SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

CHAPTER 10

THE DEVELOPING SELF

Who Am I? During middle childhood

Children begin to view themselves:

•Less in terms of external physical attributes

•More in terms of psychological traits

Psychosocial Development in Middle Childhood by Erik Erikson

Success in the industry-vs-inferiority stage brings:•feelings of mastery and proficiency •a growing sense of competence

•Industry: feelings of mastery and proficiency and a growing sense of competence

•Inferiority: feelings of failure and inadequacy

Erik Erikson's middle childhood

• Period from 6 to 12 • Encompasses the INDUSTRY-Vs- INFERIORITY STAGE• Characterized by a focus on efforts to attain competence

in meeting the challenges of:– Parents– Peers– School– Other complexities of the modern world

Understanding One's Self: A New Response to “Who Am I?”

How do school-agers change?•Children realize they are good at some things and not so good at others

•Self-concept and self-esteem continue to develop

•Children's self-concepts become divided into personal and academic spheres

Looking Inward: The Development of Self

As children get older, their views of self become more differentiated, comprising several personal and academic spheres.

Social Comparison

Children use social comparison to themselves judge abilities, expertise, and opinions of others

Festinger (1959)•When objective measures are absent children rely on social reality •How others act, think, feel, and view the world

Sometimes… Children Make Downward Social Comparisons

• With others who are:– Less competent– Less successful

• To raise or protect their self-esteem

Self-Esteem: Developing a Positive-or Negative-View of the Self

Develops in important ways during middle childhood•Children increasingly compare themselves to others

•Children are developing their own standards• Parent’s influence wanes• Peer influence ascends• Influence of sports stars, movie stars, others

•For most children, overall self-esteem improves in middle childhood

Change and Stability in Self-Esteem

Generally, overall self-esteem is high during middle childhood, but it begins to decline around the age of 12•School transition

•Chronically low self-esteem for some

A Cycle of Low Self-Esteem

Highly under-recognized psychological principleHFE: Downward spiral of errors

Breaking the Cycle of Failure

• Promoting development of self-esteem

• Using authoritative child-rearing style• Authoritarian & indulgent parenting creates

low self esteem in children

• Providing opportunities for success

• Rewarding successful behaviors

• Peer group management

Race and Self-Esteem

Early research found that African Americans had lower self-esteem than whites •Recent research shows earlier findings were overstated

•But there are differences compared to ‘whites’– African Americans: lower but higher around 11– Hispanic Americans: upward curve but below whites– Asian Americans: opposite white

–Explanations tortured need research on minorities in other cultures like ‘white’ kids in India, China, Africa

Why Does This Occur?

Social Identity Theory •Members of a minority group accept negative views held by majority group only if they perceive little realistic possibility of changing power and status differences between groups•Individuals with strong sense of self independent of group membership have more self esteem and more positive self views.•This tends to support Social Identity Theory

Are Children of Immigrant Families Well Adjusted?

• Tend to have equal or better grades than children with US born parents

• Often more highly motivated to succeed and place greater value on education than do children in nonimmigrant families

• Show similar levels of self-esteem to nonimmigrant children

• Report feeling less popular and less in control of their lives

• Depends on:

• Age this effect diminishes by adolescence

• Ethnic group: Legal vs illegal, country of origin, race etc.

Moral Development: Kohlberg

• Proposes series of fixed stages in development of moral reasoning

• Uses moral dilemmas to assess moral reasoning

• Provides good account of moral judgment but not adequate at predicting moral behavior

Kohlberg Stages

Kohlberg Criticisms

• Based solely on observations of members of Western cultures

• Theory initially based largely on data from males

• Cross-cultural research finds industrialized, technologically advanced cultures move through the stages more rapidly than nonindustrialized countries.

• Nature of morality may differ in diverse cultures• Focus of information: business, religious, < Psych

MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN GIRLS

Carol Gilligan

• Way boys and girls raised leads to differences in moral reasoning• Boys view morality primarily in terms of justice &

fairness. • Girls see morality in terms of responsibility and

compassion toward individuals and a willingness to sacrifice for relationships.

