1. Infants, Children, and Adolescents
Eighth Edition
Chapter 10
Emotional and Social
Development in Early Childhood

2. Learning Objectives (1 of 3)
10.1 What personality changes take place during Erikson’s stage of initiative versus guilt?
10.2 Describe the development of self-concept and self- esteem in early childhood.
10.3 Identify changes in understanding and expressing emotion during early childhood, citing factors that influence those changes.
10.4 Describe peer sociability, friendship, and social problem solving in early childhood, along with cultural and parental influences on early peer relations.

3. Learning Objectives (2 of 3)
10.5 What are the central features of psychoanalytic, social learning, and cognitive-developmental approaches to moral development?
10.6 Describe the development of aggression in early childhood, including family and media influences.
10.7 Discuss biological and environmental influences on preschoolers’ gender-stereotyped beliefs and behavior.
10.8 Describe and evaluate major theories that explain the emergence of gender identity.

4. Learning Objectives (3 of 3)
10.9 Describe the impact of child-rearing styles on development, and explain why authoritative parenting is effective.
10.10 Discuss the multiple origins of child maltreatment, its consequences for development, and prevention strategies.

5. Erikson’s Theory: Initiative versus Guilt
Eagerness to try new tasks, join activities with peers
Trying out new skills through play
Acting out family scenes and highly visible occupations
Guilt
Overly strict superego, or conscience, leading to too much guilt
Related to excessive threats, criticism, punishment from adults

6. Self-Concept Self-concept is based on observable characteristics:
Appearance
Possessions
Everyday behaviors
By age 3½, self-concept includes typical emotions and attitudes.
Warm, sensitive parent–child relationship fosters more positive, coherent self-concept.
Elaborative reminiscing that focuses on children’s internal states is especially important.

7. Cultural Variations in Personal Storytelling
Findings of longitudinal study comparing personal storytelling of Irish-American and Chinese families:
Chinese parents emphasized severity of children’s misbehavior and its impact on others.
Irish-American parents attributed transgressions to spunk and assertiveness, downplayed seriousness.
Differing emphasis in children’s self-image:
Chinese children: belonging, obligations to others
Irish-American children: autonomy

8. Self-Esteem
Judgments we make about our own worth and feelings associated with those judgments
Young children’s self-judgments:
Learning things in school
Making friends
Getting along with parents
Treating others kindly
Influence of self-esteem on initiative

9. Emotional Development in Early Childhood
Emotional development is supported by gains in representation, language, self-concept.
Preschoolers gain in emotional competence:
Emotional understanding
Emotional self-regulation
Self-conscious emotions and empathy
Parenting strongly influences preschoolers’ emotional competence.

10. Cognitive Development and Emotional Understanding
As preschoolers age, they
are better able to judge causes and consequences of emotions.
can infer how others are feeling based on their behavior.
come up with effective ways to relieve others’ negative emotions.

11. Social Experience and Emotional Understanding
Parents promote preschoolers’ emotional understanding by
labeling and explain emotions.
expressing warmth and enthusiasm when conversing with children.
engaging in elaborative discussions about causes of emotion.

12. Emotional Self-Regulation
Language contributes to preschoolers’ improved ability to manage the experience and expression of emotion.
Effortful control is vital in managing emotions in early childhood:
Inhibiting impulses
Shifting attention
Temperament and parent–child interaction affect development of emotional self-regulation.

13. Common Fears of Early Childhood
Monsters
Ghosts
Darkness
Preschool/child care
Animals
Phobias (intense fears) in a few children

14. Self-Conscious Emotions
Preschoolers become increasingly sensitive to praise and blame.
By age 3, self-conscious emotions are clearly linked to self-evaluation.
Parents can promote adaptive levels of pride and shame by focusing on how to improve performance, not on child’s worth.
Consequences of shame for adjustment vary across cultures.

15. Empathy and Sympathy
Prosocial, or altruistic, behavior benefits another person with no expected reward for the self.
For children with poor emotion regulation, empathy leads to personal distress, not to sympathy.
Development of empathy is promoted by
sociable, assertive temperament.
secure parent–child attachment relationship.

16. Peer Sociability in Play
Nonsocial activity
Unoccupied, onlooker behavior or solitary play
Parallel play
Playing near other children with similar toys, without trying to influence them
Associative play
Engaging in separate activities, but exchanging toys and comments
Cooperative play
Working toward a common goal (as in make-believe play).

