Running head: A CHILD’S MULTIFACETED DEVELOPMENT 1

A Child’s Multifaceted Development

Kimberly Nelson

PS420-01

September 3, 2013

Professor King-Carr
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Children, as well as adults and all living creatures, have a wonderful and intriguing

quality: uniqueness. What makes each child so unique and different? There are both internal

and external factors involved. Each child has his/her own personality, own temperament, own

biological makeup, which affects his/her development. As children develop and grow, they gain

new physical, cognitive, language, and social skills. While each child is unique, all children

reach these specific milestones throughout their development, which are generally reached in

specific time periods of their development, and there are various theories discussing a child’s

development. This paper will discuss these milestones and how children develop, and apply

some of the theories of development; specifically addressing and discussing the development of

the psychology of the self, gender-role development, and the role of social relationships

throughout childhood.

According to Erik Erikson, each child goes through eight developmental stages, or

psychosocial stages, which are characterized by a different psychological or ego “crisis” that

must be resolved before moving on to the next stage. If the child copes with a particular crisis in

a maladaptive manner, the outcome will be more struggles and difficulties with that specific

issue/crisis throughout life (Keough, n.d.). In contrast, a positive or adaptive resolution to a

crisis leads to healthy outcomes. According to Erikson, from the time of birth to one year, a

child goes through the crisis of basic trust versus mistrust. An infant depends on the parent(s) to

provide for their needs, including food, shelter, warmth, and love and affection. John Bowlby

investigated this infant-caregiver relationship, and proposed his theory of attachment.

Bowlby proposed that an infant’s smiling, crying, and later on, babbling and grasping, are

built-in social signals that encourage the parent(s) to approach, care for, and/or interact with the

baby. These behaviors, in turn, help ensure that the infant will be fed, protected, and provided
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with stimulating activities and the affection needed for healthy development. Over time, a true

affectionate bond, or attachment, develops, which is supported by new emotional and cognitive

capacities of the infant, and a consistent history of warm and sensitive care and interaction by

the parent(s). This is strengthened as children develop skills such as crawling, gesturing and

babbling, between 17-24 months. According to Erikson, children use this attachment as a secure

base in the parents’ absence, serving as an internal working model. This becomes a vital part of

personality, and serves as a guide for all future relationships (Berk, 2009).

The security of a child’s attachment can impact a child’s development. This concept can

be applied to the trust versus mistrust stage in Erikson’s theory. When parents consistently

provide their children with stimulating activities and affection and warm and sensitive care,

children develop a secure attachment. In Erikson’s theory, the children learn to trust, and

therefore resolve the psychological crisis positively. In contrast, parents who are harsh with

their children, use discipline often, do not provide the children with stimulating activities, who

are not warm and supportive, and/or who are not consistent, children learn to not trust, and the

child resolves the crisis in a negative manner. Children who positively resolve the crisis and

learn to trust generally trust their environment and other people as well. Children who

negatively resolve the crisis and learn to mistrust generally also mistrust other people and their

environment in general (Keough, n.d.). According to Erikson’s theory, the next crisis a child

must resolve, between one- to two-years-old (toddlerhood), is autonomy/independence versus

doubt/shame.

Between one and two years of age, children learn to walk and talk, explore, and learn to do

things for themselves. Around this time, their self-control and self-esteem, as well as empathy,

begin to develop (Berk, 2009). If parents encourage their children’s exploration and discovery,
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allow them to make their own choices (reasonable choices), support and encourage them when

they make mistakes, and provide stimulating activities, the children will learn to be independent,

and therefore resolve the crisis positively by developing autonomy. If, however, parents are

overprotective and do not allow their children to participate in exploration and participate in

stimulating activities, or are forceful or shame the child, the child will become shameful and/or

doubtful, or negatively resolve the crisis. From three to six years of age, Erikson’s theory

proposes that the crisis children go through is initiative versus guilt.

Children, between three to five years of age, motor skills and language rapidly increase,

learn to adjust speech to social expectations, begin to conform to emotional display rules,

understands and displays more empathy and emotional understanding, become better at social

problem solving, acquire morally relevant rules and behaviors, form a belief-desire theory of

mind, have several self-esteems (such as academic, making friends, relationship with parents,

and physical attractiveness), engage in make-believe play, end engage in interactive play

(associative and cooperative) in addition to nonsocial activity and parallel play. Engaging in

make-believe play allows children to explore and experiment with the kind of person they can

become (Berk, 2009).

