cpsy exam 2
How are video games potentially more influential than television and movies in terms of their effect on child behavior? To date, what do research findings imply about the influence of video games on child behavior?
- More interactive- Identity aggressor- Repetition of aggressionIn adolescence/college more video games playing is linked to more aggression, delinquency, and lower academic achievement, more behavior probs
In what ways are media portrayals of violence linked to children's aggressive behavior? Be sure to cite evidence from both correlational studies and experimental studies in your answer.
- Watching more TV in preschool years associated with more aggressive behavior in early school years- Watching violence on TV associated with behaving more aggressively Huesmann et al, 2003: 8 year old boys preference for violent TV is positively correlated to a increased mean level of aggressive behavior in their early 20'sSuperman vs Mr. Rogers Study (Friedrich & Stein): 5 year old boys shown Superman, Mr. Rogers, or neutral cartoon for 4 weeks, behavior assessed before and after 4 weeks; increase in aggressive behavior was found in boys who watched superman that were more aggressive to begin with
Describe the changes that take place in the brain during middle childhood. How might these changes account for observed changes in cognition?
- increased memory and recall, speed of naming, memory organization, metamemory (think about one's own memory) -myelination- particularly in the frontal cortex, speeds up processing. - synaptic pruning- nonfunctional synaptic connections die off- make more efficient - EEG coherence- more synchronization among areas of the brain (especially between the frontal lobe and other brain structures)- increase in activities (adult activities) - cortical thickening and thinning
How is parental involvement an important factor in media influences on children's functioning? Summarize the AAP's guidelines for parents of young children
-Set limits on screen time- Recommended that 2-5 year olds be limited to one hour a day of "high-quality" programs maximum-Unstructured, unplugged play time to stimulate creativity-Create tech free homes
Limitations of Preoperational Thought
1. Centration: difficultly focusing on two aspects of a problem simultaneously-conservation tasks (liquid, trees, area) 2. *Difficulty distinguishing appearance and reality: egg and blue screen, painting raccoon to be a skunk 3. *egocentrism: view world from own perspective, three mount task, egocentric speech 4. *reasoning about causation: false belief tasks- difficultly with the concept that others can hold false beliefs, typically younger than 4 fall for these beliefs like clouds following them, afternoon nap, crayons or candles in box
major characteristics of preoperational thought
1. developing theory of mind: reasoning about other's mental states 2. improving executive function: improved self-regulation, ability to control attention, inhibit responses. The shape vs color game 3. develop representational thought: pretend play, anticipation and problem solving, language, delayed imitation, symbolic reasoning
problems with piaget's tasks
1. unevenness of dev: young children reason at diff levels across diff domains (example of experience and cultural context influencing, for example, weaving vs lang skills focused on) 2. children's competencies often underestimated: preoperational children are successful at the conservation of number tasks (trees) when only 3-4 items instead of 6-7 and when a group label is used instead of units, like forest 3. appearance vs reality: better when real and apparent states are both present 4. egocentrism: better when man, familiar, easily differentiated objects are used, children adjust their speech to their listener 5. precasual reasoning: better when tasks presented visually than verbally, better when asked about familiar things
Describe the long-term effects of abuse and neglect on children. What are the risk factors for becoming abused as a child? What are the risk factors for becoming a child abuser?
1/4 show no long-term effectsMore likely to be depressed, abuse drugs and alcohol, have sexual problems and engage in criminal behavior. Children under age of 3Girls more than boysPacific Islander, Native American, African AmericanStress in familyYoung, poorly educated motherLittle to no support from father Drugs and alcohol problems in parents First, there is considerable evidence that parents are more likely to abuse their children if they were themselves victims of child abuse, nother major contributor to abuse is stress on the family, including chronic poverty, recent job loss, marital discord, and social isolation
How much television do U.S children watch, on average, and what is known about the general content of the television programs available for them to watch? 1. Why is it such a large influence on children's development?
8.5 hours a day exposed to mass media, all contain violence young children have unsophisticated cognitive TV viewing skills- difficulty with causality: trouble with processing consequences of actions- Difficulty distinguishing from appearance and reality
Describe why the emotional roller coaster may be a poor metaphor for the emotional lives of adolescents. What are the research findings regarding this?
Adolescents moods associated with changes in context and activities (not always true), ESM (experience sampling method) test (people wear pagers and when it beeps they report mood) most people had relatively positive feelings or it created a steady increase or decline in mood
Describe the factors associated with peer acceptance. How do we know if social skills result from peer acceptance, or vice versa?
Attractiveness and social skills are associated with popularity. We don't know which results from which.
How do conceptions of ability and attributions influence children's achievement motivation?
