PSYC 335 Developmental Psychology I Session 10 Development in middle - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education

2014/2015 – 2016/2017

PSYC 335 Developmental Psychology I

Session 10 – Development in middle childhood

Lecturer: Dr. Joana Salifu Yendork Department of Psychology Contact Information: jyendork@ug.edu.gh

godsonug.wordpress.com/blog

Session Overview

Slide 2

• Middle childhood spans the period of 7-11/12 years of an

iŶdiǀidual’s life. This sessioŶ seeks to disĐuss Đ haŶges that

• ccur in physical, cognitive and socio-emotional domain of

development during middle childhood. It will also discuss changes in family and peer relations as well as the impact of bullying on well-being.

Session Outline

Slide 3

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:

• Physical development in middle childhood
• Cognitive development in middle childhood
• Socio-emotional development in middle childhood

Reading List

Slide 4

• Read Chapters 9 & 10 of Development through the lifespan,

Berk (2006)

T

• pic One

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN

Slide 5

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Physical Changes

Body Growth and Change

• Growth is slow and follows regular pattern of early childhood

– E.g., height and weight, with an average of – 23 inches per year – 45 pounds/ 1.8-2.3 Kg per year

• Bodies look longer and leaner
• Between 6-8 years girls are shorter and lighter

– By 9, trend reverses

• Girls have slightly more body fat and boys have more muscles
• May show early signs of puberty
• Lower portion of body grow fastest
• Bones lengthen and broaden
• Primary teeth are replaced by permanent teeth

Slide 6

Brain development

• Brain volume stabilizes
• Significant changes in structures and

regions in the prefrontal cortex (cortical thickness)

– Increases in thickness of the cerebral cortex

• Activation of some brain areas increase

while others decrease

• Brain pathways and circuitry involving t

prefrontal cortex continue to increase he

Slide 7

Motor Development

Slide 8

• Gross motor skills improve

– Better developed than fine-motor skills

• Physical activities (ie., running, jumping, hopping)

become more refined

– Due to gains in:

• Flexibility: physically more flexible
• Balance: Improved balance to support athletic skills
• Agility: Quicker and more accurate movement
• Force: Can kick and throw objects harder

Motor Development

• Fine Motor Skills Gains

– Writing: most can write the alphabet; their name; number 1- 10, but writing is large – Drawing: shows increase in

• rganization, detail and depth

cues – Improved fine motor skills results in improved self-care

Slide 9

Sex Differences in Motor Development

• Girls better at fine motor skills
• Boys better at gross motor skills, sports
• Differences due to social environment

– Parental expectations – Coaching – Media messages

Slide 10

T

• pic Two

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN

Slide 11

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Piaget’s Theory – Concrete Operational Stage

• From 7 to 11 years
• Begins to think logically about objects and events
• Thinking is more flexible and organized than earlier
• Achievements of the concrete operational stage

– Conservation – Reversibility – Classification – Seriation – Spatial reasoning

Slide 12

Conservation

Slide 13

• Children achieve conservation of mass, weight and

numbers

• Reversibility: Awareness that actions can be reversed

– Children can think through a series of steps and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point.

• Decentration: focusing on several aspects of a problem and

relating them, rather than centring on just one.

• ..\..\..\First Sem_2015-2016\First Sem\PSYC 335\videos on

infant socio dev\Piaget - Stage 3 - Concrete - Reversibility.mp4

Seriation

• The concrete operations that involves
• rdering stimuli along a quantitative

dimension such as length or height

• Transitive inference: Ability to seriate

mentally

– E.g., A-B, B-C, mental inference of A-C

Slide 14

Spatial Reasoning

Slide 15

• Children gain understanding of space.

– Able to mentally represent familiar large-scale spaces (e.g., neighbourhood or school) – Preschool to school age: able to display landmarks on maps they draw – 8 to 9 years: Able to show landmarks along organized routes of travel

• able to give clear directions

– Middle childhood: children form overall view of a large-scale space

• can draw and read maps

– Note: Đultural iŶflueŶĐes oŶ ĐhildreŶ’s spatial reasoŶiŶg

Piagetian class inclusion problem: Classification

Slide 16

Limitations of concrete operational thought

Slide 17

• Operations work best with concrete information

(information that can be perceived directly)

– Problems with abstract ideas/ ones not apparent in real world

• Continuum of acquisition

– Master concrete operational tasks step by step – Eg. Learn to conserve numbers before length, mass and liquid

– ..\..\..\First Sem_2015-2016\First Sem\PSYC 335\videos

• n infant socio dev\Piaget's concrete operational stage

experiments.mp4

T

• pic Three

SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Slide 18

IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Emotional Development

• Self-conscious emotions (pride and guilt) are governed by

personal responsibility

– Ŷo Ŷeed for adults’ preseŶĐe to edž p erieŶĐe pride or guilt.

• Increased ability to understand complex emotions

– Increased understanding that more than one emotion can be experienced in a

situation

– E.g., can reconcile contradictory facial and situational cues to figure out others

emotions

• Self-initiated strategies for redirecting feelings

– Improved ability to suppress or conceal negative emotional reactions

• Capacity for genuine empathy

– E.g., children are able to show sympathy for a distressed person and experience

the sadness the distressed person might be feeling.

