1. Discussion of paper requirements Social Cognition Egocentrism
Theory of mind
Preschool Social World
Erikson’s Autonomy versus Guilt
Frustration Tolerance
Delay of gratification
Self constancy
Sex-typed behavior
Gender-role concept
Gender constancy
Peer relations. Friendship
Emotional regulation
Aggression and prosocial behavior
Play and role playing
Parent’s roles
Coherence and Behavioral Development
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2. Final paper will address the following:
A summary of the claim(s) of the popular article
An evaluation of the popular articles claims based on the research you reviewed. This should be a critical review. If the articles have contradictory results or differing conclusions, present hypotheses about why this might be so
A proposal for the kind of additional research that should be done to increase our understanding of the topic
References for all works cited in your paper
When you turn in your final paper you will attach as appendices:
Your analysis of the popular article or web site posting
A grading sheet that is the second page of this document
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3. Part 1 of paper Introduction
Introduce the major topic or area about which you are going to write
Describe the claims and conclusion from your popular article
Describe the plan of your paper
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4. II. Review the methods and results of the research articles you read.
Evaluate the claims in the popular article based on the results from the research articles.
Propose the kind of research that you believe should be done in the future to advance our knowledge in this area.
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5. 1. Description of the area of developmental psychology that your paper addresses (10%) 2.
2. Description of popular article claims that you will be evaluating (10%) Summaries of at least 2 research articles (40%)
(, results, and conclusions, and connection to popular claims)
Conclusions about the claims in the popular article (15%)
5. Proposal for future research (10%.)
6. Required addendum: First part of the paprer that summarizes the popular article, this grading sheet (5%)
7. Quality of writing (10%)

6. Understanding of the social world.
Social cognition:
Understanding of the social world.
Deals with the impact of children's cognitive skills on their social relationships and the role of social interaction in supporting cognitive development.
Children start to learn how other people think and feel, what their motives and intentions are, and what they are likely to do.
They begin to understand that other people’s perspectives sometimes differ from their own, helping their communication abilities.
They can respond more appropriately in their interactions with others.
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7. Egocentrism in Preschoolers
Inability to understand others’ perspectives.
Perceptual egocentrism
Not differentiating one’s own perceptual experience from someone else’s.
Cognitive egocentrism
Failing to take into account someone else’s cognitive perspective.
Perceptual egocentrism was tested by Piaget with the Three Mountain Task.
With less complex tasks children do not show the extent of egocentrism that Piaget found.
By age 6, children demonstrate a sharp reduction in cognitive egocentrism.
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8. Egocentrism in Preschoolers
Overcoming egocentrism
Knowledge of existence: Realizing other people have thoughts, viewpoints, & desires that differ from the child’s.
Awareness of need: Realizing it can be useful to consider another’s perspective.
Social inference: Reading another person’s actions and imagining that person’s point of view.
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9. The Child’s Theory of Mind
An understanding of the mind & mental operations.
In developing a theory of mind, children come to understand 5 principles:
Minds exist.
Minds have connections to the physical world.
Minds are separate and different from the physical world.
Minds can represent objects & events accurately or inaccurately.
Minds actively interpret reality & emotional experiences.
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10. Communication and the Decline of Egocentrism
Egocentric speech is seen both when children talk to themselves while playing and in collective monologues.
Preschoolers often have difficulty communicating information to a listener in a nonegocentric way, especially abstract thoughts.
Preschoolers do show some evidence of adjusting their speech to the needs of their listeners under certain circumstances.
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11. Preschool Social & Emotional Development Children between ages 21/2-5 experience:
Dramatically expanding world.
Notable developments in self-reliance, self-control, & self-regulation.
Exploration of adult roles.
A major theme of this chapter is the organization and coherence of preschoolers’ behavior.
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12. Some Hallmarks of Early Childhood Social & Emotional Development
The Child’s Expanding World
Through day-care, nursery school, and kindergarten experiences, children come into contact with peers.
Peer relationships formed in these settings play an important role in children's social and emotional development.
Sibling relationships become increasingly important during this period.
All of these new developments influence each other.
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13. Erikson Autonomy versus Guilt
Child learning to be independent, on his or her own
Guilt, a response to growing internal standards
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14. Moving Toward Greater Self-Reliance
Initiative:
A child’s sense of independent purposefulness (Erikson).
Self-efficacy:
The sense of being able to do things effectively on one’s own (Bandura).
Greater self-reliance is supported by several capacities of 3- & 4-year-olds:
motor skills such as climbing & manipulating objects
language & other cognitive abilities that enable them to think, plan, solve problems
growing ability to tolerate delays & frustrations
emerging capacity for imagination & fantasy play
Some children have difficulty with the move toward greater independence.
A history of secure attachment makes it easier for children to move in this direction.
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15. Self-Control & Self-Regulation
Effortful control:
Ability to suppress some strong behavior, such as:
slowing down when running
talking more quietly
Self-regulation includes:
effortful control
ability to direct their own activities
adjusting behavior & emotional expression to fit the situation
By the end of the preschool years, children are beginning to show signs of self-control and self-management.
