quiz 7: ch. 15, 16, 17

updates to Piaget's theory on morality: Children's Reasoning about Black, White, and Blue Lies

-"black lies" - lying about misdeeds to avoid punishment and dissaproval from adults, do this after age of 4 or 5 -know that they are wrong -"white lies": lying out of politeness, like when dont like a gift, younger children worse at this than older ones -children learn that it is okay to lie sometimes as a matter of social convention --"blue lies": harm themselves but help the group -Chinese children rated lies more positively that helped a collective (such as their own class) and harmed an individual than vice versa, reflecting collectivist inclinations. -Canadian children, by contrast, considered it less problematic to lie when it helped the individual but harmed one's own social group, which reflects an individualistic tendency.

Screen Media and Children's Health

-"obesity spiel" -sedentary nature of tv and screen media, also may promote poor eating through advertising in commercials -attentional, behavioural, physical and psychological health consequences were found for children engaged in the overuse of video games and communication technologies in particular

Two Major Dimensions of Parenting

-1) parental acceptance/responsiveness: a dimension of parenting that describes the amount of responsiveness and affection that a parent displays toward a child. -> amount of support and affection parents display -> warm, responsive parenting is consistently associated with such positive developmental outcomes as secure emotional attachments, a prosocial orientation, good peer relations, high self-esteem, and a strong sense of morality -> the opposite -> poor peer relations, depression, adjustment problems -2) parental demandingness/control: a dimension of parenting that describes how restrictive and demanding parents are. -> amount of regulation or supervision parents undertake

Is There a Typical Profile of an Abuser?

-20 to 40 percent of child abusers have an alcohol or drug problem that plays a role in precipitating abuse -30 percent of maltreated children will abuse their own children when they become parents, thus implying that abusive parenting practices are often passed from generation to generation -abusive mothers are often battered women—victims of abuse in their own romantic relationships - may have learned through their experiences as a child and romantic partner that violence is a common reaction to frustrations -Abusive mothers are also often young, poverty-stricken, and poorly educated and are raising children without a partner to share their burdens -many abusive parents are emotionally insecure individuals who are likely to interpret children's irritability or normal self-assertive behaviours as signs of disrespect or rejection -abusive parents generally favour authoritarian control over authoritative techniques (which they view as largely ineffective), and they rely heavily on severely punitive tactics -most sexual abusers a male relative or family friend

How Prevalent Is Child Abuse and Neglect?

-4 out of every 100 children in the country were involved in maltreatment investigations. -difficult to estimate numbers because: 1) an investigation of maltreatment does not necessarily mean that abuse has actually occurred, investigations have 3 outcomes: substantiated (that abuse has occurred), suspected (but not sufficient evidence), or unfounded (little evidence that abuse has occurred) 2) although the CIS-2008 data includes those times when suspected abuse has been reported to child welfare agencies, it cannot comment on how often abuse has been reported to agencies not included in the CIS-2008 study 3) we have no way of knowing about abuse that has not been reported at all. -In anonymous surveys of adolescents and adults, self-reports of abuse are at higher rates than those attained from official agency data, and there are also high rates of respondents who report that they have never disclosed their abuse.

Bukowski: Is aggression always related to peer rejection?

-> no -as children grew older and entered middle school (Grade 6 or 7), they tended to be attracted to peers who stood out in the peer group in easily observable ways -Girls in particular were attracted to aggressive boys -at all three assessment periods, girls showed little attraction to aggressive girls. -Among girls, those who demonstrated physical aggression were more likely to be victimized by other girls, while those who demonstrated relational aggression (which by gender norms is more typical of girls) were less likely to be victimized

The Added Impact of the Internet

-Access to the Internet can provide children with a wide array of important learning tools through knowledge repositories, age-appropriate apps, videos, and educational software that can be used in the home and at school -research indicates that access to the Internet at home—for example, to search for information needed to complete school projects—facilitates academic performance -the Internet also provides children with access to sources of communication through social media and messaging. -access to the Internet also opens children to the potential for exposure to inappropriate adult content, cyberbullying, pornography, and risks associated with aggression, loss of privacy, and sexual harm -the term "Internet addiction" to refer to situations where young users feel compelled to constantly check messages and be "on" the Internet -the compelling need to be "connected" through social media for some children can result in increased anxiety and depression -Parents, educators, health professionals, and Internet platform designers can minimize risks to children -> platforms attempt to prevent young users from creating accounts by establishing an age for access beyond the childhood years. -parents can play a critical role by monitoring children's use of the Internet

updates to Piaget's theory on morality: Do Younger Children Respect All Rules (and Adult Authority)?

-According to Piaget, heteronomous children think of rules as sacred and obligatory prescriptions that are laid down by respected authority figures and are not to be challenged. -young children can differentiate between moral and conventional rules, so dont treat parental authority uniformly across domains -> believe that parents are justified in enforcing rules against stealing and other moral transgressions, but they feel that a parent is abusing authority if he or she arbitrarily make decisions that affect them or impose rules that restrict their choice of friends or leisure activities—areas that they perceive as either negotiable or under their own personal jurisdiction

Families Are Developing Systems: more women employed

-Although women still carry the lion's share of child-rearing and housework responsibilities, fewer and fewer children have a mother whose full-time job is that of homemaker.

Tina Malti and antisocial behaviour

-Are aggressive children more aggressive because they experience less sympathy and guilt, or does their negative behaviour make them less sensitive to these moral emotions over time? -high anger was significantly related to high aggression, but not when children and adolescents had high guilt or sympathy -individuals with low resting heart rates are often underaroused and engage in aggressive conduct as a means to relieve their discomfort from this unpleasant state -the link between low resting heart rate and physical aggression is offset by high guilt and sympathy in 5- to 8-year-old children

Social Interactions among Friends and Acquaintances

-As early as age 1 to 2, children may become attached to a preferred play partner and respond very differently to this "friend" than to other playmates. - more advanced forms of pretend play, more affection, and more approval than acquaintances -friends are altruistic towards each other -3- to 6-year-olds were generally willing to give up their own valuable play time to perform a dull task if their efforts would benefit a friend, yet this same kind of self-sacrifice was almost never made for a mere acquaintance. -research to support friendship chemistry - conversations among pairs of Grade 6 students are much more cheerful, playful, and relaxed when the members of these pairings are good friends rather than mere acquaintances -One reason that interactions among friends may be so synchronous and productive is that friends are more similar than acquaintances in personality and their levels of prosocial behaviour -friendships pretty stable: -children who attend the same daycare centre for several years often keep the same close friends for more than a year. Although they may wax and wane in strength, close friendships often remain stable from year to year during middle childhood -friendship networks (the list of all individuals that a child might nominate as "friends") tend to shrink in size as children approach adolescence

How Well Educated Are Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Comparison : parental involvement

-Asian parents hold higher achievement expectations for their children than North American parents do, and even though their children are excelling by North American standards, Asian parents are much less likely than North American parents to be satisfied with their children's current academic performance -think homework is important, frequent communications from teachers (different from north america_

How Well Educated Are Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Comparison : strong emphasis on effort

-Asian students' parents, teachers, and they themselves share the strong belief that all youngsters have the potential to master their studies if they work hard enough -Their American counterparts are more inclined to believe that academic success reflects other factors, such as the quality of the child's teachers or the child's intelligence -Asian students face especially strong pressures to excel in the classroom because their prospects for obtaining a university education largely depend on the results of a competitive exam taken in high school. -The secret is to get teachers, students, and parents working together to make education a top priority, to set high achievement goals, and to invest the day-by-day effort required to attain those objectives

Do Our Schools Meet the Needs of All of Our Children?: alternative educational approaches

-At one time, students who performed substantially higher (or lower) academically than their peers could be moved up (or down) a grade, respectively -but this practice wasnt very helpful - The social cost of not being with age-matched peers superseded any academic benefits. -It is now more likely that an individual education plan (IEP) will be developed to better support their learning. -Montessori educational method - focus on child's exploration, leads children to ask questions, investigate, think for themselves - have children of multiple ages in the same classroom (table 17.2), academic benefits

Authoritarian Parenting

-Authoritarian parenting: a restrictive pattern of parenting in which adults set many rules for their children, expect strict obedience, and rely on power rather than reason to elicit compliance. -These parents will often rely on punitive, forceful tactics (such as power assertion or love withdrawal) to gain compliance -they are domineering and expect the child to accept their word as law and to respect their authority.

Authoritative Parenting

-Authoritative parenting is a controlling but flexible style in which parents make many reasonable demands of their children. -careful to provide rationales for complying with the limits they set and will ensure that their children follow those guidelines, more accepting of and responsive to their children's points of view than authoritarian parents. -seek their children's participation in family decision making -exercise control in a rational, democratic way that recognizes and respects their children's perspectives.

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Benefits of Chumships

-Bagwell, Newcomb, and Bukowski (1998) conducted a prospective longitudinal study to see whether children who establish close, intimate friendships as preadolescents will show some strengths as adults (i.e., very positive mental health, a strong sense of self-worth, and solid ties to romantic partners) that their chumless peers are less likely to display -Preadolescents who had established close ties to a best friend were found as young adults to feel more competent with one group of intimate associates (family members), to have a stronger sense of self-worth, and to report less depressive symptomatology than their counterparts who had been chumless as preadolescents -findings particular to friendship status not peer acceptance -Although befriended preadolescents in this study did not view themselves as any more competent 12 years later in their adult romantic relationships than did their chumless age-mates, it is possible that the results may have differed had the assessments of romantic competence come from the romantic partners rather than the participants themselves -peer acceptance and earlier friendship status impacted mental health later in life

Are There Distinct Advantages to Having Friends?: friendships as preparation for adult love relationships

-Bagwell, Newcomb, and Bukowski (1998) tested the importance of having a stable, reciprocal best friend in Grade 5 ("chumships") on overall life satisfaction when these children were young adults, 12 years later: -Preadolescents with such friendships had higher levels of general self-worth in adulthood, while peer rejection and the absence of friendship were both associated with psychopathological symptoms in adulthood -researchers have found that peer acceptance has historically been a better predictor of long-term outcomes than friendship quality

Piaget's Theory of Moral Development: heternomous morality

-Between the ages of 5 and 10, children develop a strong respect for rules as they enter Piaget's stage of heteronomous morality: Piaget's first stage of moral development, in which children view the rules of authority figures as sacred and unalterable. -likely to judge the naughtiness of an act by its objective features rather than by the actor's intent -favour expiatory punishment—punishment for its own sake with no concern for its relation to the nature of the forbidden act. -believe in immanent justice: the notion that unacceptable conduct will invariably be punished and that justice is ever present in the world.

Piaget's Theory of Moral Development: autonomous morality

-By age 10 or 11, most children have reached Piaget's second moral stage—autonomous morality: Piaget's second state of moral development, in which children realize that rules are arbitrary agreements that can be challenged and changed with the consent of the people they govern. -Judgments of right and wrong now depend more on the actor's intent to deceive or to violate social rules rather than the objective consequences of the act itself -punishment: usually favours reciprocal punishments—that is, treatments that tailor punitive consequences to the "crime" so the rule breaker will understand the implications of a transgression and perhaps be less likely to repeat it. -no longer believe in immanent justice

Who Is a Peer and What Functions Do Peers Serve?: how important are peer influences?

