Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
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Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood
(ages 2-6)
Freud’s theory: phallic stage - child wants to possess the
opposite sex parent, which leads to anxiety. To master the
anxiety, the child forms a superego through identification
with the same-sex parent.
Erikson’s theory: Initiative versus guilt. An overly strict
superego causes children to feel too much guilt because
they have been threatened, criticized, and punished
excessively by adults.
Self-Development
 the “I-self”: their subjective experience of being
 the “me-self” –evaluation of one’s characteristics
 the self-concept: the set of attributes, abilities, attitudes,
and values that a person believes defines who he/she is
 foundations of self concept: preschoolers’ selfconcepts are very concrete
 By age 3 ½, they mention typical emotions and
attitudes
 they spend a lot of time asserting their rights to objects:
a sign of developing selfhood
 emergence of self-esteem: Preschoolers rate their
ability as very high, and underestimate the difficulty of
tasks. High self-esteem contributes to their initiative as
they face all sorts of new skills they have to master.
o By age 4 some kids give up easily They are often
punished by parents for failures.
Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
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Understanding emotion
 By 4-5, correctly judge the causes of many basic
emotions
 emphasize external factors over internal states
 by 4-5, realize that thinking & feeling are interconnected
 suggest physical comfort to reduce sadness, give a
desired object to a playmate to reduce anger
 limits to their understanding in situations where there
are conflicting cues about how a person is feeling
Emotional self-regulation:
 by 3-4, verbalize strategies for adjusting their emotional
arousal to a more comfortable level (e.g. restricting
sensory input; talking to yourself)
 temperament: kids who feel negative emotions very
intensely have greater difficulty inhibiting their feelings
and shifting their attention away from disturbing events
 the social environment: if parents model poor
handling of feelings, kids will have problems too
Self-conscious emotions: feelings that involve injury to or
enhancement of their sense of self.
 Initially, likely to feel guilty for any wrong-doing, even if
it was an accident.
 an audience needs to be present
Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
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Empathy:
 for some, empathizing can lead to personal distress
 sociable, assertive kids who are good at regulating
emotion are more likely to help, share, comfort others
 poor emotion regulators less often display sympathetic
concern and prosocial behaviour.
 angry, punitive parents have kids who rarely show
empathy, and respond to peers’ unhappiness with fear,
anger, and physical attacks
Peer Relations
Mildred Parten (1932): social development proceeds in a
3-step sequence
1) nonsocial activity
2) parallel play
3) associative play and cooperative play
Recent evidence: these coexist during the preschool years
First friendships: interactions between friends giving and
receiving twice as much reinforcement, and increased
emotional expressiveness
Morality
By age 2, kids often react with alarm to aggression, and
comment on their own and others’ actions
By the end of early childhood, can state many moral rules
(“tell the truth”, “you’re supposed to share”)
Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
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The psychoanalytic perspective on morality:
 young kids form a superego by about age 5 or 6
 research: kids of parents who use threats/physical force
feel little guilt after harming others.
 induction involves pointing out the effects of the child’s
behaviour on others; promotes empathy and sympathy,
which promotes prosocial behaviour.
Behaviourism/social learning theory’s view on morality:
 parents and teachers follow up “good” behaviour with
positive reinforcement
 Modeling: Models who behave helpfully or generously
increase young kids’ prosocial responses.
o warmth and responsiveness
o competence and power
o consistency between assertions and behavior
Effects of punishment: using sharp reprimands or
physical force is justified when immediate obedience is
necessary, But for long-term goals, warmth and reasoning
are the best parental tools.
 provides only momentary compliance
 models aggression, leads to fear & resentment
 alternatives to harsh punishment:
o time-out; withdrawal of privileges
 to be effective, punishment should be:
o consistent
o in the context of a warm parent-child relationship
o accompanied by explanations
Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
The cognitive-developmental perspective on morality:
 At 3, kids know that intentional wrongdoing is worse
than accidental wrongdoing
 at 4 they know that disobeying moral rules is more
serious than disobeying social conventions
The development of aggression: By the early preschool
years, two forms of aggression emerge:
1) instrumental aggression
2) hostile aggression
i)
overt
ii) relational
 The family as training ground for aggression:
parents who fight constantly and who use harsh,
inconsistent discipline are often behind an “out of
control” kid.
 TV and aggression:
o in kids shows, 2/3 of violent acts are embedded in
humour
o kids’ cartoons are the most violent of all shows
o Young kids find it hard to separate real life from
fantasy content on TV
o aggressive kids have a greater appetite for violent
TV, and as they watch more, they are more likely
to use hostile ways of solving problems
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Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
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Gender Typing: the process of developing gender roles
 over the preschool years, kids’ gender stereotyping
gets stronger
Genetic influences: Maccoby (1990) argues that hormonal
differences between males and females have important
consequences for gender typing.
Environmental influences:
 the family: parents hold different perceptions about
sons and daughters.
o If the child has an older other-sex sibling, this can
provide opportunities for “cross gender” play
o Parents who avoid this kind of stereotyping end up
with kids who are less gender-typed
o boys are more gender-typed, because fathers are
more intolerant of cross-gender behavior in sons
 teachers: Girls are encouraged to participate in adultstructured activities while boys choose activities where
teachers are less involved
 peers: same-sex peers strengthen gender-stereotyped
beliefs and behaviour.
 TV: women are portrayed as young, attractive,
emotional, victimized, and in romantic and family
situations. Men are depicted as dominant and powerful.
In cartoons the male characters are the problemsolvers, and females are followers.
Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
Gender identity: masculine/feminine/androgynous
 social learning theory: kids pick up behaviours through
modeling and reinforcement and later organize these
behaviours into gender-linked ideas about themselves.
 cognitive-developmental theory: kids first acquire
gender constancy, then they use this knowledge to
guide their behaviour toward gender-typed activities.
 gender schema theory: Early on, kids pick up genderstereotyped behaviours and preferences from others,
and start organizing gender schemas. Once they can
label their own sex, they select gender schemas
consistent with it, and their self perceptions become
gender typed.
Child rearing and emotional & social development
Baumrind (1967): 2 broad dimensions of child rearing:
demandingness and responsiveness.
Together they yield 4 styles of child rearing:
responsive
unresponsive
demanding
Authoritative parent
Authoritarian parent
undemanding
Permissive parent
Uninvolved parent
Authoritative: the most adaptive approach. Kids are lively,
happy, self-confident, self-controlled, less gender-typed.
Authoritarian: Kids are anxious, withdrawn,unhappy, hostile
with peers when frustrated. Boys show anger and defiance;
girls show dependency and retreat from challenging tasks.
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Lifespan overheads, chapter 8: emotional and social development in early childhood
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Permissive: Kids are immature, have trouble controlling their
impulses, disobedient and rebellious, demanding and
dependent on adults, show less persistence on tasks at
school.
Uninvolved: neglectful, abusive homes.
Child maltreatment
 physical abuse
 sexual abuse
 physical neglect
 emotional neglect
 psychological abuse (ridicule, humiliation, terrorizing)
Origins of child maltreatment
 the family
 the community
 the larger culture
Consequences of child maltreatment
 impairs development of emotional self-regulation,
empathy and sympathy, self-concept, and social skills
 eventual learning problems and adjustment problems
including academic failure, depression, problems with
peers, substance abuse, delinquency