• Warm parents
– More likely to be affectionate toward their children and less likely to physically discipline than cold parents
– Children of warm parents are warm, accepting, more likely to develop internalized standards of conduct and a moral sense or conscience
– Parental warmth related to child’s social and emotional wellbeing
• Cold parents
– May not enjoy their children and may have few feelings of affection for them
• Childrearing is reflected by imitating parents’ own upbringing, their parental beliefs, and genetics.

• Authoritative parenting style
– Firm, consistent enforcement of rules combined with strong support and affection
• Permissive parenting style
– Parents supervise children much less; allow children to do what is “natural,” may also allow children to show some aggression, intervening only when child is in danger
• If too much “restrictiveness,” meaning physical punishment, interference, or intrusiveness, the child may end up disobedient, rebellious, and have lower cognitive development

• Inductive methods
– Teach knowledge that will enable children to generate desirable behavior on their own
– Reasoning or explaining why one behavior is better than another is the main technique
• Power-assertive methods
– Include physical punishment and denial of privileges
– Rationalize physical punishment due to noncompliance of children
– The greater the use of this method, the less likely the child is to develop internal standards of conduct
– Parental rejection and punishment linked with aggression and delinquency

• Withdrawal of love method
– Isolating or ignoring misbehaving child
– Loss of love oftentimes more threatening than physical punishment
– May foster compliance but instill guilt and anxiety
• Preschoolers comply better when asked to do something rather than to stop doing something.
• Good method is to engage child in something else when involved in unacceptable activity or behavior

• Baumrind (1989, 1991b) developed grid of four parenting styles based on whether parents are high or low on each of the two dimensions
– 1. Authoritative
– 2. Authoritarian
– 3. Permissive-indulgent
– 4. Rejecting-neglecting

• 1. Authoritative
– These parents are restrictive and demanding, yet communicative and warm
– They reason with their children and provide them strong support and feelings of love
– Children of these parents demonstrate self-reliance, independence, high self-esteem, high levels of activity and exploratory behavior, and social competence and tend to be highly motivated to achieve and do well in school

Table 8-1, p. 159

• 2. Authoritarian
– These parents value obedience with little explanation for their reasoning
– Do not communicate well with their children
– Do not respect child’s view point
– These parents mostly cold and rejecting
– Highly controlling and use force as enforcement method
– Sons of these parents relatively hostile and defiant
– Daughters low in independence and dominance
– Children are less friendly and less spontaneous in social interactions
– Have low self-esteem and are low in self-reliance

• 3. Permissive-indulgent
– Parents are low in their attempts to control their children and in their demands for mature behavior
– Parents are easygoing and unconventional
– Permission accompanied by high warmth and support
– Children less competent in school but high in social behaviors
• 4. Rejecting-neglecting
– Parents are low in demands for mature behavior and low in attempt to control their children
– Low in support and responsiveness
– Outcomes for children include lowest competence, lack of responsibility, immaturity, and tendency to problem behaviors
– Less competent in school and show more misconduct and substance abuse

• Parenting styles change due to the situation
• Power assertion more likely to occur when parent believed the child knew the rules and was capable of behaving appropriately
• Power assertion likely to occur when dealing with aggressive behavior
• Stress contributes to parental use of power

Table 8-2, p. 160

• During early childhood, children make tremendous advances in social skills and behavior.
– Positive: learn how to share, cooperate, and comfort others
– Negative: can be aggressive
• Older siblings more likely to be more caring and dominating than younger ones
• Younger siblings more likely to imitate older siblings and to accept their direction
• Typical sibling rivalry can contribute to better social competence, the development of self-identity, and the ability to rear their own children
• The more parents play favorites, the greater the conflict.

• Preschoolers may feel stress due to the birth of a sibling and the changes within the family.
• Older child may feel displaced and resentful due to the attention given to the new baby.
• Regression to baby-like behaviors, such as increased clinging, crying, and toilet accidents may occur.
• Some children may show increased independence by dressing themselves and helping to take care of the baby.

