Human Growth
and
Development
Chapter Ten
The Play Years:
Psychosocial Development
PowerPoints prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont College
Revised by Jenni Fauchier, Metropolitan Community College
Emotional Development
• Self
• Goals
• Emotions
Initiative vs. Guilt
• Erikson’s 3rd Stage
– self-esteem emerges
• self-concept—understanding of the self—
develops
• spontaneous play becomes goal directed
• attention span gets longer
• pride leads to concentration and
persistence
• guilt is a negative consequence of this
stage
Emotional Regulation
• Ability to direct or change one’s feelings
– externalizing problems—difficulties
arising from child’s tendency to
externalize emotions outside the self,
lashing out in impulsive anger and
attacking other people or things
– internalizing problems—difficulties
arising from child’s tendency to
internalize emotions or inhibit their
expression, being fearful and withdrawn
Neurons and Nurture
• Emotional regulation part of brain function
– also learned through social awareness
• Genetic variations
– some people naturally more emotionally
expressive
• Early stress
– result of damage during brain development
either prenatally or postnatally
. via maternal drug use, illness, stress,
or if infant malnourished, injured, or
frightened
Neurons and Nurture, cont.
• Care History
- secure attachment = easier emotional
regulation
- parenting practices
- securely attached: regulate emotions,
show empathy
- insecurely attached: respond
abnormally to other children’s distress
- ability to modulate and direct emotion
essential to emotional intelligence
Cognition and Emotions
• First step to emotional regulation:
awareness of own emotions and the
emotional response of others
• Emotional intelligence—Goleman’s
term for the understanding of how
to interpret and express emotions
– develops throughout life, but crucial in
early childhood
• amygdala—emotional hotspot in
prefrontal cortex of brain that
children need to govern if they are
to become balanced and empathic
adults
• parents can use children’s natural
attachment to teach them how and
when to express feelings
Empathy and Antipathy
• Empathy—understanding another
person’s emotions
– leads often to prosocial actions
• helping another without obvious
benefit to oneself
• Antipathy—disliking or hating
someone else
– may lead to antisocial behavior
• injuring another person or destroying
something that belongs to another
Empathy and Antipathy, cont.
• Sharing
– freely done or directed by others
• Aggression
– instrumental—used to obtain an object
such as a toy
– reactive—involves retaliation for an act
whether or not it was intentional
– relation—designed to inflect psychic
(mental) pain
– bullying aggression—unprovoked attack
Learning Social Skills
Through Play
• Peers—others of the same age
and status
-peers make the best playmates
-play is most adaptive and
productive activity of children
Active Play
• Rough-and-tumble play
-helps child develop muscle
strength and control
-caregivers should look for a
“play face” when attempting
to figure out if child is playing
or fighting
Imaginative Play
• Sociodramatic play
- helps child explore and rehearse
social roles he/she has seen
- helps child test ability to convince
others
- helps child regulate emotions
through imagination
- helps child examine personal
concerns in nonthreatening way
Baumrind’s Three Styles
of Parenting
• Baumrind’s 4 important dimensions
that influence parenting
– expression of warmth or
nurturance
– strategies for discipline
– quality of communication
– expectations for maturity
• 3 Styles
– authoritarian—high standards and
expectations with low nurturance
• children likely to become
conscientious, obedient, and
quiet—but not happy
– permissive—little control, but
nurturing
• children likely to lack self-control
and are not happy
– authoritative—limits and guidance
provided but willing to compromise
• children are more likely to be
successful, articulate, intelligent,
and happy
• Recent studies have found link
between parenting styles and child
behavior less direct than Baumrind’s
original research indicated
– impact of child’s temperament
– influence of community and cultural
differences on child’s perception of
parenting
– in poor or minority families, authoritarian
parenting tends to be used to produce
high-achieving, emotionally regulated
children: strict and warm can be
successful
Punishment
• Discipline an integral part of
parenting
Techniques of Discipline
• Culture is a strong influence
-expectations
-offenses
-punishments
• In United States
-time-out is used
• child stops all activity and sits
in corner or stays inside for a
few minutes
Techniques of Discipline, cont.
