CHAPTER 10
SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE
CHILDHOOD
Learning Objectives
THE DEVELOPING SELF
Who Am I?
During middle childhood, children begin to view
themselves:
• Less in terms of external physical attributes
• More in terms of psychological traits
Psychosocial Development in Middle
Childhood
Success in the industry-versus-inferiority stage brings
with it feelings of mastery and proficiency and a
growing sense of competence
• Industry = feelings of mastery and proficiency and a
growing sense of competence
• Inferiority = feelings of failure and inadequacy
Erik Erikson's middle childhood
• Encompasses the INDUSTRY-VERSUSINFERIORITY
STAGE
• Period from ages 6 to 12 years of age
• Characterized by a focus on efforts to attain competence
in meeting the challenges related to:
– Parents
– Peers
– School
– Other complexities of the modern world
Understanding One's Self: A New Response to
“Who Am I?”
How do school-agers change?
• Children realize they are good at some things and not
so good at others
• Self-concept and self-esteem continue to develop
• Children's self-concepts become divided into personal
and academic spheres
Looking Inward: The Development of Self
As children get older,
their views of self
become more
differentiated,
comprising several
personal and
academic spheres.
What cognitive
changes make this
possible?
(Source: Based on
Shavelson, Hubner, &
Stanton, 1976.)
Social Comparison
Children use social comparison to themselves to abilities,
expertise, and opinions of others
Festinger (1959)
• When objective measures are absent children rely on
social reality
• How others act, think, feel, and view the world
Sometimes…
Children Make Downward Social Comparisons
• With others who are:
– Less competent
– Less successful
• To raise or protect their self-esteem
Self-Esteem: Developing a Positive-or
Negative-View of the Self
Develops in important ways during middle childhood
• Children increasingly compare themselves to others
• Children are developing their own standards
• For most children self-esteem improves in middle
childhood
Change and Stability in Self-Esteem
Generally, overall self-esteem is high during middle
childhood, but it begins to decline around the age of 12
• School transition
• Chronically low self-esteem for some
A Cycle of Low Self-Esteem
Breaking the Cycle of Failure
• Promoting development of self-esteem
• Using authoritative child-rearing style
Why do you think this style is recommended?
Race and Self-Esteem
Early research found that African Americans had lower
self-esteem than whites
• More recent research shows these early assumptions to
be overstated
– African Americans
– Hispanic Americans
– Asian Americans
Why Does This Occur?
Social Identity Theory
• Members of a minority group accept negative views held
by majority group only if they perceive little realistic
possibility of changing power and status differences
between groups
Are Children of Immigrant Families Well
Adjusted?
• Tend to have equal or better grades than children with
US born parents
• Often more highly motivated to succeed and place
greater value on education than do children in
nonimmigrant families
• Show similar levels of self-esteem to nonimmigrant
children
• Report feeling less popular and less in control of their
lives
Moral Development: Kohlberg
• Proposes series of fixed stages in development of moral
reasoning
• Uses moral dilemmas to assess moral reasoning
• Provides good account of moral judgment but not
adequate at predicting moral behavior
Kohlberg Stages
Preconventional
Morality (stages 1
& 2):
• people follow
unvarying rules
based on
rewards and
punishments
Conventional
Morality (stages 3
& 4):
Postconventional
Morality (stages 5
& 6):
• people approach
problems in
terms of their
own position as
good,
responsible
members of
society
• universal moral
principles are
invoked and
considered
broader than a
particular society
Kohlberg Criticisms
• Based solely on observations of members of Western
cultures
• Theory initially based largely on data from males
MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN GIRLS
Carol Gilligan
• Way boys and girls raised leads to differences in moral
reasoning
• Suggests Kohlberg's theory inadequate and places girls’
moral reasoning at lower level than boys’
Gilligan's Stages of Morality in Girls
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• According to Erikson, children at this time are in
the ____-versus-inferiority stage.
• In the middle childhood years, children begin to
use ____ ____and self-concepts based on ____
rather than physical characteristics.
• During the middle childhood years, self-esteem is
based on ____ with others and internal
standards of ____; if self-esteem is ____, the
result can be a cycle of failure.
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• According to Kohlberg, ____ development
proceeds from a concern with ____ and
____, through a focus on social
conventions and rules, toward a sense of
universal ____ principles.
