Erikson, Piaget, and Parenting in Early Childhood

1. Erikson, Piaget, and Parenting in Early Childhood Chapter 3: Part 1 Early Childhood

2. Guiding Questions • How did Erikson view young children? • How do young children think and understand according to Piaget? • What are four commonly identified “styles” of parenting? • What factors are associated with child maltreatment?

4. Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development • Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt • 3 – 5 years • Goal to obtain purpose—healthy balance between individual interests and the interests of others • Allow so responsibility and freedom • Emphasize that actions affect other people too • Talk about emotions of the child and others

5. Jean Piaget’s Perspectiveon Children’s Thinking • Children desire to make sense of their experiences. • Children construct their understanding of the world • Children create theories like scientists • Though these theories are incomplete, they make the world seem more predictable.

6. Jean Piaget’sStages of Cognitive Development

7. Stage Two: PreoperationalPreschool & Early Elementary (2-7 years) • Symbols are words and gestures that signify something else. They are representations. ball dog snow

8. Limitations in Ability to UseMental Operations • Young children are limited in their ability to mentally “manipulate” symbols or to use logical rules to understand many cognitive concepts. • Conservation—mental ability to understand the quantity/mass of something does not necessarily change just because its appearance changes • Centration—centering or focusing on only one aspect of a problem • Reversibility

9. Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory • Underestimates cognitive competence in infants and young children. • Overestimates cognitive competence in adolescents • Vague with respect to processes and mechanisms of change. • Does not account for variability in children’s performance. • Undervalues the influence of the sociocultural environment on cognitive development.

10. Common Parenting Behaviors • Providing direct instruction--telling a child what to do, when, and why • Modeling behavior • Counterimitation--learning what should not be done by observing the behavior • Providing feedback • Reinforcement--consequence that increases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated in the future

11. Common Parenting Behaviors • Punishment--applying an adverse stimulus (spanking, grounding, scolding, yelling, etc.) • Negative reinforcement trap--unwittingly reinforcing a behavior you want to discourage • Time-out--punishment that involves removing children who are misbehaving from a situation to a quiet, unstimulating environment

12. The Four Parenting Styles • Authoritarian – high demands, low response • Authoritative – combines fair amount of demands and response • Permissive – high response, low demands • Disengaged/Uninvolved – low response and demands

13. Potential Effects of Parenting Styles in Some Samples of American Children • Authoritative: Is best for “most American children most of the time,” tend to have higher grades and are responsible, self reliant and friendly • Balance is key! Children typically thrive on a parental style that combines control, warmth, and affection. • Authoritarian: Children may be unhappy and have lower self-esteem • Permissive: Children tend to be impulsive with little self-control • Uninvolved: Children often do poorly in school and are aggressive

14. Children’s Contributions • Age--parents have to adjust their parenting as children age because the effectiveness of certain types of parenting change • Temperament--as parents realize what type of temperament each child has, the style will have to be adjusted • Behavior--children’s behavior helps determine how parents treat them, and the resulting parental behavior influences

15. Parenting Gone Wrong: Child Maltreatment • Physical abuse--involving assault that leads to injuries including cuts, welts, bruises, and broken bones • Sexual abuse--involving fondling, intercourse, and other sexual behaviors • Emotional/psychological--involving ridicule, rejection, and humiliation • Neglect--children do not receive adequate food, clothing or medical care

16. The Prevalence of Maltreatment • 1 million children annually suffer from neglect or abuse • 60% are neglected • 15% are physically abused • 10% are sexually abused • 10% are psychologically abused

17. Risk Factors for Abuse or Neglect • Cultural values and social condition in which parents rear their children • Social isolation is another factor • Stress • History of abuse

18. More Risk Factors • Parents that maltreat children were usually maltreated themselves • Often use ineffective parenting techniques and have such high expectations their children could never reach • Parental relationship is dysfunctional • Children who are often ill are at greater risk for abuse • Stepchildren are also at higher risk

19. Effects of Abuse • Abused children are usually more aggressive • Lower performance in school • Lower quality peer relationships • More likely to become depressed as they reach adolescence • Despite the risks of these effects, some children show ego-resilience in the face of this adversity

20. Preventing Abuse • Acceptable levels of punishment must change • Families can be taught more effective ways to cope with stressful situations • Early childhood intervention programs • Parents who were maltreated need help to have the knowledge to avoid it with their children