Attributions are the processes by which individuals try to explain the causes of behaviors and events. There are three dimensions of attribution, including locus of causality, stability, and controllability. Three attributions for achievement are ability, effort, and task difficulty. Attributing failure to lack of ability makes children have less persistence, lower achievement, and think their a failure, whereas attributing failure to lack of effort makes children more persistent, higher achievement
Explain how formal operational thought in adolescence differs from the concrete operational thought in middle childhood. Is formal operational thought universal? Why or why not?
Better problem solving ability, not universal because problem-solving ability depends on competence and context of problem What distinguishes the formal-operational adolescent is the ability to apply operations to operations—that is, to systematically relate sets of relationships to each other. For this reason, formal operations are also called second-order operations.
How is current thinking on childhood cognitive development different from Piaget's conceptualization of cognitive development?
Children are better when things are real and present and when scenarios pertain to them, better when familiar objects are used, and better when tasks are presented visually. thinking is more sophisticated than originally thought but still have several cognitive limitations, children are underestimated
What do we know about sexual segregation during middle childhood? What outcomes are associated with maintaining sex segregation? Violating segregation? What are the "rules" for cross-gender contact?
Children often play with only others of their same sex during middle childhood. Violations of segregation may make children more or less popular. In adolescence, girls that hang around more boys are seen negatively, but a boy that gets a lot of girls to like him is seen as popular
Describe the study by Lepper & colleagues and explain their conclusion about the effect of extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation on subsequent task performance.
Children participated in a game involving a drawing task. Children were either promised a good player award, got a good player award unexpectedly, or received no award. Weeks later, voluntary interest in the task was lowest for children who were promised the good player award. Therefore extrinsic rewards determined intrinsic interest in activity, and this applies to the school system in terms of grades.
Describe the characteristics of concrete operational thought. List and describe several ways that concrete operations manifest themselves as abilities during middle childhood.
Concrete Operational Thought: 7-11, Coordinated mental operations that fit into a logical system-operations are concrete, meaning the reasoning is tied to things that are present or tangible. Cannot yet generate systematic to test beliefs new features of thought - Conservation: understanding that some properties of an object or substance stay the same even when appearance is altered in a superficial way - decentration: changes in one aspect are compensated for by changes in other - logical necessity - identity (amount is same if nothing is added or subtracted), skunk problem solved - reversibility - compensation (mentally compare changes in two aspects of a problem and see how one compensates for other) declining egocentrism changes in social relations classification: understand the hierarchical structures of categories, logical relation of inclusion that is between a superordinate class to subclass, fill in shape or classify animals planning: decentering, considering multiple variables, and thinking flexibly in new situations metacognition- ability to think about and regulate one's own thoughts (allows to assess how difficult a problem is going to be, and to be flexible in abilities to solve it), how much do you know about toasters
What is the influence of culture on emotion regulation? Include in your answer a discussion of the emotional development of children growing up in China and in the United States.
Confucian values strongly influence Chinese culture, placing considerable emphasis on self-control, obedience, modesty, and respect for authority; Chinese children who are self-restrained are considered mature and well behaved, Chinese children typically show higher levels of effortful control than peers Children living in or near poverty tend to exhibit lower levels than their more economically advantaged peer us: find that effortful control is associated with academic performance and social adjustment and that girls tend to exhibit higher levels than boys Children in US are socialized to express themselves and take pleasure in achievement.- Children in China, the culturally appropriate response to success is modesty and praise for others
Compare and contrast the major elements of the crisis model, chronic strain, and selection models of divorce.
Crisis Model: divorce is a time-limited disturbance to which parents and children eventually adjust.Chronic Strain Model: Ongoing hardships may affect children for many years.Selection Perspective: Most negative effects of family disruption can be accounted for by problems that predate divorce. 2 yr adjust, sleeper effect, subtle effects of divorce that may not become apparent until children reach adolescence or young adulthood and have difficulty forming intimate and stable relationships
What are the main changes in cognitive reasoning from childhood to adolescence? What factors are thought to account for these changes?
Development of formal operational thinking Hypothetico-deductive reasoning (able to develop hypotheses about how to solve problems and test them systematically, propositional thought (applying formal principles of logic)thinking about possibilities (hypotheticals)abstract thinking (metaphors)multidimensional thinking (perspective taking)relative thinking (ability to see shades of grey)metacognition (self-awareness, thinking about thinking
Describe Erikson's view of adolescent identity formation. How did Marcia adapt Erikson's ideas in identifying four patterns of identity formation?
Erikson-belief that the quest for identity is life-long development is cumulative (all developmental"crises" build on each other), development includes a balance, Marcia- adapted exploration (adolescents examine future roles and paths in life) and commitment (involvement in goals, beliefs, and future occupation)
Describe the three stages of ethnic identity according to Jean Phinney. What difficulties in identity formation may be encountered by minority youth?
