CH 7: Social Behaviour and Personality in Infants and Toddlers Flashcards
Basic Emotions
- Psychologists use facial expressions to judge infant’s emotional development.
- The earliest indicator of happiness is the social smile, which emerges at about 2 months; laughter appears at 4 months
- Anger (emerges gradually) and fear are both evident by about 6 months
- Fear first appears in infancy as stranger wariness
- Infants have greater fear of strangers in unfamiliar environments and of strangers that don’t allow the infants to warm up to them.
Complex Emotions: What are they and when do they emerge?
Complex emotions have an evaluative component and include guilt, embarrassment, and pride.
• Emerges 18-24 months, because they depend upon cognitive development and child’s reflexive understanding of the self.
• Require more sophisticated understanding than basic emotions, which are more biologically based
Recognizing and Using Others’ Emotions
- 6-7 months recognizes different emotions associated with different facial expressions
- Infants often match their own emotions to other’s emotions.
- Infants use info about emotion to help them evaluate unfamiliar people and situations
Regulating Emotions
• Begins in infancy.
- For example, infants will look away when they encounter something frightening or confusing or move closer to a parent.
• With age, children develop even more effective strategies.
• Both genetics and parenting impact children’s emotion regulation.
Attachment
Enduring social-emotional relationship between infant and primary caregiver
- Influences infant’s perceptual and cognitive skills
- 6 or 7 months, primary attachment figure, usually the mother but can include other close relations
• Many behaviours that contribute to the formation of attachment are biologically programmed
Internal Working Model
a set of expectations about parents’ availability and responsivity, generally and in times of stress
Types of Attachment
(1) secure
(2) avoidant
(3) resistant
(4) disorganized
Quality of Attachment
Characteristics of child care and mother affect quality of attachment.
Factors determining quality of attachment
Caregiver sensitivity
Predictable and responsive caregiving leads to secure attachment
In modern attachment theory, parents have internal working models of the attachment relationship with their own parents, and these working models guide interactions with their own children
- Adult Attachment Interview identified three groups:
(1) Autonomous adults
(2) Dismissive adults
(3) Preoccupied adults
Other factors include:
- Parenting Skill
- Parent’s work
- Child Care arrangements
> Parents can enroll their children in high quality daycare without fear of harmful consequences for attachment.
Autonomous Adults
describe childhood experiences objectively and mention both positive and negative aspects of their parents.
According to attachment theory, only parents with autonomous attachment representations are likely to provide the sensitive caregiving that promotes secure attachment
- parents with secure attachment tend ti become adults with autonomous attachment representations
Dismissive Adults
describe childhood experiences in very general terms and often idealize their parents.
Preoccupied Adults
describe childhood experiences emotionally and often express anger or confusion regarding their relationships with their parents.
Non-social Play
Playing alone or watching others play
• Onset of peer interactions begins around 6-10 months with non-social play.
- At 6 months of age, children have a developing sense of morality
Parallel Play
Playing alone but near others, while maintaining an interest in what the others are doing.
~ 12 months
Simple Social Play
Youngsters interacting socially during play activities.
~ 15-18 months
Co-operative Play
Play that is organized around a distinct theme and involves children taking on special roles based on that theme
~ 24 months
Origins of Self-Recognition and Self-Concept
• Mirror-task suggests it’s between 15 and 24 months. First signs of self-awareness
- can see red dot on their face and touch themselves rather than the mirror (15 months)
• At about 15 months, infants also have preference for photos of self and use of pronouns such as “I” or “me”.
- refer to themselves by name and with personal pronouns, and sometimes to know their age and gender
• Changes interactions with peers.
• By 2 years most children have the rudiments of self-awareness, but this early understanding is fragile
• Material possessions are one of the first elements involved in young children’s developing self-concepts
• Growing self-recognition probably reflects their cognitive development
• Young children seemingly don’t make the connection between the current self (“I am being recorded”) and the previous self (“I had a sticker on my head”)
Describe how, following self-recognition, infants acquire a self-concept.
