Socioemotional Development in Middle

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Socioemotional Development in Middle Late
Childhood

• Psychology of Development 307
• TR 220-335p.m. Room 108
• Guest Lecturer Eswen Fava
• 2/26/08

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Cochlear Implant Follow-Up

• http//www.utdallas.edu/loizou/cimplants/cdemos.h
  tm

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Today we will cover

• Cognitive Theories of Middle childhood
• Cognitive Skills
• Intelligence Testing Theories
• Language Development
• SocioEmotional Development
• Development of Self Morals
• Gender Differences
• Relationships

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Cognitive Theories of Middle Childhood

• Piaget
• Vygotsky
• Neo-Piagetians
• Information Processing

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Theories of Middle Childhood Development Theories of Middle Childhood Development Theories of Middle Childhood Development Theories of Middle Childhood Development Theories of Middle Childhood Development
Piaget Vygotsky Neo-Piaget Info Processing
Stage Concrete stage No real stage Partial agreement w Piaget Middle childhood
Biggest change/ Method of change Concrete operations Social interaxn Use of attention, memory, strategies for info processing Sustain control attention
Other important skills Conservation tasks, seriation, transitivity Language, behavior Memory, thinking, metacognition
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Cognitive Skills

• Memory
• Creative Thinking
• Metacognition
• Intelligence
• (Scales, Skills, Measures and Application)

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Memory

• After age 7, STM does not show as much increase
  as it did in the preschool period
• Long-term memory
• Strategies
• Mental imagery
• Elaboration

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Thinking

• Guilford (1967) distinguished between convergent
  thinking divergent thinking,
• Other forms
• Critical thinking Creative thinking
• How to Foster Creative Thinking?
• Brainstorming

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Metacognition

• Deanna Kuhn (1999) believes schools should pay
  more attention to helping students develop
  awareness of what they (and others) know
• schools should do more to develop metacognition
• studies have focused on metamemory

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Theories of Intelligence
Person Name of Theory How Captures Intelligence?
Sternbergs Triarchic theory of intelligence Analytical, Creative, Practical
Gardner N/A verbal mathematical spatial bodily-kinesthetic musical interpersonal intrapersonal Naturalist
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Language Development

• Reading and Writing
• Bilingualism

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Language Development

• New skills that make it possible to learn to read
  and write
• increased use of language to talk about things
  that are not physically present
• learning what a word is
• learning how to recognize and talk about sounds
• They also learn the alphabetic principle --
• (Berko Gleason, 2003)

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Vocabulary, Grammar, and Metalinguistic Awareness

• Changes occur in the way childrens mental
  vocabulary is organized
• Metalinguistic awareness
• Allows children to think about their language,
  understand what words are, and even define them

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Approaches to Teaching Reading

• Whole-language approach
• Phonics approach
• Research suggests that children can benefit from
  both approaches

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Bilingualism and Second Language Learning

• Learning a second language is more readily
  accomplished by children than adolescents or
  adults
• Bilingualism
• Subtractive bilingualism -- going from being
  monolingual in their home language to bilingual
  in that language and in English, only to end up
  monolingual as speakers of English

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Socioemotional Development in Middle and Late
Childhood

• Development of Self Morals
• Gender Differences
• Relationships Parent-Child
• Peer (Friendships, Bullying,SES)
• Theories of

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The Self

• Self-esteem
• Self-esteem reflects perceptions that do not
  always match reality
• How to increase?
• Self-concept
• Children self-evaluate in many domains of their
  lives (academic, athletic, appearance)
• Self-Efficacy
• Level of can influence choice of activities
• Self-Regulation
• Linked to dev advances in brains prefrontal
  cortex

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Another Take on The SelfEriksons 4th Stage

• Industry
• When children are encouraged in their efforts,
  their sense of industry increases
• Inferiority

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Developmental Changes in Emotion

• Increased understanding that more than one
  emotion can be experienced in a particular
  situation
• Increased awareness of the events leading to
  emotional reactions
• Ability to suppress /conceal -ve emotional
  reactions
• The use of self-initiated strategies for
  redirecting feelings
• A capacity for genuine empathy

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Moral Development Reasoning

• According to Piaget, older children
• consider the intentions of the individual
• believe that rules are subject to change
• are aware that punishment does not always follow
  wrongdoing
• Based on Piaget, Kohlberg proposed 6 universal
  stages of moral development
• Preconventional Reasoning
• Conventional Reasoning
• Post-Conventional Reasoning

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Level 1 Preconvential (No Internalization) Level 2 Conventional Level (Intermediate Internalization) Level 3 Postconventional (Full Internalization)
Stage 1 Heteronomous Morality Stage 3 Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Relationships, Interpersonal Conformity Stage 5 Social Contract/Utility Individual Rights
Stage 2 Individualism, Purpose Exchange Stage 4 Social System Morality Stage 6 Universal Ethical Principles
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Kohlbergs Critics

• Key criticisms involve
• link between moral thought moral behavior
• roles of culture family in moral development
• significance of concern for others
• misses/misconstrues some moral concepts in
  particular cultures
• Gender Care Perspective (Carol Gilligan)
• Prosocial Behavior (behavioral emphasis)

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Gender Stereotypes, Similarities Differences

• Gender stereotypes
• Bear in mind
• the differences are averages
• even when differences are reported, considerable
  gender overlap
• the differences may be due primarily to
  biological and/or sociocultural factors

