Social, emotional and

personality development in

infancy

Attachment

• Bonding is defined at the tie an infant may form with a parent in the hours after birth

• Attachment is a longer process, one that is more enduring

How does attachment occur?• Babies will cry, which elicits care from parent• reflexive smile appears during first month

during irregular patterns of sleep• Social smiling – 4 to 6 weeks – which elicits joy

and pleasure from parent• At 6 months, babies will display pleasure when

parent returns after a short absence• At 9 months child begins to display separation

anxiety (this appears to be a signal that attachment has formed)-object

permanence has begun (Piaget)

Emotional and Personality Development

• Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX) system of coding infants’ facial expressions related to emotion by watching slow-motion & stop-action videotapes of their facial reactions to stimuli

• Crying infant’s way of communicating• basic cry is rhythmic pattern consisting of cry, brief silence,

higher pitched cry, rest, then cry• anger cry basic cry with more excess air forced through

vocal cords• pain cry sudden appearance of loud crying without

preliminary moaning

Emotional and Personality Development

Emotional Development • Emotion feeling that involves mixture of physiological

arousal & overt behavior• Positive Affectivity range of positive emotions, from high

energy, enthusiasm, & excitement to being calm, quiet, & withdrawn

• Negative Affectivity emotions that are negatively toned, such as anxiety, anger, guilt & sadness

• Functionalism in Emotion new view of emotions proposing it is relational rather than intrapsychic, with a close link between emotion & a person’s goals & effort

Stranger Anxiety infant shows a fear & wariness of strangers becomes more intense at age 9 monthsSeparation Anxiety when caregiver leaves. Peaks around 14 monthsSocial Referencing ‘reading’ emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a particular situation

Emotional Development in Infants

Infant Attachment

• Mary Ainsworth’s work contributes greatly to working definitions of attachment theories

• Secure Attachment Ainsworth believes that infants use main caregiver, usually mother, as a secure base from which to explore world in first year of life, which provides an important foundation for psychological development later in life.

Mary Ainsworth

• Put children in “Strange Situation” – found three types of attachment– Secure type – use mothers as a secure based, look around

occasionally, limited exploration in mother’s absence. Cried when mother left and were happy upon return. (65-70%) (Type B)

– Insecure-avoidant type – paid little attention to mother when she was in room, separated easily from mother. Showed little distress when she left and ignored her upon return. (20%) (Type A)

Insecure-ambivalent type – clung to mother and were reluctant to explore environment. High level of distress when mom left and still showed distress upon her return. (10 percent) (Type C)

Later studies by others revealed a 4th pattern-disorganized/disoriented attachment in which the infant appears confused and were unable to approach the mother directly for supported even when distressed. (Type D)

Ainsworth’s Types of Attachment

• Caregiving Styles & Attachment Classification

• Parents who actively participate in child’s daily life & provide stimulus in environment will be more likely to rear Type B baby

• Parents who tend to be unavailable & avoidant are more likely to rear Type A, C or D babies.

Lorenz and attachment

• Imprinting-– Formation of a strong bond of attachment to the

first moving thing seen right after birth

– Lorenz made himself the first thing seen by goslings and sure enough they followed him

– The goslings follow Lorenz everywhere

The Harlow’s and attachment

• Baby monkeys were separated from their mothers right after birth

– Some were put in a room with a wire cylinder surrogate mother

– Some were put in a room with a soft, terry-cloth covered cylinder

When scared, the infants preferred to go to the soft “mother”-demonstrated that attachment is about who provides contact comfort

John Bowlby

• 1st to study human infants• Found those separated from mothers upon

birth initially cried loudly and threw tantrums• Later, crying gave way to despair• Finally, infants showed emotional detachment

Attachment, Temperament, and the Wider Social World

• Many psychologists, Jerome Kagan, for example, believe that genetic & temperament characteristics play more important roles in a child’s social competence than attachment bond at infancy

• Would a child with a low tolerance for stress not be able to form secure attachment due to its biological inheritance or a flawed attachment bond in infancy?