Slide 19

Emotional self-regulation

Slide 20

• Rapid gain in emotional self-regulation

– Motivated by self-esteem and peer approval – Children learn to cope with stress using problem-centred coping or emotion-centred coping

• Problem-centred coping: situation is seen as changeable, identify

the difficulty, and decide what to do about it.

• Emotion-centred coping: used when problem-centred coping fails;

internal, private, and aimed at controlling distress when little can be done.

• Emotional self-efficacy (a feeling of being in control of

emotional experiences); emerges from well developed emotional self-regulation

Personality: Industry vs inferiority - EriksoŶ’s theorLJ

Slide 21

• 5-12 years
• Adults’ edž

p e Đ tatioŶs aŶd Đhild’s driǀ e toǁ ards ŵasterLJ set the stage for the psychological conflict Industry

• Developing a sense of competence and useful skills

– Want to be productive instead of just waiting to play – School provides many opportunities – Positive but realistic self-concept, pride in accomplishment, moral responsibility, and cooperative participation with age mate

Personality: Industry vs inferiority - EriksoŶ’s theorLJ

Slide 22

• Inferiority

– Develops when not encouraged to learn skills – Pessimism and lack of confidence in own ability to do things well – Feeling of failure when a child cannot accomplish a task – Family environment, teachers, and peers can contribute to negative feelings

Gender identity development

Slide 23

• ChildreŶ’s uŶderstaŶdiŶg of geŶder ďroadeŶs aŶd their

gender-role identity change

• Gender stereotypes

– ͞a fidž ed, oǀ er geŶeralized ďelief aďout a partiĐular group or Đ lass

• f people.͟ ;Card ǁell, 1996฀
• Traditionally: males dominant, females nurturing
• Boys and girls gender identity follow different patterns

– Boys strengthen identification with masculine traits – Girls’ identification with feminine traits declines (e.g., girls are more likely to consider future work roles that are stereotyped for men)

Changes in Family relations

Slide 24

• Parent-child interactions: decrease as children get
• lder

– Autonomy and parental regulation – Less physical discipline: Parents are more likely to use depriǀ atioŶ of priǀileges, appeals to the Đhild’s self- esteeŵ, use Đ

• ŵŵeŶts desigŶed to iŶĐrease the Đhild’s

sense of guilt – Co-regulation: gradual process in which general oversight while permitting children to be in charge of moment-to- moment decisions

Changes in Family Relations

• Siblings: important source of support

– Rivalry increases – Companionship and assistance – Influenced by parental comparison

• Only children

– High in self-esteem, achievement motivation – Closer relationships with parents

• Pressure for mastery

– Peer acceptance may be a problem

• Lack of practice in conflict resolution

Slide 25

Changes in Peer Relations

Slide 26

• Peers become more important

– Want to be part of a group – Peer interaction increases for recreation, group identification, and friendships – Look for acceptance and loyalty

• Same-sex group preferences until age 12

– Begin to show empathy and caring – Exclusion from groups may result in bullying problems – Peer acceptance to predict psychological adjustment

Peer Statuses

Popular

Frequently nominated as a best friend; rarely disliked by peers

Average

Receive average number of positive and negative nominations from peers

Neglected

Infrequently nominated as a best friend but not disliked by peers

Rejected

Infrequently nominated as a best friend; actively disliked by peers

Controversial Frequently nominated as someone’s

best friend and as being disliked

Determinants of peer status

Slide 28

• Why is one child liked while another is rejected?
• Skills of popular children

– Give out reinforcements, act naturally – Listen carefully, keep open communication – Are happy, control negative emotions – Show enthusiasm, concern for others

• Controversial/neglected children

– Blend of positive and negative social behaviours – Hostile and disruptive but also engage in positive prosocial acts – Often bully others and aggressive to sustain their dominance – Surprisingly, socially well adjusted: no loneliness or unhappiness,

Determinants of peer status

Slide 29

• Behaviors of rejected children

– Less classroom participation – Negative attitudes on school attendance – More often report being lonely – Aggressive peer-rejected boys

• Impulsive, problems being attentive, disruptive
• Emotionally reactive, slow to calm down
• Have fewer social skills to make friends

Bullying

Slide 30

• Verbal or physical behavior intended to disturb

someone less powerful

– ..\..\..\First Sem_2015-2016\First Sem\PSYC 335\videos on infant socio dev\Casey Heynes - Origional Video fight guy.mp4

Bullying

Slide 31

Bullies

• Most are boys
• Physically, relationally

aggressive

• High-status, powerful
• Some may have low self-

esteem

• May be previous victims of

bullying

• More likely to have lower

grades, smoke or drink alcohol

• Popular

– But most become disliked

Victims

• Passive when active

behavior expected

• Give in to demands
• Lack defenders
• Inhibited temperament
• Physically weak
• Overprotected, controlled

by parents

• Tend to have low self-

esteem

Sample Question

Slide 32

• Contrast socio-emotional

development in early and middle childhood