Chapter 10

Early Childhood:
Psychosocial Development

The Developing Person Through the Life Span Kathleen Stassen Berger • Tenth
Emotional Development (part 1)

• Emotional regulation
– Ability to control when and how emotions are
expressed
– Possibly due to connections between limbic system
and prefrontal cortex
– Most important psychosocial accomplishment
between ages 2 and 6
• Effortful control
– Ability to regulate one’s emotions and actions
through effort, not simply through natural inclination
Emotional Development (part 2)

• Initiative versus guilt

– Erikson's third psychosocial crisis
– Children undertake new skills and activities and feel
guilty when they do not succeed at them.
• Guilt
– Self-blame that people experience when they do
something wrong
• Shame
– People's feeling that others blame them, disapprove
of them, or are disappointed in them
Emotional Development (part 3)

• Self-concept
– Person's understanding of who he or she is,
incorporating self-esteem, physical appearance,
personality, and various personal traits
– Connected to parental confirmation
• Protective optimism
– Young children are not realistic (Erikson).
– They believe they are strong, smart, attractive, and
able to achieve any goals.
– Confidence in self helps young children to persist.
Brain Maturation

• Neurological advances
– Growth of prefrontal cortex at about age 4 or
5
– Myelination of the limbic system
– Improved behaviors and abilities
– Longer attention span
– Improved capacity for self-control
– Social awareness and self-concept become
stronger.
Factors Related to
Emotional Regulation
• Maturation matters
• Learning matters
• Culture matters
Emotional Development: Motivation
• Intrinsic motivation
– Drive, or reason to pursue a goal
– Comes from inside a person (e.g., need to feel smart or
competent)
– Seen when children invent imaginary friends

• Extrinsic motivation
– Drive, or reason to pursue a goal
– Arises from the need to have achievements rewarded
from outside (e.g., by receiving material possessions or
another person's esteem)
Motivation

• Imaginary friends
– Make-believe friends who exist only in a
child’s imagination
– Increasingly common from ages 3 through 7
– They combat loneliness and aid emotional
regulation.
– Example of intrinsic motivation
Play
• Play is universal and
timeless.
– Play is the most productive
and enjoyable activity that
children undertake.
– Increasingly complex
social play is due to brain
maturation coupled with
many hours of social play.
– Form of play changes with
age and culture.
Playmates
• Specifics vary, but play with peers is one of
the most important areas in which children
develop positive social skills.
• Playmates are people of about the same age and
social status.
• Playmates provide practice in emotional
regulation, empathy, and social understanding.
• Playmates are preferred play partners over
parents
.
The Historical
Context
• Play currently
subverted by several
factors
– Current push toward
early academic skills
mastery
– Swift and pervasive
rise of electronic media
– Adults who lean more
toward control than
freedom
Types of Social Play: Parten (1932)
• Solitary play: A child plays
alone, unaware of any
other children playing
nearby.
• Onlooker play: A child
watches other children play.
• Parallel play: Children play
with similar toys in similar
ways, but not together.
• Associative play:
Children interact,
observing each other and
sharing material, but their
play is not yet mutual and
reciprocal.
• Cooperative play:
Children play together,
creating and elaborating
a joint activity or taking
turns.
Active Play
• Rough-and-tumble play
– Mimics aggression with no
intention to harm
– Contains expressions and
gestures signifying that the
child is “just pretending”
– Is particularly common among
young males
– Advances children's social
understanding but increases
likelihood of injury
– May positively affect
prefrontal cortex development
Drama and
Pretending
• Sociodramatic play
enables children to:
– Explore and rehearse
social rules
– Learn to explain ideas
and persuade
playmates
– Practice emotional
regulation
– Develop self-concept in
nonthreatening context
Learning Emotional Regulation (part 1)

• Emotional regulation development benefits

playful interactions.
– Empathy develops with theory of mind and leads
to compassion and prosocial behavior.
• Prosocial and antisocial behavior are innate
and universal.
– Antisocial behavior generally diminishes over
preschool years.
– Decreased empathy and increased antipathy,
impacted by neighborhood and school stress
Learning Emotional Regulation (part 2)

• Four general aggression types

– Instrumental aggression
– Reactive aggression
– Relational aggression
– Bullying aggression
Moral Development

Pinch, Poke, or Pat Antisocial and prosocial responses are actually a

sign of maturation: Babies do not recognize the impact of their actions.
These children have much more to learn, but they already are quite
social.
Challenges for Caregivers

• Caregiving styles: Dimensions

(Baumrind)
– Expressions of warmth
– Strategies for discipline
– Communication
– Expectations for maturity
Baumrind’s Styles of Caregiving

• Authoritarian parenting: High behavioral

standards, strict punishment of misconduct, and
little communication
• Permissive parenting: High nurturance and
communication but little discipline, guidance, or
control
• Authoritative parenting: Parents set limits and
enforce rules but are flexible and listen to their
children
Styles of Caregiving

