Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development, 7e

Childhood and
Adolescence: Voyages
in Development,
7e
Chapter 10: Early Childhood:
Social and Emotional
Development
©2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 1
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

10-1 Describe social influences on the development of 2- to 6-year-olds by
parents, siblings, and peers, focusing on the importance of parenting styles.
10-2 Describe social behavior in early childhood, including play, prosocial
behavior, empathy, and the effects of the media, particularly the effects of
violence in the media and violent video games.
10-3 Describe personality and emotional development in early childhood.
10-4 Describe the development of gender identity, gender roles, and gender
differences.
10.1 Influences on Development: Parents,
Siblings, and Peers
What Are the Dimensions of Childrearing?
• Warmth–Coldness
– Warm parents = affectionate, caring, supportive of children
– Cold parents = rejecting; complain about children’s behavior
– Children of warm parents are more likely to develop moral sense or
conscience
– Parental warmth is also related to child’s social and emotional well-being
• Restrictiveness–Permissiveness
– Consistent control combined with support and affection = authoritative
parenting style
– Restrictiveness can lead to rebellion, lower cognitive development
How Do Parents Enforce Restrictions?
• Inductive Techniques
− Reasoning
• Power-Assertive Methods
− Physical punishment, denial of privileges; spanking
 Associated with lower peer acceptance, poorer grades, higher rates of
antisocial behavior, less development of internal moral standards; often linked
with aggression and delinquency
• Withdrawal of Love
− Can be more threatening than physical punishment
 May foster compliance but may also instill guilt and anxiety
What Parenting Styles Are Involved in the
Transmission of Values and Standards? (1 of 2)
• Authoritative Parents
– High in both control and warmth
– Parents of the most capable children
 Self-reliant, independent, high self-esteem, exploratory, socially competent
• Authoritarian Parents
– “Because I say so”
– Controlling but not warm
– Children are less competent socially and academically
What Parenting Styles Are Involved in the
Transmission of Values and Standards? (2 of 2)
• Permissive Parents
– Permissive–indulgent
 Warm but not controlling
 Children are less competent in school and more deviant in behavior, but fairly
high in social competence and self-confidence
– Rejecting–neglecting
 Low in both control and warmth
 Children are least competent, responsible, mature; most prone to problem
behaviors
Baumrind’s Patterns of Parenting
TABLE 10.1 Baumrind's Patterns of Parenting
Parental Behavior Patterns: Parental Behavior Patterns:

Parental Style Restrictiveness and Control Warmth and Responsiveness
Authoritative High High
Authoritarian High Low
Permissive-Indulgent Low High
Rejecting-Neglecting Low Low
Source: Based on Baumrind (1989).
How Do the Situation and the Child Influence
Parenting Styles?
• Parents are more likely use power-assertive techniques for aggressive
behavior than for social withdrawal
– Prefer power assertion over induction when they believe children are
responsible for their misbehavior
– Stressful events, emotional problems contribute to use of power assertion
How Do Siblings Influence Social and Emotional
Development in Early Childhood? (1 of 3)
• Sibling contributions to one another:
– Physical care
– Emotional support
– Advice and direction
– Role modeling
– Social interaction that helps develop social skills
– Making demands, imposing restrictions
– Helping younger siblings navigate challenges of adolescence
– Advance each other’s cognitive development
• Positive aspects: • Negative aspects:
– Cooperation – Conflict
– Teaching – Control
– Nurturance – Competition
• Ordinary sibling conflict enhances social competence, development of
self-identity, and ability to rear their own children
• Severe sibling conflict can lead to later adjustment problems
• Having siblings decreases chances of divorce in adulthood
• As siblings grow in competence and become more similar in
developmental status, their relationship becomes more egalitarian
• Sibling relationships become less intense as children grow older
– However, attachment remains strong throughout adolescence
Adjusting to the Birth of a Sibling
• Regression to babyish behaviors as the new sibling gets more attention

