EARLY CHILDHOOD:

Emotional and Social Development

 Emotions Are Central to Children’s Lives
 Teaching Effective Problem-Solving Skills
 Learning Parents’ Expression of Emotions

The challenge: Regulating our emotions

Socialization requires regulating our
emotions
Emotion-regulation occurs in the frontal
lobes
 The Link Between Feeling and Thinking
 Responding to Emotions of Others
 Forming Emotional Ties
 Facial Expressions, Gestures, Body
Language, and Voice Quality
 Very young infants express happiness, sadness,
distress, anger, and surprise.
 Toddlers add to their facial expression
repertoire with the showing of pride, shame,
shyness, embarrassment, contempt, fear, and
guilt
 Some professionals and parents believe
children should "let their feelings out."
 Some professionals and parents believe
children need to learn to control
emotions and feelings.
 Self-regulation of emotions develops at
each child's pace.
 Deliberate holding back of feelings is
difficult for children until after age
three
Cultural Expectations and Emotional
Expression
 Every culture has its own expectations
for expressing emotions.
 Preschoolers and school-age children
learn about expectations of emotional
self-regulation through observation and
repeated direct instruction.
◦ Acquiring Emotional Understanding
 The Link Between Feeling and Thinking
 When given familiar situations,
preschoolers can accurately identify the
associated emotion.
 When given an emotion, preschoolers
can describe an appropriate eliciting
situation.
•Young children deliberately seek
out information about emotional
reactions of others.

• Forming Emotional Ties

Young children can develop close,
affectionate bonds with caregivers at
home or in day care settings.
 Play: Voluntary activities that are not
performed for any sake beyond
themselves.
 Functional play
 Constructive play
 Parallel play
 Onlooker play
 Associative play
 Cooperative (collaborative) play
•Boys tend to select games that require a larger
number of participants than those selected by girls.
•Boys' play is more rough-and-tumble than girls' play.
•Girls engage in more intimate play than boys do.
Play

◦ There are many types of

play.
 Rough and tumble play
 shoving and wrestling -
mostly boy oriented
behavior
 Fantasy Play – separating
from reality
 it can include rough and
tumble play.
The Development and Decline of Pretending
◦ One-year-olds initiate fantasy play, but need
adults to continue the fantasy and scaffold
the ideas
◦ Collaborative pretend play begins around age 3
 Fantasy play with another is very strong at age 4
 It requires a theory of mind
 It helps teach us how to get along with other minds
 Fantasy play promotes interests that extend into
adulthood
The Purpose of Pretending
◦ Play teaches relationship lessons
◦ It can help to teach constancy of identity
◦ Play allows children to practice adult roles
◦ It allows children to take control in their fantasy
◦ Play furthers understanding of social norms
◦ Imaginary friends – normal and may indicate
intelligence
 Self: The system of concepts we use in defining
ourselves
 Ecological self: Acts on the perceptual
information presented by objects in the
environment
 Interpersonal self: Arises in interactions with
other people
 Developing a sense of self is a central issue in
early childhood
 A sense of self precedes self conscious
emotions (embarrassment) and self-evaluative
emotions (pride).
 A child’s own sense of self-worth or self-
image is part of the overall dimension called
self-esteem.
 Self-esteem is the tendency to feel
good or bad about oneself.
◦ This tendency becomes a major issue
during elementary school
◦ Self-esteem appears to decline in
early elementary school as children
begin to rate themselves against
their classmates
 Excessively high self-esteem
◦ Children with externalizing tendencies report high
self-esteem with the position, “I’m fine. It’s their
problem.”
 With this attitude, they will have trouble improving or
don’t see a need to improve.
 Excessively low self-esteem
◦ Children with internalizing tendencies tend to be
overly self critical.
◦ They see criticism where none was intended.
◦ They are at risk of developing learned helplessness.
 They believe nothing they do works and will stop trying.
 Again, with this attitude they will have trouble improving
 Enhance self-efficacy
◦ Use Vygotsky's scaffolding approach
◦ Find the child’s expertise and build from there
◦ Move at the child’s speed and reinforce results
◦ Change the environment if necessary
◦ Don’t expect all children to fit in the same mold
 Promote a realistic perception of themselves
◦ Give lots of love and a can-do attitude!
◦ Use Rational-emotive concepts to get them to evaluate
themselves positively in specific terms rather than defining
themselves in global statements. Concentrate on positives!
◦ In some cases, the child’s negatives will have to evaluated.
 Self-esteem improves physical appeal
◦ Your personality can mold other’s concepts of you.
◦ Accepting objective images makes one vulnerable.
◦ Those who feel that their mirror image determines
who they are as a person, are more likely to be
unhappy.
◦ If you believe it is your feelings that shape how you
look, than you are more likely to be happy.