• Gilligan has suggested, however, that ____
may follow a somewhat different
progression of ____ development.
Review and Apply
APPLY
• Kohlberg and Gilligan each suggest there are
three major levels of moral development.
• Are any of their levels comparable? In which
level of either theory do you think that the
largest discrepancy between males and
females would be observed?
RELATIONSHIPS: BUILDING FRIENDSHIP IN
MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
Friends in Middle Childhood
• Provide emotional support and help kids to handle
stress
• Teach children how to manage and control their
emotions
• Teach about communication with others
• Foster intellectual growth
• Allow children to practice relationship skills
Damon's Stages of Friendship
Stage 1 (ages 4-7 years)
Children see
friends as
Children see
people to
friends as like
share toys
themselves
and activities
with
Children do
not take into
account
personal
traits
Damon's Stages of Friendship
Stage 2 (ages 8-10 years)
Children now
Friends are
begin to take
viewed in terms Friendships are
other's personal
of kinds of
based on
qualities and
mutual trust
rewards they
traits into
provide
consideration
Damon's Stages of Friendship
Stage 3 (ages 11-15 years)
Friendships
become based on
intimacy and
loyalty
Friendships
involve mutual
disclosure and
exclusivity
Likes me…likes me not!
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CHILDREN’S
FRIENDSHIP
King or Queen of the Hill…Status Hierarchies
• Children's friendships show clear hierarchies in terms of
status
• Status is the evaluation of a role or person by other
relevant members of a group
High Status Children
• Form friendships with high status children
• More likely to form exclusive and desirable cliques
• Tend to play with a greater number of children
• Have greater access to resources such as games, toys,
books, and information
Popular Children
Popular children
Helpful and cooperative
Good sense of humor
Good emotional understanding
Ask for help when necessary
Not overly reliant on others
Adaptive to social situations
Social problem-solving skill competence
Social Problem-Solving and Information
Processing
Low Status Children
• Form friendships with other lower status children
• Tend to play with a lower number of children than higher
status children
• Are more likely to play with younger or less popular
children
• Tend to follow the lead of higher status children
Unpopular children
Unpopular Children
Lack social competence
Immature or inappropriately silly
Overly aggressive and overbearing
Withdrawn or shy
Unattractive, handicapped, obese,
or slow academically
Unpopular Children
Lack of popularity may take two forms
Neglected children
• Receive relatively little attention from their peers in the
form of either positive or negative interaction
Rejected children
• Are actively disliked and their peers may react to them
in an obviously negative manner
Teaching Social Competence
Several programs teach children set of social skills
that underlie general social competence
• Before we review these, take a few minutes to visit with
a classmate about what kind of program would best
enhance social competence.
• Report to the class.
Schoolyard-and Cyber-Yard-Bullies
At school
• 160,000 U.S. schoolchildren stay home from school
each day because they are afraid of being bullied
• Almost 85 percent of girls and 80 percent of boys report
experiencing some form of harassment in school at least
once
• Others encounter bullying on the Internet, which may be
even more painful because often the bullying is done
anonymously or may involve public postings
Schoolyard-and Cyber-Yard-Bullies
The bully
• About 10 to 15 percent of students bully others at one time or
another
• About half of all bullies come from abusive homes
• Bullies tend to watch more television containing violence, and
they misbehave more at home and at school than do
• nonbullies
• When their bullying gets them into trouble, they may try to lie
their way out of the situation, and they show little remorse for
their victimization of others
Bully
School-bullied
• Some 90 percent of middle-school students report being
bullied at some point in their time at school, beginning as
early as the preschool years
•
•
•
•
Characteristics
Loners who are fairly passive
Often cry easily
Lack the social skills that might otherwise defuse a
bullying situation
Reducing Bullying
• One of the most effective ways to reduce the incidence
of bullying is through school programs that enlist and
involve students
• For example, schools can train students to intervene
when they see an instance of bullying, rather than
watching passively
• Empowering students to stand up for victims has been
shown to reduce bullying significantly
Gender and Friendships: The Sex Segregation
of Middle Childhood
Boyfriend, girlfriend…any friend?
