Toddlerhood + Pre-school

Question 1

Primary emotions

Answer 1

considered biologically programmed (b/c they emerge in normal infants ~ the same time and in all cultures)

Question 2

What are the primary emotions present at birth?

Answer 2

Interest, distress, disgust, contentment

Question 3

What primary emotions appear 2-7 months?

Answer 3

Anger, sadness, joy, surprise and fear

Inside out! Except inside out doesnt have surprise but it has disgust

Question 4

Joy and Surprise

Answer 4

strongly elicited in 2-6 mos. old when they learn then can manipulate objects and events

Question 5

Sadness and Anger

Answer 5

Sadness is elicited in many 2-4 mos. old when they are prevented from displaying initiative; anger is elicited in older kids (4-6 mos. old)

Question 6

Secondary emotions

Answer 6

18-24 mos.

Emerge later, require an understanding of the self

Embarrassment, shame, guilt, envy, pride

Question 7

Influences of Adults on Secondary Emotions

Answer 7

Amount of pride /shame (4 and 5-yo) revealed at succeeding or failing largely based on mom’s reactions

Preschoolers are more likely to
show self-evaluation emotions
only when an adult is around

Question 8

Social Referencing

Answer 8

Using others’ emotional expressions to infer meaning of otherwise uncertain situations

Question 9

When does social referencing begin?

Answer 9

Start to do this at 7-10 mos. – by monitoring parents’ reactions and adjusting their behavior

Toddlers look to companions after responding to a stimuli, as if to use others’ responses to evaluate accuracy of their own judgments

Question 10

@24 months

Answer 10

Empathy appears

Beginnings of cooperative play (although largely parallel)

Question 11

@36 months

Answer 11

Increased fantasy play

Can label own gender

Question 12

@48 months

Answer 12

Develops theory of mind

Understands that others have thoughts and feelings independent of their own

Question 13

Theory of Mind

Answer 13

Understands the perspective of others

Question 14

Fantasy play vs. pretend play

Answer 14

1-3 years – play with busy box, one step pretend play (feeding a doll, dressing a doll)
3-5 years – starts to use role-playing, super-hero games, more interactive play, time of imaginary friends

Question 15

@60 months

Answer 15

Pretend play

Question 16

Parenting Tip: Promoting Emotional Health

Answer 16

The more often 3-year olds
discuss emotional experiences with family,
the better they are at
interpreting emotions and settling disputes three year later in school.
Herrera & Dunn 1997

Question 17

Motor Milestones

@ 15 mos

Answer 17

Scribble

Question 18

Motor Milestones

@ 18 mos

Answer 18

Walk upstairs with help

Start to run

Question 19

Motor Milestones

@ 24 mos

Answer 19

Climb up and down stairs marking time
Jumps in place
Puts on simple clothes
Feeds self with spoon

Question 20

Motor Milestones

@ 36 mos

Answer 20

Climb up and downstairs with alternating feet
Pedal a tricycle
Draws a circle

Question 21

Motor Milestones

@ 4 years

Answer 21

Catches a large ball

Draws a cross and square

Question 22

Motor Milestones

@ 5 years

Answer 22

Skip
Ride a bike with training wheels
Draws a triangle

Question 23

Pre-operational Stage

Answer 23

(2 ys. – 7 ys.)
Pre-operations – child displays egocentrism, animism, centration, appearance as reality, causality, and difficulty with the concept of reversibility.

Question 24

In Sensorimotor stage…

Answer 24

mastered object permanence in previous stage (usually by 18 mos.) and the ability to understand symbols in previous stage (waving = “bye”)

Question 25

Animism

Answer 25

“The sun is unhappy” on a cloudy day

“The car was hurt in that accident”

Question 26

Erikson

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Answer 26

Young kids start developing skills – become more independent and self-reliant
Success leads them to feel autonomous
Failures lead them to feel ashamed and doubtful inhibiting their genuine selves
Correlates with Freud’s Anal stage

Question 27

Progression of Attachment

Answer 27

Asocial phase (0 to ~2 mos.)
Phase of indiscriminate attachment 
(2-7 mos.)
Phase of specific attachment (7-9 mos.)
Phase of multiple attachment (9-18 mos.)

Question 28

What is behind attachment behaviors? Early theories…

Answer 28

Freud – “I love you because you feed me” (but also thought this was not well-studied)

Learning Theory – “I love you because you reward me” [food, comfort, + responses, makes parent the secondary reinforce]

Question 29

Harlow Experiments

Overview

Answer 29

By Harry Harlow (1905-1981)

Compared importance of feeding versus tactile stimulation in the development of attachments in infant
monkeys

Question 30

Harlow Experiments

Details

Answer 30

Monkeys were separated from mothers on the first day of life,.
Reared for the next 165 days by one of two surrogate mothers.
Wire-mom: Well-proportioned body made of wire with a face
Cloth-mom: Wrapped in foam rubber and covered in terry cloth
½ of infants were fed by wire mom and ½ with cloth mom.
Question: Would infants become attached to wire mom who fed them or to cuddly cloth mom?
Clear answer – even when infants were fed by wire mom, they ran directly to cloth mom whenever they were upset or afraid.
Implies that contact comfort is a more powerful contributer to attachment in infant monkeys than feeding or reduction of hunger.

