PSYC2110 - CHAPTER 15: Peers, Media and Schooling

Importance of Peer Relations Peer bonds vital for social competence

Peers serve as vital sources of support in threatening situations and contribute greatly to development but they do so more effectively when children also have warm, supportive ties to parents

Development of Peer Sociability

Infant & Toddler Beginnings Coordinated interaction occurs more often, largely in form of mutual imitation involving jumping, chasing or banging

a toy; imitative, turn taking games create joint understandings that aid verbal communication

Around age 2, they use words to communicate

The Preschool Years Dramatic increase with age in ability to engage in joint, interactive play

Social development proceeds in 3 step sequence: o Non-social activity – unoccupied, onlooker behaviour and solitary play o Parallel play – child plays near other children with similar materials but doesn’t try to influence their

behaviour o Highest level are two forms of true social interaction:

Associative play – children engage in separate activities but exchange toys and comment on one another’s behaviour

Cooperative play – more advanced type of interaction, where children orient toward a common goal, such as acting out a make-believe theme

o Can go back and forth on this sequence o Older children engaged in more cognitively mature behaviour than younger children

Certain types of non-social activity are cause of concern; both reticent and impulsive children at risk for peer ostracism

o Children who behave reticently, by watching peers without playing, usually are temperamentally inhibited – high in social fearfulness

o Children who engage in solitary, repetitive behaviour – tend to be immature, impulsive youngsters who find it hard to regulate anger and aggression

Sociodramatic play – advanced form of cooperative play – becomes really common; supports cognitive, emotional and social development

Middle Childhood and Adolescence Meet diverse people and their awareness that others have viewpoints different from their own increases

At this age can better interpret others’ emotions and intentions and take them into account in peer dialogues

School age kids offer to help and wait for peer to accept, freely exchanging ideas, asking for opinions and acknowledging one another’s contributions

Rough-and-tumble play – friendly chasing and play-fighting is good natured, sociable activity, quite distinct from aggressive fighting

Dominance hierarchy – stable ordering of group members that predicts who will win when conflict arises; once established, hostility is rare

As adolescents reach physical maturity and individual differences in strength become clear, rough-and-tumble play declines

Midadolescence – spend more time with peers than with any other social partners

Influences on Peer Sociability

DIRECT PARENTAL INFLUENCES In providing play opportunities, parents show children how to initiate peer contacts and encourage them to be good

‘hosts’ who consider their playmates’ needs

Parents offer guidance on how to act toward others

Parental monitoring of child’s activities protects school age kids and adolescents from antisocial involvements

Extent to which adolescents tell parents about their whereabouts and companions is an especially strong predictor of adjustment

INDIRECT PARENTAL INFLUENCES Secure attachments to parents linked to more responsive, harmonious peer interactions, larger peer networks and

warmer more supportive friendships throughout childhood and adolescence

Parent-child play seems to be particularly effective context for promoting peer-interaction skills

Quality of parents’ social networks is associated with children’s social competence AGE MIX OF CHILDREN

Piaget emphasized experiences with children equal in status who challenge one another’s viewpoints, thereby promoting cognitive, social and moral development

Vygotsky believed children profit from interacting with older, more capable peers who model and encourage more advanced skills

Among preschoolers, younger children’s play is more cognitively and socially mature in mixed-age classrooms than single-age classrooms

Oldest school age children in mix-age settings prefer same age companions, maybe because they have more compatible interests and experience more cooperative interaction

Young kids interaction with same age partners more intense and harmonious but they turn to older peers because of their superior knowledge and exciting play ideas

Interacting with equals – learn to cooperate and resolve conflicts; develop vital moral understandings of reciprocity and justice

Mix age settings – younger kids acquire new competencies from older companions; mature youngsters help their less mature counterparts, they practice nurturance, guidance and other prosocial behaviours

CULTURAL VALUES Caregivers who view play as mere entertainment – less likely to provide props or encourage pretend than those who

value its cognitive and social benefits

Western style sociodramatic play may be more vital for social development in societies where child and adult worlds are distinct than it is when children participate in adult activities from young age

