Chapter 8
Social and
Personality Development in The Preschool Years
Chapter Outline
I.
Forming a Sense of Self
A. PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT encompasses changes in the understanding
individuals have of themselves as members of society, and in their comprehension
of the meaning of others’ behavior.
1. Erikson proposed an eight stage
theory of psychosocial development, from infancy to old age.
2. From age three to six, children experience the INITIATIVE-VERSUS-GUILT STAGE, the period during which children experience conflict between independence of action and the sometimes negative results of that action.
B. Preschoolers begin to form
their SELF-CONCEPT, their identity, or their set of beliefs
about what one is like as an individual.
1. The “Who am I?” question may
affect children for the rest of their lives.
2. Youngsters typically
overestimate their skills and knowledge.
3. They also begin to develop a
view of self that reflects the way their particular culture considers the self.
a) Asian societies tend to have
a COLLECTIVE ORIENTATION, promoting the notion of interdependence,
blending in, and being interconnected.
b) Western cultures tend to
embrace an INDIVIDUALISTIC ORIENTATION that emphasizes personal identity,
uniqueness, and competition.
C. Developing Racial and Ethnic
Awareness
1.
By the time they are 3 or 4 years of age, preschoolers distinguish
between members of different races and begin to understand the significance of
race in society.
2. Some youngsters begin to
show preferential feelings for members of their own race.
3. Many minority children
experience ambivalence over the meaning of their racial identity.
4. Some may experience RACE DISSONANCE, the phenomenon in which minority youngsters indicate preference for
white values or people.
D.
Gender Identity: Developing Femaleness and Maleness
1.
Gender, the sense of being male or female, is well established in young
children. (Sex typically refers to
sexual anatomy.)
2. One way gender is manifested
is in play.
a) During the preschool years
boys increasingly play with boys.
b) Girls tend to play with girls.
3. Gender outweighs ethnic
variables when it comes to play.
4. Preschoolers also begin to
develop expectations about appropriate behavior for girls and boys.
a) Like adults, preschoolers
expect males to be more independent, forceful and competitive and females to be
warm, nurturing, expressive and submissive.
b) However, young children
typically hold stronger gender-stereotypes than adults.
5. Several theoretical
explanations for gender related attitudes exist.
a) Biological perspectives argue that physical characteristics associated with the different sexes, hormone differences, and differences in the structure of female and male brains might lead to gender differences.
b) Psychoanalytic perspectives
attribute gender differences to IDENTIFICATION,
the process in which children attempt to
be similar to their same-sex parent, incorporating the parent’s attitudes and
values.
c) Social-learning approaches
argue that children learn gender-related behavior and expectations from direct
training and from their observation of others, including the media.
d) Cognitive approaches argue
that individuals develop a GENDER
IDENTITY, the perception of oneself
as male or female.
(1) To do this they develop a GENDER SCHEMA or a cognitive framework that organizes information relevant to gender.
(2) Preschoolers begin
developing rules about what is right, and what is inappropriate, for males and
females.
(3) By the time they are 4 or 5
years of age, children develop an understanding of GENDER CONSTANCY, the belief
that people are permanently males or females, depending on fixed, unchangeable
biological factors.
(4) Sandra Bem
believes that one can minimize rigid views of gender by encouraging children to
be ANDROGYNOUS, a state in which gender roles encompass characteristics thought typical
of both sexes.
II.
Friends and Family: Preschoolers’ Social Lives
A. The preschool years are
marked by increased interactions with the world at large.
1. Around age three, children
develop real friendships.
2. Peers come to be seen as
individuals with special qualities.
3. Relationships are based on
companionship, play, and entertainment.
4. Friendship is focused on the
carrying out of shared activities.
B. Playing by the Rules: The Work of Play
1. Three-year-olds typically
engage in FUNCTIONAL PLAY which involves simple, repetitive activities,
that is, doing something for the sake of being active.
2. By age four, children
typically engage in CONSTRUCTIVE PLAY which involves manipulating objects to
produce or build something.
a) Constructive play allows
children to test developing cognitive skills.
b) Constructive play allows
children to practice motor skills.
c) Constructive play allows
children to problem solve.
d) Constructive play allows
children to learn to cooperate.
