Child Development Psychology Final

Early theories of moral development: psycho dynamic and behaviorist/social learning account

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Origins and Development of Self-Esteem

Age 4-5: have meaningful sense of self esteem. Age 4-7 there is an inflated self esteem (tend to rate themselves positively on all domains). 8 yrs: competency appraisals begin to more closely reflect others' evaluations of them. Adolescence: relational self worth

All information from guest lecture

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Uninvolved Parenting

Extremely lax and undemanding Either rejected child or are so overwhelmed by own stress and problems Impose few rules and demands Uninvolved and insensitive to child's needs

How important is self-esteem?

Positive self-evaluation predicts favorable future outcomes. High self esteem can be bad, though! Bullies with high self esteem come to increasingly value the rewards they gain by behaving aggressively and belittling their victims. These cognitions can perpetrate future aggression and antisocial conduct.

Incompatible-response technique

a method of behavior modification in which adults ignore undesirable conduct while reinforcing acts that are incompatible with these responses.

Psychological Comparisons Phase

The tendency to form impressions of other by comparing and contrasting these individuals on abstract psychological dimensions. "shes more artistic than others"

Behavioral Comparisons

The tendency to form impressions of others by comparing and contrasting their overt behaviors. "she likes to draw"

3 Components of Morality

The three components of Morality: 1) Cognitive: set of principles and ideals that distinguish right from wrong. 2)Behavioral: actions in response to moral dilemmas. 3)Affective: emotions associated with morality (pride, guilt, sympathy, etc.)

Gender Concept (Cognitive-Developmental Theory/ Kohlberg's Theory)

1) Gender Identity (30 months): identify themselves and others as members of one gender or another. 2) Gender Stability (3/4 years): gender is stable over time. 3) Gender Constancy (5/7 years): gender is consistent across situations.

Cultural Influences of Self-concept

Individualistic societies vs. collectivist societies.

What do self-report studies tell us about racial discrimination?

Self report studies from the sellers article says that racial discrimination is not uncommon.

Phase of specific attachment:

The period between 7 and 9 months of age when infants are attached to one close companion (usually the mother).

Phase of multiple attachments

The period when infants are forming attachments to companions other than their primary attachment object.

Two dimensions of parenting

Acceptance/responsiveness -amount of support and affection that parent displays. Demandingness/Control -amount of regulation or supervision Each parent has different levels of both dimensions. Warm, responsive parenting leads to secure emotional attachments, prosocial orientation, good peer relations, high self-esteem, and a strong sense of morality. When children are often ignored or rejected leads to poor peer relations, clinical depression, and other adjustment problems.

Permissive Parenting

Accepting but lax pattern Adults make relatively few demands Permit children to freely express their feelings and impulses Do not closely monitor children's activities Rarely exert firm control over their behavior

Authoritarian Parenting

Adults impose many rules, expect strict obedience, and will rarely explain to child why it is necessary to comply Rely on punitive, forceful tactics (power-assertion or love withdrawal) to gain compliance Not sensitive to child's differing viewpoint Expect child to accept their world as law and respect authority

Age trends in person perception

Age trends in person perception 3-5: children aware of how peers typically behave in a variety of situations. 5-6: reliably choose classmates who are relatively good at school for group academic tasks and choose classmates good at social stuff for play partners. younger than 7: talk about others using concrete, observable terms (similar to how they describe themselves).

Aggression

Aggression is any form of behavior designed to harm or injure a living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment. Actor's Intent = aggressive Even acts of harm that were intended but not done are considered aggressive Excludes accidental harmdoing and rough-and-tumble play. 2 types of aggressive acts: hostile aggression where the major goal is to harm and injure and instrumental aggression where the major goal is to gain access to objects, space, or privileges.

Altruism definitions and origins

Altruism is the genuine concern for the welfare of other people and a willingness to act on that concern. This is expressed through prosocial acts such as sharing, cooperating, and helping. Prosocial behavior are actions that are intended to benefit other people.

Ethnic identity: definition, development, elements

An ethnic identity is a personal identification with an ethnic group and its values and traditions.

Asocial phase of attachment:

Approximately the first 6 weeks of life when infants respond to an equally favorable way to interesting social and nonsocial stimuli.

Aspects of the Learning Environment.

Aspects of the Learning Environment: Academic Emphasis: clear focus on academic goals. Challenging, developmentally appropriate curricula: content that children can relate to, developmental issues they are currently facing. Classroom Management: less time on discipline, pupils told what is expected of them, classroom atmosphere is comfortable and students are encouraged. Discipline: staff are firm in enforcing rules on spot rather than sending offenders to principal's office. Teamwork: faculties work as a team with energetic principal.

Attachment and internal working models

Attachment influences later relationships. As infants interact with primary caregivers, they develop internal working models (=cognitive representations of themselves and other people) that are used to interpret events and to form expectations about the character of human relationships. This is perhaps why attachment quality can forecast later outcomes. REFER TO CHART AND DRAW FROM GOOGLE DOC

Four patterns of parenting

Authoritarian (Low on responsiveness, high on demandingness) Authoritative (high on demands and high on warmth and supportiveness) Uninvolved (low on both) Permissive (Low on demands and high on warmth and support)

Avoidance Attachment

Avoidance attachment: 20% of American middle class 12-months-olds. These children show little distress during separation. They often ignore mothers and can be sociable with strangers or just ignore them. If distressed, the child will ignore the mother's attempts to comfort them at reunion. Characteristics of the Mother: 2 types 1) Impatient, unresponsive, negative 2) Overzealous, overstimulating parents that lack sensitivity to child's needs and preferences.

Home environments

Children are especially likely to be affected by parents' marital conflict when parents attack and then withdraw (so the kids are not exposed to amiable and satisfactory resolutions). These parents are emotionally unavailable to the kids Coercive home environment is a home in which family members often annoy each other and use aggressive/antisocial tactics as a method of coping. Negative reinforcement is any stimulus whose removal/termination as a consequence will increase the probability of recurrence. This is important in maintaining coercive interactions (EX- whining causes behavior to stop, and thus the whining is reinforced).

