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PSY201/Fall 2007/DeGiorgio
I.
Chapter 3
Relationships
A.
B.
Mental Models
1.
Mental models of self
2.
Mental model of others
The Quality of Relationships
1.
High quality relationships result in children who feel that they are loved,
accepted, or valued.
2.
Low quality relationships result in children who feel that they are unloved,
rejected, or ignored.
C.
D.
E.
Culture, Diversity, and Special Needs
1.
Influenced by Family Expectations
2.
Influenced by Cultural Priorities
Trust: confidence that a partner in a relationship cares
1.
Trustful students know the teacher will be responsive to their needs
2.
Mistrustful students tend to be suspicious and expect disappointment
Quality of Trust Influences Attachment Style
1.
Students' Attachment Styles with Teachers
2.
Self-esteem
3.
Resistant adolescents find factors outside of relationships on which to base
self-esteem (e.g., physical appearance, spirituality)
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4.
F.
II.
Avoidant adolescents use sense of self-reliance on which to base self-esteem
Attachment for Learners with Special Needs
1.
Less Securely Attached to Teacher
2.
May Interfere with Classroom Performance
Psychosocial Development
A.
Essence of social development: psychological growth, personal adjustment
emotional maturity, prosocial orientation toward others
B.
Erikson's framework assumes
1.
Eight successive "turning points" (i.e., crucial period)
2.
A positive resolution of a turning point increases likelihood of positive
resolution of subsequent turning points
3.
A negative resolution of a turning point increases the likelihood of future
maladjustment
3.
III.
Stages of special attention for teachers: identity, competence, and generativity
Moral Development: judgments about right and wrong as well as reasoning about
whether actions are right or wrong
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A.
B.
Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development
1.
Moral reasoning is reflective of cognitive development
2.
Major levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional
The Ethic of Care: a view that moral reasoning emerges out of concern for
relationships
1.
Assumed that gender socialization result in boys and girls internalizing
different moral viewpoints
C.
2.
Boys learned morality of justice; girls developed morality of care
3.
Research did not support assumptions
Teachers can help advance moral reasoning through discussions within highquality relationships; conflicts resolved through fairness; students provided the
rationale for why behaviors are right or wrong
D.
Character and Conscience: Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reason
1.
Situational compliance exists when students cooperate, they act out of
obligation
2.
Committed compliance exists when students accept a request and carry it out
in a willing way
3.
Conscience is developed through high-quality interactions between students
and teachers
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IV. Aggression and Social Competence
A.
Aggression
B.
Video Game Technology and Aggression
C.
D.
V.
1.
Exposure increases viewers' aggression and violence
2.
Exposure decreases prosocial behavior
Forms of aggression
1.
Instrumental aggression is intended to obtain something
2.
Hostile aggression occurs when harm to another person is the goal
Social Competence
1.
Is an intentional strategy
2.
Helps develop an accurate view of self
3.
Enhances the self-view
4.
Student learns what excellence is
Self-Concept: the beliefs that students use to understand his or her sense of self
A.
Manifests itself in various ways at different levels
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1.
Elementary school: descriptive and concrete (e.g., tall, physical attributes,
curly hair, likes or dislikes)
2.
Middle school: increased understanding of self, incorporation of inner
qualities (e.g., tall, curly hair, truthful, shy)
3.
High school: more heightened understanding of self, abstract qualities (e.g.,
truthful, shy, friendly, religious)
B.
Trends in self-recognition
1.
Realism: a trend from early child hood through high school is from overly,
optimistic view of the self toward an increasingly realistic understanding
2.
Abstraction: self-recognition moves from highly concrete qualities (e.g., I am
a fast runner.) toward abstract qualities (e.g., I am an inquisitive person.)
3.
Differentiation: as students mature they move from an undifferentiated, global
view of the self toward a multidimensional view
C.
Enhancing Self-Concept
1.
Why? Desirable goal of its own; enlightened self-concept is believed to
enhance other academic achievements
2.
How? Promotion of actual gains in achievement in specific domains;
intervention programs
D.
Social Comparison: how one performs relative to one's peers
1.
Provides information about abilities
2. Useful only after students have developed the cognitive capacity to
understand gradations/seriation
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Learning Objectives
As a result of students’ experiences with this chapter, they should be able to answer these
questions and meet the indicated competencies:

What characterizes a high-quality student-teacher relationship?
Expected Student Competencies: Identify key attributes of a high-quality relationship;
describe the roles those attributes have in establishing and maintaining a high-quality
relationship; contrast the nature of a high-quality relationship with that of a low-quality
relationship

What are mental models, and why are they important to social development?
Expected Student Competencies: Compare mental models of the self with mental models
of others; generate examples of the questions (e.g., Am I lovable?) that provide insights
into students’ mental models

How can teachers nurture psychosocial development, especially students’ initiative,
competence, and identity?
Expected Student Competencies: Identify the major turning points that children face
during the K-12 years; explain how the positive resolution of each turning point affects
other turning points; develop strategies to support the positive resolution of the turning
points of the K-12 years

What are the stages of moral development?
Expected Student Competencies: Define moral reasoning; describe the nature of moral
reasoning at the preconventional, conventional, and postconventional levels; explain what
teachers can do to advance the moral reasoning of their students

How do social competence and aggression develop?
Expected Student Competencies: Contrast the various forms of aggression; explain how
moral cognition, moral emotion, and the moral self influence moral action; describe a
classroom environment that promotes social skills; define social competence, and note its
benefits; formulate strategies that can enhance students’ social competence and promote
emotional regulation

How does the self-concept develop throughout the school-age years?
Expected Student Competencies: Define “self-concept”; account for the ways that
students’ increasingly sophisticated realism, abstraction, and differentiation govern the
development of the self-concept; explain why and how teachers can enhance the selfconcept of students

How do students’ special needs interfere with their social development?
Expected Student Competencies: Note the particular difficulties that students with special
needs have in developing high-quality relationships with teachers and others; reiterate the
actions the actions that teachers can take to enhance the social development of all
students
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