Chapter 7: Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Question 1

According to Erikson, what is the primary psychosocial crisis of infancy? toddlerhood? What type of parenting is associated with a positive resolution?

Answer 1

• needed from Caregivers, basic trust vs. mistrust
• -> balance of care; sympathetic and loving; trusting

-toddlers need autonomy vs shame and doubt –> allows guidance with reasonable choice.

Question 2

According to Lzard, are basic (discrete) emotions universal? What are their functions?

Answer 2

• Yes, they are universal

- help humans and other primates have long evolutionary history of promoting survival.

Question 3

When does the social smile first emerge? When does laughter first emerge.

Answer 3

6 to 8 weeks.

3 to 4 months.

Question 4

When do babies typically begin to show signs of fear? What is the most frequent expression of fear during this time? What is the difference between stranger anxiety and separation?

Answer 4

• First fears – 6–12 months
• stranger anxiety

-stranger anxiety -fear of unfamiliar people, but separation is losing the security of the caregiver.

Question 5

What is secure base behavior? How and why do infants use their familiar caregiver as a secure base? How is stranger anxiety related to secure base behavior?

Answer 5

• use of familiar caregiver as point from which to explore, venturing into the environment and then returning for emotional support.
• it is apart of the adaptive system, approach vs avoidance.

Question 6

What is social referencing? Give and example/ When does social referencing emerge?

Answer 6

actively seeking emotional information from a strutted person in an uncertain situation.

emerges at 8-10 months

Question 7

what are the self-conscious emotions? examples, When do they emerge?

Answer 7

• we are capable of (Shame, Embarrassment – Guilt, Envy, Pride) which can involve injury to or enhance of our sense of self.
• 18 months

Question 8

What is emotional self-regulaton? What is the caregiver’s role in its development? Describe some behaviors 4-6 month old infants use to self-regulate (cope) when faced with a highly stimulating, novel event.

Answer 8

• strategies we use to adjust our emotional state to a comfortable level of intensity so we can accomplice our goals.
• because infants can display intense emotions, the caregiver should distract or reorient the attention.
• shift attention and to engage in self-soothing helps infants control emotions.

Question 9

Describe cross-cultural differences in how parents socialize their infants’ emotional expressivity. Consider both collectivist and individualistic societies.

Answer 9

collectivist adults discourages the expression of strong emotions in infants.

Question 10

In Thomas and Chess’ theory of temperament, what is an easy child? difficult chid? slow-to warm up child? What percentage of children in their longitudinal sample was classified has having an easy, difficult, or slow-to-warm up temperament? How many could not be classified?

Answer 10

easy child - 40 % of the same, quickly establishes regular routines in infant, is generally cheerful, and adapts easily to new experiences.

slow-to-warm - 15%; inactive, shows mid, low-key reactions to environment stimuli, negative mood, adjust slowly to new situations

difficult - 10%; irregular daily routines, slow to accept new experiences, tends to react negatively/intensely.

35 could not be classified into 1 directly, but a mix blend.

Question 11

In Rothbart’s temperament theory, what is an effortful control and when does it begin to emerge?

Answer 11

• capacity to voluntarily suppress a dominant response in order to plan and execute a more adaptive response.
• 6 to 12 months

Question 12

What are some limitations of using parents’ reports to measure children’s temperament?

Answer 12

Bias to believe in whatever is being asked, regardless if it’s true or not; inaccuracies.

Question 13

How stable is infant temperament over time?

Answer 13

Less stable in early childhood
Long-term prediction best achieved after age 3

• capacity for effortful control, and the success of the effort, which depend on the quality and intensity of their emotional reactivity.

Question 14

According to the Thomas and Chess, what is goodness-of-fit, and how is it linked to alter child functioning? What is differential susceptibility, as discussed in the lecture? example.

Answer 14

• explains how temperament and environment can together produce favorable outcomes. Involves creating child-rearing environment that recognize each child’s temperament while simultaneously encouraging more adaptive functioning.
  – Parenting beliefs, values, and practices
  – Differential socialization of gender
  – Differential treatment of siblings in same family
  – Cultural differences in caregiving and socialization
• Children with difficult temperament are more adversely affected by harsh parenting, but more favorably impacted by positive parenting

Question 15

What is attachment, according to the Bowlby and Berk text?

Answer 15

• strong affectionate tie we have for special people in our lives that leads us to experience pleasure and joy when we interact with them and to be comforted by they nearness in times of stress.

Question 16

Be familiar with Harry Harlow’s landmark experiment with rhesus monkeys reared with terry cloth and wire-mesh surrogate mothers. How did his findings contradict the drive-reduction explanation of attachment (assume that parent-infant relationship is based on feeding alone)?

Answer 16

attachment in infants does not entirely depend on hunger satisfaction. The baby monkey clung to the surrogate mother with the cloth even though the wired one had the bottle.

Question 17

How does attachment develop in each of Bowlby’s four phases of attachment (pre-attachment, attachment in the making, clear-cut attachment, formation of a reciprocal relationship). give an example of infants’ behavior in each phase.

Answer 17

pre- attachment - this is only based on recognition.

attachment in the making - they react different to caregiver vs. other; sense of trust

clear-cut attachment - develops separation anxiety.

reciprocal relationship - through the process of language, kids can formulate their emotions with their caregivers and negotiations takes places.

Question 18

What is an internal working model and how does it become a guide for all future close relationships?

Answer 18

set of expectations about the availability of attachment figures, their likelihood of providing support during times of stress, and the self’s interactions with those figures; becomes a vital part of personality, serving as a guide for all future close relationships.

it shows them from a young age the degree of attachment available to them.

Question 19

What is interactional synchrony? How is it related to infants’ emotional self regulation?

Answer 19

separated the experiences of secure from insecure babies. It is best describe as a sensitive tuned “emotional dance” in which the caregiver rep sons to infant signals in a well-timed rhythmic, appropriate fashion.

• show that appropriate emotions gets a positive response from the caregiver.

Question 20

Does sensitive caregiving promote early self development? explain

Answer 20

Yes, it teaches them attachment and trust

Question 21

Be familiar with the findings from the NICHD study of early child care, regarding whether child care is related to their attachment security and infants’ emotional well-being.

Answer 21

full time child care before 12 months of age are more likely than infants who remains at home to display insecure attachment/avoidance.

Question 22

What is delay of gratification? How is this used in research to study toddlers’ self control?

Answer 22

waiting for an appropriate time and place to engage in a tempting act.

Question 23

What is delay of gratification? How is this used in research to study toddlers’ self control?

Answer 23

waiting for an appropriate time and place to engage in a tempting act. Marshmallow experiment.