Tatiana | Eric | Dana | Erin | Leslie

Psychology 350 | Weller

10.25.00

CHAPTER 10

The Play Years: Psychosocial Development

** The play years/early childhood: 2 to 6 years **

The Self and the Social World

Initiative vs. Guilt

Ages 3 to 6 characterized by positive enthusiasm, effort, & self-evaluation
Initiative vs. guilt: preschool child eagerly begins new projects and activities–and feels guilt when his or her efforts result in failure or criticism

Self-esteem largely defined by skills and competencies that demonstrate their independence and initiative
Spontaneous play becomes goal-directed
Social awareness becomes evident

Self-Concept and Social Awareness

Ability to compromise evolves–using bargaining, explaining, and rationalizing
Feel older, stronger, and more skilled than younger children
Optimistic impressions of themselves

Overestimate own abilities (but as child gets older, child becomes less confident, while becoming more competent)
Enjoy undertaking various tasks

Become increasingly aware of, and concerned with, what others think
As young as 2 or 3, will respond with disappointment or guilt when failing at a task

Emotional Regulation

Emotional regulation: ability to direct or modify one’s feelings, particularly feelings of fear, frustration, and anger
Develops neurologically–ability to think before acting is related to specific part of brain in the frontal cortex
Extremely stressful infancy experiences can alter brain structures permanently
Learning and Emotional Regulation

Parents/caregivers guide children in appropriate behavior and expression of emotion in infancy
But learning can also work negatively in teaching children to develop phobias, or irrational and exaggerated fears
Nightmares also increase during the preschool years

Attachment and Emotional Regulation

Empathy

--Securely attached children regulate their emotions and express empathy

--Insecurely attached children respond abnormally to other children’s distress

Friendliness

--Insecurely attached children are sometimes excessively friendly at age 4 or 5

Goleman explains that the ability to modulate and direct emotions is crucial to emotional intelligence

--Infants need to be attached to caregivers

Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial behavior: action, such as sharing, cooperating, or sympathizing, that is performed to benefit other people without the expectation of reward for oneself

Indicative of social competence, appearing in later play years

Ages 2 to 5–capacity for self-control becomes more evident

Antisocial behavior: action, such as hitting, insulting, or taking from another person, that is intended to harm someone else

Aggression

Aggression is a form of antisocial behavior that begins with negative self-concept and inadequate emotional regulation during early preschool years
But not always dire, preschool children at age 4 are usually more aggressive than at age 2
4 types:

Instrumental aggression: used to obtain or retain a toy or other object

--Common in play years, most likely to increase from age 2 to 6

Reactive aggression: involved angry retaliation for an intentional or accidental act

--Indicates a lack of emotional regulation

Relational aggression: designed to inflict psychic, not physical, pain

--Victims are usually preschoolers who are less prosocial, and who are less likely to have friends

Bullying aggression: consists of an unprovoked attack

Typically children between ages 3 and 6 should become more prosocial and less aggressive

Learning Social Skills Through Play

Rough and Tumble Play

Rough-and-tumble play: play such as wrestling, chasing, and hitting that mimics aggression but actually occurs purely in fun, with no intent to harm

--Clearly prosocial, teaching children how to enter a relationship, assert themselves, and respond to actions of someone else while exercising gross motor skills

--Universal, but with cultural and situational differences (i.e., children more likely to instigate rough-and-tumble play when there is more room to run and when adults are not nearby)

--Older and more socially experienced boys more often to engage in rough-and-tumble play; peak at about 8 to 10 years

Sociodramatic Play

Sociodramatic play: pretend play in which children act out various roles and themes in stories of their own creation; provides a way to:

--Explore and rehearse the social roles they see being enacted around them

--Test own ability to explain and convince others of their ideas

--Regulate their emotions through imagination

--Examine personal concerns in nonthreatening manner

Beginnings of dramatic play seen in solitary or parallel play
Increases in complexity in play years
Girls engage in sociodramatic play more than boys
Children make consistent friends

