Chapter 6 Socioemotional Development in Early Childhood
Initiative Versus Guilt
Erikson’s third stage: initiative versus guilt
children use their perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language skills to make things happen
on their own initiative, children exuberantly move out into a wider social world
conscience
initiative leads not only to rewards but also guilt, which lowers self-esteem
Self-Understanding
Self-understanding -- representation of self, the substance and content of self-conceptions
Early self-understanding involves self-recognition
Young children describe self in physical characteristics or material attibutes.
About 4 to 5 years of age, they begin to include psychological trait and emotion terms in
their own self-descriptions
Understanding Others
Young children’s theory of mind includes understanding that other people have emotions and
desires
About 4 to 5 years, they begin to perceive others in terms of psychological traits
Begin to understand that others don’t always give accurate reports
Children begin to develop an understanding for joint commitments
Some young children are better than others at understanding what people are feeling, and suggest
egocentrism may not be as prevalent in early childhood as Piaget suggested.
Emotional Development
Awareness of self is linked to the ability to feel an expanding range of emotions
To experience self-conscious emotions, children must be able to refer to themselves and be aware
of themselves as distinct from others
Understanding emotions
Children’s understanding of emotion is linked to an increase in prosocial behavior
Children begin to understand that the same event can elicit different feelings in different
people
increase the number of terms they use to describe emotions
By age 5 most children show a growing awareness of the need to manage emotions according to
social standards
Regulation of Emotion and Peer Relations
Emotions play a strong role in determining the success of a child’s peer relationships
Ability to modulate one’s emotions is an important skill that benefits relationships with peers
moody and emotionally negative children experience rejection by their peers
positive children are more popular
Emotion-coaching parents monitor their children’s emotions, view their children’s negative
emotions as opportunities for teaching, assist them in labeling emotions, and coach them in how to
deal effectively with emotions
Emotion-dismissing parents view their role as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions
Moral Development
Moral development -- development of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding rules and
conventions about what people should do in their interactions with other people
Empathy -- responding to another person’s feelings with an emotion that echoes the other’s
feelings. Requires perspective taking.
Moral feelings
Feelings of anxiety and guilt are central to the account of moral development
Learning how to identify a wide range of emotional states in others, and to anticipate what kinds of
action will improve another person’s emotional state
Moral Reasoning
Piaget (1932) theorized how thinking about moral issues was stimulated
Ages 4–7: heteronomous morality -- children think of justice and rules as unchangeable
properties of the world, removed from the control of people
7–10 years of age, children are in a transition
10 years and older: autonomous morality -- aware that rules and laws are created by people
Because young children are heteronomous moralists, they judge the rightness or goodness of
behavior by considering its consequences, not the intentions of the actor
The heteronomous thinker also believes in immanent justice -- the concept that if a rule is broken,
punishment will be meted out immediately
Moral Behavior
Behavioral and social cognitive approach -- processes of reinforcement, punishment, and imitation
explain the development of moral behavior
When rewarded for behavior that is consistent with laws and social conventions, they are likely to
repeat that behavior
Behavioral and social cognitive researchers emphasize that what children do in one situation is
often only weakly related to what they do in other situations
Ability to resist temptation is closely tied to the development of self-control
Gender
Gender -- social and psychological dimensions of being male or female
Gender identity -- sense of being male or female
Gender roles -- sets of expectations that prescribe how females or males should think, act, and
feel
preschool children act in ways that match their culture's gender roles and exhibit a sense of
gender identity
Social Theories of Gender
Social role theory -- contrasting roles of women and men
Psychoanalytic theory of gender -- Freud’s view -- preschool child develops a sexual attraction to
the opposite-sex parent
Social cognitive theory of gender -- by observing and imitating and through being rewarded and
punished
Parental Influences on Gender Development
By action and by example, parents influence their children’s gender development
cultures around the world give mothers and fathers different roles
Mothers’ Socialization Strategies -- mothers socialize their daughters to be more obedient
and responsible than their sons
Fathers’ Socialization Strategies -- fathers show more attention to sons than daughters,
engage in more activities with sons, and put forth more effort to promote sons’ intellectual
development
Peer Influences
Peers prompt the process of responding to and modeling masculine and feminine behavior
playground has been called “gender school”
Peers extensively reward and punish gender behavior
