Human Growth and Development Chapter Ten The Play Years: Psychosocial Development PowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont College Revised by Jenni Fauchier, Metropolitan Community College

Emotional Development Self Goals Emotions

Initiative vs. Guilt Erikson’s 3rd Stage self-esteem emerges self-concept—understanding of the self—develops spontaneous play becomes goal directed attention span gets longer pride leads to concentration and persistence guilt is a negative consequence of this stage

Emotional Regulation Ability to direct or change one’s feelings externalizing problems—difficulties arising from child’s tendency to externalize emotions outside the self, lashing out in impulsive anger and attacking other people or things internalizing problems—difficulties arising from child’s tendency to internalize emotions or inhibit their expression, being fearful and withdrawn

Neurons and Nurture Emotional regulation part of brain function also learned through social awareness Genetic variations some people naturally more emotionally expressive Early stress result of damage during brain development either prenatally or postnatally via maternal drug use, illness, stress, or if infant malnourished, injured, or frightened

Neurons and Nurture, cont. Care History secure attachment = easier emotional regulation parenting practices securely attached: regulate emotions, show empathy insecurely attached: respond abnormally to other children’s distress ability to modulate and direct emotion essential to emotional intelligence

Cognition and Emotions First step to emotional regulation: awareness of own emotions and the emotional response of others

Emotional intelligence—Goleman’s term for the understanding of how to interpret and express emotions develops throughout life, but crucial in early childhood amygdala—emotional hotspot in prefrontal cortex of brain that children need to govern if they are to become balanced and empathic adults parents can use children’s natural attachment to teach them how and when to express feelings

Empathy and Antipathy Empathy—understanding another person’s emotions leads often to prosocial actions helping another without obvious benefit to oneself Antipathy—disliking or hating someone else may lead to antisocial behavior injuring another person or destroying something that belongs to another

Empathy and Antipathy, cont. Sharing freely done or directed by others Aggression instrumental—used to obtain an object such as a toy reactive—involves retaliation for an act whether or not it was intentional relation—designed to inflect psychic (mental) pain bullying aggression—unprovoked attack

Learning Social Skills Through Play Peers—others of the same age and status peers make the best playmates play is most adaptive and productive activity of children

Active Play Rough-and-tumble play helps child develop muscle strength and control caregivers should look for a “play face” when attempting to figure out if child is playing or fighting

Imaginative Play Sociodramatic play helps child explore and rehearse social roles he/she has seen helps child test ability to convince others helps child regulate emotions through imagination helps child examine personal concerns in nonthreatening way

Baumrind’s Three Styles of Parenting Baumrind’s 4 important dimensions that influence parenting expression of warmth or nurturance strategies for discipline quality of communication expectations for maturity

3 Styles authoritarian—high standards and expectations with low nurturance children likely to become conscientious, obedient, and quiet—but not happy permissive—little control, but nurturing children likely to lack self-control and are not happy

authoritative—limits and guidance provided but willing to compromise children are more likely to be successful, articulate, intelligent, and happy

Recent studies have found link between parenting styles and child behavior less direct than Baumrind’s original research indicated impact of child’s temperament influence of community and cultural differences on child’s perception of parenting in poor or minority families, authoritarian parenting tends to be used to produce high-achieving, emotionally regulated children: strict and warm can be successful

Punishment Discipline an integral part of parenting

Techniques of Discipline Culture is a strong influence expectations offenses punishments In United States time-out is used child stops all activity and sits in corner or stays inside for a few minutes

Techniques of Discipline, cont. In deciding which technique to apply, parents should ask: How does technique relate to child? child’s temperament, age, and perceptions crucial considerations

What About Spanking? Reasons for parenting variations culture, religion, ethnicity, national origin parents’ own upbringing Developmentalists fear children who are physically punished will learn to be more aggressive domestic violence of any kind can increase aggression between peers and within families

The Challenge of Video Dilemma for parents about letting children watch television and play video games parents find video a good babysitter parents believe video can sometimes be educational tool Experts suggest parents turn off the TV to avoid exposing children to video violence

The Evidence on Content Exposure to violence great—good guys and bad guys show violent behavior All good guys male; no non-white heroes Women/females portrayed as victims or adoring friends—not as leaders Content of video games even worse than than that of television more violent, sexist, racist

The Evidence on Content, cont. Children, especially males, who watched educational television became teens who earned higher grades, read more Children, especially females, who watched violent television had lower grades

The Evidence on Content, cont. Content of video games crucial reason behind great concern of developmental researchers research shows that violent TV and video games push children to be more violent than they normally would be computer games probably worse, as children are doing the virtual killing

The Evidence on Content, cont. Developmentalists look at the following to evaluate poor content perpetuation of sexist, ageist, and racist stereotypes depiction of violent solutions for every problem and no expression of empathy encouragement of quick, reactive, emotions rather than thoughtful regulation of emotions

Boy or Girl: So What? Male or female—important feature of self-concept Sex differences—biological differences between males and females far less apparent than in adulthood Gender differences—culturally imposed differences in roles and behaviors more significant to children than to adults

Development of Gender Awareness By age 2, awareness of gender-related preferences and play patterns By age 3, cognitive awareness of own gender By age 4, awareness of “gender appropriate” toys or roles By age 6, well-formed ideas and prejudices about own sex and the other sex

Theories of Gender Differences Psychoanalytic Freud’s view: sexual attraction to opposite-sex parent phallic stage—according to Freud, 3rd stage of psychosexual development; occurring in early childhood when penis becomes the focus of psychological concern and physiological pleasure

Theories of Gender Differences, cont. Oedipus complex—according to Freud, occurring in the phallic stage, in which boys have sexual desire for their mothers and hostility towards their fathers; guilt and fear resolved by gender appropriate behavior Identification Superego—personality part that is self-critical and judgmental Electra complex—girls’ understanding they can’t replace mother, so want to be like her

Behaviorism Gender-appropriate behavior learned through observation and imitation Children learn gender-appropriate behavior by modeling it after that of people they want to imitate Especially for young boys, conformity to gender expectations rewarded, punished, modeled

Cognitive Theory Gender typing occurs after concept of gender has developed Once gender consistently conceived, child organizes world based on that understanding Gender schema organizes the world in terms of male and female internal motivation to conform to gender-based cultural standards and stereotypes guides attention and behavior

Sociocultural Theory Gender values strenuously kept Many traditional cultures emphasize gender distinctions To break through restrictiveness of cultural expectations, some embrace the idea of androgyny—a balance of male and female psychological characteristics true androgyny possible if supported by whole culture

Epigenetic Theory Every aspect of human behavior a mix of genetics and environment environment shapes, enhances, or halts genetic impulses Differences between male and female brains Environmental influences

Conclusion: Gender and Destiny 5 theories lead to 2 conclusions and 1 question: Gender differences are not simply cultural or learned—biological foundation much greater than originally suspected Biology is not destiny—environment and experiences shape children