Social and Personality Development in Middle Childhood

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Social and Personality Development in Middle
Childhood

• Chapter 10
• Robert S. Feldman

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Psychosocial Development in Middle Childhood

• Industry Versus Inferiority
• Industry feelings of mastery and proficiency
  and a growing sense of competence
• Inferiority feelings of failure and inadequacy

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Erik Eriksons middle childhood

• Encompasses the INDUSTRY-VERSUSINFERIORITY STAGE
• Period from ages 6 to 12 years of age
• Characterized by a focus on efforts to attain
  competence in meeting the challenges related to
• Parents
• Peers
• School
• Other complexities of the modern world

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How do school-agers change

• Children realize they are ______ at some things
  and _________________at others
• Self-concept and self-esteem continue to develop

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Compared to

• Children use SOCIAL COMPARISON to themselves to
  abilities, expertise, and opinions of others

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Festinger (1959) proposed

• When objective measures are absent children rely
  on social reality
• How others act, think, feel, and view the world

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Sometimes children make downward social
comparisons

• With others who are
• Less competent
• Less successful
• To raise or protect their self-esteem

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SELF-ESTEEM

• Develops in important ways during middle
  childhood
• Children increasingly compare themselves to
  others
• Children are developing their own standards

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For most children

• Self-esteem _________ during middle childhood

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Breaking the Cycle of Failure

• Promoting development of self-esteem
• Using ____________ child-rearing style
• Why do you think this style is recommended?

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Race and Self-Esteem

• Early research found that African Americans had
  lower self-esteem than whites
• More recent research shows these early
  assumptions to be overstated
• African Americans
• Hispanic Americans
• Asian Americans

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Why does this occur?

• Social Identity Theory
• Members of a minority group accept negative views
  held by majority group only if they perceive
  little realistic possibility of changing power
  and status differences between groups

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Developmental Diversity

• Are Children of Immigrant Families
• Well Adjusted?
• Tend to have equal or better grades than children
  with US born parents
• Often more highly motivated to succeed and place
  greater value on education than do children in
  nonimmigrant families
• Show similar levels of self-esteem to
  nonimmigrant children
• Report feeling less popular and less in control
  of their lives

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Moral Development Kohlberg

• Proposes series of fixed stages in development of
  moral reasoning
• Uses moral dilemmas to assess moral reasoning
• Provides good account of moral _______ but not
  adequate at predicting moral ___________

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Kohlberg Stages

• ______________ Morality (stages 1 2) people
  follow unvarying rules based on rewards and
  punishments
• _____________ Morality (stages 3 4) is where
  people approach problems in terms of their own
  position as good, responsible members of society
• _____________ Morality (stages 5 6) is where
  universal moral principles are invoked and
  considered broader than a particular society

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Kohlberg Criticisms

• Based solely on observations of members of
  Western cultures
• Theory initially based largely on data from males
  

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MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN GIRLS

• _________________
• Way boys and girls raised leads to differences in
  moral reasoning
• Suggests Kohlbergs theory inadequate and places
  girls moral reasoning at lower level than boys

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Gilligans Stages of Morality in Girls

• Stage 1
• Stage 2
• Stage 3

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Friends in Middle Childhood

• Provide emotional support and help kids to handle
  stress
• Teach children how to manage and control their
  emotions
• Teach about communication with others
• Foster intellectual growth
• Allow children to practice relationship skills

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Damons Stages of Friendship

• Stage 1 (ages 4-7 years)
• Children see friends as ___________________
• Children see friends as people to share toys and
  activities with
• Children do not take into account personal traits

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Damons Stages of Friendship

• Stage 2 (ages 8-10 years)
• Children now begin to take others personal
  qualities and traits into consideration
• Friends are viewed in terms of kinds of rewards
  they provide
• Friendships are based on mutual trust

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Damons Stages of Friendship

• Stage 3 (ages 11-15 years)
• Friendships become based on ____________
• _____________
• Friendships involve mutual disclosure and
  exclusivity

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King or Queen of the HillStatus Hierarchies

• Childrens friendships show clear hierarchies in
  terms of STATUS
• STATUS is the evaluation of a role or person by
  other relevant members of a group

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High Status Children

• Form friendships with high status children
• More likely to form exclusive and desirable
  cliques
• Tend to play with a greater number of children
• Have greater access to resources such as games,
  toys, books, and information

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Low Status Children

• Form friendships with other lower status children
• Tend to play with a lower number of children than
  higher statuschildren
• Are more likely to play with younger or less
  popular children
• Tend to follow the lead of higher status children

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Popular Children

• Helpful and cooperative
• Good sense of humor
• Good emotional understanding
• Ask for help when necessary
• Not overly reliant on others
• Adaptive to social situations
• Social problem-solving skill competence