According to Erikson, children must learn self-control, and learn to achieve and maintain a

balance between eagerness for more adventure and responsibility, and learning to control

impulses and childish fantasies (Keough, n.d.). Parents who encourage their children’s make-

believe play and self-control, support their child’s new sense of purpose and independence, and

are consistent in disciplining often have children who resolves this crisis with initiative, or a

sense of ambition and responsibility, learn acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and will not

feel guilt about using their imagination and engaging in make-believe play, or feel guilty about
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becoming independent. In contrast, parents who demand too much self-control from the child,

are not consistent in disciplining, do not support or encourage their make-believe play, and do

not support the child’s growing independence, the child often develops a sense of guilt and may

believe that it is wrong to be independent (Keough, n.d.). After resolving this crisis, children

are usually entering middle childhood.

Between six to eight years of age, children’s cognitive capacities continually increase,

including the ability to read and their vocabulary. Self-conscious emotions, such as pride and

guilt, are integrated with their inner standards of excellence and good behavior, internalize many

norms of good conduct including prosocial behavior, empathy increases, make social

comparisons, begin to understand that people have differing perspectives due to having access to

different information, recognizes that individuals can experience mixed feelings and can

consider conflicting clues when explaining others’ emotions, play rule-oriented games, and base

friendship on mutual trust and assistance. Between nine to eleven years of age, physical and

cognitive abilities continue to increase, can distinguish ability and effort and external factors in

attributions for success and failure, can use perspective taking skills, clarify and link moral rules

and matters of personal choice, and friendships become more selective and are based on mutual

trust (Berk, 2009).

Children between six to eleven, or in middle childhood, according to Erikson’s theory,

must resolve the industry/competence versus inferiority phase/crisis. In this stage, children

begin the transition from the home-world into the world of peers, develop the ability the work

and cooperate with others, and learn to use tools and make things. If children discover pleasure

from intellectual stimulation and being productive, and seek success and have positive

experiences, they often develop a sense of competency or industry (Keough, n.d.), therefore
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resolving the crisis in a positive way. If, however, children have negative experiences at home,

at school, or with peers, they often develop a sense of inferiority or incompetence, therefore

resolving the crisis in a negative manner (Berk, 2009). As children transition from middle

childhood to adolescence, they continue to develop and grow, as well as learn.

In early adolescence, from ages eleven to fourteen, children come more self-conscious and

self-focused, metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation continue to improve, self-esteem

continues to rise, differentiate achievement-related attributions into ability and effort, spend less

time with family and more time with peers in striving for autonomy, increasingly engage in

cooperative peer interaction, friendships decline in number and are based on intimacy and

mutual understanding and loyalty, and conformity to peer pressure increases (Berk, 2009). In

middle adolescence, from ages fourteen to sixteen, children combine features of the self into an

organized self-concept, adds new dimensions of self-esteem (including close friendships,

romantic appeal, job competence), engage in societal perspective taking, increasingly emphasize

ideal reciprocity and societal laws as the basis for resolving moral dilemmas, engage in more

subtle reasoning about conflicts between moral and social-conventional and personal-choice

issues, and conformity to peer pressure may decline (Berk, 2009). In late adolescence, between

ages sixteen to eighteen, children’s’ self-concept emphasizes personal and moral standards,

continue to construct an identity, and continues to advance in maturity of moral reasoning (Berk,

2009).

During adolescence, according to Erikson’s theory, children must resolve the identity

versus identity confusion crisis. During this stage, as the child develops a self-concept and

personal identity and answers questions such as “Who am I?” and “What is my place in

society?” by exploring values and vocational goals (Berk, 2009). Erikson suggests that during
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this stage of “identity crisis”, the adolescent must integrate the healthy resolution of all earlier

conflicts, including developing a sense of trust, developing a strong sense of independence and

competence, and feeling in control of their lives (Keough, n.d.). Positive resolution of this crisis

is the adolescent developing a strong sense of identity, and being ready to plan for his/her future.

A negative resolution often results in confusion about future adult roles and indecisiveness,

particularly regarding vocation, sexual orientation, and his/her role in life (Keough, n.d.). In

each of these stages/crises, the positive or negative resolution impacts a child’s self-concept and

self-esteem. How does self-esteem develop, and when?

