Kathleen Stassen Berger Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield Tattoon, M.A. 1 Part III The Play Years: Psychosocial Development Chapter Ten Emotional Development Parents Becoming Boys and Girls

2 The Play Years: Psychosocial Development 2 to 6-year-old transformation maturation and motivation are crucial; so are emotion and experiences. psychosocial development is multifaceted, involving genes, gender, parents, peers, and culture

3 Emotional Development Learning when and how to express emotions is the preeminent psychosocial accomplishment between the ages of 2 and 6 years emotional regulation –the ability to control when and how emotions are expressed –This is the most important psychosocial development to occur between the ages of 2 and 6 though it contains throughout life

4 Emotional Development Initiative Versus Guilt –Erickson’s third psychosocial crisis children begin new activities and feel guilty when they fail –self-esteem how a person evaluates his or her own worth, either in specific (e.g., intelligence, attractiveness) or overall –self-concept a person’s understanding of who he or she is –Self-concept includes appearance, personality, and various traits

5 Emotional Development Pride –“Erickson recognized that typical 3 – 5-year- olds have immodest and quite positive self- concepts, holding themselves in high self- esteem.” –longer attention span—they have a purpose for what they do –self-esteem and concentration are connected with maturation (but are not the cause) –feeling proud of oneself is the foundation for practice and then mastery

6 Emotional Development Guilt and Shame –guilt people blame themselves because they have done something wrong –shame people feel that others are blaming them –guilt and shame often occur together, but don’t necessarily go hand in hand

7 Emotional Development Intrinsic Motivation –goals or drives that come from inside a person, such as the need to feel smart or competent—this contracts with external motivation, the need for rewards from outside, such as material possessions or someone else’s esteem

8 Emotional Development Psychopathology –illness or disorder (-pathology) that involves the mind (psycho-) –the first signs in children usually involve emotions that seem to overwhelm the child –emotional regulation begins with impulse control

9 Emotional Development Emotional Balance –without adequate control, emotions overpower children –externalizing problems difficulty with emotional regulation that involves outwardly expressing emotions in uncontrolled ways, such as by lashing out in impulsive anger or attacking other people or things –internalizing problems difficulty with emotional regulation that involves turning one’s emotional distress inward, as by feeling excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless

10 Emotional Development Differences in Early Care –neurological damage can occur during early development prenatally –If a pregnant woman is stresses, ill, or a heavy drug user in infancy –if an infant is chronically malnourished, injured, or frightened extensive stress can kill some neurons and stop others from developing properly

11 Emotional Development Differences in Early Care –early care can prevent or worsen innate problems with emotional control –the harm of poor caregiving is evident in maltreated 4 – 6-year-olds. –if neglect or abuse occurs in the first few years it is more likely to cause internalizing or externalizing problems than mistreatment that begins when the child is older

12 Emotional Development Empathy and Antipathy –empathy the ability to understand the emotions of another person, especially when those emotions differ from one’s own –antipathy feelings of anger, distrust, dislike, or even hatred toward another person

13 Emotional Development Leading to Behavior –prosocial behavior feelings and acting in ways that are helpful and kind, without obvious benefit to one self –antisocial behavior feelings and acting in ways that are deliberately hurtful or destructive to another person

14 Emotional Development Aggression “The gradual regulation of emotions and emergence of antipathy is nowhere more apparent than in the most antisocial behavior of all, active aggression, which occurs when a child’s dislike erupts into action."

15 Emotional Development Aggression –instrumental aggression hurtful behavior that is intended to get or keep something that another person has –reactive aggression an impulsive retaliaton for another person’s intentional or accidental actions, verbal or physical –bullying aggression unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attack, especially on victims who are unlikely to defend themselves

16 Emotional Development Aggression –bullying is not always physical; it can be verbal or relational when the goal is to disrupt a child’s friendship physical aggression declines over the preschool and school-age years, but verbal attacks may increase (so might relational aggression)

17 Parents the primary influence on the young child’s emotions--including brain maturation and culture –parents differ a great deal in what they believe about children and how they act with them

18 Parents Parenting Style –Diana Baumrind (1967, 1972) studied 100 preschooler, in California (middle class, European Americans—the cohort and cultural limitations of this sample were not obvious at the time.) parents differed on four important dimensions –expressions of warmth –strategies for discipline –communication –expectations for maturity

19 Parents Baumrind’s Three Patterns of Parenting authoritarian parenting –child rearing with high behavioral standards, punishment of misconduct, and low communication permissive parenting –child rearing with high nurturance and communication but rare punishment, guidance, or control authoritative parenting –child rearing in which the parents set limits but listen to the child and are flexible

