Developing Self-Concept and Social Relationships in Preschool-Age Children

2. Chapter 10 Key Questions • How do preschool-age children develop a concept of themselves? • How do children develop their sense of racial identity and gender? • In what sorts of social relationships do preschool-age children engage? • What sorts of disciplinary styles do parents employ, and what effects do they have?

3. Chapter 10 Key Questions • How do children develop a moral sense? • How does aggression develop in preschool-age children?

4. Forming a Sense of Self • The question “Who am I?” underlies a considerable amount of development during the preschool years. • During this period, children wonder about the nature of the self, and the way they answer the “Who am I?” question may affect them for the rest of their lives.

5. Psychosocial Development: Resolving the Conflicts • Psychosocial developmentAccording to Erikson, development that encompasses changes both in the understandings individuals have of themselves as members of society and in their comprehension of the meaning of others’ behavior

6. Psychosocial Development: Resolving the Conflicts • Initiative-versus-guilt stage According to Erikson, the period during which children aged 3 to 6 years experience conflict between independence of action and the sometimes negative results of that action • “Let me do it!”

7. Self-Concept in the Preschool Years: Thinking About the Self • Self-concept A person’s identity or set of beliefs about what one is like as an individual (This is created by and affected by culture’s attitudes) • Collectivistic orientation A philosophy that promotes the notion of interdependence versus • Individualistic orientationA philosophy that emphasizes personal identity and the uniqueness of the individual (Western Ideals)

8. Self-Concept in the Preschool Years: Thinking About the Self • Race dissonanceThe phenomenon in which minority children indicate preferences for majority values or people. (Occurs between ages 3-4)

9. Gender Identity: Developing Femaleness and Maleness • Preschool-age children often have very strict ideas about how boys and girls are supposed to act. (Rigid at 5, less rigid at 7) • In fact, their expectations about gender-appropriate behavior are even more gender-stereotyped than those of adults and may be less flexible during the preschool years than at any other point in the life span. • Sex = anatomy and behavior • Gender = perception or sense of what is male or female • DO BOYS AND GIRLS LIVE IN DIFFERENT WORLDS?

10. Biological Perspectiveson Gender • Hormones are one sex-related biological characteristic that have been found to affect gender-based behaviors. • Biological differences exist in the structure of female and male brains. (Corpus callosum which connects hemispheres is larger in women due to girls being spoken to more. Environment produces biological change? Refer to page 251 ) • However, it is difficult to attribute behavioral characteristics unambiguously to biological factors.

11. Psychoanalytic Perspectives • Identification The process in which children attempt to be similar to their parent of the same sex, incorporating the parent’s attitudes and values (Refer to page 251) • Some aspects of psychoanalytic theory have been supported. • Still, many developmentalists have searched for explanations of gender differences other than Freud’s.

12. Social Learning Approaches • Social learning approaches see children as learning gender-related behavior and expectations by observing others. • The observation of the rewards that these others attain for acting in a gender-appropriate manner leads the child to conform to such behavior themselves. • In some cases, learning of social roles does not involve models, but occurs more directly, such “Act like a little girl!” “Act like a little man!”

13. Cognitive Approaches • Gender identity The perception of oneself as male or female • Gender schema A cognitive framework that organizes information relevant to gender that is rigid • Gender constancy The fact that people are permanently males or females, depending on fixed, unchangeable biological factors

14. Four Approaches toGender Development-page 253

15. Friends and Family: Preschoolers’ Social Lives • Preschoolers begin to discover the joys of friendship with their peers. • Although they may expand their social circles considerably, parents and family nevertheless remain very influential in their lives.

16. The Development of Friendships • Around the age of 3, children begin to develop real friendships, as peers come to be seen as individuals who hold some special qualities and rewards. • As preschoolers age, their ideas about friendship gradually evolve. • The quality and kinds of interactions children have with friends changes during the preschool period.

17. Playing by the Rules:The Work of Play • Play helps preschoolers develop in important ways. • The American Academy of Pediatrics states that play is essential for the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional wellbeing of children and youth. • The U.N. High Commission for Human Rights maintains that play is a basic right of every child.

18. Categorizing Play • Functional playPlay that involves simple, repetitive activities typical of 3-year-olds (Skipping, jumping, rolling) Something for the sake of being active • Constructive play Play in which children manipulate objects to produce or build something (Legos, puzzles, blocks) End result is to create something

19. The Social Aspects of Play • Parallel playAction in which children play with similar toys, in a similar manner, but do not interact with each other • Onlooker play Action in which children simply watch others at play but do not actually participate themselves Continue this later as preschoolers. That is why as caregivers we need to encourage onlookers to become involved.

20. The Social Aspects of Play • Associative playPlay in which two or more children interact by sharing or borrowing toys or materials, although they do not do the same thing • Cooperative playPlay in which children genuinely interact with one another, taking turns, playing games, or devising contests Pretend or make believe will start with realistic objects to less concrete. Vygotsky states “make believe” relates to “practice activities” and play is cultural and broadens understand of way world works. - page 256

21. Preschoolers’ Play-page 255

22. Preschoolers’ Theory of Mind: Understanding What OthersAre Thinking • Children increasingly can see the world from others’ perspectives. • Even children as young as 2 are able to understand that others have emotions. • By the age of 3 or 4, preschoolers can distinguish between something in their minds and physical actuality. • By the end of the preschool years, most children easily solve false belief problems. (Page 257 and placing chocolate bar in new location)

23. The Emergence of Theory of Mind • Brain maturation is an important factor. • As myelination within the frontal lobes becomes more pronounced, preschoolers develop more emotional capacity involving self awareness. • Developing language skills are also related to the increasing sophistication of children’s theory of mind. • Cultural factors also play an important role.

