CHAPTER 8
SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
RESOURCES-AT-A-GLANCE
Detailed Outline
Learning
Objectives
Instructor’s Resources
Test Bank
MyPsychLab Connections
Chapter Introduction
pp. 179-180
PowerPoint Slides
1-4
Sketchnote Videos
Toddlerhood
Early Childhood
Theories of Social
and Personality Development
pp. 180-183
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Social-Cognitive Perspectives
8.1
8.2
Lecture Enhancer
Theoretical Perspectives on
Social and Personality
Development
PowerPoint Slides
5-14
MC 1-13
FI 76–78
SA 91
ES 104–105
Personality and Self-Concept
Lecture Enhancer
15–19
MC 14-25
Watch
Gender Development pp. 186-191
Explaining Gender Development
Sex-Role Knowledge
Sex-Typed Behavior
8.5
8.6
8.7
PowerPoint Slides
20–26
MC 26-43
FI 82–84
SA 94-96
ES 108
Explore
Adults’ Perceptions of Boys and
Girls, p. 189
Family Relationships and Structure
and Parenting Styles
Family Structure
Divorce
Understanding the Effects of Family
Structure and Divorce
8.11
8.12
8.13
PowerPoint Slides
MC 44-71
Watch
Peer Relationships pp. 202-207
Relating to Peers through Play
Aggression
Prosocial Behavior and Friendships
8.14
8.15
Lecture Enhancer
Peer Relationships and
Self-Concept
Development
MC 72-75
FI 88–90
SA 100-103
ES 111
Watch
Play in Early Childhood, p. 203
Rough and Tumble Play, p. 204
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Children between ages 2 and 6 undergo remarkable changes in their social skills. They go from being
nay-saying, oppositional toddlers who spend most of their play times alone to being skilled, cooperative
playmates by age 5 or 6.
Freud and Erikson each described two stages of personality development in early childhood. Both
suggest that the key to this period is the balance between the child’s emerging skills and desire for
autonomy, and the parent’s need to protect and control the child’s behavior. More recent psychoanalytic
Neither Freud’s nor Erikson’s explanations of gender development has fared well. Social learning theory
explanations are more persuasive, but ignore the role of cognitive development. Social-cognitive theories
explain and predict gender-related understanding and behavior better than psychoanalytic or learning
theories. Children seem to develop gender constancy, the understanding that gender is an innate
characteristic that cannot be changed, in three steps: labeling their own and others’ gender, understanding
Although the child’s attachment to the parents remains strong, many attachment behaviors become less
visible. Young preschoolers may show more refusals and defiance of parental influence attempts than
infants, but as they gain language and cognitive skills, they generally comply fairly readily. Different
approaches to parenting result in differences in children’s development. Authoritative parenting,
combining warmth, clear rules, and communication with high maturity demands, is associated with the
most positive results. Ethnicity and socioeconomic class are linked to parenting style. Studies of
Preschoolers participate in various kinds of play that are related to the development of social skills.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing Chapter 8, students should be able to answer the following questions:
8.1 What major themes of development did the psychoanalytic theorists propose for the early childhood
period?
8.2 What are the findings of social-cognitive theorists with respect to young children’s understanding of
the social world?
8.3 How does temperament change in early childhood?
8.4 What changes take place in the young child’s categorical, emotional, and social selves during the
preschool years?
8.5 How do the major theoretical orientations explain gender development?
8.6 What are the characteristics of young children’s sex-role knowledge?
8.7 How is the behavior of young children sex-typed?
KEY TERMS
aggression (p. 204)
authoritarian parenting style (p. 193)
authoritative parenting style (p. 193)
cross-gender behavior (p. 190)
emotional regulation (p. 184)
empathy (p. 185)
extended family (p. 202)
gender (p. 186)
gender constancy (p. 187)
gender identity (p. 187)
gender schema theory (p. 187)
INTEGRATED CHAPTER TEACHING NOTES
THEORIES OF SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT (pp. 180-183)
Psychoanalytic Perspectives
LO 8.1 What major themes of development did the psychoanalytic theorists propose for the early
childhood period?
Freud described two stages during the preschool years. The first, the anal stage, is dominant between
ages 1 and 3. This stage is significant because it typically coincides with the parents’ desire to toilet train
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.1, p. 180)
What do you think? If Freud was correct, then what are the implications to many families?
Erikson’s stages within this period are triggered by the new, physical, cognitive, or social skills of the
child rather than by changes in sexual sensitivity as Freud suggested. Erikson’s stage of autonomy versus
shame and doubt centers around the toddler’s new mobility and the accompanying desire for autonomy.
Social-Cognitive Perspectives
LO 8.2 What are the findings of social-cognitive theorists with respect to young children’s understanding
of the social world?
Person Perception
Preschoolers’ emerging capacity for forming meaningful categories manifests itself in the social domain
as a set of ideas and behaviors psychologists call person perception, or the ability to classify others.
