Theories of Social-Emotional Development

Psychoanalytical
Freud thought that three- to five-year-old children are in a conflict between their wishes to gain parental affection and avoid punishment. He saw this conflict as an Oedipal complex (for boys) and an Electra complex (for girls). Freud believed that through this complex, when children identify with their same sex parent, children develop a conscience or superego.

Erikson’s theory viewed the major psychological conflict of early childhood as initiative vs. guilt. He thought that children use play to safely experiment with initiative and cooperation. A successful resolution of this Eriksonian conflict is a child with a strong sense of initiative yet enough guilt to be socially appropriate.

When children are school age, they move to Erikson’s next stage of industry vs. inferiority, which lasts until adolescence. Successful resolution of the conflict will result in a sense of competence and responsibility at useful tasks.

Sociocultural
Vygotsky (1966) believed that play is the context in which children learn, both cognitively and social-emotionally. In particular, he thought that play was essential for children’s development of self-regulation. Vygotsky viewed the transition from adult control of behavior to preschoolers’ using self-control and emotional regulation as one of the most important tasks in this stage. Imaginary play helps children practice through role-playing and safe experimentation.

Social learning theory (SLT)
As you may recall, Bandura’s theory (1977) expanded behavioralism by including motivation and other psychological factors. He thought that children develop morality through observing models and by receiving positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviors. The steps for children to learn, according to SLT, are:

1. Attention--child must be watching model
2. Retention--child must remember what model did
3. Reproduction--child imitates model
4. Motivation--child must want to perform behavior modeled

• Extensive research (Bandura, 1977; Radke-Yarrow, Scott, & Zahn-Waxler, 1973; Mischel & Liebert, 1966) has identified three specific characteristics needed by effective role models:
• Power and competence--Children choose to imitate adults and older children who seem powerful and able.
• Responsive warmth--Children copy adults who are supportive and prosocial rather than those who are cold and unresponsive.
• Consistency between beliefs and behaviors--Children do notice differences between words and actions and are less likely to imitate inconsistent adults.