Friendship Friendship – close relationship involving companionship in which each partner wants to be with the other; contributes

uniquely to children’s psychological adjustment

Thinking About Friendship Mature friendships endure over time and survive occasional conflicts

Children’s idea about what friendship is changes with age

1. FRIENDSHIP AS A HANDY PLAYMATE (ABOUT 4-7 YEARS) Friendship doesn’t have long term, enduring quality

A friend is someone who likes you, you spend a lot of time playing, with whom you share toys 2. FRIENDSHIP AS MUTUAL TRUST AND ASSISTENCE (ABOUT 8-10 YEARS)

Friendship has become mutually agreed-on relationship in which kids like each other’s personal qualities and respond to each other’s needs and desires

Requires both kids to want to be together, takes more time and effort to get it started than at younger ages

Trust becomes defining feature once friendship forms; good friendship based on acts of kindness signifying each person can be counted on to support the other

Rifts can’t be patched up simply by playing nicely after conflict like younger kids do; apologies and explanations are necessary

3. FRIENDSHIP AS INTIMACY, MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING AND LOYALTY (ABOUT 11-15 YEARS AND OLDER)

Teenagers stress three characteristics o Intimacy or psychological closeness o Mutual understanding of each other’s values, beliefs and feelings o Loyal – to stick up for them and not leave them for somebody else

Characteristics of Friendships

FRIENDSHIP SELECTIVITY AND STABILITY Younger kids are not as selective about friends as older kids

Girls who demand greater closeness than boys are more exclusive in their friendships

Friendships remarkably stable at all ages o Young children – stability largely function of constancy of social environments o 4

th grade to high school – 50-70% endure over school year and some for several years, although they often

go through temporary shifts in strength of each partner’s commitment o Middle or junior high school – pubertal development, encounters with new peers and romantic interests

often lead to temporary period of greater change in choice of friends

INTERACTION BETWEEN FRIENDS Teens less possessive of friends than they were in childhood

Friends behave more prosocially but also disagree and compete with each other more than nonfriends; also use negotiation to resolve conflicts

Adolescent girls friendships more likely to endure when friends are up front about tensions in relationship; for adolescent boys, a better coping strategy is dismissing tensions as no big deal

Children who bring kindness and compassion to friendships strength one another’s social tendencies and form more lasting ties

RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN FRIENDS Friends will become increasingly similar in attitudes and values with age

Children and adolescents probably choose companions like themselves to increase supportiveness of friendship

When young people enter a wider range of school and community settings, they choose some friends who differ from themselves

Task of forging a personal identity at times leads adolescents to seek friends with differing attitudes and values as means of exploring new perspectives within the security of a compatible relationship

SEX DIFFERENCES IN FRIENDSHIPS Due to gender-role expectations, girls’ friendships typically focus on communal concerns, boys’ on achievement and

status

Quality of boys’ relationships are more variable than for girls

When friends focus on their deeper thoughts and feelings, they tend to coruminate (repeatedly mull over problems and negative emotions); corumination contributes to high friendship quality but also triggers anxiety and depression

Young people who are either very popular or very unpopular are more likely to have other-sex friends o Boys more likely than girls because girls have desire for closeness which leads them to same sex friends

Boys with other sex friends is associated with feelings of competence; whereas for girls with other sex friends, it is linked to less positive well-being

Friendship and Adjustment Close friendships provide opportunities to explore self and develop deep understanding of another

o Friends get to know both themselves and their friend especially well, process that supports development of self concept, perspective taking and identity

Close friendships provide foundation for future intimate relationships o Lengthy, often emotionally laden psychological discussions between adolescent friends appear to prepare

young person for love relationships o Conversations, along with intimacy of friendship itself, may help adolescents establish and work out

problems in romantic relationships

Close friendships help young people deal with stresses of everyday life o Prosocial friendships promote empathy, sympathy and positive social behaviour

Close friendships can improve attitudes toward and involvement in school o Can promote good school adjustment in both middle and low SES students