20 Parents Cultural Variations effective Chinese, Caribbean, and African American parents are often stricter than effective parents of northern or western European backgrounds Japanese mothers tend to use reasoning, empathy and expressions of disappointment to control their children more than North American mothers do –it is important to acknowledge that multicultural and international research has found that specific discipline methods and family rules are less important then parental warmth, support and concern

21 Parents Discipline and Punishment –discipline varies a great deal from family to family, culture to culture –ideal parents anticipate misbehavior and guide their children towards patterns that will help them lifelong –disciplinary techniques do not work quickly or automatically to teach desired behavior

22 Parents Discipline and Punishment –first step is clarity what is expected –each family needs to decide its goals and make them explicit for the child –second step is to remember what the child is able to do –parents forget how immature children’s control over their bodies and minds is

23 Parents Discipline and Punishment –time-out an adult requires the child to sit quietly apart from other people for a few minutes—for young children, one minute per year of age –withdrawal of love when the parent expresses disappointment or looks sternly a the child, as if the child were no longer loveable –induction the parents talk with the child, getting the child to understand why the behavior was wrong

24 Parents The Challenge of Media –many parent allow television watching and/or computers because they keep children engaged –parents often ignore the possible impact on the emotionally immure child who is dazzled by fast-moving images –experts advise parents to minimize media exposure

25 Parenting The Importance of Content –most young children spend more than three hours a day using some sort of media

26 Parenting The Importance of Content –almost every home has at least two televisions –“What do children see?” –attempts to limit or restrict children’s watching have limited success –evidence from every perspective confirm that violence is pervasive, children who watch violence on television become more violent

27 Parenting The Effects on Family Life –the worst effect of the media is how it interferes with family life –the more media a family uses, the less time they spend together –media reduces the amount of time children spend in imaginative and social play, thus on learning

28 Becoming Boys and Girls sex differences –biological differences between males and females, in organs, hormones, and body type gender differences –differences in the roles and behavior of males and females that originate in the culture

29 Becoming Boys and Girls Theories of Gender Differences –experts and parents disagree about what proportion of observed gender differences is biological and what proportion is environmental –neuroscientists tend to look for male-female brain differences, and they find many –sociologist tend to look for male-female, family, and culture patterns, and they also find many

30 Becoming Boys and Girls Psychoanalytic Theory –phallic stage Freud’s third stage of development, when the penis becomes the focus of concern and pleasure –oedipus complex the unconscious desire of young boys is to replace their father and win their mother’s exclusive love

31 Becoming Boys and Girls Psychoanalytic Theory –superego in psychoanalytic theory, the judgmental part of the personality that internalizes the moral standards of the parents –electra complex the unconscious desire of girls to replace their mother and win their father’s exclusive love –identification –an attempt to defend one’s self-concept by taking on the behaviors and attitudes of someone else

32 Becoming Boys and Girls Behaviorism –belief that virtually all roles are learned and therefore result from nurture, not nature –gender distinctions are the product of ongoing reinforcement and punishment

33 Becoming Boys and Girls Cognitive Theory –focuses on children’s understanding: of the way a child intellectually grasps a specific issue or value –children develop concepts about their experience developing a gender schema, a type of cognitive schema or general belief—the understanding of sex differences

34 Becoming Boys and Girls Sociocultural Theory –proponents point our that many traditional cultures enforce gender distinctions with dramatic stores, taboos, and terminology –adult activities and dress are strictly separate by gender, girls and boys attend sex-separated schools and virtually never play together

35 Becoming Boys and Girls Sociocultural Theory –every culture has powerful values and attitudes regarding preferred behavior for men and women and every culture teaches these values to its young, even thorough the particular task assigned may vary –androgyny a balance, within a person, of traditionally male and female psychological characteristics

36 Becoming Boys and Girls Epigenetic Theory –that our traits and behaviors are the result of interactions between genes and early experiences… not just for individual but for the human race as a whole –gender differences based in genetics are supported by recent research in neurobiology –there are dozen of biological differences between the male and female brain

37 Becoming Boys and Girls Gender and Destiny –lead in two opposite directions… gender differences are rooted in biology biology is not destiny--children are shaped by their experiences –given nature and nurture, both these conclusions are valid

38 Becoming Boys and Girls Gender and Destiny –“Since human behavior is plastic, what gender patterns should children learn?” –answers vary among developmentalist, mothers, fathers, and cultures –if children respond to their own inclinations, some might choose behavior, express emotions, and develop talents that are taboo, even punished in certain cultures