Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Middle Childhood Personality and Sociocultural Development Chapter 9 9

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Middle Childhood Personality and Sociocultural Development Personality Development in an Expanding Social World Social Knowledge and Reasoning Peer Relationships Family Influences in Middle Childhood

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Personality Development in an Expanding Social World Three perspectives on middle childhood –Social-learning –Psychodynamic –Cognitive-developmental The development of the self is among the most important task of this period Self-concept is a central component of self

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Three Major Perspectives on Middle Childhood

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Personality Development Self-concept –Children form increasingly stable pictures of themselves, and self-concept becomes more realistic –They begin to attribute specific traits to themselves –They start to compare themselves specifically with others

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Personality Development Industry versus inferiority – Erikson’s stage of middle childhood –When children succeed in school they incorporate a sense of industry into their self- image –Children who don’t achieve mastery may perceive themselves to be inferior –Their success in this stage lays the groundwork for their self-esteem

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Personality Development Self-esteem: children’s positive or negative evaluation of themselves –Significant correlation between self-esteem and academic achievement & achievement in other activities –Positive self-esteem is linked to being viewed positively by family, peers, and others –Praise is good, but not if it is unrealistic –Excessive praise can lead to distorted perceptions of right and wrong and make children too egocentric

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Social Knowledge and Reasoning Children move from Piaget’s preoperational stage to the concrete operational stage Central to development is: –development of social cognition –development of morality

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Development of Social Cognition Social cognition is a person's knowledge and understanding of the social world. It includes: –Social inference: guesses and assumptions about what another person is thinking or feeling –Social responsibility: one’s obligations to family, friends, and people in authority –Social regulation: adhering to the customs and conventions that govern social interaction

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Aspects of Social Cognition

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Development of Morality Morality—a sense of what is right and wrong and of fairness and justice Stage Theories –Piaget’s moral realism versus moral relativism –Kohlberg’s preconventional, conventional, and postconventional reasoning

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Moral Development Kohlberg presented children of different ages with moral “dilemmas” A person’s level of moral reasoning assessed by evaluating reasoning behind response Critics say that moral behavior is not as orderly and predictable as Kohlberg suggested and that his emphasis on “justice” shows a male bias

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Kohlberg’s Six Stages of Moral Development

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Video Clip Interviews with people of various ages providing responses to Kohlberg’s Heinz dilemma:

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Peer Relationships Functions of Friendships –help with social concepts and skills –vehicle for self-expression Developmental Patterns in Friendship –Selman’s stage model –Selman’s model may be too simplistic, as it does not differentiate among different kinds of friendship –Children’s friendships today are complex and multifaceted

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Selman’s Stages of Friendship Development

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Peer Groups Peer groups – three or more children who interact and share norms and goals In early middle childhood, groups are relatively informal At ages 10 to 12, peer groups become more formal and are usually gender-segregated Peers often conform to the expectations of their peer group, which may be desirable or undesirable effects

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Peer Groups (continued) Children may experience discrimination and prejudice due to their ethnicity or nationality Children develop an ethnic awareness in early childhood, but in middle childhood begin to self-identify themselves with ethnic labels

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Peer Groups (continued) Children have to figure out what it means to be a member of their peer and ethnic groups Popularity in one’s peer group is important –Popular children generally have good emotional control and can cooperate and share –Children who are overly aggressive, timid, or different in some way are usually less popular

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Video Clip ABC news video provides information on cyberbullying:

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Family Influences in Middle Childhood Parent-Child Relationships –Family continues to be the most important socializing force –Effective parenting in middle childhood involves effective monitoring of children’s activities and behaviors, so as to promote self-regulated behavior –Children adjust better when parents and children share responsibilities for regulating behavior (coregulation)

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Changing Nature of the Family Single parenthood has become commonplace Married women are more likely to work outside the home 27% of single mothers are unemployed and therefore likely to be living in poverty The fact that most parents work outside the home has had an impact on child care related institutions Other factors add to stress, including finances, divorce, moves, illness, and deaths

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Seven Guidelines for Single Parenting

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Changing Family About half of all U.S. marriages end in divorce Children feel a sense of loss and worry about what will happen to them Exactly how children react to divorce depends on their individual temperament and the hostility level of their parents If a parent remarries, children face additional challenges: resentment about discipline, having to “share” their parent, living with stepsiblings

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Video Clip Two girls describe their experiences of their parents’ divorce:

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Video Clip Scene from the documentary In My Room: girl describes how she has been affected by her parents’ divorce:

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Factors That Affect Children’s Reactions to Divorce

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Summary The context within which personality and sociocultural development takes places widens during middle childhood Children come to understand themselves and their place in the world They learn what is right and wrong They associate with peer groups. Their family relationships and circumstances have a huge impact on their development

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Summary Their self-concept becomes more stable, more realistic, more complex, and more accurate Their self-esteem is linked to being viewed positively by family, peers, and others Erikson called this the age of industry versus inferiority They make advances in their cognitive abilities that aid in their expanding social cognition They become less egocentric, and are able to make social inferences and assume social responsibility

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Summary Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas indicate how children of this age think about right and wrong Peer relationships become very important to development and popularity in one’s peer group is an important dimension of group membership The family continues to be the most important socializing force, however The goal of parenting at this stage is to help children learn to self-regulate their behavior Many life situations can cause stress to the family at this stage, especially divorce