Chapter 4 Flashcards
Developing Emotions (Sequence)
- Birth - Distress; contentment
- 6 weeks - Social smile
- 3 months - Laughter; curiosity
- 4 months - Full, responsive smiles
- 4–8 months - Anger
- 9–14 months - Fear of social events (strangers, separation from caregiver)
- 12 months - Fear of unexpected sights and sounds
- 18 months - Self-awareness; pride; shame; embarrassment
As always, culture and experience influence the norms of development. This is especially true for emotional development after the first eight months.
Early emotions
Emotional Development
- High emotional responsiveness
- Pain
- Pleasure
Crying
Emotional Development
- Typical: Hurt, hungry, tired, frightened
- Colic: Uncontrollable; reflux and immature swallowing
- Excessive
Smiling and laughing
Emotional Development
- Social smile (6 weeks): Evoked by viewing human faces
* Laughter (3 to 4 months): Often emerges as curiosity
Anger
Emotional Development
- First expressions at around 6 months
* Healthy response to frustration
Sadness
Emotional Development
• Indicates withdrawal and is accompanied by increased
production of cortisol
• Stressful experience for infants
Fear
Emotional Development
Emerges at about 9 months in response to
people, things, or situations
Stranger wariness (Emotional Development)
Infant no longer smiles at any friendly face but cries or looks frightened when an unfamiliar person moves too close.
Separation anxiety
Emotional Development
Distress when a familiar caregiver or loved one leaves; most obvious between 9 and 14 months.
- Tears, dismay, or anger when a familiar caregiver leaves
- If it remains strong after age 3, it may be considered an emotional disorder.
Toddlers’ emotions
Emotional Development
- Anger and fear become less frequent and more focused.
- Laughing and crying become louder and more discriminating.
- Temper tantrums may appear.
New emotions
Emotional Development
- Pride
- Shame
- Embarrassment
- Disgust
- Guilt
Self-awareness
Emotional Development
Person’s realization that he or she is a distinct individual whose body, mind, and actions are separate from those of other people.
Social referencing
Emotional Development
The tendency of an infant to analyze the facial expressions of a significant other in order to be able to determine what to do.
Mirror Recognition
Emotional Development
• Classic experiment (M. Lewis & Brooks, 1978)
• Babies aged 9–24 months
looked into a mirror after a
dot of rouge had been put on their noses.
• None of the babies younger than 12 months old reacted as if they knew the mark was on them.
• 15- to 24-month-olds showed self-awareness by touching their own noses with curiosity.
All reactions begin in the brain
Brain and Emotions
- Growth of synapses and dendrites is related to gradual refinement and expression of each emotion.
- This is the result of past experiences and ongoing maturation.
Experience and culture
Brain and Emotions
• Promote specific connections between neurons and emotions
(cultural sponge).
• Shape functional anatomy of self-representation.
Social smile and laughter
Brain and Emotions
Related to cortex maturation
Social anxiety
Brain and Emotions
Stronger than any other anxiety for many; genetic and
environmental influences
What affects emotions?
How does fear and stress affect the developing brain?
(Growth of the Brain: Stress)
Genes, past experiences, and
additonal hormones and neurotransmitters
• Excessive fear and stress HARM the developing brain
Abuse and its effects
Growth of the Brain: Stress
form of chronic stress
– May cause potential long-term effects on a child’s emotional development.
– Often creates high levels of stress hormones indicative of emotional impairment and later behavioral difficulties.
Temperament
Brain and Emotions: Temperament
Biologically-based core of individual differences in
– Style of approach
– Response to the environment that is stable across time and situations
Temperamental traits vs Personality traits
Brain and Emotions: Temperament
Temperamental traits are GENETIC; personality traits are
LEARNED.
Three dimensions of temperament
Brain and Emotions: Temperament
- Effortful control (regulating attention and emotion, self-soothing)
- Negative mood (fearful, angry, unhappy)
- Exuberant (active, social, not shy)
Each dimension of temperament…
Brain and Emotions: Temperament
- Affects later personality and achievement
* Is associated with distinctive brain patterns and behaviors
Effortful control
Brain and Emotions: Temperament
regulating attention and emotion, self-soothing
Negative mood
Brain and Emotions: Temperament
fearful, angry, unhappy
Exuberant
Brain and Emotions: Temperament
active, social, not shy
Mothers or genes?
Opposing Perspectives
• Genetics contribute to infant emotions
• Some scientists link child traits to early caregiving and culture
– Exuberant children changed less than inhibited, fearful ones
Conclusions
Opposing Perspectives
Difficult babies tend to become difficult children, but family and culture
can deflect negative outcomes.
– Possible for babies’ temperaments to change
Synchrony
Development of Social Bonds
Coordinated, rapid, and smooth exchange of responses between a caregiver and an infant
• Infants’ ability to achieve synchrony with caregivers is an important way that babies learn how to express their feelings.
Synchrony in the first few months
Development of Social Bonds
- Becomes more frequent and elaborate
- Helps infants learn to read others’ emotions and to develop the skills of social interaction
- Usually begins with parents imitating infants
Experiments using the still-face technique
Is Synchrony Needed for Normal Development?
- Experimental practice in which an adult keeps his or her face unmoving and EXPRESSIONLESS in face-to-face interaction with an infant
- Babies are very upset by the still face and show signs of stress.
