Social Cognition
► Focus
has been on non-social abilities
► Today: How do children come to understand their
multifaceted social world?
► How do they interpret social situations, what
information do they use?
► How can their social interactions affect their
cognitions?
Properties of social cognition
1.
2.
3.
4.
Develops from concrete to abstract
Social cognition becomes better
organized
Children revise causes of person’s
behaviours
Move to a metacognitive level of
understanding
2 main theories of social development
► Social
cognitive theory
 Bandura
► Social
information processing theory
 Dodge
Social Cognitive Theory
► Learn
through modeling
 Become more selective in modeling with age
 concern for TV violence
► Believes in reciprocal determinism
 Children’s behaviour will affect how others treat
him or her, and this in turn will affect their
future behaviour
Reciprocal Determinism:
Vicious Cycle
Others avoid
that child
Child A
behaves aggressively
Others see
child A
as an aggressor
5 capabilities that must be in place to
learn about social world
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Symbolization
Forethought
Self-regulation
Self-reflection
Vicarious learning
 VL in turn governed by 4 sub-processes…
4 sub-processes of VL
(Also called Observational learning)
1. Attentional processes
2. Retention
3. Production
4. Motivation
Social Cognitive theory, con’d
► Must
be able to imitate
 Children believe simple observation is sufficient, but
social transmission needed
► Must




have strong sense of self-efficacy
Relates to how we interpret our effect on environment
Physical or not
Parents can affect our self-efficacy
Can be beneficial to think we’re better than we are…
Achievement Motivation
► Tendency
to persist in challenging tasks
► Children can be mastery-oriented or
learned-helpless
► Differ in:
 attributions they make about performance
 How they see ability
Types of achievement motivation
How they feel
about:
Mastery
Oriented
Learned
Helpless
New tasks
Enjoy challenge,
expectations high
Fearful of challenge
Attributions
Success = high ability Success = Luck
Failure = no effort
Failure = low ability
Ability
Incremental:
improved with effort
Entity: stable trait,
can’t change
Focus on:
Learning goals
Performance
Success rate?
Even less bright kids
do well
Brightest kids can fail
Influences on Attributions
1.
2.
3.
Adult Communication
Child’s gender
Cultural values
Attribution Retraining
► Attempts
to modify attributions of learned
helpless children
► Use adult feedback – see value in effort
► Begin with hard task, encourage effort
► Every effort is rewarded with a positive
comment
► Focus away from academics and more
towards learning for sake of learning
Social Information Processing Theory
► Dodge’s
model of social interaction
 How children act in a given situation and how
this will affect future interactions
► All
mental states occurring accounted for
Dodge’s model
4. Generate problemsolving strategy
3. Formulate
social goals
2. Interpret
social cues
5. Evaluate likely
effectiveness, and select
a response
Children’s mental state:
past social experience
Social expectancies
Knowledge of social
rules and emotion
regulation skills
1. Encode Social
Cues
6. Enact a
response
Peer evaluations
and response
Will affect how
child will…
Development of Self-Concept
► Set
of attributes, abilities, attitudes,
and values that an individual believes
defines who he or she is…Who am I?
► Age-related changes
 3 years: observable characteristics
 5 years: more internal characteristics
 11 years: can talk about self for a while,
in terms of competencies
 16 years: describe self in terms of
psychological traits
William James (1890)
► I-Self
(private self)
 Sense of self as agent who is separate from
others, but acts on and attends to objects
and other people.
► Me-Self
(public self)
 Composed of characteristics that make the
self unique, reflective observer who treats
self as object of knowledge
Beginnings of I-self
► Self-awareness
of life
dawns in second year
► Securely
attached toddlers know how
their actions affect environment
 The earlier they know this, the earlier
they engage in imaginary play
 Earlier differentiation of self and others
Beginnings of Me-self
► Starts
during second year
► Become more consciously aware of
physical features
► 15 months, self recognition in mirror
► At 2, start to see self as a separate
being
► Using personal pronouns, recognize self
in pictures
► Fostered by good care giving
Consequences of sense of self
► Self-recognition
precedes a lot of
behaviours, e.g mutual imitation
► Allows for self-conscious emotions,
like shyness, shame
► Stronger self-definition = more
assertion of what is “mine”
► Can start to develop empathy,
cooperation, sharing
Language and the Self
►
Language allows for verbal
classification according to
characteristics

