13. Emotional & Social Development

1. 13. Emotional & Social Development • Berk Chapter 13 • Self-understanding & self-esteem • Peer relations • Film Time to Grow – Social Development • Final thoughts • Themes of the course Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

2. 13. Social Development • Are several concepts of social development relevant in middle childhood: • Psychosocial – personality development • Self-understanding • Self-esteem – factors influencing • Peer acceptance Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

3. PsychoSocial Perspective in middle childhood: • Erikson’s: Industry vs Inferiority Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

4. Self-understanding in middle childhood • Self-understanding - Between 8 -11 years of age • When children comprehend who they are • In terms of their general tendencies • Now start to define selves terms of stable psychological traits or personality characteristics • Know their behaviours & feelings, form a larger, coherent picture of who they are Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

5. Self-understanding in middle childhood • Children start to judge own appearance, abilities, behaviour in relation to others around them • So gain a clearer understanding of who they are • Relative to other people around them • Eg, what they’re good at & not so good at • Follows from gains in cognitive development • Just as they are able to think about more than one perspective, see other people’s viewpoints, • Can see themselves from others’ points of view Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

6. Self-understanding in middle childhood Self-understanding • Because they are better at inferring what others are thinking & better understand social world… • Children can incorporate, internalize others’ • expectations, values, attitudes • Start to see selves as part of larger social group • musician, soccer player, student, etc • Family still important, • but peers start to gain influence • Start to develop a social network Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

7. Self-understanding in middle childhood Self-understanding • Cultural ideals, values also incorporated into notion of who they are • Eg Asian cultural values: stress importance of interdependence, collectivism • Vs mainstream NA values: independence, self Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

8. Self-esteem in middle childhood Self-esteem – related to self-understanding • Judgments of our own worth • & feelings associated with those judgments • In contrast to self-understanding which is simply • Recognizing that we have general tendencies • Children with high self-esteem • Are liked better by their peers, well adjusted, sociable, conscientious • Children with low self-esteem • linked to anxiety, depression, antisocial behaviour Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

9. Self-esteem in middle childhood • Based on skills or traits in 4 areas: • Academic competence – school work • Social competence – parents & peers • Physical/athletic competence – sports • Physical appearance – height, weight • *correlates most strongly with overall self-esteem Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

10. Childhood changes in self-esteem • Self-understanding comes at a price… • Self-criticism rises & self-esteem dips • in the 1st years of school • As children experience feedback on their performance in school, • Are able to compare themselves with others • Make realistic judgments, social comparisons Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

11. Childhood changes in self-esteem • Eventually accept & respect themselves • Based on personal achievements, competencies • Self-esteem rises again • 4th – 6th grades (9-11yrs) • Based on good peer relations, athletic abilities • Develop a stable sense of self-esteem • Able to evaluate their strengths & weaknesses Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

12. Influences on self-understanding Self-understanding & esteem influenced by: Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

13. Influences on self-understanding Self-understanding & esteem influenced by: • parents & parenting styles • Eg, authoritative style promotes children who believe they are competent, worthwhile • warm, positive parenting with firm, appropriate expectations helps child make sensible choices, • Feel good about themselves • Have good self-esteem levels Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

14. Influences: Parenting styles If parents help too often or make decisions for their child (too controlling) • Often have children who suffer from low self-esteem • Over indulgent parents (permissive) • Children who feel superior to others • Tend to be aggressive, mean when they have to adjust their overblown sense of self-esteem Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

15. Influences: child’s culture • Sense of belonging to a cohesive ethnic group, a strong cultural affiliation influences self-esteem • Eg Asian cultural values: • stress importance of modesty, social harmony, • & importance of the larger group over individuals • Asian children are lower in self-esteem than US kids • Are more reserved about praising selves, • prefer to be generous in their praise of others • As a culture they devalue attention to the individual • and value attention to the group • ie culture strongly influences child’s self-understanding & self esteem Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

16. Influences: gender-typed beliefs • part of the cultural attitudes, beliefs • Some cultures emphasize sex differences • Parents beliefs predict children’s evaluations of competency, liking for school subjects • Girls – language • Boys - math, science, athletics • Although little sex difference in overall self-esteem Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

17. Influences: Peer relations • Ability to make friends, keep friends • Choose friends who have similar interests, values, backgrounds • children come to understand both selves and others • As friendships become more intense • Children expect more of friends, • change friends less often, • find it harder to make new friends Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

18. Influences: child’s peer relations • Typical close friendships involve children of same sex, age, ethnicity, SES status • Children from conflicted homes: • Have same number of acquaintances • But they are less likely to have close friends, • More likely to be lonely • Lack skills to sustain close relationships • Can’t keep their friends Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