- 20-28-month-olds who are more self-aware are more likely to say “mine” while playing with toys with other children.
- Self-awareness leads to self-concept and influences peer interactions.
- As toddlers grow, self-concept moves beyond possessions
Dimensions of Temperament in the New York Longitudinal Study
(1) Activity Level
(2) Rhythmicity
(3) Approach/Withdrawal (response to novel object)
(4) Distractibility
(5) Adaptibility
(6) Intensity of Reaction
(7) Mood
(8) Threshold (level of stimulation needed for the child to respond)
(9) Attention Span and Persistence
Temperament
Consistent mood or style of behaviour.
• Different dimensions
- emotionality, activity, sociability
• Temperament influences infant-family/peer interactions and is influenced by environment.
Emotionality
the strength of an emotional response to a situation, the ease with which that response is triggered, and the ease of return to a nonemotional state.
i.e. strong emotional response, easily triggered, not easily calmed; responses are subdued, relatively difficult to elicit, and readily soothed
Activity
the tempo and vigour of a child’s movements
- inactive infants have a more controlled behavioural tempo and are more likely to enjoy quiet play
Sociability
the extent to which a person prefers to be with other people
Hereditary and Environmental Contributions to Temperament
• Twin studies show genetic influence.
- Identical twins are usually more temperamentally alike than fraternal twins.
• Influence of hormones
• Influence of parenting styles
• Cultural influences temperament patterns
- Asian infants less visibly emotional than North American
> genetics
> environment
- Japanese mothers spend more time in close physical contact with their babies. constantly and gently soothing them; might reduce tendency to respond emotionally
• Children more likely to have difficult temperaments when mothers are abrupt and lack confidence.
Stability of Temperament
• Temperament is modestly stable throughout infancy and the preschool years.
- An active fetus is more likely to be a difficult, unadaptive infant.
- Newborns who cry under moderate stress tend to cry as 5-month-olds when stressed.
Temperament and Social Interaction
• Various aspects of temperament are related to school success, peer interactions, and compliance with parents.
accidents that cause injury
• Temperament is also related to helping others.
• Infant temperament can affect how parents interact with babies.
Anxious, Fearful Children
Anxious, fearful children are more likely to comply with a parent’s rules and requests, even when the parent is not present
Extroverted, Uninhibited Children
Extroverted, uninhibited toddlers are more likely to have accidents that cause injury
Shy, Inhibited Children
Shy, inhibited children often have difficulty interacting with their peers and often do not cope effectively with problems
Inhibited children are less likely to help a stranger in distress
Social Referencing
In unfamiliar or ambiguous environment, infants look to parents or trusted caregivers for cues to interpret situation.
Social Referencing
In unfamiliar or ambiguous environment, infants look to parents or trusted caregivers for cues to interpret situation.
Strange Situation
Ainsworth
The research procedure in which infant and mother are seperated briefly, reveals four primary forms of attachment:
(1) secure
(2) avoidant
(3) resistant
(4) disorganized
Also looks at these three questions:
(1) Does the child use the parent as a secure base?
(2) What do they do when parent leaves and is left with a stranger?
(3) What happens when the parent returns?
Social Referencing
In unfamiliar or ambiguous environment, infants look to parents or trusted caregivers for cues to interpret situation.
Secure Attachment
60-65%
Most common form and involves infants having complete trust in their primary caregiver.
Cry when mother leaves, feel better when she returns
• Predictable and appropriate, responsive parenting is important for secure attachment.