– Clinging, crying, toilet accidents
– Anger, naughtiness
• Increased independence and maturity
– Feeding, dressing selves; helping to care for the baby
• Parents can help prepare young children by explaining in advance what
is to come
– Reduce sibling rivalry
– Parental support
Birth Order: Just Where Is the Child in the Family?
• Only and firstborn children:
– Better academic performance
– More cooperative, helpful, adult-oriented, less aggressive, more conscientious
– Feel more in control of their success; more anxious, less self-reliant
– More likely than later-born children to have imaginary companions
• Later-born children:
– May behave more aggressively to compete for attention
– Lower self-concepts but greater popularity with peers than firstborn
– More rebellious, liberal, and agreeable than firstborn
• Parenting styles may contrast between firstborn and later-born children
How Do Peers Influence Social and Emotional
Development in Early Childhood?
• Functions of interactions with peers:
– Development of social skills
 Learning to share, help, take turns, deal with conflict
 Learning how to lead and how to follow
– Development of physical and cognitive skills
– Emotional support
• Social interaction increases by 2 years of age
– Imitation, social games
– Friendship
10.2 Social Behavior: In the World, Among
Others
What Are the Characteristics of Play? How Does
Play Affect Children’s Development?
• Jean Piaget identified four kinds of play, each with increasing cognitive
complexity:
– Functional play: Begins in sensorimotor stage; repetitive motor activity
– Symbolic play: Begins near end of sensorimotor stage, increases in early
childhood; pretend play with settings, characters, scripts
– Constructive play: Using materials to draw or make something (e.g., a tower of
blocks)
– Formal games: Most complex form: board games; games involving motor skills
like marbles, hopscotch; ball games with sides or teams; video games
 May involve social interaction
 People play these throughout life
Theories of Play
• Mildred Parten (1932)—Two categories and six types of play:
 Nonsocial play
• Unoccupied play
• Solitary play
• Onlooker play
 Social play
• Parallel play
• Associative play
• Cooperative play
Gender Differences in Play
• Girls and boys both show preferences for gender-stereotyped toys by 18

months of age; preferences well developed by 15–36 months
– Some research shows preferences in infants as early as 3–8 months
 Girls more likely to stray from stereotypes
• May reflect prestige of “masculine” activities in American culture
• Boys prefer vigorous physical outdoor activities, rough-and-tumble play

• Girls prefer arts and crafts, domestic play; more closely directed, structured by
adults
• Biological factors and different treatment by adults
• Children begin to prefer same-sex playmates by age of 2 years
What Is Prosocial Behavior? How Does It
Develop?
• Prosocial behavior or altruism: behavior intended to benefit others without expecting
a reward
– Helping, comforting others in distress, sharing, cooperating
– Children begin to share objects spontaneously in the first year of life
– Begin to help and comfort others in second year
• Empathy: sensitivity to others’ feelings
– Infants respond emotionally to others’ distress
– Empathy promotes prosocial behavior, decrease aggressive behavior by second year
– Girls as a group show more empathy than boys
 May be socialization or genetic factors (or both)
Perspective-Taking: Standing in Someone Else’s
Shoes
• Piaget: Preoperational children tend to be egocentric, lack perspective-taking
– Perspective-taking is related to empathy, prosocial skills
– Perspective-taking, prosocial skills both improve with age
– Better perspective-taking: More prosocial behavior, less aggressive behavior
• Influences on Prosocial Behavior
– Giving children responsibility for household chores and care of younger siblings
– Modeling helping and sharing
– Interactions with parents: Secure attachment; parents with high empathy
 Parental inductive techniques: Explaining how behavior affects others
 More likely to expect mature behavior, less likely to use power-assertive techniques of discipline
Aggression—The Dark Side of Social Interaction:
How Does It Develop?
• Developmental patterns:
– Aggression of preschoolers: often instrumental, possession-oriented
– Aggression by age 6 or 7: tends to become hostile, person-oriented
• Aggressive behavior is generally stable
– Predicts a wide variety of social and emotional difficulties in adulthood
– Boys are more likely than girls to show aggression from childhood through
adulthood
What Are the Causes of Aggression in Children?
(1 of 2)
• Evolutionary Theory
– Survival of the fittest
• Biological Factors (Genetics)
– MZ twins share criminal behavior more than DZ twins
– Testosterone: Males are more aggressive than females
 Boys with conduct disorders more likely to have higher testosterone levels
• Cognitive Factors
– Aggressive boys more likely misinterpret others’ behavior
– Belief in legitimacy of aggression
What Are the Causes of Aggression in Children?
(2 of 2)
• Social Cognitive Theory
– Reinforcement: Children get what they want through aggression
– Observational learning: Peers may value and encourage aggression; rejection by
less aggressive peers; imitating aggressive behavior of parents, other adults
– Parents may inadvertently encourage aggression: cycle of coercion, then giving in
to demands
• Media Influences
– Bandura (1963): Observing aggression to Bobo doll in video:
 Children not only imitated what they saw, but also showed disinhibited general
aggression (behaviors not modeled)
Ways That Media Violence Contributes to
Aggression (1 of 2)
• Observational learning. Children learn by observation. TV violence supplies models
of aggressive “skills,” which children may acquire. Children tend to imitate the
aggressive behavior they see in the media (see Figure 10.1).
• Disinhibition. Punishment inhibits behavior. Conversely, media violence may disinhibit
aggressive behavior, especially when media characters “get away” with violence or
are rewarded for it.
• Increased arousal. Media violence and aggressive video games increase viewers’
level of arousal; that is, television “works them up.” We are more likely to be
aggressive under high levels of arousal (Gentile et al., 2017).
• Priming of aggressive thoughts and memories. Media violence “primes” or arouses
aggressive ideas and memories (Kühn et al., 2019).
Ways That Media Violence Contributes to
Aggression (2 of 2)
• Habituation. We become “habituated to,” or used to, repeated stimuli.
• Repeated exposure to TV violence may decrease viewers’ sensitivity to real violence
(Stockdale et al., 2015).
• Children who see a lot of violence are more likely to view violence as an effective way
of settling conflicts. Children exposed to violence are more likely to assume that
violence is acceptable.
• Viewing violence can decrease the likelihood that one will take action on behalf of a
victim when violence occurs.
• Viewing violence may lead to real-life violence. Children exposed to violent
programming at a young age may be more likely to be violent themselves later in life.
Bandura’s Classic Experiment: Imitation of
Aggressive Models
Violence in the Media and Aggressive Behavior
• What are the connections between

