Chap 13 Emotions attachment + social relationships

First emotions

• Izard and collegues theorize that basic emotions are biologically based, develop early in life, play critical roles in motivating and organising behaviour

• Distinct emotions that emerge in first 6 months of life

  • eg, at birth babies show contentment and distress, at 6 months, contentment → joy, interest → surprise, distress → anger, disgust, fear, sadness

  • at 18 months, self conscious emotions emerge, requires awareness → embarrassment, guilt, shame, pride

Emotion regulation

• at 9 months infants use social referencing → monitor companions emotional reactions and use it to decide how to behave/feel

• 12 months → move away from distressing events

• 18-24 months → attempt to control whatever is upsetting them

When does jealousy develop? Alternative explanations to jealousy?

• Displayed earliest at 9 months

• preferences, temperament and hatred towards new stimuli can all be alt explanations to jealousy

Emotional competence

Patterns of emotional expression, greater understanding of emotion and better emotion regulation skills

they also learn display rules for emotion, which r cultural rules specifying what emotions should be expressed in what circumstance

Why do adolescents experience mildly negative moods more than children?

• Experience more negative life events developmentally

• Not as good at regulating emotions compared to adults

• may choose to savour negative/mixed emotions at times

Do older adults experience more negative emotions?

No, emotions r not any less important to them, they experience similar level of emotional intensity as young adults, actually seem to live more positive emotional lives

Emotions and aging in older adults

Overall emotional wellbeing increases with age

Older adults experience longer lasting positive emotions, fleeting negative emotions, fewer emotional ups and downs per day

Socioemotional selectivity theory

Perception that one has little time

left to live

Prompts more emphasis on the goal

of fulfilling current emotional needs

Leads to the positivity effect in older adults

• They tend to place more emphasis on positive information

Attachment theory

• Based on ethology

• Investigates how attachment helped our ancestors adapt to env

• Attachment is a strong emotional tie that binds a person to an intimate companion

• Babies make sure adults tend to their needs by sucking cooing smiling crying

• Adults are hormonally prepared for caregiving (oxytocin) 

Cognitive aspect of attachment theory

Infants construct expectations of relationships through internal working models

• Cognitive representations of themselves and other people like a network of schemas

• Guides processing of social info and their behaviour in relationships

• Securely attached infants will develop secure internal working models that they are loveable

• Insecurely attached infants develop models that they are difficult to love

Peer relationships and how they assist development

Children learn peers are their social equals, relationships r reciprocal and forces them to hone their perspective taking skills, contributing to moral + cognitive development

Chumships → Close childhood relationships teach children how to

participate in emotionally intimate relationships

The Infant

Attachment formed between caregiver and infant

• Bonding at birth is neither necessary nor sufficient for a strong parent– infant attachment to form

• over the weeks they develop synchronised routines

4 phases of forming attachments

Attachment related fears

Separation anxiety → Wary/fretful when separated from parent, peaks at 14 - 18 months

Stranger anxiety → Wary or fretful reaction to the approach of an unfamiliar person

Peaks around 1 year of age

Attachment figure serves a secure base for exploration + safe haven, when infants experience these fears they may not do these things

What did the Strange Situation by Ainsworth et al (1978) find?

4 types of attachment styles

What makes quality attachment?

• Contact comfort promotes human attachment, parents who r sensitive and responsive to baby needs signals secure attachments

• Its more abt the parent’s efforts, not the infant, relationship btw infant temperament and attachment is pretty weak, but caregivers who are responsive to temperamental changes are more able to establish secure attachment

Cultural & Social contexts related to attachment

• Alloparenting distributes care across multiple caregivers

Individualistic cultures

■ want babies to take interest in objects, interact face-to-face

with their parents, and explore independently

Collectivist cultures

■ keep their babies in physical contact all day and train them to

stay close and do as they are told

What happens if an infant never has an opportunity to form an attachment?

