Chapter 3 The Environment

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.2 The Environment The Environment is the immediate world that surrounds a child. Culture, people, location, buildings, schools, automobiles, economy, animals, and status are all elements of the environment that have an affect on the development of the child.

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.3 Culture Culture: The values, traditions, and belief system of a community. –Individualistic culture: values independence and personal responsibility. Individuals are given a great degree of autonomy and freedom. They are also responsible for obeying basic rules of ethics and law, and for meeting their own needs

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.4 Culture –Collectivistic culture: values conformity to group values and rules. There is also pressure on individuals to conform to shared beliefs and behaviors Community: The setting in which a family exists, such as culture, location, occupation, and people.

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.5 Status Status: The family’s relative position within the community; –High status families most often attend better schools and are treated better. –Subculture of poverty: tends to be self perpetuating no matter what larger culture they are a part of

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.6 Parenting Style Parent: the person or people who provide primary care for the child –have the greatest influence on the development of the child –allow or do not allow a child’s personality to be expressed –teach a child how to get needs met

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.7 Parenting Style Parenting style: created by a parent’s –personality characteristics –history –current situation –Beliefs There are many ways to parent a child, consistency is the important part

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.8 Parenting Styles Defined Parenting styles: the kind of interactions a parent most often has with a child: –Neglect: consistent tendency to ignore a child. Does not take care of a child’s physical needs, and does not give the child the ability to interact with the world. There are many degrees of neglect. A neglected baby can also be a “failure to thrive” baby

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.9 Parenting Styles Defined –Coercion: use of force or the realistic threat of force to get a child to do what the parent wants. It is always accompanied with physical or emotional abuse. The parent is reacting out of his/her own unmet needs and insecurities, not out of concern for the best interest of the child

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.10 Parenting Styles Defined –Indulgence: gives a child no limits. The parent either allows the child to do as he/she pleases or makes feeble attempts at control, giving in to tantrums. Indulged children develop a sense of entitlement, that the world should give them what they want, and that life should be easy

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.11 –Conditional: uses rejection. “I like you and love you if you do what I want, but I do not like you and do not love you if you do not”. No matter how hard a child tries he/she cannot please the parent all the time. Conditional parenting was the “tough love” movement of the 1980’s Parenting Styles Defined

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.12 Parenting Styles Defined –Assertive: making and consistently enforcing rules in the best interest of the child. The child is not included in making the rules because the parent is in the better position to know what the child needs. Love is never withheld and the child is never made to feel rejected. It is the behavior, not the child that is the issue.

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.13 –Supportive: rules are made and consistently enforced in the best interest of the child. The child is included in making the rules and can question decisions. Rules can be changed or modified if the child’s reasoning makes sense, and rules can again enforced. Ultimately the parent makes the final decision Parenting Styles Defined

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.14 Probability Probability: –describes everything in the universe, –is a law of science, –is flawless at predicting the outcome when dealing with large numbers, and –is useless at determining the outcome of one specific case

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.15 Probability Probability on an individual basis has no guarantees. Other circumstances will raise or lower the outcome: –if a person has never smoked, what are the chances of lung cancer? –if a person has smoked all their life, what are the chances of lung cancer?

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.16 Probability Probability is a predictable pattern that describes the odds of how one individual will respond to a specific parenting style Probability can also be subject to just pure chance

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.17 Summary Personality traits begin with our DNA. How a child develops and grows is decided by the environment. Culture provides the setting for community. Community provides the setting in which the family exists. The family’s status establishes the family’s position within the community.

© Copyright 2009 Delmar, Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.18 Summary The family provides the setting for parents. Parents provide the setting in which the child exists. There are different parenting styles from very negative to very positive. There is no way to predict the outcome of individual development.