Without supportive friendship as context for acquiring more adaptive social behaviours, maladaptive behaviours of these children tend to persist

Peer Acceptance Peer acceptance – refers to likeability; the extent to which a child is viewed by a group of agemates, such as

classmates, as a worthy social partner

Not mutual relationship like friendship but a one sided relationship involving the group’s view of an individual

Sociometric techniques – to assess peer acceptance, researchers usually use these self reports which measure social preferences

Peer reputation – young people’s judgements of peers most of their classmates admire, which identify peers high in social prominence

Sociometric techniques yield four general categories of peer acceptance o Popular children – get many positive votes (are well liked) o Rejected children – get many negative votes (are disliked) o Controversial children – get large number of positive and negative votes (are both liked and disliked) o Neglected children – who are seldom mentioned, either positively or negatively

Peer acceptance is powerful predictor of current and later psychological adjustment

Origins of Acceptance in the Peer Situation

POPULAR CHILDREN Popular-prosocial children

o Majority of popular children combine academic and social competence Basically, good students who communicate well with peers

Popular-antisocial children o Emerges in late childhood and early adolescence, consists of aggressive youngsters; some are ‘tough’ boys

who are athletically skilled but poor students who cause trouble and defy adult authority; others are relationally aggressive boys and girls who enhance own status by ignoring, excluding and spreading rumours about other kids

o Seen as cool, maybe due to athletic ability and sophisticated but devious social skills o For girls; the more socially prominent and controlling they become, the more they engage in relational

aggression o As these kids get older, peers condemn them for their nasty tactics and reject them

REJECTED CHILDREN Rejected-aggressive children

o Largest subgroup; show severe conduct problems – high rates of conflict, physical and relational aggression and hyperactive, inattentive and impulsive behaviour

o Are more extremely antagonistic o Rather than using aggression skilfully to attain status, they display blatantly hostile, acting out behavopir

that triggers scorn and avoidance from peers

Rejected-withdrawn children o Smaller subgroup; are smaller and socially awkward o Feel like retaliating rather than compromising in peer conflicts like their aggressive counterparts but less

often act on those feelings

CONTROVERSIAL CHILDREN Are hostile and disruptive but also engage in high rates of positive, prosocial acts

Have qualities that protect them from exclusion

NEGLECTED CHILDREN Are usually well adjusted

Not less socially skilled than average children

Usually temporary status

Helping Rejected Children Coaching, modelling, reinforcing positive social skills

Intensive academic tutoring improves both school achievement and social acceptance

Rejected-withdrawn children – likely to develop learned helpless approach to peer difficulties

Both types of rejected children need help attributing peer difficulties to internal, changeable causes

Improve quality of parent-child interaction or else children may return to old behaviour patterns

Social Issues: Bullies & Their Victims Peer victimization – certain children become targets of verbal and physical attacks or other forms of abuse

10-20% of children are bullies & 15-30& are repeatedly victimized; 20-30% of onlookers encourage bullies, even joining in

Peer Groups Peer group – collectives that generate unique values and standards for behaviour and a social structure of leaders and

followers

First Peer Groups Membership changes very little in short period of time but over a long period of time, a lot of change can take place

Children develop exclusive associations and schoolmates who deviate become targets of critical glances and comments; these customs bind peers together, creating sense of group identity

Most view exclusion as wrong, even if they see themselves as different from excluded child, especially with age, they are less likely to endorse excluding someone, especially girls probably because it happens to them more than boys

When peer threatens group functioning, both boys and girls say exclusion is justified – a perspective that strengthens with age

Cliques and Crowds Cliques – groups of about 5-7 members who are friends and, therefore tend to resemble one another in family

background, attitudes, values, and interests o Early adolescence; usually only same sex o Mid adolescence; mixed-sex cliques become common o Authoritative parents – jocks, brain and popular groups that accepted both adilt and peer reward system o Permissive parents – partyers and burnouts; lack of identification with adult reward systems o Family experiences affect extent to which adolescents become like their peer associates over time

