Amanda Jackson

Written Assignment 3 Chapter 10

The preschool times are a year of growth through learning and playing. Emotions
develop while children learn regulation and have outside and inside sources of
motivation. They become more aware of their gender as well as how they solve
problems. Playing is a big part of the childs life, both at home and at a school or daycare.
Aggression may occur during this time period. Parents and teachers play a major role in
shaping how the child will act out their emotions.
Erickson, a popular psychologist, describes this stage of early childhood as
Initiative vs. Guilt. This stage marks the development of emotions and regulating these
emotions through encouragement and guidance from parents. During this period,
motivation comes from inside the child (intrinsic) as well as from outside sources such as
parents or teachers (extrinsic). Parents may use their guidance to help shape the child;
however too much may cause insecure attachment. Children must learn emotional
regulation. Emotional regulation is finding the right way to act when feeling emotions
become out of hand. In the process they will learn whether to internalize or externalize
problems. Internalizing problems is when you put them in your head and dont do
anything about them. This may be okay in cases when the timing to bring up the problem
is inappropriate. If this is done for every problem, the problems will build up and lead to
breakdown. Externalizing is using an outside source to resolve your problems. An
example might be shouting or screaming at another person. While neither of these are
healthy in mass amounts, they are both ways of coping with problems and can be matured
into a healthy escape of emotion for the child. This is the time period of brain maturation.
Self- concept is starting to form and will grow into self- esteem. Children develop
protective optimism and are often more proud of their work and themselves than realistic.
They will try to find an emotional balance and tend to create imaginary friends. Usually,
girls tend to develop emotional regulation and balance before boys; however both
genders tend to start thinking before acting now.
During play, the feeling of anger or aggression may become apparent. There are
four different types of aggression. They include instrumental, reactive, relational, and
bullying. Instrumental is hurting somebody for a want. An example would be a child
hitting another to get a toy the other child has. This would be done before asking for the
toy, and often is an action taken without thinking. Reactive is considered impulse
retaliation. This would be the child that got the toy taken from them doing something to
harm the child that took the toy, such as snatching the toy back or pushing the child away.
Relational aggression is non-physical, and could include name calling or be a form of
bullying. Bullying is the last form and can be considered premeditated. It is done in
domination of another child. While bullying is more common during the school years, it
is still seen during the play years. In a study done by the American Academy of
Pediatrics, girls and boys age 2-4 were exposed to educational, fun, and violent TV

programs. While educational and fun may have had slight affect on aggression due to
cartoons doing increasingly different things nowadays, those exposed to the violent TV
programs were more disposed to aggression as well as antisocial behavior in ages 7-9;
however, this was only found in the boys. Girls were not affected the way boys were
(Christakis).
Though there are many cultural differences between countries, the same five types
of play seem to occur. Those five types are solitary, onlooker, parallel, associative, and
cooperative. Solitary play is a child playing alone. They are not even paying attention to
other children around them. Onlooker play is a child that is on the sidelines. They are
watching other children play. Parallel play is children playing the same game the same
way; however they are not playing together. Associative play is children playing
together. Though, they are merely interacting, they are probably sharing and observing;
though nothing is concrete. Cooperative play is acting and playing together. They are
taking turns and creating fun ideas and games. Out of these, there are two main types of
active play: rough-and-tumble and sociodramatic. Rough-and-tumble play got its name
from observers comparing the play of baby monkeys. The children are wrestling and
playing gently. This is mainly done between young males. It is known to prevent
aggression and even anti-social behavior. It is also known as a behavior that is helpful
and kind although there is no benefit to oneself (prosocial) because the children are
encouraging social skills with each other and strengthening one another. Another active
type of play is sociodramatic. Sociodramatic includes creating ideas and acting them out.
Boys tend to use good and evil as themes; however girls will act out what they see at
home. Some cultures dont encourage this play. Although the countries that do encourage
this type of play, often have children whose imagination thrives and continues to grow.
Parents continue to play a role in the childs life. When the child is a toddler, the
child looks up to parents and often idolizes them. As they reach preschool age, they may
start to want to do their own thing (terrible twos, threes). Parents must encourage their
development, but instill values and moralities into the child. Each parent has his or her
own style of parenting and discipline. Four types of parenting are authoritarian,
permissive, authoritative, and neglectful/uninvolved. Authoritarian parenting includes
strict rules and punishment. The parents words are law. Their children tend to be
obedient and conscientious. They may not be extremely happy and may even rebel. They
will probably leave home early. Permissive parents are very relaxed; often not making
demands or punishment. Their children tend to lack self-control. They will be very
dependent in early adulthood, but tend to do well later in life. Authoritative parenting, the
most balanced, is parents that listen to their children; however they also set rules for the
child. They tend to forgive when the child makes a mistake. Their children tend to be
successful and happy. They also tend to be generous and well liked by peers and other

authority figures. They take initiative and fare well in places like the United States. The
last type of parent, neglectful/uninvolved, is similar to the permissive parent. They dont
punish the child; however, differing from the permissive, they seem to not care about the
child or what the child is doing whatsoever. These children are immature and often
sad/lonely. They are at risk of abuse. Parenting also includes discipline. Discipline comes
in three different forms; physical, psychological, and exclusion. Physical is spanking or
using corporal punishment. This often causes more problems than it solves because
children will copy what they see. Psychological punishment uses guilt and shame to teach
the child. Guilt is I feel bad, while shame is I am bad. This will cause self-esteem
issues and could cause deeper rooted issues in the childs future. Exclusion is the
healthiest option and the most common used by teachers. It includes a time out for an
appropriate time according to the age of the child as well as a conversation about what
was done wrong. Having an appropriate time out period is important because if you make
a two year old sit for 20 minutes, they will get impatient and forget what they had done
wrong.
Also during the preschool years, gender awareness becomes present. There are
many theories that go along with gender awareness. These theories all focus on gender
awareness of the child either through sexual patterns or gender differences.
Pyschoanalytic, described by Freud, describes this time of life as the Phallic stage. Boys
are described to have the Oedipus complex while girls have the Electra complex. Both
named after people in classic mythology. They describe the child as wanting to eliminate
the same sex parent (for girls, the mother; for boys, the father). They cope with this
through identification, or trying to be like the same sex parent. Boys also develop a
superego, or a powerful conscience, to deal with this. Another theory is behaviorism.
This involves letting the child know what is gender appropriate versus what is gender
inappropriate. Cognitive theory involves gender schema, or the childs perception of the
gender differences. Evolutionary theory is just like the name, and focuses on
reproduction. Males provide the sperm, while woman are there for the egg. Lastly,
socioculture focuses on the sexual behavior in a culture. They focus on the pattern for
that society.
This time period is a time for growth through learning and watching the world
around them. Morals and values are taught as well as how to act and regulate emotions.
Parents and teachers play huge roles in setting examples for the child, especially when it
comes down to gender awareness.

Works Cited
Christakis, Dimitri A., and Frederick J. Zimmerman. "Violent Television Viewing During
Preschool Is Associated With Antisocial Behavior During School Age."Pediatrics.
American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 Nov. 2007. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.