Involve the ability to reflect on one’s own actions and to inhibit actions as well as adjust behavior to situational demands.
These signs continue to differentiate and develop into middle childhood.
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16. Luria studies Press one bulb if green light, a second if red light.
Press/don’t press
Mother may I game
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17. Delay of Gratification
One candy now, more if the child waits
Individual differences
Stevenson study of reflective/impulsive kids as a function of SES/ethnicity
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18. The Developing Self Changes in Self-Understanding
more comprehensive sense of self
observe their own behavior
have trouble understanding they’re the same person when they feel different
Self-constancy:
A sense that the self endures despite temporary disruptions in relationships.
Children start to think of themselves as having dispositions that are consistent across time.
Preschoolers also begin to develop a level of self-esteem based on their own unique experiences.
Most think of themselves as good, likeable, kind, and competent.
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19. Gender and the Self Sex-typed behavior:
Actions that conform to cultural expectations about what is appropriate for boys and for girls.
Gender-role concept:
Knowledge of cultural stereotypes regarding males and females.
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20. Changes in Sex-Typed Behavior
Sex-typed behavior develops gradually.
By age 2, children show gender-related preferences in toys.
By age 3 to 4, sex-typed behavior increases.
Parents and peers generally support gender-”appropriate” play and show disapproval of gender-”inappropriate” play during this time.
Mothers are often more accepting of “cross-gender” play.
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21. Developing Gender-Role Concepts
By 4-5, children start learning more abstract cultural beliefs about gender -- gender-role concepts.
The male role is more instrumental and the female role is more expressive.
Gender segregation appears in the preschool classroom and among friends.
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22. Gender constancy:
Understanding that gender is permanent despite superficial changes.
related to concepts of conservation
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23. Examining Sex-Typed Behavior and Gender-Role Development
Social learning theorists explain these developments partly in terms of rewards and punishments for appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
Cognitive theorists see gender-role learning as one example of children’s emerging understanding of categories, scripts, and schemas.
Gender schema theory:
combines elements of cognitive and social learning theory
holds that children form concept or schema or male and female characteristics, with content based on the child’s social and learning history.
Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes developmental changes in relationships with parents.
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24. Social Development: The New World of Peers
Competence with Peers
During the preschool period children begin to interact:
sustained
coordinated
highly complex
Social competence = good peer relations.
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25. Early Friendships
By about age 4, children have the capacity to maintain friendships through their own efforts.
Children who are friends behave differently with each other than they do with non-friends.
More frequent positive exchanges
More cooperative in problem-solving tasks
Disagree more often
Conflicts are less heated, result in fairer solutions, and do not lead to separation
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26. The Importance of Peer Relationships
The peer group helps children learn about concepts of fairness, reciprocity, and cooperation.
Learn to manage interpersonal aggression
Cultural norms and values
Greatly affects self-concept and future interactions.
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27. Emotional Development
Young Children’s Understanding of Emotion
By age 6, children understand:
good
sad
jealous
proud
embarrassed
miserable
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28. The Growth of Emotional Regulation
Capacities to:
control & direct emotional expression
maintain organized behavior
be guided by emotional experiences
Delay of gratification
Ability to forego an immediate reward in favor of a better reward at a later time.
Ego resiliency
Ability to modify self-restraint to adapt to changing circumstances.
The capacity to control and direct emotional expression, to maintain organized behavior in the face of strong emotions, and to be guided by emotional experiences.
The ability to tolerate frustration, begins at age 2 and improves through the preschool years.
Due to increased ability to suppress feelings and expanded strategies for dealing with frustrating situations. It affects relationships with parents. Ego resiliency emerges during early childhood and is marked by the ability to adapt to the emotional demands of different situations--using self-restraint in some, being impulsive and expressive in others.
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29. Internalizing Standards
Once the child internalizes standards, he or she will comply with parents’ prohibitions even when parents aren’t present.
By age 4, children view moral transgressions (e.g., hitting or not sharing) as more serious than conventional transgressions (e.g., eating ice cream with your fingers).
Parents help encourage this change by changing their socialization techniques as the preschool period progresses.
They begin to use indirect external controls.
They start encouraging self-regulation.
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30. The Self-Evaluative Emotions
Guilt and pride involve evaluating the self against internalized standards.
Guilt no longer arises only from fear of punishment.
True pride is distinguished from toddlers’ joy in mastery because it is based on self-evaluation.
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31. Emotional Development, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior
Negative acts intended to harm others or their possessions.
Prosocial Behavior:
Positive feelings & acts toward others, with intention of benefiting them.
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32. Developmental Changes in Aggression
During late preschool and early elementary school years, overall level of physical aggressiveness declines because of a drop in instrumental aggression.
Not capable of true aggression until cognitively advanced enough to understand the consequences of their actions.
Negative behavior toward peers appears during toddlerhood.
Interpersonal aggression becomes common during the preschool years.