17. Cognitive Play Categories
Functional play (up to age 2)
Simple, repetitive motor movements, with or without objects
Constructive play (ages 3 to 6)
Creating or constructing something
Make-believe play (ages 2 to 6)
Acting out everyday and imaginative roles

18. Follow-Up Research on Peer Sociability
Preschoolers often move between types of play.
Parallel play often serves as a respite.
Type, not amount, of solitary and parallel play changes during early childhood.
Only certain types of nonsocial activity are cause for concern:
Aimless wandering
Hovering near peers
Functional play involving immature, repetitive motor action

19. Cultural Variations in Peer Sociability
Cultural variations depend on relative importance cultures place on group harmony vs. individual autonomy.
Cultural beliefs about importance of play also affect early peer associations:
Village/tribal cultures: interpretive play, reflecting everyday roles and experiences
Industrialized/urban cultures: inventive play, generating make-believe scenarios unconstrained by experience

20. Friendships in Early Childhood
In early childhood, a friend is someone “who likes you” and with whom you spend a lot of time playing.
Friendship does not yet have an enduring quality based on mutual trust.
Preschoolers give more reinforcement to friends— greetings, praise, compliance—and receive more from them.
Early childhood friendships offer social support.

21. Peer Relations and School Readiness
Ease of making new friends predicts kindergartners’ cooperative classroom participation and self-directed completion of learning tasks.
Socially competent preschoolers exceed less socially skilled peers in academic skills in early school grades.
Kindergarten programs that promote social competence have
sensitive teachers who provide emotional support.
small group sizes.
generous teacher–child ratios.
developmentally appropriate daily activities.

22. Social Problem Solving
Generating and applying strategies that prevent or resolve disagreements
Achieving outcomes that are acceptable to others and beneficial to the self
Crick and Dodge’s model takes an information-processing approach to social problem solving.
Identification of children’s processing deficits allows intervention to be tailored to meet individual needs.
Social problem solving improves greatly in early childhood.
Interventions such as Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) teach children the ingredients of social problem solving.

23. Information-Processing Model of Social Problem Solving
Figure 10.1: An information-processing model of social problem solving
Figure 10.1
(Adapted from N. R. Crick & K. A. Dodge, 1994, “A Review and Reformulation of Social Information-Processing Mechanisms in Children’s Social
Adjustment,” Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101, Figure 2 [adapted], p. 76. Copyright © 1994 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission of the American Psychological Association.)

24. Parental Influences on Early Peer Relations
Direct influences:
Arranging informal peer activities
Encouraging child to be a good “host”
Offering guidance on how to act toward others
Indirect influences:
Secure attachment
Sensitive, emotionally positive parent–child conversations and play
Parent–child play as a model of good interaction

25. Perspectives on Moral Development
Psychoanalytic
Freud: Children identify with same-sex parent; obey superego to avoid guilt.
Current view: Emphasizes inductive discipline.
Social learning
Modeling promotes moral behavior.
Children internalize prosocial rules.
Harsh punishment has negative side effects.
Cognitive-developmental
Children are active thinkers about social rules.
Children make moral judgments based on concepts of justice and fairness.

26. The Power of Inductive Discipline
Induction
gives children information about how to behave that they can use in future situations.
encourages empathy and sympathetic concern, which motivate prosocial behavior.
gives children reasons for changing their behavior, encouraging them to adopt moral standards that make sense.
Encourages children to form a script that deters future transgressions.

27. Modeling Moral Behavior
Characteristics of good models of moral behavior:
Warmth and responsiveness
Competence and power
Consistency between assertions and behavior
Models are most influential in early years.
Later, children internalize prosocial rules.

28. Effects of Punishment
Undesirable side effects of repeated harsh punishment:
The punishment itself models aggression.
Children react with anger and resentment.
Children develop conflict-ridden relationship with punitive parent.
Because punitive adults get immediate relief, they are likely to punish more frequently and harshly over time.
Use of corporal punishment may transfer to next generation.

29. Relationship of Parental Corporal Punishment to Externalizing Behavior, by Child Temperament
Figure 10.2: Relationship of parental corporal punishment at age 15 months to externalizing behavior, by child temperament
Figure 10.2
(From M. K. Mulvaney & C. J. Mebert, 2007, “Parental Corporal Punishment Predicts Behavior Problems in Early Childhood,” Journal of Family Psychology, 21, p Copyright © 2007 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission of the American Psychological Association.)

30. Alternatives to Harsh Punishment
Effectiveness of occasional punishment is increased by
consistency.
a warm parent–child relationship.
explanations.
Alternatives to punishment include
time out (removing children from immediate setting).
withdrawal of privileges.

31. Positive Parenting Use transgressions as opportunities to teach.
Reduce opportunities for misbehavior.
Provide reasons for rules.
Arrange for children to participate in family routines and duties.
When children are obstinate, try compromising and problem solving.
Encourage mature behavior.
Be sensitive to children’s physical and emotional resources.

32. Preschoolers’ Moral Understanding
Moral imperatives
Protect people’s rights and welfare
Violations viewed as more wrong than violations of social conventions
Social conventions
Customs determined by consensus
Examples: table manners, politeness rituals
Matters of personal choice
Do not violate rights; up to the individual
Examples: friends, hairstyle, leisure activities

33. Types of Proactive and Reactive Aggression
Physical
Harms others through physical injury or destroying another’s property.
Verbal
Harms others through threats of physical aggression, name-calling, or hostile teasing.
Relational
Damages another’s peer relationships through social exclusion, malicious gossip, or friendship manipulation.