• Avoidance of opposite sex becomes very pronounced
during middle childhood
• Children's friendships are almost entirely sex-segregated
• When sexes interact it is called “border work,” is often
romantic, and helps emphasize clear boundaries
between sexes
Boys and Friendship
Attempt to
maintain and
improve status
in hierarchy
• Restrictive play
Strict
dominance
hierarchy
Larger
networks of
friends than
girls do
Girls and Friendships
Language is
less
confrontational
and direct than
boys’
Focus on one
or two “best
friends” of
relatively equal
status
Can be
confrontational
with other girls
not their
friends
Conflicts
solved by
compromise,
ignoring
situation, or
giving in
Are friendships color-blind?
Cross-Race Friendships: Integration In and Out
of the Classroom
• Closest friendships largely with others of same race
• Decline with age in number and depth of friendships
outside own racial group
Reducing Prejudice through
Contact Between Groups
Contact
• Must occur in equal status settings
• Enhanced through cooperative activities that are
important to children
• Must promote equality and disconfirm negative
stereotypes
Increasing Children's Social Competence
Encourage social
interaction
Teach listening
skills to children
Make children
aware that people
display emotions
and moods
nonverbally
Don't ask children
to choose teams
or groups publicly
Teach
conversational
skills, including the
importance of
asking questions
and self-disclosure
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• Children's understanding of ____ changes from the sharing
of ____ activities, through the consideration of ____ traits
that can meet their needs, to a focus on ____ and loyalty.
• Friendships in childhood display ____ hierarchies.
Improvements in social ____ ____ and social information
processing can lead to better ____ skills and greater
popularity.
• Boys and girls engage increasingly in same-sex friendships,
with boys’ friendships involving ____ relationships and girls’
friendships characterized by ____ of girls with equal status.
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• ____ friendships decrease in frequency as
children age, but contact as peers among
members of different races can promote
____ acceptance and appreciation.
• Many children are the victims of ____
during their school years, but both victims
and bullies can be ____ ways to reduce
bullying.
Review and Apply
APPLY
• Do you think the stages of friendship are a
childhood phenomenon, or do adults’
friendships display similar stages?
FAMILY AND SCHOOL: SHAPING CHILDREN’S
BEHAVIOR IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
Middle Childhood in the 21st Century
In addition to other changes, children experience:
• Increasing independence
• Co-regulation with parents
• Sibling relationships and rivalry
Siblings
Siblings
• Sibling relationships are likely to endure across lifespan
• Early relationships between siblings shape how children
relate to others and choices made in later life
What about children who have no siblings?
• Only children are as well-adjusted as children with
brothers and sisters
• In some ways, only children are better-adjusted, often
having higher self-esteem and stronger motivation to
achieve
When Both Parents Work Outside the Home:
How Do Children Fare?
In most cases, children fare quite well
• When parents
– Are loving
– Are sensitive to their children's needs
– Provide appropriate substitute care
• Good adjustment of children relates to psychological
adjustment of parents, especially mothers
What do children do all day?
Although the amount of time spent on some activities of children has
remained constant over the years, the amount of time spent on others,
such as playing and eating, has shown significant changes. What might
account for these changes? (Source: Hofferth & Sandberg, 1998.)
Self-Care Children
Good or bad?
Self-care children
• Youngsters who let themselves into their homes after school
and wait alone until their parents return from work
• Consequences of being a latchkey child are not all harmful
• Some children report being lonely
• Some children develop a sense of independence and
competence
• Some research shows latchkey children have higher selfesteem because they are helping family
The Consequences of Divorce
• Only half of children in the U.S. will pass through
childhood living with both parents each of whom has
been married only once
• School-age children tend to blame themselves for the
breakup
After the Break…
Both children and parents may show several types of
psychological maladjustments for 6 months to 2 years
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Sleep disturbances
• Phobias
Rediscovering the Status Quo
• After 18 months to 2 years, most children return to their
predivorce psychological adjustment
• Twice as many children of divorced parents require
psychological counseling as do children from intact
families
• For some children, living in a home with unhappy
marriage and which is high in conflict has stronger
negative consequences than divorce
Single Parent Families
Single Parents
Almost one-quarter of all children under 18 in the U.S.
live with only one parent
Numbers are higher for minority children
• 60% of African-American children live in single parent
homes
• 35% of Hispanic children live in single parent homes
Single Parents
• In majority of cases,
single parent is
mother
• Consequences of
living in single parent
home depend on:
– Whether other
parent ever lived
at home
– Economic status
Multigenerational Families
• Opportunity for rich experiences and conflicts
• Greater among African Americans than among
Caucasians
• In some families, cultural norms tend to be highly
supportive of grandparents taking an active role
Yours, mine…ours
• Blended families include remarried couple that has at
least one stepchild living with them
• Experts predict that by 2000, over 50 percent of children
born in the last decade will be stepchildren
• Living in blended family involves role ambiguity, in which
roles and expectations are unclear
Not all the news is bad!!