Conclusions of still-face experiments
Is Synchrony Needed for Normal Development?
- Parent’s responsiveness to an infant aids psychological and biological development.
- Infants’ brains need social interaction to develop to their fullest.
Attachment
Development of Social Bonds
• Lasting emotional bond that one person has with another • Begins to form in early infancy and influences a person's close relationships throughout life.
Preattachment
Development of Social Bonds: Stages of Attachment
Birth to 6 weeks
• Newborns signal, via crying and body movements, that they need others.
• When people respond positively, the newborn is comforted and learns to seek more interaction.
• Newborns are also primed by brain patterns to
recognize familiar voices and faces.
Attachment in the making
Development of Social Bonds: Stages of Attachment
6 weeks to 8 months
• Infants respond preferentially to familiar people by smiling, laughing, babbling.
• Their caregivers’ voices, touch, expressions, and
gestures are comforting, often overriding the infant’s impulse to cry.
• Trust (Erikson) develops.
Classic secure attachment
Development of Social Bonds: Stages of Attachment
8 months to 2 years
• Infants greet their primary caregivers, play happily when they are present, show separation anxiety when their primary caregivers leave.
• Both infant and caregiver seek to be close to each other (proximity) and
frequently look at each other (contact).
• In many caregiver–infant pairs, physical touch (patting, holding, caressing) is frequent.
Attachment as launching pad
Development of Social Bonds: Stages of Attachment
2 to 6 years
• Young children seek their caregivers’ praise and
reassurance as their social world expands.
• Interactive conversations and games (hide-and-seek, object play, reading, pretending) are common.
• Children expect
caregivers to comfort and entertain.
Mutual attachment
Development of Social Bonds: Stages of Attachment
6 to 12 years
• Children seek to make their caregivers proud by learning whatever adults want them to learn, and adults reciprocate.
• In concrete operational thought (Piaget), specific accomplishments are valued by adults and children.
New attachment figures
Development of Social Bonds: Stages of Attachment
12 to 18 years
• Teenagers explore and make friendships independent from parents, using their working models of earlier attachments as a base.
• With formal operational thinking (Piaget), shared ideals and goals become influential.
Attachment revisited
Development of Social Bonds: Stages of Attachment
18 years on
• Adults develop relationships with others,
especially relationships with romantic partners and their own children, influenced by earlier attachment patterns.
• Past insecure attachments
from childhood can be repaired rather than repeated, although this
does not always happen.
Insecure-avoidant attachment (A)
Attachment Types
An infant avoids connection with the caregiver, as when the infant seems not to care about the caregiver’s presence, departure, or return.
Secure attachment (B) (Attachment Types)
An infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver.
Insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment (C)
Attachment Types
An infant’s anxiety and uncertainty are evident, as when the infant becomes very upset at separation from the caregiver and both resists and seeks contact on reunion
Disorganized attachment (D) (Attachment Types)
A type of attachment that is marked by an infant’s inconsistent reactions to the caregiver’s departure and return
Strange Situation (Mary Ainsworth: Development of Social Bonds – Measuring Attachment)
A laboratory procedure for measuring attachment by evoking infants’ reactions to the stress of various adults’ comings and goings in an unfamiliar playroom.
Key observed behaviors
Mary Ainsworth: Development of Social Bonds – Measuring Attachment
- Exploration of the toys. A secure toddler plays happily.
- Reaction to the caregiver’s departure. A secure toddler misses the caregiver.
- Reaction to the caregiver’s return. A secure toddler welcomes the caregiver’s reappearance.
Findings
Development of Social Bonds: Insecure Attachment and Social Setting
- Harsh contexts, especially the stresses of poverty, reduce the incidence of secure attachment
- Insecure attachment correlates with many later problems
Cautions
Development of Social Bonds: Insecure Attachment and Social Setting
- Insecure attachment may be a sign, but may not be the direct cause, of problems later in life
- Attachment behaviors in the Strange Situation constitute only one indication of the quality of the parent–child relationship
- Correlation is not causation!
Psychoanalytic Theory
Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development
FREUD: Oral and anal stages
– Oral stage (first year): mouth is the young infant’s primary source of gratification.
– Anal stage (second year):
Infant’s main pleasure comes from the anus (e.g., sensual pleasure of bowel movements and the psychological pleasure of controlling them)
Potential conflicts: Oral fixation
Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development
If a mother frustrates her infant’s urge to suck, the child may become an adult who is stuck (fixated) at the oral stage
(e.g., eats, drinks, chews, bites, or talks excessively)
Potential conflicts: Anal personality
Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development
Overly strict or premature toilet training may result in an adult with an unusually strong need for control, regularity, and cleanliness
Psychosocial Theory
Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development
ERIKSON: Trust and autonomy stages
• Trust versus mistrust
– Infants learn basic trust if the world is a secure place where their basic needs are met.
• Autonomy versus shame and doubt
– Toddlers either succeed or fail in gaining a sense of self-rule over their actions and their bodies.
Early problems
Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development
An adult who is suspicious and pessimistic (mistrusting) or who is easily shamed (insufficient autonomy) can be created.
Behaviorism
Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development
Albert BANDURA: Social learning theory
– Parents mold an infant’s emotions and personality
through reinforcement and punishment.
• Behavior patterns acquired by observing the behavior
of others
• Gender roles in particular are learned.
