Social Developmen Exam 1

Front 1

What information can parents provide that would help you, as a clinician, understand that child's cultural learning environment?

Back 1

*Rountines, preferred activities, organized social activities.

a. Cultural learning environment: the “child’s active learning within his or her behavior settings, acquiring the cultural beliefs and practices of that niche.”
b. So, we’d want to know the beliefs and practices associated with the culture the child lives in. Dinnertime, visiting relatives, doing homework, household work, hanging out with friends, organized play dates, bedtime, soccer practice, playing video games, going to church, going on a date, etc.

Front 2

How is the US culture markedly different from many others in regards to child's play?

Back 2

a. In the US/Western middle-class, parents have a “kind of child-adult protofriendship role” in which “adults treat the child as a kind of a coequal playmate” with “special toys,” etc. In most cultures in the world, parents do not consider playing with their children as part of their parental role/ethnopsychological script.

Front 3

What are the four means proposed by which children develop most of their cultural knowledge?

Back 3

a. Maximized constancy of child’s experience around the learning of important lessons about what is valued.
b. Learning cultural knowledge is made emotionally arousing.
c. Lessons providing cultural knowledge are attached to global evaluations of child’s behavior and the child as approved or disapproved.
d. Child trained first in some emotional predisposition, priming them for later lessons about what is desired and expected as adult.

Front 4

According to Greenfield, Keller, Fuligni, & Maynard (2003), what are the three universal tasks of human development?

Back 4

a. The formation of social relationships
b. The acquisition of knowledge
c. The balance between autonomy and relatedness at adolescence

Front 5

According to Weisner, why is culture the most important influence on a child’s social development?

Back 5

a. Stimulation, nutrition, and resources are necessary for the child to develop socially. How these critical needs are met is defined by culture – determined by the cultural community in which infant and caregiver are embedded in.

Front 6

Weisner lists five ways in which cultures can be identified. What are they?

Back 6

a. Language, cultural history, geography, political status, or ethnic identity.

Front 7

Contrast the “pediatric” emphasis of early childhood development with the “pedagogical” emphasis.

Back 7

a. Pedatric: physical survival, health, motoric development. Pedagogical: language, cognitive and social responsiveness.

Front 8

Developmental niche (Super & Harkeness, 1996)

Back 8

a. Three core features: the physical and social settings of development; the customary methods of child care; and the psychology of caretakers.

Front 9

Parental ethnotheories

Back 9

a. Parents’ cultural beliefs about children and childrearing. E.g., Dutch parents less likely than US parents to believe that children innately vary in how regular they are in sleep due to differing parental ethnotheories.

Front 10

Socially distributed care

Back 10

a. Sibling caretaking. “Near cross-cultural universal for children in many parts of the world… first you are the recipient of care from others, then you gradually age into being a caretaker yourself.”

Front 11

Amae

Back 11

*respecting the needs of others

a. Japanese need to be in good favor with and depend on people around you. Behavior designed to induce authority figure to care for you. E.g., behaving childishly so parents will indulge you.

Front 12

Ecocultural Theories

Back 12

a. Studies of cultural context that incorporate both the proximal learning environment (the behavior settings of everyday child and parental life) and the more ecological and physical environment.

Front 13

What is multilinearity and how does considering it change our design of longitudinal research?

Back 13

a. Multilinearity is multiple pathways for development. (Remember example of relationship between playing violent video games and engaging in violent behavior – the correlation is modest because there are multiple pathways.)
b. If multilinearity is important in the phenomenon we are studying longitudinally, we should focus on short-term longitudinal change at critical junctions rather than changes over long time periods. Look at the forks in the road.

Front 14

What does Tomasello propose as a unique social activity for young humans?

Back 14

a. Both young chimps and humans are able to understand perception and intent of others. However, chimps can’t engage in “shared intentionality,” or the sharing of emotions, experiences, and activities with others.
b. E.g., chimp can find food under marked box. But if you try to help it by pointing at unmarked box, it won’t understand. Human will.

Front 15

Discuss James’ “I vs. Me” distinction in relation to the self.

Back 15

a. I: self as agent. Child begins to understand what they can make happen in the world; what can I do?
b. Me: self as object. How am I perceived by others? Lots more research here – e.g., self-esteem, self-concept.

Front 16

In general, what does the development of the self mainly involve for infants? For preschoolers?

