PART 4: PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 11: PERSONALITY DEV… The Beginnings of Personality...

PART 4: PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 11: PERSONALITY DEV…

The Beginnings of Personality

Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon Mayer’s Personality: A Systems Approach


Theme and Variation on

Topic 11. Personality Development in Childhood and Adolescence

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The Lecture And the Book…

• Chapter 11: Personality Development in Childhood and Adolescence

1. What Is Personality Development?

2. Do Infants Have a Personality?

3. How Does the Young Child’s Personality Develop?

4. What Are the Challenges of Middle Childhood?

5. What Are Adolescents Doing?

• Lecture 11: The Beginnings of Personality (ordered by age)1. From Temperament to Traits2. The Developing Self Concept 3. Attachment Patterns4. Sex & Gender Identity5. Parenting6. Birth Order7. Friendship Patterns8. Identity




Focus on Infancy and Early Childhood





The Infant’s Challenge

• Buzzing, blooming confusion? Not hardly

• Facial recognition virtually from birth

• 6-10 weeks: Social smile

• 15-18 months: Self-recognition in mirror




Infant Temperament• Easy Child

– Rhythmic in hunger, sleep-wake, excretion– Positive approach to others– Low or mild intensity of reactions– Positive mood

• Difficult Child– Irregular in hunger, sleep-wake, excretion– Withdrawal from others– High intensity of reactions– Negative mood




Attachment Patterns• Secure Attachment

– Mother accurate and sympathetic about infant feeling– Infants enjoy mother; tolerate her absence– Mother is comforting, dependable figure

• Anxious Resistant Attachment– Mothers attend inconsistently to infant– Infants have difficulty tolerating being apart from mother– Infants are tentative at reunion; unsure – Mothers (and others) are unpredictable and not always comforting

• Anxious-Avoidant Attachment – Mothers seem uninterested in their infants, and rebuff them consistently– Infant does not seek out caretaker– Deny importance of contact




Self Concept• 2 ½ - 5 years• Infantile amnesia lifts

– Children have no cognitive organization of memories before about 3 years of age

– Now, sustained memories are laid down that form the basis of the person’s life story

• 3, 4, & 5 year-olds were ushered from a daycare center when a popcorn maker caught fire (Pillemer, Picariello & Pruett (1995).– 7 years later, 4 & 5-year-olds clearly remembered the event– 3 years old mistakenly recalled where they were




Changes in Temperament• In Infancy, a “Big Three” of temperament

are:– Positivity– Negativity, and– Cuddliness

• In Young Children, Self-Control replaces Cuddliness– Important in social interactions, meal-time,

having friends, toilet training




Parents and the Family Context Styles of Parenting

(modified from Maccoby & Martin, 1983)

Nurturance

Responsive, child-centered

Rejecting, Parent-centered

Control Demanding, High on control

Authoritative Authoritarian

Undemanding, Low on control

Permissive Uninvolved




Birth Order • Sulloway (1996)

– First-born children may identify most closely with parents

– As they grow, tend to be more conservative and to uphold society as it stands

– In one study: • 83 scientist siblings (brothers, sisters, or brothers and

sisters),• Both on record regarding an innovative scientific theory • First-borns supported innovation 50% of the time• Later-borns supported innovation 85% of the time




The Gendered World • Sex and Gender

– Sexual development diverges for the male and female fetus at 9 weeks– Upon birth, most children can be identified as one or the other sex– Social understandings of gender also come into play

• Children were studied in 90 nations on an International Survey.– Example; “One of these people is emotional. They cry when something

good happens as well as when everything goes wrong. Which is the emotional person?”

– The pointed to male or female figure– Children indicate women more than men in response to the question by

5-years• By Five Years of Age

– Children play in same sex groups (through to adolescence)– Children take care to choose toys and television shows preferred by

other members of their sex




Focus on Middle Childhood and Adolescence





Self Concept

• The child increasing focuses on life tasks– Doing well in school

• If industry fails, individual may feel inferior

– Making friends• If relationships fail, child may be victimized

• Begins thinking about adult relationships and occupations




From Temperament to the Big Five Traits

Dimensionsof Temperament

The Big Five Traits

Extrav. Neurot. Open Consc. Agree.