Ethnic identity: basic aspect of the self that includes a sense of membership in an ethnic group and attitudes and feelings related to that membership (Phinney) Three stages: 1. unexamined ethnic identity- children accept and show a preference for cultural values of the majority culture 2. ethnic identity search-usually initiated by shocking/humiliating experience making child question culture 3. ethnic identity achievement- individuals who have secure self-confidence in their ethnicity and positive self-concept Ethnic identity development is more complex among minority youth
How does culture play a role in the school success of children? What are culturally responsive classroom strategies and what is known about their effectiveness?
Finland has no tracking and a little achievement gap, as well as little homework and no standardized testing.
What is friendship and how do children make friends? How stable are friendships? How do cognitive advances influence children's ability to form and maintain friendships? What outcomes are associated with having a best friend or not having a best friend?
Friendships are less stable between aggressive children but are pretty stable between children of the same temperament. Cognitive advances such as empathy and moral reasoning help children maintain better friendships. Having friends makes children happier and less rejected
How do parents and peers contribute to the moral development of children?
Heinz dilemma, 6-8 fear of punishment, 8-10 societal standards inductive discipline- adult explains why the child's behavior is wrong Parents as social models peers- learn that rules are flexible, growth in moral maturity
What factors influence the onset of puberty?
Heredity (main predictor of onset and rate)rising levels of leptin (protein in fat cells, puberty occurs earlier in obese girls)stress (delay)exercise (sports with low body fat may delay)family dynamics (unnatural home situation cause earlier onset)
What options are there for non-parental care? What are some of the benefits and limitations of each option?
Home Child Care: less change to routine, less contact with other children family Child Care: similar routines to home, more peer interaction child-Care Centers: may have higher stress, more independent, socially knowledgeable, comfortable in new situations, less polite, more aggressive
What is meant by "school readiness"? What factors are included in this concept, and how do children come to master "school readiness" skills?
How prepared a child is to learn. Preschool can help prepare kids with basic skills children need to succeed in school. Concepts include emergent literacy and emergent numeracy. Also decoding in translating print into phonemes. Culture and SES contribute to school readines
Describe the differences found in the classroom instruction in the United States and Japan. What may account for these differences?
Huge difference in US vs Japan for fifth grade because of the amount of instruction and organization of instruction.
In what ways does parental influence change in adolescence? What are the most typical sources of conflict between adolescents and their parents? How common are these conflicts?
Less time spent with parents, minor conflicts with parents yet more common, no major problems though can be stressful
What is the difference between a mastery orientation and a performance orientation? Give an example of a child with each of these orientations as she works on an academic task.
Mastery orientation is when children are more motivated to learn, to try hard, and to improve their performance. Performance orientation is when students are motivated by their level of performance, ability, and incentives. A mastery oriented child would have higher persistence even in the face of failure, while a performance oriented child would give up or not even attempt tasks they knew they wouldn't succeed at.
What features characterize relations with peers during adolescence, and in what ways do these relations differ from their forms during earlier periods of development?
More time with peers, start to form romantic relationships, peers influence identity, more solid friendships based on reciprocity (emotional sharing), commitment (loyalty and trust), equality (equal distribution of power)
How is sleep affected during puberty?
Need more sleep, but often get less, go to bed later, secretion of melatonin delayed
Briefly describe the key insights of G. Stanley Hall's theory of adolescence and explain how his conception of adolescence continues to influence modern thinking and research.
Notion that adolescence is a time of heightened emotionality and oppositions (highs and lows, self-confidence and insecurity, generosity and selfishness)Hall focuses mainly on the influence of hormones; Idea that the stage of adolescence is the consequence of an evolutionary process, believed that only when they reach adolescence that young people create new ways of thinking and feeling
How do parent, peer, and individual (child-centered) factors influence adolescent adjustment?
Parent-warmth & appropriate autonomy granting, monitoring important, secure attachment; peer relations-acceptance vs. rejection, quality of friendships, emerging romantic relationships; child-centered factors- temperament, intelligence & academic achievement, maturational timing
Describe the four parenting styles identified by Baumrind. Be sure to discuss where each style falls on the dimensions of parenting.
Permissive: high responsiveness, low control Uninvolved: low responsiveness, low control Authoritative: high responsiveness, high control Authoritarian: low responsiveness, high control dimensions: warmth/responsiveness, control/demand, the reciprocal exchange-extent child is included in decisions
What is known about the links between parenting styles and child behavior. What are the limitations of this research?
Permissive: impulsive, disobedientUninvolved: rebellious, aggressive authoritative: competent, cooperativeAuthoritarian: dependent, anxious white middle-class families studied, divorce complicated, diff depending on cultural
When do children first gain the ability to display aggression? What is the developmental progression of verbal vs. physical aggression in toddlers?
Physical aggression occurs extremely early (peaks at 18 months), as children develop, they tend to focus more on verbal aggression rather than physical aggression. Until the age of about 18 months, teasing and physical aggression occur with equal frequency. But as children approach their 2nd birthday, teasing increases enormously, and they are much more likely to tease their siblings than to hurt them physically.