-By age 3, children spontaneously form joint commitments in collaborative settings -children independently chose to do an optional collaborative task with a peer partner if they had positive mutual experiences in previous tasks - peer interactions are important for children's healthy development not just for social reasons but also for problem-solving. -peers are meaningful agents of socialization, and the task of becoming appropriately sociable with peers is an important developmental hurdle

Empirical Support for Kohlberg's Theory: the longitudinal evidence

-Colby conducted longitudinal study to see if went through stages -moral reasoning developed very gradually, with use of preconventional reasoning (Stages 1 and 2) declining sharply in adolescence—the same period in which conventional reasoning (Stages 3 and 4) is on the rise. -Conventional reasoning remained the dominant form of moral expression in adulthood, with very few participants ever moving beyond it to postconventional morality (Stage 5). -proceeded through stages in the same order as Kohlberg and no one skipped a stage -does seem to be invariant, but for many people, stages 3 or 4 is the end of this sequence for many people worldwide

Social Class Differences in Child Rearing

-Compared with middle-class parents, economically disadvantaged and working-class parents tend to (1) stress obedience and respect for authority; (2) be more restrictive and authoritarian, using more power-assertive discipline; (3) reason with their children less frequently; and (4) show less warmth and affection -decrease in these child rearing practices, but some do still opt for physical discipline -Maccoby - see these class differences across different groups -parent like this bc economic hardship linked to psychological distress, so more vulnerable to negative life events, diminishing ability to be warm, supportive, involved parents -chain of events: Conger's family disress model parents who experience economic pressure, or feeling that they cannot cope with their financial problems, tend to become depressed, which increases marital conflict. -> Marital conflict, in turn, disrupts each parent's ability to be a supportive, involved parent. -> Meanwhile, their children and adolescents often react negatively to marital strife and the insensitive parenting they receive, experiencing a loss of emotional security. -> This contributes to such child and adolescent problems as low self-esteem, poor school performance, poor peer relations, and such problem behaviours as depression, hostility, and antisocial conduct -also related to skills - working class people more often blue-collar workers who must please a supervisor and defer to his or her authority. As a result, many lower-income parents may emphasize obedience and respect for authority because these are precisely the attributes they view as critical for success in the blue-collar economy

Peer Sociability in Middle Childhood

-Cooperative forms of complex pretend play become more commonplace, and by age 6 to 10 children are becoming enthusiastic participants in games (such as T-ball and Monopoly) that are governed by formal sets of rules -contacts among 6- to 11-year-olds often occur in what psychologists call peer groups. A peer group is a group of children who (1) interact on a regular basis; (2) provide a sense of belonging; (3) formulate norms that specify how members are supposed to dress, think, and behave; and (4) develop a hierarchical organization (such as leader and other roles) that helps group members to work together toward shared goals

How Well Educated Are Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Comparison : classroom instruction

-Elementary school teachers in Asian countries devote more class time to core academic subjects; for example, they spend two to three times as many hours a week on math instruction -Asian students spend about 95 percent of their time on "on-task" activities such as listening to the teacher and completing assignments, whereas American students spend only about 80 percent of their time "on task" -Asian students also attend school for more hours per day and more days per year (often attending half the day on Saturdays) than American students do

Who Is a Peer and What Functions Do Peers Serve?: early understandings of peer connections

-Ellis and children observations: -children spend more time with peers than parents -children of all ages spent less time with age-mates (defined as children whose ages were within a year of their own) than with children who were more than a year older or younger than they were - peers more social equals than just age-mates -children played more with same-sex than other-sex peers -> boys formed packs, girls pairs

Parents and Peers as Influence Agents

-Harris claims that children are socialized into the ways of their culture primarily by the peer group and would become approximately the same people even if they had lived in a different home with different parents -other developmentalists think that many apparent peer influences are hidden parental influences because, as we will see, parents can have a major impact on the company their children keep.

Ethnic Variations in Child Rearing

-Indigenous and Hispanic parents more often maintain close ties to many relatives, polite behaviours and respect for authority -Asian and Asian American parents stress self-discipline and harmony, more high warmth but still highly controlling - "tiger parenting -> more likely authoritarian parenting, but different for east asian families -impacts of different child rearing behaviours depends on the population -> e.g. Chinese culture, parents believe that strictness is the best way to express love for children and to train them properly -an authoritarian style that may be too controlling to work well for European Americans appears highly effective indeed in China and among recent Asian immigrant families in the United States, but only for the first-generation children and not second-generation children who were born and raised in the United States -most asian american parents adopt authoritative parenting style though -no-nonsense parenting often displayed in Black families, - coercive and controlling and highly adaptive for preparing young children to meet the challenges of dangerous neighbourhoods

Gay and Lesbian Families

-Many gay men and lesbian women are parents, most through previous heterosexual marriages, although some have adopted children or conceived through DI -no basis for any of the concerns about children being raised by gay and lesbian parents - and same percentage straight as in the general population -just as well-adjusted and mature -Golombok found only that boys from single-parent homes headed by mothers (the vast majority of whom were heterosexual) had less traditionally masculine activity preferences than boys raised by two parents, regardless of sexual orientation.

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development - general

-Kohlberg asked 1-, 13, 16 year olds to resolve moral dilemmas -Each dilemma challenged the child by requiring him or her to choose between (1) obeying a rule, law, or authority figure, and (2) taking some action that conflicted with these rules and commands while serving a human need. -more interested in justifications for decisions, "thought structures", through clinical interviews -Kohlberg: moral development extends beyond Piaget's autonomous stage, gets more complex through adolescence and into young adulthood -> 3 levels, invariant sequence -to move to the next, had to be exposed to situations with cognitive disequilibria

Evidence for Kohlberg's Social-Experience Hypothesis: parental and peer influences

-Kohlberg thought peers more influential than parents -Walker tested this - -> Friends were much more likely than parents to challenge and disagree with a child's or an adolescent's ideas, and they contributed positively to moral growth when they did confront and challenge -When groups of peers are asked to reach consensus when resolving moral dilemmas, moral growth typically results if the group discussions are characterized by explicit but nonhostile transactive interactions—exchanges in which discussants challenge each other and hash out their differences.

Families Are Developing Systems: active postponement of marriage

-Many young singles postpone marriage to pursue educational and career goals, or to cohabit with their partner prior to marriage. -the average age of first marriage has risen to 29.6 years for women and 31 years for men in 2008, an increase of six years from the average age of first marriage in 1973

Development of Media Literacy

-Media literacy: a person's ability to understand how information is represented and conveyed in media. -When viewing a television show or video, children need to be able to process program content so that they can construct a storyline from characters' activities and the sequencing of scenes. -Children also need to interpret the form of the message—production features such as zooms, cuts, fade-outs, split screens, and sound effects that are often essential to understanding a program's content. -Exposure to television and videos helps children to properly interpret the zooms, fade-outs, musical scores, and other production features that assist viewers in inferring characters' motives and connecting nonadjacent scenes -cognitive skills allow them to understand production features -Very young children—toddlers and younger—demonstrate a "video deficit" when learning from television or videos. That is, they learn less from watching models in these media than they do from face-to-face interactions with another person bc of poor encoding and retrieval skills and models not responsive to audience -Younger children also have more difficulty understanding fiction and reality -Hypermedia environments present additional media literacy challenges for young children. In hypermedia contexts, materials such as videos are embedded within linked pathways. Finding and retrieving materials requires memory for "routes" or "steps" taken to locate material. In addition, when multiple links are accessed, mental maps must be generated to represent the links among these materials. --Opportunities to navigate hypermedia, higher working memory skills, and greater understanding of the symbols used in media are related to greater learning in hypermedia contexts

After the Divorce: Crisis and Reorganization

-Most families going through a divorce experience a crisis period of a year or more in which the lives of all family members are seriously disrupted -custodial issues become important, mother often obtains custody -divorced women often have to get by with less money - and child support varies -psychologically distressed adults arent the best parents: custodial mothers often edgy, impatient, and insensitive -> coercive child rearing -fathers often become overly permissive and indulgent when do see children -children may become whiney and argumentative, disobedient, and disrespectful -> vicious cycle -Younger, cognitively immature preschool and early elementary school children often display the most visible signs of distress as a divorce unfolds -Older children are better able to understand the personality conflicts and lack of caring that may lead distressed parents to divorce, but may still show signs of distress -investigators report that the impact of marital strife and divorce is more powerful and enduring for boys than for girls - 2 years after divorce still showing signs of emotional stress and problems in relationships -> however, father-daughter relationship suffers more than father-son -> also research in overt behaviours, and girls experience more covert distress -boys may fare better when dad is custodial parent -encouraging messages: 1) children in stable single-parent (or stepparent) homes are usually better adjusted than those who remain in conflict-ridden two-parent families 2) not all divorcing families experience all the difficulties we have described

Why Are Children Accepted, Neglected, or Rejected by Peers?

-Parenting Styles: -Warm, sensitive, and authoritative parents who rely on reasoning rather than power to guide and control children's conduct tend to raise children who are liked by adults and peers, authoritarian or uninvolved parents more often have disliked children -Temperamental Characteristics: -temperaments influence peer relations and peer relations influence children's temperaments -Relatively passive children who are behaviourally inhibited or slow to warm up are at risk (in Western societies, at least) of being neglected or even rejected by peers -Cognitive Skills: -Popular, average-status, and neglected youngsters tend to perform better academically and to score higher on IQ tests than rejected children do -Cyberball - if scored lower on self-esteem, popularity, and nonverbal intelligence, later scored lower on logical reasoning if were socially excluded in cyberball -Social Behaviours: -popular children warm, cooperative, compassionate -neglected children shy and withdrawn - but not less socially skilled

Computer Technologies and Cognitive Development

-Parents report that allowing their children to access technology can promote motor, literacy, and mathematic skill development, as well as provide skills that will prepare their child for the future and other educational advantages -Learning gains have been demonstrated across many domains including literacy, reading, science, and math and across a diverse array of activities including creating presentations, gathering information, gaming, using digital cameras, listening to music, and watching television -learning gains are most likely to be evident when well-designed, pedagogically appropriate software is used -speed, colour, audio, and dynamic presentation in software programs are especially engaging for young learners -well-designed software can provide the opportunity for individualized instruction and independent learning as well as timely feedback -when parents engage in media use with their child, learning gains are maximized

Coercive Home Environments: Breeding Grounds for Aggression -> families as social systems

-Patterson - highly aggressive children lived in atypical family environments that were characterized by a social climate that they had helped to create -highly aggressive children more likely to live in "coercive home environments": a home in which family members often annoy one another and use aggressive or otherwise antisocial tactics as a method of coping with these aversive experiences. -negative reinforcement important to maintain coercive interactions -Mothers of problem children rarely use social approval as a means of behaviour control, choosing instead to largely ignore prosocial conduct and to interpret many innocuous acts as antisocial, and rely almost exclusively on coercive tactics to deal with perceived misconduct -this may be why display hostile attribution bias -the flow of influence in the family setting is multidirectional: coercive interactions between parents and their children and the children themselves affect the behaviour of all parties and contribute to the development of a hostile family environment—a true breeding ground for aggression

Permissive Parenting

-Permissive parenting: a pattern of parenting in which otherwise accepting adults make few demands of their children and rarely attempt to control their behaviour.

Piaget's Theory of Moral Development: the premoral period

-Piaget focused on respect for and understanding of rules. -preschool children show little concern for or awareness of rules

updates to Piaget's theory on morality: Do Younger Children Ignore an Actor's Intentions?