24. Preschoolers’ Family Lives • Many preschoolers face the realities of an increasingly complicated world. • For most, however, the period encompasses growing interaction with the world at large. • Preschoolers begin to develop genuine friendships with other children, in which close ties emerge. “A good deal of research finds that strong, positive relationships between parents and children encourage children’s relationships with others.”

25. Effective Parenting: Teaching Children Desired Behavior • Authoritarian parents Parents who are controlling, punitive, rigid, and cold and whose word is law; they value strict, unquestioning obedience from their children and do not tolerate expressions of disagreement • Permissive parentsParents who provide lax and inconsistent feedback and require little of their children

26. Effective Parenting: Teaching Children Desired Behavior • Authoritative parentsParents who are firm, setting clear and consistent limits, but try to reason with their children, explaining why they should behave in a particular way • Uninvolved parentsParents who show virtually no interest in their children, displaying indifferent, rejecting behavior • PAGE 277 – Excellent chart

27. Parenting Styles

28. Cultural Differences inChild-Rearing Practices • The style of parenting that is most successful may depend quite heavily on the norms of a particular culture—and what parents in a particular culture are taught regarding appropriate child-rearing practices. • Chinese concept of chiao shun (STRICT and FIRM) • U.S. authoritative methods

29. Moral Developmentand Aggression • Changes in children’s views of what is ethically right and what is the right way to behave are an important element of growth during the preschool years. • The kind of aggression displayed by preschoolers is also changing. • Both morality and aggression involve a growing awareness of others.

30. Developing Morality: Following Society’s Rights and Wrongs • Moral developmentThe maturation of people’s sense of justice, of what is right and wrong, and their behavior in connection with such issues • Developmentalists have considered moral development in terms of children’s reasoning about morality, their attitudes toward moral lapses, and their behavior when faced with moral issues.

31. Piaget’s View ofMoral Development • Piaget suggested that moral development proceeds in stages: • Heteronomous morality - rules are invariant and unchangeable (ages 4-7) • Incipient cooperation stage - formal rules are applied in social games. “Right way” to play (ages 7-10) • Autonomous cooperation stage-become aware that formal game rules can be modified Intentional behavior - review page 280 • Immanent Justice = rules broken should earn immediate punishment

32. Evaluating Piaget’s Approach to Moral Development • Recent research suggests that although Piaget was on the right track in his description of how moral development proceeds, he also underestimated the age at which children’s moral skills are honed.

33. Social Learning Approaches to Morality • Prosocial behaviorHelping behavior that benefits others Warm and responsive modeling • Abstract modelingThe process in which modeling paves the way for the development of more general rules and principles

34. Empathy and Moral Behavior • Empathy The understanding of what another individual feels • During the preschool years, empathy continues to grow. • Some theorists believe that increasing empathy leads children to behave in a more moral fashion. • In addition, some negative emotions, such as anger at an unfair situation or shame over previous transgressions, also may promote moral behavior.

35. Aggression and Violence in Preschoolers: Sources and Consequences • Aggression Intentional injury or harm to another person • During the early preschool years, some of the aggression is addressed at attaining a desired goal. • On the other hand, extreme and sustained aggression is a cause of concern.

36. Aggression and Violence in Preschoolers: Sources and Consequences • The child’s personality and social development contribute to this decline in aggression. • Emotional self-regulation The capability to adjust one’s emotions to a desired state and level of intensity • Starting at age 2, children are able to talk about their feelings, and they engage in strategies to regulate them.

37. Aggression and Violence in Preschoolers: Sources and Consequences • Instrumental aggression Aggression motivated by a desire to obtain a concrete goal • Relational aggressionNonphysical aggression that is intended to hurt another person’s psychological well-being

38. The Roots of Aggression Social Learning Approaches to Aggression • Although instinctual explanations of aggression are logical, most developmentalists believe they are not the whole story. • Consequently, developmentalists have turned to other approaches to explain aggression and violence.

39. Social Learning Approaches to Aggression • Social learning approaches to aggression contend that aggression is based on observation and prior learning. • They emphasize how social and environmental conditions teach individuals to be aggressive. • But social learning approaches suggest that reinforcement also comes in less direct ways. • Albert Bandura’s classic Bobo doll experiment

40. Viewing Violence on TV:Does It Matter? • Although it is clear that laboratory observation of aggression on television leads to higher levels of aggression, evidence showing that real-world viewing of aggression is associated with subsequent aggressive behavior is correlational. • Just as exposure to aggressive models leads to aggression, observation of non-aggressive models can reduce aggression.

41. Cognitive Approaches to Aggression: The Thoughts Behind Violence • The cognitive approach to aggression suggests that the key to understanding moral development is to examine preschoolers’ interpretations of others’ behavior and of the environmental context in which a behavior occurs. • The cognitive approach is less successful in explaining how certain children come to be inaccurate perceivers of situations in the first place.