CHAPTER 3: THE SELF, SOCIAL,
AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Physical and Motor Development
- For most children, at least in the early
years, growing up means getting bigger
and stronger, and becoming more
coordinated. It also can be a frightening,
disappointing, exciting, and puzzling
time.
YOUNG CHILDREN
- Preschool children are very active.
Their gross-motor (large muscle) skills
improve greatly during these early years.
Between ages 2 and about 4 or 5,
preschoolers’ muscles grow stronger,
their brains develop to better integrate
information about movements, their
balance improves, and their center of
gravity moves lower, so they are able to
run, jump, climb, and hop.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS.
- During the elementary school years,
physical development is fairly steady for
most children. Many of the girls are
likely to be as large as or larger than the
boys in their classes. Between the ages
of 11 and 14, girls are, on average, taller
and heavier than boys of the same age.
THE ADOLESCENT YEARS.
- Puberty marks the beginning of sexual
maturity. Girls reach their final height
by age 15 or 16, several years ahead of
boys, so there is a time in middle school,
as in late elementary school, when many
girls are taller than their male
classmates.
EARLY AND LATER MATURING.
- Early maturation is associated with
emotional difficulties such as
depression, anxiety, lower achievement
in school, drug and alcohol abuse,
unplanned pregnancy, suicide, greater
risk of breast cancer in later life, and
eating disorders, especially in societies
that define thinness as attractive, at least
for European American girls.
Play, Recess, and Physical Activity
- Maria Montessori once noted, “Play is
children’s work,” and Piaget and
Vygotsky would agree.
Cultural Differences in Play
- Children use what their culture
provides to play.
Exercise and Recess
- Physical activity and participation in
athletics has benefits for all students’
health, well-being, leadership skills, and
their social relationships.
Physical Activity and Students with
Disabilities
The sports participation of students with
disabilities is limited in most schools.
Specifically, schools have the legal
obligation “to provide students with
disabilities an equal opportunity to
participate alongside their peers in after-
school athletics and clubs.
Challenges in Physical Development
- Physical development is public.
Everyone sees how tall, short, heavy,
thin, muscular, or coordinated you are.
As students move into adolescence, they
feel “on stage,” as if everyone is
evaluating them; and physical
development is part of what is being
evaluated. So physical development also
has psychological consequences
(Thomas & Thomas, 2008).
 Obesity
 Consequences: diabetes,
bone/joint strain, respiratory
problems, heart problems
 Interacting causes: poor diet,
genetic factors, lack of exercise
 Eating disorders
  Binge eating: Uncontrolled
eating, large quantities
 Bulimia nervosa – an eating
disorder in which a person
binges on food or has regular
episodes of overeating and feels
a loss of control.
 -Binge eating, purging
 Anoreixia nervosa - an eating
disorder that makes people lose
more weight than is considered
healthy for their age and height.
 Eating disorders require
professional help
BRONFENBRENNER: THE
SOCIAL CONTEXT FOR
DEVELOPMENT
Urie Bronfenbrenner - born in
Moscow, Russia completed a double
major in psychology and music at
Cornell in 1938 and a PhD in
psychology from the University of
Michigan in 1942
- worked as a clinical psychologist in the
U.S. Army and as a professor at the
University of Michigan and at Cornell
- helped to found the Head Start early
childhood program
The Importance of Context and the
Bioecological Model
“Students typically do not learn alone
but rather in collaboration with their
teachers, in company with their peers,
and with encouragement of their
families” (Durlak, Weissberg,
Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011)
Context - the total situation that