peers often reject children who act in a manner that is characteristic of the other gender
Cognitive influences on Gender
Gender Schema Theory
gender typing emerges as children gradually develop gender schemas of what is
gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate in their culture
gender schema -- organizes the world in terms of female and male
Baumrind’s Parenting Styles
Diana Baumrind (1971) has described four types of parenting styles
authoritarian parenting -- restrictive, punitive style demanding obedience and respect
authoritative parenting -- encourages independence but still places limits and controls
neglectful parenting -- parent is very uninvolved in the child's life
indulgent parenting -- highly involved with but place few demands or controls
There are ethnic differences which may be associated with more positive outcomes than Baumrind
predicts
Punishment
Corporal (physical) punishment historically has been considered a necessary and even desirable
method of discipline
Use of corporal punishment is legal in every state in America
Individuals in the United States and Canada were among those with the most favorable attitudes
toward corporal punishment and were the most likely to remember it being used by their parents
Consequences of Corporal Punishment
Corporal punishment is associated with
Higher levels of immediate compliance, but also with increased aggression by the children
Lower levels of moral internalization and mental health
More adjustment problems
Adolescent depression
Juvenile delinquency
Reasons to Avoid Physical Punishment
Parents who spank present children with an out-of-control model which the children may then
imitate
Punishment can instill fear, rage, or avoidance in children
Punishment tells the child what not to do rather than what to do
Punishment can be abusive
Coparenting and Alternatives to Corporal Punishment
Handling misbehavior by reasoning and especially explaining the consequences of the child’s
actions
Time out -- the child is briefly removed from the setting
Coparenting -- the support that parents provide one another in jointly raising a child
Child Maltreatment
Eighty-four percent of children, who were abused according to a 2008 report, were abused by a
parent or parents
In 2009, approximately 702,000 U.S. children were victims of child abuse
Types of Child Maltreatment
Physical abuse
the infliction of physical injury
Child neglect
failure to provide for the child’s basic needs
Sexual abuse
fondling a child’s genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, etc.
Emotional abuse
psychological/verbal abuse/mental injury
acts/omissions that have caused, or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, or
emotional problems
The Context of Abuse
No single factor causes child maltreatment
A combination of factors includes:
The culture
Family characteristics
Developmental characteristics of the child
About one-third of parents who were abused themselves go on to abuse their own children
Developmental Consequences of Abuse
Poor emotion regulation, attachment problems, problems in peer relations, difficulty in adapting to
school, and other psychological problems such as depression and delinquency
Difficulty in establishing and maintaining healthy intimate relationships
As adolescents and adults, they are at higher risk for violent romantic relationships, as well as for
substance abuse, sexual risk taking, financial and employment-related difficulties
Prevention of Maltreatment
In a recent study, two treatments were effective in reducing child maltreatment:
home visitation that emphasized improved parenting, coping with stress, and increasing
support for the mother
parent-infant psychotherapy that focused on improving maternal-infant attachment
Sibling Relationships
Approximately 80 percent of American children have one or more siblings
Interactions with siblings include aggressive, hostile interchanges
Conflict is only one of the many dimensions of sibling relations
sibling relations include helping, sharing, teaching, fighting, and playing
Characteristics of Sibling Relationships
Emotional quality of the relationship
many children and adolescents have mixed feelings toward their siblings
Familiarity and intimacy of the relationship
they can either provide support or tease and undermine each other, depending on the
situation
Variation in sibling relationships
some siblings describe their relationships more positively than others
Birth Order
First-born children
more adult-oriented
more helpful, conforming, and self-controlled
Only children often are achievement-oriented and display a desirable personality, especially in
comparison with later-borns and children from large families
Changing Family in a Changing Society
The United States has one of the highest percentages of single-parent families in the world
Among two-parent families, there are those in which both parents work, or have divorced parents
who have remarried, or gay or lesbian parents
Differences in culture and SES also influence families
Working Parents
The nature of parents’ work rather than whether one parent works outside the home is significant
Parents who have poor working conditions are likely to be more irritable at home and
engage in less effective parenting
A consistent finding is that children (especially girls) of working mothers engage in less
gender stereotyping and have more egalitarian views of gender
Children in Divorced Families
Children in divorced families are more likely to
have academic problems
show externalized problems (such as acting out and delinquency) and internalized
problems (such as anxiety and depression)
A majority of children in divorced families do not have significant adjustment problems