Back 16

a. Infants: *Self-recognition.* Sensorimotor oriented thinking. Reality is the actions I and others produce in the world. Early challenges: differentiation of self from others and from world; self-recognition.
b. Preschoolers: *Self-concept.* symbolic conceptualization→ uniqueness and self-concept. What’s different or not different about me? This process directed inward leads to understanding of self; directed outward, understanding of social world.

Front 17

Discuss the major theme of adolescence presented in class in terms of the reconciliation of growth spurt, formal operations, and identity formation.

Back 17

a. Growth spurt: massive biological changes happen daily during this time. Secondary sex characteristics and just general growth.
b. Formal operations: allow for abstract (vs. concrete) thought. Can conceive of future possibilities – not just here-and-now.
c. Identity formation develops based on these factors and concept of past projected into future (Erik Erikson) – this is who I was, who I am, who I will become.

Front 18

Generally, how do emotion regulation strategies change as children develop (specifically in early-middle childhood)?

Back 18

Language development allows children to better differentiate more complex emotions. As children are able to understand, describe, and elaborate on a wider range of emotional experiences, they are able to develop more complex strategies for regulating these emotions. Modeling through family interactions allows children to pick up on cultural norms (display rules) for emotion regulation and adapt their own behavior to fit with these norms. Through these processes emotional reactivity declines in favor of greater emotion control. As children grow older and have more social and academic challenges, they are better able to distract themselves from and more positively evaluate negative emotional experiences.

Front 19

How is emotion regulation a dyadic process?

Back 19

The development of adaptive emotion regulation skills occurs in the interactions between the individual child and his/her social environment. Early in life, caregivers primarily constitute the child’s social environment, but later on teachers and peers act as partners to the child in his/her emotion regulation development. It is in this way the emotion regulation is dyadic: it is a bidirectional process between the child and the figures in his/her social environment.

Front 20

What are the three ways that temperament may affect the display and development of emotional regulation?

Back 20

One way that temperament may affect emotion regulation is by constraining the development of specific regulatory behaviors. For instance, having generalized negative reactions to novel things can limit the opportunities an infant has to practice adaptive responses to negative affect. Another way temperament may affect emotion regulation is by moderating the behavior of caregivers. Effective regulation responses will not be fostered if caregivers do not provide appropriate support for difficult-temperament infants. Finally, temperament may be mediated by other processes related to emotion regulation. In particular, control of attention may act as a mediator in this process.

Front 21

According to Seifer and colleagues, what are four factors that influence the “goodness-of-fit” between parent and child?

Back 21

Factors that influence goodness-of-fit are the infant’s behavior, the parent’s expectations about infant behavior, the actual parenting style employed, and the context in which parent-child interactions occur.

Front 22

What are the three psychobiological methods used to assess temperament?

Back 22

The three psychobiological measures of temperament are heart rate, brain activity (EEG), and adrenocortical activity that is measured by cortisol levels in saliva. Heart rate variability is believed to reflect differences in sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity which is implicated in emotional reactivity and behavioral inhibition. Asymmetrical electrical activity between the left and right hemispheres of the brain has been shown to be predictive of behavioral inhibition and separation anxiety. Cortisol is used as a proxy for emotional reactivity as it fluctuates in response to physiological and psychological stress.

Front 23

Rothbart proposed a highly influential theory of child temperament. Briefly describe the two main dimensions central to Rothbart’s theory. In what way do they contribute to later personality development?

Back 23

The dimensions of Rothbart’s theory are the reactive dimension and the self-regulation dimension. The reactive dimension refers to infants’ physiological and behavioral reactions to things in the environment. Early in life, these reactions (particularly in response to negative stimuli) signal distress and serve as basic, preliminary forms of more complex emotions like fear and anger. The self-regulation dimension refers to degree of control over attention or the ability to maintain focus. Control over attention is important in emotion regulation development as differential focus of attention results in different emotional experiences.

Front 24

Calkins & Mackler describe a hypothetical infant who is highly negatively reactive to novel stimuli. In what way might this infant’s temperament affect his or her ability to develop emotional regulation?

Back 24

Having generalized negative reactions to new people, places, and things will result in the infant having few opportunities to display (practice) behaviors that reduce negative affect. In other words, constantly being exposed to novel stimuli will not afford opportunities to practice effective emotional regulation behaviors. Therefore, due to a lack of practice, it is likely that the child will not have a rich set of emotion regulation skills to work with as he/she develops.

Front 25

According to Eisenberg, what are the consequences of poor emotional regulation?

