Chapter 4 SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY
Emotional Development
Emotion: Feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is in a state or interaction that is
important to him or her
Play important roles in:
Communication with others
Behavioral organization
Primary emotions—present in the first 6 months of life
Self-conscious emotions—require self awareness
Biological and environmental influences
Certain brain regions play a role in emotions
Emotion-linked interchanges
Provide the foundation for the infant’s developing attachment to the parent
Social relationships
Provide the setting for the development of a rich variety of emotions
Relationships and culture provide diversity in emotional experiences
Synchronous or reciprocal interaction
Figure 4.1 - Expression of Different Emotions in Infants
Emotional expression and social relationships
Crying
Basic cry: Rhythmic pattern usually consisting of:
A cry
Briefer silence
Shorter inspiratory whistle that is higher pitched than the main cry
Brief rest before the next cry
Anger cry: Variation of the basic cry, with more excess air forced through the
vocal cords
Pain cry: Sudden long, initial loud cry followed by breath holding
Most parents, and adults in general, can determine whether an infant’s cries signify anger or
pain.
Parents can distinguish the cries of their own baby better than those of a strange baby.
developmentalists increasingly argue that an infant cannot be spoiled in the first year of life,
suggesting that parents should soothe a crying infant rather than be unresponsive.
Smiling
Reflexive smile: Smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli
Social smile: In response to an external stimulus
Fear
Stranger anxiety: Fear and wariness of strangers
Separation protest: Distressed crying when the caregiver leaves It tends to
appear in the second half of the first year of life, intensifying and escalating
around 9 months of age. Peaks around 15 mo in US infants;
When infants have a sense of security, through familiar settings and physical proximity to
parent-- less likely to show stranger anxiety.
Social referencing: “Reading” emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a
particular situation
Emotional regulation and coping—develop ability to inhibit or minimize the intensity and
duration of emotional reactions.
Soothing themselves
Caretakers responses
Caregivers’ actions and contexts can influence emotional regulation
Soothing a crying infant helps infants develop a sense of trust and secure attachment to the
caregiver
Temperament
Individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions, and characteristic ways of responding
Describing and classifying temperament
Chess and Thomas’ classification
Easy child: Generally in a positive mood
Quickly establishes regular routines in infancy
Adapts easily to new experiences
Difficult child: Reacts negatively and cries frequently
Engages in irregular daily routines
Slow to accept change
Slow-to-warm-up child: Low activity level
Somewhat negative
Displays a low intensity of mood
Jerome Kagan: labels temperament as inhibition; behavioral inhibition
Effortful Control (Self-Regulation) - Rothbart and Bates’ classification
Extraversion/surgency
Negative affectivity
Effortful control
Biological foundations and experience
Biological influences
Gender, culture, and temperament
Parents may react differently to an infant’s temperament depending on
gender
Cultural differences in temperament were linked to parent attitude and behaviors
Goodness of fit: Match between a child’s temperament and the environmental demands the child
must cope with
Strategies for temperament-sensitive parenting:
Attention to and respect for individuality
Structuring the child’s environment
Avoid applying negative labels to the child
Personality Development
Trust: According to Erik Erikson, the first year of life is characterized by the trust-versusmistrust stage of development.
Erikson believed that infants learn trust when they are cared for in a consistent, warm manner.
If the infant is not well fed and kept warm on a consistent basis, a sense of mistrust will develop.
The Developing Sense of Self
Infants are not “given” a self by their parents or the culture, rather they find and construct selves.
Independence
Erikson described the second developmental stage as autonomy versus shame and doubt. This
covers ages 1 to 3
Autonomy builds on the infant’s developing mental and motor abilities.
Infants feel pride in their new accomplishments (such as climbing, pushing, pulling, etc.).
They want to do everything themselves so important for parents to recognize the motivation of
toddlers to do what they are capable of doing at their own pace.
When parents consistently overprotect or criticize toddlers, children develop an excessive sense
of shame and doubt about their ability to control themselves and their world.
Attachment: Close emotional bond between two people
Freud - Infants become attached to the person that provides oral satisfaction
Harlow - Contact comfort preferred over food
Harlow and Zimmerman study found that feeding is not the crucial element in the attachment
process and that contact comfort is very important.
Erikson believed that the first year of life is the key time frame for the development of
attachment.
John Bowlby believes that the newborn is biologically equipped to elicit the attachment behavior
from the primary caregiver.
Bowlby - Four phases of attachment
Phase 1: From birth to 2 months - Attachment to human figures
Phase 2: From 2 to 7 months - Focus on one figure
Phase 3: From 7 to 24 months - Specific attachments develop
Phase 4: From 24 months on - Become aware of others’ feelings
Individual Differences in Attachment
Strange situation: Observational measure of infant attachment
Requires the infant to move through a series of:
Introductions
Separations
Reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger in a prescribed order
Securely attached babies: Use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the
environment
Insecure avoidant babies: Avoiding the caregiver
Insecure resistant babies: Cling to the caregiver, then resist the caregiver by fighting against
the closeness
Insecure disorganized babies: Being disorganized and disoriented
Disorganized babies are dazed, confused, and fearful.
Caregiving Styles and Attachment
Maternal sensitivity linked to secure attachment
Caregivers of insecurely attached infants tend to be:
Rejecting
Inconsistent
Abusive
Caregivers of securely attached babies are sensitive to their signals and are consistently
available to respond to their infants’ needs.
Caregivers of avoidant babies tend to be unavailable or rejecting, tending not to respond to
their babies’ signals and having little physical contact with them.
Caregivers of resistant babies sometimes respond to their babies’ need and sometimes do not.
Caregivers of disorganized babies often neglect or physically abuse their babies, and
sometimes these caregivers suffer from depression
Social Contexts
The family
Figure 4.9 - Interaction Between Children and their Parents: Direct and Indirect Effects
Constellation of subsystems
Transition to parenthood
New parents face disequilibrium and must adapt to it
Reciprocal socialization: Bidirectional
Children socialize parents, just as parents socialize children
The behaviors of mothers and infants involve substantial interconnection, mutual regulation, and
synchronization.
Scaffolding: Parents time interactions so that infants experience turn taking with the
parents
Managing and guiding infants’ behavior
Being proactive and childproofing the environment
Engaging in corrective methods
Maternal and paternal caregiving
Fathers have the ability to act sensitively and responsively with their infants as mothers do.
Paternal interactions are more likely to include play.
Fathers engage in more rough-and-tumble play, while mothers’ play is less physical.
Maternal interactions usually center around child- care activities- Feeding, changing diapers,
bathing
In stressful circumstances, infants show a stronger attachment to their mother.
Figure 4.8 - The Increase in the Number of U.S. Fathers Staying at Home Full-Time with
their Children
Child Care
Far more young children are in day care today than at any other time in history.
Many US children experience multiple caregivers
Unlike many European countries, the United States does not have a policy of paid leave for
child care, thus day care has become a major national concern.
Variations in child care
Parental leave
Factors that influence the Child Care effects are:
Age of the child
Type of child care
Quality of the program
Strategies parents can follow:
Recognize that the quality of your parenting is a key factor in your child’s
development
Make decisions that will improve the likelihood that you will be good parents
Monitor your child’s development
Take some time to find the best child care