What is known about the effects of poverty on child functioning? What are some key differences among teen mothers and their children, compared to older mothers?
Poverty in early childhood is most influential.Predicts intellectual skills, lifelong achievement.Risks can be reduced when raised out of poverty.More environmentally induced illnesses.
Describe the technique used by Kohlberg to research moral reasoning in children. What information has this approach provided (you do NOT need to memorize Kohlberg's substages)?
Present children stories about moral situations would ask child opinion about how protagonist should respond preconventional- see right and wrong in terms of external consequences (heteronomous and instrumental) Conventional-shift from external consequences to society's standards and rules (good child morality and law-and-order morality) Post-conventional/Principled-being aware that people hold a variety of values and opinion Kohlberg proposed six stages of moral reasoning, with children in middle childhood moving from the stage of heteronomous morality, based on the authority and objective consequences, to the stage of instrumental morality, based on one's own and others' self-interests, and then to good-child morality, characterized by concern about others and their expectations and needs.
What are the correlates of being rejected by ones' peers, both concurrently and in the long run?
Rejected children are often more lonely, depressed, and socially anxious. It's related to lower education, job performance, and self esteem, as well as a higher rate of psychological problem
How do children acquire privileged domain knowledge?
Research shows that kids understand more and more about these privileged domains as they grow up, but start out by making their own explanations for things and gradually learn through experience how things really work
How do changes that occur during middle childhood influence children's understanding of the self and the world?
Social cognition: Ability to think and reason about own and other people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (declining egocentrism, self-concept development, characteristics turn more abstract
Describe the stages identified in the process of forming a sexual-minority identity. What factors influence whether sexual-minority youth integrate and publicly disclose their orientation?
Stage one: sensitization/feeling different; stage2: self-recognition/identity confusion; stage 3: identity assumption; stage 4: commitment, identity integration
What are three key parenting goals shared by parents all over the world, and how do they impact parenting?
Survival goal Economic goal Cultural goal
How can teachers influence children's peer relationships? What interventions are most effective in helping children who are rejected by peers?
Teachers influence rejection when they derogate a child when they occasionally misbehave. Teachers should praise children, have social skills training, academic training, teacher and parent training
How do preschool enrollment numbers vary across cultures, and what is the influence of preschool participation on school readiness in the U.S.?
The kids that need preschool the most aren't in areas where preschool is high quality. Preschool participation helps kids with school readiness
What are the main functions of school? What are the two main types of studies used to examine the effects of schooling? What are the findings from these studies, and what are the benefits and drawbacks of these types of studies?
To build social skills and to increase cognitive development and academics. Nunes et al looked at Brazilian street vendors in the market. They did well verbally and had street smarts but could not generalize knowledge. This study showed the importance of schooling but is not universally predictive. The second study was Morrison Grade Cut Off studies in which they compared children of the same age who differed by one year of schooling. The found that school predicts the memory skills and literacy and math, but age predicts the Piagetian milestones. The drawbacks of this study include that the child may be developing literacy and math at home or in preschoo
Describe both the short-term and long-term consequences of divorce on children. Be sure to discuss how consequences vary based on age, temperament, and gender of the child.
Young children: self blame, fear of abandonmentOlder children: confidante role, overburdenedMore difficult for temperamentally difficult childrenBoys externalize, girls internalizeMost children adjust after about 2 yearsHigher likelihood of own divorce
How do parents influence children's peer relationships? How do parents' relationships with their children change over the course of development?
authoritarian parenting and modeling can positively impact children's social skills, which can help them get accepted by other children. Relationships with parents often decrease in lovingness on the side of the child during middle and high school, but afterwords will increase
How have conceptions of adolescence changed over time? Why is adolescence a difficult period to define
begins at puberty and ends when adolescents take on adult roleshard to define period because the start of puberty varies and the taking on of adult roles varies, also varies by culture
What is the intentional definition of aggression? What are the central aspects of this definition?
behaviors intended to hurt aggression can be reactive (Frustration, retaliation)- Instrumental (Proactive, Premeditated) Trying to accomplish a task (get a certain toy)
preoperational
child is not yet capable of mental representations of actions that obey logic rules
false belief task
children are presented with a story in which one of the characters comes to have a false belief. After hearing the story, the child is asked questions designed to reveal his or her understanding about what goes on in another person's mind. they respond as if the boy had the same information that they do. Five-year-olds are far more likely to say that the boy will look in the drawer, presumably because they understand that he has a false belief about the current location of the candy. A second version of the false-belief task involves tricking children themselves into a false belief. One way to induce children this young to solve false-belief tasks is to create tasks that rely on children's nonverbal, rather than verbal, behavior. For example, when an agent falsely believes that a desirable object is in a certain location, children as young as 18 months will point to show the agent the correct location of the object. The extreme difference in performance suggests that autism spectrum disorder may affect a specific module—a theory-of-mind module, perhaps—leaving other modules unaffected. difficult to engage in pretend play.