Back 25

Eisenberg’s and others’ research has revealed that children who exhibit poor emotion regulation are more likely to be aggressive, to have acting out behavioral problems, and to have poorer peer status. However, effective coping in response to peer rejection has been positively linked to social competence. Such social skills, as well as caregiving environments, influence the relationship between emotional regulation and social outcomes.

Front 26

How is emotion regulation a dyadic process? What are the research implications of this view?

Back 26

The development of adaptive emotion regulation skills occurs in the interactions between the individual child and his/her social environment. Early in life, caregivers primarily constitute the child’s social environment, but later on teachers and peers act as partners to the child in his/her emotion regulation development. It is in this way the emotion regulation is dyadic: it is a bidirectional process between the child and the figures in his/her social environment. The implications for research are that more tools and techniques are needed to evaluate this interactional context, as opposed to just assessing individuals. Researchers also need to take into consideration that these social interactions will qualitatively change over time. Research also needs to examine how temperament affects the kinds of social agents that children seek out and choose to engage.

Front 27

goodness of fit

Back 27

The extent that a child’s temperament is compatible (or “fits”) with their environment, specifically the child’s caregivers. This is interactional, shaped by both the child and the environment.

Front 28

emotion regulation

Back 28

Skills, strategies, and behaviors that change the experience and expression of emotion. These can be either implicit or explicit (automatic or controlled) skills. Emotion regulation is a process that involves both reactions and efforts to control emotional experiences.

Front 29

temperament

Back 29

Relatively context-free (cross-situational) individual differences that determine the individual’s affective, attentional, and motor responses and play a role in social development. It affects development through emotion regulation. From lecture: NOT biologically driven.

Front 30

social comparison

Back 30

Comparing one’s own skills, abilities, and performance with that of others as a means of evaluating oneself. This is typically not practiced by very young children (under 7 years old).

Front 31

List Marcia’s (1966) four identity statuses and distinguish them in terms of high versus low exploration and commitment.

Back 31

The exploration dimension refers to whether the person has actively questioned his/her goals and values. The commitment dimension refers to whether the person has finalized these goals and values. Identity achievement status results from commitment after a time of exploration. Identity foreclosure reflects a commitment to an identity without any critical exploration (e.g., adopting the values of parents). Identity moratorium is a status of ongoing exploration without a firm commitment. Identity diffusion reflects no exploration or commitment (i.e., apathy towards identity establishment).

Front 32

Briefly describe Berry’s four possible acculturative strategies.

Back 32

Assimilation is integrating oneself into the dominant (majority) culture without maintaining practice of the original culture. Separation is maintaining the original culture while distancing oneself from the dominant culture. Integration is the adoption of the dominant culture while at the same time maintaining the original culture. Finally, marginalization is a lack of participation in either the dominant or original cultures.

Front 33

List three negative outcomes known to be related to low self-esteem in childhood and adolescence.

Back 33

Negative outcomes related to low self-esteem are depression (psychological well-being), substance abuse, school dropout, criminal behavior, risky sexual behavior, teenage pregnancy, and low satisfaction in personal relationships.

Front 34

How does self esteem relate to actual competence in early childhood vs. in older children, and what seems to be the cause of this development?

Back 34

Self-esteem is generally unrelated to actual competence in early childhood. This is closely tied to the positivity bias that seems to occur generally in children. As children grow older, their self-evaluations become more in-line with their actual ability. This change occurs because of cognitive development and because feedback and judgment of ability (i.e., in school) gets more evaluative as children advance.

Front 35

Discuss the changes seen in self-descriptions and assessments from early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

Back 35

Self-descriptions in early childhood are centered on observable, physical attributes and skills such as physical traits (“I have brown hair”), possessions (“I have a bike”), or specific skills (“I can count to 100”). In middle childhood, descriptions begin to incorporate psychological and dispositional attributes that might be generalized based on specific behaviors (“I’m helpful” or “I sometimes get angry”). Children in middle childhood also begin to describe social competencies (“I’m well-liked” or “I can be friends with anyone”). Finally, in adolescence, self-descriptions are qualified by context (situation-dependent) and incorporate beliefs, values, and aspirations for their future.

Front 36

reflected appraisal

Back 36

One’s perceptions of others’ perceptions of oneself. Essentially, your perception of how others view you (it may or may not be accurate!).

Front 37

looking glass self

Back 37

A self-concept formed by learning about others’ perceptions and evaluations of oneself. Seeing yourself in terms of how others see you.

Front 38

What is the Hostile Attribution Bias?