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Promoting realistic self-esteem
◦ Creating the proper person environment fit
 We can’t simply tell a child they are terrific
 The child’s view of themselves must be anchored in
reality
◦ To promote positive self-esteem we must:
 Enhance self-efficacy
 support the “I can do it” feelings
 Promote a realistic perception of themselves
 Gender Identity: The conception that people
have of themselves as being male or female.
 Gender Roles: A set of expected behaviors for
males and females.
 Most people evolve gender identities that are
reasonably consistent with the gender role
standards of their society
 Biological differences between men and
women, particularly in levels of the hormones
testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen,
may contribute to the development of
differences in brain function and in behavior
 Males usually are exposed to higher level of

androgens and females are typically exposed

to higher levels of progesterone and
estrogen.
 Males tend to be more logical, analytical,
spatial, and mathematical.
 Females tend to be more verbal at an earlier
age, more emotionally expressive, and more
social.
 The hormones our brains are exposed to in
the womb do much to shape how we
experience being male and female.
 Girls who are exposed to higher levels of
androgen may prefer sports and be
uninterested in playing with dolls.
 Individual child’s family experience
and cultural socialization is a
significant influence
 Being labeled a boy or a girl, rather
than anatomy leads to differential
treatment by society.
 Erikson: Initiative versus guilt.
 Parents encourage (and discourage) certain
gender behaviors.
 Children are developing “virtue of purpose.”
 Children strive to do things and to test their
developing abilities (initiative), sometimes
going too far and producing scolding from
caregiver (guilt). There must be a balance in
the process
 Gender identity is the result of selective
reinforcement and imitation in interactions
with peers, the family, and society at large.
 Children are neutral at birth.
 Selective reinforcement and imitation play
 Bandura: Observational learning
 Kohlberg: self-socialization
 Gender stereotypes
 Children first learn to label themselves as
males or females and then attempt to
acquire and master the behaviors that fit
their gender category, a process called self-
socialization.
 Psychoanalytic perspective (Freud):
Children develop their gender
identities as they resolve their
conflicting feelings of love and
jealousy in relation to their parents.
  Parents have clear stereotypes regarding the
behaviors they expect to be associated with sons
and daughters.
 There are marked and relatively consistent
differences in paternal and maternal reactions to
female and male infants.
 In the United States, the father typically plays the
critical role in encouraging "femininity" in
daughters and "masculinity" in sons
 Father’s fear of homosexuality inhibits displays of
emotion in sons

 .
 Socialization: The process of
transmitting culture, of transforming
children into bona fide, functioning
members of society.
 The family is the first setting for socialization—the
process of transmitting culture and transforming
children into functioning members of society.
◦ A Diversity of Family Environments for American
Children
 Six major demographic transformations over the past
100 years
 The shift from farm to industrial to service work for
fathers
 A large reduction in family size
 Greater educational attainment
 Women's' participation in the labor force
 The increase in single-parent families
 The subsequent rise in childhood poverty
 Belsky has identified three major
determinants of parental functioning:
 The personality and psychological well-
being of the parent
 The characteristics of the child
 The contextual sources of stress and
support operating within and upon the
family
 The Parents’ Characteristics
 Troubled parents more likely to have
troubled children.
 Maternal depression can affect
children adversely.