1.
2 kinds of self:
Categorical self develops at 18-30
months: where people are classified
in terms of salient features (age,
sex, size)
2.
Remembered self…
Remembered Self
► Develops
around 2 years
► Building of life-story narrative, more
coherent and enduring
► Like autobiographical memory
► Communicated from parents
► Major source through which me-self is
imbued with cultural values
Development of Perspective-taking
►
Need this to understand:
1. others’ emotions
2. referential communication
3. inferring intentions
Gradually develops, but there in young children
► Theory of Mind can be a form of perspective
taking
►
Selman’s stages of Perspective-Taking
development
0. Undifferentiated perspective taking (3-6)
1. Social-Informational processing (6-8)
2. Self-reflective perspective taking (8-10)
3. Third-party perspective taking (10-12)
4. Societal perspective taking (12 +)
Recursive thought
► Thinking
about what another person is
thinking about
► Affects our social behaviour
 we can predict how people will act
► Aren’t
able to do higher level recursive
thinking until about 15
Cultural Learning
Passed through social transmission
►

Requires different forms of perspective taking
Tomasello: Unique to humans
► 3 phases:
►
1. Imitative: internalizing model’s behaviours
2. Instructed: less knowledgeable learns from more
knowledgeable
3. Collaborative: Same knowledge bases learn from each
other
Imitative  Instructional  Collaborative
Culture in Primate ancestors?
► Russon:
Cultural learning NOT unique to
humans!!
► Much longer spread of any kind of cultural
phenomenon
 Potato washing in chimps
 Ways of sieving through water to get seeds
 Nut cracking sites
► Social
strata differences
Gender: Definitions
► Gender:
Characterization of differences
between males and females in which
judgments are made about biological and
environmental influences
► Gender Stereotypes: Widely held beliefs
about characteristics deemed male or
female
► Gender Roles: The reflection of gender
stereotypes in everyday behaviour
Gender, Definitions
► Gender
identity: The perception of oneself
as relatively masculine or feminine in
characteristics
► Gender typing: The process of developing
gender-linked beliefs
► Gender-role standard: Value or motive more
accepted for one gender over the other
Typical Gender Role Standards
► Girls
assume
expressive role: where
we should be
cooperative, kind,
nurturing, and
sensitive to the needs
of others
► Boys
assume
instrumental role:
where they are to be
dominant,
independent, assertive,
competitive, and goaloriented
Sex differences in the socialization of
5 attributes in 110 societies
% of societies in which socialization
pressures were greater for:
Attribute
Boys
Girls
Nurturance
0
82
Obedience
3
35
Responsibility
11
61
Achievement
87
3
Self-reliance
85
0
Gender Identity
►3
stages:
Identity  stability  consistency
► At
2 ½ - 3, can label themselves as boy or
girl
► Before 5 and even up to 7, see gender as
unstable
► By 7 have true gender concept
► Gender
constancy allows child to focus on
proper models
Gender roles…
► By
2 and 3, classifying boy and girl
activities, and will avoid those for the
opposite sex, very rigid
► Between 3 and 7, they are little
chauvinists…
Why do you think people tell George not
to play with dolls (6 years):
Well, he should only play with things that boys play
with. The things he is playing with now is girls’ stuff…
Can George play with a doll if he wants to?
►
► No
sir!!
What should George do?
► He should stop playing with girls’ dolls and start playing
with G.I. Joe
Why can a boy play with a G.I. Joe and not a Barbie doll?
► Because if a boy plays with a barbie doll, then people
will tease him…and if he plays more to get girls to like
him, then the girls won’t like him anymore
Why do you think people tell George not
to play with dolls (9 years):
What do you think his parents should do?
► They should get him trucks and stuff and see if he will
play with those…
What if he kept on playing with dolls, should he be
punished?
► No
How come?
► Because if he broke a window they should, because you
can’t do that, but you can play with dolls
What’s the difference?
► Well, breaking windows you’re not supposed to do. And
if you play with dolls, you can, but boys usually don’t
Gender…
► Children
must learn definition of gender
► Exaggerate them to make them “cognitively
clear”
► By 8, views of gender become more flexible
► Rigidity appears again in adolescence;
gender intensification
Differences in gender-typed behaviour
► Boys
develop stereotypes earlier
► By 2, boys prefer “boy toys” and avoid girl
toys
► Boys prefer to play with tomboyish girls
than “sissy” boys
► Will say they dislike girl toys
► Girls remain interested in cross-gender toys
until later
Gender specific toys
% of boys and girls who request masculine
and feminine toys from Santa
% of boys
requesting
% of girls
requesting
Vehicles
Sports equipment
43.5
25.1
8.2
15.1
Spatial/temporal
24.5
15.6
Dolls (adult
female)
.6
27.4
Dolls (babies)
Domestice
accessories
.6
1.7
23.4
21.7
Masculine items
Feminine items
Gender-typed behaviours
► More
acceptable for girls to cross gender lines
► Eventually prefer girl activities
 Biological reasons: Puberty hits, want to be
more feminine
 Cognitive reasons: Formal operations hits,
know their role and that they should play it
 Social reasons: More inclined to conform to
social prescriptions of their roles to fit in
Theories of Gender-typing
► Money
& Ehrhardt’s
biosocial theory
 Children show an essentialist
bias
 “If a girl went to live on an
island with all men and no
women, she would still be a
woman and show all the
same gender stereotypes”
Biosocial Theory
A few critical episodes that determine
preference for masculine or feminine roles:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Inheritance of x or y chromosome
Secretion of hormones
Inhibition of testosterone
Social factors that come into play immediately
after birth
Role of biology in gender-role…
2 lines of evidence:
1. Genetics