Informal Curriculum

Children are exposed to this curriculum in school. This is how schools teach children to fit into their culture. They are expected to obey rules, cooperate with classmates, respect authority, and become good citizens. Schools enhance cognitive growth by providing children with rules, strategies, and problem-solving skills they can apply to different types of information. Impact's children's social and emotional development. School environment and type of school are very important (school policies around clothing, punishment, etc.)

Components of Self-Esteem

Children first evaluate their competencies separately in many different domains and only later integrate these impressions into an overall self-evaluation. Susan Harter proposed a multidimensional model of childhood self-esteem: scholastic competence, social acceptance, physical appearance, athletic competence, and behavioral conduct. Children differ in terms of importance they assign to the various domains. Those who rate themselves highly on scales they view as important tend to have higher overall self worth. Global self esteem refers to the overall self esteem assessed by all domains combined.

Influences on Identity Formation: Cognitive, parenting, scholastic, social-cultural

Cognitive: formal operational thought→ can reason logically about hypothetical situations and are better able to imagine/contemplate future identities. Parenting Influences: Diffusion state: feel neglected or rejected by their parents. Distant from them Foreclosure state: extremely close to parents and maybe fear their rejection. Parents may be extremely controlling. Moratorium/achievement states: solid base of affection at home combined with considerable freedom to be individuals in their own right.

Conceptions of Self in Preschool Children

Conceptions of self in preschool children: focus on basic physical descriptions, possessions they have, and achievements. "I caught the ball" "I have blue eyes" "I have a new bike"

Authoritative Parenting

Controlling but flexible style Parents make reasonable demands of child and provide rationales for complying with the limits they set. They also ensure that children follow guidelines. More accepting of and responsive to child's points of view. Seek child's participation in family decision making Exercise control in a rational, democratic way that recognizes and respects children's perspectives

Methods of controlling aggression in young children.

Creating nonaggressive environments. Eliminating the Payoffs for Aggression: one method that has been proven is the incompatible-response technique. Time-out Technique Social-Cognitive Interventions in Older Children: Help them learn to regulate their anger while also becoming more skilled at empathizing with and taking others' perspectives so that they will not be so likely to over-attribute hostile intentions from their peers. Other skills such as looking for non-hostile cues that might be associated with harmdoing, controlling their anger, and generating nonaggresive solutions to conflict.

John Bowlby's theory of attachment

Described emotional attachment as the strong affectionate ties that we feel with the special people in our lives. Parent-infant attachments are reciprocal relationships: infants become attached to parents and parents become attached to infants. John Bowlby believed that many of the built in behaviors supported by the ethological theory are specifically designed to promote attachments between infants and caregivers.

Preschool Peer Sociability and Activities

Development: 2-5 years: directs social gestures to wider audience. 4-5 years: playful bids for attention or approval directed at peers. Relationship between complexity of play and child's social competence with peers. More outgoing and prosocial and less aggressive and withdrawn. Play Activities: Nonsocial activity Onlooker Play Parallel Play Associative Play Cooperative Play

Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment

Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment: 5% of American 12-month-olds May be thought of as own category or continuous scale present across all attachment types. The children may have contradictory responses to union. They may freeze, act dazed, or oscillate between responses. Lack organized strategy for dealing with mother's absence. Mother is source of both fear and comfort. Common among abused or maltreated infants.

The Doll Studies - what were they, what did they find, how did they find it, what did we learn from them, what are their limitations

Doll Studies were done by Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940's. There have been many replications since then. Helped overturn Brown vs. Board. At 5-6 years, children of both races associate socially constructed positive attributes with White and negative attributes with Black. ***NOTE: African American preschoolers' white preference is NOT necessarily associated with their self concept. It could just be a regurgitation of society's preference (limitation of design) Older AA children display black preference. Older EA maintain white preference.

Individual differences in aggression

2 kinds of highly aggressive children: Proactive aggressors are confident that aggression will "pay off" in tangible benefits and can enhance self-esteem by dominating. Reactive aggressors: suspicious and wary of other people, view them as belligerent adversaries who deserve to be dealt with in a forceful manner.

Identity

A mature self-definition; a sense of who one is, where one is going in life, and how one fits into society. A major developmental hurdle that adolescents face is an identity crisis.

Self-recognition in Infancy

This is the first idea of stable self-image over time: First signs 15-17 months; 18-24 months it is pretty solidified. It is the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror or photograph. More difficult when using photographs/videos of infant to test for their self recognition (don't have proprioceptor feedback, so it's more difficult for them). The Rouge test using a mirror: an adult sneakily puts a smudge on the child's face. When they look in the mirror, can they figure out that they themselves are the ones with the smudge? Limitations: children don't understand that the self is an entity that is stable over time. Present self: from age 2-3 recognizes current representations of self but are unaware that past self-representations or self-relevant events have implications for the present. Extended self: from 3.5 - 5 years can integrate past, current, and unknown future self-representations into notion of "self" that endures over time. What contributes to self-recognition? Internalize sensorimotor schemes to form mental images; proprioception; 3.5-4 year olds autobiographical memories. --> Attachment: securely attached 2 and 3 year olds do better on tests of self-knowledge. --> Parents: provide descriptive information and recount noteworthy events.

Social Cognition

This is the thinking people display about the thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors of themselves and other people.

Educational and developmental transitions

Transition from elementary school to middle school. Transition may be difficult because of physical and psychological changes at same time as changing schools. Not as important when adolescents make a school change as what their new school is like. "Goodness-of-fit" between student and school is extremely important. Things that help: parents in tune with developmental needs; teachers stressing mastery goals rather than grades.

Stages of Psychosocial Development According to Erik Erikson

Trust vs. Mistrust Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Initiative vs. Guild Industry vs. Inferiority Identity vs. Role Confusion Intimacy vs. Isolation Generativity vs. Stagnation Integrity vs. Despair

Origins of Aggression in Infancy

Types of behaviors: overpower other children to gain access to something (1 yr) or resolve disputes by negotiating and sharing rather than fighting (2 yrs). Early conflicts are usually adaptive in helping children learn to achieve their goals without resorting to aggression.

