Chapter 6 Social and Emotional Development in Infancy

For EXAM 2

Emotion

A response of the whole organism

• physiological arousal

• expressive behaviors

• conscious experience

Global arousal states

Attraction to pleasant stimulation

Withdrawal from unpleasant stimulation

Calm, attentive distress

Over time, emotions become clear, well-organized signals

Basic Emotions

Directly inferred from facil expressions

Appear in the 1st year

• happiness

• interest

• surprise

• fear

• anger

• sadness

• disgust

Happiness

Smiles reflexively as a newborn

Social smile

Laughter first appears around 3 to 4 months in response to active stimuli

Social smile

The smile evoked by the stimulus of the human face

First appears between 6 and 10 weeks

Anger

Develops: 3-4 months

Then increases in frequency and intensity into 2nd year

Sadness

Develops 3-4 months

Expressions usually less frequent than anger

Sadness is especially common when parent-infant interaction is seriously disrupted

Fear

Develops: 7-8 months

The most frequent expression of fear is to unfamiliar adults

• a response called stranger anxiety

Stranger Anxiety factors

Temperament (biological precursor to personality

Past experiences with strangers

and the situation in which baby and stranger meet

Contingent responding

When infants match their own emotions to other’s emotions

Emotion discrimination

Develops at 3 months

• Habituation to first emotion and then show new emotion

• Looking time past the dotted line indicate that infants detected a difference in emotional expression

Social referencing

In unfamiliar or ambiguous environment, infants look to parents for cues to interpret situation

Starts between 8-10 months

Helps kids regulate emotional experiences

Visual cliff

Mom smiles

• 74% cross

Mom shows fear

• 0% cross

Gaze Aversion

Infants will look away when

• frightened

• confused

• over excited

With age, more effective strategies develop

• ex: cover ears or eyes when scared

Attachment

Enduring social-emotional relationship

characterized by the tendency to seek out and maintain closeness to a caregiver

• get comfort

• get protection

increased in times of stress

Cupboard love theory

baby attaches to mom because she fulfills their physiological needs

• Food clothing, changing

Harlow’s research helped disprove this theory

Primary object sucking theory

Built-in propensity to relate to the human breast

infant learns that mother is attached to the breast and so attaches to her

but infants attach to men, problem for theory

Primary return-to-the-womb-craving

Infants resent the extrusion from the womb and seek to return there

Ethological Attachment theory

Child becomes attached to the person that meets the child’s emotional needs

helps ensure survival

Social bond developed because the human infant is relatively helpless at birth

Develops between 6-12 months

Caregiving bond

Developed by parents

Complements the child’s attachment bod

• Emotional bond mother feels for child

  • Protect the child

  • Care for the child

Behavior role in attachment

Infant promotes caregiving by making interactions pleasant

Reducing distress when caregiver meets the child’s needs

Appearance role in attachment

We find babies cute

• Juvenile Features

  • Bulging cranium

  • Retracted chin

  • Small nose

  • Large eyes

  • JF elicit protective and parent-like behavior

Separation Distress (anxiety)

Anxiety experienced when separated from an attachment figure

Occurs once attachment have been formed

Working model (schema)

Attachment relationships are template for social relationships throughout the life span

Provides basis for conceptualization of self and others in later years

• ex: needs met, view as worthy of love

The strange situation

Measures the quality of attachment between 12 and 18 months

It involves short separations from and reunions with the parent

Focus on the child’s behavior towards the caregiver during the reunion episodes

Secure

Secure in the knowledge that emotional needs will be met

• May or may not cry at separation

• Greet mom upon return

• Seek’s mom out if upset

• Easily comforted by the parent when they return

• Returns to play

• 65% in USA

Insecure-Avoidant

Do not appear distressed during separation or reunions

Physiologically distressed

Ignore and avoid the parent when they return

20% in the USA

Insecure-Ambivalent (Resistant)

Remain close to the parent before departure

Display angry, resistant behavior when they return

Cry a lot

Don’t return to play 10% in USA

Insecure-Disorganized

Mix avoidance and ambivalent behavior

Show confused behaviors

• fear at caregiver return

• “Still” at caregiver return

• Turn in circles at caregiver return

5% in USA

Imprinting

As a process that causes the newly hatched to become rapidly and strongly attached to social objects such as parents or parental surrogates

Bonding

NOT REAL

• Required mothers to hold baby shortly after birth to ensure a secure attachment

Parent home behavior

History of a parent’s care for an infant

Infant Conditional Strategy

Infant strategy for dealing with parent home behavior

Contingent behavior based on experience

Goal: Proximity to caregiver

Infant Temperament

Biological basis of personality

Characteristic way of responding

• NOTE: parents don’t adapt well to different temperments

Develop Hierarchy of Attachment

Primary

• preferred attachment figure

Secondary

etc

Can have different attachment qualities to each caregiver

• ex: secure to mom, insecure to dad

Secure kids

Better self esteem

Better peer relationships

Maximize cognitive abilities

Avoidant kids

Agression

bullying

Ambivalent kids

Social withdrawal

Being victimized

Low negative emotionality

Don’t get upset, calm quickly when they are

High negative emotionality

Gets upset easily, stays upset