LPP Module 4

Summarise:

Erkison's Theory of Psychosocial Development:

• How people grow and develop as individuals;
• 8 stages 'crises' of psychosocial development;
• Trust/Mistrust (Infancy);
• Autonomy/Shame (Toddlerhood);
• Initiative/Guilt (Pre-school);
• Industry/Inferiority (Primary Years);
• Identity/Role Confusion (Adolescence);
• Intimacy/Isolation (Young Adulthood);
• Generativity/Stagnation (Middle Years);
• Integrity/Despair (Retirement Years).
• Each crisis does not need to be fully positively resolved before the next begins;
• People advance when they have developed more of the positive than the negative tendency;
• Stages without positive resolution can be revisieted and resolved later;
• Qualitatively different concerns about the self;
• Positive outcomes of Erikson's theory include recognition of:
• Lifelong development;
• Dynamic syntheses of nature, nurture, and the individual's motivation;
• Optimistic view of development
• Criticisms include:
• Largely anecdotal research;
• Identity rarely fully formed by the end of adolescence;
• Gender differences not accounted for;
• Underestimated cultural influence.

Characteristics of children's attachment security:

• Securely Attached:
• Will use attachment figure(s) as safe haven and as base of exploration;
• Will protest when attachment figure separates;
• Will greet the attachment figure with smiles and by moving towards them when reunited;
• Initial wariness of strangers;
• Need support at transitions;
• Need consistent primary caregiver while away from attachment figure, will often develop secure attachment to this primary caregiver;
• Maintain communication and consistency between home and care facility.
• Insecure-aviodant Attachment:
• May not notice if attachment figure leaves;
• Indifference to attachment figure's return, may avert gaze;
• Engage superficially with toys and environment;
• Discomfort around strangers without seeking comfort of caregiver;
• Seek to engage child with play;
• Build affectionate relationships.
• Insecure-Resistant Attachment:
• Clingyness to attachment figure and anxiety;
• Distress upon attachment figure's departure;
• Continued distress after attachment figure's return, anger;
• Fear of strangers;
• Provide consistent primary caregiver to develop secure attachment with;
• Provide extra time and support during handover transitions;
• Comfort objects may be of use;
• Patience, understanding, reasurance, consistency.
• Disorganised/Disoriented Attachment:
• Inconsistent responses to stressful events, apparent contentment followed by fear or anger responses;
• Unpredictable emotions;
• Cautious approaches to attachment figures;
• Failure to seek out caregiver when upset;
• Indiscriminately friendly between unknown adults and family members;
• Excessive concern for attachment figure / role reversal;
• Reckless exploration without regard for attachment figure as secure base;
• Provide consistent primary caregiver to develop secure attachment with;
• Work hard to establish positive, warm, trusting relationships;
• Pay close attention, closely monitor for signs of abuse;
• Seek help from support agencies if necessary.

Personal development characteristics of adolescents:

• Frequent fluctuations in mood;
• Careful regulations of emotion;
• Variation in conformation to cultural and gender roles;
• Seeking emotional intimacy with peers;
• Seeking comfort from peers in timmes of emotional distress;
• Privacy toward connecitons to parents/family;
• Can experience significant conflict in family settings;
• Can experiment with / rely on drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism;
• Particularly girls may excessively ruminate over small disapointments;
• Particularly boys may hide their emotions under false ones;
• Listen authentically;
• Help provide perspective on family conflicts;
• Be alert for students showing signs of depression/suicide and provide support including referring to counsellors.

Support strategies for classroom teachers to promote positive social emotional development:

• Show an interest in students' persuits and wellbeing;
• Teach social skills;
• Provide structure/scaffolding for students with high anxiety;
• Set reasonable limits for acceptable behaviour, establish rules and consequences and follow up;
• Give a sense of control/autonomy, provide reasonable choices;
• Communicate with parents/family regarding students' needs;
• Be alert for signs of depression/suicide:
• pervasive sadness, helplessness;
• sudden withdrawal from peers and caregivers;
• disregard for personal appearnace/hygeine;
• serious health problems;
• dramatic personality change;
• sudden elevation in mood;
• preoccupation with death/morbid themes;
• overt or veiled threats;
• actions that indicate putting one's affairs in order;
• serious problems at home, school or in the community;
• substance abuse;
• efforts to obtain suicidal means.

Summarise:

The four ways parents help children to develop emotional intelligence:

• Help children identify their emotions;
• Help children learn to find calm in times of distress;
• Help children learn to read other people's emotions;
• Help children learn to predict the actions/responses of others in given situations.

