Psych 09-2 Psychology of Human Development SY 2011 2012 Second Semester Week No. 9-10 of 17 (Jan.

. 30-Feb 4, 2012) Instructions: Please read the following topics carefully Use Search engines to find details Refer to Video server sites to find supplementary tutorials, and provide the links to your assignment reply. References:
Berger, KS (2008) The Developing Person Through the Life Span, Seventh Edition Worth Publishers

Topic: The School Years: Biosocial Development,

Cognitive Development, Psychosocial Development

Objectives: At the end of the session, the student is expected to:

1. Describe normal physical growth and development during middle childhood, and account for the usual variations among children. 2. Discuss the benefits and hazards of play activity and physical exercise for 7- to 11-yearolds. 3. Explain how achievement and aptitude tests are used in evaluating individual differences in cognitive growth, and discuss why use of such tests is controversial. 4. Describe Sternberg's and Gardner's theories of multiple intelligences, and explain the significance of these theories. 5. Describe the symptoms and treatment of attention-deficit disorder and attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder, and discuss the use and misuse of prescription drugs in treating these disorders.

Biosocial Development
CHAPTER GUIDE
Compared with other periods of life, middle childhood is a time of relatively smooth and uneventful biosocial development. Growth proceeds more slowly than during the preschool years.

Children become slimmer than in earlier years, their muscles become stronger, and their lung capacity increases. One serious size problem during middle childhood is obesity. Children are said to be overweight when their body mass index is above the 85th percentile of the growth chart for their age and, and obese when their body mass index is above the 95th percentile of the growth chart for their age and height. Obesity reduces exercise and increases blood pressure, both of which are associated with serious health problems in adulthood. School achievement and self-esteem decrease and loneliness increases as weight increases. Genes are part of the explanation for one child being heavier than another, because they affect body type, metabolic rate, activity level, and food preferences. People who inherit the FTO gene allele from both parents are more likely to be obese. Genes do not act alone. Environmental factors, such the diets of the childs parents and grandparents and a lack of physical activity, are the main reasons for the increase in childhood obesity. Children who watch more than two hours of television and drink more than two servings of soda each day are more often overweight than those who do not. Physical activity promotes better health, less obesity, and an appreciation of cooperation and fair play, and it improves problem solving and social skills. On the other hand, when a child is criticized by a coach or teammate, it can lower self-esteem. Physical activity also may increase injuries and stress. About 13 percent of children have special health needs. Among those that often get worse during the school years are Tourette syndrome, stuttering, and allergies. A serious problem for many children is asthma a disorder characterized by chronic inflammation of the airways. Asthma is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. The causes of asthma include genetic factors, overprotection from infections and diseases that could strengthen the immune system, carpeted floors, airtight windows, less outdoor play, and exposure to allergens such as pet hair, dust mites, and cockroaches (actually, allergens are triggers, not causes). The use of injections and inhalers to treat asthma is an example of tertiary prevention. The best approach to treating childhood diseases is primary prevention, which in the case of asthma includes proper ventilation of homes and schools, decreased pollution, and more outdoor play spaces. Secondary prevention reduces new cases among high-risk children by advising parents to rid the house of allergens and to take their children for regular checkups. As the executive functions of the brain continue to develop in middle childhood, several behaviors that were common in early childhood can be

controlled, including emotional outbursts. Ongoing maturation of the prefrontal cortex allows children to analyze the consequences of their behaviors before engaging in them. Brain maturation is a key factor in reaction time, which naturally improves with age. Two other advances in brain function become evident in middle childhood: the ability to attend to information from many areas of the brain at once and focus on the most important elements, called selective attention, and automatization, in which the repetition of thoughts and actions allows skills to become automatic. Aptitude tests are designed to measure learning potential; achievement tests are designed to measure what a child has learned. The most commonly used aptitude tests are intelligence tests, referred to as IQ tests. In the original version of these tests, a persons score was translated into a mental age, which was divided by the persons chronological age and multiplied by 100 to determine his or her IQ. Todays formula is more complex. The average IQ scores of nations have increased, a phenomenon called the Flynn Effect. Two highly regarded IQ tests are the StanfordBinet and Wechsler tests. The most commonly used psychological test for school-age children is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). Historically, children with IQs below 70 were classified as having mental retardation. Today, they must also be unusually low in adaptation to daily life. Gifted children usually have IQs above 130. IQ testing is controversial because no test can measure aptitude without also measuring achievement. Also, intellectual potential changes over time, and culture comes into play. Robert Sternberg believes that there are three distinct types of intelligence: academic, creative, and practical. Similarly, Howard Gardner describes eight intelligences. Children with special needs require extra help in order to learn because of the difficulties posed by psychological disorders such as attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder. Among the conditions that give rise to special needs are anxiety disorder, autism, conduct disorder, clinical depression, developmental delay, learning disabilities, Down syndrome, attachment disorder, attention-deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, and Asperger syndrome. These conditions begin with a biological anomaly. The field of developmental psychopathology applies insights from studies of normal development to the origins and treatment of childhood disorders, and vice versa. Research in this area has provided four lessons: a. Abnormality is normal. b. Disability changes over time.