Crowd – several cliques with similar values form larger, more loosely organized group called crowd

Dating Early adolescence – date usually for superficial reasons

Late adolescence – ready for greater psychological intimacy and seek dating partners who offer personal compatibility, companionship, affection and social support

Early attachment bonds lead to an internal working model (set of expectations about attachment figures) that guides later close relationships

Since young people still forming identities, high school couples often find they have little in common later

Peer Pressure and Conformity Conformity to peer pressure greatest in adolescence than in childhood or early adulthood

Peer conformity varies with adolescent’s age, current situation, need for social approval and culture

Peers exert more influence on teen’s day to day personal choices whereas parents have more impact on basic life values and educational plans

Teens who experience extremes in parental behaviour (too little or too much control) tend to be highly peer-oriented

Adolescent Substance Use and Abuse 40% adolescents tried smoking, 63% drinking and 38% at least one illegal drugs

Most drugs impair perception and thought processes, a single heavy dose can lead to permanent injury or death

Many teens move from use to abuse; need more to get same effect, move onto harder substances and use enough to impair ability to meet school, work or other responsibilities.

Especially among teens with family difficulties, encouragement from friends who use and provide access to drugs increase substance abuse and other antisocial behaviours

When teens depend on alcohol/drugs, they don’t learn responsible decision making skills and alternative coping techniques

Prevention and treatment o Promoting effective parenting, including monitoring of teens’ activities o Teaching teens skills to resist peer pressure o Reducing social acceptance of drug taking by emphasizing health and safety risks o Getting teens to commit to not using drugs

Media

Television If content of TV programming were improved, and adults take advantage of it to enhance children’s interest in

everyday worlds, television could be powerful, cost effective means of strengthening cognitive, emotional and social development

How Much Television do Children View? Tv watching increases as kids get older but decreases slightly in adolescence

Kids spend more time with tv than in most other waking activites

Boys watch slightly more from early childhood on

Low SES more frequent viewers, maybe because few alternative forms of entertainment is available in their neighbourhood

Kids with tv set in their room watch 40 to 60 more minutes a day than those who don’t

Children’s Understanding of Televised Information By age 4, kids realize TV is symbolic; think all humans on tv are real and cartoons unreal

Age 7 is when children fully grasp unreality of TV fiction

Preschool and young elementary school children’s inability to critically evaluate televise information, increase chances they will believe and imitate what they see

Television and Social Learning

AGGRESSION 57% of tv programs between 6AM and 11PM contain violent scenes

Tv violence increases likelihood of hostile thoughts and emotions and verbally/physically/relationally aggressive behaviour

Violent tc modifies kids’ attitudes toward social reality so that they increasingly match tv

ETHNIC AND GENDER STEREOTYPES Ethnic minorities are underrepresented in commercial entertainment TV

Women appear less often than men as main character

Gender stereotypes especially prevalent in cartoons, music TV, & other entertainment programs for youth and children

Positive portrayals of women and ethnic minorities lead to more favourable views and more willingness to form ethnically diverse friendships

CONSUMERISM By age 3, children can distinguish obvious ads from regular programming

8 – 9 years old is when kids understand commercials are meant to sell and by age 11, realize advertisers use smart techniques to achieve their goals

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR TV that includes acts of cooperating, helping and comforting

Much TV mixes prosocial and antisocial messages; prosocial programs promote children’s kind/helpful acts when they are free of violent content

Television, Academic Learning, and Imagination If kids watch educational shows, it may benefit them in school

The more preschool and school age kids watch prime time shows and cartoons, less time spent reading and interaction with others

Educational programs can be beneficial, watching entertainment TV (especially heavy viewing) – detracts from kid’s school success and social experiences

Computers Computer time increases with age and SES

Not until 10-11 years old do children acquire adult level understanding of the technical complexity of Internet as network like system in which computing centres link with many computers; technical grasp important since it probably contributes to sophisticated knowledge of social risks of Internet and protection strategies gained around 12-13 years of age

