Chapter 6 - Socioemotional Development in Infants

Question 1

What is meant stranger anxiety?

Answer 1

the hesitancy that infants show around 10 months when they are approached by unfamiliar people

Question 2

What is meant by social referencing?

Answer 2

Use of others’ emotional expressions to interpret ambiguous events

Question 3

Describe the Strange Situation?; 7 periods

Answer 3

An experimental paradigm that reveals security of attachment.
7 Periods:
1) Parent, infant: together enters room
2) Parent, infant, stranger: stranger enters
3) Infant, stranger: parent leaves
4) Parent, Infant: parent returns, stranger leaves
5) Infant: parent leaves
6) Infant, stranger: stranger returns
7) parent, infant: parent returns, stranger leaves

Question 4

What is attachment?

Answer 4

distinctive ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving in a close relationship with someone else.

Question 5

What are the four styles of attachment?

Answer 5

Phase 1 indiscriminate social responsiveness; (1-2months): babies develop signals to help provide comfort and security by bringing caregiver close.
Phase 2 discriminating sociability (2-7 months): babies like familiar people.
Phase 3 attachment (7-24 months): uses direct social behaviors and protest when left by people they are attached.
Phase 4 goal-corrected partnership (3-onward): takes parents’ needs into account when interacting with them and so their needs/wants must wait.

Question 6

Describe the Strange situation assessment

Answer 6

Insecure-avoidant (Type A): they don't seek comfort from parent. 
Securely attached (Type B): easily sooth by parent
Insecure-resistant /ambiguous (Type C): don't develop security, won't explore. 
Disorganized (Type D)

Question 7

What is an emotion?

Answer 7

a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.

Question 8

What are the first emotions?

Answer 8

Smiles in first month
Sadness – 2 ½ months
Joy – 2 ½ months
Fear and anger – 3-4 months
Laughter – 3-4 months

Question 9

Define goodness-of-fit?

Answer 9

the match or mismatch between temperament and other personal characteristics and the specific features of the environment.

Question 10

What is temperament?

Answer 10

a child’s emotional and behavioral predispositions.

Question 11

What is the general definition and what are the nine -dimensions defined by Thomas and Chess?

Answer 11

-the nine temperament traits using a spectrum (scale) indicating mild to intense responses or reactions:
Activity
Rhythmicity
Approach/withdrawal
Adaptability
Intensity
Mood
Persistence and attention span
Distractibility
Sensory threshold

Question 12

How does parenting relate to temperament?

Answer 12

• Reciprocity
  Infants learn that in social interaction, partners take turns acting and reacting to the other’s behavior.
• Effectance
  Infants learn that his/her behavior can affect the behavior of others in a consistent and predictable fashion.
• Trust
  Infants learn that caregivers can be counted on to respond when signaled.