Back 38

The hostile attribution bias is the tendency to attribute hostile intent to an aggressive act when actual intent may be ambiguous. This was examined in experiments by Dodge in which aggressive and non-aggressive children had their puzzle board ruined by another child whose apparent intent was manipulated to be hostile, accidental, or ambiguous. Aggressive children attributed hostility to ambiguous acts while non-aggressive children tended to believe it was accidental. Additionally, people tend to attribute hostility to ambiguous acts that are performed by children with aggressive reputations.

Front 39

Briefly review the view of the child from Greeks, to Middle Ages, to Locke, to Rousseau.

Back 39

The early Greeks viewed the child as on the same level as animals, believing that adults had a fundamentally higher level of thought. In the middle ages, children were viewed as miniature adults who have volition. These people believed that the essence of a fully developed adult was contained in the sperm and egg. Thus children in this age were (more or less) treated as adults and lived as adults beginning from an early age. John Locke viewed the child as an incomplete adult. He postulated that children were born as blank slates and shaped by experience. Finally, Rousseau thought of childhood as a unique developmental period that is distinct from adult experiences. He believed that children are born as naturally “good” and are only corrupted later in life.

Front 40

How does Rogoff define development (in terms of culture)? That is, what constitutes “development?” (I’m not asking for the inseparableness of the two.)

Back 40

Rogoff defines development in terms of changes in cultural participation over time. Humans develop by taking on different social roles and engaging in different cultural activities as time passes. Therefore, the “normal” course of development will differ between cultures depending on social norms and practices. However, cultures also change over time, so developmental trajectories that are defined in terms of cultural practices will change as the culture changes. Also key to this approach is the fact that there is no single “correct” or “best” path to follow in development, and there is no single underlying goal that development is intended to achieve.

Front 41

Four reasons why theories are important.

Back 41

a. Theories guide developmental research
b. Theories direct attention to important new areas of study
c. Theories provide foundational assumptions about development processes
d. Theories generate scholarly interest in new areas

Front 42

What are the two reasons that Piagetian theory has lost academic popularity in the last few decades?

Back 42

a. Piaget’s stage theory of development and recent understanding that conceptual growth is not necessarily stage-like.
b. His underestimation of the cognitive abilities of infants and young children in his theories. Using simpler methods than used by Piaget researchers have found young children are more sophisticated than outlined by Piaget’s theories.

Front 43

What are the two essential ideas behind constructivism?

Back 43

That the child is an active reasoned rather than a passive recipient of stimulation or reinforcement

The child’s current structures of reasoning mediate between environmental events and the knowledge that is derived from them.

Front 44

In what way was Watson’s behaviorism in agreement with Frued’s psychoanalytic thinking?

Back 44

Each approach shared a developmental emphasis on the role of parents and the influence of early experience. For example, behaviorism suggests children be treated objectively and systematically, with parents aware of how their reactions share the behavior of their offspring. Psychoanalytic theory is concerned with identification with the parent and how the child imitates such behavior.

Front 45

According to Piaget, what are the conditions that promote change in a child’s cognition, and what social agents are most responsible for promoting such developmental changes in a child’s cognition?

Back 45

The processes of assimilation and accommodation promote change in a child’s cognition. Peers are considered the social agents most responsible for promoting changes in a child’s cognition when they are confronted with another’s ideas that cannot readily be assimilated into their prior beliefs. The peer is influential as they are on a more equal conceptual footing in relation to each other.

Front 46

Discuss two general tenets of the Dynamic Systems Theory approach.

Back 46

*allows for unique and individual outcomes; system is not specified. System is self-organizing over time.

*holistic approach - not just a piece of the organism, but the whole person.

Front 47

List 3 developmental concepts of Freud that are still relevant in the modern era of developmental theory.

Back 47

a. The importance of the parent-child relationship early in life.
b. The centrality of emotion to early psychological experience
c. The influence of conflict on psychology growth

Front 48

How are ethological and evolutionary theories similar? How are they distinct?

Back 48

These theories are similar in their contextual orientation. They both view social development as biologically deeply rooted within humans. They are distinct in that they emphasize different processes (universal or local (e.g, cultural)). Evolutionary theory broader (universal).

Front 49

According to Bowlby, what is the function of infant attachment behaviors?

Back 49

Long-term survival. Because human infants are incapable of caring for themselves and are defenceless crying, clinging, reaching evolved to keep caretakers close and provides an opportunity to learn survival skills.