• Suggests Kohlberg's theory inadequate and places girls’ moral reasoning at lower level than boys’

Gilligan's Stages of Morality in Girls

Think back to our discussion of the tactics of power & physical strength Vs. less powerful and physically weaker

Kinds of Aggression from Chapter 8

Effective strategy when bigger stronger Effective strategy when smaller weaker

A kind of asymmetrical warfare

RELATIONSHIPS: BUILDING FRIENDSHIP IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Friends in Middle Childhood

• Provide emotional support & help kids handle stress

• Teach children how to manage & control emotions

• Teach about communication with others

• Foster intellectual growth

• Allow children to practice relationship skills

Damon's Stages of Friendship

Damon's Stages of Friendship

Damon's Stages of Friendship

Secrets (Shh)

Likes me…likes me not!5th & 6th graders

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CHILDREN’S FRIENDSHIP

King or Queen of the Hill…Status Hierarchies

• Children's friendships show clear hierarchies in terms of status

• Status is the evaluation of a role or person by other relevant members of a group

High Status Children

• Form friendships with high status children

• More likely to form exclusive and desirable cliques

• Tend to play with a greater number of children

• Have greater access to resources such as games, toys, books, and information

Popular Children

Depends on your POV• All these descriptive terms are relative.

– Relative status– Relative to individual norms– Relative to OTHER’s perspectives

• “Annoying” to one person may be teasing or even “attentive” to another person

• “Cooperative” may be another’s “suck-up”

• Other groupings besides status hierarchy are important– Clicks of all types: Goth, motorheads, dorks, geeks,

bookworms, band members, motorcycle owners, ?– Racial/ethnic or wealth or neighborhood or parent’s

jobs or hobbies/interests– Family associations, military brats, where you’re from

Yah, but…

• Generally popular children are friendly, open, and cooperative

• one subset of popular boys displays an array of negative behaviors, including being aggressive, disruptive, and causing trouble.

• Despite these behaviors, they may be viewed as cool and tough by their peers, and they are often remarkably popular.

• This popularity may occur in part because they are seen as boldly breaking rules that others feel constrained to follow.

Social Problem-Solving and Information Processing Kenneth Dodge

Children’s problem solving proceedsthrough several steps involving differentinformation processing strategies

Low Status Children

• Form friendships with other lower status children• Tend to play with a lower number of children than higher

status children• Are more likely to play with younger or less popular

children• Tend to follow the lead of higher status children

Unpopular ChildrenEspecially during puberty

Especially during puberty

Unpopular Children

Lack of popularity may take two forms

Neglected children•Receive relatively little attention from their peers in the form of either positive or negative interaction

Rejected children•Are actively disliked and their peers may react to them in an obviously negative manner

Gender and Friendships: The Sex Segregation of Middle Childhood

Boyfriend, girlfriend…any friend?

• Avoidance of opposite sex becomes very pronounced during middle childhood

• Children's friendships are almost entirely sex-segregated

• When sexes interact it is called “border work,” is often romantic, and helps emphasize clear boundaries between sexes

Boys and Friendship

Composed of rankings that represent the relative social power of those in a group hierarchy.

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Girls and Friendships

Gender challenges of adolescence

• Hierarchies must be blended in group dating• Social power styles must be interwoven

• To the extent this occurs couples gain disproportional social position

FAMILY AND SCHOOL: SHAPING CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Middle Childhood in the 21st Century

In addition to other changes, children experience:•Increasing independence

•Co-regulation with parents

•Sibling relationships and rivalry• brothers and sisters can provide support,

companionship, and a sense of security• they can also be a source of strife.

Siblings

Siblings•Children who negotiate well w/ siblings in early childhood

– enjoy better relations with their teachers and classmates in middle childhood.

•Destructive conflict solving between siblings is associated w/– continued aggressiveness in boys.

•Sibling relationships are likely to endure across lifespan

•Early relationships between siblings shape how children relate to others and choices made in later life•Older children also can function as role models for their younger sibling, but not always in a positive way.

What about children who have no siblings?

