SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

1. Chapter 8 SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

2. Learning Objectives

3. FORMING A SENSE OF SELF

4. 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

5. 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

6. Cultural Influence • View of self culturally bound • Collectivist Orientation: Asian • Individualistic Orientation: Western • View of self family tied • View of self individually directed

7. Developing Racial and Ethnic AwarenessDevelopmental Diversity • Racial and ethnic identity begins to formalize • Differences in skin color noticed early in life • Cultural meaning attached to differences comes later

8. Developmental Diversity By age 3-4 years many preschoolers: • Differentiate races • Mirror social attitudes

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Gender Expectations • Expectations about gender-appropriate behavior more rigid and gender-stereotyped than adults up to 5 years • Gender outweighs ethnic variables

15. Snips, and snails….

16. Sugar and spice...

17. 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

18. 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

19. Social Learning Perspective on Gender • Gender related behaviors and expectations learned from observing others • Books, media, television perpetuate gender related behavior and expectations

20. 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

21. 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

22. Four Approaches to Gender Development

23. Review and Apply

24. Review and Apply

25. FRIENDS AND FAMILY: PRESCHOOLERS’ SOCIAL LIVES

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. Learning to Play… Playing to Learn

30. Categorizing Play • Functional play: simple, repetitive activities typical of 3-year-olds that may involve objects or repetitive muscular movements • Constructive play: activities in which children manipulate objects to produce or build something

31. 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

32. Social Aspects of PlayParten (1932)

33. Preschoolers’ Play

34. 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

35. Comparing Play Complexity

36. 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

37. Emergence of Theory of Mind Emergence related to: • Brain maturation • Hormonal changes • Developing language • Opportunities for social interaction and pretend play • Cultural background

38. 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

39. Effective Parenting: Teaching Desired Behavior

40. Effective Parenting: Teaching Desired Behavior

41. Parenting Styles

42. Does parental discipline style result in differences in child behavior?

43. 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, self-assertive, and cooperative.

44. 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

45. 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.

46. Types of Child Abuse

47. True or False? Child abuse can occur in any home or child care setting!

48. Stressful environments increase likelihood for abuse

49. 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

50. What Are the Warning Signs of Child Abuse?