Research Of Social Skills And Moral Development Of Young Children
Self-concept can be described as the development of individual identity and how children see themselves as separate from others with unique personality traits. The ages are meant to be general so that movement from one stage to the next is individualized and largely dependent on each child’s development.
Emotional development in preschoolers is a balancing act between the need to learn and understand limits and the need for freedom and independence. Children at this age are beginning to understand that their actions have consequences, both good and bad. Sigmund Freud focuses on instincts and their role in pathology. The theory introduces the development of personality during childhood. With Freud’s theory, the mind can be divided into three main parts included id, ego, and superego. The id is the aspect of personality that is entirely unconscious and includes the instinctive and primitive behaviors. The id is the personality that is present from birth. The id is also the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality. While for the ego-personality, it was developed from the id and make sure that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the world. The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind.
With the superego personality, according to Freud, this personality holds out all our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society (our sense of right and wrong). It provides guidelines for making the judgment. The superego begins to emerge at around age five.
With Piaget’s theory of stage development, the first one is sensory-motor which is developed below two years. The stage describes as it has the reflex base, coordinate reflexes with the key feature of the object permanence. The research study is with the blanket and ball. The second stage is preoperational which is developed by age two to seven years. This stage describes as self-oriented with its egocentrism of the key feature. The research study is with the three mountains. The next stage is concrete operational which develops at age seven to eleven years. This stage defines with more than one viewpoint, no abstract problems and considers some outcomes. Its key feature is conservation and the research study is conservation of number. For the last stage, it is formal operational which describe as children to think abstractly. This stage develops at the age of eleven years and above. The stage also describes as reason theoretically. Only some people can reach this stage accordingly. The key feature to manipulate the idea in the head and abstract with reasoning. The research study is a pendulum task.
Lawrence Kohlberg has greatly expanded Piaget’s work. Although Kohlberg’s theory had been very influential, it has limitations such as ignoring local, cultural, moral ideas and being disconnected between moral behavior and moral judgment. He proposed the six-stage sequence of moral judgment development. There are three levels of moral stages. The first level is known as pre-convention morality. Each level has two-stage. For the first level, at stage one which is obedience and punishment. In this stage one, children see rules as fixed and absolute thus obeying the rules is important because it is meant to avoid punishment. The second stage consists of individualism and exchange. In this stage, children account for individual points of view and judge actions based on how they serve individual needs. In the Heinz dilemma, children argued that the best course of action was the choice that best-served Heinz’s needs. Reciprocity is possible at this point in moral development, but only if it serves one’s own interests.
For the second level which is conventional morality. At stage three, there are interpersonal relationships that referred to as the “good-boy-good girl” orientation. This stage of moral development is focused on living up to social expectations and roles. There is an emphasis on conformity, being “nice”, and consideration of how choices influence relationships. With stage four which consist maintaining social order, with how people consider society as a whole when making the judgment. The focus is on maintaining law and order by following the rules, doing one’s duty and respecting authority.
For the third level which is called post-convention morality. With stage five, there are social contracts and individual rights. This stage describes how people begin to account for the differing values, opinions, and beliefs of other people. Rules of law are important for maintaining a society, but numbers of society should agree upon these standards. The last stage which is stage six, which known as universal principles. This stage makes people tend to followed internalized principles of justice, even if they conflict with laws and rules.
While on the other hand, for Erikson’s theory of psycho-social development explores the history of personality psychology and explaining further about the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan of the preschoolers’ social-emotional development. There are eight stages of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. The first stage is the infancy stage which age birth to 18 months. In this stage, babies have a basic conflict with trust versus mistrust with the important events which is feeding. The strength developed during this stage is hope.
While for the early childhood stage, with age two to three years having a basic conflict with autonomy versus shame and doubt. The important events in this stage are toilet training and the strength developed is willpower. For the preschool stage, age three to five years, which the basic conflict is initiative versus guilt and the important events is exploration and the strength developed is the purpose. The school-age, age six to eleven years with conflict for industry versus inferiority. The important events which are school and the strength developed which competence.
For adolescence which age twelve to eighteen, having conflicts with identity versus role confusion, the important events which are social relationships and the strength developed fidelity. For young adulthood which age nineteen to forty, which conflict is intimacy versus isolation, the important events are relationships and the strength developed which is love.