3. Mildred Parten
(1932) noted various types of play.
a) PARALLEL PLAY is when children play with similar
toys, in a similar manner, but do not interact with each other.
b) ONLOOKER PLAY occurs when children simply
watch others play but do not actually participate themselves.
c) ASSOCIATIVE PLAY is where two or more children
actually interact with one another by sharing or borrowing toys or materials,
although they do not do the same thing.
d) In COOPERATIVE PLAY, children
genuinely play with one another, taking turns, playing games, or devising
contests.
4. Associative and cooperative play generally do not emerge until the end of the preschool
years.
5. The nature of a child’s play is influenced by
their social experiences.
6. Vygotsky argued that social play is
important for developing cognitive skills.
7. Cultural background also
results in different styles of play.
C. Preschoolers’ Theory of
Mind: Understanding What Others are
Thinking
1. Theory of mind refers to knowledge and beliefs about the mental world.
2. Children are able to come up
with explanations for how others think and the reasons for their behaving the
way they do.
3. During preschool years,
children increasingly can see the world through others’ perspectives.
4. Preschool children can
understand that people have motives and reasons for their behavior.
5. How does theory of mind
develop?
a) Brain maturation
b) Social interaction and make-believe play
6. There are cultural
differences in theory of mind.
a) Western children are likely
to regard others’ behavior as due to the kind of people they are,
seeing it as a function of their personalities.
b) Non-Western children may see
others’ behavior as produced by forces that are less under
their personal control, such as unhappy gods or bad fortune.
D. Diana Baumrind
(1980) notes three types of parenting or patterns of discipline.
1. AUTHORITARIAN PARENTS are
controlling, punitive, rigid, and cold, and whose word is law; they value
strict, unquestioning obedience from their children and do not tolerate
expressions of disagreement.
2. PERMISSIVE PARENTS provide lax and inconsistent
feedback and require little of their children.
a) Permissive-indifferent parents are usually uninvolved in their children’s
lives.
(1) Their children tend to be
dependent and moody.
(2) Their children also tend to
have low social skills and low self-control.
b) Permissive-indulgent parents are more involved with their children, but
they place little or no limits or control on their behavior.
(1) Their children typically
show low control and low social skills.
(2) However, these children tend
to feel that they are especially privileged.
3. AUTHORITATIVE PARENTS are firm,
setting clear and consistent limits, but try to reason with their children
giving explanations for why they should behave in a particular way.
a) Children of authoritative
parents tend to fare best: they are
independent, friendly with their peers, self-assertive, and cooperative parents
are not always consistent in their parenting or discipline styles.
b) Children whose parents
engage in aspects of the authoritative style related to supportive parenting which encompasses parental warmth, proactive
teaching, calm discussion during disciplinary
episodes, and interest and involvement in children’s peer activities show
better adjustment and are protected from the consequences of later adversity.
4. Childrearing practices that
parents are urged to follow reflect cultural perspectives about the nature of
children and the role of the parents.
a) Childrearing practices in
Eastern societies are more likely to involve strict control. Such control is seen as a measure of parents’ involvement in and concern
for the welfare of their children.
b) In Western societies, and
especially in the
E. Child Abuse and
Psychological Maltreatment: The Grim
Side of Family Life
1. Five children are killed by
their caretakers every day.
2. 140,000 others are
physically injured every year.
3. Three million children are
abused or neglected annually in the U. S.
4. Physical Abuse
a)
Child abuse can occur in any home, though it is most frequent in
families living in a stressful environment.
(1) Poverty
(2) Single-parent homes
(3) Families with high levels of
marital discord
(4) Most parents don’t intend to abuse their
children.
b)
Children who are fussy, resistant to control, slow to adapt to new
situations, overly anxious, frequent bed wetters, and
who have developmental delays are more prone to being victims of abuse.
c)
Labeling children as being at higher risk for abuse does not make them
responsible for their abuse.
d) There are many reasons for
why child abuse occurs.
(1)
There is a vague demarcation between permissible and impermissible
forms of physical punishment or violence.
(2)
Factors related to the privacy of child care in Western societies
present unrealistic expectations about children’s abilities.
(3)
The CYCLE-OF-VIOLENCE HYPOTHESIS
argues that the abuse and neglect that children suffer predisposes them as
adults to be abusive.