c. Adulthood may be better or worse. d. Diagnosis begins with the social context. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) recognizes that each childs cultural frame of reference needs to be understood before any disorder can be diagnosed. One of the most puzzling childhood problems is attention-deficit disorder (ADD). The most common type is ADHD (attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder), in which the child has great difficulty concentrating for more than a few moments at a time and is almost always in motion. A child with ADHD is usually inattentive, impulsive, and overactive. ADHD children seem to have a neurological difficulty that hinders their ability to pay attention. Conditions such as delinquency are comorbid with ADHD. The most effective treatment for ADHD is a combination of medication, psychological therapy, and training for parents and teachers. For unknown reasons, drugs that stimulate adults, such as Adderall and Ritalin, have a reverse effect on hyperactive children. Most child psychologists agree that drugs are both overused and underused for children with ADHD. Treating children with drugs is a complex issue. Few drugs have been studied with children, and dosages are hard to nail down due to a childs constantly changing weight and metabolism. A learning disability is a marked delay in a particular area of learning that is not caused by any apparent physical disability, by mental retardation, or by an unusually stressful home environment. A common learning disability is dyslexia, which is unusual difficulty with reading. Because dyslexia seems to originate with speech and hearing problems, early speech therapy may reduce or prevent later reading problems. Autistic spectrum disorders are characterized by inadequate social skills, impaired communication, and abnormal play. Autism is one of several types of autistic spectrum disorders. Autistic children are unable to relate to other people normally, they are self-absorbed, and they are unable to acquire normal speech. The problem may be a deficit in the brains mirror neurons. Asperger syndrome (also called highfunctioning autism) is a disorder in which a person has impaired social interaction but near-normal communication skills and brilliance in some areas. Although genes make some embryos vulnerable to autism, another possibility is that some teratogens harm their developing brains. Among the possible toxins are pesticides, cleaning chemicals, and some ingredients in nail polish. One suspected toxin was the antiseptic thimerosal, which was used in childhood immunizations, but this hypothesis was disproved and thimerosal was removed from vaccines. Various programs have been developed to treat autistic children. Some emphasize language,

others stress attachment, and still others encourage social connections. For all children with special needs, individualized instruction before age 6 often helps to develop better learning strategies. The process of formally identifying a child with special needs usually begins with a teacher referral, which may ultimately lead to agreement on an individual education plan (IEP) for the child. About 35 years ago, a U.S. law mandated that children with special needs must learn in the least restrictive environment (LRE), which meant mainstreaming them in a regular classroom. Some schools developed resource rooms in which specialneeds children would spend time with a teacher who worked individually with them. However, pulling them out of the classroom in this way undermined friendships and learning. In the most recent approach, inclusion, learning-disabled children receive targeted help within regular classrooms. Evaluation

