Chapter 7: Socioemotional Development in Infancy

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, theories, researchers, and figures on socioemotional development in infancy from Chapter 7 of Children (15th Edition).

Emotion

A feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is in a state or an interaction that is important to him or her, playing key roles in communication and behavioral organization.

Primary Emotions

Emotions present in humans and other animals that appear in the first 6 months of life, including surprise, anger, joy, sadness, fear, and disgust.

Self-Conscious Emotions

Emotions that require self-awareness and appear after 18 months of age, including embarrassment, jealousy, empathy, pride, shame, and guilt.

Basic Cry

A rhythmic pattern of crying that is often associated with hunger.

Angry Cry

A variation of the basic cry in which more excess air is forced through the vocal cords.

Pain Cry

A sudden, long, initial loud cry followed by breath holding.

Reflexive Smile

A smile that occurs in the first month after birth and is not a response to external stimuli.

Social Smile

A smile in response to external stimuli, such as faces, occurring as early as 4 to 6 weeks of age.

Stranger Anxiety

An infant's fear and wariness of strangers, which typically emerges at around 6 months and becomes intense from 9 to 12 months.

Separation Protest

Distress displayed by an infant when separated from the caregiver, occurring at 7 to 8 months and peaking at about 15 months.

Temperament

An individual's behavioral style and characteristic way of emotionally responding.

Easy Child

A child classified by Chess and Thomas who generally has a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, and easily adapts to new experiences.

Difficult Child

A child classified by Chess and Thomas who reacts negatively, cries frequently, resists change, and shows irregular behaviors.

Slow-to-Warm-Up Child

A child classified by Chess and Thomas who has a low mood intensity, low activity level, and is somewhat negative.

Inhibition to the Unfamiliar

A temperament concept identified by Kagan beginning at 7 to 9 months where children react to unfamiliarity with avoidance, distress, or subdued affect.

Extraversion/Surgency

A temperament dimension in Rothbart and Bates' classification characterized by positive affect and impulsivity.

Negative Affectivity

A temperament dimension in Rothbart and Bates' classification where children are easily distressed.

Effortful Control

A temperament dimension in Rothbart and Bates' classification involving self-regulation, with varying levels of control.

Goodness of Fit

The match between a child's temperament and environmental demands.

Personality

The enduring characteristics of individuals, of which emotions and temperament are key aspects.

Trust versus Mistrust

Erikson's first psychosocial stage, in which infants learn trust when cared for consistently, or develop mistrust when not fed and kept warm consistently.

Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt

Erikson's second psychosocial stage, where toddlers build independence as mental and motor skills develop, but feel shame and doubt if caregivers are impatient or do tasks for them.

Social Referencing

The ability to 'read' the emotional cues of others to help determine how to act in a specific situation.

Attachment

A close emotional bond between two individuals.

Bowlby's Ethological Perspective

A theory stating that attachment is an innate predisposition that develops in a series of four sequential phases from birth through childhood.

Harlow's Contact Time Study Graph

A graph demonstrating that regardless of whether infant monkeys were fed by a wire or cloth surrogate mother, they overwhelmingly preferred to spend contact time with the cloth mother.

Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth's observational measure of infant attachment that subjects an infant to a series of introductions, separations, and reunions with a caregiver and stranger.

Securely Attached Babies

Infants who show positive, confident exploration, using the caregiver as a secure base.

Insecure Avoidant Babies

Infants who show insecurity by engaging in little interaction with the caregiver and showing no distress upon separation.

Insecure Resistant Babies

Infants who cling to the caregiver and then resist closeness by fighting against interaction or proximity.

Insecure Disorganized Babies

Infants who show insecurity by appearing disorganized and disoriented in the Strange Situation.

Cross-cultural Comparison of Attachment Graph

A chart showing attachment patterns across the US, Germany, and Japan, where secure attachment is dominant in all three, but German infants are more avoidant and Japanese infants are more resistant.

Developmental Cascade Model

A model involving connections across domains over time that influence developmental pathways and outcomes.

Developmental Social Neuroscience

A field examining connections among socioemotional processes, development, and the brain.

Brain Regions in Infant-Mother Attachment Diagram

An anatomical diagram illustrating brain regions proposed to be important in infant-mother attachment, including the prefrontal cortex, corpus callosum, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus.

Reciprocal Socialization

Socialization that is bidirectional, in which children socialize parents just as parents socialize children.

Scaffolding

A technique in which caregivers adjust the level of guidance to fit the child's performance.

U.S. Primary Child-Care Arrangements Chart

A pie chart displaying child-care arrangements for children under 5 years of age with employed mothers, showing 28% in center-based care, 27% in relative care, 27% with parents, 14% in family child care, and 4% with nannies.