Chapter 10
Social and Personality Development in the Preschool Years
PageLearning Objectives / 155
Key Terms and Concepts / 155
Chapter Outline / 156
Lecture Suggestions / 161
Young Children’s Understanding of Everyday Emotions / 161
Hormones and Toy Preferences / 162
Class Activities / 162
Supplemental Reading List / 166
Prentice Hall PowerPoints available online / 167
Multimedia Ideas / 167
Handouts / 170
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 10, students will know:
- Describe Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development that are associated with the preschool years.
- Discuss how growing up in an individualistic culture is different from a collectivist culture.
- Explain how children develop a sense of racial and ethnic identity.
- Explain the development of gender identity.
- Explain the biological, psychoanalytic, social learning, and cognitive approaches to the development of gender identity.
- Describe the different types of play observed during the early part of the preschool years.
- Explain the social aspects of play and the types of play exhibited in the latter part of the preschool years.
- Explain the development of preschoolers’ theory of mind.
- Discuss the relationship between parenting styles and social and personality development in early childhood.
- Explain the role that culture and historical era plays in determining parental style.
- Explain Piaget’s view of moral development.
- Describe how children’s moral reasoning develops throughout the preschool years.
- Discuss the nature of aggressive behavior during the preschool years.
- Explain the roots of aggression.
- Explain how antisocial, aggressive behavior can be reduced.
Key Terms and Concepts
171
psychosocial development
initiative-versus-guilt stage
self-concept
collectivistic orientation
individualistic orientation
race dissonance
identification
gender identity
gender schema
gender constancy
androgynous
functional play
constructive play
parallel play
onlooker play
associative play
cooperative play
authoritarian parents
permissive parents
authoritative parents
uninvolved parents
moral development
heteronomous morality
immanent justice
prosocial behavior
abstract modeling
empathy
aggression
emotional self-regulation
relational aggression
171
Chapter Outline
I. Forming a Sense of Self
A. Psychosocial Development: Resolving the Conflicts
1. Psychosocial development encompasses changes both in the moral understandings individuals have about themselves and others.
2. Erik Erikson believed that people pass through eight stages that necessitate resolution of a crisis or conflict that lead us to develop long-lasting ideas about
the self.
a. The preschool years largely encompass the initiative-versus-guilt stage, lasting from about ages 3 to 6.
b. In this stage, children are in conflict between their desires to act independently of their parents and, on the other hand, the guilt that comes from the unintended consequences of their actions.
c. Successful resolution of this conflict leads children to realize that they are persons in their own right, and they then begin to make decisions that will shape their lives.
B. Self-Concept in the Preschool Years: Thinking About the Self
1. Preschoolers begin to form their Self-Concept, their identity, or their set of beliefs about what they are like.
a. The “Who am I” question may affect children for the rest of their lives.
b. Youngsters typically overestimate their skills and knowledge.
c. They also begin to develop a view of self that reflects the way their particular culture considers the self
(1) Asian societies tend to have a Collectivist Orientation, promoting the notion of interdependence, blending in, and being interconnected.
(2) Western cultures tend to embrace an Individualistic Orientation that emphasizes personal identity, uniqueness, and competition.
C. By the time they are 3 or 4 years of age, preschoolers distinguish between members of different races and begin to understand the significance of race in society.
1. Some youngsters begin to show preferential feelings for members of their own race.
2. Many minority children experience ambivalence over the meaning of their racial identity.
3. Preschool-age children form racial attitudes largely in response to their environment, including parents and other influences.
D. Gender, the sense of being male or female, is well established in young children. (Sex typically refers to sexual anatomy.) Gender differences emerge early in the preschool years as children form expectations—which generally conform to social stereotypes—about what is appropriate and inappropriate for each sex. The strong gender expectations held by preschoolers are explained in different ways by different theorists. Some point to genetic factors as evidence for a biological explanation of gender expectations. Freud’s psychoanalytic theories use a framework based on the subconscious. Social learning theorists focus on environmental influences, including parents, teachers, peers, and the media, while cognitive theorists propose that children form gender schemas, cognitive frameworks that organize information that the children gather about gender.
