GRADUATE SCHOOL MODULE

PEN CODE: PSY 052 PEN SUBJECT TITLE: Social and Personality Development
TOPIC: E. Social and Emotional Development
PROFESSOR: Rona Esther M. Banlasan, RPm, MEdGC

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: At the end of this lesson, grad school students will be able to identify and evaluate
different social and emotional development by understanding emotions and social issues.

INTRODUCTION: Overview of the topics to be discussed.

LECTURE NOTES: Powerpoint Presentation (Google Slides Link:)

DISCUSSION:

Nature and Management of Emotions

Emotional Development . At birth, babies display interest, distress, disgust, and contentment. Anger,
sadness, surprise, and fear normally appear by the middle of the 1st year. Embarrassment, envy, pride, guilt,
and shame emerge in the 2nd (or 3rd) year, after children achieve self recognition and self-evaluation.
In elementary school, children’s increasing social cognitive abilities enable them to experience more
complex emotions, in more routine environments, and in the absence of external evaluation. To socialize
emotions, parents model positive emotions, attend carefully to their infants’ pleasant feelings, and are less
responsive to infants’ negative emotional displays.
Emotional self-regulation begins by the end of the 1st year. The ability to regulate emotions develops
very slowly: Toddlers gradually move from being dependent on others to regulate their emotions to being able
to regulate emotions on their own. Grade school children gradually are able to comply with culturally defined
emotional display rules.
By 8 to 10 months of age, infants are capable of social referencing. The ability to identify and interpret
others’ emotions improves throughout childhood, aided by cognitive development and conversations about
emotions. Infants’ and children’s emotional displays promote social contact with caregivers. Understanding
others’ emotions also helps children infer how to feel, think, or behave in uncertain situations.

Temperament and Development . Temperament is a person’s tendency to respond in predictable ways to

environmental events. Temperament is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Such components of
temperament as activity level, irritability, sociability, and behavioral inhibition are moderately stable over time.

Emotional Attachment

Attachment. Infants form affectional ties to their caregivers during the 1st year of life. These attachments are
reciprocal relationships. Parents’ initial bonding with their infant builds in strength as they gear their behavior
to the infant’s social signals and establish synchronized routines. Infants pass through an asocial phase and a
phase of indiscriminate attachment before forming their first true attachments at 7 to 9 months of age during
the phase of specific attachments. Attached infants use their attachment object as a secure base for exploration
and eventually enter the phase of multiple attachments.

Theories of attachment. Early psychoanalytic and learning theories were discredited because feeding plays
less of a role in human attachments than these models expected. The cognitive-developmental notion that
attachments depend on cognitive development has received some support. Ethological theory, which argues
that humans have preadapted characteristics that predispose them to form attachments, has become especially
influential in recent years.

Attachment-related fears of infancy. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety stem from infants’ wariness
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of strange situations and their inability to explain who strangers are and the whereabouts of absent
companions. These two fears usually decline in the 2nd year as toddlers mature intellectually and venture away
from their secure bases to explore.

Individual differences in attachment quality. The most widely used technique for measuring the quality
of attachments that 1- to 2-year-olds have established with their parents or other caregivers is Mary
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation (Ainsworth et al., 1978). The Strange Situation is used to assess the quality of
attachments in 1- to 2-year-olds. Jerome Kagan (1984, 1989) argued that the Strange Situation really measures
individual differences in infants’ temperaments rather than the quality of their attachments. Four attachment
classifications have been identified: secure, resistant, avoidant, and disorganized/ disoriented. The distribution
of attachment classifications varies across cultures and often reflects cultural differences in child-rearing
practices.

Fathers as caregivers. Research on fathers as caregivers suggests, they become emotionally attached to
infants, they can be playmates or caretakers, and they contribute to the child’s positive social development

Factors that influence attachment security. Sensitive, responsive caregiving is associated with the
development of secure attachments. Inconsistent, neglectful, over intrusive, and abusive caregiving predict
insecure attachments. Environmental factors such as poverty and a stormy marital relationship also contribute
to insecure attachments. Infant characteristics and temperamental attributes may also influence attachment
quality by affecting the character of caregiver–infant interactions. Caregiving may determine whether
attachments are secure or insecure and child temperament may determine the kind of insecurity displayed by a
child who received insensitive caregiving.