Young children’s observations and people categories, however, are far less consistent than those of older
children. A playmate judged to be “nice” one day may be referred to as “mean” the next.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.2, p. 181)
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 8.2, p. 182)
Research Report: Racism in the Preschool Classroom
What are other ways, besides preschool, that we can teach children to evaluate their own and others’
behavior according to individual criteria, rather than group membership and to encourage minority
Understanding Rule Categories
A social convention is a rule that have nothing to do with our fundamental sense of right and wrong.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.2, pp. 181-182)
Give examples of social conventions and rules with moral overtones.
Understanding Others’ Intentions
We tend to base our judgments about others’ behavior and our responses to them on what we perceive to
be their intentions. Working from his assumptions about young children’s egocentrism, Piaget suggested
that young children are incapable of such discriminations. More recent research, however, has
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.2, p. 182)
Do we “outgrow” the tendency to believe that intentional wrongdoing is deserving of greater punishment
than unintentional transgressions? Do we use lack of knowledge of the rules as an “excuse”? What do
you think?
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 8.1-8.2, pp. 180-183)
PERSONALITY AND SELF-CONCEPT (pp. 183-186)
MyPsychLab Connections
Watch: Understanding Self and Others, p. 185
From Temperament to Personality
LO 8.3 How does temperament change in early childhood?
Children with difficult temperaments learn that the behaviors associated with difficultness, such as
complaining, often result in peer rejection. As a result, many of them change their behavior to gain social
acceptance. Thus, personality represents the combination of the temperament with which children are
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.3, pp. 183-184)
What do you think? How was your personality shaped?
Self-Concept
LO 8.4 What changes take place in the young child’s categorical, emotional, and social selves during the
preschool years?
The Emotional Self
Development of the emotional self during the early childhood years centers on the acquisition of
emotional regulation. Recent research has shown that the degree to which young children can control
emotion-related behavior, such as finding a way to cheer themselves up when they are sad, is linked to
important social variables later in life. Preschoolers who display high levels of emotional regulation are
more popular with their peers than those who are less able to regulate their emotional behavior.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.4, pp. 184-185)
List ways parents can help children learn emotional regulation.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.4, pp. 184-185)
What would happen if parents never allowed preschoolers to assume control over their own behavior?
The process of acquiring emotional control is one in which control shifts slowly from the parents to the
child. The child’s temperament is a factor, and preschoolers who have consistently exhibited “difficult”
behavior since infancy are more likely to have self-control problems in early childhood.
Another aspect of the emotional self involves empathy, the ability to identify with another person’s
emotional state. Empathy involves the following two aspects:
▪ Apprehending another person’s emotional state or condition
In addition to empathy, young children’s emotional selves include an awareness of emotional states that
are linked to their culture’s definitions of right and wrong. These feelings, sometimes called the moral
emotions, include guilt, shame, and pride:
The interplay among these three emotions, and young children’s awareness of them, influence the
development of behavior that children’s cultures regard as morally acceptable. Thus, they form the
foundation of later moral development.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.3, pp. 184-185)
Give examples of situations in which preschoolers might feel guilt, shame, and pride.
The Social Self
Another facet of the child’s emerging sense of self is an increasing awareness of herself as a player in the
social game. By age 2, the toddler has already learned a variety of social “scripts”—routines of play or
interaction with others in her world. The toddler now begins to develop some implicit understanding of
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.4, p. 186)
Speculate as to what might happen if the child does not understand the “student” role.
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 8.3-8.4, pp. 183-186)
If parents received a description of their child’s temperament at birth (sort of like the owner’s manual you
GENDER DEVELOPMENT (pp. 186-191)
MyPsychLab Connections
Explore: Adults’ Perceptions of Boys and Girls, p. 189
Explaining Gender Concept and Sex-Role Development
LO 8.5 How do the major theoretical orientations explain gender development?
Developmentalists have proposed several explanations of gender development.
Psychoanalytic Explanations
Freud and Erikson each provide a psychoanalytic explanation of gender concept and sex-role
development.
▪ Freud suggested that 3- to 6-year-olds overcome the anxiety they feel about their desires for the
opposite-sex parent (the Oedipus or Electra conflict) through identification with the same-sex parent.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.5, p. 186)
Give examples of children’s behavior to support Freud’s theory.
Social Learning Explanations
Social learning theorists have emphasized the role of parents in shaping children’s development.
▪ Parents do seem to reinforce sex-typed activities in children as young as 18 months old, not only by
buying different kinds of toys for boys and girls, but by responding more positively when their sons
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.5, pp. 187)
Give examples of parents’ and children’s behavior to support social-learning theory.
The Cognitive-Developmental Explanation
Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory suggests that children’s understanding of gender develops in
stages.