Infants who spent their first several months or more in deprived orphanages experience:

■ Poor growth

■ Medical problems

■ Delays and differences in physical, cognitive, and social- emotional development

After being adopted 90% grow attached to adoptive parents, saw parents as comforting AND threatening

Separation in infants

• They go thru a grieving process

  • Search frantically for loved ones, become sad after giving up, sometimes ignore after caregiver comes back, but will gradulaly warm up

In military families:

Sometimes infants still develop emotional and behavioural problems whether sensitive care is provided by a family member

Is day care bad for infant attachment?

No, infants experiencing routine care by someone not their parent does not develop much differently, quality of parenting is the stronger influence on later development

What is secure attachment linked to in later development?

• Intellectual competence

• Social competence

• Emotional regulation

• Good peer relations

Parent child attachment

• At age 3 kids grow more independent from their parents

  • Wants separations to be predictable

    and controllable

• Still seek attention from parents, look to peers for social support

Peer networks in children

10% of social interactions in toddlerhood (tf is this word) are with peers

30% in middle childhood are w peers

Children and Play

Types of play (Ages 1-5)

• locomotor play

• object play

• social play

• pretend play -> use object pretend its smt else

• Unoccupied play

• Solitary play

• Onlooker play

From infancy to age 5, play becomes more social and imaginative

Why is play important?

Allows children to develop many skills

Associated with the development of motor, cognitive,

language, social, and emotional skills

May contribute to healthy emotional development

Types of peer acceptance (sociometric scale)

• Accepted (or popular): Well liked by most and rarely disliked

• Rejected: Rarely liked and often disliked

• Neglected: Neither liked nor disliked; these children seem to

be invisible to their classmates.

• Controversial: Liked by many but also disliked by many

• Average: In the middle on both the liked and disliked scales

Does peer acceptance mean friendship?

Peer acceptance not equal to friendship

• in 7-8 yr olds, 39% of rejected kids had at least 1 mutual friendship

• 31% of popular children lacked such friendship

Having at least one friend

increases the odds that a child will

be happy and socially competent

Parent - adolescent attachment

• Need independence but also security of parents to explore

Adolescents with secure parent−child attachments

■ Stronger sense of identity

■ Higher self-esteem

■ Greater social competence

■ Better emotional adjustment

■ Fewer behavioral problems

What are adolescent friendships based on?

enjoyment of common activities

mutual loyalty

intimacy and self disclosure

physical and psychological qualities

all of this changes qualitatively, not fixed

How are adolescent friendships evaluated?

Sociometric popularity

○ peer acceptance

○ being liked by many peers

Perceived popularity

○ being viewed as someone who has status, power, and visibility in the peer group

Dexter Dunphy’s theory about social networks

How peer-group structures change during adolescence may explain how peer relations lay the foundation for romantic attachments

1. late childhood → same sex cliques

2. boy + girl cliques begin interacting

3. 11, 12yrs boy and girl cliques mix

4. Crowds then form

5. Late high school → crowds lessen bc of couple formation

Adolescent dating

4 phases: initiation , status, affection, bonding

Dating has more positive than

negative effects on development

Adult attachment

• We all have social convoy → social networks that support us throughout life

• Trend towards smaller social networks as we age

• Adult attachment styles r related to quality of their romantic relationships + wellbeing + physical health

• quality of their own child - parent attachment predicts their adult attachment + romantic relationship quality

• They have a confident (wife/husband) which improves life satisfaction, physical health, cognitive functioning,

  and longevity

Adult romance

• Greatest influence on mate selection is homogamy (similarities)

• Ppl might also look for complementarity (diffs that make up their weaknesses)

• Universally men prefer youth and attractiveness

• Women prefer older + financial resources

• Kindness intelligence and health r universally preferred

Sternberg’s triangular theory of love

Passion

■ Sexual attraction, romantic feelings,

and a sense of excitement

Intimacy

■ Feelings of warmth, caring, closeness,

trust, and respect

Commitment

■ first deciding that one loves the other

person and then committing to a

long-term relationship

Adult attachment style chart