For middle adulthood which is forty to sixty-five, which conflict is generativity versus stagnation, the important events are work and parenthood. The strength developed which is care. While for the maturity stage that age sixty-five to death which conflict is ego integrity versus despair. The important events which are a reflection on life and the strength developed are wisdom.
On the other side, Albert Bandura’s social learning theory adds to social elements. According to him, people can learn new information and behavior by watching other people. This can be called observational learning. Adding to that, there are three social learning concepts that people can learn through observation, mental stress is important to learning and learning does not necessarily lead to change in behavior.
Emotions correlate with the types of actions a child would portray. For example, a three-year-old toddler would have a huge tantrum when they have unable to build blocks, as to how they want it to be. Tantrums such as this would mellow down once the toddler is four years. The process that happens here is called emotional development when they start to understand and are able to process the feelings they are facing.
The Little Rascals save the day show is about children who want to save their grandma’s bakery. They are just ordinary children with their calling Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, Petey the dog. The children try anything to raise the money needed in order to save their grandma’s bakery. The only trouble is, they can't seem to do anything right! From botched pet washes to terrible taxi service, they just can't raise a penny. Their only hope is to win prize money from the local talent show, but have you ever heard Alfalfa sing?
According to Combs and Slaby, social development is the child’s ability to interact with their peers and others in a given social context in ways that are acceptable socially or valued. Therefore, children’s social development is influenced by the nature of the family, culture, school and the environment that they are in.
For example, in the show for The Little Rascals Save the Day, as the children know it is the last day of school before summer vacation, Spanky, Alfalfa, Mary Ann, and Stymie try to leave early by having Buckwheat and Porky tell Miss Crabtree that they need to go home. Miss Crabtree agrees to let the four kids go, forcing them out of her surprise ice cream cake party for the class.
Schools have different settings and have their own rules, limits, and standard for behavior. Their teacher teaches them their value of honesty, which if they lie, they get their own consequence. Another example is when the five children visit their grandma bakery and their grandma asks about how their last school day. It doesn’t matter how the child born into a nuclear, blended or single-parent family, the child will learn their social skills in the context. Children find love and security through attachment and bonding with people who protect and care for them. A socially competent parent would act as a model for the model. The children would portray the image of their parents interacting with others on their own to make friends. The nature of the child and parent relationship also influences their social development skills.
In the show The Little Rascals Save the Day, the children were shocked by the news that their grandma bakery about to lose cause of their grandmas debt. So then, Spanky suggests the other children get jobs in order to help save grandma’s bakery. The children tried hard their effort whatever possible way they can think about to save their grandma bakery. This can be related to the social development in which environmental plays the major part. In the show, the security, their grandma, their teacher, their school cook and other pedestrian giving some interaction to the children. Another point is researchers said that it is also important to take good nutrition for brain growth. It is important to take proper equal in healthy nutrition as this provides fuel for early childhood’s rapid brain growth. Without good nutrition, brain growth becomes slow, hence delaying cognitive, social and emotional development.
There are many studies grandma's how children learn values. According to studies, children’s attitudes and values are fully formed by the age of seven but they are constantly changing as children grow. Studies suggest that attitudes and values are learned in much the same way that knowledge and skills are acquired. According to Bandura, children adopt the values and attitudes of those who close to them. Within the family, children learn and model their family’s social behaviors, norms and the culture along with the respective social conventions such as how to address the elders.
While behaviorists claim that children and adults learn their attitudes through reinforcement, thus teachers should be careful about what they reinforce as reinforcement is a consequence that could strengthen future behavior and is normally followed by a stimulus. On the other hand, the cognitive theory explains the formation of children’s attitudes is influenced by cognitive structures. Adding by that, theorists supported the idea that children learn by reasoning about moral and analyzing values. Children need a variety of social experiences such as engaging in disputes, conflicts, negotiation, uncertainties as well certainties to develop embryonic attempts to understand and the judgments and the positions of others and bring together these ideas with those of their families, school, and others.
The study suggests that value clarification is one way to help students chose their values freely while maintaining an open mind. Some examples of the value clarification technique that can be used by teachers in classrooms are teacher encourage students to make choice freely in child-initiated activities, teacher asks students to weigh alternative choices and the consequences of their actions thoughtfully, teachers encourage students to consider what they prize and cherish and teacher help children to act on their beliefs, giving opportunities for them to express to oppress their own ideas and develop repeated behaviors of patterns in their lives.