Divorce Adjustment
When a divorced parents’ relationship with each other is harmonious and when they use
authoritative parenting, the adjustment of children improves
Children who are socially mature and responsible, who show few behavioral problems, and who
have an easy temperament are better able to cope
Children with a difficult temperament often have problems in coping with their parents’ divorce
Socioeconomic Issues of Divorce
Custodial mothers experience the loss of about one-fourth to one-half of their pre-divorce income
This income loss for divorced mothers is accompanied by increased workloads, high rates of job
instability, and residential moves to less desirable neighborhoods with inferior schools
Custodial fathers have a loss of only one-tenth of their pre-divorce income
Gay Male and Lesbian Parents
Approximately 20 percent of lesbians and 10 percent of gay men are parents
Many lesbian mothers and gay fathers are non-custodial parents because they lost custody of their
children to heterosexual spouses after a divorce
Most children of gay and lesbian parents were born in a heterosexual relationship that ended in a
divorce
Parenthood among lesbians and gay men is controversial
Cultural, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Variations
Families within different ethnic groups differ in their size, structure, composition, reliance on
kinships networks, and levels of income and education
When children spend time in a child-care center, school, church, or other community setting, they
are likely to learn the values and behaviors of the dominant culture
they may be expected to adapt to that culture’s norms -- acculturation
Peer Relations
Peers -- children of about the same age or maturity level
Functions of a child’s peer group
receive feedback about their abilities
can be necessary for normal socioemotional development
negotiating roles and rules in play, arguing, and agreeing
Play
Extensive amount of peer interaction during childhood involves play
Play -- pleasurable activity that is engaged in for its own sake
Its functions and forms vary
Therapists use play therapy both to allow the child to work off frustrations and to analyze the
child’s conflicts and ways of coping with them
Types of Play
Sensorimotor play is behavior by infants intended to derive pleasure from exercising their
sensorimotor schemes
Practice play involves the repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned or when
physical or mental mastery and coordination of skills are required for games or sports
Pretense/symbolic play occurs when the child transforms the physical environment into a symbol
Social play involves interaction with peers
Constructive play combines sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation
Games are activities that are engaged in for pleasure and have rules
Television
Television is the most influential of the many types of mass media that affect children’s behavior
Many spend more time in front of the television set than they do with their parents
average of 2 to 4 hours a day
Negative influence on children by
making them passive learners
distracting them from doing homework
teaching them stereotypes
providing them with violent models of aggression
presenting them with unrealistic views of the world
Positive influence on children’s development by
presenting motivating educational programs
increasing their information about the world beyond their immediate environment
providing models of prosocial behavior
Effects of Television on Children’s Aggression
Saturday morning cartoon shows average more than 25 violent acts per hour
Increased concern about children who play violent video games, especially those that are highly
realistic
Socioemotional Development in Early Adulthood
Stability and Change from Childhood to Adulthood
For adults, socioemotional development revolves around adaptively integrating our emotional
experiences into enjoyable relationships with others on a daily basis
The first 20 years of life are not meaningless in predicting an adult’s socioemotional life
Attachment plays an important part in socioemotional development
Adult’s attachment is categorized as secure, avoidant, or anxious:
Secure attachment style
Adults have positive views of relationships
Avoidant attachment style
Adults are hesitant to get involved in romantic relationships
Anxious attachment style
Adults demand closeness, are less trusting, and more emotional, jealous, and possessive
Love and Close Relationships
Love -- vast and complex territory of human behavior, spanning a range of relationships that
includes friendship, romantic love, affectionate love, and consummate love
intimacy -- self-disclosure and the sharing of private thoughts
Erikson’s Stage: Intimacy Versus Isolation
After individuals are well on their way to establishing stable and successful identities, they enter
the sixth developmental stage, which is intimacy versus isolation
Finding oneself by losing oneself in another person
If a person fails to develop an intimate relationship in early adulthood, according to Erikson,
isolation results
Intimacy and Independence
Development in early adulthood often involves balancing intimacy and commitment with
independence and freedom
Intimacy and commitment, and independence and freedom are important themes of development
that are worked and reworked throughout the adult years
Friendship
Friendship plays an important role in development throughout the human life span
Women have more close friends and their friendships involve more self-disclosure and
exchange of mutual support
Talk is central to their relationships
