Chapter 6

Psychological Stages During Infancy and Toddlerhood

  • Erikson's Stage

    • Basic trust vs. mistrust (first year)

      • Needed from Caregivers

        • Responsiveness

        • Sympathetic, loving balance of care

    • Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (second year)

      • Needed from Caregivers

        • Suitable guidance and reasonable choices

        • Reasonable expectations for impulse control

Emotions

  • Earliest emotions = two arousal states

    • Attraction to pleasant stimulation

    • Withdrawal from unpleasant stimulation

  • Emotions supported by sensitive caregiving and mirroring

First Appearance of Basic Emotions

Happiness

• Smile: from birth

• Social smile: 6-10 weeks

• Laughter: 3-4 months

Anger and sadness

• General distress: from birth

• Angry expressions: 4-6 months

• Sadness: response to disrupted caregiver-infant communication

Fear

• First fears: 6 mos, keeps exploration in check; caregiver as secure base

• Stranger anxiety: most frequent expression of fear

Parental Depression & Child Development

  • Parent-child relationships suffers; linked to child behavior problems

  • Maternal depression (chronic or postpartum):

    • Affects infants’ sleep attention, and stress hormones

    • Hinders motor and cognitive development emotion regulation

  • Early intervention vital

Responding to the Emotions of Others

  • Matching caregiver’s tone (initial months)

  • Sensitivity to face-to-face interactions (3 months)

    • Emotional Contagion: a survival technique; babies adopt/mimic the emotions of their caregivers’

Social Referencing

  • Seeking emotional information from trusted person to appraise uncertain situation

Self-Conscious Emotions

  • Shame (not adaptive/taught by parents)

  • Embarrassment

  • Guilt (adaptive but it can be used as a weapon by certain parents/caregiver/not parent taught but parent guided)

  • Envy

  • Pride

    • Emerged middle of 2nd year

    • Adult instruction

Toddler’s Emotional Regulation

  • Tantrums!

  • Effortful control improves w development of brain and adult instruction

  • Caregivers contribute to self-regulation style

  • A pro-active script is when we tell the child what to expect

  • Infants’ Emotional Regulation

    • Sucking on hands/objects

    • Smiling

    • Self-soothing and distraction

    • Actively attempting to change situation