Computers and Academic Learning Children writing on computers tend to have longer and higher quality writing pieces ; worry less about hand writing

and spelling

Boys spend more time than girls writing computer programs, using spreadsheets etc

Low SES kids devote less time than high SES kids for Internet use

Computers and Social Learning

COMPUTER GAMES Speed and action computer games foster selective attention and special skills in both boys & girls

Playing violent games increases hostility and aggression; many are full of gender and ethnic stereotypes

‘passionate’ game players tend to be withdrawn youth who use games to escape unpleasant family and school experiences

Excessive playing can blur distinction between real and virtual world

INTERNET AND COMMUNICATION As amount of IMing increases between pre-existing friends, so do young peoples’ perception of intimacy in

relationship

Socially anxious youth may engage in internet communication to relieve loneliness while practicing and improving social skills

Unmonitored chat rooms can be dangerous

Youths who reported high levels of conflict with parents, peer victimization, depression and delinquency and spent extensive time on internet ; they had often been asked by online friends for face to face meetings and had gone to them without telling their parents

Troubled youth who use internet communication to relieve feelings of isolation and rejection are especially vulnerable to exploitation

Regulating Media Use US – First Amendment right to free speech has messed with efforts to improve media content

Many children don’t have limits on tv or computer use at home

Schooling School – formal institution designed to transmit knowledge and skills kids need to become productive members of

society

Class and Student Body Size Small student size is best; they have higher achievement; placing children aide did not make a difference

With fewer students, teachers spend less time disciplining and more time teaching and giving individual attention

Members of smaller school size report more social support and caring; if school too large, it breeds anonymity

Educational Philosophies

TRADITIONAL VS CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOMS

Traditional classroom – teacher is sole authority for knowledge, rules and decision making and does most of the talking; students are relatively passive – listening, responding when called on, completing teacher assigned tasks; progress evaluated by how well they keep pace with a uniform set of standards for their grade

Constructivist classroom – encourages students to construct their own knowledge; constructivist approaches vary but many are grounded in Piaget’s view of children as active agents who reflect on and coordinate their own thoughts rather than absorbing those of others; richly equipped learning centres, small groups and individuals solving self-chosen problems; teacher provides guidance/support in response to children’s needs; students evaluated by considering their progress in relation to own prior development

Recess – contributes to development; breaks enhance attention and performance at all ages

Traditional classroom students – slight edge in achievement scores ; constructivist classroom students – gains in academic achievement, critical thinking, social and moral maturity, positive attitudes toward school

Montessori education – constructivist method – include multi-age classrooms, teaching materials specially designed to promote exploration and discovery, long periods for individual and group learning, equal emphasis or social and academic development

NEW PHILOSOPHICAL DIRECTIONS Social-constructivist classrooms – children participate in wide range of challenging activities with teachers and peers,

with whom they jointly construct understandings; as kids appropriate (take for themselves) the knowledge/strategies generated from working together, they become competent, contributing members of classroom community

o Vygotsky’s emphasis on social origins of complex mental activities has inspired following educations themes:

Teachers & children as partners in learning – classroom rich in both teacher-child and child-child collaboration transfers culturally valued ways of thinking to children

Experience with many types of symbolic communication in meaningful activities – as kids master reading, writing, and math, they become aware of their culture’s communication systems, reflect on own thinking and bring it under voluntary control

Teaching adapted to each child’s zone of proximal development – assistance that both responds to current understandings and encourages children to take next step helps ensure each student will make best progress possible

Classrooms become communities of learners – where teachers guide overall process of learning but no other distinction is made between adult and child contributors; all participate in joint endeavours and have authority to define and resolve problems

o Based on assumption that different people have different expertises that can benefit community and that students too may become experts

School Readiness and Grade Retention Since 1980s more parents have been delaying child’s kindergarten entry

Younger children make just as much academic progress as older children in same grade

School readiness can be cultivated

School Transitions

Early Adjustment to School Children with more preschool experience scored higher on school readiness tests and showed increasingly positive

school attitudes

Preschool experience & prosocial behavioural style >>> Favourable peer acceptance, new kindergarten friends, warm teacher-child bond >>> Positive attitude toward school >>> High classroom participation >>> High acheivement