Front 50

Ethology

Back 50

A branch of biological sciences dedicated to the study of animal behavior.

Front 51

Constructivism

Back 51

The Piaget theory that children actively construct knowledge through their interactions with events and objects.

Front 52

Internal working models

Back 52

(attachment) Conscious and nonconscious mental representations/schema of relationships between the self and others.

Front 53

Zone of proximal development

Back 53

An aspect of Vygotskian theory describing the difference between the child’s current developmental achievements that are independently exhibited and the child’s higher level capacity that emerges with the guidance of a more experienced partner.

Front 54

Guided participation

Back 54

A learning process in which an individual learns through social interaction with a “tutor” (frequently a parent) who offers assistance, structures opportunities, models strategies, and provides explicit instruction as needed.

Front 55

Why might classifying culture based upon membership be inappropriate and what is a better scheme?

Back 55

***MAY BE INCORRECT

Classifying culture based upon membership may be inappropriate because within cultures there is a large amount of variation between individuals within a culture and a better scheme for classification is understanding patterns through regularities that make sense of differences and similarities across traditions.

Front 56

What is the purpose of cultural research?

Back 56

The purpose of cultural research is to move beyond overgeneralizations that assume that human development everywhere functions in the same way as researchers’ own communities and to be able to account for both similarities and differences across communities.

Front 57

What is Rogoff’s overarching orientation concept for understanding cultural processes?

Back 57

Humans develop through their changing participant in the socio-cultural activities of their communities which also change.

Front 58

List and discuss two of the “orienting concepts” the author describes as a means to understand cultural processes.

Back 58

a. Cultural practices fit together and are connected: Cultural processes involve multifaceted relations among many aspects of community functioning rather than being seen as a collection of variables that operate independently. It is not possible to reduce differences between communities to a single variable or two and to attempt to do so would destroy the coherence amongst the features that usefully refer to culture.
b. Cultural communities continue to change, as do individuals: A community’s history and relations to other communities as a part of the cultural process. Variation among community members are to be expected as individual connect in various ways with other communities and experiences.

Front 59

Discuss one challenge that “outsiders” face and one challenge that “insiders” face when doing cross cultural research.

Back 59

A challenge faced by “outsiders” is that their identity is not neutral and thus is allows access to only some situations and elicits specific reactions as a result of their presence. An insider may be unlikely to reflect or notice phenomena that would be of interest for an outsider and thus, misses important data necessary for quality research.

Front 60

Linear cultural evolution

Back 60

The development of one or more cultures from simpler to more complex forms.

Front 61

Emic approach

Back 61

Attempt to represent cultural insiders’ perspective on a particular community by means of extensive observation and participation in community activities.

Front 62

Ethnocentricism

Back 62

Making judgements that another culture’s ways are immoral, unwise, or inappropriate based on one’s own cultural background without taking into account the meaning and circumstances of events in that community.

Front 63

Functional equivalence

Back 63

A suggestion by cultural researchers that because identical behaviors can have different functions in different communities behaviors should only be compared when it is an attempted solution to a recurrent problem shared by different groups.

Front 64

Imposed etic approach

Back 64

Investigator makes general statements about human functioning across communities based on imposing a culturally inappropriate understanding. The researcher uncritically applies theory, assumptions, and measures from the researcher’s own community which are not sufficiently adapted to the community or phenomenon under study. Results are not interpreted in a way that is congruent with the situation in the community being studied.

Front 65

Derived etic approach

Back 65

Researcher adapts ways of questioning, observing, and interpreting to fit the perspective of participants. Results are informed by emic approaches in each group and seeking to understand the meaning of phenomena to the research participants.

Front 66

Critique the following statement “Intelligence is determined more by genetic makeup than by environmental factors.”

Back 66

To say this is to say that they are separable; e.g., additive, or multiplicative. They're not. Intelligence is 100% both.

Front 67

What is meant by socialization versus individuation?

Back 67

Socialization refers to the process where an individual learns the beliefs, attitudes, norms deemed acceptable by society whereas individualization refers to a sense of self. Socialization is what is my place in the world? and individualization is who am I?
Individualization is the development of the sense of self. Socialization is the development of being able to interact with other humans.

Front 68

Considering cohort effects, briefly evaluate longitudinal and cross sectional research in terms of challenges to internal and external validity.

Back 68

Longitudinal studies have good internal validity but poor external validity when considering cohort effects. The opposite is true for cross sectional research which has good external validity but poor internal validity. However these results hold only if you believe cohort effects are relevant.