• School-age children often adjust relatively smoothly
to a blended family
– Financial status of family improves
– More people to share household chore
– More social interaction and attention
– But…not all children adjust well, especially if the new
relationship is threatening
Race and Family Life
What do you know about…?
•African-American families
•Hispanic families
•Asian-American families
Poverty and Family Life
Poor families
• Fewer basic everyday resources
• More disruptions in children's lives
• Higher likelihood of stress
Group Homes…
• Term “orphanage” replaced by group home or
residential treatment center
– Group homes used for youngsters whose parents are
no longer able to care for
them adequately
Anybody home?
• The number of children in group care has growth over 50
percent
• About three-quarters of children in group homes are
victims of abuse and neglect
• Most will eventually return home, however, one-fourth
will be in group care throughout childhood
Good or Bad?
• Experts disagree on advantages and disadvantages of
group care
• Some see them as solution to unwed mothers who
become dependent on welfare
• Many who work in these homes say they cannot provide
adequate love and support as family could
• Group homes cost ten times as much as foster care or
welfare
Closing the Digital Divide: Some Unintended
Consequences
Digital divide
• Distinction between technological haves and have nots
• Unintended consequences
• Non-educational use of computers
• Much media use unmonitored by parents
• Media use drops dramatically with parental monitoring
School: The Academic Environment
School Daze
• During school year, more of day is spent in a classroom
than anywhere else
• Schools have large influence on children's lives
How do children explain academic success
and failure?
Attributions
• Children attempt to explain their behavior in one of three
ways
– Whether the cause is internal (dispositional) or
external (situational)
– Whether the cause is stable or unstable
– Whether the cause is controllable or uncontrollable
Attributional Confounds
Race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status have strong
influences on attributions of success and failure
• African-American children are less likely to attribute
success to internal causes, feeling that prejudice and
discrimination are to blame
• Women tend to attribute failure to low ability and success
to luck
• In Asian countries, academic success is perceived as
being caused by hard work
Developmental Diversity: Explaining Asian
Academic Success
• US attribute school performance to stable, internal
causes
• Japan, China, and other East Asian countries see
temporary, situational factors as cause of their
performance
Mothers’ Beliefs in Children's Ability
Compared to mothers in
Taiwan and Japan, U.S.
mothers were less apt to
believe that all children have
the same degree of
underlying, ability.
Subjects responded using a
7-point scale, where 1 =
strongly disagree and 7 =
strongly agree. What are the
implications of this finding for
schooling in the United
States?
(Source: Stevenson & Lee,
1990.)
Should Schools Teach Emotional Intelligence?
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• Self-care children may develop ____ and enhanced
____ ____ from their experience.
• How divorce affects children depends on such
factors as ____ circumstances and the comparative
levels of tension in the family ____ and ____ the
divorce.
• The effects of being raised in a ____ ____ household
depend on financial circumstances, the amount of
parent–child interaction, and the level of tension in
the family.
Review and Apply
REVIEW
• ____ patterns differ along individual, cultural,
and gender dimensions.
• ____ ____, the skills that underlie the accurate
assessment, evaluation, expression, and
regulation of emotions, is becoming accepted
as an important aspect of ____ ____.
Review and Apply
APPLY
• Politicians often speak of “family values.” How
does this term relate to the diverse family
situations covered in this chapter, including
divorced parents, single parents, blended
families, working parents, self-care children,
abusive families, and group care?
EPILOGUE
Return to the prologue—about Matt Donner's social
struggles—and answer the following questions:
•Why do you think Matt seems to blame himself for being
the victim of bullies?
•What might be the motivation for other kids to bully Matt?
How might it make them feel about themselves?
•If a school guidance counselor wanted to help Matt adjust
to his new school and make friends, what advice could she
give him?
EPILOGUE
• Why might Matt's parents be so in the dark about what
was going on with their son at his new school? Why do
you think Matt wanted to keep it that way?