School Transitions in Adolescence Move to much larger, impersonal secondary school where they must shift between classes

Grades decline with each school change; partly due to tighter academic standards

Less personal attention, more whole class instruction, less chance to participate in classroom decision making

Liking for school decline and feelings of academic incompetence emerge

Helping Adolescents Adjust to School Transitions Support from parents, peers and teachers eases strain of school transition

In first year, teachers can offer academic and personal counselling and work closely with parents to promote favorabout school adjustment

Teacher-Student Interaction Too many teachers overemphasize repetitive drill over higher level thinking

Teachers don’t react the same way with all kids; well behaved high achieving students typically get more encouragement and praise whereas unruly students have more conflicts with teacher and receive more criticism

Low SES and other children at risk for learning difficulties – for them, caring teacher-student relationship has a lot of impact on achievement and social behaviour

Educational self-fulfilling prophecies : children may adopt teachers’ poritive or negative views and start to live up to them

Grouping Practices Group children into classes which students of similar achievements are taught together so as to reduce the need for

individual teachers to meet a wide range of academic needs

GROUPING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Homogeneous groups or classes can be potent source of self fulfilling prophecies

Homogenous grouping widens gap between high and low achievers

Multigrade classroom – often decrease competition and increase harmony o When older and more experienced students teach younger or less expert students, both tutors and tutees

benefit in achievement and self esteem with strongest effect on Low SES children and kids from 1st

to 3rd

grade

Small heterogeneous groups often engage in poorer quality interaction unless teachers provide extensive guidance

Grouping in High School Assignment to university track accelerates academic progress whereas assignment to vocational or general education

track decelerates it

Students in low track exert substantially less effort partly because their classes are less stimulating

When capable students end up in low tracks, they sink to trackmates performance level

In China, Japan and most Western European countries, high school track placement is determined by national exam, which usually establishes young person’s future possibilities

Teaching Students with Special Needs

Children with Learning Difficulties Inclusive classrooms – students with learning difficulties learn alongside typical students in regular educational setting

for part or all of the school day – designed to prepare them for participation in society and combat prejudices against individuals with disabilities that lead to social exclusion

Learning disabilities – great difficulty with one or more aspects of learning, usually reading; as a result, their achievement is considerable behind what is expected on basis of their IQ

How Effective Are Inclusive Classrooms? Achievement gains depend on both severity of disability and support services available

Many students do best when they receive instruction in a resource room for part of the day and in regular classroom for the remainder

Parent-School Partnerships When parents are in frequent contact with school, they send message to child about the value of education, model

constructive solutions to academic problems and as kids get older promote wise educational decisions

How Well Educated Are North American Young People?

Cross National Research on Academic Achievement Instruction in US is less challenging and focused than in other countries; US may be less equitable in quality of

education it provides since achievement varies much more among US schools

Variety of social forces combine to foster a strong commitment to learning in Asian families and schools: o Cultural valuing of academic achievement

Invest more in education including more pay for teachers o Emphasis on effort

Believe that all kids can succeed academically with enough effort Parents devote many more hours to helping youth (influenced by collectivist values)

o High quality education for all All students receive same nationally mandated high quality education Lessons presented in ways that capture children’s attention and encourage high level thinking

o More time devoted to instruction In Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, school year is 50 days longer than US and 30 days longer than in

Canada 8 hour school day allows more time for extra recesses, field trips and extracurricular activities

Making the Transition from School to Work North American employers regard recent high school graduates as poorly prepared for skilled business and industrial

occupations and manual trades

Work-study programs which provide academic and vocational learning opportunities is related to positive school and work attitudes, achievement and reduced delinquency

National apprenticeship programs would help transition from high school to work for North American young people o Challenges

Overcoming reluctance of employers to assume part of responsibility for vocational training Ensuring cooperation between schools and businesses Preventing low SES youths from being concentrated in lowest skilled apprenticeship placements