1. Socioemotional Development
In Early Childhood

2. Emotional and Personality Dev.
Many changes occur in children’s developing minds
Development of self
Emotional maturity
Moral understanding
Gender awareness

3. The Self In the 2nd year of life children learn self-recognition
They also begin to learn self-understanding
According to Erikson, in early childhood, children work on the stage of initiative vs. guilt
Life requires active, purposeful, responsible behavior
Identify intensively with parents, especially same sex

4. Parents seem to be beautiful and powerful, but also unreasonable, disagreeable, and sometimes dangerous
Children have a surplus of energy and forget failures quickly at this stage.
Children are exuberant about the world around them.

5. Children develop their conscience at this age
Initiative may bring them rewards, but also guilt and a possible lower self-esteem

6. Self-understanding and Others
Self-understanding is the child’s representation of self, the substance and content of self conception
First physical descriptions of self vs. others, material possessions, and physical activities
I am tall and like to ride my bike. My sister is shorter and likes to read books.
Next, children describe their psychological traits
I am brave and happy. I am funny.
Children’s descriptions are usually unrealistically positive

7. Children are so optimistic because they believe
Desired competence = actual competence
Ability = effort
Don’t compare their ability to others socially
DO compare their present ability to what they could do at an earlier age.

8. Begin to describe others in terms of psychological traits
“My teacher is nice”
Even at 4-5 years of age children know that people may do/say things in order to obtain things or avoid trouble
3-4 year-olds understand commitments to joint obligations

9. The newest research contradicts Piaget’s research that children are mainly egocentric.

10. Emotional Development
Developing emotions helps children make sense of other people’s emotions and begin to control their own emotions.
Self-awareness must develop before some emotions
Pride
Shame
Embarrassment
guilt

11. Parent’s responses to children’s behavior has quite a bit to do with children’s emotions.
Shame: “You should feel bad for biting your sister”
Pride: “You put a lot of effort into your project!”
Guilt: “We can’t go to the movies because we have to replace the lamp you broke.”
Embarrassment: “Here, let me spit wash the chocolate off your face.”

12. Understanding emotions
Increases quite a bit
Linked to facial expressions
Emotions effect behavior
Used to influence others
Particular situations bring particular emotions
Understanding emotions in linked to prosocial behavior

13. 4-5 years they can reflect on emotions
2-4 years they can describe emotions and give causes and consequences of feelings
4-5 years they can reflect on emotions
The same event can bring different emotions for different people
Awareness of managing their own emotions
Give strategies to cope with certain emotions

14. Regulating emotions
Helps manage demands and conflicts when interacting with others
Parents play an important role in helping children regulate emotions
Emotion-coaching parents
Emotion-dismissing parents

15. Emotion-coaching parents
Monitor child’s emotions
Negative emotions are teaching opportunity
Assist in labeling emotions
Coach them in dealing with emotions
Use more scaffolding and praise
More nurturant
Children self-sooth better, focus better, and have fewer behavior problems.

16. Emotion-dismissing parents
Deny, ignore, or try to change negative emotions
Emotions play a strong part in peer relationships
+ abilities benefit children
Popularity
Positive relationships
- abilities
Rejection
Negative relationships

17. Moral Development
The development of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding rules and conventions about what people should do in their interactions with other people.
Various theories describe how children acquire morals
Freud
Piaget
Behavioral approach
Kohlberg

18. Freud’s Moral Feelings
Psychoanalytic theory stresses the feelings of anxiety and guilt
Superego is developed to reduce anxiety, avoid punishment, and keep parent’s affection
Empathy – echoing another person’s feelings contributes to moral development
Requires “perspective taking” – identifying and anticipating other’s emotions

19. Moral Reasoning - Piaget
Two stages – based on watching and interviewing
Heteronomous morality – age 4-7, justice and rules are unchangeable
Breaking 12 cups accidentally is worse than 1 cup intentionally
Rules are rules, period.
Immanent justice, or immediate punishment
Ages 7-10 transition period
Autonomous morality – 10+ rules and laws are created by people and intentions should be judged as well as the consequences
Recognize rules are merely conventions, and may change

20. Immanent justice
Punishment is swift and unavoidable
Karma type of belief
Piaget argued that children become more sophisticated as they age with their morality
Give and take of social relationships
Peers develop moral reasoning more than parents
Rules are often handed down with no negotiation or reasoning

21. Moral Behavior - Behaviorism
Focus is on reinforcement, punishment, and imitation
Rewards cause repeated behaviors
Children will adopt behaviors of their models
Punishments will reduce or eliminate behaviors
May have adverse side effects we’ll talk about later in the chapter

22. Situation can also change moral behavior
Telling the truth to Mom, versus the teacher
Studies show that no child is totally honest or lies
Resisting temptation is closely tied to self control which involves delayed gratification
Theory heavily relies on cognitive factors

23. Gender Social and psychological dimensions of being male or female
Gender identity – sense of being male or female (3yrs)
Gender roles – expectations of how females or males act, think and feel
Biology plays a clear role in how these develop, but we’ll be focusing on the social aspects of gender

24. Psychological gender differences are believed to be due to social experiences
Three main theories
Social role theory
Psychoanalytic theory
Social cognitive theory
Social role theory – gender differences result from the contrasting roles of men and women
Women – less power/status, control fewer resources, more domestic work, less paid employment, lower pay and roles

25. Psychoanalytic theory of gender
Oedipus or Electra complex
Ends up adopting same-sex parent’s characteristics
Problems
Happens earlier than 5 years old
Occurs even without same sex parent present
Social Cognitive theory of gender
Gender acquired through observation and imitation, rewards and punishment of what is “appropriate”
Treated differently from birth
Parents, culture, schools, peers, media, other family, etc.

