Emotional Development & Attachment in Infancy

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering self-concept development, emotional expressions, Bowlby's attachment theory, Ainsworth's Strange Situation task, and adult attachment classifications from PSY1017 Lecture 7.

Existential Self

A component of self-concept (introduced by William James, 1890) reflecting the awareness that one exists as separate from the external environment, which infants gradually develop over the first 2 to 6 months of life.

Looking Glass Self

The proposition (Cooley, 1902) that a child's self-concept is largely determined and shaped by how other people react and respond to him or her.

Categorical Self

A child's classification of the self along socially significant dimensions, such as age and sex, which typically emerges once toddlers display self-recognition.

Self Agency

The understanding that one is distinct from the world and can cause effects through one's own actions, progressing from reflexive movements to intentional sensorimotor coordination.

Still-Face Procedure

An experimental paradigm (Mesman et al., 2009) where a parent presents an unresponsive, neutral expression to test an infant's social expectations and perception of social cause and effect.

Self-Recognition

The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror or photograph, reflecting a conceptual system of thoughts and attitudes about oneself that reliably emerges between 15 and 24 months of age.

The Rouge Test

A mirror self-recognition experiment (Gallup, 1970; Amsterdam, 1972; Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979) in which a red spot is placed on a subject's nose to observe if they direct touch or behavior toward their own face using their reflection.

Social Smiling

Smiles produced intentionally in response to social stimuli, particularly human faces, beginning around 6 weeks from birth rather than solely during REM sleep.

Social Referencing

The behavioral tendency of infants to look at a caregiver's emotional facial expressions to gather information on how to interpret and respond to an ambiguous or novel situation (e.g., Sorce et al., 1985 visual cliff study).

Mind-Mindedness

A caregiver's propensity to view their child as an individual with an internal mental state and accurately comment on their thoughts or feelings; assessed at 8 months, it predicts a child's emotional understanding at 4 years.

Attachment

A primary biological drive and enduring emotional bond between an infant and a specific caregiver that ensures proximity and persists across space and time.

Secure Base

John Bowlby's term for the presence of an attachment figure that provides an infant or toddler with a felt sense of safety and security, making environmental exploration possible.

Affectionless Psychopathy

A condition identified by John Bowlby (1944) in which individuals show an inability to care about or feel genuine affection for others, observed in 32% of juvenile thieves who experienced prolonged early maternal separation.

44 Juvenile Thieves Study

John Bowlby's 1944 investigation comparing 44 adolescent thieves to 44 controls, finding that over half of the thieves had been separated from their mothers for longer than 6 months during the first 5 years of life compared to only two controls.

Pre-Attachment Phase

Bowlby's first phase of attachment (birth to 6 weeks) where the infant produces innate signals (such as crying and grasping) that attract caregivers and is comforted by subsequent close contact.

Attachment-in-the-Making

Bowlby's second phase of attachment (6 weeks to 6–8 months) during which infants begin to respond preferentially and selectively to familiar caregivers rather than strangers.

Clear-Cut Attachment

Bowlby's third phase of attachment (6–8 months to 1.5–2 years) where the infant actively seeks physical contact with regular caregivers and typically shows separation protest or distress upon departure.

Reciprocal Relationships

Bowlby's fourth phase of attachment (emerging from 1.5 to 2 years onward) where children take an active, cognitive role in developing working partnerships with caregivers by understanding their goals and needs.

Stranger Anxiety

A wariness and fear of unfamiliar individuals that typically appears between 6 and 12 months of age, manifesting as crying or clinging to the caregiver.

Separation Anxiety

Distress displayed by an infant when separated from their primary caregiver, emerging around 6 months of age and peaking around 15 months.

The Strange Situation Task

An 8-stage standardized laboratory observation designed by Mary Ainsworth (1978) to assess attachment quality in 12- to 18-month-old infants through brief separations and reunions with the mother and a stranger.

Secure Attachment

An attachment classification (exhibited by approximately 70% of infants) where the infant uses the mother as a safe base to explore, shows distress upon her departure, avoids strangers when alone, and greets the mother happily upon reunion.

Ambivalent Attachment

An attachment classification (exhibited by approximately 15% of infants) where the infant displays intense distress at separation, fears strangers, explores minimally, and seeks contact upon reunion while simultaneously resisting or pushing the caregiver away.

Avoidant Attachment

An attachment classification (exhibited by approximately 15% of infants) where the infant shows no apparent distress at separation, interacts normally with a stranger, shows little interest upon reunion, and is comforted equally well by a stranger or mother.

Disorganized Attachment

An attachment style identified by Main and Solomon (1990) and Main and Cassidy (1988) where children exhibit contradictory, confused, and indecisive behaviors, often linked to inconsistent parental responses.

Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI)

A clinical interview measure that assesses adults' internal working models of childhood attachment experiences and evaluates how their representational styles influence parenting.

Autonomous-Secure

An adult attachment classification on the AAI where the individual gives a coherent, clear, and balanced narrative of their childhood attachment relationships and regards close relationships as valuable.

Dismissing-Avoidant

An adult attachment classification on the AAI where the individual downplays or denies the importance of attachment relationships, idealizes parents without evidence, or fails to recall early experiences.

Preoccupied-Anxious

An adult attachment classification on the AAI characterized by an inability to move past early childhood experiences, often resulting in an overwhelmed, angry, or confused focus on past parental relationships.

Unresolved Adult Attachment

An adult attachment classification on the AAI where the individual shows lapses in reasoning and unresolved emotional trauma surrounding loss, abuse, or the death of a loved one.