How is television exposure potentially implicated in the obesity epidemic facing the U.S.?
children are spending less time being activeProctor et al. (2003): 4-11 year olds who watched more than 3 hours a day had 40% more body fat that those who watched less than 2 hours a day
How have gender stereotypes changed since the 1960's, and what evidence do we have that children know these stereotypes? How does culture influence the development of gender role beliefs?
children know by age 3, sort toys by gender, occupations, prefer same gender playmate, rigid stereotyping behavior, later become more flexible
What do we know about the influence of cultural context on cognitive abilities in middle childhood?
cognitive growth is due to experiences- assimilation and accommodation. great insight and description, but few answers.influence of memory, increased capacity, speed of namingDevelopment of conservation is a universal achievement of human beings, regardless of cultural circumstances, intelligence is securely anchored to cultural context
Describe briefly what we know about possible influences on aggression in the social and cognitive realm. In particular, be sure to describe research suggesting that a) children learn aggression through modeling, b) children's aggressive acts are rewarded, and c) that aggressive children are more likely than non-aggressive children to misinterpret cues about others' intentions.
cognitive influences on aggression: aggressive children show several deficits in social information processing relative to nonaggressive peers, tower building study, boys who were agg to start interpreted ambiguous intent as hostile social: children's aggression is rewarded, 75% followed by consequences, relational: perceived pop, giving into a tantrum, more attention, laughing, bobo doll study, corporal punishment assos with more agg 75% parents spank children by time 3 or 4
Define prosocial behavior. What are some particular behaviors that researchers consider to be prosocial? What are some of the factors associated with increased prosocial behavior?
cognitive intervention more useful than catharsis, emotional reg, non-punitive consequences social skills training all effective pro: behavior such as sharing, helping, caregiving, and showing compassion. empathy sympathy - Prosocial Behavior: Behavior such as sharing, helping, caregiving, and showing compassion- Prosocial behavior is associated with empathy (sharing another's emotions and feelings and sympathy (feeling sorrow or concern for another).
Describe how a preschooler would typically answer the question "who am I." What are the main influences on the development of the self-concept?
concrete physical, activity-based, social characteristics, overly pos, diff distinguishing real from ideal self preschoolers have psychological conceptions of self long before they can express trait-like terms- puppet show looking glass self: how parents talk to the child gets incorporated into self-concept cognitive changes - unsophisticated reasoning skills, diff comparing self to others -lang and memory dev: autobiographical memory: A personal narrative that helps children acquire an enduring sense of themselves, stories about self
How does the conformity to peer pressure change over the course of development?
conformity peaks in adolescence.
Describe the strategies parents use as they discuss issues of ethnicity with their children. What is the evidence linking these approaches to various child outcomes?
cultural socialization/ethnic pride- more likely for minority groups, most common for young children, assoc with better cognitive abilities and few behavioral probs prep for discrimination- mixed findings, depends on fam dynamics for dev impacts promotion of mistrust- assoc with more behavior probs, no such thing as color blind, talking about race is a good thing
symbolic reasoning
deloache study: hiding snoopy. when a model is used, 2.5 year olds preform poorly while 3 year olds do well. when a picture is used, both preform well. this is because a picture is a specific representation that children have experience with. if you make the child believe that the model is the room, they do better bc they have a representation of it
What factors characterize a high-quality daycare setting?
differences in social capital (resources). staff ration, training, responsiveness, sensitive care, staff turnover, safety, resources
Discuss the social domain view of moral development. How does this view differ from the constructivist and psychodynamic views of moral development?
emphasizes that there are different types of "right" and "wrong", social domain theory The theory that the moral domain, the social conventional domain, and the personal domain have distinct rules that vary in how broadly the rules apply and in what happens when they are broken. con: heteronomous morality—that is, morality defined in terms of externally imposed controls and objective consequences. According to Piaget, as children enter middle childhood and begin to interact increasingly with their peers outside situations directly controlled by adults, heteronomous morality gives way to autonomous morality, in which one's moral judgments are freely and personally chosen psy: internalized the moral standards of our parents, especially those of our same-sex parent
Discuss the role of television in perpetuating social stereotypes. Why is stereotyping on television of concern?
gender and racial stereotypes, children have unsophisticated TV cognitive skills
What gender differences actually exist? How large are these differences, in general?
girls have better- verbal, academic, compliance, interpreting and expressing emotions. by adol lose math and science edge boys- visual/spatial, activity level, physical aggression diff small, large overlap
Describe Piaget's conception of changes in moral development, and how children learn moral rules through games
heteronomous and autonomous According to Piaget, in middle childhood there is a shift to autonomous morality, in which judgments of right and wrong are based on people's intentions rather than on the objective consequences of their behavior. Experience with rule-based games makes possible this shift and the emergence of self-governing peer groups.