Question 31

Cognitive-Development Theory

Answer 31

“To love you, I must know you will always be there”
Postulated that infants needed to
1) differentiate strangers from caregivers and
2) develop object permanence (correlates with when attachments are formed at 7-9 mos)

Question 32

Ethological Viewpoint

Major Assumption

Answer 32

All species (including humans) are born with innate behavioral tendencies that contributed to the survival of the species.

Question 33

Imprinting

Answer 33

Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
Very young goslings followed almost any moving object.
Automatic
Occur within a critical period
Irreversible

Question 34

Kewpie Doll Appearance

Answer 34

Relates to overall appearance – large heads, chubby cheeks, soft/rounded features – makes them cute!!!
Cute means that caregivers respond more favorably to them (Barden, 1989, Langlois 1995)
Many inborn reflexes are endearing – rooting, sucking, grasping (may show parents their infant likes to be close to them)
Smiling is pleasing and potent stimulus for parents – helps parents interpret that their child is content, and that they are effective caregivers.

Question 35

John Bowlby’s Study of Attachment

Answer 35

Stressed that parent-infant attachments are reciprocal relationships

Postulated that attachment
behaviors were adaptive
responses to separation from
caregivers to facilitate survival.

Question 36

Attachment behaviors

Answer 36

such as crying and searching, are adaptive responses to separation from a primaryattachment figure

Question 37

Primaryattachment figure

Answer 37

–someone who provides support, protection, and care.

Because human infants, like other mammalian infants, cannot feed or protect themselves, they are dependent upon the care and protection of “older and wiser” adults. Bowlby argued that, over the course of evolutionary history, infants who were able to maintain proximity to an attachment figure via attachment behaviors would be more likely to survive to a reproductive age.

Question 38

Attachment behavioral system

Answer 38

A motivational system gradually “designed” by natural selection to regulate proximity to an attachment figure

Question 39

Under normal circumstances

Answer 39

adults are just as biologically predisposed to respond favorably to a baby’s signals as their baby is to emit them.

Question 40

So are attachments automatic?

Answer 40

Bowlby says that secure attachments gradually develop as a caregiver becomes more proficient at reading and reacting appropriately to baby’s signals and as parents become more predictable to baby

Question 41

Attachment-Related Fears of Infancy

Answer 41

Stranger Anxiety

Separation Anxiety

Question 42

Stranger Anxiety

Answer 42

The wary reaction to a stranger (in sharp contrast to attachment behaviors with caregiver)
Peak at 8-10 months, wanes in intensity over 2nd year

Question 43

Separation Anxiety

Answer 43

The signs of discomfort when separated from primary caregivers
Starts at 6-8 months, peaks at 14-18 months, gradually becomes less frequent.

Question 44

Cultural Variations in Stranger and Separation Anxiety

Answer 44

In cultures (particularly non-industrialized) where mothers are always in close contact with infants, they may protest separations at 2-3 months (earlier than Western infants) as the separation is strange for them.

As co-sleeping becomes more common in the US and other industrialized, we may see shifts in separation anxiety

Once infants begin to walk they can use their attachment figure as a “secure” base for exploration – this may be an ethological explanation for why these anxieties fade during the 2nd year.

Question 45

Cognitive – Developmental Viewpoint of Stranger and Separation Anxiety

Answer 45

Children develop stable schemes for the faces of familiar caregivers, and the face that absent caregivers do return. When there are discrepancies, that elicits more protest. Otherwise, 7-10 month olds won’t protest most separations because they have a pretty good idea where a caregiver has gone. Research shows that infants at home were more like to protest when a caregiver departed through an unfamiliar doorway (like the back door versus the front door) or if they look for their mother and discover she is not where they thought she was.

Question 46

What happens with maternal deprivation?

Answer 46

Depressing AF
Rene Spitz (1887-1974)
Studied babies left in 
orphanages around  the time
of the World War II

Question 47

The Study of Attachment

Answer 47

Mary Ainsworth – “The Strange Situation”

1. Introduce parent & baby to playroom
2. Parent sits while baby plays
3. Parent sits while baby plays
   Stranger enters, sits, and talks to parent
4. Parent leaves, stranger offers comfort if baby upset
5. Parent returns greets baby, offers comfort if upset. Stranger leaves.
6. Parent leaves room
7. Stranger enters and offers comfort
8. Parent returns greets baby, offers comfort if upset, tries to interest baby in toys

Question 48

Secure Attachment

Answer 48

65%

Child actively explores while alone with mom

May be visibly upset by separations

Greets mom warmly when she returns

If highly distressed, seeks physical contact
with her alleviates distress

Outgoing with strangers with mom present

Question 49

Insecure Attachment –

3 categories

Answer 49

Resistant / Ambivalent

Avoidant

Disorganized/Disoriented

Question 50

Resistant / Ambivalent

Answer 50

10%

Tries to stay close to mom but explores very little when she is present

Becomes distressed when mom leaves

When she returns, child is ambivalent
Remain near, but angry at her for leaving
Resists physical contact initiated by mom

Wary of strangers even with mom present

Question 51

Avoidant

Answer 51

20%

Show little distress when separated from mom

Will turn away and continue to ignore moms, even when they are trying to get their attention

Possibly sociable with strangers but may avoid or ignore them

Question 52

Disorganized / Disoriented

Answer 52

5-10%

Curious combination of resistant and avoidant patterns

Confused about whether to approach or avoid the caregiver

Upon reunion, child may act dazed or freeze, or move closer but then abruptly move away as mom draws near (or may show both patterns in the different reunion episodes)