Emotional and Personality Development in Infancy

Toddlers use others emotional reactions and messages to

________evaluate the safety of surroundings, to guide actions, and to gather information.

Separation

________: the infants movement away from the mother.

Eriksons trust versus mistrust stage:

________ trust versus mistrust stage: infants learn trust when they are cared for consistently and develop a sense of mistrust when not fed and kept warm on a consistent basis.

Reciprocity

________: at 2- 3 months, babies match the feeling tone of the caregiver.

Social referencing

________ (8- 10 months): actively seek emotional information from a trusted person in an uncertain situation.

Personality

________: the enduring characteristics of individuals, of which emotions and temperament are key aspects.

Autonomy builds with

________mental and motor abilities, and infants feel pride in their new accomplishments.

When caregivers are impatient and do for toddlers what they are capable of doing for themselves,

shame and doubt develop.

Central to personality development is

trust and the development of self and independence.

Infants prefer

helpers over non-helpers

2-3 months old react to

others’ emotional expression

Infants at 1, 3, 6, 9 months of age all found to

respond to infant cries with cries of their own or facial expressions of distress

By 18 – 24 months, offer

comfort at the distress of others

By 15 months of age,

showed expectations of ‘fairness’

The Still Face experiment was conducted by

Edward Tronick in 1975

In the Still Face experiment, infants demonstrated

some understanding of emotion, power of connections

In the Still Face experiment, infants have a clear reaction to

a lack of emotional connection from their caregivers.

Even very young babies have demonstrated that

they can respond to emotions of the adults who care for them.

At 4-5 months,

babies gradually discriminate a wider range of emotions

**Social referencing (8-10 months)**:

actively seek emotional information from a trusted person in an uncertain situation

Roots of what can be seen early on?

empathy

autonomy builds with

mental and motor abilities, and infants feel pride in their new accomplishments

when caregivers are impatient and do for toddlers what they are capable of doing for themselves,

shame and doubt develop.