Notes on Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

• Overview of Emotional Development:

  • The chapter discusses how parental love and sensitivity are crucial for infants' and toddlers' feelings of security and competence.

• Erikson’s Theory of Infant and Toddler Personality:

  • Basic Trust vs. Mistrust:
  • Dependent on the quality of caregiving rather than quantity of food. Responsive and sensitive caregiving leads to trust, while withdrawal can lead to mistrust.
  • Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt:
  • Occurs during toilet training. Parents must provide guidance without shaming to develop autonomy in toddlers.

• Emotional Development:

  • Basic Emotions: Happiness, anger, sadness, and fear are universal and emerge within the first year.
  • Understanding and Responding to Emotions:
  • Infants begin to mirror caregivers’ emotions and engage in social referencing to assess their environment.
  • Self-Conscious Emotions: Develop later and include feelings like guilt and pride, requiring a sense of self.
  • Emotional Self-Regulation: Infants start managing their emotions with the development of coping strategies and self-soothing.

• Temperament and Development:

  • Temperament: Refers to individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation. Factors like genetic predispositions and the goodness-of-fit model in parenting influence temperament development.
  • Types of Temperament: Easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up children.
  • Measurement: Assessed through parental interviews, questionnaires, and observations.

• Development of Attachment:

  • Bowlby's Ethological Theory:
  • Attachment behaviors serve an evolutionary function to promote survival. Involves four phases:
    1. Preattachment Phase: Newborns use signals to attract caregivers.
    2. Attachment in the Making: Infants begin to form trust but still accept strangers.
    3. Clear-Cut Attachment: Babies show distress on separation and seek comfort from a familiar caregiver.
    4. Formation of Reciprocal Relationships: Toddlers understand factors influencing caregiver availability and negotiate returns.
  • Measuring Attachment: The Strange Situation assesses attachment behaviors in infants.
  • Types: Secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant, and disorganized attachment.

• Cultural Variations in Attachment:

  • Attachment patterns vary across cultures with different implications for developmental outcomes.
  • Countries like Germany show higher rates of avoidant attachment, where independence is valued, while others like Japan focus on proximity and interdependence leading to resistant attachment.

• Multiple Attachments: Infants can form attachments to various caregivers (fathers, grandparents, etc.), highlighting the importance of interpersonal relationships in their development.

• Self-Development:

  • Self-Awareness: Begins in infancy as infants differentiate their bodily sensations and gradually develops to explicit self-recognition by 18-24 months.
  • Categorizing the Self: Children start identifying their characteristics (age, gender) by the end of their second year.
  • Self-Control Development: Linked to self-awareness and the child’s capacity to comply with parental requests, often influenced by parental relationships.

Influences on the Development of Attachment Security

• Early Availability of Caregiver: Consistent caregiving is crucial; institutionalized children may develop attachment issues due to disrupted caregiver consistency.
• Quality of Caregiving: Sensitive and responsive caregiving is linked to secure attachments, while inconsistent care leads to insecurity.
• Infant Characteristics: Factors such as temperamental traits can impact attachment relationships profoundly.
• Family Context: Family dynamics, including parental relationships and mental health, significantly shape attachment patterns.

Closing Thoughts

• Interventions: Teaching parents sensitivity can enhance attachment security. A good support system strengthens parents' ability to care for their children effectively.