Attachment

Mutual Regulation Model• Where parents imitate

infants behaviors and facial gestures

• Parent and infant engage in behaviors that are turn taking and give infant a sense of the world

Attachment, Temperament, and the Wider Social World

Reciprocal Socialization • bi-directional as children tend to socialize parents as

parents are socializing children & parents continue grow emotionally as they rear children

• Scaffolding takes place when parental behavior supports children’s efforts, allowing them to be more skillful than they would be if they were to rely only their own abilities

• Family As A System view family as series of subsystems in terms of role, gender & generation. One cannot separate spousal relationships from those established with child

Attachment, Temperament, and the Wider Social World Social Context

• Family as almost all children spend initial years of life with their families, it is important to study structure of family & its impact on emotional growth

• Transition To Parenthood introduction of a child into a couple’s world can be disruptive. Research has shown that couples enjoyed a more positive marital relationship before birth of a baby than after

Effects of Daycare and Attachment

• Some believe that daycare interferes with attachment

• Research has shown no effects on infant – mother attachment

• Some research suggest that children in daycare may be more aggressive – though this may be due to mediocre daycare

• High-quality daycare seems to have no negative effects

• Some studies suggest that children who attend daycare may do better on tests of language skills and math skills than children who stay at home

• Attachment during infancy appears to carry over into later relationships

Day Care

• Where to leave children during day while parents are working has always been a sensitive and difficult decision

• But in modern society is has become a monumental problem, as gender egalitarianism has provided a dilemma for family where both parents have careers

What Is High-Quality Day Care?

• Most agree that quality day care is often elusive, & experts have found that it is generally inadequate & has a negative developmental impact on child

Some aspects of high-quality day care are: • infant-teacher ratio of 3 to 1 • presence of a pediatrician • non-teaching director • teachers’ aides

Gender and attachment

• Typically, attachment may be stronger with mother than father

• This may be changing today as more men are staying home to be primary caregiver

Temperament

• Thomas and Chess did a longitudinal study on American babies and found:

– 40% of the babies were easy– 15% of the babies were slow-to-warm-up– 10% of the babies were difficult– 35% of the babies were a mixture of the three

Temperament

• Range of emotional responses displayed by infant, from cheerful & happy to crying & irritable

• Easy Child generally one in positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines & adapts to new experiences

• Difficult Child tends to react negatively & who cries frequently, engaging in irregular daily routines & is slow to accept new experiences

• Slow-To-Warm Child has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, & shows low adaptability

• Follow-up studies later showed:

– Easy babies more likely to be popular, social, independent and successful

– Difficult babies were more likely to be involved in the law and we less popular and less well-liked

Chess & Thomas’s TemperamentTemperament Dimension

Description

Rhythmicity Regularity of eating, sleeping, toileting

Activity Level Degree of energy of movement

Approach-Withdrawal Ease of approaching people & situations

Adaptability Ease of tolerating change in routine plan

Sensory Threshold Amount of stimulation for responding

Predominant Quality of mood

Amount of stimulation for responding

Intensity mood expression

Degree of affect when pleased, displeased, happy, etc…

Distractibility Ease of being distracted or inattentive

Freud Psychosexual Development

• Stage 1 – Oral Stage (Birth-18 months) – erotic focus is the mouth.

– Pleasure seeking activities include sucking, chewing, biting.

– If needs are gratified too much or too little they continue to seek gratification as an adult

Erikson – Psychosocial development – Trust vs. Mistrust

• Birth to 1 year• To develop trust – infant’s needs must be met• Must be played with, cuddled• When care is inconsistent or rejecting,

mistrust develops – child becomes suspicious and fearful

Personality Development

• Trust Erikson’s concept of child’s ability to identify with care-giver(s) through a sense of security, unresolved trust versus mistrust crisis can lead to later conflicts even when earlier ones have been resolved

• Self - Psychologists generally believe that infant ‘constructs’ a sense of self through development of its independence & establishes individuation

Social Development

• Up to 1 ½ years – child engages in solitary play• 1 ½ to 2 years – child engages in parallel play

in which they play side by side, doing the same thing as playmate, yet there may be no interaction

• 15 to 24 months – begin to imitate peers, go back and forth, imitate parents

• SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT• 2 years – begin to have preferences

in playmates, however, up to 3 years,

gender of friends does not seem to matter.

• 3 to 3 ½ years – cooperative play – children begin to play with each other and interact

• 3 years – social pretend play – imitate adult roles with peers (doctor/patient)

Gender

• Gender roles – how have they changed?

• Gender identity-how does one gain a sense of their gender?

• Social learning theory-we become what we see?