surrounds and interacts with an
individual’s thoughts, feelings, and
actions to shape development and
learning
- affect how actions are
interpreted
Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological
Model of Development
- recognizes that the physical and social
contexts in which we develop are
ecosystems because they are constantly
interacting with and influencing each
other.
- In the microsystem are the person’s
immediate relationships and activities.
For a child, the microsystem might be
the immediate family, friends, or
teachers and the activities of play and
school. Relationships in the microsystem
are reciprocal; they flow in both
directions.
FAMILIES - the first context for child
development is the mother’s womb
FAMILY STRUCTURE
Children may live in blended families or
extended families
Parenting Styles
 Authoritative parents (high
warmth, high control) set clear
limits, enforce rules, and expect
mature behavior.
 Authoritarian parents (low
warmth, high control) seem cold
and controlling in their interactions
with their children.
 Permissive parents (high warmth,
low control) are warm and
nurturing, but they have few rules or
consequences for their children and
expect little in the way of mature
behavior because, “They’re just
kids.”
 Rejecting/Neglecting/Uninvolved
parents (low warmth, low control)
 don’t seem to care at all and can’t
be bothered with controlling,
communicating, or teaching their
children.
CULTURE AND PARENTING
- Parenting that is strict and directive,
with clear rules and consequences,
combined with high levels of warmth
and emotional support, is associated
with higher academic achievement and
greater emotional maturity for inner-
city children (P. W. Garner & Spears,
2000; Jarrett, 1995)
ATTACHMENT - the emotional bond
that forms between people
Secure Attachments
- Children who form what are called
secure attachments with caregivers
receive comfort when needed and are
more confident to explore their world
Insecure or Disorganized
Attachments
- Children who form insecure or
disorganized attachments can be fearful,
sad, anxious, clinging, rejecting, or
angry in interactions
DIVORCE
- For a child, this can mean leaving
behind important friendships in the old
neighborhood or school, just when
support is needed the most.
PEERS - children also develop within
peer groups
There are two kinds of peer groups:
cliques and crowds.
Cliques - are relatively small,
friendship-based groups (typically
between three and a dozen members)
Crowds - are less intimate, more loosely
organized groups based on shared
interests, activities, attitudes, or
reputations
- most common crowds are jocks,
brains, nerds, druggies, goths, populars,
normals, nobodies, and loners
PEER CULTURES - students who
have a set of “rules”—how to dress, talk,
style their hair, and interact with others
FRIENDSHIPS - central to students’
lives at every age
POPULARITY - Is this child liked? /
What is this child like?
4 Categories of Children
Popular Children – popular prosocial
children (academically and socially
competent), popular antisocial children
(often includes boys who are
aggressive)
Rejected Children - rejected aggressive
children (poor perspective-taking skills
and self-control), rejected withdrawn
children (timid and withdrawn)
Controversial Children - have both
positive and negative social qualities
Neglected Children – well-adjusted and
they are not less socially competent
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES
OF REJECTION - Children and
adolescents are not always tolerant of
differences.
AGGRESSION
– Aggression should not be confused
with assertiveness, which means
affirming or maintaining a legitimate
right.
There are several forms of aggression:
 instrumental aggression
 hostile aggression
 overt aggression
 relational aggression
 cyber aggression
RELATIONAL AGGRESSION
(social aggression) – includes insults,
gossip, exclusion, taunts
not necessarily ties that bind students in
deep relationships; instead, they are ties
that preoccupy and distract (Turkle,
2011).