- Reactive attachment disorder
- Privation
• Most likely to occur when mothers respond sensitively and consistently to their infants
• Responsive parenting is important to the development of secure attachment
Avoidant Attachment
Infants deal with lack of trust by ignoring the mother
20%
Resistant Attachment
Infants is upset when mother leaves and upset or angry when she returns, difficult to console
10-15%
Child Care and Attachment
Child care in Canada is common and may involve being cared for by a relative or sitter in the family’s home, in a daycare provider’s home, or in a daycare center
Attachment relationships in infants and toddlers are not harmed by high-quality child care
Child Care and Attachment
Child care in Canada is common and may involve being cared for by a relative or sitter in the family’s home, in a daycare provider’s home, or in a daycare center
Attachment relationships in infants and toddlers are not harmed by high-quality child care
Temperament and Other Aspects of Development
Persistent children are likely to succeed in school, whereas active and distractible children are less likely to succeed
• difficult babies are more likely to have behavioural problems by the time they are old enough to attend school
• The impact of temperament always depends on the environment in which chidren develop
Social Smile
Emerges around 2 months
Smiling in response to seeing another human face
Stranger Wariness
signs of fear in an infant in response to an unfamiliar
- adaptive, emerges at the same time that children begin to maser creeping and crawling
- during the second year, wariness of strangers gradually declines as toddlers learn to interpret facial expressions and become better at recognizing when a stranger is friendly
Bowlby
argued that evolution favors behaviors likely to elicit caregiving from adults and thus promote an attachment bond.
Caregivers and babies learn to synchronize their behaviours.
Development of Attachment Relationship
(1) infant must learn the difference between people and other objects
- typically begin to respond differently in the first few months
(2) synchronize interactions with mother
> by 3 months of age if a mother doesn’t interact with her alert baby, the baby becomes at least moderately distressed looking away from her and sometimes crying
Relationship between attachment and olfaction
Parent being able to identify their child’s smell also showed to be more affectionate and have a better attachment to their child
Disorganized Attachment
Baby seems confused when the mother leaves, and when she returns, not really understand what’s happening
5-10%
Consequences of Secure Attachment
• Positive consequences in later social relationships.
- higher quality friendships and fewer conflicts with friends than children with insecure attachment relationships
• Interact with their peers more skillfully
• Less behavior problems in school
Elaine Sharfe
• found results suggesting a relationship between secure attachment and emotional intelligence
• noted that securely attached children tend to:
(1) have superior understanding of emotions
(2) be better ability to regulate emotions
(3) be more emotional expressiveness than insecurely attached children,
Inability to form an attachment relationship might occur because:
(1) being raised in an abusive or neglectful environment
(2) never having a consistent caregiver (i.e. orphanage)
(3) having an extremely depressed or mentally ill caregiver
(4) health conditions, such as autism or profound brain injury
Insecure Attachment
Babies who fuss often and are difficult to console are more prone to developing insecure attachment
Insecure attachment might also be more likely when a difficult, emotional infant has a mother whose personality is rigid and inflexible than when the mother is accepting and flexible
Rigid Mothers
Don’t adjust well to the often erratic demands of their difficult babies
- they want the baby to adjust to them
Less often provide the responsive, sensitive care necessary for secure attachment
Mothers can be taught how to interact more sensitively, affectionately and responsively to their child
- paving way for secure attachment
Reactive Attachment Disorder
a mental disorder involving a pattern of inapproapriate interpersonal behaviours in children, thought to result from disrupted early attachments
- children who have disordered patterns of attachment in infancy or early childhood could be exibiting signs of reactive attachment disorder
Privation
a condition in which the basic necessities and comforts of life are not adequately provided
i. e. in orphanage
- Romanian children
Children respond with considerable variability to situations of prolonged early institutional privation, but that they generally show disordered attachment behaviours and cognitive deficits
Rutter (1997) study
emotional, conduct and peer relationship problems weren’t typically observed in these children more than in other children who were not exposed to situations of extreme privation
American National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Longitudinal study on the impact of child care on American infants and toddlers
- high quality care doesn’t disrupt attachment, but quality of parenting is essential to the development of secure attachment
Gagne
Gagne found that:
