Early Childhood

Chapter 7-8Psyc311

Jen Wright

body development

• Eating habits• 2-6 year olds eat less than infants and older

children.• “Just right” phenomenon – picky eaters!

– Like: salty/sweet foods– Dislike: bitter/sour foods

• Learning what is appropriate and not appropriate to eat

• Early signs of disgust– Infants show “disgust” facial expression– Strong food preferences

role of disgust

• Protection against dangerous substances– Poisonous foods often bitter– Rotten foods often sour– Disgust expression functions as warning

• Protection against contamination– Children not sensitive to contamination until early

childhood• Protection against deformity and disease

role of disgust

• Higher-order disgust• Physical contamination social

contamination– 7-8 year olds “cooties”

• Physical contamination moral contamination

• Examples?

obesity• Early signs of obesity as young as 2 years old• Obesity rates among 2- to 5-year-olds

– rose to 14% for the years 2003-2006– compared with 5% in 1980

• Need less food than did as an infant– Problem for forcing child to “clean their plate” – Especially w/ desert as an incentive!

• Attraction to salty and sweet foods• Other contributors?

consequences• Type II diabetes

– 50% of some children in low-income areas– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rutaw8OJ9Wo

• Bone development problems – Stunted hip/leg bone growth

• Cardiovascular disease• HBP, High cholesterol• Lower IQ• Obesity programs for toddlers?

– http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=5602922&page=1

developing cognitive skills• Memory development

– Still better memory for content than context• No memory of when/where something is learned

• Increase in “executive function”• Impulse control

• Delayed gratification • Perseverance• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjJsPylEOY

• Ability to override current intentions given new information

• Color/shape card sorting game

sort by color

sort by shape

• What is the driving force behind this development?

• Brain maturation– Plasticity

• Cognitive exploration– Piaget– Vygotsky

brain development• Brain is 95% of adult weight by 6 years of age.

– Much of this is due to myelination.• Rapid growth and death spurts as brain restructures

– High degree of plasticity• Thickening of corpus callosum

– Bi-hemospheric communication– Better, faster thinking– More coordinated actions

• Frontal lobe development– Not completed until late adolescence/early adulthood

Piaget• Child as Scientists• Children learn on their own• Children are intrinsically

motivated to learn• Language and education play

only minimal roles

• Sensorimotor – birth to 2 years• Pre-operational – 2 to 7 years

Vygotsky• Children as Apprentices • Child learns through social

interaction• Children are socially

motivated to learn• Language and education

play central roles

• Children as apprentices– guided

participation

scaffolding• temporary support

that is tailored to a learner’s needs and abilities

• aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process

zone of proximal development (ZPD)

• The skills that we can exercise only with assistance, not yet independently.

• ZPD applies to the ideas or cognitive skills we are close to mastering as well as to more apparent skills.

• Examples?

announcements

• Ch 7-8 q’s and study guide due Wednesday– Prep debate

• In-Class Debate #2 Friday– Instructions have changed

• Each group gets a presentation and rebuttal

• Mid-semester Evaluation– Online survey – PLEASE complete!

theory of mind

• The ability to understand the existence of mental states in the minds of others– Desires– Beliefs– etc.

• Strongly explanatory and predictive.

• Yet, non-tangible.

• Desires – “I want…”– children talk about early (2 years)– simple constructs – concerned with the person

– How we want the world to be– similar to emotions (non-representational)

• Beliefs – “I believe that…”– don’t show up in speech until 4-5 years– more complex constructs– concerned with the world

– How it really is– representational

Maxi “false-belief” tasks

??

succeeding at the false belief task…

• Requires understanding that Maxi• has a mental state (belief) that is different

from the child’s mental state. • has a mental state (belief) that is different

from reality. – Beliefs come apart from reality

• they can be false.– Desires don’t.

• So, how do children first learn about beliefs?

• When confronted with a behavior they can’t otherwise explain, children have no choice but to appeal to a (false) belief.

• Example:– Katie is looking for her kitty. Her kitty is in the

garage. Katie is looking for her under the piano.

• Why is Katie looking under the piano?– She is looking under the piano because she

thinks the kitty is there.

• Evidence of this:– Children will use belief states to explain

behavior (like Katie’s) before they will use them to predict behavior (like Maxi’s).

• They will also use beliefs when pushed (after easier explanations have been used).

• Experimenter: Why does Jason cry?– Child: Because he was scared.– Experimenter: Why else does Jason cry?– Child: He thought it was a rattlesnake.– Experimenter: Was it really a rattlesnake?– Child: No.