Attachment and later development. Both psychoanalytic theorists (Erikson, 1963; Freud, 1930) and
ethologists (Bowlby, 1969) believe that the feelings of warmth, trust, and security that infants gain from secure
attachments set the stage for healthy psychological development later in life. Of course, one implication of this
viewpoint is that insecure attachments may forecast less than optimal developmental outcomes in the years
ahead. Secure attachment during infancy predicts intellectual curiosity and social competence later in
childhood. Infants may form internal working models of themselves and others that are often stable over time
and influence their reactions to people and challenges for years to come. Parents’ working models correspond
closely with those of their children and contribute to the attachments infants form. Children’s working models
can change: a secure attachment history is no guarantee of positive adjustment later in life, nor are insecure
attachments a certain indication of poor life outcomes.

Attraction and Intimacy

“Attraction has been defined as ‘a motivational state in which an individual is predisposed to think, feel, and
usually behave in a positive manner toward another person'” (Simpson & Harris, 1994, p. 47).
“The Attraction Theory states that Personal Appearance, Proximity, Similarity, and Complementarity are the
main forces behind interpersonal attraction” (Samuel Frenning). S

Three variables that social psychology says contribute to attraction are similarity, mere exposure, and
physiological arousal.
● Similarity, Two people are more likely to become attracted to each other when they are similar in
demographic ways (such as age, race, and social class), common interests, and basic values.
● Mere exposure, Increased exposure typically leads to increased liking, a phenomenon called mere
exposure. When this happens to people due to being near each other more frequently, it’s called the
proximity effect.
● Physical arousal, Attraction is linked to physiological changes such as increased heart rate,
breathing, and sweating. However, these same physiological changes can occur for other reasons and be
incorrectly misinterpreted as attraction. This tendency is called misattribution of arousal.

When the researchers tested their model with college students, they found the following patterns or attachment
styles (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991):
● Secure people were most likely to have high levels of intimacy in both romantic relationships and
friendships; they also showed self-confidence, warmth, and balance in their relationships. This style
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matches the one from the earlier model with only three styles.
● Dismissing people showed the highest levels of self-confidence but also showed very low levels of
emotional expressiveness, empathy, and warmth toward others. They were less likely to rely on others
in times of need and were less likely to share personal information with other people.
● Preoccupied people were the opposite of dismissing in almost every variable; they showed
particularly low self-confidence but particularly high levels of personal self disclosure, emotional
expressiveness (such as frequent crying), and excessive caregiving behaviors.
● Finally, fearful people were very low on self-disclosures, intimacy, level of relationship involvement,
reliance on others, and self-confidence. In general, they did not put much effort into relationships or
expect others to do so.

Three Components of Love

In Dr. Sternberg's theory, the concept of love is a triangle that is made up of three components:
1. Intimacy, which involves feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness
2. Passion, which involves feelings and desires that lead to physical attraction, romance, and sexual
consummation
3. Decision/commitment, which involves feelings that lead a person to remain with someone and
move toward shared goals
Finding a balance between the physiological need for sex and the need for love is essential, and the complete
absence of all three components is categorized as non-love.