▪ First comes gender identity, which is simply a child’s ability to label his or her own se correctly and
to identify other people as men or women, boys or girls. By age 2, most children correctly label
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.5, p. 187)
Give examples of children’s behavior to support Kohlberg’s theory.
The Information-Processing Approach
Information-processing theorists use the term schema to refer to mental frameworks, such as categories,
that help humans organize processes such as thinking and remembering.
According to gender schema theory, the gender schema begins to develop as soon as the child notices the
differences between male and female, knows his own gender, and can label the two groups with some
consistency—all of which happens by age 2 or 3. Perhaps because gender is clearly an either/or category,
children seem to understand very early that this is a key distinction, so the category serves as a kind of
Preschoolers first learn some broad distinctions about what kind of activities or behavior “go with” each
gender, both by observing other children and through the reinforcements they receive from parents. They
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.5, pp. 187-188)
Give examples of children’s behavior to support gender schema theory.
Biological Approaches
Sex-Role Knowledge
LO 8.6 What are the characteristics of young children’s sex-role knowledge?
Figuring out your gender and understanding that it stays constant is only part of the story. Learning what
goes with being a boy or a girl in a given culture is also a vital part of the child’s task, and adults have
clear gender stereotypes in every culture. The content of those stereotypes is remarkably similar in
Studies of children show that these stereotyped ideas develop early. Even 2-year-olds already associate
certain tasks and possessions with men and women, and by age 3 or 4, children can assign occupation,
toys, and activities to the stereotypic gender. By age 5, children begin to associate certain personality
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.6, pp. 188-189)
What would happen if children were reared in a society with completely different sex roles than the ones
described here? Would they still develop the “traditional” stereotypes, or would they be more likely to
adopt the sex roles that are modeled in the society?
Sex-Typed Behavior
LO 8.7 How is behavior of young children sex-typed?
The final element in the equation is the actual behavior children show with their own and with the
Not only are preschoolers’ friendships and peer interactions increasingly sex-segregated, it is also
becoming clear that boy-boy interactions and girl-girl interactions differ in quality, even in these early
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.7, pp. 189-191)
What do you think happens when opposite-sex adults interact in some non-romantic encounter? Is the
interaction style some combination of enabling and constricting, or does one style dominate?
Another kind of learning opportunity happens when children exhibit cross-gender behavior, behavior that
is atypical in their culture for their gender. For example, tomboyism, or female children’s preference for
activities that are more typical for males, is a kind of cross-gender behavior. Generally, tomboyism is
tolerated by adults and peers. It does not appear to interfere with the development of a “feminine”
personality in adulthood, and may cause girls to acquire positive characteristics such as assertiveness.
In contrast, both peers and adults actively discourage boys from engaging in cross-gender behavior; boys
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 8.5-8.7, pp. 186-191)
To what degree do you think the enabling and constrictive interaction styles are exhibited in adults’ social
interaction?
FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND STRUCTURE (pp. 191-202)
MyPsychLab Connections
Watch: Parenting Styles, p. 193
Psychologists agree that family relationships constitute one of the most, if not the most, important
contributing factor to early childhood development. These relationships reflect both continuity and
change in that the preschooler is no less attached to her family than the infant but, at the same time, is
struggling to establish independence.
Attachment
LO 8.8 How does attachment change during the early childhood years?
By age 2 or 3, the child’s attachment appears as strong as it did when the child was younger, but many of
the attachment behaviors become less visible. Attachment quality also predicts behavior during the
preschool years. Children who are securely attached to parents experience fewer behavior problems.
Specifically, those who are insecurely attached display more anger and aggression toward both peers and
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.8, pp. 191-192)
What effect do you think a child’s increasingly complex theory of mind has on the child’s relationship
with her parents?
Parenting Styles
LO 8.9 How do parenting styles affect children’s development?
Parenting styles are the characteristic strategies that parents use to manage children’s behavior. Diana
Baumrind focuses on four aspects of family functioning, each of which has been independently shown to
be related to various child behaviors:
▪ Warmth or nurturance: Children with nurturant and warm parents, as opposed to those with more
rejecting parents, are more securely attached, have a high self-esteem, get along better with others,
Whereas each of these characteristics of families may be significant individually, they do not occur in
isolation but in combinations and patterns. In her early research, Baumrind identified three such patterns
or styles:
▪ The permissive parenting style is high on nurturance, but low in maturity demands, control, and
communication.
The Authoritarian Type
Children growing up in authoritarian families—with high levels of demand and control, but relatively low
levels of warmth or responsiveness—do less well in school, have lower self-esteem, and are typically less
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 8.9, p. 193)
Ask the class to give examples of behaviors of authoritarian parents.
The Permissive Type
Children growing up with indulgent or permissive parents, too, show negative outcomes. They do
slightly worse in school during adolescence, are likely to be both aggressive—particularly if the parents