3/13/13  

1  

PSYC 125 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

3/12/2013 LECTURE 6: Mid-Late Childhood:

(~6 – 10-11 )

Socioemotional Development

Dr. Bart Moore bamoore@napavalley.edu

Office hours Tuesdays 11:00-1:00 Office: 1031G

Middle and Late Childhood (~6 – 10/11) Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  The ‘self’

–  Emotional development

–  Moral development

–  Gender

•  Families

•  Peers

–  Friends

–  Bullies

•  Schools

Questions? Material? Course business?

Practice Question

IQ is a measure of:

A)  Mental age

B)  Chronological age

C)   (Mental age * Chronological age) / 100

D)  (Mental age / Chronological age) * 100

E)   Intelligence

3/13/13  

2  

Practice Question

Jean Piaget believed that children in mid-to-late childhood enter into his:

A)  Preoperational stage

B)  Sensorimotor stage

C)  Formal operational stage

D)  Concrete operational stage

E)  Asphalt surgery stage

Middle and Late Childhood (~6 – 10/11) Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  The ‘self’

–  Emotional development

–  Moral development

–  Gender

•  Families

•  Peers

–  Friends

–  Bullies

•  Schools

The Self

•  Understanding one’s self

–  During middle and late childhood:

• Describe themselves in terms of psychological characteristics and traits

• Children recognize social aspects of the self

• Social comparison increases

•  Understanding others

–  Perspective taking: Ability to assume other people’s perspectives and understand their thoughts and feelings

–  Children become skeptical of others’ claims

The Self

•  Self-esteem and self-concept

–  Self-esteem: Global evaluations of the self

• Can be accurate or inaccurate

–  Self-concept: Domain-specific evaluations of the self (e.g. “I am smart”, “I am good at sports”)

•  Children with high self-esteem

–  Have greater initiative

• This can be positive or negative

• Examples?

3/13/13  

3  

Emotional Development

•  Developmental changes in emotional understanding

–  Multiple emotions can be experienced in a single situation (e.g. asking someone if they ‘like-like’ you)

–  Increased awareness of the events leading to emotional reactions (“I’m sad because…)

–  Increased ability to suppress or conceal negative emotional reactions (examples?)

–  Capacity for genuine empathy

Emotional Development: Stress

•  Stress

–  Examples of stressful situations for childern?

–  Older children use more coping strategies for stressful situations

• Reframing or rationalizing the situation

• Shifting thoughts away from situation

Moral Development

•  Two primary theories:

–  Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages

• 3 levels, 6 stages

–  Domain specific moral development

• Moral domain

• Social domain

• Personal domain

Moral Development

•  Moral reasoning

–  Feelings of anxiety and guilt are central to moral development

–  Heteronomous morality: The first stage of moral development in Piaget’s theory, occurring from approximately 4 to 7 years of age

• Justice and rules are conceived of as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people

–  Autonomous morality: children (10 and older) become aware that rules and laws are created by people

• we should consider the intentions as well as the consequences

3/13/13  

4  

Kohlberg: Level 1 Kohlberg: Level 2

Kohlberg: Level 3 Kohlberg & Moral development

3/13/13  

5  

Emotional and Personality Development

•  Domain theory of moral development: Different domains of social knowledge and reasoning

–  Social convention domain

• Rules themselves are arbitrary

• Most are good for society

–  Moral (ethical) domain

• Morals and ethics are universal

• not open for question

–  Personal domain

• What I do to myself is nobody's business but mine

Emotional and Personality Development

•  Gender

–  Gender stereotypes: Broad categories that reflect general impressions and beliefs about males and females

–  Gender similarities and differences

• Physical development

• Cognitive development

• Socioemotional development

Emotional and Personality Development

•  Gender

–  Both physical and cognitive characteristics continue to develop in mid-to-late childhood

• Male children have higher visuospatial skills

• Female children express more emotions

–  BUT!

Emotional and Personality Development

•  Gender

–  Both physical and cognitive characteristics continue to develop in mid-to-late childhood

• Male children have higher visuospatial skills

• Female children express more emotions

–  BUT!

3/13/13  

6  

Middle and Late Childhood (~6 – 10/11) Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  The ‘self’

–  Emotional development

–  Moral development

–  Gender

•  Families

•  Peers

–  Friends

–  Bullies

•  Schools

Families

•  Developmental changes in parent-child relationships:

–  Parents spend less time with children during middle and late childhood

–  Parents tend to support children’s academic and athletic achievement

–  Parents tend to use fewer physical forms of punishment as children age

Families

•  Attachment

–  More sophisticated

–  Spend less time with parents

–  Insecure attachment – associated with:

• Anxiety

• Depression

Families •  Stepfamilies

–  Remarriages involving children has grown in recent years (~1/2 of divorces)

–  Stepfamily structure

• Stepfather

• Stepmother

• Blended or ‘complex’ structures

3/13/13  

7  

Middle and Late Childhood (~6 – 10/11) Socioemotional development •  Emotional and personality development

–  The ‘self’

–  Emotional development

–  Moral development

–  Gender

•  Families

•  Peers

–  Friends

–  Bullies

•  Schools

Peers

•  Developmental changes

–  Size of peer groups increase

–  Peer interaction is less closely supervised by adults

–  Reciprocity becomes important in peer interchanges

• “I’ll give you my G.I. Joe if you give me your Transformer”

–  Increase in social cognition

• Better understand social interactions

Peers

•  Peer status

–  Popular children: Frequently nominated as a best friend and are rarely disliked by their peers

–  Average children: Receive an average number of both positive and negative nominations from peers

–  Neglected children: Infrequently nominated as a best friend but are not disliked by their peers

–  Rejected children: Infrequently nominated as a best friend and are actively disliked by their peers

–  Controversial children: Frequently nominated both as a best friend as being disliked by their peers

Peers

•  Friends

–  Typically characterized by similarity

–  Serve six functions

• Companionship

• Stimulation

• Physical support

• Ego support

• Social comparison

• Affection and intimacy

3/13/13  

8  

Bullying Behavior: Bullying Behavior:

Peers

•  Bullying

–  Verbal or physical behavior intended to disturb someone less powerful

–  Boys and younger middle school students are most likely to be affected

–  70-80% of victims and bullies are in the same classroom

–  Cyberbullying???

–  Outcomes of bullying

• Depression, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide

Schools

•  Contemporary approaches to student learning

–  Accountability

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation

• Statewide standardized testing

3/13/13  

9  

Schools

•  Socioeconomic status and culture

–  Low-income schools have more difficulties

• Lower test scores, lower graduation rates, and lower college-attendance rates

• Young teachers with less experience

• Fewer resources

Schools

•  Culture

–  Cross-cultural comparisons of achievement

• U.S. students have lower achievement in math and science than a number of other countries

• Asian teachers spend more of their time teaching math than American teachers

Mothers’ Beliefs About the Factors Responsible for Children’s Math Achievement