Emotion/Temperament/Attachment Flashcards
Know how the regulation of emotion changes as we move from infancy through adolescence.
Infancy
- develops over 1st yr, with brain development
- caregivers important
- depend on soothing, being held, rocked, talked to softly, etc…
Early childhood
- shifting attention
- talk about feelings
- can distract themselves
- fears common: monsters, ghosts, darkness
Adolescence
- rapid gains
- become aware of the difference between feeling an emotion & expressing it
▪️Problem-centered coping: decide what to do about the problem
▪️Emotion-centered coping: internal, private, & aimed at controlling distress when little can be done about the outcome
▪️Fear includes: poor academic performance, rejection by classmates, personal harm, threats to a parental health and media events
What factors are involved in those who are highly emotionally competent?
Self-awareness of one’s own emotions
Empathy: same or simliar emotions
Sympathy: concern or sorrow for another’s plight
Know the differences between basic and self-conscious emotions – when do kids start to show a rise in fear and anger – what contributes to self-conscious emotions.
Basic emotions: surprise, joy, interest, fear, anger, sadness, disgust > present throughout the first 6 months of child’s life
Self-conscious emotions: jealousy, empathy, shame/guilt, embarrassment, envy, pride > requires self-awareness involving consciousness and a sense of “me”
Anger = 4-6 months // Fear = 6-12 months
Know when separation anxiety arises and the importance of social referencing.
The separation of anxiety arises from 8-12 months.
The importance of social referencing is relying on another person’s emotional reaction to an uncertain situation.
- helps evaluate safety and security
- guides actions
- aids in gathering information about others
Know very well the material on temperament
Temperament
- moderately heritable
- social, assertive, good at emotional regulation leads to high empathy
- aggressive children may show decline in middle childhood
Example 1: children who have an easy temperament at 3-5 yrs of age, are likely to be well adjusted as young adults or children who have a difficult temperament at 3-5 yrs of age, are not well adjusted as young adults
Example 2: boys who have a difficult temperament in childhood are less likely as adults to continue their formal education or girls who have difficult temperament tend to experience marital conflict as adults
Thomas and Chess’ types
Easy Child 40%
- established regular routines in infancy
▪️cheerful
▪️adapts easily to new experiences
Difficult child 10%
- irregular daily routines
▪️slow to accept new experiences
▪️react negatively and intensely
Slow-to-warm 15%
- inactive
▪️ mild, low key reactions to environmental stimuli
▪️negative mood
▪️adjust slowly to new experiences
Kagan’s inhibition
Inhibition to unfamiliar
- Shy/avoidance, subdued, timid child
- Extremely uninhibited
- Extraverted, social, bold child
Stability from infancy through early childhood > continuity from infancy through early childhood
3 yrs of age: behavior inhibition
Age 7: shyness
Inhibited temperament in childhood are less likely to be assertive or to experience social support, and more likely to delay a stable job track > initial avoidance, distress, or subdued affect.
Know what goodness of fit means and how it can help with difficult children.
Goodness of fit = how temperament and environment together can produce favorable outcomes which involves creating child-rearing environments that redoing each child’s temperament while encouraging more adaptive functioning.
Difficult children = are at high risk for later adjustment problems
- children experience parenting that fits poorly with their dispositions
their parents may eventually respond by ignoring the child’s distress or trying to force the child to “behave”
- can help parent’s create an environment that best suits a difficult child’s needs
Know Bowlby’s theory
Ethological theory of attachment = recognizes the infant’s emotional tie to the caregiver as an evolved response that promotes survival [most widely accepted view]
Know Bowlby’s stages of attachment
Preattachment phase
- Birth to 6 weeks
Grasping, smiling, crying, and gazing into the adult’s eyes by helping bring newborn babies into close contact with other humans.
Babies recognize their own mother’s smell, voice, and face
Attachment-in-the-making phase
- 6 weeks to 6-8 months
Infants respond different to a familiar caregiver than to a stranger
Examples: baby smiles, laughs, & babbles more freely with her mother and quiets more quickly when she picks him up
Infants learn their own actions affect the behavior of those around them, developing a sense of trust
Clear-cut attachment phase
- 6-8 months to 18 months-2 yrs
Babies display separation anxiety becoming upset when their trusted caregiver leaves.
Cultures: separation anxiety increases between 6-15 months.
Formation of a reciprocal relationship
- 18 months-2 yrs
2nd second year: rapid growth in representation and language enables toddlers.
Children negotiate with the caregiver using requests and persuasion to alter her goals.
Know very well Ainsworth’s work with the strange situation
Strange situation = widely used technique for quality of attachment between 1 and 2 years of age. She reasoned that securely attached infants and toddler should use the parent as a secure base from which to explore in an unfamiliar playroom.
- when the parent leaves, an unfamiliar adult should be less comforting than the parent
- baby through eight short episodes in which brief separations from and reunions with the caregiver occur
Know Ainsworth’s attachment types
Secure attachment = 60%
Infants use the parent as a secure base
- Separated: they might or may not cry, but if they do, it’s because the parent is absent and they prefer them to the stranger.
- Returns: they seek actively contact and their crying is reduced immediately.
Avoidant attachment = 15%
Infants seem unresponsive to the parent when she is present
- Leaves: they usually aren’t distressed and react to the stranger in much the same way as to the parent
- Reunion: they valid or are slow to greet the parent and when picked up, they often fail to cling
Resistant attachment = 10%
Infants seek closeness to the parent and often fail to explore
- Leaves: distressed
- Return: clinginess with angry, resistive behavior, struggling when held and sometimes hitting and pushing
Many continue to cry and cling after being picked up & cannot be comforted easily
Disorganized/disoriented attachment = 15%
Reflects greatest insecurity
- Reunion: infants show confused, contradictory behaviors
Looking away while the parent is holding them or approaching the parent with flat, depressed emotion
- Most display a dazed facial expression and a few cry out unexpectedly after having calmed down > odd, frozen postures
