Notes: Social and Emotional Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood (Chapter 5)

Freud's Views

• First years of life lay critical framework for lifespan.
• Many adult psychological challenges begin with unresolved childhood issues (weaning, toilet training) during early developmental stages.
• Freud’s stages mentioned: oral stage; anal stage.
• Although much of Freud’s stage theory and methodology is discredited, his influence on Erikson is notable.

Erikson's Stages

• All human beings develop through a series of psychological crises.
• Infancy/toddlerhood: Trust versus mistrust; Autonomy versus shame and doubt.
• Caregivers must sensitively manage children’s early attempts at independence (autonomy) or sense of shame and doubt could be lifelong.
• Stage table summary:
  • Trust versus mistrust: Birth to $18\,\text{months}$
  • In their first year, responsive caregivers foster trust in the world; unresponsive caregivers foster doubt that needs will be met.
  • Autonomy versus shame and doubt: $18\,\text{months}$ to $3\,\text{years}$
  • Children assert autonomy; sensitive responses support self-care; insensitive responses can lead to shame and lack of self-control and confidence.

The Impact of Culture

• Basic emotions are universal, but expressions and developmental progression are culturally dependent.
• Culture shapes caregivers’ views of best practices.
• Impact can be shaped by families’ level of collectivism vs. individualism.
• Collectivism: proximal practices; Individualistic: distal practices.

Close in Different Ways: Proximal and Distal Parenting

• Proximal practices: caregivers are physically close but not necessarily engaging in face-to-face interaction.
• Distal parenting: face-to-face contact with less physical closeness.
• Some families blend both approaches; balance varies by family.

How Understanding Culture Helps Soothe Babies

• Crying amounts vary by culture and caregiver management.
• Use of proximal techniques is associated with shorter crying bouts.
• Parent intervention education helps reduce risk of depression, caregiver stress, and dangerous responses to crying.

How Much Do Babies Cry Around the World?

• Cross-cultural questions explored; crying patterns vary by cultural practices (heading indicates global comparisons).

Current Approaches to Emotion Development

• Important insights:
  1) The first years shape brain development and genomic expression.
  2) Not every infant responds the same way to the environment.
  3) Biological and genomic changes can often be reversible.

Theory of Differential Susceptibility

• Not all children react to adversity or environmental inputs in the same way.
• Some children, due to their specific genotype, are more reactive to the environment than others.
• Harmful environments can lead to more negative outcomes; positive environments can yield even more beneficial outcomes.
• Resilient children demonstrate capacity for change and adaptation to challenges.

The Impact of the Wider World on Infants’ Social and Emotional Development

• Section title indicating broader influences beyond the immediate caregiver.

Highlights in the Development of Emotions

• Key ideas about emotion development:
  • The first years of life shape brain development and genome expression.
  • Individual differences exist in environmental sensitivity.
  • Biological/genomic changes can sometimes be reversed or altered.

Emotional Development

• Babies gradually move from automatic reactions to emotion regulation.
• Measured in multiple ways:
  • Looking into the baby’s eyes
  • Measuring heart rate and neural activity
• Some babies are more reactive to emotional stimuli than others.
• Research finds that babies who receive lots of touch are different later in life: better at perspective-taking, empathic responding, and synchrony with others.

The Basic Emotions (part 1)

• Emotions involve the body, thoughts, and behaviors.
• Few basic emotions are shared by infants worldwide.
• First emotions to emerge: distress, happiness, fear, and anger.
• With maturity, empathy, pride, and embarrassment develop.

The Basic Emotions (part 2)

• Distress:
  • Until $4\,\text{months}$: sadness, pain, and anger are intertwined in a general expression.
  • At about $6\,\text{weeks}$: crying decreases and soothing becomes easier.
  • At $3\,\text{months}$: less fussiness in affluent countries and proximal caregiving communities.
• Happiness:
  • First few weeks: spontaneous smile.
  • Around $6\,\text{or }8\,\text{weeks}$: social smile; frequency depends on caregiving.
  • Before $3\,\text{months}$ in the United States: smiling often accompanied by laughter, giggling, and signs of joy.
  • Between $3\,\text{and }5\,\text{months}$: understanding simple humor, clowning, some joking.

The Basic Emotions (part 3)

• Anger:
  • By $8\,\text{weeks}$: anger when not getting what is expected; culturally mediated.
  • By toddler years: anger and aggression more common; among the most violent years of lifespan discussed.
• Fear:
  • Newborns: startle, not fear.
  • Around $6\,\text{months}$: true fear appears worldwide (e.g., dangerous animals, fearful/angry faces).
  • By $8\,\text{months}$: stranger anxiety; culturally mediated.
  • Around $6\text{ to }12\,\text{months}$: separation anxiety.

More Complex Emotions (part 1)

• Self-Awareness:
  • Involves understanding that you are a self separate from the world.
  • Mirror self-recognition test as a measure; Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a measure.
• Embarrassment:
  • Before $6\,\text{months}$: minimal signs of self-conscious embarrassment.
  • After $6\,\text{months}$: embarrassment when a mistake is made.
  • By $18\,\text{months}$: signs of embarrassment if overpraised.

What’s That? Self-Recognition

• The mirror self-recognition test is used to assess self-awareness.
• If a baby recognizes a spot on their nose, they are said to have self-awareness.
• Some researchers argue this test measures mirror awareness or messy awareness more than true self-awareness, suggesting babies may have self-awareness from birth.