viewing media violence and engaging in
aggressive behavior? Does exposure to
media violence cause aggressive
behavior? Do aggressive children prefer
to tune in to violent shows or play violent
video games? Or do other factors, such
as personality traits, predispose some
children both to seek out media violence
and to behave aggressively?
10.3 Personality and Emotional Development
How Does the Self Develop During Early
Childhood? (1 of 2)
• Categorical Self
– Concrete external traits: Age groupings, gender
• 3-year-olds can describe self by behaviors and stable or recurring emotions
• Self-esteem
– More likely to show secure attachment, have attentive parents
– More likely to engage in prosocial behavior
• Evaluative judgments of self by age 4:
– Cognitive and physical competence
– Social acceptance by peers and parents
How Does the Self Develop During Early
Childhood? (2 of 2)
• Preschoolers do not distinguish among different areas of competence (e.g.,
good in school but poor in sports)
• Children develop increasing self-regulation in early childhood
– Controlling bladder and bowels; controlling aggression; engaging in play with
others; focusing on cognitive tasks
– Self-regulation is connected to brain maturation and caregiver rearing practices
• In middle childhood, personality traits gain importance in children’s self-
concepts
– Can then make judgments about their self-worth in many different areas of
competence, behavioral conduct, appearance, and social relations
Initiative versus Guilt
• Early childhood: Erikson’s psychosocial stage of initiative versus guilt

– Striving to achieve independence from parents, master adult behaviors
– Curious to try new things and test themselves
– Begin to internalize adult rules
 Fear of breaking rules may cause child to feel guilty
• Guilt can curtail efforts to master new skills
• Parents can help develop and maintain a healthy sense of initiative
• Encourage attempts to learn and explore
• Not be unduly critical and punitive
The Horrors of Early Childhood: What Sorts of
Fears Do Children Have During the Preschool
Years?
• Frequency and content of fears change from infancy into preschool
years
– Number of fears peaks between 2½ and 4, then tapers off
– Preschool period: Decline in fears of loud noises, falling, sudden
movement, strangers; frightening imaginary creatures can persist
– Many preschoolers fear for personal safety from real things, for example,
lightning, thunder, the dark, heights, sharp objects, blood, strangers,
insects, and animals
– Middle childhood: Fears become more realistic: Bodily injury; failure and
criticism in school and social relationships
10.4 Development of Gender Identity, Gender
Roles, and Gender Differences
What Is Gender Identity? How Does It Develop?
• Sex assignment (gender assignment) typically occurs at birth or

prenatally
• Most children become aware of their sex around 18 months of age
• Most children have acquired a firm sense of gender identity by 36
months
• Gender identity is usually consistent with chromosomal sex
– Not purely biologically determined: Caregivers also rear females or males
according to their anatomy
On Being Transgender
• Transgender (trans) individuals experience gender identity that is

incongruent with their genital anatomy
– Despite increasing social acceptance, many trans youths avoid using
bathrooms and locker rooms at school due to policies and stigma
– Many trans people have surgery and hormone treatments to change their
genitals and secondary sex characteristics to match their gender identity
– Most reports of postoperative adjustment are positive
– Researchers conclude that gender identity is influenced by complex
interactions of biological, psychological, and social factors
What Are Stereotypes and Gender Roles?
• Gender roles: Cultural stereotypes of males and females