Berry's acculturation model

Useful framework for understanding the immigrant experience. Yes Assimilation Integration Marginalization Separation No No Yes On left axis "Is it considered to be of value to develop relationships with the larger society?" and on the bottom axis "Is it considered to be of value to maintain one's cultural heritage?"

Cultural and social influences on altruism.

Western nations are competitive rather than collectivist. Social influences: Who raises altruistic children? → altruistic parents. Parents should reinforce altruism, not bribe good behavior with tangible rewards. Also, parents should practice (and not just preach) altruistic behavior.

"Altruistic" behaviors of young children

What behaviors have been seen: -->Occasionally offers toys to companions, "help" parents with chores (12-18 months) -->More likely to offer toys to peer when playthings are scarce (2 years). -->Capable of expressing sympathy and behaving compassionately toward companions (3-5 years) Individual differences in early compassion vary with: temperament and parent's reactions. -->Affective explanations: discipline that focuses a child's attention on the harm or distress that his or her conduct has caused others.

Helms' model of white racial identity

White racial identity: one's awareness of being White and what that implies in relation to those who do not share White group membership. 1)Contact Status: obliviousness to own racial identiy. 2)Disintegration Status: first acknowledges White racial identity, moral dilemma. 3)Reintegration Status: idealize Whites; denigrates/appropriates/ignores Black contributions. 4)Pseudo-Independence Status: race seems to have political implications. Let me help Black people achieve. 5)Immersion/Emersion Status: honest appraisal of significance of Whiteness, personally implicated in system. 6)Autonomy Status: internalizes a multicultural identity with non-racist Whiteness as its core. Fights oppression and pursues social justice.

Cross' Nigrescence model of black racial identity.

William (Bill) Cross' Nigrescence Theory: This is the leading theory in the field, stages are not linear, and it is a lifespan approach. Nigrescence = the process of becoming black. The five stages are: 1)Pre-encounter: individual absorbs beliefs and values of dominant white culture. Personal and social significance of one's racial group membership has not been realized. 2)Encounter: an event occurs that forces acknowledgment of the impact of racism. The person then grapples with what it means to be a member of a group targeted by racism. 3)Immersion/Emersion: desire to surround oneself with visible symbols of one's racial identity and actively avoid symbols of "Whiteness". Emerges from this with a sense of security and self-definition in one's racial identity. 4)Internalization: able to view group and other groups more objectively, establish meaningful relationships across racial lines with those who acknowledge and are respectful of their self definition. 5)Internalization-commitment: translates racial identity into a plan of action or a general sense of commitment to the concerns of Black's as a group, this is sustained over time.

Marcia's Stages of Identity Development

Yes exploration No exploration Yes Commit Achievement Foreclosure No Moratorium Diffusion Commit Identity diffusion: individuals not questioning who they are and have not yet committed themselves to an identity. [EX- "I haven't thought about religion. I don't know what I believe"] Identity foreclosure: people who have prematurely committed themselves to occupations or ideologies without really thinking about the commitments [EX- "my parents are Catholic, so I'm Catholic"] identity moratorium (stable): individuals Identity Moratorium: currently experiencing an identity crisis and are actively exploring occupational and ideological positions in which to invest themselves. Weigh different perspectives Identity achievement (stable): individuals carefully considered identity issues and have made firm commitments to an ideology.

Morality

a set of principles or ideals that help the individual to distinguish right from wrong, to act on this distinction, and to feel pride in virtuous conduct and guilt (or other unpleasant emotions) for conduct that violates one's standards.

Hostile attributional bias

a tendency to view harm done under ambiguous circumstances as having stemmed from a hostile intent on the part of the harmdoer; characterizes reactive aggressors.

Relational Aggression

acts such as snubbing, exclusion, withdrawing acceptance, or spreading rumors that are aimed at damaging an adversary's self-esteem, friendships, or social status

Retaliatory Aggression

aggressive acts elicited by real or imagined provocations

Instrumental Aggression

aggressive acts for which the perpetrator's major goal is to gain access to objects, space, or privileges.

Hostile Aggression

aggressive acts for which the perpetrator's major goal is to harm or injure a victim.

Imprinting

an innate or instinctual form of learning in which the young of certain species will follow and become attached to moving objects.

Reactive Aggressors

children who display high levels of hostile, retaliatory aggression because they over-attribute hostile intents to others and can't control their anger long enough to seek nonaggressive solutions to social problems.

Conflict

circumstances in which two (or more) persons have incompatible needs, desires, or goals.

Proactive Aggressors

highly aggressive children who find aggressive acts easy to perform and who rely heavily on aggression as a means of solving social problems or achieving other personal objectives.

Emotionally unavailable parents

parenting that reflects a withdrawing from the child and is characterized by cold, unsupportive, and even indifferent, disinterested, or neglectful parenting.

Provocative victims (of aggression)

restless, hot-tempered, and oppositional children who are victimized because they often irritate their peers.

Passive victims (of aggression)

socially withdrawn, anxious children with low self-esteem whom bullies torment, even though they appear to have done little to trigger such abuse.

Peer Sociability and Adolescence

Early: Cliques: 4-8 same-sex members who share similar values and activity preferences. Membership is often unstable and boys particularly are likely to be members of multiple cliques. Mid-to-Late Adolescence: boy cliques and girl cliques interact more frequently, eventually forming heterosexual cliques. In later adolescence crowds occur. Crowds are larger more loosely organized groups formed from several cliques with similar norms and values.

Ecological Systems Theory

Ecological systems theory identifies five environmental systems with which an individual interacts. This theory provides the framework from which community psychologists study the relationships with individuals' contexts within communities and the wider society. Ecological systems theory was developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. Microsystem: these are activities and interactions that occur in person's immediate surroundings. Mesosytem: interrelationships among micro-systems such as homes, schools, peer groups. Exosystem: contexts that children are not a part of but that may influence their development (parents' work environment) Macrosystem: cultural, subcultural, or social class context in which other systems are embedded; ideology that dictates how children should be treated, what should be taught, and what goals they should strive for. Chronosystem: time; changes in child or any ecological contexts.