• First-born children
– More highly motivated to achieve than later-born children
– Perform better academically, are more cooperative, more adultoriented, and less aggressive than later-born children
– Obtain higher standardized test scores
– First-born and only children show greater anxiety and are less self-reliant than later-born children
• Later-born children
– May compete for attention by acting aggressively
– Self-concept is lower, but social skills translate into greater popularity with peers
– Tend to be more rebellious, liberal, and agreeable than first born
– Parents are more relaxed with later-born children

• Peer groups foster social skills
-Teach how to lead and how to follow
-Help increase physical and cognitive skills through interactions
-Provide emotional support
• By age 2, children show preference for particular peer
• Not until late childhood and adolescence do friends’ traits and notions of trust, communication, and intimacy become important

• Play is meaningful, voluntary, and internally motivated.
• Play contributes to the development of motor skills and coordination.
• Dramatic play (trying on new roles) contributes to development of cognitive qualities such as curiosity, exploration, symbolic thinking, and problem solving.
• Play may help with children learning to control impulses.

• Functional play
– Occurs during sensorimotor stage
– Involves repetitive motor activity like rolling a ball or laughing
• Symbolic play
– Occurs at end of sensorimotor stage
– Involves creating settings and scripts
• Constructive play
– Common in early childhood
– Child uses objects or materials to make something
• Formal games
– Games with rules; may be invented by the child
– Involves social interaction as well as physical activity and rules
– May be played for a lifetime

• Parten (1932) observed six types of play among 2- to 5year-old children.
• Solitary play/onlooker play: nonsocial play; occurs in 2to 3-year-olds
• Parallel play/associative play/cooperative play; social play; associative and cooperative common by age 5; girls more likely to engage in social play
• Parallel constructive play: demonstrated when preschoolers play with puzzles or blocks near other children
• Girls more likely to play with boys’ toys than vice versa

Table 8-3, p. 163

• Boys
– In preschool and early elementary school, boys prefer vigorous physical activities.
– In middle childhood, boys prefer playing in groups of five or more children engaging in competition.
• Girls
– More likely to stray from stereotypes
– More supervised
– More likely to engage in arts and crafts
– Spend more time playing with one child than with a group
• Play choices determined by environmental influences as well as biological factors such as strength

• By age 2, children prefer same-sex playmates; tendency strengthens by middle childhood
• Sex differences may be due to boys preferring play that is aggressive and rough; may also be due to lack of response to girls’ polite requests; girls try to protect themselves from aggression and unresponsiveness by avoiding boys; boys may avoid girls because they see them as inferior

• Prosocial behavior
– Altruism; intent to benefit another without expectation or reward
• At preschool and during early school years, children engage in prosocial behavior.
• Siblings observed helping more than sharing, affection, and reassuring (Grusec & Sherman, 1991)
• Prosocial behavior linked to development of empathy and perspective taking

• Empathy: sensitivity to the feelings of others; connected with sharing and cooperation
• Infants may cry when another infant cries
• Empathy promotes prosocial behavior and decreases aggression
– At age 2, many children approach other children and adults in distress and try to help them
• Unresponsive children more likely to behave aggressively
• Girls more empathetic than boys

• Preschoolers’ aggression instrumental or possession oriented
• Older preschoolers more likely to engage in resolving conflicts over toys by sharing rather than fighting
• Aggressive behavior causes rejection
• By age 6 or 7, aggression is hostile and person oriented
• Boys more likely to show aggression
• Aggressive 8-year-olds more aggressive than peers 22 years later; more likely to have criminal records, abuse their spouse, and drive while drunk

• Genetic factors may be involved in aggressive behavior as well as criminal and antisocial behavior.
• MZ twins have high concordance rate for criminality
• Males more aggressive than females, possibly due to testosterone
• If child believes in legitimacy of aggression, more likely to engage in aggression when presented with social provocations
• Aggressive children lack empathy and perspective taking.
• Reinforcement and observational learning may contribute to aggression.