By six months of age, infants show signs of self-awareness. By the time they are 24

months old, they recognize images of themselves and use their own names. This is also the time

that self-conscious emotions, such as shame, embarrassment, guilt, and pride, emerge. Self-

concept and self-esteem do not begin to emerge until around two years of age. By age three to

four, children have several self-esteems, such as academic self-esteem (learning new things in

school), social self-esteem (how well they are socially accepted or rejected, making friends,

relationship with parents, etc.), and physical self-esteem (physical attractiveness). By eight

years of age, children emphasize more personality traits in their self-concept, and their self-

esteem tends to be at a more realistic level. By eleven years old, children distinguish ability,

effort, and external factors in causes for success and failure, but they do not fully differentiate

this until they reach fourteen years of age. At this age, children add new dimensions to their

self-esteem, such as close friendships, romantic appeal, and job competence, and children

combine features of the self into an organized self-concept. From this period on, children’s self-

concept emphasizes personal and moral standards, and continues to construct an identity (Berk,

2009).
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An identity describes personally meaningful aims and beliefs as they relate to a person’s

self-concept and who they hope to become. Adolescents develop a philosophy of life and strive

to establish a coherent, nuanced sense of career, moral, ethnic, religious, political, and sexual

identity (Bronk, 2011). In other words, the establishment of identity in adolescence is important

to the adolescent’s healthy psychological development and well-being, and for his/her future

goals. The development of identity, as well as self-esteem, is impacted by many factors,

including both internal and external factors.

Research suggests that self-esteem may be related to a child’s temperament, biological

makeup, and also their social relationships, particularly early experiences with parents and/or

other significant others. Children are affected by how much they feel they are accepted, liked,

and loved by their parents and significant others (Young & Hoffmann, 2004). The first social

relationships of children are typically familial, including parents and siblings. According to

Berk (2009), the family is the most powerful and influential factor in a child’s development.

Within the family, children experience their first social conflicts, providing lessons in

compliance and cooperation, and will learn the language and social norms of their culture

Children use these first social relationships as bases for future relationships. Children must first

learn to trust others so that they can and will, in turn, can learn to trust themselves and others.

Although the family relationships are typically the most significant in a child’s development in

infancy and toddlerhood, peers become increasingly important. As children develop, their peers

become increasingly important and influential.

Children typically begin to form their first friendships around ages three to four. In early

childhood, children engage in interactive play, both associative and cooperative, in addition to

nonsocial activity and parallel play. Gradually, they begin to base friendships more on mutual
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trust and assistance and they begin to become more selective. Children gradually spend less time

with parents and siblings, and more time with their peers, as they strive for autonomy and

establish an identity. As children develop and interact with other children, they develop social

skills that lead to friendships, and enhance peer acceptance. School age children’s peer

acceptance contributes to children’s adjustments, and is a powerful predictor of later

psychological adjustment. Warm, gratifying friendships in school are related to many aspects of

psychological health and competence into early adulthood. Friendships provide opportunities

for the development of self-concept and identity, and practice perspective taking. Friendships

also help children deal with everyday stresses, promoting empathy, sympathy, and positive

social behavior (Berk, 2009). Friends’ and peers’ opinions can impact a person’s sense of self,

in a positive way or in a negative way.

The importance of friends’ and peers’ opinions to a person varies, depending on several

factors. For a person who has a strong sense of identity, the importance of friends’ opinions

may not be as influential as a person who does not have a strong sense of identity. For example,

a person with a strong sense of identity is less likely to conform to peer pressure of maladaptive

behaviors, which one who does not have a strong sense of identity is more likely to participate in

the behavior(s). Also important to consider is who the opinion is from- a close friend’s opinion

will have more impact than a peer who is not considered a friend. Finally, the impact of the

opinion varies depending on what, specifically, the opinion is about, and how well it conforms to

the person’s self-concept. A person’s culture must also be taken into consideration.