- having parents who work and spending hours in child care had little effect on school readiness for most preschoolers
- children from higher income families who were in substitute care had better cognitive outcomes than children who came from lower income families
- children who had mothers who had higher levels of education and above average parenting skills had higher cognitive outcomes when they didn’t take jobs outside home and when their father’s worked part-time
Canadian Transition to Care Study
- use of child care can buffer the otherwise negative effect of difficult infant temperament on mother-infant relationships
- early entry to child care was linked to lower levels of maternal depression
- employed mothers choosing to stay home tended to provide more unstable care for their children and to be more depressed than those who continued working (when wanting to work)
In general, high-quality child care has the following features
(1) a low ratio of children to caregivers
(2) well-trained, experienced staff
(3) low staff turnover
(4) ample opportunities for educational and social stimulation
(5) effective communication between parents and daycare workers concerning the general aims and routine functioning of the daycare program
Key Quality: sensitive, responsive caregiving
Self-Concept
attitudes, behaviours, and values that a person believes make the self unique
Thomas and Chess: “Easy” Babies
40% of children
- usually happy and cheerful
- tended to adjust well to new situations
- followed regular routines for eating, sleeping, and toileting
Thomas and Chess: “Difficult” Babies
10% of children
- often unhappy
- didn’t adjust well to new situations
- followed irregular routines for eating and sleeping
- tended to withdraw form novel experiences
- responded intensly to novel stimulation
Thomas and Chess: “Slow-to-Warm-Up” Babies
15% of children
- tended to be unhappy
- didn’t adjust well when placed in new situations
- didn’t respond intensely to novel stimuli, tended to be relatively inactive
Thomas and Chess
“Slow-to-Warm-Up” Babies
“Difficult” Babies
“Easy” Babies
The last third of children did not fit into any of the groups, they rated as average on most of the nine dimensions of temperament in the New York Longitudinal Study
Shmidt and Fox
Found two main types of child temperment:
(1) bold/exuberant
(2) shy/socially withdrawn
Concluded that these temperment types remain relatively stable for the first four years of a child’s life and that certain genetically linked characteristics of behaviour and physiology are associated with the two temperments
Links between Genes and Temperament
Infants and toddlers who are upset by novel stimuli (and who often become shy preschoolers) have narrower faces than children who respond calmly to novel stimuli
Thus, one fascinating hypothesis is that genes influence levels of hormones that affect both facial growth and temperament
Correlations between inhibition and Expressing Concern and Helping Behaviour
Young children’s temperament helps predict whether that child will help
- when mother’s and experimenters feigned injury, both shy and outgoing children noticed and were disturbed by their mother’s distress
- outgoing children typically translated this concern into action via helping
- shy children helped mothers but couldn’t overcome their reluctance to help an unfamiliar adult who wasn’t asking for help
> even though shy children see that a person is suffering, their apprehensiveness in unfamiliar social settings may prevent them from helping
Predicting Adult Lives
Longitudinal studies show that children’s temperament predicts important aspects of adult’s lives
- (Sweden) shy boys and girls married later than non-shy children
> shy boys became fathers later, shy girls were less educated
• The influence of temperament often depends on the environment in which children develop
- relation between temperent and compliance to a parent’s request depends very much on how that request is framed
Strange Situation + Secure Attachment
- cry when parents leave
* relief when parent returns, goes back to playing
Strange Situation + Ambivalent/Resistant Attachment
- Clings to parent, doesn’t explore
- Parent leaves, child looses their mind, no trust
- parent returns, child is angry
- ~ 15-30% of children
Strange Situation + Avoidant Attachment
- doesn’t hover with parent, but is near them
- parent leaves, child is relaxed but stays away from stranger
- parent returns, child doesn’t do anything
- ~ 10% of children
Changing Attachment Styles
• secure attachment - form with another person • therapy • life experience - needy meets trusting - big push out of the rut needed
Measuring Attachment
• different in different culture
- i.e. left with strnager, either terrifying or normal
• testing multiple times
- can’t use strange situation once in a clinical situation
> temperament may play a role
> need to see them in a situation where their attachment is triggered, not terriffying
• context
- is child sick?
- parent gone for a long tome?
> clingy or resentful
Erikson and Attachment
• learning and creating relationships
- 2 years, trust vs no trust
- primary caregiving sets the path deeply
Steps of Developing First Attachment
Starting in infancy
(1) general social responsiveness
(2) stranger wariness (6-8 months)
(3) clear attachment style (2 years; can measure it)