overweight, 9-year-old Celine, whom they adopted two years ago, weighs about 30 percent more than the average girl of her age and height. We just cant understand it, they lament. Shes tried several diets and still cant lose weight! Shes so upset that all she does is mope around the house all day. What can we do to help our daughter? To advise Celines parents, you obviously need more information. Your task in this exercise is twofold. First, generate a list of questions you might ask to help pinpoint the cause(s) of Celines weight problem. Each question should focus on a specific biological, social, or behavioral influence that might cause obesity. Then, for each question, explain how the answer will help you determine the cause of Celines weight problem and what you might recommend as a result. To help you get started, one question is provided. Question 1: How many hours of television does Celine watch each day? Reason for asking: Recommendation Question 2: Reason for asking: Recommendation Question 3: Reason for asking: Recommendation Question 4: Reason for asking: Recommendation B. Developing Your Practical Intelligence Below are five everyday situations followed by three options that represent alternative ways of handling the situation. There is no single right or wrong answer; what is right will depend on your assessment of the situation and on your own personality and abilities. For each situation, pick the course of action that is right for you. 1. Your 1989 Plymouth station wagon is about to give up the ghost. To avoid the inevitable breakdown, you decide to purchase a new car, a Ford Thunderbird. The local dealership, which is well stocked with the new model, has a good reputation. After describing to the salesperson just what you have in mind, you find that the price is much higher than you expected. Do you:

A. Developmental Fact or Myth?

1. Children grow more rapidly during middle childhood than at any other time. 2. Lung capacity decreases during middle childhood. 3. Adopted children whose biological parents were obese but whose adoptive parents are thin will not be obese. 4. The best way to get children to lose weight is to increase their physical activity. 5. IQ scores are not very reliable in predicting school achievement. 6. Intellectual potential does not change over the life span. 7. The crucial factor in attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder is neurological, a brain deficit that results in great difficulty in paying attention. 8. Almost four times as many boys as girls have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. 9. One of the first noticeable symptoms of autism is lack of spoken language. 10. Mainstreaming is the most effective method for educating children with special needs.

B. Critical Thinking Activity: Obesity and Weight

Loss Now that you have read and reviewed Chapter, take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on this practical problemsolving exercise. Celines parents are concerned about their daughters weight. Although neither of her parents is

a. decide to haggle and bargain for the absolute lowest price possible? b. resign yourself to the purchase of a different type of auto? c. buy the car of your dreams, knowing that you will have to get a second job to supplement your income? 2. All semester long you have been struggling to keep up with the assignments for your cognitive psychology course. Two weeks before the final, you contract a severe case of the flu. The illness robs you of a week of valuable study time, forcing you to cram for several exams in one week. Faced with the prospect of ruining your GPA, do you: a. pull off a superhuman series of all-nighters? b. ask the professor to reschedule your exam? c. drop one or more of the courses, as the pressure is just too great? 3. Your best friend, Jill, always cheats when the two of you play tennis. She reflexively calls any ball out that falls even remotely near a line. In the face of this inexplicable ridiculousness, do you: a. refuse to play tennis with her? After all, you have plenty of other tennis partners who do not cheat. b. decide that tennis is just a game to be enjoyed and, knowing in your heart that you are a better player, elect to tolerate her foolishness? c. take Jill aside, tell her with all the tact you can muster that this type of behavior is abominable, and make her promise to play squarely? 4. You arrive late for a meeting at a restaurant and are forced to sit in the smoking section (assuming that you find a restaurant that still has a smoking section). The person next to you turns out to be a heavy smoker. The area around your seat is shrouded in a cloud of blue smoke, and your allergies are stifling you. To remedy the situation, do you: a. go to the bathroom every time he lights up? b. ask him not to smoke? c. call for the maitre d and demand a new table? 5. Aunt Gertrude gives you a shirt for Christmas that is not quite your style. In fact, poor Aunt Gertrude is always giving you the most hideous gifts, and this one is no exception: an ugly, red plaid, 100-percent polyester, Nehrucollared nightmare. In this delicate situation do you: a. exchange the shirt for a nice Oxford cloth buttondown? b. take Aunt Gertrude aside to discuss in private the nature of the gifts that you would like to receive in the future? c. hang the shirt in the back of the closet and resolve to wear it at the next Halloween party you attend?

Sources: Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Intelligence applied: Understanding and increasing your intellectual skills. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Practical intelligence in everyday life. New York: Cambridge University Press. C. Physical Disabilities: Everything Is Harder When biosocial development does not proceed normally, life becomes more difficult. This exercise asks you to relate Eriksons developmental stages to the problems of people with learning disabilities resulting from impaired biosocial development. In each case, think about how a problem in biosocial development might make it more difficult to resolve one of Eriksons eight psychosocial crises in a positive way. Base your answers on material from the text, your own experiences, or the experiences of someone you know. Note that this exercise requires you to integrate material discussed from earlier developmental periods and also to anticipate later developmental issues. You may find it helpful to review the discussion of Eriksons theory before completing this exercise. Trust versus mistrust: Autonomy versus shame and doubt: Initiative versus guilt: Industry versus inferiority: Identity versus role confusion: Intimacy versus isolation: Generativity versus stagnation: Integrity versus despair: Source: Adapted from Straub, R. O. (2001). Seasons of life study guide (4th ed.). New York: Worth.