-Piaget's claim that children younger than 9 or 10 judge acts as right or wrong based on the consequences that the acts produce rather than the intentions that guided them -but Piaget's moral-decision stories were flawed in that they (1) confounded intentions and consequences by asking whether a person who caused little harm with a bad intent was naughtier than one who caused a larger amount of harm while serving good intentions, and (2) made information about the consequences of an act much clearer than information about the actor's intentions. -Nelson overcame these flaws with her experiment with 3 year olds -> -judged acts that had positive consequences more favourably than those that caused harm. -also judged the well-intentioned child who had wanted to play much more favourably than the child who intended to hurt his friend, regardless of the consequences of his actions. -even preschool children consider an actor's intentions when making moral judgments

uninvolved parenting

-Uninvolved parenting: a pattern of parenting that is both aloof (or even hostile) and overpermissive, almost as if parents cared about neither their children nor what they might become -parents have either rejected children or overwhelmed by own problems so dont focus on child rearing -children of uninvolved parents aggressive, disruptive, do poorly in classroom

On Improving the Social Skills of Unpopular Children

-Reinforcement and Modelling Therapies: -Many early approaches to social skills training were based on learning theory and involved (1) reinforcing children (with tokens or praise) for displaying such socially appropriate behaviours as cooperation and sharing, or (2) exposing children to social models who displayed a variety of socially skilled acts. -these increase socially skilled behaviours, better when teachers and peers also participate -modelling programs work best when the model is similar to the target child and when his socially skillful actions are accompanied by some form of commentary that directs the child's attention to the purposes and benefits of behaving appropriately toward peers -Cognitive Approaches to Social Skills Training: -the child's active cognitive involvement in the social skills training may increase her understanding and appreciation of the principles that are taught, thereby persuading her to internalize and then rely on these lessons -Coaching: method of social skills training in which an adult displays and explains various socially skilled behaviours, allows the child to practise them, and provides feedback aimed at improving the child's performances. - effective -CBT interventions can be effective for children with hostile attribution bias -social problem-solving training: method of social skills training in which an adult helps children (through role-playing or role-taking training) to make less hostile attributions about harmdoing and to generate nonaggressive solutions to conflict. -Academic Skills Training: -trying to improve social status through improving academics -> was effective to improve academics and social standing -long term success of programs could be compromised by poor parents -> preventative therapies should: (1) be undertaken as soon as a child's problems with peers become apparent and (2) not be limited solely to groups of problem children. -best when occur before might band together with iatogenic effects

types of rejected children

-Rejected-aggressive children: a subgroup of rejected children who display high levels of hostility and aggression in their interactions with peers. -alienate peers by use of proactive means of domination -overestimate social standing - most at risk for chronic hostility, externalizing disorders -Rejected-withdrawn children: a subgroup of rejected children who are often passive, socially anxious, socially unskilled, and insensitive to peer group expectations. -know that not liked and withdraw bc of it -lonely, at risk for internalizing disorders, targets for abuse -aggression is generally associated with unfavourable peer status at any age but during preadolescence at least some "tough" boys who view themselves as cool, popular, and antisocial do become popular with male classmates and attractive to girls -> context matters

Peer Sociability in Infancy and Toddlerhood

-Sociability: a person's willingness to engage others in social interaction and to seek their attention or approval. -babies interested in other babies from beginning of life, interact by middle of first year, smile and babble at each other -6- to 10-month-olds are already showing some simple social preferences, for they reliably choose to play with a partner whom they had seen help rather than hurt a companion -By the end of the first year, infants may even imitate another child's simple actions with a toy -Between 12 and 18 months of age, toddlers begin to react more to each other's behaviour, often engaging in more complex exchanges in which they appear to take turns -> often treat peers as particularly responsive toys -by 18 months of age, however, toddlers are beginning to display coordinated interactions that are clearly social with age-mates. They now take great delight in imitating each other - social games requiring skills not developed until then -By age 20 to 24 months, toddlers' play has a strong verbal component. -> Coordinated social speech corresponds with complementary role-taking, such as chaser or chasee in a game of tag -toddlers in Western societies who are securely attached to their caregivers are generally more outgoing and even more "popular" as playmates than those who are insecurely attached -18- to 24-month-olds begin to display truly coordinated, reciprocal interactions at precisely the time that they first recognize themselves in a mirror and can tell the difference between photographs of themselves from those of peers - toddlers must first realize that both they and their peers are independent, intentional actors before they play complementary games or coordinate their actions to accomplish a goal

Do Our Schools Meet the Needs of All of Our Children?: teacher expectancies

-Teacher expectancy effects on academic achievement are largest in the early grades, particularly in classrooms where high- and low-expectancy students reliably receive differential treatment -teachers may subtly communicate to an Asian Canadian student that she is expected to do well by rephrasing questions the child has missed or by giving helpful hints if she looks indecisive, thus sending the message that failures can be overcome by persisting and trying harder -a student from a low-income neighbourhood might be tagged by teachers as a low-ability student, who is then rarely challenged and is even criticized for errors in ways that cause him to doubt his abilities.

Factors That Contribute to Effective Schooling: child temperament

-Temperamental factors such as high "effortful control" (self-regulation of behaviour, emotions, and attention) and low negative emotional expressivity at the start of a school year, for example, lead to increased success in reading, math, and engagement at the end of the year -teaching methods may need to be revised based on children's temperament, perhaps exposing low effortful control with those high in self-regulation who can model such behaviour.

morality: The Anthropologist View

-Turiel's view has been challenged by cultural anthropologist Richard Shweder and colleagues -Shweder and colleagues used the same method as Turiel in India and the US -Indians and Americans agreed on 10 out of 39 instances that acts such as breaking a promise, cutting in line, ignoring an accident victim, and stealing constituted moral violations. -> but disagreed on many others. In most cases of disagreement, Hindu participants quoted a legitimate moral rule that forbid the behaviour whereas Americans did not. -for Hindu respondents, concerns about loyalty, authority, and purity/sanctity were part of the moral domain (unlike for Turiel) -> Western cultures tend towards focusing on care and fairness as the primary and core aspects of morality -With age, Indian children saw more and more issues as matters of universal moral principle, whereas American children saw fewer and fewer issues in the same light.

Evolutionary Roots of Morality in Young Children: prosocial helping

-Warneken and Tomasello - toddlers watch an experimenter repeatedly trying to accomplish an action but failing -even though they dont ask for help 14-18 month old toddlers spontaneously engage in helping behaviour without being asked to do so and without being offered a benefit in return. -offering material rewards for helping (a small toy for each helping act) decreased children's helping behaviour and undermined children's motivation to help -the authors conclude that young children are intrinsically motivated to help others regardless of instrumental rewards, and regardless of any desire to please their parents

Factors That Contribute to Effective Schooling: school climate

-When children feel safe and encouraged, they are more engaged in school, and this helps them to achieve academically and socially and to experience fewer emotional problems

Sociability during the Preschool Period

-While 2- to 3-year-olds are more likely than older children to remain near an adult, the sociable behaviours of 4- to 5-year-olds normally consist of playful bids for attention or approval that are directed at peers rather than adults -Parten study - She classified preschoolers' play activities into five categories, arranged from least to most socially complex: 1) Nonsocial activity. Children watch other children play or they engage in their own solitary play and largely ignore what other children are doing. 2) Onlooker play. Children linger around other children, watching them play but making no attempts to join in the play. 3) Parallel play. Children play side by side but interact with each other very little and do not try to influence the behaviour of other children. 4) Associative play. Children now share toys and swap materials, but each child is focused mostly on his or her own play and they do not cooperate with each other to achieve shared goals. 5) Cooperative play. Children now act out make-believe themes, assume reciprocal roles in their play together, and collaborate to achieve shared goals. -solitary and parallel play decline with age, whereas associative and cooperative play become more common. -However, all five kinds of play were observed among children of all ages -Howes and Matheson study: play became more and more cognitively complex with age -> pretend play serves three developmental functions: 1) helps learn to communicate effectively with peers 2) provides opportunities to learn to compromise 3) context that allows for display of feelings that might bother them -> can (1) better understand their own (or their partner's) emotional crises, (2) receive social support from (or provide it to) playmates, and (3) develop a sense of trust and close emotional ties to these playmates.

Factors That Contribute to Effective Schooling: composition of the student body

-academic achievement is lowest in schools with mostly economically disadvantaged students -any child is likely to make more progress if taught in a school with a higher concentration of highly motivated, intellectually capable peers.

Evidence for Kohlberg's Social-Experience Hypothesis: advanced education

-adults who go on to university and receive many years of education reason more complexly about moral issues than those who are less educated -Advanced education may foster moral growth in two ways: by (1) contributing to cognitive growth and (2) exposing students to diverse moral perspectives that produce cognitive conflict and soul searching

Should Preschoolers Attend School?

-advantages and disadvantages (esp when academically oriented) -many young children today are not given enough time to simply be children—to play and socialize as they choose. -Three- to 6-year-olds in academically oriented preschools or kindergartens sometimes display an initial advantage in such basic academic competencies as a knowledge of letters and reading skills but often lose it by the end of kindergarten. -students in these highly structured, academically oriented programs proved to be less creative, more stressed, and more anxious about tests, less prideful about their successes, less confident about succeeding in the future, and generally less enthused about school than children who attended preschool or kindergarten programs that emphasized child-centred social agendas and flexible, hands-on, discovery-based learning -preschool programs that offer a healthy mix of play and child-initiated discovery learning can be very beneficial to young children, especially to disadvantaged children -So as long as preschool programs allow plenty of time for play and for building skills in the context of group social interactions, they can help children from all social backgrounds acquire social and communication skills, as well as an appreciation of rules and routines, that will smooth the transition from individual learning at home to group learning in an elementary school classroom

Changes in the Family System when a New Baby Arrives

-after new baby, mothers typically devote less warm and playful attention to their older child -The older child may respond to this perceived "neglect" by becoming difficult and disruptive and less securely attached. -These events are particularly likely if the older child is 2 years of age or older and can more readily appreciate that an "exclusive" relationship with caregivers has been undermined by the baby's birth -sibling rivalry: spirit of competition, jealousy, and resentment that may arise between two or more siblings. -often begins as soon as younger sibling arrives -minimized if first child has secure relationships with both parents before and after new baby, important to maintain routines and showing attention

the development of aggression

-aggression: behaviour performed with the intention of harming a living being who is motivated to avoid this treatment. -actor's intent defines it as aggressive, not the consequences -Antisocial and delinquent behaviours are also aggressive acts as they violate social rules and societal laws that protect people from harm inflicted by others. -2 categories of aggressive acts: -reactive aggression: aggressive acts for which the perpetrator's major goal is to harm or injure a victim. -proactive aggression: aggressive acts for which the perpetrator's major goal is to gain access to objects, space, or privileges. -also: relational aggression: acts such as snubbing, exclusion, withdrawing acceptance, or spreading rumours that are aimed at damaging a victim's self-esteem, friendships, or social status -what qualifies as aggressive varies across development -aggressiveness as a behavioural trait for some -aggressiveness as a behavioural problems for some.