Determinants of Effective Schooling

Effective Schools: promote academic achievement, social skills, polite and attentive behavior, positive attitudes towards learning, low absenteeism, continuation of education beyond age at which attendance is mandatory, and acquisition of skills that enable students to find and hold a job. Children from "better" schools exhibited fewer problem behaviors, attended school more regularly, and made more academic progress. Even after controlling for social economic status and types of communities served.

Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory of development (applies to ALL contexts).

Emphasizes that the developing person is embedded in a series of environmental systems that interact with one another and with the person to influence development.

Identity Crisis

Erik Erikson's term for the uncertainty and discomfort adolescents experience when they become confused about their present and future roles in life.

Self-esteem

Evaluation of self worth based on assessment of qualities that make up self concept. Depends on self-evaluation AND how the person thinks other people see them.

Dodge's social information processing theory of aggression.

How a child responds depends on 6 cognitive steps: -Encodes social cues -Interprets social cues -Formulates social goals -Generate problem solving strategies -Evaluate the likely effectiveness of strategies and select a response. -Enact a response -Peer evaluation and response

Process of Identity Development

Identity process does not differ by gender; identity development is not stable and the process is uneven; today's college women attach greater importance to aspects of the identity that center on sexuality, gender roles, and issues of balancing family and career.

Kohlberg's theory of moral development.

Kohlberg expanded on Piaget's theory. He described moral development as continuing through the entire lifetime. The 3 levels of his theory are Preconventional Morality, Conventional Morality, and Postconventional Morality The three levels each have 2 stages. According to Kohlberg the sequence is invariant and is culturally universal. Also each progressive stage is better suited for resolving moral problems.

Facts and fictions about sex differences

Men and women are 99.8% genetically similar. Girls: physically develop about a year earlier than boys do.Tells about onset but not about tempo. Developmental Vulnerability: Boys are more physically vulnerable to prenatal and perinatal hazards and to effects of disease and developmental delays. Brain Differences: boys have brains 8-11% larger than girls and more cerebral spinal fluid. Girls have more grey matter and more wrinkled brain tissue. Behavioral Differences: Boys have more unprovoked physical aggression. Girls and boys have the same amount of provoked and verbal aggression. Boys are more confident and interested in math. Girls' first words are 1-2 months before that of boys. Girls have better impulse control and worse body image than boys. Other recent differences: 1)Boys are more physically active (even pre-birth) 2)Infants show no differences in emotional expressivity. Toddler-hood boys more likely to display anger. 3)Compliance: preschool girls are more compliant and rely on polite suggestions. 4)Boys have more global self-esteem Research into Gender -Mean differences versus distributions -Effect sizes -Replicability

Conceptions of self in middle childhood and adolescence.

Middle childhood: accomplishments, preferences. "I love school/sports/food, etc." Early adolescence: some contradictory statements/uneasiness about self concept. Focus on more enduring traits. Adolescence: More abstract and enduring qualities. There is a relationship between inconsistencies in self-concept, distress, and age. Distress peaks at about age 15 and begins to go down afterwards.

How painful is identity formation?

Moratorium stage not usually stressful for adolescents. Not really an emotional "crisis". Identity achievers do enjoy higher self esteem and are less self-conscious. Achieved/moratorium college students→ more likely to be in an intimate relationship 1 year later. Knowing more about who you are may make you more desirable. Worst outcomes exist if there is long-term failure to establish an identity→ depression, lack of self-confidence, apathy, sense of hopelessness, suicide.

Peer acceptance and popularity

Peer Acceptance: extent to which a child is viewed by peers as a worthy or likeable companion. Even 3-5 can identify who is accepted and popular. Categories of Children: Popular Children Rejected Children Neglected Children (do not feel as lonely as rejected children) Controversial Children Average-status children

Peer Sociability: Middle Childhood

Peer groups: group of children who -interact on a regular basis -provide sense of belonging -formulate norms that specify how members are supposed to dress, thing, and behave. Develops hierarchical organization that helps work toward shared goals.

Development of peer sociability

Peer sociability is a person's willingness to engage others in social interaction and to seek their attention or approval. 6-10 months: choose to play with partner they had seen help rather than hurt. 12 months: imitate anothers' actions with a toy. 12-18 months: react to each other's behaviors, beginning of "turn taking" 18+ months: coordinated interactions that are social. 20-24 months: verbal component, complementary roles, cooperate.

Peers and functions of peers

Peers: 2 or more persons who operate at similar levels of behavioral complexity. Activity-based definition (children who differ somewhat in age are still considered peers). Interactions are less lopsided as they are with parents.

Phase of indiscriminate attachments

Period between 6 to 6/7 months of age in which infants prefer social to nonsocial stimulation and are likely to protest whenever any adult puts them down or leaves them alone.

Piaget's periods of moral development

Piaget studied moral development by observing children's games and interviewing children about moral transgressions (stealing, lying, etc.) Findings: Three Distinct Periods 1. Premoral Period (0-5) 2. Heteronomous Morality (5-10) 3. Autonomous Morality (10+)

Theories of Social-Cognitive Development: Cognitive-Developmental Theory, Selman's Role-Taking Theory

Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory: the ways that children think about the self/others depends largely on their own levels of cognitive development. This clearly underestimates the social cognitive abilities of young children. Selman's Role-Taking Theory: role taking is the ability to assume another person's perspective and understanding his/her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Children have to discriminate their own perspectives from others'. Young kids tend to focus on external descriptions because they don't have the cognitive resources to look at internal ones yet these role taking skills represent a true developmental sequence. Egocentric or undifferentiated perspective Social-informational role taking Self-reflective role taking Mutual role taking Societal role taking

Describe in detail Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional Morality

Preconventional Morality: rules are external to self. Rules are followed to gain reward or to avoid punishment. Conventional Morality: rules are obeyed to win approval or maintain social order. Others' perspectives and intentions are considered. Postconventional Morality: Rules dictated by authority may or may not be in accord with what is right. Moral choices are based on abstract ideals (justice, freedom, etc.). Few adults achieve this stage.

Premoral Period (0-5)

Premoral Period (0-5): Characterized by a lack of concern with or awareness of society's rules. Games played without intent of winning and rules can change between turns.

