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Developmental Psychology Unit 6: Middle Childhood

From about 6 to 11, children think logically about concrete things, become strategic learners and build a sense of competence among peers. This unit covers concrete operations, information processing, intelligence, moral reasoning, self-concept and peer relations.

Covers: Physical growth and health, Concrete operational thought, Memory, attention and metacognition, Intelligence and its measurement, Moral development, Self-concept and achievement, Peers, bullying and family change

Study guide

Growth in middle childhood is slow and steady, about 2 to 3 inches a year, and motor skills become smoother and faster, which supports organized sports. Childhood obesity, often defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for age and sex, is a major health concern linked to diet, screen time and family patterns. Piaget called this the concrete operational stage (about 7 to 11). Children can now perform reversible mental operations on concrete objects. They pass conservation tasks because they decenter (consider several features at once) and use reversibility. They can classify objects into hierarchies, solve class-inclusion problems, put objects in order by size (seriation) and use transitive inference (if A is longer than B and B than C, then A is longer than C).

Concrete operational thought has limits. Children reason well about real objects but struggle with abstract or hypothetical problems, which wait for formal operations. Conservation skills appear in a regular order, a pattern Piaget called horizontal décalage: conservation of number appears first, around 6 or 7, followed by mass and liquid around 7 or 8, weight around 9 or 10, and volume around 11 or 12. Information-processing researchers describe gradual gains instead of stages. Processing speed increases, working memory grows and children begin to use memory strategies: rehearsal (repeating items), organization (grouping related items) and, later, elaboration (creating links or images). Metacognition, thinking about one's own thinking, helps children judge what they know and choose strategies. Selective attention and inhibition also improve.

Intelligence testing began with Alfred Binet, who created a test to identify French schoolchildren who needed extra help. Early tests used a ratio IQ: mental age divided by chronological age times 100. Modern tests such as the Stanford-Binet and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) use deviation IQ, in which scores are set to a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, so about 68% of people score between 85 and 115. Howard Gardner proposed multiple intelligences, such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist. Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory names analytical, creative and practical intelligence. The Flynn effect is the rise in average IQ scores across generations, pointing to environmental factors such as schooling and nutrition.

Moral reasoning grows during these years. Piaget described heteronomous morality (about 4 to 7), in which rules are fixed and judged by consequences, so breaking 15 cups by accident seems worse than breaking 1 while stealing jam; and autonomous morality (about 10 and up), in which rules are seen as agreements and intentions matter. Lawrence Kohlberg used dilemmas such as the Heinz dilemma and scored the reasoning, not the answer. At the preconventional level, right and wrong are based on punishment and reward; at the conventional level, on approval and law and order; and at the postconventional level, on social contracts and universal principles. Most school-age children reason at the preconventional or early conventional levels. Erikson's crisis for this period is industry versus inferiority.

Self-concept becomes more realistic and based on social comparison, so self-esteem often dips slightly as children compare themselves with peers. Carol Dweck showed that children with a growth mindset, who believe ability can improve with effort, persist more after failure than children with a fixed mindset, who may develop learned helplessness. Peer status is measured with sociometric ratings: popular children are liked by many; rejected children are disliked, either aggressive or withdrawn; neglected children are rarely named at all; and controversial children are both liked and disliked by many. Rejected children face the highest risk of later problems. Bullying involves repeated, intentional harm with a power imbalance. E. Mavis Hetherington's research on divorce found that most children show short-term distress but are resilient in the long run, especially when conflict is low.

Key ideas

• Concrete operational children can perform reversible operations on real objects but not yet on abstract ideas.
• Decentration and reversibility allow children to pass conservation tasks, which appear in a typical order called horizontal décalage.
• Memory strategies develop in order: rehearsal, organization, then elaboration.
• Modern IQ tests are normed with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
• Piaget distinguished heteronomous morality, based on consequences, from autonomous morality, based on intentions.
• Kohlberg scored the reasoning behind moral choices, not the choices themselves.
• Rejected children, not neglected children, show the highest risk of later adjustment problems.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Thinking concrete operational children can reason about abstract hypotheticals.
• Treating ratio IQ and deviation IQ as the same calculation.
• Assuming neglected children are at as much risk as rejected children.
• Scoring a Kohlberg dilemma by whether the person says yes or no rather than by the reasons given.
• Treating the Flynn effect as evidence that intelligence is purely genetic.

Before the test, make sure you can

• Identify concrete operational skills such as conservation, seriation, class inclusion and transitive inference.
• Explain horizontal décalage and the typical order of conservation skills.
• Describe memory strategies and metacognition in middle childhood.
• Calculate ratio IQ and interpret deviation IQ scores using the normal curve.
• Compare Gardner's and Sternberg's theories of intelligence.
• Classify moral reasoning using Piaget's and Kohlberg's stages.
• Identify sociometric status groups and their risks.
• Explain growth mindset and the typical effects of divorce on children.

Words to know

Concrete operational stage

Piaget's stage from about 7 to 11, marked by logical operations on concrete objects.

Decentration

Considering several features of a problem at once.

Reversibility

Mentally undoing an action to return to the starting state.

Seriation

Arranging items in order along a dimension, such as length.

Transitive inference

Inferring the relation between two items from their relations to a third.

Class inclusion

Understanding that a subclass is part of a larger class, such as roses within flowers.

Horizontal décalage

Mastery of related tasks at different ages, such as conserving number before volume.

Metacognition

Awareness and control of one's own thinking and learning.

Elaboration

A memory strategy of creating meaningful links or images among items.

Deviation IQ

An IQ score based on how a person's performance compares with others of the same age, with mean 100 and SD 15.

Multiple intelligences

Gardner's theory that people have several distinct kinds of intelligence.

Triarchic theory

Sternberg's theory of analytical, creative and practical intelligence.

Flynn effect

The rise in average IQ scores over generations.

Heteronomous morality

Piaget's early stage in which rules are fixed and acts are judged by consequences.

Preconventional level

Kohlberg's first level, at which morality is based on punishment and personal reward.

Growth mindset

Dweck's term for the belief that ability can be developed through effort.

Rejected-aggressive child

A child disliked by peers because of hostile, disruptive behavior.

Neglected child

A child seldom named as liked or disliked by peers.

Sample practice questions

30 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.