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Unpopular Children

• Lack social competence
• Immature or inappropriately silly
• Overly aggressive and overbearing
• Withdrawn or shy
• Unattractive, handicapped, obese, or slow
  academically

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Unpopular Children

• Lack of popularity may take two forms
• NEGLECTED CHILDREN receive relatively little
  attention from their peers in the form of either
  positive or negative interaction
• REJECTED CHILDREN are actively disliked and their
  peers may react to them in an obviously negative
  manner

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Teaching Social Competence

• Several programs teach children set of social
  skills that underlie general social competence

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Bullying

• SCHOOL- THE BULLY
• 160,000 U.S. schoolchildren stay home from school
  each day because they are afraid of being bullied
  
• About 10 to 15 percent of students bully others
  at one time or another.
• About half of all bullies come from abusive
  homes.

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Bully

• SCHOOL BULLIED
• Some 90 percent of middle-school students report
  being bullied at some point in their time at
  school, beginning as early as the preschool years
  
• Characteristics
• Loners who are fairly passive
• Often cry easily
• Lack the social skills that might otherwise
  defuse a bullying situation

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When the Pink Princess Becomes a Bully!

• Relational Aggression Among Girls
• Odd Girl Speaks Out Girls Write about Bullies,
  Cliques, Popularity, and JealousyRachel Simmons
• Mean Chicks, Cliques, and Dirty Tricks A Real
  Girl's Guide to Getting Through the Day With
  Smarts and StyleErika V Shearin Karres
• GirlWise How to Be Confident, Capable, Cool, and
  in ControlJulia Devillers
• The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander From
  Preschool to High School--How Parents and
  Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle of
  ViolenceBarbara Coloroso

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Boyfriend, girlfriendany friend?

• Avoidance of opposite sex becomes very pronounced
  during middle childhood
• Childrens friendships are almost entirely
  ___________________
• When sexes interact it is called border work,
  is often romantic, and helps emphasize clear
  boundaries between sexes

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Boys and Friendship

• Larger networks of friends than girls do
• Strict _________________________
• Attempt to maintain and improve status in
  hierarchy
• Restrictive play

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Girls and Friendships

• Focus on one or two best friends of relatively
  equal status
• Conflicts solved by compromise, ignoring
  situation, or giving in
• Can be confrontational with other girls not their
  friends
• Language is less confrontational and direct than
  boys

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Cross-Race Friendships Integration In and Out of
the Classroom

• Closest friendships largely with others of same
  race
• Decline with age in number and depth of
  friendships outside own racial group

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Reducing Prejudice through Contact Between Groups

• CONTACT
• Must occur in equal status settings
• Enhanced through cooperative activities that are
  important to children
• Must promote equality and disconfirm negative
  stereotypes

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Becoming an Informed Consumer of Development

• Increasing Childrens Social Competence
• Encourage social interaction
• Teach listening skills to children
• Make children aware that people display emotions
  and moods nonverbally
• Teach conversational skills, including the
  importance of asking questions and
  self-disclosure
• Dont ask children to choose teams or groups
  publicly

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Middle Childhood in the 21st Century

• In addition to other changes, children
  experience
• Increasing independence
• Coregulation with parents
• Sibling relationships and rivalry

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From Research to Practice

• Learning to Get Along How Children are
  Influenced by their Siblings
• Sibling relationships are likely to endure across
  lifespan
• Early relationships between siblings shape how
  children relate to others and choices made in
  later life

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What happens when sibs dont want to be alike?

• __________________
• Enhances desire to be different from older
  sibling
• Influences gender-role behavior
• improves cross-gender relations later in life

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What about children who have no siblings?

• Only children are well-adjusted as children with
  brothers and sisters
• In some ways, only children are better-adjusted,
  often having higher self-esteem and stronger
  motivation to achieve

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When Both Parents Work Outside the Home How Do
Children Fare?

• In most cases, children fare quite well
• When parents
• Are loving
• Are sensitive to their childrens needs
• Provide appropriate substitute care
• Good adjustment of children relates to
  psychological adjustment of parents, especially
  mothers

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Self-Care Children

• Youngsters who let themselves into their homes
  after school and wait alone until their parents
  return from work

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Good or bad?