• A fourth style is sometimes mistaken for

the permissive style but is actually quite
different.
• Neglectful/uninvolved parenting:
Parents are indifferent toward their
children and unaware of what is going on
in their children's lives (Sternberg).
Long-Term Effects of Parenting Style
(part 1)
• Children of authoritarian parents
– Become conscientious, obedient, and quiet
but not especially happy
– Feel guilty or depressed and blame
themselves when things do not go well
– Rebel as adolescents and leave home before
age 20
Long-Term Effects of Parenting Style
(part 2)
• Children of permissive parents
– Are unhappy and lack self-control, especially
in peer relationships
– Suffer from inadequate emotional regulation
– Are immature and lack friendships (main
reason for their unhappiness)
– Continue to live at home, still dependent, in
early adulthood
Long-Term Effects of Parenting Style
(part 3)
• Children of authoritative parents
– Are successful, articulate, happy with
themselves, and generous with others
– Are well-liked by teachers and peers,
especially in societies in which individual
initiative is valued
Problems of
Baumrind’s Styles
• Problems
– Original sample
– Focus
– Lack of insight about
authoritarian parents
– Lack of detail about
permissive parents’
guidance style
– Child's contribution to
the parent–child
relationship
Cultural Variations

• Parental influence
– Three-way interaction influences the outcome
of any parenting style.
• Child's temperament
• Parent's personality
• Social context
– Given a multicultural and multicontextual
perspective, developmentalists hesitate to
recommend any particular parenting style.
Physical Punishment
(part 1)
• Adults’ values, temperament,
experiences, and culture
affect their responses when
their children misbehave.
• Some researchers believe
that physical punishment is
harmless; some do not.
• Physical punishment
increases obedience
temporarily, but it also
increases the possibility of
later aggression.
Physical Punishment (part 2)

• Corporal punishment: Punishment that

physically hurts the body, such as slapping
or spanking
– Physical punishment increases obedience
temporarily, but it also increases the
possibility of later bullying, delinquency, and
abusive behavior.
– Physical punishment correlates with delayed
theory of mind and increased aggression.
Physical Punishment
(part 3)
• Many children who
are spanked do not
become violent
adults; other factors
(e.g., poverty,
temperament) are
stronger influences.
Alternatives to Spanking

• Psychological control
– Disciplinary technique that involves threatening to
withdraw love and support and that relies on a
child's feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents

• Psychological control correlations

– Higher parent control; lower child math scores
– Depressed child achievement, creativity, social
acceptance
– Increased relational aggression
Discipline: Time-out
• Disciplinary technique in
which a child is separated
from other people and
activities for a specified time
• For some children in some
cultures, sitting alone is an
effective punishment.
• Sometimes it produces
an angry child without
changing the child’s behavior.
• Evaluation of effectiveness is
confounded by different
styles/uses of time-out.
No Simple Answer

• Methods of discipline vary in

consequences and effectiveness,
depending on temperament, culture, and
the adult–child relationship.

What do you think is the best way to

discipline children? Why?
Becoming Boys or Girls: Sex and Gender

• Biology determines whether an embryo is

male or female.
– During early childhood, sex patterns and
preferences become important to children and
apparent to adults.
– At age 2, children apply gender labels.
– By age 4, children are convinced that certain toys
and roles are “best suited” for one sex or the other.
– In the United States, sexual stereotypes are
obvious and rigid between ages 3 and 6.
Teaching Children to Be Boys and Girls
• Sex and gender
– Sex differences: Biological differences between males
and females, in organs, hormones, and body type
– Gender differences: Differences in the roles and
behaviors of males and females
• Acceptance of sexual diversity
– Many preschoolers become rigid in their ideas of male
and female.
– Most older children consider ethnic discrimination
immoral, but they accept some sex discrimination.
Theories of Gender-Role Development
(part 1)
• Psychoanalytic theory
– Key stages and concepts
• Phallic stage
• Oedipus complex
• Superego
• Electra complex
• Identification
Theories of Gender-Role Development
(part 2)
• Behaviorism
– Gender differences
• Product of ongoing reinforcement and punishment
• Are learned through all roles, values, and morals
• "Gender-appropriate" behavior rewarded more
frequently than "gender-inappropriate" behavior
• Social learning theory
– Children notice the ways men and women
behave and internalize the standards they
observe.
Theories of Gender-Role Development
(part 3)
• Cognitive theories
– Cognitive theory
• Offers an alternative explanation for the strong gender
identity that becomes apparent at about age 5
– Gender schema
• Child's cognitive concept or general belief about sex
differences
• Based on his or her observations and experiences
• Young children categorize themselves and everyone
else as either male or female, and then they think and
behave accordingly.
Theories of Gender-Role Development
(part 4)
• Sociocultural theory
– Stresses the importance of cultural values
and customs
– Some cultural aspects are transmitted through
the parents, as explained with behaviorism,
but much more arises from the larger
community.
– By age 6, children are astute “gender
detectives.”
Theories of Gender-Role Development
(part 5)
• Evolutionary theory
– Holds that sexual attraction is crucial for
humankind’s most basic urge, to reproduce
– Suggests that young boys and girls practice
becoming attractive to the other sex so that
they will be ready after puberty to find each
other and ensure extension of the next
generation
Which Theory Is Best?

• All five theories of gender-role

development are plausible, which poses a
challenge for caregivers who must
determine which set of values they choose
to teach.
• Some of the latest research suggests that
cultural emphasis on sex differences may
blind people to sex similarities (gender
similarities hypothesis).