1. Early & Middle Childhood
Emotional Development

2. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Personality Development
0-18mo
18m-3y
3-6
6-12
12-21
21-30
30-65
65+
Take initiative in doing new tasks & interact with peers in make-believe play
Feel guilt (i.e., are self-conscious) if society is overly critical

3. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Personality Development
0-18mo
18m-3y
3-6
6-12
12-21
21-30
30-65
65+
Become industrious: good at something
Feel a sense of inferiority

4. Self Understanding: Early Childhood
Tell me about yourself?
Self-concept: attributes, abilities, attitudes & values that define a person
3-5 yrs: based on external attributes & behaviors
“I have yellow hair.”
“I paint pictures.”
“Yellow is my favorite color.”
Do not yet mention internal traits
Reason assert themselves over possessions
“Mine!”

5. Self Understanding: Early Childhood
How do you feel about yourself?
Self-esteem: judgments & feelings about one’s own worth & competencies
4 yrs: “I’m a good painter”
Overestimate competencies
Contributes to development of initiative
Is this a good or bad thing?

6. Self Understanding: Middle childhood
Self-concept: emphasize internal competencies (& deficiencies) instead of external behaviors
“I paint well, but I’m not a good piano player; I try hard in school, but I only do okay.”
Contributes to development of industry
Self-esteem: influenced by social comparisons
gains in perspective taking
form an ideal self to
evaluate real self
How do children decide what they are & are not good at?

7. What happens if the ideal self & real self are not in sync?

8. Hierarchically Structured Self-esteem

9. Hierarchically Structured Self-esteem
Which type is most closely related to general self-esteem?

10. Changes in Self-esteem in Childhood (Marsh, Craven, & Debus, 1998)
Participants: 396 preschool, 1st, & 2nd grader boys & girls
Measure: Self-Description Questionnaire

11. Physical ability
Appearance
Social Competence
Academic

12. Changes in Self-esteem in Middle Childhood (Marsh, Craven, & Debus, 1998)
Participants: 396 preschool, 1st, & 2nd grader boys & girls
Measure: Self-Description Questionnaire
Results summary:
Self-esteem drops during 1st few years of elementary
Physical appearance esteem drops sharply for girls
Most do not have exceptionally low self-esteem

13. ** Culture & Child rearing practices**
What influences a child’s self-esteem?
** Culture & Child rearing practices**
Attributions: common explanations for causes of behavior

14. ** Culture & Child rearing practices**
What influences a child’s self-esteem?
** Culture & Child rearing practices**
Attributions: common explanations for causes of behavior

15. Examples of influences on attributions
“Your such a smart kid!”
“Getting an ‘A’ is not
what matters.”
“It’s okay if you quit.”
“You got lucky on that test.”
“You could have studied harder to do well.”
Attribution Style
Helplessness
Mastery

16. Emotional Development
Understanding emotion
4-5 yrs: provide explanations for emotions
“Happy because my picture’s pretty”
Limit: emphasize external & obvious reasons
“Happy because feel good about self”

17. Emotional Development
Emotion self-regulation
3-4 yrs: strategies for adjusting emotional arousal
Leads to decline in emotional outbursts
Limit: Use external strategies until around age 10
Fear regulation & “display rules”
When would children need to regulate emotions?

18. Emotional Development
Self-conscious emotions: involve injury to or enhancement of self-concept
3 yrs: shame or guilt over (even accidental) wrongdoing
Limit: audience is needed, rely on adult’s messages
Intense shame = maladjustment
Guilt = good adjustment
Do self-conscious emotions foster or hinder adjustment?

19. Emotional Development
Prosocial emotions & behaviors
3 yrs: empathy - feeling with another
Related to perspective taking
Limit: leads to personal distress & doesn’t translate into sympathy – feeling for another
How do children acquire empathy?

21. Morality

22. Do you remember being spanked for bad behavior?
Theories of Morality
Develop from externally controlled morality to inner standards of morality through childhood
Social learning theory
Moral behaviors are learned through modeling & reinforcement in early childhood
Harsh punishment promotes:
momentary compliance
relief for parents
model for aggression, but…
Doesn’t achieve long-term goals
Do you remember being spanked for bad behavior?

23. “Wrong to take something that’s not yours”
Theories of Morality
Cognitive-developmental perspective
Middle childhood become active thinkers about social rules
More trustworthy in absence of adult supervision
“Wrong to take something that’s not yours”
Distributive justice (Damon, 1988)

24. Scenario
One day a teacher let her class spend the whole afternoon making paintings and crayon drawings. The teacher thought that these picture were so good that the class could sell them at the fair. They sold the pictures to their parents, and together the class made a lot of money. Now all the children gathered the next day and tried to decide how to split up the money.
What do you think they should do with it? Why?
Should a child who made more paintings get more money than the others? Why?
How about a child who doesn’t have enough money to buy lunch every day? Should they get more?

25. “Wrong to take something that’s not yours”
Theories of Morality
Cognitive-developmental perspective
Middle childhood become active thinkers about social rules
More trustworthy in absence of adult supervision
“Wrong to take something that’s not yours”
Distributive justice (Damon, 1988)
5-6 yrs: Equality
6-7 yrs: Merit
8+ yrs: Benevolence