• Only children are as well-adjusted as children with brothers and sisters

• In some ways, only children are better-adjusted, often having higher self-esteem and stronger motivation to achieve

• ---------• May be more gender impaired if no opposite gender

sibling

When Both Parents Work Outside the Home: How Do Children Fare?

In most cases, children fare quite well•When parents

– Are loving– Are sensitive to their children's needs– Provide appropriate substitute care

•Good adjustment of children relates to psychological adjustment of parents, especially mothers

Happy wife – Happy lifeApplies to kids too

• women who are satisfied with their lives tend to be more nurturing with their children.

• High satisfaction w/ work may provide better psychological support of kids

• According to the book:• Kids with full time working parents spend essentially the

same amount of time with family, in class, with friends, and alone as children in families where one parent stays at home.

• This can not possibly be true.

What do children do all day?

Although the amount of time spent on some activities of children has remained constant over the years, the amount of time spent on others, such as playing and eating, has shown significant changes. What might account for these changes? (Source: Hofferth & Sandberg, 1998.)

In 1981, 40 percent of a child's day was free time; by the late 1990s, only 25 percent of a child's day was unscheduled.

Of course

• The previous statistics vary enormously!– By region of USA– By ethnicity– By culture– Rural vs. Urban– Suburban vs. inner city– By age– And by gender

• So, take the stats with a grain of salt

Self-Care Children(Latchkey kids)

Good or bad?

Self-care children•Youngsters who let themselves into their homes after school and wait alone until their parents return from work

•Consequences of being a latchkey child are not all harmful

•Some children report being lonely

•Some children develop a sense of independence and competence

•Some research shows latchkey children have higher self-esteem because they are helping family

But

• The consequences depend to a great extent on:– Personality of the kid– Siblings– Kid’s peer group– Physical surroundings– And so on…

The Consequences of Divorce

• Only half of children in the U.S. will pass through childhood living with both parents each of whom has been married only once

• School-age children tend to blame themselves for the breakup

• By the age of 10, children feel pressure to choose sides

• They experience some degree of divided loyalty.• For many children, there are minimal long-term

consequences. • For many kids there are significant long term

consequences

After the Break…

Both children and parents may show several types of psychological maladjustments for 6 months to 2 years•Anxiety•Depression•Sleep disturbances•Phobias

•Some children suffer PTSD•Consequences depend on a wide variety of factors

Rediscovering the Status Quo

• After 18 months to 2 years, most children return to their predivorce psychological adjustment

• Twice as many children of divorced parents require psychological counseling as do children from intact families

• For some children, living in a home with unhappy marriage and which is high in conflict has stronger negative consequences than divorce.

• For some kids it doesn’t

Other Factors

• How children react to divorce depends on many factors. • One is the economic standing of the family • In many (most) cases, divorce brings a decline in both

parents' standards of living. • When this occurs, children may be thrown into poverty.• Mothers almost always see a decline in standard of living• Kids almost always are placed with mother• Therefore, kids almost always see significant

– Economic decline– Social status decline

• Moms usually must go to work creating a latchkey kid

Single Parent Families

Single Parents

Almost one-quarter of all children under 18 in the U.S. live with only one parent

Numbers are higher for minority children•60% of African-American children live in single parent homes

•35% of Hispanic children live in single parent homes

Single Parents

• In majority of cases, single parent is mother

• Consequences of living in single parent home depend on:

– Whether other parent ever lived at home

– Economic status

Single Parent families

• Impact of living in a single-parent family is not, by itself, invariably negative or positive. (Probably not true)

• Large number of single-parent households has reduced stigma that once existed toward such families

• Ultimate consequences for children depend on a variety of factors that accompany single parenthood– economic status of the family– amount of time that the parent is able to spend with the

child– degree of stress in the household.– Availability of reliable role model of opposite gender from

parent.

Multigenerational Families

• Opportunity for rich experiences and conflicts• Greater among African Americans than among

Caucasians• In some families, cultural norms tend to be highly

supportive of grandparents taking an active role

• Families where grand parents are forced to step into parent roles again more frequently see contact with LE

Yours, mine…ours

• Blended families include remarried couple that has at least one stepchild living with them

• Experts predict that by 2000, over 50 percent of children born in the last decade will be stepchildren

• Living in blended family involves role ambiguity, in which roles and expectations are unclear

• Child abuse soars especially where male not biological father of female children

Not all the news is bad!!