Overstimulation Hypothesis

Prolonged exposure to rapid image change during critical period of brain development → Preconditions mind to expect high levels of stimulation → Inattention later in life (eg. Baby Einstein has a lot of scene changes in a short clip- teaches the infant to become bored without rapid transitions- aka. harder for them to be focused at school)

Social-cognitive and affective contributors to altruism (everything about pro-social moral reasoning and empathy specifically)

Prosocial Moral reasoning is the thinking that people display when deciding whether to help, share with, or comfort others when these actions could prove costly to themselves. Preschoolers' response generally self-serving, but with maturation, they tend to become increasingly responsive to the needs/wishes of others. Level of prosocial moral reasoning predicts altruistic behavior. -----Empathy: an important affective contributor to altruism -----Sympathetic empathetic arousal is the feelings of sympathy that may be elicited when we experience the emotions of a distressed other. Eventually comes to promote altruism. Self-oriented distress is a feeling of personal discomfort that may be experienced when we sympathize (thought to inhibit altruism). Felt-responsibility hypothesis: the theory that empathy may promote altruism by causing one to reflect on altruistic norms and thus to feel some obligation to help distressed others.

How is attachment explained by the theories of development?

Psychoanalytic Cognitive-Developmental Theory Learning Theory Ethological Viewpoint

Racial/Ethnic Identity

Race: Perceptions of observable phenotype. Race is socially constructed. There is greater within-racial group variation in DNA than there is between racial groups Ethnicity: Cultural background; the traditions, customs, and practices of a specific group.

Race versus Ethnicity

Race: perception of observable phenotypes. Social construct + categorization. There is greater DNA variation within racial groups than there is between races... Ethnicity: cultural background. Traditions, customs, practices, etc. of a specific group. Research mostly treats ethnicity as groups other than black/white (not necessarily true, though) There are disparities between racial/ethnic groups (income, crime, health, etc)

Reactive versus proactive aggressors

Reactive: -search for and find cues compatible with this expectancy. -attribute hostile intent to harmdoer. -become very angry and quickly retaliate in a hostile manner without carefully considering other nonaggressive solutions to this problem. Proactive: -likely to formulate an instrumental goal -consciously decides aggression is most effective strategy. -more likely to display positive emotions during aggressive encounters.

Personal Agency

Recognition that one can be the cause of an event.

Resistant Attachment

Resistant attachment: 10% of American middle class 12-month-olds. In the mother's presence the child stays close and explores little. They are wary of strangers, regardless of mother's presence. The children are upset by the separation, however, they are ambivalent during the reunion. When the mother returns the child remains near mother, but resists physical contact and comforting. They may also appear angry. After reunion, infants are ambivalent: want to be comforted, but they're crying/act angry Mother's characteristics: inconsistent parenting. Occasional responsiveness and enthusiasm.

What factors influence disparities?

Risk Factors: Individual or environmental influences which affect the likelihood that children may face hazards to their healthy development and may predispose children to adverse outcomes. Protective Factors: factors which may offset the relation between risk factors and these hazardous outcomes.

Autonomous Morality (10+)

Rules are viewed as flexible; can be challenged or changed. The rules may be violated in service of greater justice. Intent is more important than objective consequence of an action. Punishments are tailored to the crime with the aim to prevent future rule-breaking by fostering understanding of consequences. Lastly, rule violations are understood to occasionally go undetected or unpunished.

Is attachment stable?

Secure Attachment: Early years children initiate more play activities, show sensitivity to needs and feelings of other children, are more attractive playmates, and are more popular. Childhood and Adolescence they have better social skills and peer relations. They are more likely to have close friends. In adulthood they have higher quality of relationship with spouses. Often stable over time. Linked to temperament (but child temperament does not fully explain attachment quality). Quality of care-giving most important in determining secure/insecure, but temperament is a better predictor in type of insecurity (assuming they have an insecure attachment).

Secure Attachment

Secure attachment: 65% of American middle class 12-month-olds. In the mother's presence the child actively explores and is sociable with strangers. The child is typically upset by the separation. When the mother returns the child greets the mother and if upset will look to the mother to alleviate that distress. Mother's efforts to calm infant are effective and the child will most likely resume play and active exploration. Mother's characteristics: sensitive and responsive to infant's needs. Positive attitude toward child. Provides stimulation and emotional support and response toward infant is consistent.

Self-Awareness and differentiation in Infancy

Self-awareness is awareness of body as connected unit. Self-differentiation is when a child can tell the difference between themselves and their environment. Do newborns have self awareness? --> Newborns become distressed at hearing a recording of their own cries. --> Newborns anticipate arrival of their own hands at their mouths. Proprioception: the physical feeling of your moving body. Signals transmitted from skin, muscles, bones, etc. to brain. Transmits info about speed and direction of movements. Rovee-Collier experiment with 2 to 6 month babies. Personal Agency: one can be the cause of an event.

Changes in Self-Esteem (how stable?)

Self-esteem is pretty stable. Usually dips in adolescence (becomes worse with stress/life changes) Rises between 18-25, especially in those who get married or have support from family/friends/co-workers/romantic partners.

Self

Self: the unique combination of physical and psychological attributes. Self-concept: perception of "self" above. Identity: self-definition, who you are, where you are going, and where you fit. Timeline: Self (at birth) --> Self Concept (???) --> Identity (teens)

Attachment-related fears of infancy: separation anxiety

Separation anxiety is a wary or fretful reaction that infants and toddlers often display when separated from the person(s) to whom they are attached. Appears 6-8 months of age, peaks at 14-18 months, and gradually becomes less frequent and intense. Grade school children and adolescents may still show signs of anxiety and depression when separated for long periods of time from their loved ones.

Sex versus Gender

Sex is a person's biological identity; his or her chromosomes, physical manifestations of identity, and hormonal influences. Gender is a person's social and cultural identity as male or female.

Social Comparison

Social comparison: the process of defining and evaluating the self by comparing oneself to other people. This happens by age 4 or 5. This helps them to determine if they are performing better or worse in various domains than their peers.

Social influences on social-cognitive development and person perception.

Social experience as a contributor to role taking. Equal-status contact among peers. Increased perspective taking, interpersonal understanding. Piaget argued that playful interactions among grade-school children promote the development of role-taking skills and mature social adjustments. Also, disagreeing with friends (as opposed to acquaintances) display increases in social understanding after discussions are over.

