Chapter 6: Socioemotional Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood Flashcards
The first two of Freud’s psychosocial stages
Trust vs. mistrust and autonomy vs. shame and doubt
Trust vs. mistrust
First developmental task in life, trust that caretakers will fulfill their basic needs
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
Developmental task to become independent, occurs at 1-2 years where the child is more mobile. “I am an independent individual, able to determine how I interact with the environment”. Shame and doubt if unable to establish as an independent individual (adjustment difficulties).
Infant’s basic emotions
- Social smile, smile reflex in newborns
- Some emotions are present at birth (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise)
Self-conscious emotions
- Shame, pride, embarrassment
- Requires an understanding of ourselves
- Our actions have an effect that is desirable or not desirable, which reflexts back on us.
Emotional regulation in infants
- Suckling, smiling, gaze aversion
- Self-soothing and distraction
- Changing the distressing situation
- Language skills, seeking social support from caregivers
Sensitive caregiving
Caregivers helping the infant find new toys, interact with toys, understand the infant’s signals, better care for the infant, and coach emotional regulation.
Social referencing
Using someone as a social reference about what to do in a situation
Caregiver responsiveness
Who is most likely to respond based on response type
Emotional display rules
Amount of appropriate responsiveness, not a lack of emotion but rather a lack of showing it, based on parental interaction with a situation.
Stranger wariness
Dynamic interaction between individual and context. Infants are more wary of strangers because they don’t provide the same care that primary caregivers provide.
Stranger wariness is ___ in a single caregiver environment and ___ in a community environment
higher, lower
How does cognitive development influence aspects of emotional development?
Developing schemas determines how we act around certain things or in specific situations, emotional regulation by directing attention
How does physical and motor development influence emotional development?
Being able to move changes social environment, changing how you feel
Temperament
Natural tendency to react to something, tendency towards certain behaviors. Characteristics we have that are innate to us and may be biological. Temperament is not defining, but is just your tendency early on.
Types of temperament
- Easy (warm up to new situations easily, cry less, smile more, sleep better)
- Difficult (no good biological schedule, cries more, doesn’t like new situations or people)
- Slow to warm up (may have problems initially, but get used to it and become easy babies)
Dimensions of temperament
Extraversion/surgency, negative affectivity, effortful control
Extraversion/surgency
Tendency to experience positive emotion and try new things
Negative affectivity
Tendency to experience negative emotion
Goodness of fit
Interaction between temperament and environment (including caregiver and their temperament).
Harlow’s monkey experiment
Wanted to see if monkeys preferred comfort or having its needs fulfilled. The baby monkeys generally preferred the cloth monkey (and comfort).
Bowlby’s ethological perspective on attachment
- An infant needs safety and comfort, not just basic needs
- Infant’s signals and adult’s responses
- Phases of attachment
- Secure base (separation anxiety, internal working models)
Bowlby’s phases of attachment
- At the 7-8 month mark, infants show strong caregiver attachment, use the caregiver as primary social reference and secure base
- At the 1 1/2 year mark, less separation anxiety but still strong attachment
Secure base
A safe place for the infant to return to. When the have a secure base, they feel more comfortable exploring new environments but the absence of the person causes a lot of distress.
Internal working models
A set of expectations we have about love and how we think people should interact with us. Our relationship with our caregiver affects our feelings of being worthy of love, respect, and affection.
Ainsworth’s strange situation
Observation of infants with a stranger, absence of caregiver, and return of the caregiver. Infants display one of four attachment styles.
Four attachment styles
Secure attachment, insecure avoidant attachment, insecure resistant attachment, insecure disorganized attachment
Secure attachment
65-70% of infants, infants have a secure base and strong relationship with their parent.
Insecure avoidant attachment
15% of infants, infants avoid the caregiver and don’t use them as a secure base. They were fine when the caregiver left and returned. They don’t have a lot of expectations about what the caregiver will do for them, and learned to not reach out or send signals.
Insecure resistant attachment
10% of infants, infants are confused about how to behave with caregivers. They want to stay with caregiver, not exploring much, will become upset when the caregiver leaves, and stay upset when the caregiver returns (feel “betrayed”). This is common in unpredictable caregivers and addiction.
Insecure disorganized attachment
5% of infants, infants that have experienced maltreatment and trauma. They show slight fear around the caregiver because they always want to know where the caregiver is. They treat the stranger the same as the caregiver because they know the caregiver is already unsafe.
T/F: Infants can only form one type of attachment style
False, they can form different attachments to different caregivers
Differences between mothers and fathers in attachment style
Fathers tend to engage in rough and tumble play, be more stimulating, be associated with arousal management, and have ties to social competence. Mothers tend to assume a more soothing role.
Self-awareness
Ability to physically separate self from environment