Families Are Developing Systems: more single-parent families

-an average of 20 percent of Canadian families are headed by a single parent, ranging from 16 percent in Alberta to 26 percent in Nova Scotia -most (81%) headed by women but more and more male single parenting

Evolutionary Roots of Morality in Young Children: Empathy and Compassion

-baby put next to crying baby makes them cry -empathy: affective response stemming from the apprehension or comprehension of another's emotional state or condition; thus, it is a response that is identical, or very similar, to what the other person is feeling or might be expected to be feeling -empathy is not the same as sympathy or compassion: ability to feel sorrow or concern for another, other animals show empathy -18 months: children interpret their empathetic arousal as concern for distressed others, and it is this sympathetic distress (feelings of sympathy or compassion that may be elicited when we experience the emotions of (i.e., empathize with) a distressed other.), rather than self-oriented distress (feeling of personal discomfort or distress that may be elicited when we experience the emotions of (i.e., empathize with) a distressed other; thought to inhibit altruism), that eventually promotes prosocial helping behaviour -see this in second year of life

Before the Divorce: Exposure to Marital Conflict

-before divorce- rise in family conflict like verbal arguments or physical violence -children become extremely distressed by conflict at home, increases the likelihood that children will have hostile, aggressive interactions with siblings and peers, causes adjustment problems -Marital discord can have both direct effects on children by putting them on edge emotionally and undermining the maturity of their behaviour -It can also have indirect effects by undermining parental acceptance and sensitivity and the quality of the parent-child relationship -children with secure attachment cope better bc may feel less responsible and less worried that will lose parents' love

Piaget's Theory of Moral Development: moving from heteronomous to autonomous morality

-both cognitive maturation and social experience play a role in the transition from heteronomous to autonomous morality: -cognitive advances that are necessary for this shift are a general decline in egocentrism and the development of role-taking skills that enable the child to view moral issues from several perspectives -social experience: equal-status contact with peers. -equal-status contacts with peers may lead to a more flexible, autonomous morality because they (1) lessen the child's respect for adult authority, (2) increase his or her self-respect and respect for peers, and (3) illustrate that rules are arbitrary agreements that can be changed with the consent of the people they govern. -unless parents relinquish some of their power, they may slow the progress of moral development by reinforcing the child's respect for rules and authority figures.

Mother-Stepfather Families

-boys seem to benefit more than girls by gaining a stepfather. - Stepfathers who are warm and accepting offer relief from the coercive cycles that boys may have experienced with a custodial mother, so these stepsons often enjoy a boost in self-esteem and will eventually overcome many of the adjustment problems they displayed before their mother remarried -Girls often view stepfathers as threats to their relationships with their mothers and may even resent their mothers for remarrying and becoming less attentive to their needs -> but may become more accepting if mother-stepfather relationship is positive

Families Are Developing Systems: more single adults

-broader social context changes -more adults stay single for longer - but 90% eventually marry

aggressive behaviour in infancy and childhood

-can see signs of proactive aggression by end of first year - e.g. in squabbles around toys -unfocused temper tantrums become less and less common between ages 2 and 3 as children began to physically retaliate (by hitting or kicking) when playmates frustrate or attack them -physical aggression gradually declines between ages 3 and 5, only to be replaced by teasing, tattling, name-calling, and other forms of verbal aggression -> usually over toys and other possessions, so proactive aggression -patterns of aggression between ages 2-9: 5 patterns (main 3 described below): -70% always low -27% moderate in physical aggression during at least some point in the study, although these children did show some decline in physical aggression with age -3% displayed high levels of physical aggression that remained stable across the entire study period -> some level of physical aggression is relatively normal early in toddlerhood, but for most children this type of aggression is relatively rare by middle childhood -> only a small group of children appear to have problems with displays of physical aggression that remain relatively stable into middle childhood and that may be a cause for concern in their development -children learn to settle disputes more amicably over time, but reactive aggression increases over time as proactive decreases -> bc older children are becoming better at recognizing when someone is trying to harm them, and they sometimes strike back against the harmdoer -conflicts between children can be great places to learn to negotiate, not always about learning to be aggressive, esp if adults help (e.g. Japanese mothers good at this)

Down the Hidden Side of Family Life: The Problem of Child Abuse

-child abuse: term used to describe maltreatment of children, involving physical harm; sexual abuse; psychological trauma; and emotional, physical, psychological, or medical neglect. -types of abuse in table 16.2

rule internalization in the context of close relationships - general

-children can be aggressive: Physical aggression peaks in toddlerhood and gradually declines thereafter -children need to learn to suppress antisocial impulses and act on their prosocial proclivities -differences between moral behaviour and behaviours that can be managed through reward and punishment: 1) moral behaviour often consists of resisting the temptation to act antisocially. 2) rule-breaking behaviour is in itself rewarding—addressing this would require cancelling out the effect of these positive rewards, which may lead to quite harsh punishments 3) positive reinforcement sometimes can have negative side effects that cancel out any positive effects 4) people's moral behaviour cannot be constantly monitored by authorities and rewarded or punished -> the development of conscience—the shift from externally controlled actions to conduct that is governed by internal standards and principles, also called internalization—to be a most crucial milestone along the road to moral maturity.

Are There Distinct Advantages to Having Friends?: friends as contributors to social problem-solving skills

-children highly motivated to resolve conflicts with friends, even during preschool -disagreeing friends are more likely than disagreeing acquaintances to step away before the squabbles become intense, to make concessions by accepting equal outcomes, and to continue playing together after the conflict is over - middle childhood, friends are much more inclined than acquaintances are to follow the rules (and not cheat) while playing competitive games and to respect the opinions, needs, and wishes of their partner while negotiating to settle a dispute -These experiences of amicably resolving conflicts with a friend are undoubtedly important contributors to the growth of mature social problem-solving skills -children who are rejected by peers are likely to retain their rejected status from grade to grade and are at risk of experiencing some (or all) of the adjustment problems associated with peer rejection

Immediate Consequences of Abuse and Neglect

-children who are neglected or abused tend to display a number of serious problems, including intellectual deficits, academic difficulties, depression, social anxiety, low self-esteem, and disturbed relationships with teachers and peers -Neglected children are more likely than those who are physically and sexually abused to flounder academically -hostility, aggression, and disordered social relationships are more common among physically abused youngsters, who often create disciplinary problems at school -many maltreated children are victims of both abuse and neglect, and any of the previously mentioned consequences may appear in any particular child who is a victim of severe and prolonged maltreatment

Family Composition and Age

-complex stepparent homes: family consisting of two married (or cohabiting) adults, each of whom has at least one biological child living at home. -all kinds of problems more common here -both parents show ownness effect: tendency of parents in complex stepparent homes to favour and be more involved with their own biological children than with their stepchildren. -coparenting more common in simple stepparent homes: family consisting of a parent and his or her biological children and a stepparent, especially if roles stabilize before adolescence

Donor Insemination (DI) Families

-concerns: -stresses associated with the couple's infertility may lead to dysfunctional patterns of parenting -dont have genetic ties to their fathers, who may be more distant and less nurturing than genetically related fathers, thus having a negative impact on a DI child's emotional well-being and other developmental outcomes -> but these concerns dont have merit - study found that at age 12, DI children showed no more behavioural problems and were as well adjusted on measures of emotional development, scholastic progress, and peer relations as their adoptive or naturally conceived peers -fathers were no less involved in all aspects of parenting except discipline, and just as close with children -DI children raised by single mothers well-adjusted as well

Sibling Relationships over the Course of Childhood

-confict is normal in even the best sibling relationships -rivalrous conduct declines with age and older siblings become domineering and younger ones compliant, but older siblings can initiate prosocial behaviours too -siblings more likely to get along if parents too -sibling relationships friendlier if parents monitor activities and make sure that dont escalate into serious incidents -> intense, destructive sibling battles that occur against a backdrop of uninvolved parenting are a strong predictor of aggressive, antisocial behaviour outside the home -conflicts also provide opportunities for siblings to engage in constructive problem solving to resolve disagreements and competing interests less conflictual when parents respond warmly and sensitively to all siblings and dont pick favorites, younger siblings sensitive to reacting negatively, older siblings may better understand why unequal treatment could occur -but also often enjoy their relationships with siblings and impacts their lives

Parental Conflict and Children's Aggression

-continuing conflict at home increases the likelihood that children will have hostile, aggressive interactions with siblings and peers -increases over time in parental conflict and marital distress predict similar increases in children's and adolescents' aggression and other problem behaviours -as children of conflict-ridden homes become more unruly and aggressive, their behaviour contributes to a vicious cycle: parents may argue more about child management issues, and this elevated marital conflict promotes further increases in problem behaviours -Children are especially likely to be affected by marital conflict when parents show a pattern of attacking, then withdrawing from one another, so children are not exposed to amiable and satisfactory resolutions of heated conflicts -distressed parents who withdraw from each other become emotionally unavailable parents. -distressed children in conflict-ridden homes come to display blunted physiological reactivity to parental conflict -> predicts conduct problems, more difficult time getting social skills to do well with peers

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development: Level 2: Conventional Morality

-conventional morality: Kohlberg's term for the third and fourth stages of moral reasoning, in which moral judgments are based on a desire to gain approval (Stage 3) or to uphold laws that maintain social order (Stage 4). -Stage 3: "Good Boy" or "Good Girl" Orientation -Moral behaviour is that which pleases, helps, or is approved of by others. People are often judged by their intentions. -Stage 4: Social-Order-Maintaining Morality. -Now what is right is what conforms to the rules of legal authority. -reason for conforming is not a fear of punishment, but a belief that rules and laws maintain a social order that is worth preserving.

Long-Term Consequences of Abuse and Neglect

-correlate of physical abuse is a lack of normal empathy in response to the distress of peers - e.g. became angry with and attacked crying child -other forms of violence also common in abusive families so may have few occasions to learn to regulate negative emotions and respond compassionately to others' distress but lots of opportunities to learn aggression - often rejected by peers -can be long lasting effects, adults who were abused as children are prone to violence, both inside and outside the family, and show higher-than-average rates of criminal activity, substance abuse, depression, and other psychological disturbances -but many also resilient, especially if they are able to establish a warm, secure, and supportive relationship with a nonabusive parent, a grandparent, or even a particularly close friend -Abused parents who succeed at breaking the cycle of abuse are more likely than those who do not to have (1) received emotional support from a nonabusive parent (or parent substitute), a therapist, and their spouse, and (2) avoided severe stress as adults (

Methods of Controlling Aggression in Young Children: creating nonaggressive environments

-create play areas that minimize the likelihood of conflict. -e.g. no aggressive toys, space for vigorous play, provide enough of everything so dont compete

Criticisms of Kohlberg's Approach: is Kohlberg's Theory Gender Biased?

-data provided by male participants -Gilligan: differential gender typing causes boys and girls to adopt different moral orientations -> -"morality of justice": strong independence and assertiveness training that boys receive encourages them to view moral dilemmas as inevitable conflicts of interest between individuals that laws and other social conventions are designed to resolve = stage 4 -"morality of care": Girls are taught to be nurturing, empathic, and concerned about others—in short, to define their sense of "goodness" in terms of their interpersonal relationships = stage 3 -Gilligan: the morality of care that females adopt can become quite abstract or "principled," even though Kohlberg's scheme might place it at Stage 3 because of its focus on interpersonal obligations. -However, not much support for this, most studies indicate that women reason just as complexly about moral issues as men do when their answers are scored using Kohlberg's criteria -justice and care orientations are not sex-specific moralities

updates to Piaget's theory on morality: Distributive Justice

-dictator game: child allocates valuable resource to self and partner -> children around the age of 3 or 4 years act quite selfishly in this situation - lack motivation to share -> adults give a third and keep the rest, which happens around 7-8 years old - supports Piaget -young children do have preference for equality and inequity aversion: the preference for treating others equally and fairly, and resistance to incidental inequalities. -> but this dissapears when children benefit from inequality -disadvantageous inequity aversion (inequality that puts self at a disadvantage) developed much earlier than advantageous inequity aversion (inequality that gives self an advantage). -> advantageous inequity aversion developed not before late childhood and only in students who received a Western education -Piaget's description of moral heteronomy and moral autonomy conflates cognitive and motivational aspects of morality and therefore sometimes provides a distorted picture of moral development.