Types of Love. The three components of love interact in a systematic manner. The presence of a component
of love or a combination of two or more components create seven kinds of love experiences. These types of love
may vary over the course of a relationship as well.
● Friendship. This type of love is when the intimacy or liking component is present, but feelings of
passion or commitment in the romantic sense are missing. Friendship love can be the root of other
forms of love.
● Infatuation. Infatuation is characterized by feelings of lust and physical passion without liking and
commitment. There has not been enough time for a deeper sense of intimacy, romantic love, or
consummate love to develop. These may eventually arise after the infatuation phase. The initial
infatuation is often very powerful.
● Empty Love. Empty love is characterized by commitment without passion or intimacy. At times, a
strong love deteriorates into empty love. The reverse may occur as well. For instance, an arranged
marriage may start out empty but flourish into another form of love over time.
● Romantic Love. Romantic love bonds people emotionally through intimacy and physical passion.
Partners in this type of relationship have deep conversations that help them know intimate details
about each other. They enjoy sexual passion and affection. These couples may be at the point where
long-term commitment or future plans are still undecided.
● Companionate Love. Companionate love is an intimate, but non-passionate sort of love. It includes
the intimacy or liking component and the commitment component of the triangle. It is stronger than
friendship, because there is a long-term commitment, but there is minimal or no sexual desire. This
type of love is often found in marriages where the passion has died, but the couple continues to have
deep affection or a strong bond together. This may also be viewed as the love between very close friends
and family members.
● Fatuous Love. In this type of love, commitment and passion are present while intimacy or liking is
absent. Fatuous love is typified by a whirlwind courtship in which passion motivates a commitment
without the stabilizing influence of intimacy. Often, witnessing this leaves others confused about how
the couple could be so impulsive. Unfortunately, such marriages often don't work out. When they do,
many chalk the success up to luck.

● Consummate Love. Consummate love is made up of all three components and is the total form of
love. It represents an ideal relationship. Couples who experience this kind of love have great sex several
years into their relationship. They cannot imagine themselves with anyone else. They also cannot see
themselves truly happy without their partners. They manage to overcome differences and face stressors
together. Love Is a Verb. According to Dr. Sternberg, consummate love may be harder to maintain
than it is to achieve, as the components of love must be put into action. Without behavior and
expression, passion is lost and love may revert back to the companionate type.
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Understanding Bullying & Aggression

What qualifies as aggression? According to the most widely accepted definition, an aggressive act is any
form of behavior designed to harm or injure a living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment (Dodge,
Coie, & Lynam, 2006). Notice that it is the actor’s intent that defines an act as “aggressive,” not the act’s
consequences. So this intentional definition would classify as aggressive all acts in which harm was intended
but not done (such as a violent kick that misses its target) but exclude accidental harm doing or rough-and-
tumble play in which participants are enjoying themselves with no harmful intent.

Many factors exert influence on aggression. One factor is aversive experiences, which include not only
frustrations but also discomfort, pain, and personal attacks, both physical and verbal. Arousal from almost any
source, even physical exercise or sexual stimulation, can be transformed into other emotions, such as anger.
Aggression cues, such as the presence of a gun, increase the likelihood of aggressive behavior.

Aggressive acts are often divided into two categories: hostile aggression and instrumental aggression.
If a person’s ultimate goal is to harm a victim, his or her behavior qualifies as hostile aggression. Instrumental
aggression describes those situations in which one person harms another as a means to some other end. The
same overt act could be classified as either hostile or instrumental aggression depending on the circumstances.
If a young boy clobbered his sister and then teased her for crying, we might consider this hostile aggression.
But these same actions could be labeled instrumentally aggressive (or a mixture of hostile and instrumental
aggression) had the boy also grabbed a toy that his sister was using.

The Development of Aggression. Intentional acts of harm doing, or aggression, are often divided into two
categories: hostile aggression and instrumental aggression. Instrumental aggression appears by the end of the
first year as infants have conflicts over toys and other possessions.
During early childhood, aggression becomes less physical and increasingly verbal, and somewhat less
instrumental and increasingly retaliatory. Boys are more overtly aggressive; girls are more relationally
aggressive. Overt aggression declines with age, whereas more covert forms of antisocial conduct increase with
age. Aggressiveness is a moderately stable attribute for both males and females.
Proactive aggressors rely on aggression to satisfy personal objectives and are quite confident that
aggression will “pay off” for them; they may become bullies. Reactive aggressors display a hostile attributional
bias that causes them to overattribute hostile intents to others and to retaliate in a hostile manner; they may
become provocative victims.
Most victims of bullies are passive victims whom bullies find easy to dominate. Aggressive inclinations
depend, in part, on the cultural, subcultural, and family settings in which a child is raised. Children from a
coercive home environment in which hostile behaviors are negatively reinforced are likely to become
aggressive.
The incidence of children’s aggression can be reduced by creating “nonaggressive” play environments,
relying on control procedures such as time-out and the incompatible-response technique, and by implementing
social-cognitive interventions.