Ethological theory of attachment

Species-typical behavior tendency that is supported by innate behavior such as interest in faces and rooting/grasping reflexes in children. Develops through patterns of interaction. Evolutionary benefits that supports survival such as protecting children from danger and ensuring that their needs are met. Major assumption of the ethological approach is that all species, including human beings, are born with a number of innate behavioral tendencies that have in some way contributed to the survival of the species over the course of evolution. And that many of these built-in behaviors are specifically designed to promote attachments between infants and their caregivers.

Attachment-related fears of infancy: stranger anxiety.

Stranger Anxiety: a wary or fretful reaction that infants and toddlers often display when separated from unfamiliar person or someone who they are unattached too. Most infants react positively to strangers until they fully form their first attachment and then they become apprehensive shortly thereafter. Wary reactions peak at 8-10 months and gradually decline over the 2nd year.

The development and importance of boys' friendships according to Niobe Way

Studies over the past twenty years with hundreds of boys -- of all races throughout adolescence -- reveal that boys are as relationship-oriented as girls. They not only want male friendships in which they can share their deep secrets, they often have them, especially during early and middle adolescence.

What is the deficit model and why is it damaging?

This is a heuristic to talk about how people view these disparities. The idea by people that minority youth perform poorly in all areas because they themselves or their family background is deprived, deficient, or deviant compared with White middle-class norms. Research tends to focus on unequal groups and fails to examine the historical and sociopolitical context in which individuals live.

Self-concept

This is one's perceptions of one's unique attributes or traits. In order to have a self-concept you must be aware that: 1) You have a self that is distinct from your environment. 2) You are unique and have unique attributes or traits. The definition of self-concept is supported by studies done observing the way different age groups talk about themselves and answer the question "who am I?"

Proprioceptive Feedback

This is the awareness of moving body due to feedback from the body use proprioception and visual information to recognize self in mirror (self-recognition). Sensory information form the muscles, tendons, and joints that helps one to locate the position of one's body (or body parts) in space.

Advantages of androgyny/disadvantages of violation of gender norms.

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All information on 3 components of racial identity for children

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Androgyny

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Considerations unique to Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Native American etc. adolescents

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Cultural differences in Kohlberg's Theory

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Discussion questions Kochanska and Kim

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Does moral reasoning correspond to moral action?

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Effects of computers/technology: computers in classrooms, out-of-school internet exposure, video games

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How did traditional theorists think about morality?

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How these models relate to Marcia

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Racial identity in adolescence

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The diversity of experiences within racial/ethnic groups

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What is white privilege? How might it impact the lives of both majority and minority groups in the US?

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Why are issues of race/ethnicity important for child development?

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Parental characteristics that might contribute to attachment security

1) Sensitivity: responding promptly and appropriately to infant's signals. 2) Positive Attitude: expressing positive affect and affection for the infant. 3) Synchrony: structuring smooth, reciprocal interactions with the infant. 4) Mutuality: structuring interactions in which mother and infant attend to the same thing. 5) Support: attending closely to and providing emotional support for the infant's activities. 6) Stimulation: frequently directing actions toward the infant. Fathers also serve as attachment figures and can assume all responsibilities of mothers. Relationship with parents may differ in attachment style. The unique role of fathers is Rough-and-Tumble Play. This brings children closer to thresholds of overarousal. Fathers-child dyads that effectively navigate this threshold support child's emotion regulation.

Putting it all together.

1)Self 2)Self-Awareness 3)Self-Differentiation 4)Self-Recognition 5)Categorical self: when toddler achieve self-recognition they also recognize the ways in which people differ and begin to categorize themselves on these dimensions. 6)Self-concept

Behavioral control versus psychological control

Behavioral: firm discipline and monitoring of conduct (withholding privileges and toys, grounding). Firm behavioral control without resorting to guilt trips have well-behaved children who do not become involved in "deviant" peer behavior. Psychological: tactics such as withholding love and affection and/or inducing shame and guilt. High behavioral and psychological or just high psychological control leads to anxiety & depression, deviant peers, and antisocial conduct.

All information on the theoretical perspectives (aka theories) on gender development.

Evolutionary Theory: Males and females have faced different evolutionary pressures over the course of human history and the natural selection process created fundamental differences between males and females. Biosocial Theory According to Money and Ehrhardt: Emphasizes biological developments that occur before birth and influence the way a child is socialized. Prenatal hormone differences may contribute to sex differences in play styles and aggression. Freud's theory: Children become gender typed as they identify with the same-sex parent to resolve their Oedipus (conflict that 3-6 year old boys were said to experience when they develop an incestuous desire for their mothers and a jealous and hostile rivalry with their fathers) or Electra complex (3-6 year old girl was thought to envy her father for possessing a penis and would choose him as a sex object in the hope that he would share with her this valuable organ that she lacked). Has not been supported by research. Kohlberg's Cognitive Development Theory: Claims that children are self-socializers and must pass through basic gender identity and gender stability before reaching gender consistency, when they selectively attend to same-sex models and become gender typed. Research suggests that gender typing begins much earlier than Kohlberg though and measures of gender consistency do not predict strength of gender typing Martin and Halverson's gender schema Theory: Children who have established a basic gender identity construct "in-group"/"out-group" (general knowledge of the mannerisms, roles, activities, and behaviors that characterize males and females) and own-sex gender (detailed knowledge or plans of action that enable a person to perform gender-consistent activities and to enact his/her gender role) schemas.

Relational Self-Worth

Feelings of self esteem within a particular relationship context (with parents, male/female classmates, teachers, etc.). By adolescence, self-worth becomes increasingly centered around interpersonal relationships.

What do audit studies tell us about racial discrimination?

Housing discrimination: housing withheld from AA and Latino individuals 5-10% of the time. Housing agents disclose fewer units to AAs than whites in the sales and rental market. Are Emily and Brendan more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? AA youth more likely to be followed in retail settings.