26. Parental influence of gender
Influence by action and example
In many cultures mothers socialize daughters to be obedient and more responsible than sons. More restrictions for daughters
Fathers show more attention to sons and engage them in more activities. Fathers also promote their sons’ intellect more
Most parents, even in the western world, continue to assign traditional gender roles to their children

27. Peer Influences
Peers are very important once children begin interacting
Playgrounds have been called “gender schools”
Peers reward gender appropriate behavior and punish behavior that is deemed inappropriate
Boys have the greater pressure to conform to male roles
“tomboy” is an acceptable title for a girl

28. Gender and peers
From age 3-12 children tend to prefer friends of the same gender
Boys tend to prefer larger social groups than girls and organize whole group activities, while girls group up in 2’s or 3’s
Girls tend to talk instead of play physically, while boys participate in
Competition
Conflict
Displays of ego
Risk taking
Displays of dominance
Rough-and-tumble play

29. Cognitive influences
Child develops gender role through social interactions
Gender schema theory
Develops as children learn what is gender appropriate and inappropriate in their culture
Children are internally motivated to act in accordance with what is appropriate for their gender

30. Families Social relationships beyond attachment
Baumrind’s 4 parenting styles
Authoritarian
Authoritative
Neglectful
Indulgent

31. Authoritarian Parenting
Restrictive and punitive
Firm limits and little give and take
“You do it my way, or else”
Rules are rigid, but not explained
Children are often fearful, unhappy and anxious about comparing themselves to others
Children do not initiate activity and are weak communicators

32. Authoritative Parenting
Places limits and controls, but encourages independence
Warm and nurturant
“Next time that situation needs to be handled differently. You know you shouldn’t have done that”
Show pleasure and support to child’s good behavior
Children are often cheerful, self-controlled, and self-reliant
Achievement oriented, cope well with stress & friendly

33. Neglectful Parents (uninvolved)
Parent’s lives are more important than child’s
Parent is not involved in child’s life
Children tend to be socially incompetent
Tend to have no self-control and are not independent
Children have low self-esteem, are immature and do not have strong ties to family
In adolescence may show truancy and delinquency

34. Indulgent Parents (permissive or laissiae faire)
Parents are highly involved with children, but there are no limits or controls on child
Children do what they want
Parents do this deliberately because they believe child will be creative and confident
Children rarely learn respect for others through this method and do not control behavior
Domineering, egocentric and noncompliant and have poor peer relationships

36. These parenting styles do not show causation.
Meaning, that the parenting style may not be the reason the child behaves that way. It may be that the child’s behavior brings about that parenting style.
Genetic factors may influence parenting style and child’s behavior

37. Culture differences in parenting styles can often change the outcome of the child’s behavior
Middle Eastern cultures tend to be dominated by males and strict codes of conduct
Asian cultures tend to include a lot of control, and this control may lead to training which the consequence may be high academic achievement

38. Punishment Corporal punishment is legal in all 50 states
26% report frequent spanking
67% report frequent yelling
US and Canada have highest corporal punishment approval rates
Corporal punishment is associated with immediate compliance, but further aggression by children

39. Corporal punishment has also been linked to
Low levels of moral internalization
Low levels of mental healthiness

40. Why to avoid spanking or other physical punishments:
Adult is modeling out of control behavior in stressful situations
Punishment instills fear, rage and avoidance – child may avoid that parent due to negative emotions
Punishment tells what NOT to do instead of correcting behavior
Parents take punishment too far and become abusive

41. Coparenting
Problems
Poor coordination between parents
Undermining one parent by the other
Lack of cooperation and warmth
Aloofness of one parent
Coparenting is more beneficial than either maternal or paternal care alone in terms of children’s development of self control

42. Child maltreatment Four main types of child maltreatment
Physical abuse – infliction of physical injury, either purposefully, or accidentally
Child neglect – failure to provide a child’s basic needs
Physical, emotional, educational
Most common type of abuse
Sexual abuse – fondling, exploitation, etc.
Emotional abuse – acts or omissions that could cause behavioral, cognitive, or emotional problems

43. Emotional abuse almost always is present with other forms
Causes (combinations of):
Culture
Family characteristics
Developmental characteristics
Abuse can span generations

44. Consequences of abuse Poor emotion regulation Attachment problems
Peer relation problems
Difficulty adapting to school
Psychological problems: delinquency, depression
More likely to be involved in violent romantic relationships
Sexual risk taking

