Socioemotional Development – Attachment, Emotions, and Social Relationships

🍼 Primary vs. Secondary Emotions

Type	When	Requires Self-Awareness?	Examples
Primary Emotions	Birth–18 months	❌ No	Joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise
Secondary Emotions	18 months–3 years	✅ Yes	Shame, guilt, pride, embarrassment, envy

👶 Primary Emotions: The First to Arrive

These are universal, biologically hardwired emotions. They appear early in life, even in babies with minimal social experience.

🍼 Timeline:

• Right after birth:

  • Contentment

  • Interest

  • Distress

• Around 6 months:

  • Joy

  • Surprise

  • Sadness

  • Anger

  • Disgust

  • Fear

✅ These emotions are basic survival tools—they help babies communicate needs.

🪞 Secondary Emotions: The Self-Conscious Ones

These require the child to recognize themselves as separate from others—this ability starts around 18–24 months with the emergence of self-awareness (e.g., recognizing themselves in a mirror).

🧠 Why called “self-conscious” emotions?

Because they involve evaluating yourself against others or standards.

🧸 Timeline:

• 18–24 months:

  • Envy

  • Empathy

  • Embarrassment

• 30–36 months:

  • Shame

  • Guilt

  • Pride

❗ These emotions are shaped by social rules, expectations, and personal standards.

🧠 Mnemonic to Remember

“CIDS JAF” for Primary (like a baby crying = CIDS)

• Contentment

• Interest

• Distress

• Surprise

• Joy

• Anger

• Fear

“Triple E + SGP” for Secondary

• Envy

• Empathy

• Embarrassment

• Shame

• Guilt

• Pride

🎓 EPPP Tip:

• If the question mentions self-awareness, mirror recognition, or comparing self to others, its…

a secondary emotion.

🎓 EPPP Tip:

• If it’s about a biological reaction or basic feeling state in an infant, it’s…

primary

Autonomous Adult → Secure Child

• Adult AAI Classification: Autonomous

  • Gives a coherent, balanced narrative of childhood relationships—whether positive or negative

• Child Attachment Style: Secure

  • These parents are generally sensitive and responsive caregivers

Preoccupied Adult → Resistant (Ambivalent) Child

• Adult AAI Classification: Preoccupied

  • Descriptions of childhood are angry, confused, or overly involved

  • May seem emotionally entangled or unresolved

• Child Attachment Style: Insecure/Resistant (Ambivalent)

  • Their caregiving tends to be inconsistent—sometimes overly involved, sometimes not

Dismissing Adult → Avoidant Child

• Adult AAI Classification: Dismissing

  • Gives idealized but unsupported descriptions of their parents (“It was fine,” “Nothing to say”)

  • Contradictory or emotionally detached

• Child Attachment Style: Insecure/Avoidant

  • These parents tend to be emotionally unavailable or rejecting

⚠ EPPP Tips – Watch for These Traps:

• "Preoccupied" = Resistant (They both struggle with emotional regulation and inconsistent closeness)

• "Dismissing" = Avoidant (They both minimize emotional expression)

• Autonomous ≠ Always positive—what matters is that their story is coherent, not whether it’s happy

📘 What Does "Passive Preoccupation" Mean?

Preoccupation in this context = the adult is emotionally entangled with their past relationship with a parent.
They may still be stuck, hurt, angry, or confused about it—even decades later.

Now, there are two ways this can show up:

🧠 Key Signs of Passive Preoccupation:

• Rambling or going off-topic when talking about childhood

• Contradictions or confusion in their story

• Difficulty drawing conclusions (“I don’t really know… I think…”)

• A sense of being “stuck” emotionally, even without open anger

🔗 Why It Matters for the EPPP:

• Preoccupied adults (whether passive or angry) → often raise children with insecure/resistant attachment

  • These children are clingy, anxious, and unsure of caregiver availability

💞 Attachment: Core Concept

“The strong, affectionate tie… leading to pleasure and comfort.”
(You should associate this with both biological need and emotional regulation.)

🧪 Early Research

Harlow & Zimmerman (1959) – Contact Comfort

• Study: Infant monkeys → wire vs. cloth surrogate mothers

• Finding: Contact comfort > food in forming attachment

• EPPP Tip: Choose emotional comfort over physical need when given a forced-choice question.

📘 Bowlby’s Ethological Theory (1969)

Behaviors of Attachment (Innate infant behaviors):

• Sucking

• Crying

• Smiling

• Cooing
  🧠 Function: Keeps caregiver nearby for survival (attachment as evolutionarily adaptive)

📅 Bowlby’s 4 Stages of Attachment

Stage	Age Range	Description
1. Preattachment	Birth to 6 weeks	Infant signals (e.g., crying) bring caregiver close; not yet attached
2. Attachment-in-the-Making	6 weeks to 6–8 months	Preference for familiar people; begins to build trust
3. Clear-cut Attachment	6–8 months to 18 months–2 years	Separation anxiety appears; uses caregiver as a secure base
4. Formation of Reciprocal Relationships	18 months–2 years and on	Language improves; negotiation and understanding of caregiver’s return

🧠 Internal Working Model

• Cognitive framework formed from early attachment experiences

• Shapes views of self, others, and relationships

• EPPP Alert: Often connected with later social/emotional outcomes, such as relationship quality or psychopathology

🔗 Bowlby’s Connections to Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Freud	Bowlby
Oral stage (birth–1 yr): attachment through oral activities like feeding	Preattachment & attachment-in-the-making
Anal stage (1–3 yrs): autonomy & control	Clear-cut attachment & reciprocal relationships

Similarity: Both stress early life relationships as foundational.
Difference: Bowlby’s model is relational and evolutionary, whereas Freud’s is intrapsychic and psychosexual.

🧠 EPPP Trick Questions to Watch Out For

• Harlow → Choose comfort/cloth mother, NOT feeding

• Bowlby → Pick biological basis for attachment, NOT learning

• Attachment behaviors → Crying/smiling keep caregiver close (don’t confuse with learned behavior!)

• Internal working models → Predict future relationships, NOT personality traits

• Avoid confusing Ainsworth with Bowlby – Bowlby = theory/stages; Ainsworth = types of attachment (secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized)

Review 🍼 "Leo’s First Two Years: A Story of Attachment" (in ChatGPT/EPPP/Attachment Thoery)

Secure Attachment

Attachment Style	Behavior Summary	Mother’s Style	Key Features

Secure

Explores, upset when gone, comforted when back

Sensitive, responsive

Prefers mom to stranger

Insecure-Resistant (Ambivalent)

Attachment Style	Behavior Summary	Mother’s Style	Key Features
Insecure-Resistant (Ambivalent)	Clings, very upset, resists comfort	Inconsistent caregiving	Wants comfort but pushes away

Insecure-Avoidant

Attachment Style	Behavior Summary	Mother’s Style	Key Features

Insecure-Avoidant

Ignores mom, little distress, avoids return

Rejecting or intrusive

Treats mom & stranger alike

Disorganized/Disoriented

Attachment Style	Behavior Summary	Mother’s Style	Key Features
Disorganized/Disoriented	Fearful, confused, dazed	Often maltreated	Contradictory, odd behavior

🚨 What to Watch Out For on the EPPP

see chatbpt for these