• Consequences of being a latchkey child are not
  all harmful
• Some children report being lonely
• Some children develop a sense of independence and
  competence
• Some research shows latchkey children have higher
  self-esteem because they are helping family

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The Consequences of Divorce

• Only half of children in the U.S. will pass
  through childhood living with both parents each
  of whom has been married only once
• School-age children tend to blame themselves for
  the breakup

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After the break

• Both children and parents may show several types
  of psychological maladjustments for
  __________________
• Depression
• Sleep disturbances
• Phobias

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Rediscovering the Status Quo

• After 18 months to 2 years, most children return
  to their predivorce psychological adjustment
• Twice as many children of divorced parents
  require psychological counseling as do children
  from intact families
• For some children, living in a home with unhappy
  marriage and which is high in conflict has
  stronger negative consequences than divorce

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Single Parents

• Almost ___________ of all children under 18 in
  the U.S. live with only one parent
• Numbers are higher for minority children
• 60 of African-American children live in single
  parent homes
• 35 of Hispanic children live in single parent
  homes

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Single Parents

• In majority of cases, single parent is mother
• Consequences of living in single parent home
  depend on
• Whether other parent ever lived at home
• Economic status

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Multigenerational Families

• Opportunity for rich experiences and conflicts
• Greater among African Americans than among
  Caucasians
• In some families, cultural norms tend to be
  highly supportive of grandparents taking an
  active role

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Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

• In 1980, 2.3 million (4) children under 18 were
  living in a grandparent(s)' home
• Now around 4 million (6) living with
  grandparents
•  Age
• 48 of grandparent caregivers range between 50
  and 64 years
• 33 under the age of 50 and 19 over the age of 65

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Yours, mineours

• BLENDED FAMILIES include remarried couple that
  has at least one stepchild living with them
• Living in blended family involves role ambiguity,
  in which roles and expectations are unclear

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Not all the news is bad!!

• School-age children often adjust relatively
  smoothly to a blended family
• Financial status of family improves
• More people to share household chore
• More social interaction and attention
• Butnot all children adjust well, especially if
  the new relationship is threatening

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Families with Gay and Lesbian Parents

• Between one and five million US families headed
  by two lesbians or two gay parents
• Most studies find children
• Develop similarly to children of heterosexual
  families
• Have sexual orientation unrelated to their
  parents
• Have no more or less gender-typed behavior
• Seem equally well adjusted
• Have similar relationships with their peers and
  adults
• Have romantic relationships and sexual behavior
  that are no different from those of adolescents
  living with opposite-sex parents

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Race and Family Life

• What do you know about?
• African-American families
• Hispanic families
• Asian-American families

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Poverty and Family Life

• Poor families
• Fewer basic everyday resources
• More disruptions in childrens lives
• Higher likelihood of stress

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Group Homes

• Term orphanage replaced by group home or
  residential treatment center
• Group homes used for youngsters whose parents are
  no longer able to care forthem adequately

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Anybody home?

• The number of children in group care has growth
  over 50 percent
• About three-quarters of children in group homes
  are victims of abuse and neglect
• Most will eventually return home, however,
  one-fourth will be in group care throughout
  childhood

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Good or Bad?

• Experts disagree on advantages and disadvantages
  of group care
• Some see them as solution to unwed mothers who
  become dependent on welfare
• Many who work in these homes say they cannot
  provide adequate love and support as family could
• Group homes cost ten times as much as foster care
  or welfare

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School Daze

• During school year, more of day is spent in a
  classroom than anywhere else
• Schools have large influence on childrens lives

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How do children explain academic success and
failure?

• Attributions

• Children attempt to explain their behavior in one
  of three ways
• Whether the cause is internal (dispositional) or
  external (situational)
• Whether the cause is stable or unstable
• Whether the cause is controllable or
  uncontrollable

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Attributions matter!

• Attributions about school successes and failures
  have important implications for performance
• If success is internal, children feel pride
• If failure is internal, children feel shame
• If success or failure is attributed to stable
  characteristics, children can expect similar
  results in future

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Lucky ducky!

• If success or failure is attributed to unstable
  characteristics (such as luck), their
  expectations for the future are unknown
• If children feel failure was within their
  control, they feel anger
• If children feel failure was due to
  uncontrollable reasons, they fell sadness or pity

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Attributional Confounds

• Race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status have
  strong influences on attributions of success and
  failure
• African-American children are less likely to
  attribute failure to internal causes, feeling
  that prejudice and discrimination are to blame
• Women tend to attribute failure to low ability
  and success to luck
• In Asian countries, academic success is perceived
  as being caused by hard work

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Developmental Diversity

• Explaining Asian Academic Success
• US attribute school performance to stable,
  internal causes
• Japan, China, and other East Asian countries see
  temporary, situational factors as cause of their
  performance

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Teacher Expectancy Effect

• Cycle of behavior in which teacher transmits an
  expectation about child and thereby actually
  brings about expected behavior
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

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From Teacher to Child How Expectations Are
Transmitted

• Classroom social-emotional climate.
• Input to children
• Output from teachers
• Feedback

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Should Schools Teach Emotional Intelligence?