1. PSYC 206
Lifespan Development
Aylin C. Küntay 1

2. Chapter Overview Prosocial behaviors Aggression Empathy
Self-regulation
Effortful control
Internalization

3. Prosocial Behaviors Prosocial Behavior
Voluntary actions intended to benefit others, such as sharing, helping, caregiving, and showing compassion.

4. Altruism
intrinsically motivated, voluntary behavior intended to benefit another:
acts motivated by internal motives such as concern for others or by internalized values, goals, and self-rewards rather than by expectation of concrete or social rewards or the avoidance of punishment.
Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998

5. Prosocial Behaviors Motivational/intentional view:
motivated solely out of a concern for others without regard for the self
versus
Behavioral view/definition

6. Empathy
“an affective response that stems from the apprehension or comprehension of another’s emotional state or condition, and that is identical or very similar to what the other person is feeling or would be expected to feel.”
Is the psychological state that corresponds to prosocial behavior.

7. Empathy Sympathy Personal Distress
Other-oriented emotional reaction to another’s emotional state or condition.
E.g., feelings of sorrow or concern for another.
Personal Distress
A self-focused aversive emotional reaction to another person’s distress.

8. Example
A man is talking about his father's death, which had occurred a week earlier. As he talks about missing his father and his powerful love for him, the man's voice gradually becomes filled with pain and then he bursts into tears in front of a friend who is listening to him.
He is remembering his father with pain. Poor Roger. "I'm sorry for your loss"
Feels the pain; "I feel your pain."
The person using empathy would share the grieving man's emotional pain, but not necessarily feel sorry for or pity him.

9. Hoffman’s Theory of Empathy Development
Biological preparedness: reflexive crying of infants
Global empathy: 1st year
Empathic arousal without self-other differentiation
Unsure about what’s happening to who
Egocentric empathy: 2nd year.
Self-other differentiation without perspective taking
Attribute own feelings to others and show comforting interventions

10. Hoffman’s Theory of Empathy Development
Early childhood: Perspective-taking (decentration)
Finds true source of distress
Middle childhood: High level cognition
Displays extended range of reaction with awareness of continuing existence of others

11. Prosocial Behavior and Empathy
Sympathy: other-oriented concern
Personal distress:
Emotional overarousal
Generates too much negative emotion and focus on the self

12. Empathy

13. Understanding Aggression
Two basic categories of aggression:
Hostile aggression:
intended to hurt someone in some way
an angry, defensive response to frustration
the major goal is to inflict harm or injury on the victim

14. Understanding Aggression
Instrumental aggression:
intended to achieve a particular goal.
deliberate behavior controlled by external reinforcers (tangible or social: to obtain a toy or gain peer aproval)
acts are aggressive in form and may harm another person but are motivated by nonaggressive reasons
“ownership rights” when little, more social concerns as get older

15. Forms of Aggression Physical aggression
Verbal aggression (e.g., teasing)
Relational aggression: Harming others through purposeful manipulation, hurting others’ friendships or social status

16. Aggression and Age
Similar levels of verbal and physical aggression till 18 months
After age 2, more likely to tease siblings than hurt them physically

17. Aggression and Age Age and form of aggression
Better regulation skills; ability to control negative emotions (anger, frustration etc.)
Effortful control: ability to suppress a dominant response and elicit a subdominant response
Delay of gratification (e.g. wait for a reward)
Better linguistic skills: e.g., expressive language, pragmatics 17

18. Behavioral Regulation and Effortful Control
the ability to inhibit a dominant response to activate a subdominant response
inhibition of an action already underway
Examples: Games like Simon says, deve-cüce
It is the ability to distinguish between valid and invalid commands and control behavior that usually matters in the game, and in most cases, the action only needs to be attempted, rather than completed accurately. 18 18

19. Effortful Control
A command starting with "Simon says" means the players must obey that command.
A command without the beginning "Simon says" means do not do this action.
There can be very complex and difficult command chains, such as "Simon says: Arms up. Simon says: Arms down. Arms up.“
Anyone ending with their arms up is eliminated, because you can not obey a command without beginning with "Simon says". 19

20. Effortful Control
the ability to inhibit a dominant response to activate a subdominant response
includes abilities of
- voluntarily focusing and shifting attention (attentional control)
- inhibiting behavior (inhibitory control)
- activating behavior whenever needed (activational control) 20 20 20

21. Delay of Gratification
The ability to forgo an immediate pleasure or reward in order to gain a more substantial one later.
When kindergartners in one study were offered a choice between getting a small candy bar immediately or a larger one later, 72% chose the smaller candy bar.
This number decreased to 67% among first and second graders and 49% for third and fourth graders. By the fifth and sixth grades it had fallen to 38%.