Family Conflict and Divorce - general

-divorce not singular life event - represents series of stressful family experiences -families must often cope with "the diminution of family resources, changes in residence, assumption of new roles and responsibilities, establishment of new patterns of [family] interaction, reorganization of routines... and [possibly] the introduction of new relationships

Morality: Positive Reinforcement in the Context of Close Relationships: explaining the effects of cognitive rationales

-effective bc provide children with information specifying why the punished act is wrong and why they should feel guilty or shameful for repeating it -when think about doing thing in the future, experience uneasiness and make internal attribution for this arousal -> less likely to do forbidden act -if dont get cognitive rationale for why not to do something, still experience uneasiness, but make external attributions for their emotional arousal - might make them comply with moral norms in the presence of authority figures but probably won't inhibit deviant conduct if there is no one around to detect their transgressions. -Hoffman: compared 3 disciplinary approaches: 1) Love withdrawal: withholding attention, affection, or approval after a child misbehaves, that is, creating anxiety over a loss of love. 2) Power assertion: use of superior power to control the child's behaviour (including techniques, such as forceful commands, physical restraint, spankings, and withdrawal of privileges that may generate fear, anger, or resentment). 3) Induction: explaining why a behaviour is wrong and should be changed by emphasizing how it affects other people, often suggesting how the child might repair any harm done. - rationales -(1) neither love withdrawal nor power assertion were particularly effective at promoting moral maturity, but that (2) induction seemed to foster the development of all three aspects of morality—moral emotions, moral reasoning, and moral behaviour -inductive reasoning effective bc: 1) provides children with cognitive standards (or rationales) to evaluate their conduct 2) this form of discipline helps children to sympathize with others 3) explain to the child (1) what he or she should have done when tempted to violate a prohibition and (2) what he or she can now do to make up for a transgression. -calls attention to the cognitive, affective, and behavioural aspects of morality and may help the child to integrate them

Evolutionary Roots of Morality in Young Children: social preference for helpfulness

-evidence that 6- to 12-month-old infants harbour a social preference for helpfulness -habituation experiments - geometric figures with roles as helper or hinderer -> even 6-month-old babies had a profound preference for the helper piece -The findings suggest an inborn tendency to "evaluate" others based on their social behaviour.

three extrafamilial influences on development

-extrafamilial influences: social agencies other than the family that influence a child's cognitive, social, and emotional development. -peers, schools, and media.

Families Are Developing Systems - general

-families change over time as individuals and their relationships change all families embedded in larger cultural or subcultural contexts, ecological niche of the family impacts interactions and development -e.g. although family hardship can be negative, having community connections -> parents do better -> why children who live with extended family tend to do better

understanding the family

-families serve to socialize young -Socialization: the process by which children acquire the beliefs, values, and behaviours considered desirable or appropriate by their culture or subculture. -many children have limited exposure to people outside the family until they are placed in daycare or nursery school, or begin their formal schooling. So the family has a clear head start on other institutions when it comes to socializing a child

the family as a social system

-family social system: the complex network of relationships, interactions, and patterns of influence that characterize a family with three or more members. -studying socialization in 1940s and 50s - focus on mother-child relationship -nowadays more comprehensive systems approach -The systems approach recognizes that parents influence their children. But it also stresses that (1) children influence the behaviour and child-rearing practices of their parents and (2) that families are complex social systems—that is, networks of reciprocal relationships and alliances that are constantly evolving and are greatly affected by community and cultural influences. -family is a holistic structure made of interrelated parts -traditional nuclear families: a family unit consisting of a wife/mother, a husband/father, and their dependent child or children -infant and parents have reciprocal relationship -interactions between any two family members are likely to be influenced by the attitudes and behaviours of a third family member -> e.g. children of happy parental relationship more likely to be securely attached -children do best with coparenting: circumstance in which parents mutually support each other and function as a cooperative parenting team -multiple children, extended family, increase the complexity of the family social system -Indigenous and immigrant families are more likely to reside in extended family households than other Canadian families

Methods of Controlling Aggression in Young Children: eliminating the payoffs for aggression

-for proactive aggressors -teaching that prosocial responses better to acheive goals -can reduce the incidence of proactive aggression by identifying and eliminating its reinforcing consequences and encouraging alternative means of achieving one's objectives. -incompatible-response technique: good for those who want attention - a strategy of ignoring all but the most serious of Lennie's aggressive antics (thereby denying him an "attentional" reward) while reinforcing such acts as cooperation and sharing that are incompatible with aggression. Teachers who have tried this strategy find that it quickly produces an increase in children's prosocial conduct and a corresponding decrease in their hostilities -time-out technique: the adult removes the offender from the situation in which his aggression is reinforced, way to handle the wrongdoing without reinforcing behaviour

Children and Their Friends - general

-friendships: close and often enduring relationship between two individuals that may be characterized by loyalty and mutual affection. -Before age 8, the principal basis for friendship is common activity -- to 10-year-olds, equipped with more sophisticated social perspective-taking skills, begin to see friends as individuals who are psychologically similar and who can be trusted to be loyal, kind, cooperative, and sensitive to each other's feelings and needs

Increasing Conformity to Peers

-from middle childhood onward, an increasing percentage of peer interactions occur in true peer groups—confederations that influence their members by setting norms specifying how group members are supposed to look, dress, think, and act -and children become more and more responsive to peer norms as age -Bermdt study: -conformity with peer pressure for prosocial behaviours did not change much with age. -most striking developmental change was a sharp increase in conformity to peers urging antisocial behaviour. This receptivity to peer-sponsored misconduct peaked in Grade 9 (or about age 15) and then declined throughout the high school years

Are There Distinct Advantages to Having Friends?: friends as providers of security and social support

-having at least one supportive friend can go a long way toward reducing the loneliness and victimization of unpopular children who are excluded from the larger peer group - emotional safety net, easier to cope with stress -Close, supportive friendships play an especially important role in promoting the social competencies and self-esteem of children from non-nurturing, noncohesive families, and if youngsters from such nonsupportive family environments lose a particularly close friend, they often experience sizable declines in their feelings of self-worth -so friends are potentially important sources of security and social support, and they become increasingly important in fulfilling this role as children grow older -Grade 4 children, for example, say that their parents are their primary sources of social support; however, friends are perceived to be (1) as supportive as parents by Grade 7 students and (2) the most frequent providers of social support by Grade 10 adolescents

who is abused: High-Risk Neighbourhoods

-high-risk neighbourhoods: residential area in which the incidence of child abuse is much higher than in other neighbourhoods with the same demographic characteristics. -impoverished and deteriorating neighbourhoods that offer struggling parents little in the way of community services, such as organized support groups, recreation centres, preschool programs, churches, and parks, or informal support systems, such as contact with friends and relatives -> socially isolated

who is abused: Immigrant Families and Cultural Practices

-higher proportion of maltreatment investigations with Asian Canadian families compared to white Canadian families - most often physical abuse and then intimate partner violence -for white canadian families: intimate partner violence first, then neglect -why this difference? -the closed and rigid family boundaries among Asian Canadian families contributed to the type of child maltreatment investigations, not encouraged to speak about family so only get involved when incident already happened -physical discipline may be cultural norm -Immigrants from cultures with high collectivist values (e.g., Southeast Asia) may be less likely than those from more autonomous societies to report abuse, as revealing maltreatment would affect the integrity and cohesion of the family—the highly valued central unit in Asian cultures -some developmentalists believe that child abuse is rampant in some Western countries such as the United States because American society (1) has a permissive attitude toward violence and (2) generally sanctions the use of physical punishment as a means of controlling children's behaviour -link between children being less abused in societies that discourage physical punishment

Dodge's Social Information-Processing Theory of Aggression

-how child responds to ambiguous harmdoing circumstances depends on 6 steps -The child who is harmed first encodes and interprets the available social cues (What is the harmdoer's reaction? Did he mean to do it?) -After interpreting the meaning of these cues, the child then formulates a goal (to resolve the situation) -generates and evaluates possible strategies for achieving this goal -selects and enacts a response -mental state can influence any of the 6 stages -Reactive aggressors: when harmed under ambiguous circumstances, more inclined to: (1) search for and find cues compatible with the expectancy that others are hostile to them, (2) attribute hostile intent to the harmdoer, and (3) become very angry and quickly retaliate in a hostile manner without carefully considering other nonaggressive solutions to this problem. -> "hostile attributional bias": tendency to view harm done under ambiguous circumstances as having stemmed from a hostile intent on the part of the harmdoer; characterizes reactive aggressors. -> creates self-fulfilling prophecy -Proactive aggressors: -not so disliked, so dont always attribute to hostile intent -more likely to carefully formulate pro-active goal -decide that aggressive response best to achieve this aim -experience less guilt -expect positive outcomes to result from use of force

moral foundations theory

-human morality rests on five different moral foundations that result from various adaptive challenges humans faced in their evolutionary history: (1) care (opposite of harm); (2) fairness (opposite of cheating); (3) loyalty (opposite of betrayal); (4) authority (opposite of subversion); and (5) sanctity/purity (opposite of disgust). -1) care seen through need to protect offspring -2) fairness seen through cooperative relationships -e.g. hunting and gathering food -3) & 4) loyalty and authority important for the cohesiveness and organization of larger groups and societies -5) sanctity/purity - avoiding contaminants -seen cross-culturally -People who consider themselves conservative endorse all five foundations to a similar extent, whereas liberals put particular emphasis on care and fairness while downgrading the importance of loyalty, authority, and purity. -> it is important to differentiate between core aspects of morality (care and fairness) that are universally accepted and more peripheral aspects (loyalty, authority, purity/sanctity), which are included in the definition of the moral domain by some people but not by all.

The "Goodness of Fit" between Students and Schools

-important to recognize that characteristics of the student and of the school environment often interact to affect student outcomes—a phenomenon called aptitude-treatment interaction (phenomenon whereby characteristics of the student and of the school environment interact to affect student outcomes, such that any given educational practice may be effective with some students but not with others.) -teachers tend to get the most out of high-ability, middle-class students by moving at a quick pace and insisting on high standards of performance—that is, by challenging these students -Low-ability and disadvantaged students often respond more favourably to a teacher who motivates them by being warm and encouraging rather than intrusive and demanding -Students from cultures that stress cooperation and collaborative approaches to learning often flounder in traditional classrooms. They may pay less attention to the teacher or their lessons and spend a lot of time seeking the attention of classmates—behaviours that are perceived by teachers as reflecting their lack of interest in school

How Well Educated Are Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Comparison - general

-in Canada today- high in science, reading, and math - has improved over time, now higher than UK and U.S. - but not as good as Asian countires -not any less intelligence- IQ tests the same -> most of the achievement gap between North American (from the United States and Canada only) and Asian students seems to reflect cultural differences in educational attitudes and practices, including some we will discuss here. -schools expose children to an informal curriculum; students are expected to obey rules, cooperate with their classmates, respect authority, and become good citizens

How Should I Discipline My Children?

-inductive and rationale plus mild punishment most effective - punishment sometimes necessary for repeated transgressions -inductive discipline used by white, middle-class mothers is consistently associated with measures of children's moral maturity; however, the same findings don't always hold for fathers or for parents from other socioeconomic backgrounds -positive association between parents' use of power-assertive discipline and children's aggressive, antisocial conduct seems to hold for European-American but not for African-American children -also question of direction - do morally mature children promote more inductive forms of discipline from parents? Hoffman said no, -but children can influence discipline they receive: -A child who acts out or defies his or her parents, for example, will often elicit more coercive (and less effective) forms of discipline in the future -no one discipline that works best for all children and that effective approaches are those that provide a "good fit" with the child's behaviours and other attributes - can depend on temperament -fearful toddlers require gentle, inductive forms of discipline if they are to show signs of developing a strong conscience during the preschool years -impulsive and fearless toddlers are not sufficiently aroused by inductive discipline to learn moral lessons -However, parents' heavy reliance on power assertion consistently inhibits moral internalization and represents a "poor fit" with children of all temperaments.

