Provide examples of ways in which culture, gender, and ethnicity influence self-esteem in middle childhood.
What will be an ideal response?
An especially strong emphasis on social comparison in school may explain why Chinese and Japanese children, despite their higher academic achievement, score lower than U.S. children in self-esteem. Furthermore, because their cultures value social harmony, Asian children tend to be reserved in positive self-judgments but generous in praise of others.
By the end of middle childhood, girls feel less confident than boys about their physical appearance and athletic abilities. In academic self-judgments, girls score higher in language arts self-esteem, whereas boys have higher math and science self-esteem-even when children of equal skill levels are compared. At the same time, girls exceed boys in self-esteem dimensions of close friendship and social acceptance.
Compared with their European-American agemates, African-American children tend to have slightly higher self-esteem, possibly because of warm extended families and a stronger sense of ethnic pride. Children and adolescents who attend schools or live in neighborhoods where their SES and ethnic groups are well-represented feel a stronger sense of belonging and have fewer self-esteem problems.
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Stage theories of development assume that
a. individuals progress through specified stages in a particular order because each stage builds on the previous stage. b. environmental circumstances can sometimes cause individuals to skip stages early on and return to them later. c. progress through the sequence of stages is not related to age. d. there are few, if any, discontinuities in development.
Shirley is about to teach a group of eight-year-olds the backstroke. She wants to do this using operant conditioning. At the outset of the swimming course, Shirley should:
A. appear quite stern so that later praise will seem more meaningful B. praise them for no particular reason but to establish rapport C. praise every correct thing the young swimmers do D. praise them at the end of each lesson only, since that is what she would do if they were in proper training for a meet
In which of the following situations is Molly more likely to comply with the request of Valeria, whom she is meeting for the first time??
a. ?Valeria is substantially older than Molly and expresses strong opinions. b. Valeria has a serious approach to the conversation while Molly is more ebullient.? c. ?Valeria is an attractive and energetic woman about the same age as Molly. d. ?Valeria is fairly withdrawn and tentative in her request.
In a research study, one-third of the subjects were injected with adrenaline, one-third were given a tranquilizer, and one-third were injected with a placebo (salt water) and shown a slapstick comedy film. The findings of the study provided support for Schachter's theory of emotion since the group members that laughed the LEAST were the ones injected with
a. adrenaline. b. a tranquilizer. c. a placebo d. nothing.