MEDIA, MODELING, AND

AGGRESSION - Children who
grow up in homes filled with harsh
punishment and family violence
are more likely to use aggression
to solve their own problems (G. R.
Patterson, 1997)

VIDEO GAMES AND

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR -
violent video games is a causal
factor for increased aggressive
thoughts, feelings, and actions,
along with decreased feelings of
empathy

Erikson: Stages of Psychosocial

REACHING EVERY STUDENT:
TEACHER SUPPORT
- Teachers are the main adults in
students’ lives for many hours each
week, teachers have opportunities to
play a significant role in students’
personal and social development.
ACADEMIC AND PERSONAL
CARING - good teachers have positive
interpersonal relationships—they care
about their students
Development
Trust vs. mistrust - In this first year,
infants are in Piaget’s sensorimotor
stage and are just beginning to learn that
they are separate from the world around
them.
Autonomy vs. shame/doubt - marks the
beginning of self-control and self-
confidence as young children begin to
assume responsibilities for self-care
such as feeding, toileting, and dressing.

Caring defined in two ways: academic
caring, and personal caring.
TEACHERS AND CHILD ABUSE
Certainly, one critical way to care about
students is to protect their welfare and
intervene in cases of abuse.
SOCIETY AND MEDIA
All of the students you will teach are
growing up in a world of media,
mobility, and machines. But these
electronic communication devices are
Initiative vs. guilt - adds to autonomy
the quality of undertaking, planning, and
attacking a task for the sake of being
active and on the move” (Erikson, 1963,
p.
255).
Industry vs. inferiority - In modern
societies, children’s ability to move
between the worlds of home,
neighborhood, and school, and to cope
with academics, group activities, and
friends will lead to a growing sense of
competence.
Identity vs. role confusion - with
developing minds and bodies, young
adolescents must confront the central
issue of constructing an identity that will
provide a firm basis for adulthood.
Intimacy vs. isolation - refers to a
willingness to relate to another person
on a deep level, to have a relationship
based on more than mutual need.
Generativity vs. stagnation - extends
the ability to care for another person and
involves concern and guidance for both
the next generation and future
generations.
Ego integrity vs. despair - means
consolidating your sense of self and
fully accepting its unique and now
unalterable history (Hearn, Saulnier,
Strayer, Glenham, Koopman, & Marcia,
2012).
RACIAL-ETHNIC IDENTITY
Ethnic Identities: Outcome and
process
Assimilation: fully adopting the values
and behaviors of the majority culture
and rejecting their ethnic culture.
Separation: associating with only
members of their ethnic culture.
Marginality: living in the majority
culture, but feeling alienated and
uncomfortable in it and disconnected
from minority culture as well.
Biculturalism/Integration: maintaining
ties to both cultures.
NIGRESCENCE
– It describes a process of becoming
black or developing a racial identity.
Nigrescence has five stages:
Pre-encounter: African American’s
attitude may range from ignoring race to
feeling neutral about race, to actually
being anti-Black. African Americans at
this stage may adopt certain beliefs of
White Americans, including the
tendency to see “Whiteness” as superior.
Encounter: This stage is often triggered
by encounters with overt, covert, or
institutional rasicm. For instance, when
an African American is followed around
in an upscale store, is assaulted by
police, or sees news reports about such
assaults, then his or her eyes are opened
to the reality that race matters in society.
Immersion/Emersion: an in-between
state that may cause people to be
anxious about “becoming the “right
kind” of Black person” (Cross, 1991, p.
202). In this stage they are eager to
understand their racial heritage more
deeply.
Internalization: Individuals are firmly
connected to and secure in their sense of
racial identity.
Internalization-Commitment: This
stage is very closely connected with
internalization. The main difference is a
person’s continued interest in and
commitment to Black affairs.
Self-concept
- generally refers to our perceptions of
ourselves – how we see our abilities,
attitudes, attributes, beliefs, and
expectations (Harter, 2006; Pajares &
Schunk, 2001).
RACIAL AND ETHNIC PRIDE
Racial and ethnic pride are particularly
important, so that students examining
their identities do not get the message
that differences are deficits.
 Being proud of one’s heritage
reported fewer behavior problems
with their children
 Positive racial identity results to
higher self-esteem and fewer
emotional problems
HOW SELF-CONCEPT DEVELOPS
- Evolves through constant self-
evaluation and interaction with others
Significant people feedback (verbal or
non verbal) is important to us.
Self-Esteem
- Self-esteem is an overall judgment of
self-worth that includes feeling proud or
ashamed of yourself as a person.
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
AND MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
Theory of Mind
and Intention
A theory of mind is an
understanding that other
people are people too, with
their own minds, thoughts,
feelings, beliefs, desires, and
perceptions.
KOHLBERG’S THEORIES OF
MORAL DEVELOPMENT
The Heinz Dilemma
• Heinz's wife was dying from Cancer
• Doctors advised that there's only one
drug can save her
• The Chemist demanded 10 times the
cost to make the drug
• Heinz couldn't afford it
• Chemist didn't listen to Heinz's
begging and pleas
• Heinz stole it from his premises that
night
Six stages of Moral Reasoning
Preconventional Level: Judgment Is
Based Solely on a Person’s Own Needs
and Perceptions
 Stage 1: Obedience Orientation—
"How can I avoid punishment?"
 Stage 2: Rewards/Exchange
Orientation— "What's in it for me?"
Conventional Level: The Expectations
of Society and Laws Are Taken into
Account
 Stage 3: Being Nice/Relationships
Orientation— Social Norms Good
boy/ Good girl attitudes
 Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation
—Law and order morality
Postconventional (Principled) Level:
Judgments Are Based on Abstract, More