Who Is Abused? -general

-infants who are emotionally unresponsive, hyperactive, irritable, impulsive, or sickly are far more likely to be abused than quiet, healthy, and responsive babies who are easy to care for - but many such children never abused while many easygoing kids are

Some Potentially Undesirable Effects of Screen Media Technologies

-isolated town of Notel without tv- prior to the introduction of television to the isolated town of Notel, children living there tested higher in creativity and reading proficiency than did age-mates in comparable Canadian towns served by television -Two to four years after television was introduced, the children of Notel showed declines in their reading skills and creativity (to levels shown by peers in other towns) -but as long as TV viewing is not excessive, children exposed to TV show no significant cognitive or academic deficiencies and spend no less time playing with peers

Adoptive Families

-it appears that an adult's desire to be a parent is much more important to a child's outcome than the adult's genetic ties (or lack thereof) to his or her children -but the rearing environments that adoptive parents provide may not be as closely compatible with an adoptee's own genetic predispositions as they would be for a biological child - environmental incompatability -many adoptees have been neglected or abused before their adoptions, or have other special needs -> why adoptees display more learning difficulties, more emotional problems, and higher rates of conduct disorders and delinquency than do their nonadopted peers later in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood -most adopted children well adjusted, even if transracially adopted (may be looking at wrong factors though - what about how they feel) -child welfare agencies handle adoptions, some provinces allow nonprofits to be adoption agencies, some provinces allow for private adoptions -adoption practices changing from confidential system to more open system - open arrangement potentially more beneficial -no evidence that providing info about birth mother harmful

Aggressiveness as a Trait: How Stable Is It?

-it does change, but positional stability is high: individuals who score high on aggressiveness relative to others at some point in development tend to keep this position over the course of development -not all highly aggressive children remain highly aggressive, but it is relatively stable for many -> this could be related to temperament, as well as households that maintain and nurture aggression

Do Our Schools Meet the Needs of All of Our Children?: educating students with special needs

-learning disabilities, physical and sensory handicaps, and other developmental disorders -These youngsters used to be placed in separate schools or classrooms—or, in some cases, were rejected as unteachable by public schools—until provincial governments passed legislation requiring school boards to provide all children with special needs with an education comparable to that received by other children. -many school boards opted for inclusion educational practice (formerly referred to as mainstreaming) of integrating students with special needs into regular classrooms rather than placing them in segregated special education classes. -> generally havent been that successful -one improvement is to emphasize cooperative learning methods: educational practice whereby children of different races or ability levels are assigned to teams; each team member works on problems geared to his or her ability level, and all members are reinforced for "pulling together" and performing well as a team. -> these are effective

Father-Stepmother Families

-less research -the introduction of a stepmother into the family system is initially somewhat more disruptive than the introduction of a stepfather, in part because (1) fathers granted custody typically have very close relations with their children that stepmothers may disrupt (Mekos, Hetherington, & Reiss, 1996), and (2) stepmothers play more active roles as behaviour monitors and disciplinarians than stepfathers do (Santrock & Sitterle, 1987). -more difficult for girls than boys - bc girls often so closely allied with their mothers that they are bothered by either a stepfather competing for their mother's attention or a stepmother attempting to play a substitute-mother role -but adjust over time

Evidence for Kohlberg's Social-Experience Hypothesis: cultural influences

-living in a complex, diverse, and democratic society can stimulate moral development -supposedly, postconventional reasoning only in western democratic cultures (thats iffy) -> supposedly bc dont have to question morality? idk -they also say that stage 3 reasoning is adaptive and mature in these contexts

Morality: Positive Reinforcement in the Context of Close Relationships: the role of punishment

-many adults more quick to punish transgressions than to praise desirable conduct -harsh punishment not effective, often depends on interpretation of punishment -Parke and forbidden toy paradigm: punishments administered immediately (rather than later) and consistently by a warm (rather than an aloof) disciplinarian are most effective at inhibiting a child's undesirable conduct, and best when include a cognitive rationale

Criticisms of Kohlberg's Approach: does moral reasoning predict moral conduct? the importance of moral identity

-moral judgments of young children do not predict their behaviour in situations where they are induced to cheat or to violate other moral norms -but individuals at higher stages of moral reasoning are more likely than those at lower stages to behave altruistically and conscientiously -however, the overall relationship between stages of moral reasoning and moral behaviour is only small to moderate -> this is because people can easily disengage from moral reasoning using: "mechanisms of moral disengagement": cognitive reframing of harmful behaviour as being morally acceptable. -if have strong moral identity, mechanisms of moral disengagement less effective -people have different motives for wanting to uphold moral identity: -external motivations: e.g. want to avoid looking like a bad person -internal motivations: e.g. want to live up to self-ideal -internal motivation emerges in childhood, requires successful rule internalization in the childhood years, the development of a mature understanding of morality, and a social environment that supports moral self-regulation.

Morality: Positive Reinforcement in the Context of Close Relationships: moral self-concept training

-moral self-concept training through convincing children that they can resist temptations to violate moral norms because they are "good," "honest," or otherwise "responsible" persons (an internal attribution) - as making internal attributions promotes moral self-restraint -> effective - labelling children as "good" or "honest" may not only increase the likelihood that they will resist temptations, but also contribute to children's feelings of guilt or remorse if they behave inappropriately and violate their positive self-images. -invoking specific identity or self-concept, like helper, even effective for 3-6 year olds

defining the moral domain

-morality: a set of principles or ideals that help the individual to 1) distinguish right from wrong, 2) to act on this distinction, and 3) to feel pride in virtuous conduct and guilt (or other unpleasant emotions) for conduct that violates one's standards -yet distinguishing right from wrong not just morality - but distinguishing what is morally right from wrong is unique to morality -Walker and Pitts: qualities of moral people: - being principled-idealistic, dependable-loyal, fair, caring-loving, confident, and having integrity. -being dependable, caring, and accepting of those who are different: how may Canadians define own morality -individual and cross-cultural differences about what morality is - e.g. Chinese participants more likely to include conformity and tradition

Families Are Developing Systems: more remarriages

-more blended (or reconstituted) families: new families resulting from cohabitation or remarriage that include a parent, one or more children, and step-relations

How Well Educated Are Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Comparison : intergenerational support

-more common in Asia for extended family to live in the home- scholastic support system -Hamilton intergenerational music program - positive outcomes for children and adults - programs like these can tap into the greater knowledge of the senior adult, providing a unique educational experience that is usually absent from classrooms

Families Are Developing Systems: more divorces

-more divorce rates now than used to be, 11.5% in 2011 -In part, this spike was influenced by a change to the Divorce Act in 1986, which allowed marriages to be dissolved after one year of separation rather than the three years of separation required before the amendment. -Even with this initial spike in mind, divorce rates have been increasing in Canada, and this is especially the case among individuals over the age 50, who experienced the highest divorce rate, compared to 30 years ago

parenting: Parent Effects or Child Effects?

-most common model is parent-effects model: model of family influence in which parents (particularly mothers) are believed to influence their children rather than vice versa. -child-effects model: model of family influence in which children are believed to influence their parents rather than vice versa. -> e.g. different temperaments promote different parenting styles -support for both models -> today favour: transactional model: model of family influence in which parent and child are believed to influence each other reciprocally. -(1) children can and often do affect their parents, for better or worse (Cook, 2001), and (2) we simply cannot take for granted, as John Watson (1928) proclaimed, that parents are almost solely responsible for determining whether their children turn out good or bad.

Do popular children become popular because they are friendly, cooperative, and nonaggressive? Or is it that children become friendlier, more cooperative, and less aggressive after achieving their popularity?

-observe children in unfamiliar peer groups -> Children who are ultimately accepted by unfamiliar peers are effective at initiating social interactions and at responding positively to others' bids for attention -> first watch and attempt to understand what is going on and then comment constructively about the proceedings as they blend smoothly into the group -> children who are ultimately rejected are pushy and self-serving. They often criticize or disrupt group activities and may even threaten reprisals if they are not allowed to join in. -> children who end up being neglected by their peers tend to hover around the edges of a group, initiating few interactions and shying away from other children's bids for attention.

positive contributions of sibling relationships -Siblings as Providers of Emotional Support

-older siblings often caretakers -in Canada, older siblings and particularly girls look after younger siblings -Stewart exposed siblings to strange situation, with 4 year old sibling - found similar patterns of behaviour -often confide in each other -A secure tie to a sibling also helps to minimize the anxiety and adjustment problems that elementary school children often display if they are ignored or rejected by their peers

positive contributions of sibling relationships - Siblings as Models and Teachers

-older siblings often teach new skills to younger brothers and sisters, either by modelling these competencies or by providing direct instruction -Younger children tend to admire their older siblings, who continue to serve as important models and tutors throughout childhood -Given a problem to master, children are likely to learn more when they have an older sibling available to guide them than when they have access to an equally competent older peer because: (1) older siblings feel a greater responsibility to teach if the pupil is a younger sibling, (2) they provide more detailed instructions and encouragement than older peers do, and (3) younger children are more inclined to seek the older sibling's guidance.

Methods of Controlling Aggression in Young Children: social-cognitive interventions

-other methods better for young children, different methods for older children and teens - Highly aggressive children, particularly those high in reactive aggression, can profit from social-cognitive interventions that help them to (1) regulate their anger and (2) become more skilled at empathizing with and taking others' perspectives so that they will not be so likely to overattribute hostile intentions to their peers -study where taught skills like: (1) looking for nonhostile cues that might be associated with harmdoing, (2) controlling their anger, and (3) generating nonaggressive solutions to conflict. -. effective -highly aggressive children are often found to be deficient in empathy—a social-cognitive attribute that parents can easily foster by modelling empathic concern and by using disciplinary techniques that (1) point out the harmful consequences of their child's aggressive acts while (2) encouraging him or her to put him- or herself in the victim's place and imagine how the victim feels.

Behavioural Control versus Psychological Control

-parents can differ on behavioural control: attempts to regulate a child's conduct through firm discipline and monitoring of his or her conduct. and -psychological control: attempts to influence a child's behaviour by such psychological tactics as withholding affection and/or inducing shame or guilt. -behavioural control not negative, but psychological control associated with negative outcomes and antisocial/deviant behaviours -heavy use of psychological control can be negative for sense of self and self-worth

Contextual Effects on Peer Sociability

-parents may foster or inhibit or peer sociability -parents influence children's opportunities to engage with peers and children's behavioural decisions regarding their peers. -Parents also influence children through the environments in which they raise their children. -> neighborhood factors can impact if children can easily get together on their own or if need to be booked by parents -also influence through choice in child care -Should parents closely monitor or intrude on playful interactions between young children? One study clearly favours indirect parental monitoring versus direct monitoring -> Preschoolers whose parents had indirectly monitored their peer interactions were much better liked (and less often disliked) by their nursery school classmates than those whose parents closely monitored and often intruded on their play activities -quality of monitoring and intervention: -If a parent's coaching is positive, supportive, and optimistic and focuses heavily on prosocial strategies, the child is likely to develop a strong prosocial orientation that fosters positive relationships with peers -parents who become agitated and angry and who issue commands rather than seek constructive solutions usually elicit negative responses from their children -the path to positive (or negative) peer interactions often begins at home and that parents of appropriately sociable preschool children tend to be warm, accepting companions who (1) indirectly monitor their children's interactions with peers to ensure that they comply with rules of social etiquette while (2) allowing children considerable freedom to structure their own play activities and resolve minor disputes on their own

Morality: Social-Modelling Influences

-passive modelling (e.g. not doing morally wrong things) can be effective if child recognizes this -a rule-following model can be particularly effective at inspiring children to behave in kind if the model clearly verbalizes that he is following a rule and states a rationale for not committing the deviant act. -rule-following models whose rationales match the child's customary level of moral reasoning are more influential than models whose rationales are well beyond that level -6- to 8-year-olds who were persuaded to serve as models of moral restraint for other children became more likely than age-mates who had not served as rule-following models to obey other rules during later tests of resistance to temptation. -> serving as a model produced a change in children's self-concepts, so that they now defined themselves as "people who follow rules.