Gender-typing and gender-role standards

Gender Typing: the process by which a child becomes aware of his or her gender and acquires motives, values, and behaviors considered appropriate for members of that sex. Parents subtly encourage play with same-sex-typed toys. Daughters play in closer proximity with more verbal interaction. Gender-role standard: a behavior, value, or motive that members of society consider more typical or appropriate for members of one sex. Expressive role versus instrumental role.

Gender development: development of gender concept, gender-role stereotypes, and gender-typed behavior.

Gender-Role Stereotypes: --->Elementary: sharp distinctions on psychological dimensions. ---->8-9 years: more flexible, but still may not approve. --->~12 years: gender intensification --->15 years +: more flexible again Gender-Typed Behavior: --> 18-24 months: toddlers often refuse to play with cross-sex toys. --> Gender segregation (2 years): at 6.5 years children spend more than 10x as much time with the same-sex. --> 5-9 years: girls more likely to ask for "opposite-gender" toys --> 1/2 college student females say they were "tomboys".

Sex differences in altruism

Girls often reported to help/share more, but the magnitude of this difference is not large. Girls often emit stronger facial/vocal expressions of sympathy. Boys more focused on looking good/attaining status or dominance over others.

Heteronomous Morality (5-10)

Hetero meaning other. Moral absolutism --> strict adherence to rules. Focus on objective consequences of an act. Intention is not taken into account. Expiatory punishment, that is punishment without regard for its relation to the crime. For example putting a child in time out rather than having her clean up a mess. Lastly belief in immanent justice and that violations of rules will always be punished in some way.

Developmental trends in altruism

In general, acts of spontaneous self-sacrifice in the interest of others are relatively infrequent among toddlers and young preschool children. Prosocial moral reasoning is the thinking that people display when deciding whether to help, share with, or comfort others when these actions could prove costly to themselves.

Risk and protective factors

In general, risk factors:any individual/environmental factor which affect the likelihood of hazards. From Sellers article: risk factors:perceived levels of racial discrimination Protective factors: factors which may offset the relation between risk factors and hazardous outcomes. From Sellers article: protective factors: racial identity [high public regard puts you at risk when faced with discrimination. Need high private regard ("I know what my race means to me and I'm proud of it")] Low public regard also buffers the negative effect of racial discrimination

Movement through Kohlberg's stages and how cognitive development plays a part.

Movement through Kohlberg's stages is based on the following: 1)Cognitive Growth 2)Exposure to situations that promote cognitive disequilibrium. Such as witnessing or participating in events that engage moral reasoning. Social exchanges such as challenging discussions among peers or supportive examples and probing questions from parents. 3).Cognitive disequilibrium stimulates efforts to resolve contradiction and integrate new information into one's own point of view. Incrementally moves children toward higher stages.

Induction

Nonpunitive form of discipline in which an adult explains why a child's behavior is wrong and should be changed by emphasizing its effects on others.

Social contributors to self-esteem - parenting styles, peer influences, culture, ethnicity.

Parenting styles, peer influences, culture, ethnicity. Parenting styles: (to increase self esteem) warm and supportive, set clear standards of what is expected, allow the child a voice in making personal decisions. Peer influences: social comparison information. When reflecting back, adults remember times with friends/romantic partners as being more important on the development of self esteem than parents/family. Culture/ethnicity: Collectivist cultures generally have lower global self esteem ratings. tied to different child rearing practices. Also, may be because they are more humble and don't report that they feel great about themselves. the media can play a role.. especially in body image views.

Self-fulfilling prophecies at home and school

Parents expect sons to outperform daughters, have belief before children have received formal math instruction. Parents attribute sons' success in math to ability but credit daughters' successes to hard work. Six-grade math instructors believe that boys have more ability in math but that girls try harder at it.

Person Perception

Part of social cognition; thinking about the thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors of themselves and other people

Reciprocal relationships & Synchronized routines

Synchronized routines are generally harmonious interactions between 2 people in which participants adjust their behavior in response to the partner's feelings and behaviors. These behaviors contribute in the establishment of attachments. Child-caregiver interactions become increasingly coordinated and complex over the first months of life increasing joint attention and shared emotions. Socializing during infant's active periods and holding back when tired/overwhelmed. Repeating activities that the child seems to enjoy, calming them when they are upset, and "chilling" out when they disengage. "Errors" in infant-parent interactions (not being synchronized) are normal-- it's the "repairs" afterward that are important. These teach the child that distress can be managed. Also teaches the child that the parent is effective for calming the distress (builds trust). Lastly, proper reparation of errors teaches methods for calming oneself as emotional regulation becomes more independent. Patents promote synchronized interactions by attending and responding to infant cues. 1) socializing during infant's active periods 2) holding back when infant becomes irritated or overwhelmed. 3) engaging in and repeating activities the infant appears to enjoy 4) calming upset infants Children's temperament influences ease of engagement and synchronization. 1) children with a lower threshold for over-arousal are faster to distress. These children may spend less time in a socializing mood and show less opportunities for interaction.

Effects of TV: development of television literacy, undesirable effects of TV, TV as educational tool.

Television watching patters: begin in infancy, increases until ~11, and declines a bit in adolescence. Television Literacy: comprehension of TV programming: increases sharply middle childhood-adolescence. Effects of Television: Negative Effects --> TV violence: aggression, mean-world beliefs, desensitization. Positive Effects--> prosocial behaviors, social referencing, cognitive development.

Developmental trends in aggression

Temper tantrums become less common between 2-3 as children begin to physically retaliate when playmates frustrate or attack them. 3-5 physical aggression declines and is replaced by teasing, tattling, name-calling. Middle childhood: overall incidence of physical and verbal aggression declines. BUT hostile aggression increases slightly. Adolescence: relational aggression in girls. Defiant and delinquent conduct is more socially acceptable.

The Heinz Dilemma

The Heinz dilemma is a moral dilemma posed to subjects that based on their reasoning helps to determine what stage of moral development they are at. Both pro- and anti-theft answers are given at all stages. What is central to determining the stage of moral development though is the REASONING behind their answers.

Racial Identity

The attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs that an individual holds towards his or her racial group. AKA the significance and meaning of race in individuals' lives.

Movement through Piaget's stages and how cognitive development plays a part.