19. Influences: peer relations • By age 10, children have one ‘best’ friend • Trend is toward fewer friends • Girls tend to emphasize few close friends • Boys tend to emphasize group identity/loyalty Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

20. Influences: peer acceptance • Peer acceptance or likeability • Extent to which child is seen by peers as socially worthy • Measured by sociometric techniques: • Ask children to nominate several peers in their class whom they especially like or dislike, • or ones they prefer to play with • Provides measure of how accepted child is Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

21. Peer acceptance • Peer acceptance categorized into 4 categories: • Popular children • Combine academic & social competence • Rejected children • Aggressive: High conflict, hyperactive, inattentive, impulsive • Withdrawn: passive & socially awkward, anxious, • Have negative expectations, most likely to be bullied • Controversial children • Blend of positive & negative behaviours – hostile, prosocial • Neglected children • Usually well-adjusted, • but low rates of interaction with peers Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

22. Helping rejected children Children with problems in peer acceptance • Can be helped - Interventions involve • Coaching, modeling, reinforcing positive social skills • How to interact with peers, cooperate in play, • Respond in friendly way • Tutoring in academic subjects • Improving school achievement helps with social acceptance • Social problem-solving • Are often unaware of poor social skills, • don’t take responsibility for social failures • Quality of parent-child interaction • more likely have family stress • Poor fit between child’s temperament & parenting Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

23. Influences on social understanding • So far, we have influences on social understanding and self-esteem of: • Parenting • Culture • beliefs about gender • Peer acceptance Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

24. Influences: understanding & self-esteem • Another influence on understanding & self-esteem • is way the child values their own activities & their success in those activities: • Eg academic self-esteem is related to • children’s attitudes towards school subjects • How important, useful, enjoyable they think they are • How do the ways children account for successes & failures influence their social understanding? Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

25. Influences on social understanding Accounting for successes & failures: • called Achievement attributions • Kids make inferences about causes of events • Learned helplessness • vs Mastery orientation Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

26. Achievement attributions • Learned helplessness • These children credit successes to external factors like luck, • Do not believe they can improve by trying hard • Have a fixed view of their ability • Attribute failure to (lack of) ability – • When task is difficult, experience anxiety, loss of control • ie sense of inferiority – “I can’t do this.” Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

27. Achievement attributions Learned helplessness • Children fail to connect their effort with success • Want to avoid negative evaluations • Sense of ability too fragile, too self-critical • Lack effective strategies & persistence, • Don’t believe they will help • Feel a poor sense of control over school work • Girls more likely than boys to blame their poor performance on a lack of ability • messages from adults Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

28. Influences on social understanding • Mastery – oriented attribution • These children credit successes to own ability • Believe they can improve if they try hard • Represents an incremental view of ability • Attribute failure to factors that can be managed, controlled • Eg time spent studying, strategies to use • Take an industrious persistent approach to learning Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

29. Film: Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

30. Take home messages Goals of course: • Describe development of typical child • Physical, mental, social development • Familiarize you with major themes, issues, theories of child development • So you can understand how a child develops • Start to apply the concepts & theories • Develop an appreciation of children • how they differ from adults • What they need to allow them to flourish Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

31. Themes & issues of course • Basic issues: • Continuous or discontinuous development • Qualitative changes or continuous increments • Universal or individual development • Same processes or unique differences • Nature or nurture • Genetic or environmental influences Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

32. Key theories • Psychosocial - Erikson stages • Trust, autonomy, initiative, industry • Mistrust, shame, guilt, inferiority • Cognitive development – Piaget • Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete • Social learning • Modelling, reinforcement, behaviour modification • Information processing – cognitive capacity • Memory, attention, categorization, seriation, inferences • Sociocultural – Vygotsky • Importance of social interaction for learning, • Scaffolding, zone of proximal development Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

33. Methods of study Research designs • Correlational • Relationships, no interventions • Eg, watching violence on TV ~ aggressive behavoiur • Experimental • Inferences about cause & effect • Independent & dependent variables • Eg, 2 groups: violent TV vs skiing; measure aggression • Field & natural experiments • Capitalize on opportunities in natural situations • eg, policy change in acceptable violence on TV • Compare before & after policy change Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

34. Methods of study Developmental Research Strategies • Cross-sectional • Study of groups differing in age at one time • Eg tv & aggression measured in 3 age groups • Longitudinal studies • Repeated observations over time • Eg, tv violence & aggression measured in same group in preschool, school, & hi school Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional

35. Final notes • Final exam - lectures & chapters 9-13, 1 • plus key issues, methods, theories from course • worth 32% of total • 75 multiple choice questions • Exam: Sat Dec 9th, 1:30pm – 3:30pm • New engineering (EIT): Area E2, Rm 130 • Email me if you have questions Class 13 Middle Social-Emotional