• Experimenter: Why is Ann smiling?– Child: ’Cause she likes cookies.– Experimenter: Why else is Ann smiling?– Child: ’Cause she’s happy.– Experimenter: Why else is Ann smiling?– Child: She thinks she can eat it?– Experimenter: Can she really eat it?– Child: It’s not real.

Appearance-reality tasks

• What do all of these tasks have in common? • Executive function• The ability to override current information

with – New information– Past information– Additional information

• The ability to hold 2+ thoughts in mind and compare them.

• Emergence of the conscience:• moral awareness- sense of good vs. bad

– Self-regulatory emotions• Guilt/Shame• Pride• Disgust

– Inhibition of bad behavior, promotion of good behavior• Awareness of expectations/reactions of others• Important distinction between shame and guilt.

• What is the difference?• Why do we call these emotions “moral emotions”?

emotions and self-development

Emotions are important in the emergence of self-awareness:

• Self-efficacy– awareness that you can affect events in your surrounding

• Self-control– learning to modulate emotional reactions

• Self-concept– episodic memories– external vs. internal characteristics

empathy

• May be more important for moral socialization than negative emotions

• Global distress– Emotional contagion

• Egocentric empathy (2 yrs)• Non-egocentric empathy (3 yrs+)• Cognitive empathy (middle childhood)

– Abstract perspective-taking

play• Play: a pleasurable activity that is engaged in for

its own sake• Theorists have focused on different aspects of

play:– Freud and Erikson: play helps child master anxieties and

conflicts, satisfies our exploratory drive• Play therapy

– Piaget: play advances cognitive development; children’s cognitive development constrains the way they play

– Vygotsky: play is an excellent social setting for cognitive development

importance of play

• Cognitive development– Appearance – reality shift (make believe)– Theory of mind– Imagination

• Social competence– Empathy– Role-playing

• Emotional regulation

types of play• Sensorimotor play

• behavior by infants to derive pleasure from exercising their sensorimotor schemes

• Practice play• the repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned

or mastered• Pretense/symbolic play

• occurs when the child transforms the physical environment into a symbol

• Social play• play that involves interaction with peers

• Constructive play• combines sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic

representation• Games

• activities that are engaged in for pleasure and have rules

levels of social complexity

• Parallel play– Parallel aware play

• Simple social play• Complementary/reciprocal play• Cooperative social pretend play• Complex social pretend play

– Meta-communication about play

Parenting styles• Authoritarian: restrictive style in which parents demand

obedience and respect• Parent places firm limits and does not allow discussion• Parent rigidly enforces rules but rarely explains them• Children are often unhappy, fearful, and anxious

• Authoritative: encourages children to be independent while placing limits and controls on actions

• Extensive verbal give-and-take• Parents expect mature, independent, age-appropriate behavior• Children are often cheerful, self-controlled, and self-reliant

Parenting Styles

• Neglectful: parent is very uninvolved in child’s life• Children feel that other aspects of the parent’s life are more

important than they are• Children tend to be socially incompetent, immature, and have low

self-esteem

• Indulgent: parents are highly involved but place few demands or controls on the child

• Children never learn to control their own behavior and always expect to get their way

Two Dimensions:

• Responsiveness• Demandingness

Gender

• Sex: biological classification of male or female• Gender Identity: the sense of being male or

female• Gender Roles: sets of expectations that

prescribe how females or males should think, act, and feel

Gender• Two basic types of theoriesGender differences are built-in

– Psychoanalytic: unconscious urges/tensions– Epigenetic: biological/genetic underpinnings

Gender differences are learned– Behaviorism: behavior is conditioned by

reward/punishment– Cognitive: learned schemas (same as

“restaurant” schema)– Socio-cultural: socialization, internalizing norms

• Parental Influences:– Mother’s Socialization Strategies:

• Mothers socialize daughters to be more obedient and responsible than sons

• Mothers place more restrictions on daughters’ autonomy

– Father’s Socialization Strategies:• Fathers show more attention to sons than daughters,

engage in more activities with sons, and put more effort into promoting sons’ intellectual development

• Peer Influences:– Peers extensively reward and punish gender behavior– Greater pressure for boys to conform to traditional gender

roles• Children’s Groups:

– Children show preference toward same-sex playmates by age 3

– From age 5 onward, boys are more likely than girls to form large groups and participate in organized group games

– Boys engage in rough play, competition, conflict, etc.– Girls engage in “collaborative discourse”