How can we minimize aggression? Contrary to the catharsis hypothesis, expressing aggression by
catharsis tends to breed further aggression, not reduce it. The social learning approach suggests controlling
aggression by counteracting the factors that provoke it: by reducing aversive stimulation, by rewarding and
modeling nonaggression, and by eliciting reactions incompatible with aggression.

Altruism: Development of the Prosocial Self. Early indications of altruism, such as sharing toys and
comforting distressed companions, appear in infancy and toddlerhood. Sharing, helping, and other forms of
prosocial conduct become more and more common from the preschool period onward. The growth of altruistic
concern is linked to the development of role-taking skills, prosocial moral reasoning, and sympathetic
empathic arousal.
Like aggression, a person’s altruistic tendencies are influenced by his or her cultural and family
environments. Parents can promote altruistic behavior by praising their child’s kindly deeds, and by practicing
themselves the prosocial lessons that they preach. Parents who discipline harm-doing with non punitive,
affective explanations are likely to raise children who become sympathetic, self-sacrificing, and concerned
about the welfare of others.
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Moral Development: Affective, Cognitive, and Behavioral Components. Morality implies a set of
internalized principles or ideals that help the individual to distinguish right from wrong and to act on this
distinction.
● The Affective Component of Moral Development. Research finds that the conscience forms earlier in
toddlerhood in the context of a warm, mutually responsive relationship.
● The Cognitive Component of Moral Development Piaget’s theory views moral reasoning as progressing
through an invariant sequence of three levels: the premoral period, heteronomous morality, and
autonomous morality. His research and theory have been a springboard for more recent investigations
into the cognitive component of moral development. Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory views moral reasoning
as progressing through an invariant sequence of three levels, preconventional, conventional, and
postconventional moralities, each composed of two distinct stages. Research supports Kohlberg’s stages
and his proposals that cognitive development and social experiences with parents, peers, and other
participants in higher education or democratic activities contribute to the growth of moral reasoning.
Kohlberg’s theory may not adequately describe the morality of people who live in non-Westernized
societies or who emphasize a morality of care rather than a morality of justice.
● The Behavioral Component of Moral Development. Social-learning theorists explain how children learn
to resist temptation and inhibit acts that violate moral norms. Among the factors that promote the
development of inhibitory controls are praise given for virtuous conduct, punishments that include
appropriate rationales, and exposing children to (or having them serve as) models of moral restraint.
Other non punitive techniques such as moral self concept training are also quite effective at promoting
moral behavior. Child-rearing studies consistently imply that use of inductive discipline promotes
moral maturity, whereas love withdrawal has little effect, and power assertion is associated with moral
immaturity. The effectiveness of induction may vary depending on the child's temperament. Children
generally prefer inductive discipline to other approaches, and most seem highly motivated to accept
influence from an inductive adult whose methods they can respect.

Peers as Agents of Socialization. Peer relationships are a second social world for children—a world of
equal-status interactions that is very different from the social interactions children have with adults. Peers are
social equals (not necessarily the same age), who behave at similar levels of social and cognitive complexity.
Sociability and the form of social interactions change across development.
By age 18 to 24 months, toddlers’ sociable interactions become complex and coordinated as they
reliably imitate each other, assume complementary roles in simple social games, and occasionally coordinate
their actions to achieve shared goals.
During the preschool years, nonsocial activities and parallel play become less common, whereas the
social skills that foster associative play and cooperative play become more common.
During middle childhood, more peer interactions occur in peer groups—groups of children who
associate regularly, define a sense of group membership, and formulate norms that specify how group
members are supposed to behave.

Early adolescents spend even more time with peers—particularly with their closest friends in small
cliques, and in larger groups of like-minded cliques, known as crowds. Cliques and crowds help adolescents
forge an identity apart from their families and pave the way for the establishment of dating relationships.
Children clearly differ in peer acceptance—the extent to which other children like or dislike them.
Using sociometric techniques, developmentalists find that there are five categories of peer acceptance:
● Popular children: liked by many and disliked by few.
● Rejected children: disliked by many and liked by few.
● Controversial children: liked by many and disliked by many.
● Neglected children: seldom nominated by others as likable or dislikable.
● Average-status children: those who are liked or disliked by a moderate number of peers.
Social status with peers is related to a child’s temperament, cognitive skills, and the parenting style she
or he has experienced. The strongest predictor of peer acceptance is a child’s pattern of social behavior.