Women share many aspects of their experiences, thoughts, and feelings
Romantic Love
Some friendships evolve into romantic love
Also called passionate love, or eros
Romantic love has strong components of sexuality and infatuation
Often predominates in the early part of a love relationship
Sexual desire is the most important ingredient of romantic love
Affectionate Love
Affectionate love -- type of love that occurs when someone desires to have the other person near
and has a deep, caring affection for the person
also called companionate love
As love matures, passion tends to give way to affection
Consummate Love and Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
Sternberg proposed a triarchic theory of love in which love can be thought of as a triangle with
three main dimensions—passion, intimacy, and commitment
Passion is physical and sexual attraction to another
Intimacy relates to the emotional feelings of warmth, closeness, and sharing in a
relationship
Commitment is the cognitive appraisal of the relationship and the intent to maintain the
relationship
Adult Lifestyles: Single Adults
More adults are remaining single longer today
In the last 30 years, there has been a dramatic rise in the percentage of single adults
Advantages
Freedom to make decisions about one’s life course, pursue one’s own schedule, privacy
Common problems
Loneliness
Forming intimate relationships with other adults
Finding a niche in a society that is marriage-oriented
Cohabitation
Cohabitation -- living together in a sexual relationship without being married
cohabitation has changed
many couples view their cohabitation as an ongoing lifestyle
Disadvantages
Disapproval by parents
Difficulty owning property jointly
Legal rights on the dissolution of the relationship are less certain
Elevated risk of partner violence
Marital Trends:
Marriage rates have declined in recent years
Marriage in adolescence is more likely to end in divorce
Getting married in the U.S. between 23 and 27 resulted in a lower likelihood of divorce
Average duration of marriage in the U.S. is just over nine years
Percentage of married persons who said they were “very happy” declined from 1970s to 1990s, but
recently began to increase
Men report being happier in marriage than women
Married Adults
Changing norm of male-female equality means marital relationships are more fragile and intense
More than 90 percent of U.S. women still marry at some point in their lives; projections indicate
that in the future this rate will drop into 80–90 percent range
Marriages in adolescence are more likely to end in divorce than marriages in adulthood
Average duration of a marriage in the United States is currently just over nine years
The Benefits of a Good Marriage
Individuals who are happily married live longer, healthier lives than either divorced individuals or
those who are unhappily married
People in unhappy marriages may experience numerous physical ailments, such as high blood
pressure and heart disease, as well as psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and
substance abuse
Divorced Adults
Increases in divorce are correlated with youthful marriage, low educational level, low income, not
having a religious affiliation, divorced parents, having a baby before marriage
These characteristics also increase the likelihood of divorce:
Alcoholism, psychological problems, domestic violence, infidelity, and inadequate
division of household labor
Remarried Adults
Divorced adults remarry within three years after their divorce
Men remarry sooner than women
Men with higher incomes are more likely to remarry
Remarriage occurs sooner for partners who initiate a divorce
Adults who get remarried have a lower level of mental health (depression)
Financial status improves after remarrying
More shared decision making
Gay and Lesbian Adults
The legal and social context of marriage creates barriers to breaking up that do not exist for
same-sex partners
But in other ways, researchers have found that gay and lesbian relationships are similar to
heterosexual relationships in their satisfactions, loves, joys, and conflict
Contrary to stereotypes, one partner is masculine and the other feminine in only a small percentage
of gay male and lesbian couples
Only a small segment has a large number of sexual partners
Prefer a long-term, committed relationship
Making Marriage Work
Gottman found a number of main principles determining whether a marriage will work:
Establishing love maps
Nurturing fondness and admiration
Turning toward each other instead of away
Letting your partner influence you
Creating shared meaning
Becoming a Parent
By giving birth to fewer children, women free up time for other endeavors
Working women invest less actual time in the child’s development
Men are apt to invest a greater amount of time in fathering
Parental care is often supplemented by institutional care
There are advantages and disadvantages to having children early and later in life
Strategies for Divorced Adults
Hetherington recommends these:
Think of divorce as a chance to grow personally and to develop more positive relationships
Make decisions carefully
Focus more on the future than the past
Use your strengths and resources to cope with difficulties
Don’t expect to be successful and happy in everything you do
Gender and Communication
Tannen distinguishes two ways of communications:
Rapport talk -- language of conversation; a way of establishing connections and
negotiating relationships
Report talk -- talk that is designed to give information; includes public speaking
Women enjoy rapport talk more than report talk; men’s lack of interest in rapport talk
bothers many women
Men prefer to engage in report talk