Peer Acceptance and Popularity general

-peer acceptance a measure of a person's likability (or dislikability) in the eyes of peers. -study through sociometric techniques: procedures that ask children to identify those peers they like or dislike or to rate peers for their desirability as companions; used to measure children's peer acceptance (or nonacceptance). -popular children: children who are liked by many members of their peer group and disliked by very few. -rejected children: children who are disliked by many peers and liked by few. -neglected children: children who receive few nominations as either a liked or a disliked individual from members of their peer group. -controversial children: children who receive many nominations as a liked and many as a disliked individual. -average-status children: children who receive an average number of nominations as a liked and/or a disliked individual from members of their peer group. -rejected children are the ones who face the greater risk of displaying deviant, antisocial behaviour and other serious adjustment problems later in life

Who Is a Peer and What Functions Do Peers Serve?: same-age (or equal-status) contacts

-peers: two or more persons who are operating at similar levels of behavioural complexity. -peers typically have equal status, unlike interactions with parents -> so have to learn to understand each other's perspectives, to negotiate, to compromise to achieve joint goals -> helps develop social competencies that harder with parents -cross-age interactions: often power dynamics within the family, but can also help develop social competencies - toddlers using older siblings as model - social reference, for how to engage with the toys -sibling order effects—the idea that social and cognitive development is in part dependent on one's birth order. -intelligence decreased slightly from older to younger siblings -younger and older children's empathic concern influenced each other—that is, there was a bidirectional effect - birth order didnt matter as much as age difference between children

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development: Level 3: Postconventional (or Principled) Morality

-postconventional morality: Kohlberg's term for the fifth and sixth stages of moral reasoning, in which moral judgments are based on social contracts and democratic law (Stage 5) or on universal principles of ethics and justice (Stage 6). -Stage 5: The Social-Contract Orientation. -the individual views laws as instruments for expressing the will of the majority and furthering human welfare. Laws that accomplish these ends and are impartially applied are viewed as social contracts that we have an obligation to follow, but imposed laws that compromise human rights or dignity are considered unjust and worthy of challenge. -Stage 6: Morality of Individual Principles of Conscience. -the individual defines right and wrong on the basis of the self-chosen ethical principles of his or her own conscience. -abstract moral guidelines or principles of universal justice (and respect for the rights of all human beings) that transcend any law or social contract that may conflict with them. -> stage 6 very rare, very few consistently here - Kohlberg viewed as hypothetical ideal

Empirical Support for Kohlberg's Theory: cognitive prerequisites for moral growth

-preconventional child egocentric -conventional reasoning requires role-taking abilities -Kohlberg said postconventional moral reasoning requires formal operations -> e.g. based in abstract principles so requires abstract reasoning -support for this by Walker - all 10- to 13-year-olds who had reached Kohlberg's Stage 3 ("good boy-good girl" morality) were quite proficient at mutual role-taking, although not all proficient role takers had reached Stage 3 in their moral reasoning. -another study: (1) all participants who showed any evidence of postconventional (Stage 5) moral reasoning had reached formal operations but that (2) most formal operators had not reached Kohlberg's postconventional level of moral reasoning. -> role-taking skills are necessary but not sufficient for the development of conventional morality, and that formal operations are necessary but not sufficient for the emergence of postconventional morality. -supported by Kohlberg, as he also required relevant social experience—that is, exposure to people or situations that force a person to reevaluate and alter one's current moral perspectives.

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development: Level 1: preconventional morality

-preconventional morality: Kohlberg's term for the first two stages of moral reasoning, in which moral judgments are based on the tangible punitive consequences (Stage 1) or rewarding consequences (Stage 2) of an act for the actor rather than on the relationship of that act to society's rules and customs. -Stage 1: Punishment-and-Obedience Orientation: -act isnt wrong if it's not detected and punished, goodness or badness depends on its consequences -Stage 2: Naive Hedonism. -conforms to rules in order to gain rewards or satisfy personal objectives. -ome concern for the perspective of others, but other-oriented behaviours are ultimately motivated by the hope of benefiting in return

Four Patterns of Parenting: Baumrind's early research

-rated children on behavioural dimensions of sociability, self-reliance, achievement, moodiness, and self-control -children of authoritative parents: cheerful, socially responsible, self-reliant, achievement-oriented, and cooperative with adults and peers -children of authoritarian parents: moody and seemingly unhappy much of the time, easily annoyed and unfriendly, relatively aimless, and generally not very pleasant to be around -children of permissive parents: impulsive and aggressive, especially if they were boys. They tended to be bossy and self-centred, lacking in self-control, and quite low in independence and achievement -Studied participants again at age 8-9: -children of authoritative parents were still high on cognitive and social skills -children of authoritarian parents were generally average to below average in cognitive and social skills -children of permissive parents were relatively unskilled in both areas

Hildy Ross - sibling problem-solving

-research conducted in Hildy Ross's lab suggests that siblings often engage in constructive problem-solving behaviours to resolve their conflicts. -In an investigation, pairs of siblings age 4 and 6 or 6 and 8 negotiated the division of six toys -> In cases where conflicts of interest were high and the sibling relationship was rated as positive, negotiations were longer but constructive and creative, and led to agreeable resolutions. -> In cases where conflicts of interest were high and the sibling relationship was rated as negative, negotiations were more destructive and often resulted in failures to reach agreement.

School as a Socialization Agent

-schooling also promotes cognitive and metacognitive growth by teaching children basic knowledge, strategies, and problem-solving skills (including an ability to concentrate and an appreciation for abstraction). - study: -children at any given grade performed at higher levels on a variety of intellectual tests than their chronological age-mates in the next lower grade—another indication that intellectual performance is influenced, in part, by the amount of schooling a student has had.

Effects of Media Technologies on Child Development

-screen technologies - nowadays get early introduction to screens: -2-4 year olds get an hour a say, increases with increasing age to 7 hours a day for 4-8 year olds -children are becoming increasingly exposed to and engaged with a diverse array of screen media. -Among the many screen technologies, use of television tends to remain relatively stable, while use of mobile screen devices tends to increase with age -For example, as many as 43 percent of infants under one year of age access some type of mobile computer device every day, and this increases to over 76 percent by 2 years of age -advances in technology have contributed to early use of these devices: -computers became increasingly smaller and portable -Internet access integrated in other mobile devices -more highly accessible touchscreens - easier for younger kids to use

morality: Turiel's Social Domain Theory

-showed children short scenarios describing rule infractions, and asked them: 1) If behaviour was acceptable 2) if an authority would allow it (rule contingency) 3) if it would be okay if everyone did it (universality) 4) if it would be okay if the rule was changed regarding behaviour (rule alterability) -> difference between moral and conventional rule infractions: -moral rules are universally binding and cannot be changed arbitrarily by authorities or by consensus -Conventional rules by contrast are non-universal, alterable, and contingent on existing regulations - about smooth functioning and organizing society, not about harm -> Moral rules: standards of acceptable and unacceptable conduct that focus on the rights and privileges of individuals. -> social-conventional rules: standards of conduct determined by social consensus that indicate what is appropriate within a particular social context. -children and adults both treat rules these way -From the perspective of Turiel's theory, rules that guarantee group organization are part of the social-conventional domain but do not qualify as moral.

Aggression as a Behavioural Problem

-small percentage of children chronically aggressive - a small minority of children are involved in a large majority of the conflicts at school -two kinds of highly aggressive children: -proactive aggressors and reactive aggressors -proactive aggressors: think aggression will pay off in tangible benefits, way to achieve personal goals -reactive aggressors: suspicious and wary of other people, often viewing them as belligerent adversaries who deserve to be dealt with in a forceful manner -> both types display biases in processing of social info

Contextual and Individual Differences on Peer Sociability

-sociability is affected by personal characteristics such as temperament (particularly shyness) and interactions with contextual factors such as culture -Shyness: anxious, vigilant, and wary reactivity in challenging social settings; shy children may have the desire to engage in social interaction, but their social interaction tendency is inhibited by internal fear or low self-confidence.? -Children who display social reticence (vigilant and anxious reactions to challenging situations; unlike shy children, those who are socially reticent are not wary of social interaction but tend to engage in onlooker and unoccupied behaviours in social settings) do not actively engage in group activity, but they may enjoy onlooker or unoccupied play. -in "western" context shyness can be linked to social problems and even academic problems -> but study of socially reticient children found that: instead of being considered "abnormal" as in the United States, Chinese children had less negative views. In fact, Chinese peers gave positive attention to reticent children and encouraged them to get involved in group activities -> Reticence, therefore, is not considered problematic in a culture where children are expected to be quiet and obedient

Can Abusers Be Rehabilitated?

-social workers not effective - Stopgap measures will probably not work for long unless the abuser also takes advantage of other services, such as family therapy designed to help the caregiver understand his or her problem while providing the friendship and emotional support that an abusive parent so often lacks -comprehensive approach/family approaches most effective (e.g. Better Beginnings, Better Futures): -Abusive parents need emotional support and opportunities to learn more effective parenting and coping skills, and the victims of abuse and neglect need stimulating daycare programs and specialized training to help them overcome the cognitive, social, and emotional problems associated with abuse -can use virtual reality to learn coping skills -fatalities resulting from child abuse or neglect are three times more likely to occur in families that law enforcement and child protection agencies are already aware of - > cases in which a child's physical or psychological welfare is immediately and profoundly compromised require coercive rather than supportive interventions. -e.g. arresting parents -> yet hard to prove severe abuse, and courts often reluctant to take children away from parent

Do Our Schools Meet the Needs of All of Our Children?: immigration and ethnic minorities

-some immigrants are able to fuse their cultural traditions with those that are more universally Canadian, while those who are clearly an ethnic minority may receive different styles of schooling in formal school and at home.

Peers as Agents of Socialization

-some theorists, Jean Piaget among them, believe that peers may contribute as much or even more to a child's development as adults do -> "two social worlds of childhood," one involving adult-child transactions and the other involving the society of children's peers

Evidence of the Relationship between Onscreen Violence and Aggression

-studies indicate that children who watch a lot of televised and video violence or who play violent video games tend to be more hostile and aggressive than their peers who are not exposed to this violent content -longitudinal studies: relationship between viewing violent TV early in life and higher levels of aggression later in life. -Research also suggests that the link between viewing violence and aggression is reciprocal; watching violent TV increases children's aggressive tendencies, which stimulates interest in violent programming, which can promote further aggression -the instigating effects of violent video games are strongest for boys, who identify with violent game characters -because violent game players are actively involved in planning and performing aggressive acts and are reinforced for their successful symbolic violence, it has been argued that the aggression-instigating effects of violent video games are probably far greater than those of violent television programming, in which children are only passively exposed to aggression and violence -> however, research found that the competitive element included in these video games (i.e., most violent video games involve competition in the form of a battle with opponent characters) was linked to increased aggression, not the violent content -other factors that might influence aggression are the intensity of game play, interactivity, and fantasy nature of video gaming

Empirical Support for Kohlberg's Theory: Are Kohlberg's Stages an Invariant Sequence?