A child’s culture impacts the way the child thinks, feels, behaves, and what he/she values

and believes. For example, Asian culture is group-oriented and places emphasis on the family

and not shaming the family, while American culture focuses more in independence and self-
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achievement. Culture also plays a role in the way a child communicates, and social cues may be

misunderstood. For example, some African Americans and Hispanic Americans do not find it

necessary to look the speaker in the eye (Manning & Baruth, 2009). This may be misunderstood

by children of other cultures as disinterest. As children interact with peers from diverse cultures,

they learn to understand that norms and values vary in different cultures. Physical and learning

disabilities and/or disorders can also impact children’s’ social interactions.

Children with physical disabilities may have difficulties in their social interactions, and

therefore, may have a difficult time making friends. Part of the difficulty is that children with

physical disabilities are often stereotyped, and peers do not understand the disability. Parents

and other adults can help children with physical disabilities improve their social skills by using

techniques such as role-playing, in which they can practice appropriate responses. They can also

set up play-dates, and encourage the child to be involved in activities, such as music, drama,

school groups, etc. The strategies used, however, will vary depending on the disability. Take,

for example, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD. ADHD involves inattention,

impulsivity, and excessive motor activity resulting in academic and social problems. Affected

children are at risk for persistent antisocial behavior, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and

other problems (Berk, 2009). The result if the antisocial behavior and impulsivity is often peer

rejection, which can lead to the child being socially isolated. Strategies such as role playing are

beneficial for these children, as well as group activities. Sports are an excellent activity for these

children, as it not only allows for social skill practice and being a member of a group, but it also

provides an outlet for their excessive energy. Teaching and strengthening the ability to interpret

social cues, as well as discussion various situational outcomes are also beneficial to children

suffering from ADHD.

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It is important for children with disabilities, whatever they may be, to feel included and be

accepted by their peers. Peer relationships and social interactions are important to a child's

development, and the importance gradually increases as the child grows older, and strays away

from the family in striving for autonomy. It is important for parents, other adults, schools, and

professionals to work together to most efficiently help children achieve their fullest potential,

and for the child to build a strong self-esteem and identity.

By 24 months of age, children show gender-stereotyped toy preferences. As children get

older, these gender-stereotyped beliefs and behaviors increase. Younger children generally

prefer to play with same-sex peers, and this preference also increases with age. Children

develop their understanding of gender roles in many ways, including parents, society (schools,

teachers, other adults, media, etc.), and peers. Because most children associate mostly with

peers of their own sex, the peer context is an especially potent source of gender-role learning.

Same-sex peers positively reinforce one another for “gender-appropriate” play by praising,

imitating, or joining in (Berk, 2009). For example, a girl who is playing with dolls is likely to

attract other girls to play dolls with her; and a boy who is playing with trucks is likely to attract

other boys to play trucks with him. Also, calm, gentle, and cooperative play is typical among

girls, while noisy “roughhousing” is common among boys.

Children who do not follow typical gender roles suffer socially, and are at risk of peer

rejection. Their peers may criticize them, particularly boys. Most children are firm about not

wanting to be friends with a child who violates a gender stereotype, such as a boy who wears

nail polish or a girl who plays with trucks (Berk, 2009). Adolescence is typically accompanied

by gender intensification, or an increase gender stereotyping of attitudes and behavior, and

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movement toward a more traditional gender identity. Adolescents who do not adhere to

“standard” gender roles are likely to be teased and rejected by their peers.

Each child has a unique personality, temperament, and biological makeup, which affects

his/her development. As children develop and grow, they gain new physical, cognitive,

language, and social skills. This paper discussed these milestones and how children develop,

and apply some of the theories of development; specifically addressing and discussing the

development of the psychology of the self, the role of social relationships throughout childhood,

and gender-role development.

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References

Berk, L. E. (2009). Child Development (8 ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Pearson Custom Publishing.

Bronk, K. C. (2011). The Role of Purpose in Life in Healthy Identity Formation: A Grounded

Model. New Directions for Youth Development, 31-44. doi:10.1002/yd

Keough, S. D. (n.d.). Erikson's Stages of Development. Retrieved from University of Arkansas

Phillips Community College:

http://www.pccua.edu/keough/erikson's_stages_of_development.htm

Manning, M. L., & Baruth, L. G. (2009). Multicultural Education of Children and Adolescents

(5th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Young, E. L., & Hoffmann, L. L. (2004). Self-Esteem in Children: Strategies for Parents and

Educators. Retrieved from National Association of School Psychologists:

http://www.nasponline.org/communications/spawareness/selfesteem_ho.pdf