At the end of the session, the student is expected to: 1. Identify and discuss the logical operations of Piagets concrete operational thought, and give examples of how these operations are demonstrated by schoolchildren. 2. Explain how processing speed increases in middle childhood as a result of advances in automatization and a larger knowledge base. 3. Describe the development of language during the school years, noting changing abilities in vocabulary and pragmatics.

4. Differentiate several approaches to teaching reading and math, and discuss evidence regarding the effectiveness of these methods. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT According to Piaget, between ages 7 and 11 children are in the stage of concrete operational thought. Although more recent research indicates that some logical thought appears before middle childhood, Piaget revealed that school-age children can use mental categories flexibly, inductively, and simultaneously. The childs ability to classify objects into categories according to some common property improves steadily during middle childhood. One logical principle understood by schoolchildren is identity, the idea that certain characteristics of an object remain the same even when other characteristics are changed. Another is reversibility, the principle that a transformation can be restored to its original state by undoing it. Vygotsky agreed with Piagets attention to the actual thinking of the child, but, unlike Piaget, regarded peers and teachers as crucial to cognitive development. Vygotskys emphasis on the sociocultural context contrasts with Piagets more maturational approach. Research shows that the same patterns of childrens cognition are apparent worldwide. Childrens understanding of classification, for example, is influenced not only by age (Piaget) but also by factors related to social interaction (Vygotsky). According to information-processing theory, incoming stimuli are held for a split second in the sensory memory (also called the sensory register), after which most of it is lost or discarded. Meaningful material is transferred into working memory (previously called short-term memory). This part of memory handles mental activity that is current and conscious. Long-term memory stores information for days, months, or years. Storage of information and retrieval from longterm memory are crucial to development. Retrieval is easier for some memories than for others. One difference between younger and older children is that the latter are quicker thinkers. Children who can think faster can also think about more things at once that is, their processing capacity is also increased. Neurological maturation, including ongoing myelination, helps account for the increased processing speed and capacity of school-age children. Repetition makes neurons fire in a coordinated and seemingly instantaneous sequence, so childrens mental activities become routine and automatic. Another reason children become better learners in middle childhood is that they have an expanded knowledge base, to which new knowledge becomes progressively easier to add.

The mechanisms that put memory, processing speed, and knowledge together are the control processes of selective attention, metacognition, and emotional regulation. Control processes are both spontaneous and taught. Schoolchildren are more advanced than preschoolers in metacognition, the ability to identify appropriate cognitive strategies for solving particular problems, to monitor problem-solving performance, and to use external problem-solving aids. This ability becomes evident by age 9. During middle childhood, some children learn as many as 20 new words a day and apply grammar rules they did not know before. The practical application of linguistic knowledge (pragmatics) also improves markedly at this time. Children are increasingly able to switch from proper speech (formal code) to a more colloquial informal code with their peers. About 10 percent of the student population in the United States are Englishlanguage learners (ELLs). A good time to learn a second language is in middle childhood. Many American children, most notably from Asian American backgrounds, make a language shift, replacing their original language with English. Partly to avoid this, many Asian communities offer heritage language classes that allow children to connect with their culture while learning academic subjects in the dominant language. Almost every approach to bilingual education has been tried, from total immersion, in which instruction occurs entirely in the second language, to the opposite, in which the second language is taught as a foreign language. In ESL (English as a second language) programs, children must master the basics of English before joining regular classes with other children. In bilingual education, teachers teach children in both their native language and English. The crucial difference between success and failure in second-language learning rests with the attitudes of parents, teachers, and the community. Immersion programs tend to fail if the child feels shy, stupid, or socially isolated. Language development and socioeconomic status are strongly correlated. Children from families that are low in income tend to fall behind in talking and then reading. Two other factors that strongly affect language development are parental expectations and language exposure. Nations vary in how and what they teach and how much they spend to do it. For example, they vary in when, how, and whether second-language and religious instruction occur. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a federal law that mandates annual standardized achievement tests for public school children beginning in the third grade.