The personality of an individual can change due to many reasons, among them is time. As a person grows older there seems to be the consistency of traits, however, there is no definite date or age when one’s personality just suddenly stops changing. There are five basic core personalities or can be known as the big five. The big five give personality traits are extroversion, agreeableness, openness to experience or intellect, conscientiousness and neuroticism.
The personality trait for extraversion is described as sociable, expressive, high-spirited, lively, socially potent, physically active and energetic. They are energized by activities, people and places that seem to apply to preschoolers as well which is a highly positive effect, energy and zestful engagement and eager anticipation of enjoyable events.
It is important not to confuse extraverted with sociability. An extraverted child would want to share all their ideas and experiences with people immediately. An extravert child is also known to always interrupt when someone speaking and not listening to one instruction. They are also known to think and talk at the same time as talking aloud seems to help them think. Extrovert children might not necessarily be able to vocalize their feelings which they will readily express through actions and body language.
In the show The Little Rascal Save The Day, there is one character that has one of the personality traits which is extraversion. The character is famously well known as Alfalfa Switzer. Alfalfa recognized by his trademark cowlick and freckles, Alfalfa Switzer has the character with full of pride, self-assurance, and self-esteem with quite a little eye for the ladies; however, there is one thing that can knock him back to reality is Butch, who often makes him the victim of many cruel pranks and threats. Alfalfa has a personality with extroversion which he is always active in club activities with his other members. He is the best friend of Spanky, a leader and role model for Porky and Buckwheat and the number one pursuer of love from Darla. Alfalfa has good talent in singing and has to perform on stage at a talent show. However, Alfalfa has become friends with Spanky long before his performance. Sometimes, Alfalfa singing in the Spanky tree house show.
Knowing the shocking news about their grandma bakery were in debt, Alfalfa and his other friends making some plans in which Porky, Buckwheat, Mary Ann and Stymie are offered their services in professional working environments, Alfalfa and Spanky become golf caddies. Then, his friends, Spanky doesn’t stop there, he recommends with their friends to do a pet washing business. Alfalfa tried to make things right by offering Darla a ride to the library on the bicycle, but she instead decides to go with Waldo in his toy car. The first one is the personality in which in the dimension of conscientiousness. In which conscientiousness describes children who are focused on their task at hand and are responsible children. They are very persistent and do not give up on whatever they do. In an instance, Alfalfa and other the Little Rascal try to save their grandma bakery with their busy activities such as offering professional services, become golf caddies, pet washing business and a wrestling match. Coincidentally, this makes their personality extraversion as they active socially with the society which includes around their school, neighborhood and other children who make an offer on their business service.
Alfalfa is also having the personality dimension of agreeables which in this case he shows his affection toward Darla in many situations. He also shows his trust toward his best friend, Spanky to do all the decisions regarding their business to save their grandma bakery. Alfalfa also shows kindness toward his other friends and along with their grandma. In many cases, Alfalfa and other Little Rascal having pro-social tendencies such as empathy, considerate and helpful differ in themselves however all demonstrate for other people rather than interest-only at themselves.
There is one situation in which Alfalfa and other Little Rascal angered at their leader’s poor decision and his bossy attitude, Spanky, then Alfalfa and other gang turn against Spanky, but after a talk with grandma, Spanky is able to recognize his friendship with the others. This makes the children a neurotic-ism. Neurotic-ism describes children and adolescents as anxious, vulnerable, tense, easily frightened, ‘falling apart’ under stress, guilt-prone, low in frustration tolerance and insecure in relationships with others. Neurotic individuals tend to criticize themselves and are insecure. They are also sensitive to criticism and teasing. With neurotic-ism, children tend to view themselves and the world through a negative lens.
To conclude this, children who are motivated and successful in school tend to have high self-esteem and self-concept compared to children with poor achievements. Each child has their own unique personality develops from an early age. The same as socio-emotional development begins right from the time they were born and continue throughout their lifespan. In young children, morality forms through their experiences at home, the environment around them and their physical, cognitive, emotional and social skills which influence their developing sense of right versus wrong. Parents should pay attention to the child’s personality development which has an impact on the social experience. Children learn to manage their behavior from guidance, discipline, and punishment which behavior development related to emotional development. While on the other hand, the show The Little Rascal Save the Day is about children who want to save their grandma’s bakery in ways socially acceptable possible. Social skills and moral development of children are influenced by the nature of the family, cultural factors, school environment, and outside factors. The show of The Little Rascal Saves the Day which showcases each character’s unique personality dimension.