5. Not all abuse is
physical: PSYCHOLOGICAL MALTREATMENT is
abuse that occurs when parents or other caregivers
harm children’s behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or physical functioning.
6. RESILIENCE refers to the ability to
overcome circumstances that place a child at high risk for psychological or
physical damage.
a) Resilient children are
affectionate, easygoing, good communicators, intelligent.
b) They are able to elicit
positive responses from others.
c) They tend to feel that they
can shape their own fate and are not dependent on others or luck.
III.
Moral Development and Aggression
A. MORAL DEVELOPMENT refers to changes in people’s sense of
justice and of what is right and wrong, and in their behavior related to moral
issues.
1. Several theoretical
approaches have evolved for explaining moral development in children.
a) Piaget’s theory of moral
development focuses on the moral reasoning of children.
(1) According to Piaget, HETERONOMOUS MORALITY is the initial stage of moral development
(from four to seven years old) in which rules are seen as invariant and
unchangeable.
(a) Youngsters in this stage do
not take intention into account.
(b) Children in the heteronomous stage also believe in IMMANENT JUSTICE, the notion
that broken rules earn immediate punishment.
(2) The next stage, according to
Piaget, is the incipient cooperation
stage (from age seven to ten).
(a) Here children become more
social and learn the rules.
(b) They play according to a
shared conception of the rules.
(3) During the autonomous cooperation stage (beginning
at age ten) children become fully aware that game rules can be modified if the
people who play them agree.
(4) Critics of Piaget’s theory argue that he
underestimated the age at which children’s moral skills develop.
b) Social-learning approaches
to morality focus on how the environment influences children’s PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR,
helping behavior that benefits others.
(1) In this view, moral conduct
is learned through reinforcement and modeling.
(2) Preschoolers are more apt to
model the behavior of warm, responsive adults and models viewed as
highly competent or high in prestige.
(3) Children do more than simply
mimic modeled behavior.
(a) By observing others’ behavior, they begin to
learn society’s norms.
(b) This leads to ABSTRACT MODELING, the process of developing more general rules and principles that
underlie behavior.
c) According to some developmentalists, EMPATHY
— the understanding of what another
individual feels — lies at the heart of some kinds of moral behavior.
(1) The roots of empathy grow early — one-year-old infants will cry when they hear other infants crying.
(2) Positive emotions – sympathy and admiration, in addition to negative emotions – anger at an unfair situation or shame over a transgression – may promote moral behavior.
B. AGGRESSION is the intentional injury or
harm to another person.
1. Infants do not act
aggressively, however, by the preschool years children demonstrate true
aggression.
2. Aggressive acts in young
children are often related to attaining a desired goal.
3. Throughout the preschool
years, children develop EMOTIONAL SELF-REGULATION, the capability to
adjust emotions to a desired state and level of intensity.
4. Aggression is a relatively
stable trait, the most aggressive preschoolers tend to
be the most aggressive school-aged children.
5. There are varying
explanations for aggressive behavior among children.
a) Freud claimed we all have a
death drive, which leads us to act aggressively.
b) Konrad Lorenz argues that humans,
like all animals, share a fighting instinct.
c) Sociobiologists, scientists who consider
the biological roots of social behavior, argue that aggression facilitates the
goal of strengthening the species and the gene pool in general.
d) Social-learning approaches
contend that aggression is based on prior learning, and how social and
environmental conditions and models teach individuals to be aggressive.
(1) Albert Bandura illustrated the power of models in a classic study of preschoolers — the Bobo doll experiment.
(2) The average preschooler watches 3 hours of television each day and this medium can have a powerful influence on aggression.
e) Cognitive approaches argue
that aggression stems, in part, from the manner in which children interpret
others’ actions and situations.
Key Terms and
Concepts
Psychosocial development
Initiative-versus-guilt stage
Self-concept
Collectivistic orientation
Individualistic orientation
Race dissonance
Identification
Gender identity
Gender schema
Gender constancy
Androgynous
Functional play
Constructive play
Parallel play
Onlooker play
Associative play
Cooperative play
Authoritarian parents
Permissive parents
Authoritative parents
Uninvolved parents
Cycle of violence hypothesis
Psychological maltreatment
Resilience
Moral development
Heteronomous morality
Immanent justice
Prosocial behavior
Abstract modeling
Empathy
Aggression
Emotional self-regulation