Chapter 6 - Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

What is Erikson’s Theory of PsychoSocial Development?

Resolve a Social Crisis → Personality/Mental Health

What components of Erikson’s Theory of PsychoSocial Development affect Emotional and Social Development

Trust vs. Mistrust and Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt

How does Trust vs. Mistrust affect Emotional and Social Development?

• 0-1 years

• Provide physical comfort and security

• Responsiveness of caregivers

• Sets up future expectations of world

How does Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt affect Emotional and Social Development?

• 1-3 years

• Assert independence/budding selfhood

• Allow child to do some things for themselves

  • (e.g., potty training)

• If child is overly controlled → shame/doubt

• If child has some independence → autonomy

What is Emotion?

Complex Reaction involving 4 Interactive Components

What are the 4 Interactive Components of Emotion?

1. Physiological Arousal

2. Cognitive Interpretations

3. Subjective Feelings

4. Behavioral Expression

What is Physiological Arousal?

Physical reaction (e.g., fight-or-flight)

What are Cognitive Interpretations?

• What causes someone to have an emotion

• Perceptions/Appraisals of a situation

  • Ex. Dog running towards you → interpreted as fear of incoming threat

What are Subjective Feelings?

• Affects (e.g., anger, joy, fear)

  • Mental feeling you have from previous stage

What is Behavioral Expression?

E.g., facial expression (smiling, crying, etc.)

What are the different Basic Emotions?

1. Happiness/Joy

2. Contempt

3. Surprise

4. Fear

5. Anger

6. Sadness

7. Disgust

What are Basic Emotions?

• Cross culturally recognized, biological

• Universal (Nature)

  • Start from 2 Global Arousal States

• Emotions become more complex with age (experience & maturation)

What are the 2 Global Arousal States?

1. Attraction to Pleasant stimulation (ex. good taste, nice smells)

2. Withdrawal from Unpleasant stimulation (ex. bad taste, not nice smells)

What are the different types of Infant and Toddler Emotions?

1. Happiness

2. Anger & Sadness → Crying

3. Fear

How is Happiness communicated from Infants andToddlers?

Smiling and Laughing

What is Smiling in regard to Infant and Toddler Emotions?

Promotes social connection

What are the different types of Smiles demonstrated from Infants and Toddlers?

Reflexive Smile and Social Smiling

What is Reflexive Smiling?

• Unintentional; sleep

• Less than 6 weeks

What is Social Smiling?

• Externally stimulated

• Not until 6-10 weeks

• Reserved for people or things they recognize

What is Laughing in regard to Infant and Toddler Emotions?

• 3 to 4 months

• Based on recognition

Who said, “It is fortunate for their survival that babies are so designed by nature (to smile) that they beguile and enslave mothers.”

Bowlby

What is Anger & Sadness in regard to Infant and Toddler Emotions?

• → Crying

• Communicative function

What are the different types of Crying in regard to Infant and Toddler Emotions?

• Basic Cry

• Anger Cry

• Pain Cry

What is the Basic Cry?

Very rhythmic

What is the Anger Cry?

More intense

What is the Pain Cry?

Sudden onset, irregular breathing

Should you let Infants and Toddlers Cry?

• In 1st year… No

  • Needs to build a sense of trust… Attachment

What is Fear in regard to Infant and Toddler Emotions?

Stranger Anxiety

What is Stranger Anxiety?

• Fear/wariness toward strangers

• 6 mos. →

What do the beginnings of Happiness look like?

• Smile: from birth

• Social smile: 6-10 weeks

• Laughter: 3-4 months

What do the beginnings of Anger and Sadness look like?

• General distress: from birth

• Angry expression: 4-6 months

• Sadness: response to disrupted caregiver-infant communication

What do the beginnings of Fear look like?

• First fears: 6 months, keeps exploration in check; caregiver as secure base

• Stranger anxiety: most frequent expression of fear

What are Self-Conscious Emotions?

• E.g., Guilt, shame, embarrassment, envy, pride

• Appear middle of second year

• Injure or enhance sense of self

• Require self-awareness and adult instruction in when to feel emotions

  • (Ex. Correcting a child when wrong → guilt, shame)

• Requires time to develop

What is Social Referencing?

• 8-10 months

• Seeking emotional information from others in uncertain situations

How does Social Referencing Help Toddlers?

• Evaluate surroundings

• Guide their actions

• Understand others

What is Social Referencing Indicative of?

• Attachment

  • Ex. Child looks at a ledge, then looks at parent’s face to seer if their facial expression signal if it is safe or not. If the parent’s face expresses that it is unsafe, then the child will retreat back to the parent

What is Emotional Self-Regulation?

• Controlling emotions to level where one can accomplish goals

• Frontal lobe needs to be developed to a certain point

  • Can shut off feelings

  • Ex. Child throwing a tantrum, give child time to get over it

• Improves rapidly during first few years due to brain development and caregiver support

• Caregivers teach socially approved ways of expressing emotion

• Tantrums not uncommon

What is Temperament?

= Behavioral style and characteristic emotionality

• Precursor to personality

What are the different Theories of Temperament?

• Thomas and Chess Theory

• Buss and Plomin’s EAS Theory

• Rotjbart’s Model of Temperament

What is Thomas and Chess’s Theory?

Observed children and classify them into different types of temperament. Cannot categorize all children. Able to categorize 2/3rds of children.

What are the different components of Thomas and Chess’s Theory?

1. Easy Child

2. Difficult Child

3. Slow-to-Warm-Up Child

What is an Easy Child?

• 40%

• Positive mood

• Adapts easily to new situations

What is a Difficult Child?

• 10%

• Negative mood; cries often and easily

• Slow to accept new situations

What is a Slow-to-Warm-Up Child?

• 15%

• Low activity level (In terms of movement)

• Low adaptability

What is Buss and Plomin’s EAS Theory?

• There are 3 Dimensions of Temperament

• *** Relate to Wiring of Nervous System

What are the Dimensions of Temperament in Buss and Plomin’s EAS Theory?

1. Emotionality

2. Activity Level

3. Sociability

What is Emotionality in regard to Buss and Plomin’s EAS Theory?

= Tendency to be distressed

• How Easily Triggered

• Strength of Response

• Ease of Soothing

  • How quickly they could get out of distress

What is Activity Level in regard to Buss and Plomin’s EAS Theory?

= Tempo of Movement

• Always moving? Fidgety? Sluggish? Chill?

What is Sociability in regard to Buss and Plomin’s EAS Theory?

= Preference for Company of Others

• How a child accepts others

  • Reaction to being passed around a room of strangers

What is Rothbart’s Model of Temperament?

Most accepted

What components are in Rothbart’s Model of Temperament?

Reactivity and Self-regulation

What is Reactivity in regard to Rothbart’s Model of Temperament?

• Activity level

• Attention span/persistence

• Fearful distress & Irritable distress

• Positive affect

  • How happy the child is

What is Self-Regulation in regard to Rothbart’s Model of Temperament?

• Effortful control

  • Suppress one response for a more adaptive one

    • E.g., self-soothing - child gets upset → behaviors to calm down → sucking thumb, snuggle with blanket