What do we know about the impact of daycare on the development of children? What factors are important to consider? What is the most important factor in determining the outcomes of children?
high quality: related to better language and learning skills High quantity: related to more aggression Quality of parenting is most important. Attachment security is generally not affected
What changes and advances occur in brain development during adolescence?
higher dopamine in prefrontal cortex & limbic system = higher risk taking sex hormones active in limbic system = higher risk taking continued pruning and myelination of neural pathways = fewer and faster connections
Describe important developmental tasks of adolescence.
identity vs confusion- erikson psychosocial moratorium identity diffusion linked with difficulty forming intimate relationships and establishing a career ethnic identity dev, bicultural, assimilated, separated, marginal
How is intelligence measured in children? What are the concerns about measuring intelligence?
in past- identify who would benefit from education. now- identify children with learning disabilities, not one thing, but includes: reasoning and problem solving, verbal ability, learning ability, creativity, social competence-these are all culturally defined two approaches: Measure "elementary processes" (Galton): ex. reaction time, sensory acuity-not good at predicting school performance Empirical approach (Binet): measure reasoning, verbal ability, an etc-good predictor of school performance
What is known about television exposure and subsequent attentional problems in children? Be sure to describe the findings of Zimmerman & Christakis (2007) in your answer.
increased attention problems the more entertainment tv prior to age 3 and more tv at 2-3 more probs at 7
What evidence suggests that there are biological influences on aggression?
individuals compete with each other for the resources necessary for survival and reproduction. Consequently, evolution favors individuals with more aggressive phenotypes. In many species, including our own, phenotypic characteristics such as territoriality, which ensures that a mating pair will have access to food, are believed to contribute to survival. Dominance encounters like these led to an orderly pattern of social relationships within the group. Once children knew their position in such a hierarchy, they challenged only those whom it was safe for them to challenge and left others alone, thereby reducing the amount of aggression within the group. - Aggression is innate (evolutionary perspective)- Males are more overtly aggressive in almost all cultures (correlated with testosterone)- Antisocial behavior runs in families (twin adoption studies)- Neurobiological deficits. Impaired amygdala activity (important for processing negative emotions)i. Low empathy for others' sadness. Low baseline arousal. More sensation seeking. Lower stress response (cortisol, skin conductance)iii. Emotional detachment from punishment
Socioemotional competence involves the ability to read others' emotions and control one's own emotions. What is known about children's ability in these areas during the early childhood years?
infants and young children require a great deal of assistance with regulation, effortful control, which can be particularly difficult for young children
Discuss the changes that occur in prosocial moral reasoning (e.g., deciding whether to share with, help, or take care of other people when doing so may prove costly to oneself) from early childhood through middle childhood.
infants- show empathetic concern when others are distressed toddlers-show helping and comforting behaviors (still egocentric developmental increases in prosocial behavior, helping increases between ages 3 to 6, sharing increases between ages 6 to 1
What is meant by describing the family as a system? What are the benefits or disadvantages associated with different family structures, such as nuclear, extended, and single-parent families?
interdependence, bidirectional relationships, direct and indirect effects, dynamic/changing, all must work together few diff with single parents, 30% live below poverty, less social support, parent overburdened Extended families: common in low SES, single-parent families. More resources, attention than would be otherwise available, less exposure to diversity in nuclear families allocaregiving Child care and protection are provided by group members other than the parents, usually other relatives.
What issues have been raised about children's use of interactive media? In what ways does research support or alleviate concerns in these areas?
less face-to-face interactions, media is a pervasive presence in children's lives and has positive and negative influences on children's behaviors- violent content may make real life violence seem more acceptable (Flemish children study). less self-regulation, less parent child interaction, less empathetic bc desensitized
How do parenting styles differ among parents of different ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic status?
lower SES is more likely to use authoritarian, but this is in part to keep children safe, largely due to the impact of stress, even under mid stress African American and Chinese tend to be more authoritarian, no-nonsense, tiger mom, not assoc with maladaptive outcomes within a cultural context, in us it is assoc with higher stress, more conflict, lower quality of life
Why is divorce not considered a single event? What makes it difficult to study the consequences of divorce?
may lead to geographic change, change in SES, and possible remarriage and blended families
What role do parents play in children's development of self-regulation?
mirror, parent-child co-regulation, parents soothe infants when they are upset, which gives them experience recovering from distress, help put feelings into words, suggest regulatory strat, distract maintaining routines
What are the social influences on gender differences? What is known about how parents, teachers, peers, and the media influence the development of gender differences? How do siblings influence gender roles?