• School-age children often adjust relatively smoothly to a blended family– Financial status of family improves

– More people to share household chores

– More social interaction and attention

– But…not all children adjust well, especially if the new relationship is threatening

Popular press attempts to cover statistics with positive articles.

Poverty and Family Life

Poor families •Fewer basic everyday resources

•More disruptions in children's lives

•Higher likelihood of stress

Group Homes…

• Term “orphanage” replaced by group home or residential treatment center– Group homes used for youngsters whose parents are

no longer able to care forthem adequately

Anybody home?

• The number of children in group care has growth over 50 percent

• About three-quarters of children in group homes are victims of abuse and neglect

• Most will eventually return home, however, one-fourth will be in group care throughout childhood

Good or Bad?

• Experts disagree on advantages and disadvantages of group care

• Some see them as solution to unwed mothers who become dependent on welfare

• Many who work in these homes say they cannot provide adequate love and support as family could

• Group homes cost ten times as much as foster care or welfare

Closing the Digital Divide: Some Unintended Consequences

Digital divide•Distinction between technological haves and have nots

•Unintended consequences

•Non-educational use of computers

•Much media use unmonitored by parents

•Media use drops dramatically with parental monitoring

School: The Academic Environment

School Daze

• During school year, more of day is spent in a classroom than anywhere else

• Schools have large influence on children's lives

How do children explain academic success and failure?

Attributions•Children attempt to explain their behavior in one of three ways

– Whether the cause is internal (dispositional) or external (situational)

– Whether the cause is stable or unstable– Whether the cause is controllable or uncontrollable

Attributional Confounds

Race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status have strong influences on attributions of success and failure•African-American children are less likely to attribute success to internal causes, feeling that prejudice and discrimination are to blame

•Women tend to attribute failure to low ability and success to luck

•In Asian countries, academic success is perceived as being caused by hard work

Developmental Diversity: Explaining Asian Academic Success

• US attribute school performance to stable, internal causes

• Japan, China, and other East Asian countries see temporary, situational factors as cause of their performance

Mothers’ Beliefs in Children's Ability

Compared to mothers in Taiwan and Japan, U.S. mothers were less apt to believe that all children have the same degree of underlying, ability.

Subjects responded using a 7-point scale, where 1 =strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. What are the implications of this finding for schooling in the United States?(Source: Stevenson & Lee, 1990.)

Should Schools Teach Emotional Intelligence?

What is emotional intelligence?

• Emotional intelligence is the skills that underlie the accurate assessment, evaluation, expression, and regulation of emotions.

• Daniel Goleman (1995) who wrote a best-seller entitled Emotional Intelligence

• • He argues that emotional literacy should be a standard

part of the school curriculum.

Goal of Training

• The goal of emotional intelligence training is to produce people who are not only cognitively sophisticated but able to manage their emotions effectively.

• Support: Several programs that are effective in teaching students to manage their emotions more effectively. For instance, in one program, children are provided with lessons in empathy, self-awareness, and social skills. In another, children are taught about caring and friendship as early as first grade through exposure to stories in which characters exhibit these positive qualities.

Issues

• Criticism: Critics suggest that the nurturance of emotional intelligence is best left to students’ families and that schools ought to concentrate on more traditional curriculum matters.

• Emotional intelligence to an already crowded curriculum may reduce time spent on academics.

• Some critics argue that there is no well-specified set of criteria for what constitutes emotional intelligence, and consequently it is difficult to develop appropriate, effective curriculum materials.

Tumbling and Acrobatics?Martial Arts?

• Should these skills also be taught?• In less civilized times such skills were part of normal

child development• Has western schooling impoverished or enriched

children’s development?• Should music (not music ‘appreciation’) be required?• Tumbling, acrobatics, martial arts, tool use?• How do these (or other skills) affect school age

children’s development.

• 2 typed pages w/ references (minimum 3)