• Bandura’s Bobo doll study suggested that televised models influence children’s aggressive behavior
– Children observing adult hitting Bobo in turn hit Bobo sometimes more aggressively
• Children learn aggression through observational learning
(watching models on TV).
• Television is a fertile source of aggressive models
• Media violence and aggressive video games may increase level of arousal; humans more likely to be aggressive under high levels of arousal

Fig. 8-1, p. 166

• Depictions of violence contribute to violence through
– observational learning
– disinhibition
– increased arousal
– priming of aggressive thoughts and memories
– habituation

• Personality development becomes more complex as children age.
• Children describe themselves in terms of certain categories such as baby, child, and sex (girl, boy).
• Categorical self
– Self-definitions that refer to concrete external traits
• Preschool children who have good opinions of themselves more likely to show secure attachment and have parents who are attentive to their needs

• Preschool children make evaluative judgments about their cognitive and physical competence as well as their social acceptance by peers and parents.
• Preschoolers do not make distinctions between different areas of competence such as being good in school but poor in sports.
• Children become increasingly capable of self-regulation in early childhood.

• Children engage in learning new skills on their own.
• Children during this stage strive to achieve independence from their parents and master adult behaviors.
• During these years, it is learned that not all dreams can be realized.
• Fear of violating parental constructs may impede efforts to master new skills.
• Parents should encourage child to attempt to learn and explore without being critical and punitive.

• Number of fears peak between 2 ½ and 4 years old
• Preschool years marked by decrease in fears of loud noises, falling, sudden movement, and strangers
• Preschool fears include animals, imaginary creatures, the dark, and personal danger
• Real objects such as lightning, thunder, high places, sharp objects and being cut, blood, and unfamiliar people cause fear for their personal safety
• During middle childhood, fears of failure and criticism in school and social relationships

• Gender roles may be seeped in stereotypes.
– Feminine gender-role stereotypes include traits such as gentleness, helpfulness, warmth, emotionality, submissiveness
– Masculine gender-role stereotypes include traits such as aggressiveness, self-confidence, independence, competitiveness, and competence in business, math, and science
• Children stereotype into traditional roles by ages of 3 and 9 or 10.
• Children and adolescents perceive their own sex in a better light (e.g., more hardworking, nicer).

• Sex differences in infancy small and inconsistent
• Preschoolers display some differences in their choices of toys and play activities.
• Boys
– engage in more rough-and-tumble play and are more aggressive
– show greater visual-spatial ability
• Girls
– tend to show more empathy and report more fears
– show greater verbal ability

• Evolutionary psychologists believe sex differences fashioned by natural selection in response to problems in adaptation that were repeatedly encountered by humans over thousands of generations
• Genes that increase the likelihood of an organism’s chances of survival are most likely to be passed on to next generation
• Males place value on physical attributes in mate selection
• Females place it on personal factors such as financial status and reliability

• Brain organization is largely genetically determined.
– Brain may be female and male differentiated
• Studies on rats and humans have indicated males and females rely on different parts of the brain when they are navigating.
– Females rely on the hippocampus in the right hemisphere along with the right prefrontal cortex
– Males use the hippocampus in both hemispheres when they are navigating

• Children learn masculine or feminine by observing and imitating models of the same sex.
– Socialization by parents, teachers provide children with information about expected gender-typed behaviors
• Rewards include smiles, respect, companionship when
“gender-appropriate” behaviors are displayed
• Boys encouraged to roam further from home, to be more independent than girls
• Primary schoolchildren show less stereotyping if mothers frequently engage in traditionally masculine household and childcare tasks.

• Kohlberg’s (1966) theory maintains the first step in gender typing is attaining gender identity (2 years).
– Knowing whether you are male or female
• Gender stability (4-5 years)
– Realizing one’s sex is for lifetime
• Gender constancy (5-7 years)
– Changing dress, hair, or wearing an apron does not change your gender
• Kohlberg’s theory cross-cultural; gender typing occurs in the same order of stages

• Gender is used by children as way of organizing perception of the world
• Gender-schema theory
– Cluster of concepts about male and female physical traits, behaviors, and personality traits
• Gender identity can inspire “gender-appropriate” behavior; boys and girls seek information concerning gender-typed traits and try to live up to them
– Boys show better memory for boy toys, activities, and occupations
– Girls show better memory for “feminine” toys, activities, and occupations
• Both biology and social cognition interact to affect most areas of behavior and mental processes