This act implemented the Reading First program, reflecting the idea that the primary item of curriculum should be reading. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures achievement in reading, mathematics, and other subjects. Most developmentalists and many reading specialists now believe that teachers should use a variety of methods and strategies. Math education is more problematic than instruction in reading. This is because advances in science and technology seem to be connected to a nations economic development, many children hate math, and Western nations are behind East Asian nations. A new approach in math replaces rote learning with an emphasis on engagement and active learning. In one study, U.S. teachers presented math at a lower level with more definitions but less connections to other learning. In contrast, teachers in Japan and Germany worked more collaboratively to build childrens knowledge. Most teachers, parents, and politicians assume that children learn best with fewer students in each classroom. Research support for this is weak. Evaluation A. Developmental Fact or Myth? 1. During middle childhood, cognitive processes become more logical and more abstract. 2. Children who get their education from selling fruits or other items on the street still score well on standard math achievement tests. 3. Speed of thinking continues to improve throughout the life span. 4. The basic cognitive processing capacity of schoolchildren does not differ greatly from that of preschoolers. 5. Not until something is overlearned does it become automatic. 6. Many children between ages 7 and 11 excel at switching between formal and informal forms of language. 7. The best strategy for teaching a school-age child whose language is a nonstandard form is to conduct all instruction in standard English. 8. Most developmentalists agree that there should be a standard educational system for all children. 9. Both the phonic and whole-language approaches to learning have been disputed by current research. 10. Research supports the notion that children learn better in smaller classes. B. Observational Activity: Seriation: Skills Checklist Classification and

Arrange to observe a 5- to 7-year-old and his or her primary caregiver in a comfortable play setting, such as the childs home or day-care center. Before your scheduled observation period, read through this classification and seriation checklist to familiarize yourself with the activity and to gather the necessary testing materials. After the observation period, complete the questions on the handout and return the response sheet to your instructor. 1. Recognizes Basic Geometric Shapes Thinking begins in the visual, auditory, and tactile discriminations the child acquires from his or her environment. As Janice Beaty notes, children need to distinguish between a circle, a square, a rectangle, and a triangle, not in order to do geometry, but to be able to categorize mentally . . . . Show the child pictures of the four basic shapes, and see if he or she can name them. Alternatively, see if the child is able to draw the basic shapes or build large versions from blocks. 2. Recognizes Basic Colors Normally, color classification skills develop at about the same time as do shape classification skills. In addition to determining if your subject can recognize the basic colors of red, green, blue, yellow, black, and white, give your subject crayons or poker chips and see if he or she is able to sort into separate piles all of the greens, blues, reds, etc. 3. Recognizes Differences in Musical Tones Young children recognize variations in musical sounds very early in life. Sounds have several fundamental dimensions, including loudness (soft/loud), pitch (low note/high note), duration (short note/long note), and timbre (instrumental quality, as in the difference between the same note played on a flute and a xylophone). Determine how well your subject is able to categorize different sounds along these dimensions by playing in succession two sounds that differ in only one of the dimensions and asking the child to identify the louder (or higher, or shorter, etc.) of the two. 4. Sorts Objects by Appearance Piaget noted that seriation skills follow a developmental sequence that begins with the simple classification of objects and progresses through stages of increasing perceptual and cognitive complexity. By 5 years of age, most children are able to sort objects on the basis of more than one characteristic, as all the blue trucks, for example. Give your subject several similar sorting tasks, selecting complexity on the basis of his or her age. 5. Arranges Objects in Series According to a Rule Determine if your subject can arrange objects (blocks, sticks, toy figures) in a series according to a specific rule (smallest to largest, shortest to tallest, etc.). Most children at this age will be able to see a relationship between two objects (one is bigger, for example); many will have trouble completing a series, however, finding it confusing that an object can at the

same time be smaller than the next item in the series and larger than the preceding item. Source: Beaty, J. J. Observing development of the young child (3rd ed.), pp. 211232. Copyright 1994. Adapted by permission of Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

