This paper will discuss psychological development in late childhood based on references and the movie Stand By Me (1986). These four main points will be discussed: physical behavior, gender roles, self-esteem, and cognition.
Physical Behavior Children’s physical behavior are noticeably advanced compared to those of infants and toddlers ( Sigelman and Rider, 2015). Children learn over a period of time to move their bodies with their changing environment. In Stand By Me (1986), Teddie says, “Train dodge. Dig it?” He waited until the last moment to jump out of the train’s path. This risky physical behavior is normal for him, but would be impossible for a child in early childhood development.
Gender Roles Children are groomed …show more content…
Gordie tells him no and the owner asks him, “What do you do then?” (Stand By Me, 1986). Being a boy, he’s stereotyped as playing football, not being good at writing stories.
Self-esteem
Social comparisons that do not always come out well, a widening gap between the real self and the ideal self, and a tendency for parents and teachers to “raise the bar” and give older children more critical feedback than they give younger children all contribute to a decrease in average self-esteem from early to middle childhood ( Harter, 2012). Gordie and Chris have a conversation that involved Gordie’s self-esteem and how his talent as a writer. Chris says, “You could be real writer someday, Gordie.” Gordie replied, “ It’s just a stupid waste of time!” Gordie sees himself in this way because of his father. His father doesn’t acknowledge his talent because it’s not in sports.
Cognition
For every limitation of the pre-operational child, there is a corresponding strength of the concrete-operational child (Sigelman and Rider, 2015). Pre-school age children end to view things from their own point-of-view, whereas children in later elementary ages tend to realize others have a point-of-view of their own as