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Gender Differences inPhysical Development  

• Researchers have found some differences in the
  brains of males and females

Males Females
grow to be 10 taller longer life expectancy
twice the risk of coronary disease less likely to develop physical or mental disorders
hormones promote the growth of long bones female hormones stop such growth at puberty
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Gender Differences in Cognitive Development  

• Cognitive differences between females males
  have been exaggerated
• Eg Males have better math and visuospatial
  skills whereas females have better verbal
  abilities
• Later studies showed verbal differences between
  females and males had virtually disappeared, but
  that math and visuospatial differences still
  existed
• (Maccoby Jacklin,1974) (Maccoby, 1987) (Hyde,
  2005, 2007)

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Gender Differences in Socioemotional
Development  
Males Females
more physically aggressive than girls tend to be more verbally aggressive
more likely to hide negative emotions less likely to express disappointment that might hurt others feelings

• No definitive findings on relational aggression
  -- behaviors such as spreading malicious rumors
  or ignoring someone when angry

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Gender Differences inProsocial Behavior
Issue Gender Difference
Prosocial Empathetic (self-view) MalesltFemales
Engage in prosocial behavior (childhood adolescence) MalesltFemales
Kind considerate behavior MalesltFemales
sharing Small difference
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Gender-Role Classification in Context  

• Androgyny
• The importance of considering gender in context
  is very apparent when examining what is
  culturally prescribed behavior for females and
  males in different countries around the world

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Dev Changes in Parent-Child Relationships

• In middle and late childhood years, parents spend
  considerably less time with children
• Parents continue to be important
• Parents support and stimulate academic
  achievement
• Children receive less physical discipline than
  they did as preschoolers
• Children in grade school use more
  self-regulation
• (Huston Ripke, 2006)

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Parents as Managers

• Parents can play important roles
• managers of childrens opportunities
• monitors of childrens behavior
• social initiators and arrangers
• Family management practices are positively
  related to students grades and
  self-responsibility, and negatively to
  school-related problems
• (Parke Buriel, 2006) (Taylor, 1996)

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Stepfamilies

• About 1/2 of all children whose parents divorce
  will have a stepparent
• Children often have better relationships with
  their custodial parents
• 3 common types of stepfamily structure are
• stepfather
• mother typically had custody of the children and
  remarried
• stepmother
• father usually had custody and remarried
• blended or complex
• In a blended or complex stepfamily, both parents
  bring children from previous marriages to live in
  the newly formed stepfamily

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Latchkey Kids Alternatives

• Latchkey children
• largely unsupervised for 2-4h or more per day
• experiences vary enormously
• parental monitoring authoritative parenting
  help the child cope more effectively
• Afterschool Care
• Practitioners and policymakers recommend
• warm and supportive staff
• flexible and relaxed schedule
• multiple activities
• opportunities for positive interactions with
  staff and peers
• (Galambos Maggs, 1989 Steinberg, 1986)

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Developmental Changes in Peer Relations

• Reciprocity becomes especially important in peer
  interchanges
• Amount of time spent in social interaction with
  peers increases
• Size of their peer group increases
• Peer interaction is less closely supervised by
  adults
• Until age 12, same-sex peer groups are preferred

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Peer Status

• Sociometric status Popular children, Average
  children, Neglected children , Rejected children,
  Controversial children

Popular children Neglected children Rejected children
give out reinforcements listen carefully maintain open lines of communication with peers are happy control their negative emotions show enthusiasm concern for others are self-confident without being conceited low rates of interaction with their peers often described as shy by peers often have more serious adjustment problems than those who are neglected Some but not all rejected children are aggressive
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Bullying

• Victims of bullies had
• higher incidence of headaches
• more abdominal pain
• sleeping problems and feeling tiredness
• more depression
• reported more loneliness and difficulty in making
  friends
• Potential Targets?
• Anxious and socially withdrawn children (because
  they are non-threatening and unlikely to
  retaliate)
• Aggressive children ( because their behavior is
  irritating to bullies)
• Those who did the bullying were more likely to
  have a poor academic record and to smoke and
  drink alcohol

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Reducing Bullying

• Teachers schools can employ several strategies
• Get older peers to serve as monitors
• Develop post school-wide rules and sanctions
  against bullying
• Incorporate anti-bullying program message into
  other community activities
• Identify bullies and victims early
• Use social skills training to improve bullies
  behavior
• Help them to attract attention from their peers
  in ve ways hold that attention
• Role-playing/ discussing hypothetical situations
  involving -ve encounters with peers

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Social Cognition

• Social cognition
• 5 steps in processing info about the social world
  
• decode social cues
• interpret
• search for a response
• select an optimal response
• Enact
• Childrens friendships can serve 6 functions
• companionship 
• stimulation
• physical support
• ego support
• social comparison
• affection and intimacy
• Intimacy in friendships

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Learner-centered approach Direct instruction approach
Emphasizes individuals actively constructing their knowledge understanding with guidance from the teacher Important goal maximizing student learning
encouraged to explore their world, discover knowledge, reflect, and think critically careful monitoring and meaningful guidance from the teacher structured, teacher-centered approach (teacher direction control) high expectations for progress max time spent by students on academic tasks efforts by teacher to keep -ve affect to a minimum
Constructivists argue that direct instruction turns children into passive learners and does not challenge them to think critically or creatively Direct instructions say that constructivists do not give enough attention to the content of a discipline and instruction is too relativistic and vague