Surgency .59 -.08 .40 .10 .30

Neg. Affect -.16 .49 -.17 -.16 .03

Sensitivity .19 .19 .54 .15 .20

Paying attention .09 -.34 .21 .44 -.04




Friendship Patterns • Children rely very much on their friendships

– Some children are far more socially skilled and have more successful relationships

– Other children gradually become isolated

• This can be teased out in the “entry” situation, in which children are asked to join a dyad of children already at play.

• What will they do?– Skilled children take on roles relevant to the dyad: “Oh, you are

superman and batman? I’ll be spiderman” – Unskilled children speak in unrelated terms: “Oh, okay, my mom

is taking me to a restaurant today.”




Sex and Gender• Adolescence begins with the sexual maturation

of puberty– For girls,

• vagina, uterus, and ovaries mature • menarche, the first menstrual cycle, occurs• Assume a more rounded appearance; breasts mature

– For boys, • testes and penis mature• Shoulders broaden• Facial hair grows; Childhood fat tissue change to muscle




Sex and Gender

• With rapid physical maturation:– The child now looks much different– Often feels all eyes are on her or him– Reconcile inner and outer self– A new sense of identity emerges




Sex and GenderAdolescent Women, Men, and Sexual Desire

Men Women

Peer groups

Often encourage sexual experimentation; often positive attitudes toward casual sex

Often concerned with image among friends; often try to restrain one another’s sexual activity

Desired Sexual Partners

Average men desire 18 or more sexual partners over their lives

Average women desire 4 to 5 sexual partners over their lives

Thoughts of sex

Struggle with thoughts, often distracted, disturbed.

Struggle with thoughts, but not as badly as men




Sex and GenderAdolescent Women, Men, and Personality Traits

Men Women

Aggression Are higher than women in self-rated aggression and aggressive behavior

Are lower than men in self-rated aggression and lower in aggressive behavior

Thing versus Person

Are “Thing” oriented: cars, electronics, houses

Are “People” oriented: relationships, connections

Depression Rates of depression are similar to women before puberty

Rates of depression rise relative to men after puberty




Establishing Identity• Identity

– Who one is– Group memberships– Beliefs that guide life

• Identity Crisis (Erik H. Erikson)– Inability to assemble an identity– Drifting– Possible serious psychological crisis

• Concept further developed by Marcia




Marcia’s Concept of Identity Status

Commitment

Low High

Self-Exploration

High Moratorium: Prolonged exploration

Achievement: Finding a right Identity

Low Diffusion:Unfocussed, Unconcerned

Foreclosure:Influenced by someone else




Case of Identity Diffusion• Kathy moved from her home in Ohio to the University of

Chicago (Littwin, 1986, p. 49, 61-62). Unfortunately during her first years there, her financial aid was cut off. To make ends meet, she took three jobs: a research assistant to a professor, a departmental assistant in the philosophy department, and a cashier in a near by health food restaurant. It was the latter of the three jobs she enjoyed the most as it enabled her to deal with people in an off-campus environment. As time went on, she became focused on matters other than school and dropped out in her fifth year without a degree…

• She felt tired and depressed concerning her experiences, and decided to move to New York. By coincidence, the professor she worked with at the University of Chicago was starting a business in New York, and he hired her to assist with the organization’s computers. (cont.)




Case of Identity Diffusion (Cont.)• She did well at this, despite a lack of training, and began to earn

a respectable salary. At the same time, she didn’t like the values of the Wall Street firm, or what she was doing, so, after a supervisor commented negatively on her informal dress, she quit, and collected unemployment for five months. By now, Kathy was 25 years old, she appeared drawn, uncertainly, toward a number of different possible futures, including finishing school and entering a Ph.D. program in history, doing New Age dance therapy, writing, public policy research, and yet, was uncertain about doing any of them. Kathy seemed less involved in exploring than in a somewhat chaotic maneuvering among a variety of uncertain possibilities.




Establishing Identity

• Outcomes– Little is known, really– Josselson (1996)

• Among 30 women, those with identity achievement– Were able to move ahead in 30’s and 40’s in a clearer

fashion– Better sense of meaning– Better coping with setbacks




~ end ~

PART 4: PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 11: PERSONALITY DEV… The Beginnings of Personality...

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