-support that there is a positive correlation between age and maturity of moral reasoning -> seen cross-culturally -however, this doesnt mean its an invariant sequence, bc participants at each age level were different people, and we cannot be certain that a 25-year-old at Stage 5 has progressed through the various moral levels and stages in the order specified by Kohlberg's theory.

Evolutionary Roots of Morality in Young Children: Beyond Nature—Cultural Influences on Sympathy and Prosocial Behaviour

-takes longer to develop forms of prosocial behaviour that doesnt conflict with child's self-interest - e.g. sharing -2-3 year olds dont often make self-sacrificial responses -sharing, helping, and other forms of prosocial conduct become more common from the early elementary school years onward -> so explaining it evolutionarily isnt sufficient, social factors important too -Parents can promote sympathetic empathic arousal by (1) modelling empathic concern and (2) relying on affectively oriented forms of discipline (e.g. facial expressions) that help young children to understand the harmful effects of any distress they may have caused others -Parents who rely on rational, nonpunitive disciplinary techniques in which they regularly display sympathy and concern for others tend to raise children who are sympathetic and self-sacrificing -different cultures endorse/encourage prosocial behaviours to different extent : -most altruism in less "industrialized" cultures -least in individualistic cultures that emphasize competition -for children in many of the world's collectivist societies, prosocial behaviour does not have the same "discretionary" quality about it that is true of individualistic societies

Families Are Developing Systems: more children living in poverty

-the increase in the number of single-parent families has contributed to an increase in the proportion of children living below the poverty line. -The largest group of low-income families (42 percent) in Canada are headed by a single female parent, compared to 26 percent of low-income families headed by a single male parent

who is abused: Children with Intellectual Disabilities

-the risk of children with intellectual disabilities being maltreated is 4.3 times greater than among children with no disability -also experienced more severe maltreatment -why? 1) language delays that make it difficult for them to articulate an allegation 2) may not be able to contextualize their experiences and/or realize that the behaviour of a caregiver or teacher is not appropriate 3) police and prosecutors are often reluctant to investigate cases involving children with intellectual disabilities because they feel that it would be too difficult to interview and gather a convincing allegation from them 4) fears that a child with intellectual disabilities would find it more difficult and traumatic to testify

Television and Cognitive Development

-the type of programing, amount of viewing, and parental involvement impacts the effects -one outcome relationships between high levels of tv viewing and vocab development delays - maybe bc of fewer interactions between parents and children -> can impact by reducing exposure or interacting while co-viewing -infants with a high level of exposure to adult programming demonstrated poorer executive functioning skills than infants exposed to age-appropriate content -> age-appropriate programs developed for young children -> sesame Street actually improves cognitive abilities in some areas -can improve vocabularies and prereading skills -some critics say educational television is a passive activity that displaces more valuable, growth-enhancing pursuits such as reading and active learning under the guidance of an adult, but more time spent watching educational programming is associated with better performances on these same school-related skills

Preventing Abuse and Neglect

-three major approaches to preventing child sexual abuse— -offender management :(e.g. registering sex offenders, background checks, longer prison sentences - not effective), -identification of risk factors : -e.g. infants that may be particularly irritable or unresponsive get home-visitor problems, trying to address high-risk parents' material needs, psychological needs, and educational needs to improve parental wellbeing and reduce child abuse -community: funding for programs like Community Action Program for Children, Better Beginnings, Better Futures (focus on family and community contexts for child development) -school-based educational programs : -sex ed programs at school - can recognize what's inappropriate and report -school programs to teach how to identify dangerous situations, refuse an abuser's approach, break off an interaction, and summon help. The programs encourage disclosure, reduce self-blame, and help mobilize bystanders -do master concepts, but not sure if actually impacts victimization

Families Are Developing Systems: decreased childbearing

-today's adults have fewer children, more women choose to have no children -Although there was a brief baby boom in the 1980s, there has generally been a decline in birth rates since the early 1970s -Canada has a lower birth rate Although there was a brief baby boom in the 1980s, there has generally been a decline in birth rates since the early 1970s

parental socialization during childhood general

-warm, sensitive parents have children who are securely attached, willing to explore, and sociable and show signs of positive intellectual development -second year - parents still caregivers and playmates -more concerned with teaching children how to behave (or how not to behave) in a variety of situations -For Erikson, this is when socialization really begins -> Parents must now manage the child's budding autonomy in the hope of instilling a sense of social propriety and self-control. -Meanwhile, they must take care not to undermine the child's curiosity, initiative, and feelings of personal competence.

Other Negative Impacts Resulting from Violence in Screen Media

-watching too much televised violence -> mean-world beliefs: a belief, fostered by televised violence, that the world is a more dangerous and frightening place than is actually the case. -prolonged exposure to televised violence or participating in violent video gaming -> can desensitize children: desensitization hypothesis: the notion that people who watch a lot of media violence will become less aroused by aggression and more tolerant of violent and aggressive acts. -> study to test this: Children who had earlier watched the violent program were now less physiologically aroused by the fight they observed and were more inclined to tolerate it (by being much slower to intervene) than the children who had watched an equally arousing but nonviolent sporting event -to reduce these effects: -limiting violent tv and video game exposure -parental coviewing media with children and help them evaluate what watching -children may interpret violence differently and may not see consequences of violence - -Young children's tendency to strongly identify with aggressive heroes whose violence is socially reinforced makes them even more susceptible to the instigating effects of TV violence or game play -parents should say they dissaprove of character's behaviour

Smoothing the Rocky Road to Recovery from a Divorce

-what factors make process of adjustment easier for members of divorcing families? -Adequate Financial Support -mother-headed families often drop in income, which means may move to lower income neighborhood, return to work when children need more attention -lack of money for comforts may lead to quarrels -not all noncustodial parents pay child support which can lead to hardship -Adequate Parenting by the Custodial Parent -Social and Emotional Support from the Noncustodial Parent -seminar to show parents that (1) their children are likely to be more traumatized by the parents' post-divorce wranglings than by the separation itself, and (2) regular contact with a noncustodial parent who supports the custodial guardian in his or her parenting role is a strong contributor to children's positive adjustment to life in a single-parent home -joint physical custody can be a benefit if parents get along -all about maintaining close ties to both parents who are committed to coparenting -Additional Social Support -support programs for parents -siblings and close friends' support for children -peer support programs -Minimizing Additional Stress -divorce mediation - meetings before the divorce in which a trained professional tries to help divorcing parents reach amiable agreements on disputed issues - can be effective

Morality: Positive Reinforcement in the Context of Close Relationships - general

-when warm, accepting parents set clear and reasonable standards for their children and often praise them for behaving well, even toddlers are likely to meet their expectations and display strong evidence of an internalized conscience by age 4 to 5. -Within the context of a warm, mutually responsive relationship (rather than a fear-provoking one), toddlers are likely to display committed compliance—an orientation in which they are (1) highly motivated to embrace the parent's agenda and to comply with her rules and requests, (2) sensitive to a parent's emotional signals indicating whether they have done right or wrong, and (3) beginning to internalize those parental reactions to their triumphs and transgressions, coming to experience the pride, shame, and (later) guilt that will help them to evaluate and regulate their own conduct -Aloof or insensitive parents who have shared few mutually enjoyable activities with a toddler are likely to promote situational compliance—generally nonoppositional behaviour that stems more from parents' power to control the child's conduct than from the child's eagerness to cooperate or comply.

Remarriage and Blended Families

-within 3-5 years of divorce, majority often remarry or cohabit -reconstituted families introduce new challenges for children, who must now adjust not only to the parenting of an unfamiliar adult but also to the behaviour of stepsiblings (if any) and the possibility of receiving less attention from both their custodial and noncustodial parents -may take longer to restabilize after remarriage than after divorce, esp for custodial mothers

updates to Piaget's theory on morality: what is still true

-younger children around the world are more likely than older ones to display such aspects of heteronomous morality as a belief in immanent justice or a tendency to emphasize consequences more than intentions when judging how wrong an act is -the maturity of children's moral judgments is related to such indications of cognitive development as IQ and role-taking skills -some support for Piaget's "peer participation" hypothesis: popular children who often take part in peer-group activities and assume positions of leadership tend to make mature moral judgments

explaining the effectiveness of authoritative parenting

1) are warm and accepting which motivates children to comply with directives more effectively 2) exercise control in rational way, explaining pov while considering child's - so demands seem fair and reasonable and elicit compliance 3) tailor demands to child's ability to regulate conduct - set standards that can realistically achieve, allow child freedom and autonomy to do well -children need love and limits

Factors That Contribute to Effective Schooling: the scholastic atmosphere of successful schools

1)) Academic emphasis. Effective schools have a clear focus on academic goals. Children are regularly assigned homework, which is checked, corrected, and discussed with them. 2) Challenging, developmentally appropriate curricula. Effective schools have curricula that children can relate to and that promotes achievement-related behaviours, such as effort, attention, attendance, and appropriate classroom behaviour 3) Classroom management. In effective schools, teachers waste little time getting activities started or dealing with distracting disciplinary problems. Lessons begin and end on time. Pupils are told exactly what is expected of them and receive clear and unambiguous feedback about their academic performance. 4) Discipline. In effective schools, the staff is firm in enforcing rules and does so on the spot rather than sending offenders off to the principal's office. At the same time, well-behaved children who are given leeway in making their own decisions at school experience a strong sense of self-efficacy, and this supports academic success 5) Teamwork. Effective schools have faculties that work as a team, jointly planning curricular objectives and monitoring student progress, under the guidance of a principal who provides active, energetic leadership. -All in all: the effective school environment is a comfortable but businesslike setting in which academic successes are expected and students are motivated to learn -teachers authoritative -effective education particularly important for disadvantaged students - protective and stabilizing

Sex Differences in Aggressive Behaviour

=worldwide, boys and men are more physically and more verbally aggressive, on average, than are girls and women -higher levels of T may contribute to this -however, very young boys are not more aggressive than girls -. in 1 year olds, aggressive resolutions to toy disputes more common for girls -> dont see gender difference until 2.5-3, which means it could be related to gender typing -parents play rougher with boys than with girls and react more negatively to the aggressive behaviours of daughters than to those of sons -the guns, tanks, missile launchers, and other symbolic implements of destruction that boys often receive encourage the enactment of aggressive themes—and actually promote aggressive behaviour -During the preschool years, children come to view aggression as a male attribute in their gender schemas, and by middle childhood, boys expect aggressive acts to provide them with more tangible benefits and to elicit less disapproval from either parents or peers than girls do -also, boys may appear so much more aggressive than girls because researchers have focused on overt aggressive behaviours and have failed to consider covertly hostile acts that may be more common among girls than boys.

How Well Educated Are Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Comparison : student involvement

Asian students assigned more and complete more homework than North American children -Much of the socializing that Asian students undertake with peers centres around academics (e.g., studying together), and academic achievement is an important contributor to social adjustment and popularity in Asian peer groups

Characteristics of Only Children

Two major reviews of hundreds of pertinent studies found that only children are (1) relatively high, on average, in self-esteem and achievement motivation; (2) more obedient and slightly more intellectually competent than children with siblings; and (3) likely to establish very good relations with peers -but not necessarily that different, Only children in China closely resemble only children in Western countries, scoring slightly higher than children with siblings on measures of intelligence and academic achievement and showing few meaningful differences in personality

Factors Often Associated with Child Abuse and Neglect

see table 16.4 -parental characteristics -child characteristics -family characteristics -neighborhood -culture

Social and Cultural and Influences on Aggression - general

some cultures more aggressive than others - the United States is one of the most aggressive nations -supposedly, lower class, inner city men more aggressive, which they link to parenting and social class -> lower class families more likely to model aggression through punishment styles -low-income parents live complex, stressful lives, parental monitoring is lower