Socio-emotional

and
Moral Development
P R E PA R E D B Y:
ZANDDY DE LOS REYES
JO-LORENZ DIOQUINO
Emotional Expression
- Emotional expression refers to how one conveys emotional experience
through both verbal and nonverbal behavior.

Basic Emotions “Social” Emotions

 Happy  Guilt

 Sad  Empathy

 Angry  Jealousy

 Afraid  Envy

 Pride

 Shame
What is Socio-emotional
development?
It represents a specific domain of child development. It is a
gradual, integrative process through which children acquire the
capacity to understand, experience, express, and manage
emotions and to develop meaningful relationships with others.

Strong, positive relationships help children develop trust,

empathy, compassion and a sense of right and wrong.

Starting from birth, babies learn who they are by how they are
treated. Loving relationships provide young children with a
sense of comfort, safety and confidence. They teach young
children how to form friendships, communicate emotions and
deal with challenges.
 KEY POINTS:

 Emotional development is essentially the way emotions change or remain constant across the human lifespan.

 Social development is the way in which humans learn to interact with one another.

 Play is one way in which children develop relationships with others.

 Emotional self-regulation refers to a child’s ability to change his or her emotional state to either match that of others
(social), or make the child more comfortable in a particular situation (social and personal).

 Intersubjectivity refers to the psychological relation between people.

 Between 3 and 5 years old, children come to understand that people have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are
different from their own; this is known as theory of mind.

 A child’s temperament has a large impact on emotional self-regulation: children who are more negatively focused tend to
have a more difficult time with regulation than those who are focused on the positive aspects of life.
Elements of Socio-emotional Development

Socio-emotional development consists of three main areas of children’s self-regulation in:

 1. Acting (behaving in socially appropriate ways and ways that foster learning), 

2. Feeling (understanding others’ emotions and regulation of one’s own emotions) and 

3. Thinking (regulating attention and thoughts).

Elements of Socio-emotional Development (cont’d)
Acting
Examples of behavioral self-
regulation include:
 interacting with teachers
and peers in positive ways
(e.g., sharing, taking turns);
 inhibiting negative impulses
(e.g., hitting, pushing,
yelling)
Feeling Thinking
Examples of emotional Examples of cognitive self-
understanding and self-regulation
include:
regulation include:
 accurately identifying emotions in  focusing attention on a
themselves and others; lesson or an activity;
 managing strong emotions such
as excitement, anger, frustration
 screening distractions; and
and distress; and
 planning steps or
 being empathic and strategies to complete a
understanding others’
task or activity.
perspectives.
Erik Erikson – Psychosocial
Development
What is Moral Development?
 is the process which children develop proper attitudes and
behaviors toward other people in society, based on social
and cultural norms, rules, and laws

 a complex issue that—since the beginning of human

civilization—has been a topic of discussion among some of
the world's most distinguished psychologists, theologians,
and culture theorists

 it was not studied scientifically until the late 1950s

Piaget's theory of moral reasoning

 Children learn morality best by having to deal with

others in groups.

 He reasoned that there was a process by which

children conform to society's norms of what is right
and wrong, and that the process was active rather
than passive.

 Moral realism with objective responsibility - it

explains why young children are concerned with
outcomes rather than intentions.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Carol Gilligan and The Morality of Care

 Gilligan found that women, who value

social interaction more than men, base
their moral decisions on a culture of
caring for other human beings.

 Women appear to be inferior morally to

men. Men determine immorality based on
treating others unfairly, and women base
it on turning away someone in need.
Bronfenbrenner Theory

Urie Bronfenbrenner believed that a person's development was affected by everything in

their surrounding environment. He outlines five moral orientations:

 1. Self-oriented morality - Basically, the child is only interested in self-gratification and
only considers others to the extent that they can help him get what he wants, or hinder
him.

2. Authority-oriented morality - Here, the child, or adult, basically accepts the decrees
of authority figures, from parents up to heads of state and religion, as defining of good
and bad.

3. Peer-oriented morality - This is basically a morality of conformity, where right and

wrong is determined not by authority but by one's peers. In western society, this kind of
morality is frequently found among adolescents, as well as many adults.

4. Collective-oriented morality - In this orientation, the standing goals of the group to

which the child or adult belongs over-ride individual interests. Duty to one's group or
society is paramount.

5. Objectively oriented morality - By objectively, Bronfenbrenner means universal

principles that are objective in the sense that they do not depend on the whims of
individuals or social groups, but have a reality all their own.