More Complex Emotions (part 2)

• Concern for Others:
  • From birth: signs of awareness of others’ feelings; emotional contagion.
• Empathy:
  • From birth: capacity for empathy; sensing what others feel.
  • After a few months: response to adult emotional expression.
  • By $6\,\text{to }8\,\text{months}$: attempts at helpful behavior; prosocial behavior.

Managing Emotion

• Emotion Regulation: the ability to manage emotions appropriate to the cultural context.
• Common issues: meltdowns; temper tantrums; triggers.
• Development tied to ability to self-calm; matures as brain connections aid in avoiding emotional extremes.
• Still-face procedure used to study infant–caregiver interactions.

The Still-Face Procedure

• In the still-face procedure, caregivers maintain a neutral expression for $2\,\text{minutes}$ in a controlled setup.
• A video example from Dr. Edward Tronick’s lab shows a baby reacting with upset while the parent remains unreactive.
• Babies are usually easily consoled after the procedure; the setup mimics real-life temporary caregiver unavailability or distraction.

Personality and Temperament in the Early Years (part 1)

• Personality: habits of emotionally relating and responding to people and events; stable individual differences.
• Temperament: early pattern of personality in infants/toddlers; a precursor to personality.

Personality and Temperament in the Early Years (part 2)

• Dimensions of Temperament (Thomas and Chess):
  • Three basic temperamental categories: Easy, Slow-to-warm-up, Difficult.
  • Classification is not designed to perfectly map all children’s complexity.
  • Concern that the label 'difficult' could stigmatize babies.

Personality and Temperament in the Early Years (part 3)

• Contemporary researchers: Additional elements beyond the three categories.
• Early temperament viewed as traits on a continuum of intensity.
• Key elements:
  • Effortful control
  • Negative affect
  • Extraversion

Is Personality Something You Are Born With? Personality Development: Environment and Genetics Work Together Epigenetically

• First years of life are crucial for gene activation related to personality.
• Genes related to personality are activated more in the first $3\,\text{years}$.
• Activation is influenced by prenatal hormone exposure, early health, and early parenting.
• Supportive caregiving can help moderate challenging personality characteristics.
• Personality development continues beyond toddlerhood.

Managing Early Personality: Goodness of Fit (Chess and Thomas)

• Goodness of fit: a good match between infant/toddler personality and caregiver characteristics benefits development.
• This concept is generally supported by modern researchers.
• Culture influences how babies’ behavior is understood and how temperament is shaped; cultural context shapes parent preferences for infant personality.

Family Relationships: What Makes a Family?

• U.S. families: often complex, with parents and their married or unmarried partners, along with other siblings, who may or may not be biologically related.
• Around the world: babies often raised by biological parents, but siblings, grandparents, and neighbors also play critical roles.
• The idea that one or two adults provide all care is not typical in many communities.

Measuring Caregiving in Infancy and Toddlerhood

• Focus on supportive parenting.
• Core ideas about ideal parenting characteristics:
  • Responsiveness
  • Sensitivity
  • Positivity

Attachment: The First Years of Life

• Attachment development is a sensitive period.
• Key concepts:
  • Proximity seeking
  • Secure base
  • Internal working model

Measuring Attachment

• John Bowlby: helped develop attachment theory; emphasizes early relationships shaping emotional resilience across the lifespan.
• Mary Ainsworth: explored individual differences in attachment; developed the Strange Situation test to categorize attachment styles.

Types of Attachment (Reaction to Strange Situation)

• Secure attachment
• Insecurely attached
• Insecure-resistant attachment
• Insecure-avoidant attachment
• Disorganized attachment

Critiques of the Strange Situation

• Agreement that attachment is a universal human need, but expression varies across cultures.
• Criticisms:
  • Potential misuse in divorce and child-welfare proceedings.
  • Focuses on a single caregiver–child relationship; many babies have attachments to multiple caregivers.
  • Limited consideration of cultural variation.

Early Family Relationships

• Early caregiving can influence hormonal stress systems and brain connectivity.
• Soothing caregivers can shield babies from long-term effects of exposure to cortisol (stress hormone).
• Non-supportive caregiving can epigenetically program the stress system toward overproduction or underproduction of developmentally appropriate stress responses.

Challenges in Early Parenting

• Struggles include:
  • Depression
  • Financial hardship
  • Unhealthy use or abuse of alcohol or substances
• Interventions:
  • Family-focused approaches
  • Treatment of caregiver mental health
  • Coaching or guidance for caregivers

How Does Media Affect Infant Emotional Development?

• Experts recommend avoiding screens until $18\,\text{months}$.
• Many parents find this guidance unworkable in daily life.
• Excessive media use by new parents is linked to fewer back-and-forth interactions and less attentiveness to infants.
• Children labeled as difficult may be exposed to more media.

Early Child Care

• The majority of U.S. infants and toddlers do not attend a formal child-care center.
• High-quality infant-care programs share key features:
  • Continuity of care
  • Low infant-to-caregiver ratios
  • Positive and informed caregivers
• Quick responsiveness matters: some caregivers can respond in as little as $3\text{ to }7\ \text{seconds}$.
• Quick, sensitive responses support the development of secure bonds.