4. Think about the above three tasks, and explain what you experienced, using the information-processing model and terms. At the end of the session, the student is expected to: 1. Discuss the importance of peer groups to the development of school-age children, focusing on how the culture of children separates itself from adult society. 2. Outline Kohlbergs stage theory of moral development, noting several criticisms. 3. Identify the essential ways in which functional families nurture school-age children. 4. Explain how low income and high conflict can interfere with good family functioning. 5. Identify the themes or emphases of psychoanalytic views of the psychosocial development of school-age children. PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT School-age children differ from young children in their tendency to compare themselves with other people, called social comparison. Children learn lessons from peers that adults cannot teach. The culture of children includes the rules and rituals that children understand and pass down from older children to younger children. Although adults dont always approve of peer influence, children choose peers who are compatible. The culture of children does not necessarily mirror the values of adults, and its values differ by culture. It may even include deviancy training, in which children learn from peers how to avoid adult restrictions. Kohlberg studied moral reasoning by telling hypothetical stories that pose ethical dilemmas to children, adolescents, and adults. In examining the responses to these dilemmas, he found three levels of moral reasoning, with two stages at each level. I. Preconventional: Emphasis on getting rewards and avoiding punishments. Stage One: Might makes right. Stage Two: Look out for number one. II. Conventional: Emphasis on social rules. Stage Three: Good girl and nice boy. Stage Four: Law and order. III. Postconventional: Emphasis on moral principles. Stage Five: Social contract. Stage Six: Universal ethical principles. Kohlbergs theory has been criticized for failing to take into account each cultures distinctive morals and values and for ignoring gender differences in moral reasoning.

C. Observational Activity: Classification and Seriation: Follow-Up Questionnaire 1. Describe the participant and setting that you chose for this observational activity. 2. Describe any difficulties that you encountered in completing the activity. 3. Complete the following skill checklist for your subject. Demonstrated Skill Yes No Comments 1. Recognizes basic geometric shapes 2. Recognizes basic colors 3. Recognizes differences in musical tones 4. Sorts objects by appearance 5. Arranges objects in a series Given the normal variation in age norms for the attainment of the various cognitive skills you assessed, would you say that your subject was on time, early, or late in his or her cognitive development? Specify several behaviors you observed to justify your assessment of the childs skill level. Pick the skill at which your subject was the least accomplished. Suggest at least three games or educational activities that would promote the childs mastery of this skill. D. Critical Thinking Processing Activity: Information

Now that you have read and reviewed the chapter, take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on this pattern recognition exercise. 1. In the space below, draw what is on the front of a ten peso (P10.00) coin. 2. Give yourself 60 seconds to learn the following list of letters, then cover them up and see how many you can write down (without looking back at them!). NAPSEFILGNIGATNEMPOLEVEDYGOLOHCYSP 3. Give yourself 5 seconds to learn the following letters (following the same instructions as for 2). PSYCHOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AGING LIFESPAN

Kohlberg also did not seem to recognize the shift from adult to peer values. Some children are simply neglected, not really rejected. Children who are actively rejectedwho are unpopular most of the timecan be classified as either aggressive rejected or withdrawn-rejected. Aggressive-rejected children are antagonistic and confrontational; withdrawnrejected children are timid, withdrawn, and anxious. Both types of children misinterpret social situations, lack emotional regulation, and are likely to be mistreated at home. Several researchers believe that social cognition is the crucial difference between accepted children and rejected children. Well-liked children have prosocial skills. School-age children improve in effortful control. Personal friendship is more important to school-age children than is acceptance by the peer group. As children grow older, friendships become more important, more intense, and more intimate. Those in middle childhood tend to choose best friends whose backgrounds, interests, and values are similar to their own. Researchers define bullying as repeated, systematic attempts to harm a child through physical, verbal, or social attack. Bullying during middle childhood seems to be universal. Developmentalists consider bullying to be a serious problem that harms both the victim and the aggressor. Withdrawn-rejected children tend to be particularly vulnerable to bullying. Aggressive-rejected children may also become victims, called bullyvictims. Most bullies have a few admiring friends and are socially perceptive. Boys tend to use physical aggression and girls tend to use relational aggression. The origins of bullying may lie in a brain abnormality or in a genetic predisposition; these are then strengthened by insecure attachment, a stressful home life, hostile siblings, and other problems that intensify aggressive impulses rather than teach effortful control. One intervention that has proven to be effective in halting bullying is to change the social climate within schools (the whole school strategy), so that students and teachers learn ways to stop bullying attacks whenever they see them occur. It is critical that the program be evaluated on an ongoing basis. There is an ongoing debate between those who believe that genes, peers, and communities are more important influences on childrens psychosocial development and those who believe that a childs parents are much more powerful. Non-shared influences on most traits are far greater than shared influences. Even so, all researchers agree that both nature and nurture are important.