Personal Principles of Justice that Are
Not Necessarily Defined by Society’s
Laws
 Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation
—The moral choice is determined
by socially agreed upon standards
—“the greatest good for the greatest
number.”
 Stage 6: Universal Ethical
Principles Orientation— Act
accordingly and defend moral
principles.
Shortcomings
 It was an all predominantly
male participants
 Emphasize individualism
Gilligan’s levels of moral reasoning
Ethics of care: what makes actions right
or wrong.
Gilligan's theory focused on both care-
based morality and justice-based
morality.
Justice-based perspective- "I won"
Care-based perspective- "not damage
anyone"
3 stages:
Stage 1: Pre-conventional Morality -
Individual survival
Stage 2: Conventional Morality - Self-
sacrifice for others.
Stage 3: Post-conventional Morality-
Self and others
Moral Judgments, Social
Conventions, and Personal Choices
 A. If there were no law against it,
would it be OK to blind someone?
 B. If there were no rule against it,
would it be OK to chew gum in
class?
 C. Who should decide your favorite
vegetable or how to style your hair?
A.) The answer to the question is
concerned with conceptions of justice,
fairness, human rights, and human
welfare.
B.) social conventions—agreed-upon
rules and ways of doing things in a
particular situation.
C.) personal choices—individual
preferences and private issues.
Moral Domain
-move from the young child’s sense that
justice means equal treatment for all to
the adult’s understanding that morality
involves beneficence and fairness and
that moral principles are independent of
the norms of any particular group.
Conventional domain
- children begin by believing that the
regularities they see are real and right.
After going through several stages,
adults realize that conventions are useful
in coordinating social life, but
changeable too.
Haidt’s Social Intuitionist Model of
Moral Psychology
1. Intuition comes first, reasoning
second.
- We instinctively feel sympathy–
disgust, like–dislike, attraction–
revulsion, and so on, in response to a
situation or dilemma.
2. There is more to morality than
fairness and harm.
- Loyalty/betrayal: “one for all and all
for one”
- Authority/subversion: leadership and
followership—respect for legitimate
authority.
- Sanctity/degradation: striving to live a
more noble and clean life and avoid
contamination.
- Liberty/oppression: resentment and
resistance to domination.
3. Morality binds and blinds.
- share the same moral beliefs—then the
group is bound together.
CHAPTER 4: LEARNER
DIFFERENCES AND LEARNING
NEEDS
INTELLIGENCE
- Because the concept of intelligence is
so important, so controversial, and so
often misunderstood in education, we
will spend quite a few pages discussing
it.
- Spearman suggested that there is one
mental attribute, which he called g
(general intelligence), that is used to
perform any mental test.
Spearman also added that each test also
require some specific abilities as well—
so ability to do any mental task is based
on g + task-specific abilities.
Raymond Cattell and John Horn’s
theory of fluid and crystallized
intelligence is more helpful in providing
explanations.
Language and Labels
- Labels and diagnostic classifications
can easily become both stigmas and self-
fulfilling prophecies, but they can also
open doors to special programs and help
teachers develop appropriate
instructional strategies.
DISABILITIES AND HANDICAPS.
- A disability is just what the word
implies—
an inability to do something specific
such as pronounce words or see or walk.
A handicap is a disadvantage in certain
situations. Some disabilities lead to
handicaps, but not in all contexts.
- Handicap came from the phrase “cap-
in-hand,” used to describe people with
disabilities who once were forced to beg
just to survive (Hardman, Drew, &
Egan, 2014).
PERSON-FIRST LANGUAGE
 Students with learning disabilities
NOT Learning disabled students
 Students receiving special education
NOT Special education students
 A person with epilepsy NOT An
epileptic
 A child with a physical disability
NOT A crippled child
 Children diagnosed with autism
NOT Autistic children or autistics.
Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner
- A developmental psychologist who
concluded that there are several separate
mental abilities, which is the now
famous theory of multiple intelligences
(MI).
LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL
Skills:
• Sensitivity to, and capacity to discern,
logical or numerical patterns.
• Ability to handle long chains of
reasoning.
Example/Career Paths:
Scientist
Mathematician
Engineer
LINGUISTIC
Skills:
• Sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, and
word meanings.
• Sensitivity to different functions of
language.
Example/Career Paths:
Poet
Journalist world.
Novelist Example/Career Paths:
MUSICAL Farmer
Skills: Gardener
• Ability to appreciate and produce Animal tracker
rhythm, tone, pitch, BODILY-KINESTHETIC
and timbre. Skills:
• Appreciation of forms of musical • Ability to control body movements and
expression. know where your body is
Example/Career Paths: in space.
Composer • Ability to handle objects skillfully.
Pianist Example/Career Paths:
Drummer Dancer
SPATIAL Gymnast
Skills: Juggler
• Ability to perceive the visual and EXISTENTIAL
spatial world accurately. Skills:
• Ability to perform transformations on • Ability to consider and examine deeper
those perceptions. or larger questions about
Example/Career Paths: human existence and the meaning of
Sculptor life.
Navigator • Ability to understand religious and
Architect spiritual ideas.
INTERPERSONAL Example/Career Paths:
Skills: Philosopher
• Ability to read the moods and Clergy
motivations of others. Life coaches
• Ability to understand desires and needs
of others and respond
appropriately.
Example/Career Paths:
Therapist
Salesperson
Mediator
INTRAPERSONAL
Skills:
• Knowledge of your own strengths,
weaknesses, capabilities, and
needs and ability to use these to guide
your behavior.
• Access to your own feelings.
Example:
Anyone with detailed, accurate
knowledge of self
NATURALIST
Skills:
• Ability to recognize plants and
animals.
• Ability to use categories and systems
to understand the natural