1. One way gender is manifested is in play.
a. During the preschool years boys increasingly play with boys.
b. Girls tend to play with girls.
2. Gender out-weighs ethnic variables when it comes to play.
3. Preschoolers also begin to develop expectations about appropriate behavior for girls and boys.
a. Like adults, preschoolers expect males to be more independent, forceful, and competitive and females to be warm, nurturing, expressive, and submissive.
b. However, young children typically hold stronger gender-stereotypes than adults.
4. Several theoretical explanations for gender-related attitudes exist.
a. Biological perspectives argue that physical characteristics associated with the different sexes, hormone differences, and differences in the structure of female and male brains might lead to gender differences.
b. Psychoanalytic perspectives attribute gender differences to Identification, the process in which children attempt to be similar to their same-sex parent, incorporating the parent’s attitudes and values.
c. Social-learning approaches argue that children learn gender-related behavior and expectations from direct training and from their observation of others, including the media.
d. Cognitive approaches argue that individuals establish a Gender Identity, a perception of themselves as male or female. To do this they develop a Gender Schema, or a cognitive framework that organizes information relevant to gender.
(1) Preschoolers begin developing “rules” about what is right, and what is inappropriate, for males and female influences that shape behavior.
(2) Young children believe sex differences are based on differences in appearance or behavior. By 4 or 5, children develop Gender Constancy, the belief that people are permanently males or females depending on fixed biological factors.
(3) It is hypothesized that one can minimize rigid views of gender by encouraging children to be Androgynous, a state in which gender roles encompass characteristics from both sexes.
II. Friends and Family: Preschoolers’ Social Lives
A. Development of Friendships
1. Around age 3, children develop real friendship.
a. Relationships are based on companionship, play, and entertainment.
b. Friendship is focused on the carrying out of shared activities.
2. With age, preschooler’s view of friendship evolves.
a. Older preschoolers see friendship as a continuing state, and as a stable relationship that has meaning beyond the immediate moment.
b. Older preschoolers pay more attention to concepts such as trust, support, and shared interests.
3. Playing together remains an important part of all preschoolers’ friendships.
B. Playing by the Rules: The Work of Play Preschool social relationships begin to encompass genuine friendship, which involve trust and endure over time. Older preschoolers engage more in constructive play than in functional play. They also engage in more associative and cooperative play than do younger preschoolers, who do more parallel and onlooker playing.
1. At the beginning of the preschool years, children typically engage in Functional Play that involves simple, repetitive activities, that is, doing something for the sake of being active.
2. By age 4, children typically engage in Constructive Play that involves manipulating objects to produce or build something.
a. Constructive play allows children to test developing cognitive skills.
b. Constructive play allows children to practice motor skills.
c. Constructive play allows children to problem solve.
d. Constructive play allows children to learn to cooperate.
3. Parten noted various types of social play.
a. Parallel Play is when children play with similar toys, in a similar manner, but do not interact with each other.
b. Onlooker Play occurs when children simply watch others play.
c. Associative Play is where two or more children actually interact with one another by sharing or borrowing toys or materials, although they do not do the same thing.
d. In Cooperative Play, children genuinely play with one another, taking turns, playing games, or devising contests.
4. Associative and cooperative play generally do not emerge until the end of the preschool years.
5. The nature of a child’s play is influenced by their social experiences.
6. Cultural background also results in different styles of play.
C. Preschooler’s Theory of Mind: Understanding What Others are Thinking
1. Theory of mind refers to knowledge and beliefs about the mental world (Chapter 7).
2. Using their theory of mind, children are able to come up with explanations for how others think and the reasons for their behaving in the way they do.
a. Children increasingly can see the world from others’ perspectives.
b. By age 2 they can understand that others have emotions.
c. By age 3 or 4, they can distinguish between mental phenomena and physical actuality, and are able to imagine and pretend.
d. Preschool-age children understand that people have motives and reasons for their behavior.
3. Several factors are involved in the emergency of theory of mind. These include:
a. Maturation and the development of language schools.
b. Opportunities for social interaction and make-believe play.
c. Cultural factors.
