Chapter 7 - Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood Flashcards
Erikson’s Theory of Infant and Toddler Personality
The first two stages of Erikson’s theory are said to occur in the infant and toddler years
Basic trust versus mistrust – balance of care, sympathetic and loving(quality)
Autonomy versus shame and doubt – suitable guidance and reasonable choices (toilet training)
How do we judge what an infant is feeling?
What’s a potential problem with this method?
Then why do we use it?
Facial expressions
Many reasons to smile.
Subjective correlations and expressions
It is the only way we have
Use multiple cues
Emotional development
Expressions become more like caregivers
6m faces, gaze, voice and posture form organized emotional patterns
6m emotions are well organized and specific
Basic emotions
Happiness Interest Surprise Anger Fear Sadness Disgust
Universal, evolutionary survival, seen in primates
Happiness
Smiling
Laughter
Smiles when learning new motor or cognitive skill
• Smile During REM in response to gentle touching or pleasant sound
Happiness is initially expressed in smiles, and later also in laughter
• We see smiling in newborns
• Laughter at about 3-4 months
By 10 to 12 months, babies already have different smiles for different functions and contexts
• A broad smile with raised cheeks in response to a parent’s greeting (social smile)
• A smaller smile for friendly strangers
• An open-mouthed smile for stimulating play
• At the end of the first year, they can use smiles as deliberate social signals
Anger
Expressions of anger increase in frequency and intensity from 4 to 6 months into the second year
As they become more capable of intentional behaviour, they begin showing an increase in anger responses in situations in which they lose contingent control
Sadness
And
Fear
Expressions of sadness are seen more often when
The child is deprived of a familiar, loving caregiver
Parent-infant interaction is seriously disrupted, as in the still-face paradigm
Fear also increases in the second half of the first year
Strangers (stranger anxiety) and separation from caregivers are common sources of fear
Secure base
A point from which to explore, returning for emotional support (were the parents are)
Understanding and Responding to the Emotions of Others
3-4m sensitive to structure and timing of face-to-face interactions. Expecting their partner to respond in kind
By 5 months, babies perceive facial expressions as organized patterns
They distinguish, for instance, between happy and angry expressions
7m look longer at appropriate face-voice emotional pairing
We begin to see social referencing at about 8 to 10 months
As they approach the second year, babies develop the ability to respond to social referencing after a delay.
18m Can start to distingus others emotional reaction can be different from their own. (crackers or broccoli test)
social referencing
Actively seeking emotional information from a trusted person in an uncertain situation
Emotional contagion
Theory that babies respond in kind to others emotions through a built in automatic process
Others think that it is because of operant conditioning – getting positive reward responses from others
Self-conscious emotions
emotions such as shame, embarrassment, guilt, envy, and pride that involve injury to or enhancement of the sense of self
appears in 18m - 24m.
Envy by 3
cognitive advances necessary for these to develop
- self awareness
- figure out expectations
Emotional self-regulation
Emotional self-regulation - strategies for adjusting our emotional state to a comfortable level of intensity so we can accomplish our goals
The effortful control that’s necessary for this develops gradually as the cerebral cortex develops
Caregivers teach children strategies for regulating their emotions
Individual differences in capacity for emotional self-regulation are apparent early
Language leads to new ways to regulate emotion and parents should encourage this
Emotional self-regulation in the first two years contributes to autonomy and mastery of cognitive and social skills
Temperament
Temperament - early-appearing, stable individual differences in the quality and intensity of emotional reaction, activity level, attention, and emotional self-regulation. Reactivity: quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention, and motor activity. Self-regulation: strategies that modify reactivity.
Temperament is believed to form the foundation for adult personality
– Thomas and Chess found that temperament influences a child’s chances of experiencing psychological problems later, but also that parenting practices can modify a child’s emotional style
Reactivity
quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention, and motor activity
Self-regulation
strategies that modify reactivity
Thomas and Chess found that most children fit into one of 3 categories
Thomas and Chess found that temperament influences a child’s chances of experiencing psychological problems later, but also that parenting practices can modify a child’s emotional style.