– “Masculine” and “feminine” traits
– Develop through a series of stages
 Learning to label genders around 2–2½ years
 Knowledge of gender stereotypes for toys, clothes, work, activities by 3 years
 Increasingly traditional stereotyping between ages 3 and 9~10
 Older children, adolescents become somewhat more flexible
• Retain broad stereotypes, but also perceive similarities between genders and
recognize individual differences
What Are the Origins of Gender Differences?
(1 of 2)
• The Roles of Evolution and Heredity
– Natural selection through adaptation to the environment
– Genes that increase chances of survival are most likely to be transmitted
• Organization of the Brain
– Genetically determined
– Prenatal exposure to sex hormones
– Use of hippocampus in navigation: Males use both hemispheres, rely on
geometry; females use right hemisphere, rely on landmarks
• Males’ hemispheres may be more specialized; females’ hemispheres appear to “get
along,” that is, work together better
What Are the Origins of Gender Differences?
(2 of 2)
• Sex Hormones
– Research finds fetal testosterone related to masculine- or feminine-typed
play at the age of 8½ years
– Children display gender-typed preferences in toys as early as 13 months
– Infants at 3–8 months show visual preferences for gender-typed toys
Psychological Theories of the Development of
Gender Differences (1 of 3)
• Social Cognitive Theory
– Reinforcement: rewards and punishments in gender typing
– Children learn from observing others and imitating models of their gender
– Bussey and Bandura (1984): Girls imitated the behaviors of women
models and boys of men models
– Socialization
• Parents, other adults, and other children provide information about social
expectations of gender-typed behaviors
• Cognitive-Developmental Theory: Lawrence Kohlberg
– Children play an active role in gender typing
 Gender identity
• Knowing they are female or male, 2 years
 Gender stability
• Knowing gender lasts for a lifetime, 4~5 years
 Gender constancy
• Knowing gender does not change despite changes in appearance or behavior, 5–7 years
• Cross-cultural studies confirm Kohlberg’s sequence, but gender-typed toy

preferences emerge earlier than stated in his theory
• Gender Schema Theory: Sandra Bem
• Children use gender as one way of organizing their perceptions of the
world
• A gender schema = a cluster of concepts about male and physical traits,
behaviors, personality traits
• Gender identity alone can inspire “gender-appropriate” behavior
– Studies show children process information according to gender schemas
 They show better memory for toys, activities, occupations typed for their own
gender
Self-Assessment
• Which concepts in this chapter did you find most challenging, and hence
need to review?
• Which topics in this chapter—for example, parenting styles, sibling
relationships, play, social behavior, personality development, gender—
did you find most interesting? Why?
• What are some things you learned from this chapter that you think you
are most likely to apply in your life, such as in your school, work, family,
or friendships? How?
Summary
Now that the lesson has ended, you should be able to:
• Describe social influences on the development of 2- to 6-year-olds by
parents, siblings, and peers, focusing on the importance of parenting
styles.
• Describe social behavior in early childhood, including play, prosocial
behavior, empathy, and the effects of the media, particularly the effects
of violence in the media and violent video games.
• Describe personality and emotional development in early childhood.
• Describe the development of gender identity, gender roles, and gender
differences.

Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development, 7e

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Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development, 7e

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Childhood and

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

Parental Behavior Patterns: Parental Behavior Patterns:

Source: Based on Baumrind (1989).

• Regression to babyish behaviors as the new sibling gets more attention

• Girls and boys both show preferences for gender-stereotyped toys by 18

• Boys prefer vigorous physical outdoor activities, rough-and-tumble play

• What are the connections between

• Early childhood: Erikson’s psychosocial stage of initiative versus guilt

• Sex assignment (gender assignment) typically occurs at birth or

• Transgender (trans) individuals experience gender identity that is

• Gender roles: Cultural stereotypes of males and females

• Cross-cultural studies confirm Kohlberg’s sequence, but gender-typed toy

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