Chapter 10: The Play Years Psychosocial Development

1. Chapter 10: The Play YearsPsychosocial Development Dr. M. Davis-Brantley

2. Emotional Development • Initiative vs. Guilt—the stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development in which the child eagerly begins new projects and activities and feels guilt when her/his efforts result in failure or criticism • During the Play Years, a child’s self-esteem emerges from the skills and competencies the child has developed • Self-concept is people’s understanding of who they are. Self-concept includes appearance, personality, and abilities • Children are extremely optimistic about their abilities and their play becomes extremely goal-directed • During this time attention span becomes longer and children want to complete tasks • Self-confidence is dominant and children believe that they have the ability to take on challenges; however the child experience guilt if they fail

3. Emotional Regulation • Emotional Regulation is the ability, beginning in early childhood, to direct or modify one’s feelings, particularly feelings of fear, frustration, and anger • Children before age 5 have difficulty managing their frustrations and modulating emotional expression. By age 5 they are able to regulate their emotions and maintain some form of impulse control • When children do not have adequate impulse control they can respond in 2 ways • Externalizing Problems in which the child has a tendency to externalize emotions and experience the emotions outside the self, in that they lash out in impulsive anger and attack other people or things • Internalizing Problems in which the child has the tendency to internalize emotions and inhibit their expression, being fearful and withdrawn

4. Genetics and Nurture Roles & Emotional Regulation • As stated earlier, specific aspects of the brain influence the development of emotional regulation; however emotional regulation is highly socialized • Children learn to regulate their own emotions through social awareness • Cultures and parents highly dictate which emotions need expression or suppression • Development is influenced upon by 1. Neurological maturation 2. Sociocultural Practices and 3. Individual Differences (temperament) • Cognitions and Emotions • Emotional Intelligence is the term for understanding of how to interpret and express emotions • Development of Emotional Intelligence is crucial during this time because the reflective and intellectual areas of the cortex are forming and gradually come to govern feeling of fear, anger, and passion • Researchers suggest that parents use children’s natural attachment to teach them how and when to express emotions • If children learn these lessons, they become balanced and empathic human beings

5. Empathy and Antipathy • Empathy is a person’s true understanding of the emotions of another, including the ability to figure out what would make a person feel better • Antipathy is a person’s feelings of anger, distrust, dislike, or even hatred toward another • Empathy often leads to prosocial behaviors which include behaving in ways that help others without obvious benefit to oneself • Ex: include expressing empathy, offering to share food or toy, including a shy child in a game • Antipathy can lead to antisocial behaviors in which the child acts in ways that are deliberately hurtful or destructive • Ex: include verbal insults, social exclusion, and physical assaults • By age 4 or 5 most children can act in prosocial or antisocial ways

6. Sharing and Aggression • Sharing does not simply involve a child being forced to give another child a toy; instead this act involves prosocial behaviors and empathy • Parents should encourage empathic behaviors by encouraging mutuality • Ex: Japanese mothers (We are having a hard time with this puzzle) vs. US mothers emphasizing independence (You are having a hard time with the puzzle) • Aggression is common and must be regulated in children during early childhood or aggression can cause problems later on in adulthood • Types of Aggression include: • Instrumental aggression • Forceful behavior is aimed at getting or keeping something (Ex: toy) • Reactive aggression • Forceful behavior that is an angry retaliation for another’s action • Relational aggression • Forceful behavior that takes the form of insults or social rejection and is aimed at harming the social connection between the aggressor and another person • Bullying aggression • Forceful behavior that takes the form of an unprovoked physical or verbal attack on another person, especially one who is unlikely to defend oneself

7. Social Skills • Children learn social skills through a variety of means • Peers—are people who are about the same age and status of oneself • Active play also helps children to learn social skills • Play teaches children how to enter a relationship, assert themselves, and respond to the actions of another • Rough-and-tumble play is universal and requires both provocation and self-control and is regulated • Imaginative Play • Children develop a strong self-concept through interactions with others • Sociodramatic Play—pretend play in which children act out various roles and themes in stories that they create themselves • They learn the social skills by: explore social roles being enacted around them (Playing house), testing their own ability to explain and convince others of their ideas, regulate their emotions through imagination (as they pretend to be strong or afraid), develop a self-concept in a non-threatening context by taking the part of a brave soldier, a happy mother, etc..

8. Parenting Styles/Patterns • Parenting Style has a significant influence on child’s development • Research on parenting style was initiated by Diana Baumrind (1967) • Authoritarian Parenting—include parents who believe their word is law, not to be questioned. Children are to be seen and not heard. Misbehavior is rewarded with strict punishment (physical). Expectations are explained to the child but the child is not to interact with the communication. Parent-child communication is low. These parents are not overly showy with affection. • Permissive Parenting—includes parents who are very lasidasical with punishment and rule-setting. These parents seldom punish, guide, or control their children. They believe in being the child’s friend more so than a parent. They are very nurturing and accepting. • Permissive-indifferent • Permissive-indulgent • Authoritative Parenting—includes parents who set limits and provide guidance for their children but are willing to listen to the child’s ideas and make compromises. Parent-child communication is very high. They see their children as mature and able to make decisions and expect them to do so.

9. Parenting Styles Continued • Research about the parenting styles suggests • Authoritarian parents raise children who are likely to be conscientious, obedient, and quiet; however, the children are not necessarily happy. The more likely to feel guilty, internalize their frustrations, blame themselves, and may rebel later on • Permissive parents raise children who are likely to be even less happy and lack self-control, especially in relationships. They may possess inadequate emotional regulation, which makes them immature • Authoritative parents raise children who are likely to be successful, articulate, intelligent, happy, and generous.

10. Punishment • Techniques of Discipline • Culturally, many differences in types of discipline where Japanese mothers use reasoning, empathy, and expressions of disappointment more so than North American mothers • Time-out is a disciplinary technique in which the child is required to stop all activity and sit in a corner or stay indoors for minutes • Withdrawal of privilege such as going out or watching TV • Withdrawal of affection such as an expression of disappointment • These techniques have many consequences that are unintended so the parent must choose punishments for the child accordingly • Talking is very important to help the child to understand and learn about why they are being punishments and to teach acceptable behavior in the future • Spanking—many conflicting feelings. Many do it because the child is “old enough to know better” but “Not old enough to listen to reason” • Although spanking has not been found to be completely destructive researchers assert, “Why take the chance?” because physical punishment tends to increase antisocial behavior and only temporarily increases obedience. • If the punishment is harsh, with frequent spanking and yelling, it is likely to produce and angry, disobedient child

11. Children and Media Sources • How much TV and video games is too much? • Violence in the media • Aggression and the media: What are the children learning by watching TV? • Often see “good guys” using violence to get what they want and the consequences are justified or made comic. • All good guys are male, white. • Often women are portrayed as helpless and in need of saving