The power that parent's have to enforce and punish behavior interferes with moral development. Relations with adults help to support a heteronomous respect for rules and authority. Children advance toward autonomous morality through free and unsupervised interaction with peers. And this is because it promotes perspective taking and cooperative decisions about rules and their enforcement.

Sellers article discussion questions

The sellers article examines the relationship among racial discrimination, racial identity, and psychological functioning participants. Racial discrimination was associated with lower levels of psychological functioning as measured by perceived stress, depressive symptomatically, and psychological well-being. Found that individuals who believe that other groups hold more negative attitudes toward AAs (low public regard) were at a greater risk for experiencing racial discrimination. Low public regard beliefs also buffered the impact of racial discrimination on psychological functioning. More positive attitudes about AAs were also associated with more positive psychological functioning. Adolescence is when youth venture away from their immediate familial environment so adolescent AAs may begin to encounter an increasing amount of discrimination. Research suggest that certain racial identity attitudes and beliefs may influence how individuals experience racial discrimination and serve as protective factors to mitigate the risk. Also important to study in adolescence because this seems to be the age in which and identity is formed. The Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) model argues that experiences with racial discrimination are chronic stressors that occur and must be dealt with as part of the normal developmental process of AA adolescents. According to this model a number of important psychological and behavioral outcomes are dependent upon the way in which adolescents cope with society's racism. One set of positive coping responses by the model is the adoption of health racial identity beliefs. Problems and Outcomes: On adults research suggests racial discrimination is common. AA adults who experience discrimination report lower levels of well-being and mastery and higher levels of psychological distress. Perceived discrimination is also negatively related to achievement motivation, self-competency beliefs, psychological resiliency, and self esteem. Racial identity has a direct link to psychological well-being. A strong identification with being Black and embracing Blackness is necessary components of healthy psychological functioning in AAs. People who report "anti-black" attitudes have higher levels of anxiety, paranoia, and depressive symptoms. Indirectly evidence has shown that the relationship between psychological distress and racial identity may be mediated by the experience of discrimination. Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity: Racial Centrality Racial Regard: Private (extent to which individual feels toward AAs and their membership in that group) and Public Regard (how individual feels that others view AAs) Covert forms of racism are more frequent than overt forms! Dissucssion/Results: Findings suggest that AA adolescents (like adults) experience racial discrimination regularly. Adolescents with low public regard beliefs appeared to be at a greater risk for experiencing racial discrimination. Racial Identity as a Resilience Factor: More positive attitudes toward AAs (private regard beliefs) are associated with more positive psychological outcomes regardless of levels of discrimination faced. Beliefs that other groups hold more negative attitudes toward AAs were associated with more frequent experiences of racial discrimination, however, these attitudes also buffered the impact of racial discrimination on psychological functioning.

Ainsworth's strange situation procedure and classifications

The strange situation was a series of 8 separation/reunion episodes. These episodes were designed to help determine the quality of the infants' attachments. [NOTE: all infants have some form of attachment. May be more/less secure, but there is some kind of attachment there].

Arthur et al discussion questions

The study tests the hypothesis that level of gender constancy understanding affects children's sex typing. Kohlberg outlined one of the earliest cognitive theories on sex typing. He argued that children's sex typing, or the mapping of objects, activities, roles, and traits onto biological sex so that they follow cultural stereotypes of gender, is the result of constructive cognitive processes rather than the passive learning of explicit messages about gender. He divided the development of gender understanding into 3 stages: 1) Gender Identity: children acquire the ability to sort and label themselves and others on the basis of gender. 2) Gender Stability: children acquire the knowledge that gender is stable across time. 3) Gender Constancy: children acquire the understanding that gender is stable in the face of superficial changes in appearance. Kohlberg believed that acquisition of this caused children to become self-motivated to sex type and thereby producing a dramatic increase in sex typing of the self. Past research may have not found a consistent relationship between gender constancy and sex typing because of methodologies used, the possibility that Kohlberg's theory is incorrect, and the last possibility is that gender constancy is causally unrelated to children's sex typing. Children in the pro-constancy condition had higher scores on gender constancy measure than children did in the anti-constancy condition. They also passed more appearance-reality tasks than the children in the anti-constancy condition. Contrary to Kohlberg's theory, increases in constancy understanding did not produce increases in sex typing. Because of the possibility that changes in sex typing might appear gradually following the acquisition of gender constancy, data was collected after 3 months as well. Data revealed that A SUBSET of participants showed increases in gender constancy levels in the anti-constancy (but not pro constancy) condition.

Psychological Constructs

The tendency to base one's impressions of others on the stable traits these individuals are presumed to have. "shes artistic"

How do the components of morality support and influence one another?

The three components (cognitive, behavioral, and affective) support and influence one another. Cognitive principles inform and organize feelings. Emotions support the development and stability of principles. Unexpected feelings of guilt, pride, or sympathy promote re-evaluation of principles. Actions that uphold or violate moral principles results in guilt or pride. These emotional consequences stabilize the principles that are most important.

Secure base

The use of a caregiver as a base from which to explore the environment and to which to return for emotional support.

Culture and attachment

There are cultural variations. The North American Standard: The expectation of securely attached children as they get older is that they will separate themselves from their caregivers to explore independently, but to seek help when needed. As opposed to attachment in Japan: practices promote healthy state of dependence on the mother. Mothers strive to anticipate and take care of baby's needs before stress occurs. Communal orientation and children learn interdependence. Children experience fewer separations (example: preschool attendance). Infants show more intense separation and stranger anxieties. Would be categorized as "resistant" according to Western Standards.

Be able to generally discuss the economic, criminal, residential, educational, occupational, and health outcomes vary by racial/ethnic group?

There are disparities by racial and ethnic groups in regards to health, wealth, crime, etc. Median wealth (and house value and level of education) are higher for whites. (20X black and 18X latino). Crime statistics: 30% of black men vs. 6% of white men likely to go to jail in their lifetime. Students of color face harsher punishments in school. Voter laws prohibit people with felony charges to vote. This disproportionately affects black men. Also, after prison, black males generally have lower wages than white men who were previously in prison. Health statistics: African Americans at higher risk for obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease. Also, there's a disparity in those who have health coverage. Highest infant mortality rates.