(1) Western cultures may be more likely to regard others’ behavior as reflective of their personal traits and characteristics.
(2) Non-Western cultures may see others’ behavior as produced by forces that are less under their control.
d. Family situations.
D. Preschoolers’ Family Lives
1. Children’s social lives are influenced by their home lives.
2. Diana Baumrind (1980) noted three types of parenting and these were updated by Maccoby and colleagues.
3. Authoritarian Parents are controlling, punitive, rigid, and cold.
a. They value strict, unquestioning obedience from the children.
b. Children of authoritarian parents tend to be withdrawn, show little sociability, not be very friendly, and act uneasy around peers.
4. Permissive Parents provide lax and inconsistent feedback.
a. They require little of their children and do not assume responsibility for how their children turn out.
b. Children tend to be dependent and moody, and they lack social skills and self-control.
5. Authoritative Parents are firm, setting clear and consistent limits.
a. Although relatively strict, they are warm and loving and provide rationale for behaviors. They encourage independence in their children.
b. Children of authoritative parents tend to fare best: they are independent, friendly with their peers, self-assertive, and cooperative parents are not always consistent in their parenting or discipline styles.
6. Uninvolved Parents show virtually no interest in their children.
a. They are emotionally detached and see their role as nothing more than providing food and shelter.
b. These children tend to fare the worst. Their development is disrupted by the lack of love and so they feel unloved and emotionally detached. Their physical and cognitive development is also disrupted.
7. Childrearing practices that parents are urged to follow reflect cultural perspectives about the nature of children and the role of parents.
a. Childrearing practices in Eastern societies are more likely to involve strict control. Such control is seen as a measure of parents’ involvement in and concern for the welfare of their children.
b. In Western societies, and especially in the United States, parents are more often advised to use authoritative methods.
III. Moral Development and Aggression
A. Moral Development refers to changes in people’s sense of justice and of what is right and wrong, and in their behavior related to moral issues.
1. Several theoretical approaches have evolved for explaining moral development in children.
a. Piaget’s theory of moral development focuses on the moral reasoning of children.
(1) According to Piaget, Heteronomous Morality is the initial stage of moral development (from 4 to 7 years old) in which rules are seen as invariant, unchangeable, and beyond people’s influence and control.
(a) Youngsters in this stage do not take intention into account.
(b) Children in the heteronomous stage also believe in Immanent Justice, the notion that broken rules earn immediate punishment.
(2) The next stage, according to Piaget, is the incipient cooperation stage (from age 7 to 10).
(a) Here children become more social and learn the rules.
(b) They play according to a shared conception of the rules.
(3) During the autonomous cooperation stage (beginning at age 10) children become fully aware that game rules can be modified if the people who play them agree.
b. Critics of Piaget’s theory argue that he underestimated the age at which children’s moral skills develop.
c. Social-learning approaches to morality focus on how the environment influences children’s moral behavior, in particular, Prosocial Behavior, helping behavior that benefits others.
(1) In this view, moral conduct is learned through reinforcement and modeling.
(2) Preschoolers are more apt to model the behavior of warm, responsive adults and models viewed as highly competent or high in prestige.
(3) Children do more than simply mimic modeled behavior.
(a) By observing others’ behavior, they begin to learn
society’s norms.
(b) This leads to Abstract Modeling, the process of developing more general rules and principles that underlie behavior.
2. According to some, Empathy—the understanding of what another individual feels—lies at the heart of some kinds of moral behavior.
a. Roots of empathy grow early, for instance, 1-year-olds cry in response to others’ crying and toddlers offer gifts and share.
b. Some believe that both positive (i.e., sympathy) and negative (i.e., shame) emotions contribute to moral behavior.
B. Aggression, which involves intentional harm to another person, begins to emerge in the preschool years. As children age and improve their language skills, acts of aggression typically decline in frequency and duration.
1. Infants do not act aggressively, however, by the preschool years children demonstrate true aggression. It should be noted that children and teens often exhibit anger and aggression as a sign of depression rather than the sadness adults exhibit.