45. What can be done to prevent child maltreatment?
Consequences cont.
Substance abuse
Difficulty with maintaining adult relationships
Increased risk for financial difficulties
Increased risk for employment difficulties
What can be done to prevent child maltreatment?
Home visits to reduce stress and increase coping
Psychotherapy to improve attachment

46. Sibling relationships
80% of American children have a sibling
Conflicts are common
Parents tend to do one of 3 things
Intervene to try to solve conflict
Admonish or threaten
Do nothing

47. Sibling relationships help kids learn:
Helping
Sharing
Teaching
Fighting
Compromising
Playing, and
Communication

48. According to Dunn, the three most important characteristics of sibling relationships are:
Emotional quality of the relationship
Familiarity and intimacy of the relationship
Variation in sibling relationships

50. Birth order Linked to personality characteristics
What accounts for differences?
Other factors are likely more important than birth order
What do you think about your birth order and personality?

51. The Changing Family
US has one of the highest %’s of single parents in the world
Working parents
Divorced parents
Homosexual parents

52. Working parents More mothers are working than did in our history
The nature of a parent’s work matters more than if the parent works, or not
Parents with negative work experiences tend to bring negativity home and put stress on the family
Children (esp. girls) of working mothers tend to do less gender stereotyping and have more equal views of men and women

53. Divorced families
Divorce peaked in the 60’s/70’s and has declined since
US rates are higher than other countries
40% of children born to married parents will experience divorce
Questions
Effects of divorce on children
Should parents stay together for children
How much do family processes matter after divorce
What factors influence a child’s vulnerability to negative effects
What about socioeconomic status

54. Child’s adjustment to divorce
Child of divorce show poorer adjustment, esp those who have been through multiple divorces
More likely to experience effects similar to those of abused children
Academic problems
Less socially responsible
Sex, drugs, alcohol
Lower self esteem
Vulnerable in relationships
**Most children do not have significant problems** 25%

55. Stay together for kids sake?
Marital conflict can be harmful to adults and kids
Financial resources and increased risks must be considered
Emotion security theory – children appraise marital conflict in terms of safety and security
Negative – hostile and destructive displays of behavior
Positive – calm discussions and working together

56. Family processes
A lot!!
Harmonious parenting after divorce greatly improves children’s adjustment
Parenting skills improve

57. Child’s vulnerability and negative consequences
Depends upon:
Personality
Temperament – easier temperament= easier adjustment
Gender
Custody situation

58. Socioeconomic status
Mothers with custody have ½ to ¼ reduction in income
Father with custody have 1/10 the reduction in income
Trends show mothers tend to have an increase in workloads, higher job instability, and moves to less desirable neighborhoods with inferior schools.

59. Homosexual parents May be single or have partners
Most children of these relationships are children of divorce
Opponents claim same sex parents harms child’s development
However, research show very few differences
Popular with peers
Adjust well
Good mental health
*Does not cause them to be homosexual, too

60. Trends in families More mobility Migration to urban areas
Smaller families
Increase in Mom’s employed
Less extended family households

61. SES & access to resources
Lower SES Parents
Higher SES Parents
Expect children to conform to society’s expectations
Parents have authority over children
More likely to use physical punishment
More directive and less conversational with children
Concerned with developing initiative and delay of gratification
Children are participants in rules and regulations
Less likely to be physically punished
More conversational and give less directives

62. Peer Relations
Provides information and comparison outside of the family
Receive feedback, evaluation and judgement
2 issues: aggression and withdrawal
Aggression: risk for dropout and delinquency
Withdrawal risk for victimization and depression
A lot of time is spent negotiating, arguing and agreeing with roles and rules

63. Play Relives tension and anxiety Play is childs work!
All psychologists agree that play is VERY important for children to develop in all aspects of growing up
Play therapy – allows children to work off frustrations and help them with coping mechanisms

64. Types of Play Unoccupied – random movements without a set goal
Solitary – playing alone happily
Onlooker – watches other children play
Parallel – plays with the same toys as others, but not within the same story line
Associative – children more interested in each other than in the toys around them
Cooperative – organized activity with social interaction

65. Sensorimotor – infants playing with toys that make noise or bounce
Practice - repetition of behavior when learning a new skill
Pretense/symbolic play – substitute one object for another during play
Social – involves social interaction with peers
Constructive – creation of a product or solution
Games – years, turns, pleasure, competition

66. Television Most influential type of mass media to children
Persuasive capabilities of TV are staggering
Many children spend more time in front of a TV than with their parents
US children watch more TV than other nations children

67. Negative influences Passive learners are created
Distracts from other activities
Teaches stereotypes
Violent models of aggression
Gives unrealistic views of the world

68. Positive influences Educational programs
Portrays the world beyond their environment
Models prosocial behavior

69. Aggression and TV
Cartoons show approximately 25 acts of violence each hour
Children who watch violence vs. those who do not, show more violent behaviors when interacting with their peers
Violent video games are linked to aggression in males and females

70. When children watch prosocial television
Learn social skills
Imitate positive behaviors
Learn academic skills