Family function refers to how well the family nurtures its children to develop their full potential. Families that function well nurture schoolchildren in five essential ways: by meeting basic needs, encouraging learning, helping them to develop self-respect, nurturing peer friendships, and providing an environment of harmony and stability. Family structure refers to the legal and genetic relationships among members of a particular family. Structure does not determine function or dysfunction. However, when the family breaks up, as in divorce or separation, children lose the harmony and stability they need. Family structures today include extended, nuclear, single parent, blended, adoptive, polygamous, stepparent, grandparents alone, homosexual, and foster. Children can thrive in just about any family structure. Two factors that have a crucial impact on children are family income and the warmth or conflict that characterizes family interaction. This latter factor explains why blended families are problematic for many children. According to the family-stress model, economic hardship in a family makes adults more hostile and harsh with their children. Ideally, parents work cooperatively in a parental alliance. Every family transition affects the children. For example, moving homes is a major stress for schoolage children. One study showed that the most important correlate with childrens problems was the childrens feelings of self-blame or vulnerability. According to Freud, middle childhood is a period of latency, during which emotional drives are much quieter and steadier. This relative calm allows children to put their efforts into acquiring cognitive skills and assimilating cultural values. Erikson also viewed middle childhood as a period of emotional quiet when children face the crisis of industry versus inferiority. As children strive to develop competence in the skills valued by their culture, they correspondingly come to view themselves as either productive and industrious or inadequate and inferior. Current researchers on development during middle childhood focus on the childs tendency to engage in social comparison, the fact that the childs self-concept is no longer tied to the parents perspective, and the increase in self-criticism and selfconsciousness. This increase in self-criticism may lead to lower academic achievement. Some children cope with and overcome stress better than others. Resilience is a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity. Daily routines are important buffering potential stressors but they also may build up stress when routines are affected by stressful living situations. Important elements that help children deal with problems are the social support they receive from friends, relatives, and pets, and their religious faith and practice.

postconventional. To help you get started the first one is filled in for you. Evaluation A. Developmental Fact or Myth? 1. Acceptance by their peer group is more important to schoolchildren than having a few close friends. 2. Older children change friends more often than do younger children. 3. Those in middle childhood tend to choose best friends whose backgrounds, interests, and values are similar to their own. 4. Bullying during middle childhood seems to be universal. 5. Bullies and their victims are usually of the same gender. 6. Bullies generally are not socially perceptive. 7. Children in a shared home environment tend to react to family situations in a similar way. 8. Foster parents are more dedicated to their children than are adoptive parents. 9. School-age children typically are more selfcritical than they were as preschoolers. 10. Childrens ability to cope with stress may depend on their resilience when dealing with difficult situations. B. Critical Thinking Activity: Moral Reasoning Dilemma Now that you have read and reviewed the chapter, take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on this perspective-taking exercise. Here is a situation that is somewhat similar to Kohlbergs dilemmas for moralreasoning. Three weeks before their developmental psychology term papers are due, Jennifer and two classmates visit the campus library to conduct online literature searches on their topics. After 30 minutes of surfing the Web, Blake announces that hes found a Web site that offers inexpensive term papers on a variety of subjects, including the topic of his paper. Jennifer, who has never cheated in her academic career, says nothing and maintains her concentration on her own research. Sharon, who is appalled by Blakes intention to cheat, vows that she will report Blake to their professor. In choosing their selected course of action, Blake, Sharon, and Jennifer each made a moral decision. Behavior alone does not indicate moral thinking, however. Your job is to write a justification that each student might use at each of Kohlbergs three levels of moral reasoningpreconventional, conventional, and Blake: Theres no way Ill be caught. I dont think the professor even knows what a Web site is. Jennifer: Sharon: Conventional Reasoning Blake: Jennifer: Sharon: Post Conventional Reasoning Blake: Jennifer: Sharon:
*Adapted

Preconventional Reasoning

from Halonen, J. (1995). The critical thinking companion for introductory psychology. New York: Worth Publishers, pp. 2022.