modeling, imitation, social learning perspective: differential reinforcement (reward punish) parents more likely to encourage boys to have more autonomy, encourage girls to express feelings, less math and science interest for girls, fathers more likely to discourage boys from playing with girl toys and engage in rough play with boys teachers more likely to interrupt girls, call on boys, praise boys for knowledge and girls for neatness peers, self-regulate by sex, preschoolers play with same-sex playmates 3.5x as much as opp. by age 6 11x as much, group norms evolve within same-sex groups, boys tend to dominate in mixed-sex, peers react neg to gender-inconsistent behavior, esp true for boys sisters closer than mixed or two brothers, boys with older brothers and girls with older sisters most stereotyped, opp for mixed older sib
Describe autistic children's reasoning about physical and psychological events. How does a modularity account of development explain these results? What evidence suggests that this view may not be entirely accurate?
modularity theory views each domain of reasoning as a distinct and separate set of mental processes that have evolved to handle domain-specific information and that changes very little over the course of development. score low on false belief tasks may be very clever at solving mechanical puzzles such as putting together blocks to make a racing car, or may have unusual abilities in music, art, math, memory, or some other specific area. may affect a specific module- a theory of mind module- leaving other modules unaffected. False belief tasks are things where researchers test a kid's ability to see things from another perspective by seeing if they can correctly identify if someone else will hold a false belief when the kid is shown the right belief. Autistic children tend to do very poorly on false-belief tasks, but super well on other domains such as art or music. Therefore, this supports modularity theory, which says that we have mental modules for processing different topics and that they don't interact with one another very much. Specifically, this supports that autism might have something to do with a deficit in the theory of mind module. Autistic children tend to not think about emotional reasoning. Instead, they point to more physical causes and things like that. This falls into the theory of mind module deficit theory. This is somewhat refuted using the evidence that children can be trained to have better social skills and things like that using the "theory theory" that basically says that kids' interactions with the environment are simply reflections of the theories they have about the world at that time
How do peer relations change over time? When do we first start seeing peer interactions? What types of interactions do we see? How are these interactions changing over time?
n infancy children smile, babble, and imitate each other. Preschoolers have low complexity interactions, elementary schoolers form peer groups and are gender segregated. Adolescents have formal structured groups and are coed. Peer conformity peaks in adolescence
What role do communities play in children's development? Provide an example of how the conditions of a neighborhood may influence children's development and well-being. Differentiate between physical disorder and social disorganization.
number of studies show that low-SES children living in substandard housing are at greater risk for emotional and academic problems, get sick and injured more often, and miss more school compared with low- SES children living in better housing A problem in distressed communities that includes both physical deterioration (garbage on the streets, rundown buildings, etc.) and chaotic activity (crowding, high noise levels, etc.). A problem in distressed communities that includes weak social cohesion (lack of trust and connection among community members), poor neighborhood climate (fear related to crime and violence), and perceived racism. s weak social cohesion (the sense of trust and connection between people), poor neighborhood climate (the level of fear related to crime and violence), and perceived racism. Social disorganization is associated with poor parent-child relationships, reduced parental warmth, and higher levels of parent-child conflict.
How does sociodramatic play influence self-regulation? How is play implicated in learning to cope with a chronic illness in childhood?
play help cope, make fun theory of mind—that is, the understanding that people have internal beliefs, desires, and emotions that may not be expressed in their behavior
1. Give examples of privileged domains and briefly describe what they might indicate about children's thinking. How do children acquire privileged domain knowledge?
privileged domains: cognitive domains that call on specialized kind of information, require specifically designated forms of reasoning, and appear to be of evolutionary importance to the human species.ex) (thought to have naïve thinking for all) psychology, biology, physics. psychology: theory of mind: construct coherent theories about how people's beliefs and desires combine to shape their actions. children gain a more comprehensive idea about how other people's desires, beliefs, and knowledge are related to how they act in the world. bio: made significantly more errors on the combinations that assessed the animate-inanimate distinction. Nonetheless, even the 4-year-olds responded better than chance would predict, indicating that they had an emerging if incomplete understanding of the difference between living and nonliving things. young children know that living things grow and change their appearance, whereas inanimate objects may change in appearance due to wear or damage, but they do not grow physics: cup
How do children come to develop a sex-role identity according to psychodynamic view, social learning view, constructivist view, and cultural view?
psycho: Differentiation and identification: Boys differentiate from their mothers and identify with their fathers through resolution of the Oedipus complex. Girls' resolution of the Electra complex results in identification with their mother, with the attempt to differentiate from her being short-circuited. social: Modeling and differential reinforcement: Boys and girls observe and imitate sex-typed behaviors of males and females, respectively, because they are rewarded for doing so. construct: Conceptual development: Children develop sex-role constancy (an understanding that their sex remains the same no matter what), and sex-role identity then begins to guide their thoughts and actions. cultural: Mediation: The acquisition of gender roles occurs as children's activities are organized (mediated) by cultural conceptions and stereotypes of gender.