22. Gender Differences in Aggression
Boys:
More often use physical aggression
Girls
More often use relational aggression
Indirect aggression aimed at excluding a child or harming their friendships

23. Aggression and Gender Gender differences are larger after age 2-3.
Implications of this finding:
Parenting: boys receive more harsh parenting
Temperament: boys have more “difficult” temperament, more negative affect (anger-frustration), more reactive, active etc.
Parental socialization related to temperament
Differential gender-role socialization after age 1 23

24. Aggression and Gender Gender differences are larger after age 2-3.
Implications of this finding:
Developing self-concept and gender identity
Research findings show that:
As preschool children learn to label gender reliably, girls’ aggressive behavior dramatically decreases, but boys’ aggressive behavior does not change. 24

25. Aggression and Gender Gender differences get larger
Aggression and testosterone
Testosterone increases aggression by increasing child’s activity level.
Physical games and larger groups may make physical aggression more likely and functional 25

26. Aggression, Social Exclusion and Gender
Peer-group expectations are powerful in shaping behaviors. Any deviation from the peer group norms draws negative comments.
Which forms of aggression are rejected by peers? 26

27. Aggression and Gender Temperament Harsh child-rearing behaviors
Differential gender role socialization
Peer group expectations (peer socialization)
Developing self-concept and gender identity
Hormones

28. Aggression and Gender
Observational studies do not provide valid results on aggressive behavior
Experiments: Children were shown a series of pictures depicting hypothetical conflict situations
Different scenarios
the act causes some harm to the child or his/her toys
ambiguous as to the intention
Children were asked what they would do (offer solutions) 28 28

29. Aggression and Emotion
Emotional correlate of aggression
Anger: an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage
It is accompanied by physiological and biological changes:
heart rate and blood pressure go up, as do the levels of your energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. 29

30. Controlling and Understanding Emotion Expressions
Socioemotional competence:
The ability to behave appropriately in social situations that evoke strong emotions.
interpreting emotion states of oneself and others
manage own emotions
emotion knowledge and regulation 30

31. Emotion Regulation
Processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensive features, to accomplish one’s goals.
Minimization of negative emotions:
Is the question one of maximizing good emotions and minimizing bad ones?
manage own emotions
mask feelings when necessary 31

32. Emotion Regulation and Effortful Control
the ability to inhibit a dominant response to activate a subdominant response
includes abilities of
- voluntarily focusing and shifting attention (attentional control)
- inhibiting behavior (inhibitory control)
- activating behavior whenever needed (activational control) 32 32

33. Regulating Thought and Action
High effortful control is also positively associated with internalization
Internalization
the process of adopting the attributes or standards of family/society; taking these standards as one’s own.
external social regulations are transferred to the child’s internal psychological system 33

34. Regulating Thought and Action
Internalization shows itself in internally regulated rule-compatible conduct in the absence of surveillance or enforcement agents.
Committed Compliance:
Acts of compliance that appear wholehearted and maintain the maternal agenda in the absence of reminders
Situational Compliance:
acts of compliance that appear reluctant and are only maintained in the presence of maternal reminders 34

35. Regulating Thought and Action
Age-related changes in internalization and self-regulation
Increased levels of committed compliance
Shift from “other-regulated regulation” to “self-regulation”
Regulating Thought and Action 35

36. Self-Regulation and Play
Importance of play
Vygotsky
Sociodramatic play
make-believe play in which two or more participants enact a variety of social roles.
requires regulating thoughts and actions 36

37. Social and Emotional Development
Socialization:
The process by which children acquire the standards, values, and knowledge of their society.
Personality Formation:
The process through which children develop their own unique patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving in a wide variety of situations. 37

38. Identity Development
The process of developing an identity begins with the infant's discovery of self, continues throughout childhood, and becomes the focus of adolescence.
Identity is multidimensional and may include sexual identity, occupational goals, religious beliefs, and ethnic background.
During childhood, self-awareness grows and changes.

39. Identity Development Identification: Acquisition of sex-role
A psychological process in which children try to look, act, feel, and be like significant people in their social environment.
Acquisition of sex-role
The sense of self 39

40. Psychodynamic View Sigmund Freud Phallic Stage:
Still influential, even though not always substantiated by evidence
Assumes young children are caught in hidden conflicts between their fears and desires.
Phallic Stage:
The period around the fourth year when children begin to regard their own genitals as a major source of pleasure. 40

41. Phallic Stage For boys: Male Oedipus Complex
Greek mythology (Sophocles)
Lusting for female in the home; intuitions about sexual life
Castration anxiety
Solution: give up on sex and develop superego 41 41

42. Phallic Stage For girls: Female Oedipus Complex
Penis envy: bigger is better but no protruding organ, no fear of losing
Sexual identification with mum, special relationship with dad
Develops superego but identification and internalization of values are weaker compared to boys. 42 42

43. Phallic Stage Resolution: Mental conflicts with same-sex parent
Oedipus complex
Electra complex (Jung)
Identity development: differentiation and identification
Resolution:
Differentiates self from opposite-sex parent
Child identifies with same-sex parent

44. Social Learning View Emphasizes two processes: Modeling
The process by which children observe and imitate individuals of their own sex.
Differential Reinforcement
The process by which girls and boys are differently rewarded for engaging in gender-appropriate behavior. 44

45. Cognitive-Development View
Central Idea:
A child’s own conceptions are central to the formation of sex-role identity.
Basic sex-role identity:
Labeling oneself as a boy or girl
Sex-role stability and constancy:
Understanding the stability of sex roles over time and that their sex remains the same no matter what the situation 45

46. Gender Schema View
Includes features of both social learning and cognitive-developmental theories.
Gender Schema:
A mental model containing information about males and females that is used to process gender-relevant information. 46

47. How Gender Schemas Work47