• In deciding which technique to apply,
parents should ask: How does
technique relate to child?
– child’s temperament, age, and
perceptions crucial considerations
What About Spanking?
• Reasons for parenting variations
– culture, religion, ethnicity,
national origin
– parents’ own upbringing
• Developmentalists fear children
who are physically punished will
learn to be more aggressive
– domestic violence of any kind can
increase aggression between
peers and within families
The Challenge of Video
• Dilemma for parents about letting
children watch television and play
video games
– parents find video a good
babysitter
– parents believe video can
sometimes be educational tool
• Experts suggest parents turn off the
TV to avoid exposing children to video
violence
The Evidence on Content
• Exposure to violence great—good
guys and bad guys show violent
behavior
• All good guys male; no non-white
heroes
• Women/females portrayed as victims
or adoring friends—not as leaders
• Content of video games even worse
than than that of television
– more violent, sexist, racist
The Evidence on Content, cont.
• Children, especially males, who
watched educational television
became teens who earned higher
grades, read more
• Children, especially females, who
watched violent television had lower
grades
The Evidence on Content, cont.
• Content of video games crucial reason
behind great concern of
developmental researchers
- research shows that violent TV and
video games push children to be
more violent than they normally
would be
• computer games probably worse,
as children are doing the virtual
killing
The Evidence on Content, cont.
• Developmentalists look at the
following to evaluate poor content
- perpetuation of sexist, ageist, and
racist stereotypes
- depiction of violent solutions for
every problem and no expression of
empathy
- encouragement of quick, reactive,
emotions rather than thoughtful
regulation of emotions
Boy or Girl: So What?
• Male or female—important feature of
self-concept
– Sex differences—biological differences
between males and females
• far less apparent than in adulthood
– Gender differences—culturally imposed
differences in roles and behaviors
• more significant to children than to
adults
Development of Gender
Awareness
• By age 2, awareness of gender-related
preferences and play patterns
• By age 3, cognitive awareness of own
gender
• By age 4, awareness of “gender
appropriate” toys or roles
• By age 6, well-formed ideas and
prejudices about own sex and the other
sex
Theories of Gender Differences
• Psychoanalytic
– Freud’s view: sexual attraction to
opposite-sex parent
• phallic stage—according to Freud,
3rd stage of psychosexual
development; occurring in early
childhood when penis becomes the
focus of psychological concern and
physiological pleasure
Theories of Gender Differences,
cont.
• Oedipus complex—according to Freud,
occurring in the phallic stage, in which
boys have sexual desire for their mothers and
hostility towards their fathers; guilt and fear
resolved by gender appropriate behavior
– Identification
• Superego—personality part that is selfcritical and judgmental
• Electra complex—girls’ understanding they
can’t replace mother, so want to be like her
Behaviorism
• Gender-appropriate behavior learned
through observation and imitation
• Children learn gender-appropriate
behavior by modeling it after that of
people they want to imitate
• Especially for young boys, conformity
to gender expectations rewarded,
punished, modeled
Cognitive Theory
• Gender typing occurs after concept of
gender has developed
• Once gender consistently conceived, child
organizes world based on that
understanding
• Gender schema organizes the world in
terms of male and female
- internal motivation to conform to
gender-based cultural standards and
stereotypes guides attention and
behavior
Sociocultural Theory
• Gender values strenuously kept
• Many traditional cultures emphasize
gender distinctions
• To break through restrictiveness of
cultural expectations, some embrace
the idea of androgyny—a balance of
male and female psychological
characteristics
- true androgyny possible if
supported by whole culture
Epigenetic Theory
• Every aspect of human behavior a mix
of genetics and environment
– environment shapes, enhances, or
halts genetic impulses
• Differences between male and female
brains
• Environmental influences
Conclusion: Gender and
Destiny
• 5 theories lead to 2 conclusions and
1 question:
– Gender differences are not simply
cultural or learned—biological
foundation much greater than
originally suspected
– Biology is not destiny—environment
and experiences shape children