What are some of the physical changes that take place during puberty (do not worry about Tanner stages - just describe the overall changes)? How do these changes differ for males and females?
puberty generally starts earlier for females; growth spurt, primary sex characteristics (females get first period, men have first ejaculation), pubic hair, boy's voice changes
What is known about children's development in single parent families and in same-sex parent families?
same-sex: no diff in behavior probs, social adjustment, higher tolerance and empathy, perception of more prejudice, few diff between opp sex children
What are scripts? Describe way in which cultural context influences children's cognitive development.
set way of doing something when put in a specific situation (dependent on the context )Scripts are generalized event representations as far as who does what, and where and things like that. These are a result of participation in activities. For example, one culture may make specific activities such as skiing available, so the kid knows skiing earlier, but not the ballet that a kid in another culture might learn and vice versa.
How do children learn to control and regulate emotions? How does this control affect social relationships?
sociodramatic play—make-believe play in which two or more participants enact a variety of related social roles, particular, children who engaged in a lot of sociodramatic play in the fall showed high levels of self-regulation several months later, control better relationships Display Rules: conventions regarding whether, how, and under what circumstances emotions should be expressed. -Leads to better social relationships (socioemotional competence)
What is the function of siblings in children's social development, and what factors affect the quality of sibling relationships?
teach social skills, role models, companions, teachers zone of proximal development: defined as the gap between what children can accomplish independently and what they can accomplish when they are interacting with others who are more competent. parental behavior, prep for birth of sib, favor a child the emotional climate of fam: sib conflict up if parent fight (emotional contagion) spacing of sibs, rivalry if less than 2 yrs apart, less companionship if more than 4 yrs apart time conflicts peak in middle childhood, trust/intimacy increase in adol
What is the Flynn effect, and what are the possible explanations for this effect?
the increase across generations in performance on IQ tests in areas of fluid, crystallized, and spatial reasoning intelligence. certain that the change must involve the environment, since rapid change in the genetic constitution of people all over the world has not taken place, but large changes in the environment have
How does memory influence children's cognitive gains during middle childhood? What aspects of memory development are thought to influence cognitive gains? What changes typically occur in children's use of memory strategies and their understanding of their own abilities?
the role of memory: 3 factors bring about the memory changes characteristic of middle childhood 1. increases in the speed and capacity of working memory 2. Increases in knowledge about the things one is trying to remember 3. the acquisition of more effective strategies for remembering memory strategies are used to enhance remembering rehearsal: the process of repeating to oneself the material that one is trying to remember (more effective use of this) memory organization- organizational strategies: memory strategies in which materials to be remembered are mentally grouped into meaningful categories (categories go from bat, rat to animal, foods, shapes, etc) elaboration: memory strategy that involves making connections between two or more things to be remembered (street and tomato) metamemory- ability to think about one's own memory processes- better understanding of limitations of own memory (library book for school- 5 yo won't do a thing vs. 8 yo writes a note, puts book in backpack)
Describe the sociometric method. What are the five categories of peer acceptance derived from this method?
there are two parts to the sociometric method. In peer ratings, each child is rated on a scale of 1-5 how much a child likes to play with them. In peer nominations, children are circled when they are positively liked or negatively liked. The five categories are popular, rejected, controversial, neglected, and average
What do research findings suggest about young children's ethnic stereotypes? How do they develop these beliefs?
very young children are aware of racial/ethnic groups: infants 6mo look longer at diff races African American children show evidence of pro-white bias: prefer white dolls, darker less desirable, similar in other minority groups social stereotypes: explicit teaching, implicit bias, awareness vs internalization: 80% of black children who endorsed white bias had pos self-esteem
What evidence suggests that young children are more competent at providing eyewitness testimony than was originally thought?
view the world from solely their own perspective. Research shows that children with more post-traumatic symptoms tend to remember more about trauma. Also, making the child feel at ease and having the interviewer tell the kid that it is okay not to know all answers. kids are more likely to remember better sooner after the event than later
Describe the evidence supporting an information-processing explanation of preschoolers' cognitive development.
young children's cognitive limitations are from lack of knowledge, memory, attentional control, the speed of processing, and strategies for use
What is the developmental course of self-esteem, and why does it typically decline during middle childhood? Be sure to cite evidence from Ruble et al.'s (1980) experiment in your answer.
younger children (~4-7) focus on overall competence (cognitive and physical) and acceptance (parents, peers) Older children (~8-12) differentiate between cognitive, social, and physical competence-Adolescents include more focus on peers, romantic appeal - 5,7,9-year-olds play a modified game of basketball (hoop hidden behind a curtain), two groups relative success and relative failure, throw the ball in the concealed hoop, children could not see if successful, found out if failed or succeeded, children rated themselves, 5 and 7 yrs. felt good about themselves, but 9 yrs. felt bad if failed; results- in middle childhood ( 9 yrs.), children use comparative assessments to describe themselves
