 Children are often:

Obedient (but not happy), guilty, depressed, leave home before age 20
 Permissive
 Never disciplines
 Children are often:

Unhappy (lack self control), immature, continue living at home
 Authoritative
 Parent listens to child, sets limits, and enforces rules
 Children are often:

Successful, articulate, happy, generous
Neglectful/uninvolved parenting
 Parents don’t care
 Not quite the same as being permissive
 Children are often:
 Immature, sad, lonely
 Social & cognitive problems
Moral development
 Empathy & Antipathy
 Parental discipline
 Physical punishment
 Psychological control
 Exclusion & conversation
Moral emotions
 Empathy
 Leads to pro-social behavior

Helping others
 Antipathy
 Leads to antisocial behavior

Intentional desire to harm others
Four types of aggression:
 Instrumental aggression
 Using aggression as an instrument to get something
 Reactive aggression
 Retaliation for an action
 Relational aggression
 Non-physical (verbal)
 Destroys another’s self-esteem and social support system
 Bullying
 Done to dominate someone
 Unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attack
 Generally on someone unlikely to defend themselves
Parental discipline
 Children gradually come to understand things from
another person’s point of view
 Explanations and discussion after misbehavior help
children learn
 Children may disconnect a misdeed from the
punishment
 “Wait until your dad gets home!”
Physical punishment (Spanking)
 Increases obedience temporarily
 Later negative effects
 Increases possible later aggression
 Increases resentment
 Becomes less effective
Psychological punishment (&
control)
 Guilt
 Gratitude
Exclusion & conversation
 Time out (Exclusion)
 One minute for each year of age
 Only works if child wants to be with others
 Conversation
 Creates an internal standard of right and wrong
Becoming boys and girls
Sex and gender
 Sex = Biological
 Gender = Cultural
 Based on sex roles
Sex role development
 Psychoanalytic
 Behaviorism
 Cognitive
Psychoanalytic
 Phallic stage
 Penis becomes the focus
 Oedipus Complex

Boy’s unconscious desire to replace dad for mother’s love
 Electra Complex
 Girl’s unconscious desire to replace mother for dad’s love
 Wants to marry daddy
 Both sexes cope with this by identifying with the same-sex
parent and trying to become like them
 Superego develops
 Conscience
 Based on parents’ moral standards
Behaviorism
 Operant conditioning
 Gender-appropriate behaviors are rewarded (reinforced)
 Social learning theory
 Children internalize the roles they observe in others
Cognitive theory
 Focuses on children’s understanding
 Gender schema
 General beliefs about sex differences
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Boys are like this
Girls are like this
Children then think and behave accordingly