FCS 251 exam 3

what does effective parenting look like?

depends on life conditions, good parental mental health, marital happiness, and favorable economic conditions.

what is temperament?

early-appearing, stable individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation.

PPCT: context

four interrelated systems: 1. microsystem: immediate; lots of time 2. mesosystems: interrelations 3. exosystem: parents work place 4. macrosystem: culture, belief system

differential susceptibility

the idea that people vary in how sensitive they are to particular experiences -dandelion vs orchid child

PPCT: person

*three aspects of personal characteristics: 1. demand: personal stimulus --age, gender, skin color, and physical appearance --may influencce initial interactions because of the expectations formed immediately 2. resources: --mental and emotional resources (past experience's, skills, and intelligence) --social and material resources ( access to good food, housing, caring parents, educational opportunity) 3. Force: --differences of temperament, motivation, persistence, and the like. --two children equal resources characteristics, but differnt motivation will end up having different developmental trajectories *individual roles in changing their context -relatively passive= demand characteristics: age, gender, skin color -more active= resource characteristics: physical, mental or emotional -most active= force characteristics: desire

ethnic and gender differences affecting temperament

- compared with north American Caucasian infants, Chinese and Japanese babies tend to be less active, irritable, and vocal; more easily soothed when upset; and better at quieting themselves -Asian mothers interact gently, soothingly, and gesturally with their infants, whereas Caucasian mothers use a more active, stimulating verbal approach. Also, Japanese and Chinese adults discourage babies for expressing strong emotion, which contributes further to their infants' tranquility.

GxE on environmental influences

-about half of individual differences have been attributed to differences in genetic makeup. -children exposed to extreme malnutrition in infancy remain more distractible and fearful than their agemates, even after dietary improvements.

gender difference in temperament

-gender differences in temperament are evident in infancy, suggesting a genetic foundation. -boys are more active and daring, more irritable when frustrated, more likely to express high-intensity pleasure in play, and slightly more impulsive than girls-- factors that contribute to boys' higher injury rates throughout childhood and adolescence. -girls large advantage in effortful control undoubtedly contributes to their greater cooperativeness, better school performance, and lower incidence of behavior problems.

development of shyness and sociability

-individual differences in arousal of the amygdala, an inner brain structure devoted to processing of novelty and emotional information, contribute to these contrasting temperaments. -novel stimuli easily excite amygdala and its connection to the cerebral cortex and sympathetic nervous system which prepares the body in face of threat. same level of stimuli evokes minimal neural excitiation. -HEART RATE= first few weeks of life, the heart rates shy children are consistently higher than those socialable children -CORTISOL= saliva concentration of the stress hormone cortisol tend to be higher, and to rise more in response to a stressful event, in shy than in socialble children -PUPIL DIALATION, BLOOD PRESSURE, AND SKIN SURFACE TEMPERATURE= compared with sociable children, shy children show greater pupil dilation, rise in blood pressure, and cooling of the fingertips when faced with novelty. -shy infants show greater EEG activity in right frontal lobe -CHILD REARING PRACTICES= most extremely shy or sociable children inherit a physiology that biases them toward a particular tempermental style.

short 5-HTTLPR

-interferes with functioning of the inhibitory neurotransmitter serotonin and, thus, greatly increases the risk of negative mood, fear of the unfamiliar, and self-regulation difficulties- became increasingly irritable as their mother's anxiety about parenting increased. -children with this gene show unusually high early plasticity, they are particularly susceptible to the effects of both good and poor parenting.

sibling differences in temperament

-parents often look at differences between siblings (she's more active, he's more social) -siblings have distinct experiences with teacher, peers, and others in their community that affect development.

stability of temperament

-temperament itself develops with age. -long term prediction from early temperament is best achieved after age 3, when childrens styles of responding are better established. -the ease with which children manage their reactivity in early childhood depends on the type and strength of the reactive emotion involved. -development of the biological systems on which temperament is based, the child's capacity for effortful control, and the success of her efforts, which depends on the quality and intensity of her emotional reactivity. -child rearing can modify biologically based temperamental traits considerably and that children with certain traits, such as negative emotionality, are especially susceptible to the influence of parenting.

Rothbart's model of temperament: 6 dimensions

1. Activity level= level of gross-motor activity( reactivity) 2. attention span/persistence= duration of orienting or interest(reactivity) 3. fearful distress= wariness and distress in response to intense or novel stimuli, including time to adjust to new situations (reactivity) 4.irritable distress= extent of fussing, crying, and distress when desires are frustrated (reactivity) 5. positive affect= frequency of expression of happiness and pleasure (reactivity) 6. effortful control= capacity to voluntarily suppress a dominant, reactive response in order to plan and execute a more adaptive response. in the first two years, called orienting/regulation, which refers to the capacity to engage in self-soothing , shift attention from unpleasant events, and sustain interest for an extended time. (self-regulation)

Thomas and Chess's model of temperament

1. easy child= (40% of the sample) quickly establish regular routines in infancy, is generally cheerful, and adapts easily to new experiences. 2. difficult child= (10% of the sample) is irregular in daily routines, is slow to accept new experiences, and tends to react negatively and intensely. 3. slow-to-warm-up child= (15% of the sample) is inactive, shows mild, low key reactions to environmental stimuli, is negative in mood, and adjusts slowly to new experiences. **35% of children did not fit any of these categories, instead showed a unique blend of temperamental characteristics.**

PPCT: time

1. micro-time: during the course of some specific activity or interaction (one specific interaction) 2. meso-time: the extent which activities and interactions occur with some consistency in the developing person's environment 3. Macro-time (the chronosystem): developmental process, specific historical events/ cohorts

goodness of fit model

how temperament and environment can together produce favorable outcomes. involves creating child-rearing environments that recognize each child's temperament while simultaneously encouraging more adaptive functioning..

b. How do cultural values and culture change influence the fit between parenting and temperament

in the past, high valuing of social harmony, which discourages self-assertion, led Chinese adults to evaluate shy children positively, but with the rapid market expansion in the Chinese economy, which requires assertiveness and sociability for success, may be responsible for change in Chinese parents' and teachers' attitudes towards childhood shyness.

PPCT: process

proposition #1: -complex reciprocal interaction -active, evolving biopsychological human organisms and the persons, objects and sybols in its immediate external environment -fairly regular -over extended periods of time -such enduring forms of interaction in the immediate environment: *proximal processes* -examples: play, reading proposition #2: -joint function of the characterisitcs --the developing person; --the environment-both immediate and more remote; --the developmental outcomes --the social continuities and changes over time and life course

self-regulation

strategies that modify reactivity

reactivity

this refers to quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention, and motor activity.