Parenting Patterns

Parents differ in their expressions of warmth, discipline, communication, and maturity

3 basic parenting styles:

Authoritarian parenting: standards for proper behavior are high, misconduct is strictly punished, and parent-child communication is low

--Children likely to be conscientious, obedient, quiet, and unhappy

--Parents successful in preventing children from drug use

Permissive parenting: parents rarely punish, guide, or control their children but are nurturant and communicate well with their children

--Children are even less happy, and lack self-control

Authoritative parenting: parents set limits and provide guidance but are willing to listen to the child’s ideas and make compromises

--Children likely to be successful, articulate, intelligent, happy, and generous

Child’s temperament also a factor in choosing which parenting style is appropriate

Punishment

Relating Discipline to Developmental Characteristics (Table 10.3, pg. 286)

Remember theory of mind

--Preschoolers gradually understand different points of views

Remember emerging self-concept

--Preschoolers are developing sense of who they are and what they want, in an egocentric way

Remember language explosion and self-mapping

--Children are eager to talk and think, but are not always accurate in their verbal understanding

Remember that preschoolers are still illogical

--Connection between a misdeed and punishment should be immediate and transparent

Culture is a big influence (i.e., Japanese mothers more use more reasoning, empathy, and disappointment that American mothers)
Physical punishment is popular, found universally

Developmentalists wonder if spanking produces a boomerang effect in which children who are physically punished learn to be more aggressive–probably YES

Boy or Girl: So What?

Sex differences: biological differences between males and females
Gender differences: cultural differences in the roles and behaviors of the two sexes

Developmental Progression of Gender Awareness

By age 2, gender-related preferences and play patterns are apparent
By age 3, understanding that male/female distinction is lifelong
By age 4, certain toys and roles are appropriate for a certain gender
By age 5, play with children of own sex is clear-cut
By age 6, children have well-informed ideas about which sex is "better" and which sex is "stupid", stereotypic dress

Theories of Gender-Role Development

Psychoanalytic Theory

Phallic stage: from age 3 to 6, center of focus is the phallus, or penis
Oedipus complex: sexual desire that boys have for their mothers and the related hostility they have toward their fathers
In boys:

--Identification: a defense mechanism that allows a person to ally himself/herself with another person

--Superego: a powerful conscience that is self-critical and judgemental and that internalizes the moral standards set by parents and society

In girls:

--Electra complex: sexual desire that girls have for their fathers and accompanying hostility toward their mothers

--Penis envy: girls become jealous of boys because of their penises

Learning Theory

All roles are learned and the result of nurture, and patterns of ongoing reinforcement and punishment
Evidence?

--Parents, peers and teachers all reward "gender-appropriate" behavior

Children also learn through observation

Cognitive Theory

Children tend to see world in intellectually simple terms, seeing male and female as complete opposites
Thus, preschoolers’ thinking is static and egocentric
When personal experiences is ambiguous or contradictory, they search for the "script" they have formed describing what the gender role should be

Sociocultural Theory

Many traditional cultures emphasize gender differences
Immigrants from traditional societies come to less segregated cultures, they maintain their values
Particulars of gender education vary by region, socioeconomic status, and historical period
Androgyny: a balance, within an individual, of male and female gender characteristics such that the individual feels comfortable breaking through gender stereotypes

--Defining self primarily as a human being, rather than as male or female

Epigenetics Systems Theory

This theory contends that every aspect of human behavior is result of interaction between genes and early experience
Many gender differences are genetically based (i.e., females’ corpus callosums are thicker à brain maturation is quicker than in males)
Sex hormones begin to circulate in the fetal stage, affecting development of brain
But programming is not inevitable, environment can influence and even alter course of development

Conclusion: Gender and Destiny

Gender differences are not just cultural or learned, there is a genetic component
But biology is not destiny: children are shaped by their experiences