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The School as a Socialization Agent. Schools influence many aspects of development. Formal school
curricula teach academic knowledge. Schools’ informal curricula teach children skills that help them to become
good citizens. “Effective” schools produce positive outcomes such as low absenteeism, an enthusiastic attitude
about learning, academic achievement, occupational skills, and socially desirable patterns of behavior.
Research suggests that the following characteristics influence a school’s “effectiveness”: Monetary
support. School and class size Students who are highly motivated and intellectually competent. A positive, safe
school climate. An effective “goodness of fit” between students and schools. A scholastic atmosphere stressing:
an academic emphasis; challenging, developmentally appropriate curricula; authoritative classroom
management and discipline; teamwork. Children making the transition between elementary and secondary
schools need special attention to their changing developmental needs and support from parents and teachers.

Social and Mass Media Effects

The Effects of Television on Child Development. Although children watch a lot of TV and it can
influence their behavior, research suggests that watching TV in moderation is not likely to impair children’s
cognitive growth, academic achievement, or peer relations.
Cognitive development and experience watching television lead to increases in television literacy during
middle childhood and adolescence. Televised violence can instigate aggressive behavior, instill mean-world
beliefs, and desensitize children to aggression. TV also presents stereotypes that influence children’s beliefs
about ethnicity, race, and gender.
On the positive side, children learn prosocial lessons and put them into practice after watching acts of
kindness on TV. Educational programs such as Sesame Street have been quite successful at fostering basic
cognitive skills, particularly when children watch with an adult who discusses the material with them and helps
them to apply what they have learned.

Child Development in the Digital Age. Children benefit, both intellectually and socially, from their use of
computers. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) often improves children’s basic academic skills, especially
when basic drills are supplemented by discovery programs that are presented as games. Word-processing
programs foster the growth of writing skills; and computer programming facilitates cognitive and
metacognitive development.
Despite the advantages associated with children’s use of computers, critics fear that violent computer
games may instigate aggression and harm may result from children's unrestricted access to the Internet.
Research suggests that exposure to the Internet benefits children academically, socially, and in their healthy
biological development. Concerns about Internet exposure can be addressed if parents learn the technology;
place computers in rooms the family frequents; plan family activities in advance and include the teen; limit the
teen’s online time; and monitor online activities.

Viewing violence
(1) breeds a modest increase in aggressive behavior, especially in people who are provoked,
(2) desensitizes viewers to aggression, and
(3) alters their perceptions of reality.
These findings parallel the results of research on the effects of viewing violent pornography, which
can increase men’s aggression against women and distort their perceptions of women’s responses to sexual
coercion. Television permeates the daily life of millions of people and portrays considerable violence.
Correlational and experimental studies converge on the conclusion that heavy exposure to televised violence
correlates with aggressive behavior. Playing violent video games may increase aggressive thinking, feelings,
and behavior even more than television or movies do, because the experience involves much more active
participation than those other media. Much aggression is committed by groups. Circumstances that provoke
individuals may also provoke groups. By diffusing responsibility and polarizing actions, group situations
amplify aggressive reactions.

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ACTIVITY: Case Study Topic E. (Google Doc Link:

REFERENCE:
Shaffer, David R. & Kipp, Katherine. (2014). Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence 9th
Edition. Cengage Learning Wadsworth.
Shaffer, D. R. (2000). Social and personality development 4th Edition. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Contact Information:
Email me at rembanlasan@ui.phinma.edu.ph
Message me at https://www.facebook.com/remb.rpm.edu.ph

Prepared by:

RONA ESTHER M. BANLASAN, RPm, MEdGC

Professor, Graduate School

Approved by:

LOUISE ANNE D. LIBRANDO, DevEdD

Dean, Graduate School