 The Child’s Characteristics

 Age, gender, and temperament
 Parents' child-rearing practices have been
described in terms of three dimensions:
 Warmth or hostility of the parent-child
relationship (acceptance-rejection)
 Control or autonomy of the disciplinary
approach (restrictiveness-permissiveness)
 Consistency or inconsistency that parents
show in using discipline
Warm but Restrictive Parenting –
 leads to politeness, neatness, obedience and

conformity
 Also is associated with immaturity,

dependency, low creativity, blind acceptance

of authority, and social withdrawal and
ineptness
Warm with democratic procedures
 Children’s whose homes combine warm with

democratic procedures ( autonomy) and to

develop into socially competent, resourceful,
friendly, active, and appropriately aggressive
individuals
Hostile (rejecting) and restrictive parenting
 Interfere with the child’s development of

offensive identity and self-esteem children

see the world as ran by powerful, evil forces
over which they have no control
 The combination fosters resentment and inner

rage
 These children turn some of the anger against

themselves or experience it is internalized

turmoil and conflict
 Result in depression and inadequacy in

adulthood
 Authoritative parents
 Clear expectations and consistent rules; but
exceptions can be made
 Parent ranks high in nurturing and discipline

 Associated with self-reliant, self-controlled,

explorative, and contented children
 Especially skilled at scaffolding—supporting
child's learning through intervention and
tutoring that provide helpful information
attuned to the child's current level of
functioning
 Authoritarian: Parents operate from
the rejecting-demanding dimension.
 More inflexible; a rule is a rule
 Children are discontented, withdrawn,
distrustful.
 Permissive parents
 Opposite of authoritarian; total
freedom and unconditional love
 Children’s needs rule
 Rejecting-neglecting parents
 Low on structure and low on love
 Lessons for parents
◦ Be loving.
◦ Set high standards.
◦ Provide consistent rules.
◦ Be flexible.
◦ What works for other kids may not for yours.
◦ Adapt to your environment and priorities.
◦ Remember that some of the responsibility for
becoming an adult lies with your child.
Reciprocal determinism
◦ Reciprocal determinism - loving
children may create the loving
authoritative parent, while the
hateful child may create the
authoritarian care giver.
 Spanking: To hit or not to hit?
◦ Most people in the U.S. say that spanking is
acceptable. Is it?
◦ Some psychologists equate spanking to shame
induction and relate it to future violent acts.
◦ Some researchers believe when parents have never
learned other means of control and spanking is
taken away as a means of control...
 Conditions deteriorate until much more violent
reactions occur.
 Parents use shame as a method of control. Shame is
harmful and guilt works
 Spanking Guidelines:
◦ Never hit an infant.
◦ At 2 through 6, a swat on the bottom can be
effective:
 Follow it with acceptable behavior direction.
◦ Spanking is a backup when other techniques fail:
 Not knowing other techniques is not an excuse to spank.
◦ Excessive force is never acceptable:
 Spare the rod? No! Never use the rod, strap or anything
other than your hand. Spanking is an attention getter,
nothing more. Use of an object to spank goes beyond
that purpose. We are attempting to rehabilitate not
retaliate.
 Reliance on forceful spanking (corporal punishment) is
correlated to delinquency, domestic violence and criminal
acts.
 Use of corporal punishment could be considered child
abuse.
 Majority of victims. The black, followed by
physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional
abuse, and medical neglect.
 Female parents for the highest perpetrators

of neglect and physical abuse.

 Male relatives, parents, and strangers are the

perpetrators of sexual abuse for the highest

percentage of victims.
 Researchers believe that many case of child

abuse and neglect go unreported

 Sexual abuse begins with fondling and
masturbation. If the behavior continues may
proceed to intercourse or sodomy
 Child molesters often appear as Preston,

caring, both family members and neighbors,

and responsible citizens.
 Male children are particularly reluctant to

report abuse
 Are more fearful, have posttraumatic stress
disorder, and sexualized behaviors, and lower
self-esteem than other children.

