Week 14 Readings Flashcards
What are the three perspectives that interact to shape social and personality development in children, and how do they contribute?
The three perspectives are:
- Social Context – Relationships provide security, guidance, and knowledge.
- Biological Maturation – Supports the development of social and emotional competencies and underlies temperamental individuality.
- Developing Representations – Children’s understanding of themselves and the social world shapes how they perceive and interact with others.
These three parts – relationships, growing bodies and brains, and self-understanding – are always working together to shape how children think, feel, and behave.
Why is social and personality development best understood as a continuous interaction?
It reflects the dynamic interplay between social factors (e.g., relationships), biological maturation (e.g., temperamental individuality), and children’s evolving representations of self and the social world, which together shape psychological development.
How do relationships and biological maturation contribute to a child’s development?
Relationships provide essential security, guidance, and knowledge, while biological maturation enables the growth of social and emotional competencies and influences temperament.
Is attachment primarily a result of parents providing food or warmth?
No, psychologists believe attachment is biologically natural and not just a result of parents providing food or warmth.
How can the interaction of social, biological, and representational aspects of development be seen in infants?
This interaction is seen in the strong emotional attachments that nearly all infants develop with their caregivers during the first year of life.
Why do psychologists believe attachment is biologically natural?
Psychologists view attachment as natural, like learning to walk, because it has evolved to motivate children to stay close to caregivers, helping them gain learning, security, guidance, warmth, and affirmation—not just food or warmth.
Do all infants feel equally secure in their emotional attachments to caregivers?
No, the sense of security in attachments varies. Infants become securely attached when caregivers respond sensitively, while inconsistent or neglectful care leads to insecure attachment.
What causes insecure attachments in infants? What behaviors are seen in infants with insecure attachments?
Insecure attachments can result from inconsistent or neglectful care, which may not always stem from bad parenting but rather from challenging circumstances, like caregiver stress, fatigue, or emotional difficulties.
Insecurely attached infants may respond avoidantly, resistantly, or in a disorganized manner.
How can researchers observe differences between securely- and insecurely-attached infants?
Researchers use the “Strange Situation,” where the caregiver briefly leaves the infant alone in a room and then returns. The infant’s response—welcoming, clinging, rejecting, or showing a mix of agitated reactions—reveals their level of attachment.
What is the security of attachment?
An infant’s confidence in the sensitivity and responsiveness of a caregiver, especially when he or she is needed. Infants can be securely attached or insecurely attached.
How does attachment security vary, and why is it important for development?
Infants can be securely or insecurely attached to different caregivers, such as mothers, fathers, and others. Secure attachment is crucial because it leads to stronger friendships, better emotional understanding, early conscience development, and more positive self-concepts compared to insecure attachment.
What is authoritative parenting style?
A parenting style characterized by high (but reasonable) expectations for children’s behavior, good communication, warmth and nurturance, and the use of reasoning (rather than coercion) as preferred responses to children’s misbehavior.
How do parent-child relationships change as children grow, and what type of parenting promotes healthy development?
As children mature, they become more independent, leading to potential conflict. Authoritative parenting—characterized by reasonable expectations, good communication, warmth, and reasoning—helps children develop competence, self-confidence, and better conflict resolution skills.
What are the outcomes of different parenting styles on children?
Authoritative parenting supports positive development, while authoritarian, uninvolved, or permissive parenting styles can result in less constructive parent-child relationships and hinder children’s growth.
Describe the expectations/control and warmth/responsiveness in each of the 4 parenting styles:
Low expectations/control and low warmth/responsiveness =
Low expectations/control and high warmth/responsiveness =
High expectations/control and low warmth/responsiveness =
High expectations/control and high warmth/responsiveness =
Low expectations/control and low warmth/responsiveness = uninvolved
Low expectations/control and high warmth/responsiveness = permissive
High expectations/control and low warmth/responsiveness = authoritarian
High expectations/control and high warmth/responsiveness = authoritative
How do parental roles change as children grow, especially in adolescence?
As children grow, parents increasingly act as mediators, guiding their children’s interactions with peers and activities. In adolescence, the relationship shifts to coregulation, where both parents and the child recognize the child’s growing autonomy, and authority is balanced.
What is the family stress model?
A description of the negative effects of family financial difficulty on child adjustment through the effects of economic stress on parents’ depressed mood, increased marital problems, and poor parenting.
How do external conditions, like financial difficulties, affect family relationships?
According to the Family Stress Model, financial difficulties lead to parents’ depressed moods, which result in marital problems and poor parenting, contributing to poorer child adjustment.
How does divorce impact children and family relationships?
Divorce often leads to economic stress, changes in parent-child relationships (with one parent as the primary custodian), and significant adjustments. While divorce is seen as a sad turning point, most children do not experience long-term adjustment problems.
How do peer relationships contribute to a child’s social development?
Peer relationships help children develop essential social skills like initiating and maintaining interactions, managing conflict (e.g., turn-taking, compromise, bargaining), and coordinating actions and understanding with others.
How do different types of play support a child’s development?
Play teaches various social skills: infants learn sharing, preschoolers engage in pretend play and collaboration, and primary school children join sports teams, learning teamwork, emotional support, and working toward common goals.
What role do friendships play in a child’s life?
Friendships provide additional security and support, complementing the care and support children receive from their parents.
How do peer relationships influence children, and what challenges do they present?
Peer relationships provide affirmation but can also lead to rejection, bullying, and conformity pressures. Peer rejection, especially due to aggression, can result in behavior problems, while social comparisons may lower self-esteem if children feel they don’t measure up.
How do peer relationships evolve as children grow, particularly in adolescence?
As children age, peer relationships shift to focus on psychological intimacy, involving personal disclosure, vulnerability, and loyalty, which greatly impacts their self-concept and worldview.