The link between emotional intelligence and academic achievement:

• EQ strongly linked to academic performance;
• High EQ helps youth manage complexities and pressures that would otherwise derail them;
• Students with higher EQs are less likely to have isses with school attendance or drop out of high school;
• Students who persist with further education show significantly higher EQs;
• Students who persist in educational contexts are more likely to result in:
• Higher socio-economic status;
• Lower levels of criminality and incarceration.

The link between emotional intelligence and behaviour:

• Higher EQ appears to equate to:
• Greater interpersonal competency;
• Greater adaptability;
• Better stress management;
• Less aggressive behaviour;
• Increased social acceptedness;
• Increased cooperation;
• Increased leadership skills;
• Less disruptive & destructive behaviours;
• Lower use of alcohol and other drugs;
• Lower anxiety levels;
• Greater overall health;
• Greater overall contentedness/success in life persuits;
• Helps teens make more complex, sophisticated, pro-social decisions.

Define sense of self. What are the differences between self concept, self worth/esteem and self efficacy?

• Self Concept:
• Ideas/beliefs about the self;
• 'Who am I as a person?'
• Self Esteem:
• How much we love ourselves;
• 'How good am I as a person?';
• How valuable am I as an individual.
• Self Efficacy:
• How good we feel we are at certain endeavours, how effective;
• 'How effective am I? How good am I at ... ?'

Why is sense of self important?

• Enables students to:
• understand themselves;
• understand themselves in relation to others;
• envision various future versions fo themselves;
• set goals for the future and work towards them;
• find a comfortable niche/place in the world where they feel capable, cared for and connected;
• 
  
• Children tend to behave in ways that mirror their self-perceptions:
• Thus these self-percetions are compounded by children's actions;
• This can lead to positive or negative outcomes depending on the beliefs that the child is operating out of.

What factors influence sense of self?

• Past behaviours and performances;
• Influence of adults within the child's life ascribing to them certain characteristics which the child accepts as truth;
• Nurture and affection from caregivers;
• Parents accepting children as they are - celebrating abilities and taking inabilities in their stride;
• Educator high yet achievable expectations and support to reach goals;
• Peer group acceptance;
• Comparisons with peers;
• Positive group/club social experiences & achievements;
• Biology.

Outline the three levels and six stages of Kohlberg's moral reasoning:

• Preconventional:
• Children have not yet internalised conventions of right and wrong;
• Preschool, most primary, some early secondary, few later years students;
• Level 1 - Decisions based on self-interest without regard for others, punishment aviodance and obedience;
• Level 2 - Decisions based on exchange of favor / recognition of the needs of others gaining assertion that their own needs may be met, 
• Conventional:
• Acceptance of society's notions of right and wrong;
• Few older primary, some lower secondary, many later years students;
• Level 3 - Decisions based on pleasing others, especially authority figures;
• Level 4 - Look to society's rules on law and order to define right and wrong, inflexible.
• Postconventional:
• Own sense of personal morality, of which society's standards may play a somewhat flexible part;
• Rarely seen before university, extremely rare even in adult populations (?);
• Stage 5 - Social contracts, agreements within groups to maintain order and protect rights, recognise flexibility in rules/laws to suit needs of the people that they serve;
• Stage 6 - Adherance to abstract universal principles, strong inner conscience, willing to disobey laws that contradict their ethical principles.

What are some of the limitations of Kohlberg's work?

• Included both moral issues and social conventions, while children view these issues separately;
• Overlooked helping and showing compassion;
• emphasised cognition over emotional influence;
• Emphasised introspective processes failing to take into consideration influence of parents and significant adults in the moral reasoning of children;
• Overlooked situational factors such as "white lies";
• About how children think morally, not about if they will act morally (though the two are intertwined).

How does Kohlberg's thinking differ from that of Piaget?

• Piaget defined two broad stages in moral development:
• Heternormous - rules as permanent and requiring strict obedience, authority outside themselves, define good/bad actions according to percieved consequences;
• Autonomous moral thinking - ability to see self and others as moral actors and see moral decisiona as embeded in social environments.

How is cognitive development linked to moral development?

• Advanced moral reasoning required reflective capacities regarding the consequences and experiences for the self and others which are only available if the child has developed these advanced (abstract) cognitive abilities;
• Cognitive development does not however guarantee moral development, moral reasoning may still take place at a preconventional level;

How can teachers support their students' moral development?

• Clarification of acceptable, non-acceptable and conditionally acceptable behaviours;
• Including discussions of WHY in disciplinary actions or when introducing rules;
• Encourage children to make amends for misdeeds;
• Engaging students in discussions on moral issues, relates to social context &/or subject matter;
• Addressing moral questions/issues from various viewpoints;
• Challenging reasoning with slightly more advanced reasoning, using Kohlberg's stages to identify levels to operate from;
• Community service - working towards moral causes and projects of community benefit;
• 'Fostering a climate of tolerance' RESPECT for differences.