 Physical signs: often there are no physical

obvious signs only signs physicians can
detect by a physical examination
 Unusual interest in, or avoidance of all things
the sexual nature
 Sleep problems, nightmares, bedwetting
 Depression and/or withdrawal from friends

or family
 Sexual knowledge and sexually inappropriate

behaviors
 Statements that their bodies are dirty or fear

there is something wrong in the genital area

 Refusal to go to school for delinquent

behaviors
 Our peer group provides a nurturing example
 for behavior.

◦ This idea assumes that the wider world has more

influence over us than our home life because we
will learn to act one way in the world and act
another at home.
 I learned to throw a temper tantrum from a school
mate.
 Immigrant children learn how to “make it” in American
society from examples outside of the home.
 Doing Harm
◦ Aggression is the intent to do harm to another.
◦ Developmental changes
 Aggression appears early in life and peaks at years 2 or 3;
they are being disciplined but can’t control their actions.
 At 4 and 5, as the frontal lobes come“on-line,” we can
regulate our emotions and understand the adult rules, so
aggression declines.
 By age 8, aggression centers on self-esteem and the ego.
 Some children are born with the wrong genes and
raised in the wrong environment.
◦ They are hurting kids and are hard to raise.
◦ We shall see the parents play a role in developing an
aggressive child.
 Aggression: Behavior that is socially defined as
injurious or destructive.
 Boys: physical and verbal aggression
 Girls: relational issues
◦ Direct aggression
 A form of hostile aggression
 Hostile acts directed at an individual as opposed
to – Indirect, hurting someone through another.
◦ Relational Aggression
 Done to destroy self-esteem
 Most common among girls
 Doing Harm
◦ Aggression is the intent to do harm to another.
◦ Developmental changes
 Aggression appears early in life and peaks at years 2 or 3;
they are being disciplined but can’t control their actions.
 At 4 and 5, as the frontal lobes come“on-line,” we can
regulate our emotions and understand the adult rules, so
aggression declines.
 By age 8, aggression centers on self-esteem and the ego.
 Some children are born with the wrong genes and
raised in the wrong environment.
◦ They are hurting kids and are hard to raise.
◦ We shall see the parents play a role in developing an
aggressive child.
 Types of Aggression:
 Motive as an operator
◦ Instrumental aggression
 Actively initiated to achieve a goal
◦ Reactive Aggression
 Made in response to being hurt, threatened, or deprived
 Form as an operator
◦ Direct aggression
 A form of hostile aggression
 Hostile acts directed at an individual as opposed to – Indirect,
hurting someone through another.
◦ Relational Aggression
 Done to destroy self-esteem
 Most common among girls
 Aggression, hostility, bullying, defiance, and
destructiveness are signs of antisocial
behavior, which involves persistent violation
of socially prescribed patterns of behavior
 Between 4 and 6 million children in school

have been identified with conduct disorder

and rates are increasing
 Aggressive, antisocial behavior among
children needs to be addressed and is not a
phase to be outgrown
 Antisocial behavior as early as 3 or 4 is the

most accurate predictor of delinquency and

adolescent
 Antisocial behavior needs to be altered by the

end of the 3rd grade or it can become chronic

 Early intervention may divert children from

this path
 Performed as well or better than peers
 Fewer grade retentions
 Better parenting skills for parents
 Higher academic achievement
 Less delinquent behaviors
 Better parent involvement in school
 Television fosters aggressive behavior.
 Children learn aggressive skills.
 Television weakens children’s inhibitions.
 Vicarious conditioning
 May be linked to childhood obesity.
 Electronics and televisions arts powerful
socializing agents and educators of children
 US preschoolers spend more time watching

television than in any other activity except

sleeping
 Violence in the media contributes to

childhood and adult aggression

 Television does not portray the harmful

injuries and effects of violence

 Media violence increases children’s tolerance
of aggression in real life –the habituation
effect
 Reinforces tendency to see the world is a

dangerous place
 Television entertains but also functions as a

powerful negative socializer for children