40% Easy child
10% Difficult child
15% Slow-to-warm-up child
35% No category – blends of the other thee
Easy child - Thomas and Chess
40%
Quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, is generally cheerful and adapts quickly and easily to new experiences
Difficult child - Thomas and Chess
10%
Irregular in daily routines, slow to accept new experiences, tends to react negatively and intensely
Research often focuses on difficult children because they are at higher risk for adjustment problems
- Anxious withdrawal and aggressive behaviour in early and middle childhood
Slow-to-warm-up child - Thomas and Chess
15%
Inactive, shows mild low key reactions to environmental stimuli, is negative in mood, and adjusts slowly to new experiences.
Slow-to-warm-up children show comparatively fewer problems in early years
- In late preschool and school years, there’s an increased tendency for excessive fearfulness and slow-constricted behaviour
Rothbart’s Model of Temperament
Dimensions
Reactivity
• Activity level – level of gross motor activity
• Attention span/persistence
• Fearful distress – reaction to novel stimuli
• Irritable distress – fussing, crying
• Positive affect
Self-regulation
• Effortful control – voluntarily supress a dominant, reactive response in order to plan and execute more adaptive responce
Measuring Temperament
Temperament is often measured by
- Interviewing (or administering questionnaires to) parents
- Interviewing (or administering questionnaires to) other adults familiar with the child
- Directly observing the child
Physiological measures are sometimes used, particularly for children at opposite extremes of the positive-affect and fearful-distress dimensions of temperament
- Inhibited or shy child versus uninhibited or sociable child
Stability of Temperament
The degree of stability you’ll find in a temperamental attribute depends in part on
- The attribute you’re investigating
- Whether or not the child is at an extreme on that attribute
- The age of the child
Evidence indicates that even traits that seem biologically based can be modified by environmental events
- Patient, supportive parents can help fearful or irritable toddlers to manage their reactivity and become less difficult over time
- Note that parents are unlikely to succeed at taking a child from one extreme (e.g., very shy) to the other (very sociable), but can decrease the intensity of a response (the child could become less shy)
Genetic Influences on temperament
Research indicates that monozygotic twins are more alike on a variety of temperamental and personality traits than are dizygotic twins
However, it’s important to keep in mind that
- Genetic influences vary with the temperamental trait
- Genetic influences vary with the age of the individual
We see consistent ethnic and sex differences in early temperament
- Asian babies, compared to North American Caucasian, tend to be less active, irritable, and vocal, more easily soothed, and better at quieting themselves
- Boys tend to be more active and daring than girls, more irritable when frustrated, more often express high-intensity pleasure in play, and are more impulsive
- Girls tend to be more anxious and timid, and show higher effortful control
Goodness-of-fit model
Thomas and Chess’s model, which states that an effective match, or “good fit, between a child’s temperament and the child-rearing environment leads to more adaptive functioning, whereas a “poor fit” results in adjustment problems
Consider that difficult infants are less likely than others to receive sensitive caregiving
- When parents of difficult infants are able to remain calm, and allow their children to adjust to new experiences at their own pace, we’re less likely to see the unfavourable outcomes associated with a difficult temperament
Cultural values also influence the fit that children experience
- In the past, Chinese adults evaluated shy children positively
Shy children were likely to receive caregiving that fit their temperaments and were well-adjusted both academically and socially
There’s been a recent trend toward encouraging assertiveness and sociability, which leads sociable children to now receive a better fit
Development is often more favourable if parents strive early to provide their children with a good fit
- Children who are difficult or shy benefit from warm, accepting parenting that makes firm but reasonable demands for mastering new experiences
- With reserved, inactive toddlers, highly stimulating parenting fosters exploration
Attachment
the strong affectionate tie that humans have for special people in their lives
By 6 months, infants are showing attachment to familiar people who have responded to their needs
Both psychodynamic and behaviourist views of attachment tend to emphasize feeding
However, Harlow has taught us that contact comfort is at least as important as feeding, probably more so
We know children become attached to people who seldom feed them, such as siblings and grandparents
In cultures in which children sleep alone, we even see attachments to soft objects such as blankets or teddy bears
Ethological theory of attachment
Ethological theory of attachment - Bowlby’s theory that the infant’s emotional tie to the caregiver is an evolved response that promotes survival
Bowlby retained the psychoanalytic view that Baby’s relationship with Mom will have far-reaching consequences
Feeding is NOT the basis of atachment
He suggested that, like other species, we have built-in characteristics and behaviours that are designed to ensure our survival
- By keeping Mom close, for instance, or encouraging her to care for us