34. Sources of Aggression Individual differences: Family:
Temperament
Gender
Family:
Harsh, inconsistent discipline
Conflict-ridden family atmosphere
Social information-processing deficits
Media influences: TV and computer game violence

35. Childhood TV Viewing and Later Aggression
Figure 10.4: Relationship of television viewing in childhood and early adolescence to aggressive acts in adolescence and early adulthood
Figure 10.4
(Based on Johnson et al., 2002.)

36. Regulating Screen Media Use
Limit TV viewing and computer and tablet use.
Avoid using screen media as a reward.
Watch TV and view online content with children, helping them understand what they see.
Link TV and online content to learning experiences.
Model good media practices.
Use a warm, rational child-rearing approach.

37. Treatment for Aggressive Children
Goals include
breaking the cycle of hostilities between family members.
promoting effective ways of relating to others.
In Incredible Years, a parent training program based on social learning theory,
parents learn techniques for promoting academic, emotional, and social skills.
one focus is positive parenting: attention, encouragement, praise for prosocial behaviors.
Relieving family stressors and providing families with social supports helps prevent childhood aggression.

38. Gender-Stereotyped Beliefs and Behaviors
From an early age, children view gender in terms of activities and behaviors.
Preschoolers associate common objects, occupations, colors, and behaviors with gender.
Gender-stereotyped beliefs influence play preferences and personality traits.
Gender-stereotyped beliefs strengthen in early childhood as a product of
gender stereotyping in the environment.
young children’s cognitive limitations.

39. Influences on Gender Typing
Biological:
Evolutionary adaptiveness of male and female traits
Effects of prenatal hormones
Environmental:
Family: expectations of sons vs. daughters
Teachers: actions that extend gender-role learning
Peers: reinforcement for gender-typed play
Broader social environment

40. Children Learn About Gender Through Mother–Child Conversations
Mothers often affirm gender stereotypes voiced by children and call attention to gender unnecessarily.
To combat stereotypical thinking, parents can
refrain from labeling gender unnecessarily.
substitute references to individuals or qualified statements for generic expressions.
monitor their inclination to affirm children’s stereotypical claims.
Discuss gender biases language; ask them to avoid using gender labels.

41. Mothers’ and Children’s Use of Generic References to Gender During Storybook Conversations
Figure 10.5: Mothers’ and children’s use of generic references to gender during storybook conversations
Figure 10.5
(From S. A. Gelman, M. G. Taylor, & S. P. Nguyen, “Mother–Child Conversations About Gender,” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 69[1, Serial No. 275], p. 46. © 2004 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. Republished with permission of John Wiley and Sons, Inc., conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.)

42. Theories of Gender Identity in Early Childhood
Social learning theory
Gender-typed behavior leads to gender identity.
Cognitive-developmental theory
Self-perceptions (gender constancy) come before behavior.
Gender schema theory
Combines social learning and cognitive-developmental features.

43. Cognitive Pathways for Gender-Schematic and Gender-Aschematic Children
Figure 10.6: Cognitive pathways for gender-schematic and gender-aschematic children
Figure 10.6
(Reprinted by permission of Rebecca Bigler.)

44. Ideas for Reducing Gender Stereotyping In Young Children
Delay preschoolers’ exposure to gender stereotyped messages.
Model nontraditional gender roles and provide nontraditional alternatives.
Ensure that children spend time in mixed- gender activities.
Point out exceptions to gender stereotypes.

45. Child-Rearing Styles
Authoritative
Authoritarian
Permissive
Uninvolved

46. Characteristics of Child-Rearing Styles
Acceptance
Involvement
Control
Autonomy
Authoritative
High
Adaptive
Appropriate
Authoritarian
Low
Permissive
Uninvolved
Indifferent

47. What Makes Authoritative Child Rearing Effective?
Warm, involved parents model caring concern and confident, self-controlled behavior.
Children are more likely to comply and internalize control that appears fair and reasonable.
Authoritative parents convey to children that they are competent, fostering self-esteem and maturity.
Supportive aspects of the authoritative style are powerful sources of resilience.

48. Cultural Variations in Child Rearing
Ethnic minority parents often have distinct child-rearing beliefs and practices:
Chinese parents are often more controlling.
Hispanic, Asian Pacific Island, and Caribbean families combine insistence on respect for parental authority with high parental warmth.
Low-SES African-American parents tend to expect immediate obedience, believe that strict parenting fosters self-control and vigilance.

49. Child Maltreatment
Physical abuse: assaults that inflict physical injury
Sexual abuse: all forms of sexual exploitation
Neglect: failure to meet child’s basic needs for food, clothing, education, supervision
Emotional abuse: acts that could cause serious emotional harm

50. Factors Related to Child Maltreatment
Parent characteristics
Child factors
Family characteristics
Community
Culture

51. Impact of a Home Visitation Program with a Cognitive Component on Preventing Child Abuse
Figure 10.7: Impact of a home visitation program with a cognitive component on preventing physical abuse of young children
Figure 10.7
(Adapted from Bugental et al., 2002.)

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