Instrumental aggression
Aggression used as a means to get something.
Hostile aggression
Aggression aimed solely at hurting someone else.
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33. The Development of Empathy & Altruism
Empathy underlies altruism.
When empathy is aroused, children are more willing to be helpful to others.
Empathy
Ability to experience the emotions of another person.
Altruism
Acting unselfishly to aid someone else.
Development parallels that of aggression because the same cognitive abilities underlie all three behaviors.
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34. The Development of Empathy & Altruism
Phases in empathy & altruism
Primitive capacity for empathy (infancy)
More purposeful helping behaviors (toddlerhood)
Capacity to take others’ perspectives and respond to others’ needs (early childhood)
Preschool children's prosocial behavior is greatly influenced by their parents' style of caregiving.
Considerations include:
Consequences for the victim
Principles and expectations regarding kindness
Conveying the entire message with intensity of feeling about the issues involved
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35. The Role of Play in Preschool Development
Play serves a variety of cognitive, emotional, & social functions, providing opportunities for:
dealing with conflict and fear
working through developmental issues
trying out social roles
Children have an intrinsic motivation to play.
Play does not need to be taught or reinforced.
It allows children to be active explorers of their environments.
Children are active creators of new experiences.
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36. Play and Mastery of Conflict
Play becomes the child’s tool for:
dealing with conflict
mastering what is frightening or painful
working through ongoing developmental issues
confronting problems actively
Play is the preschool child's foremost tool for dealing with conflict and mastering what is frightening or painful.
Play is also an arena for working through ongoing developmental issues, such as the power differential between the child and parents.
Pretend solutions provide a way for preschoolers to confront a problem actively and are often precursors of more mature problem-solving strategies.
A history of parental support and nurturance can help children to find healthy solutions to issues and conflicts through play.
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37. Stages in the Development of Play
Solitary play
Onlooker behavior
Parallel play
Cooperative play
(dramatic play)
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38. Role Playing Role playing provides opportunities to:
try out social roles
try out cultural values
play as mommies, daddies, doctors, police officers, or robbers
act out aspirations as well as fears
Play also provides preschoolers with a chance to try out various social roles.
Skill at social fantasy play in the preschool years is generally an indicator of a preschooler's overall quality of adjustment and social competence. Cultural factors influence the quantity, form, and themes of young children’s social fantasy play.
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39. The Parents’ Role in Early Childhood Development
Important Aspects of Parenting in the Preschool Period:
Consistency in the parents' approach to discipline
Agreement between the parents concerning child-rearing practices
Gradually giving the child more responsibility, while still being available to help if needed
Displaying clear roles and values in their own action
Showing the flexible self-control they hope to promote in their child
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40. Authoritative parenting
A parenting style in which the parents are nurturant, responsive, and supportive, yet set firm limits for their children.
Permissive parenting
A parenting style in which parents fail to set firm limits or to require appropriately mature behavior of their children.
Authoritarian parenting
A parenting style in which parents are unresponsive, inflexible, and harsh in controlling behavior.
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41. Identification with Parents
The process by which children strive to be like their parents in thoughts and feelings as well as in actions.
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42. Identification with Parents
Psychoanalytic theory holds that children strive to be like their parents in actions, thoughts, and feelings.
Allows children to internalize control previously provided by parents, along with parental values and other characteristics.
Cannot take place until the child has the cognitive ability to understand parents' feelings and attitudes.
Security of attachment during infancy and toddlerhood is important.
Coercive techniques may get child to comply, but more positive approaches bring more enthusiastic cooperation.
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43. The Coherence of Behavior & Development
The Coherence of the Self
Children's behavior reflects a coherent underlying self.
Clusters of characteristics tend to go together in a logical, consistent way.
Self-esteem
Self-control
Empathy
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44. The Coherence of Behavior Over Time
Preschoolers with a history of secure attachment in infancy tend to have certain positive patterns of behavior.
Very different, negative behavioral profiles are associated with preschoolers with a history of anxious/resistant attachment.
Those with anxious/avoidant attachment are often hostile and aggressive toward others or emotionally isolated.
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45. Explaining Developmental Coherence
Children are becoming consistent forces in their own development.
They tend to elicit certain reactions from others.
Those reactions reinforce how the child tends to think and act.
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46. Explaining Developmental Coherence
Preschool teachers tend to:
Respond in ways that reinforce the emerging personalities of young children.
Be warm and accepting with well-managed, self-reliant, and sociable children.
They directly promote the acceptance of these children by peers.
Be quite controlling of children who are timid or impulsive, and are more likely to make allowances.
In other words, they tend to reinforce the behavior pattern a child already showed.
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47. Stability & Change in Individual Behavior
Secure attachment promotes self-worth and abiding sense of relatedness or connectedness to others, which Erikson calls basic trust.
Subsequently, parents of securely attached children develop a control system for exerting control over their children without stifling exploration and autonomy.
Fundamental change in children is always possible.
However, it becomes more difficult as personality increasingly stabilizes.
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