Gopnik & Love Flashcards
Attachment & Love
o love = attachment
o at 1yr, infants have preference to those who show the most love
o attachment styles seem to be based on simple interactions, we all crave
• secure attachment
• upset when parent departs, but quickly comforted on return
• avoidant attachment
• avoid interacting with parent when they leave or return
• have learned to hold back emotions instead of express them, possibly in order to prevent worse feelings
• anxious attachment
• anxious upon departure, but are not calm on return
• disorganized attachment
• unpredictable outcomes
o cultural differences present across attachment styles
• Germany babies are more avoidant (than US)
• Japan babies are more anxious (than US)
o reasons for developing a specific attachment style vary
• environment, biology, psychology
Evidence for infants’ internal working models of attachment
Susan Johnson
o Moving big and little circle, unresponsive vs responsive caregiver, whether big circle would move toward ‘distressed’ little circle
• showed attachment styles reflect a baby’s theory of mind
• expectations of performance
alloparenting
- individuals who are not genetically related to a child, but play a major role in its upbringing
- practice is common in primates, elephants, dolphins, and birds
- evolutionary and historical significance, (limited resources, protection,etc)
Imitation and Empathy
At birth, we are born with the ability to be empathetic
• a foundation for morality
• ability to map facial expressions to feelings via imitation
o may stem from their inability to distinguish between their own emotions and those of another person
• by 1, understand intentional vs unintentional actions
• by 3, understand care and compassion
o empathy + rules of love and law = human morality
• empathy is intertwined with attachment
Anger and Vengeance
o witnessing anger can make us angry = reactive aggression
• very easy to recognize, even for children
• leads to a vicious cycle of aggression
Beyond Empathy
o true empathy involves self-indulgence, as one attempts to relive own suffering
• 14 month olds – empathy, will try to comfort others based own their own theory of the mind
• 18 month olds - true morality, understanding individualistic theories of the mind, and will provide broccoli, if it seems as the suffering person likes it as opposed to something the child likes instead
o 2 year olds understand that hurting someone is worse than simply breaking rules
Psychopathy
o psychopath-like children, do not react to facial emotions – study by Blair
• lack of activation in the Amygdala while observing emotions
o do not understand difference between rule breaking and hurting
o use their theories of the mind to advance themselves as opposed to others
o infants are more mature than psychopaths in terms of understanding emotions
Trolley Problem
o pull a lever to avoid killing 5 but sacrificing 1 in the meantime?
o children understand this dilemma
Not Like Me
o counterfactual and hypothetical thinking allows us to learn to care about those we are not attached to
• we categorize who is important and who is not basic on little details
• e.g. Stanford Prison Experiment
Widening the Circle
we are attempting to widen the circle of who we care about
• think modern rights movements – gay marriage, women rights, etc
Following the Rules
o morality is really a choice derived from counterfactual thinking
• but normality tells us what we “ought” to do
Baby Rules
o babies overimitate in order to ensure rules are closely followed
o children cannot understand reasoning behind rules, understand the importance
Doing it on Purpose
o babies can tell the different intention and unintentional actions
• and know to blame others for intentional bad actions
o 9 month olds distinguish between a person acting in one way due to their own intentions vs. a person not be able to act due to external circumstances (like giving a toy)
Rules as Causes
o children understand that rules can be altered
o core of morality – stems from intimate connection with others
• The Perils of Rules
o we must realize that rules are subject to change or up for interpretation, at times
• ex. if a certain food gets us sick and we avoid it, it doesn’t mean it’s bad
The Wisdom of Huck Finn
Rules are intended to make the world better; but, people have opinions about rules
• we should be basing rules on our internal moral compasses instead
• at 2 yrs, evidence of the usage of this internal moral compass
• also understand the importance of following rules, even though, some may have to be altered
o ex of Huck Finn: even though he knew the law on returning escaped slaves, he uses his internal moral compass and concludes that slavery is wrong, and does not follow the laws at that time