2.
You are born with a gender, but timing of
puberty can result in more masculine role
Hormonal


Evidence from androgenized females and
CAH
Girls with CAH identify with more maletyped behaviours
Biosocial theory
► Social
labeling also affects development of
gender identity
► Need to be labeled and/or reassigned
before 18 months, as after this child will
experience great difficulty in change
Nature and Nurture both account for gender
typing
Social Cognitive Theory and gender-typing
►
Bandura: social influences key to
gender typing
1. Direct tuition
2. Observational Learning
3. Media Support
Martin & Halverson’s Gender-schema
theory
► Information-processing
theory
► Kids attuned to gender-specific info
► Beliefs organize how child perceives all
incoming info, guides what info child
attends to, elaborates on, and remembers
 Top-down!!
► Starts
very early on
Gender-Schema Theory
1.
Acquiring in-group VS out-group
schemas
2.
Develop own-sex schemas
3.
Gender scripts
Gender-typing and Intelligence
► Theories
moving towards a
biological/social/information-processing
type of approach
► Correlations exist between IQ and
gender knowledge
 Children earlier aware of their gender are
brighter
 More advanced in cognitive developmental
stages
ASD and Social Cognition
► Social
deficits are defining characteristic
of ASD
► Social information processing theory
states that they do not begin to process
social information in the same way as
normal children
► Are generally unaware of people around
them, less eye contact, act odd
Van der Geest, Kemner, Camfferman,
Verbaten, & van Engeland (2002)
► At
what level does social deficit begin at?
► Previous research shows odd looking
patterns in children with ASD
 less attention to human forms in pictures
► Questions:
 Do they have abnormal gaze patterns?
 Do they not show normal preference for social
stimuli?
Van der Geest et al.
► Participants
 16 high-functioning children with ASD
 14 normal children, all around age 10
► Materials
 25 pictures of cartoon scenes, each with a
human form
► Method
 Infrared laser measured child’s looking
pattern at picture while sitting in a dentist’s
chair
Results
Results
► No
group difference in overall gaze
patterns at pictures
► No difference on amount of attention
paid to social figures
 Both groups of children spent the most time
on the human forms in the pictures
Interpretation
► Children
with ASD process pictorial information in
same way as normal children
► Time to look at human form same in both groups,
indicating general preference for social stimuli
► General information processing deficit in ASD can
be excluded
► Deficit is not across all social stimuli
► Future research should look at live models
Take Home Messages
► Social
cognition works much like other
domains (IP theory, Cognition based
theories)
► Social models important in child’s life
► Development of self-concept in line with
development of memory and language
► Gender roles are assigned from early on
 Both biologically and socially based