EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT,
TEMPERAMENT AND
ATTACHMENT
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Displaying Emotions
– Sequencing of Distinct Emotions
• At birth; interest, distress, disgust, contentment
• 2–7 months; anger, sadness, joy, surprise, fear (all
basic emotions)
• Middle of second year; embarrassment, shame,
pride, guilt, envy
– Self-recognition and self-evaluation
•
Figure 10.1a-f Young infants display a variety of emotional expressions. Izard, C. E., Fantauzzo, C. A., Castle,
J. M., Haynes, O. M., Rayias, M. F., & Putnam, P. H. (1955). The Otogeny and Significance of Infants’ Facial
Expressions in the First 9 Months of Life. Developmental Psychology, 31, 997-103.
•
Table 10.1 Summary of Age of Appearance of Different Emotions
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Parents influence self-evaluative emotions
– If mothers are critical of failure, shame follows failure,
little evidence of pride after success
– Opposite if mothers were positive about successes
– Guilt more likely than shame if reason why behavior was
wrong
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
– Socialization of Emotions and Emotional SelfRegulation
• Emotional display rules – societal circumstances for
emotional expression
• Mothers tend to model only positive emotions to
young infants
• Become more responsive to infants’ positive
emotions
• Role of cultural expectations
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Regulating Emotions
– Present in 6-month-olds (girls better than boys)
– 1 year: self rocking, chewing, or moving away
– 18–24 months: try to control actions of others; distract
themselves
– Almost impossible to regulate fear
– Parents may want children to feel emotional arousal to
teach them
» To sympathize with victims
» Feel guilty for their transgressions
» Feel pride
VIDEO: Culture and Emotion
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Acquiring Emotional Display Rules
– Age 3 can disguise true feelings
– But at 13, still difficult to suppress anger
– Ability in older adolescents is linked with being more
prosocial, ability to resist peer pressure
•
Figure 10.2 With age, children are better
able to display positive emotional reactions
after receiving a disappointing gift. Adapted
from “An Observational Study of Children’s
Attempts to Monitor Their Expressive
Behavior,” by C. Saarni, 1984, Child
Development, 55, 1504-1513. Copyright ©
1984 by The Society for Research in Child
Development, Inc. Adapted by permission.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
– Recognizing and Interpreting Emotions
• Social Referencing
– 7–10 months – use others emotional reactions to regulate
own behavior
– Second year, look to others reactions after appraising a
new situation
• Conversations about Emotions
– 18–24 months
– Contributor to empathy
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Later Milestones in Emotional Understanding
– Labeling emotional expressions of others improves during
childhood
» 4–5 infer emotion from body movements
» Emotion may be due to past event
» By 8, same situation may cause different emotions
» 6–9 understand people can have multiple emotions
simultaneously
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Emotions and Early Social Development
– Emotional displays are communicative
– Interpreting others emotions provides
knowledge
– Emotional competence is crucial to social
competence
• Emotional expressivity
• Emotional knowledge
• Emotional regulation
TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
• Temperament – individual differences in
emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity
and self-regulation
– Fearful distress
– Irritable distress
– Positive affect / sociability
– Activity level
– Attention span / persistence
– Rhythmicity
TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
• Hereditary and Environmental Influences
on Temperament
– Hereditary Influences
• Identical twins more similar than fraternal twins
• Moderately heritable
•
Figure 10.3 Average correlations in infant temperament among identical twins, fraternal twins, and nontwin
siblings born at different times. Based on Braungart et al., 1992; Emde et al., 1992.
TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
– Home Environmental Influences
• Shared environment influences positive aspects of
temperament
• Nonshared environment influences negative
aspects
• Cultural Influences
– Shy and reserved a disadvantage in the U.S.
– Valued in Asian cultures
– Also more positive in Sweden
TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
• Stability of Temperament
– Activity level, irritability, sociability, fearfulness
• Moderately stable
– Behavioral inhibition
• Moderately stable at extremes
• Considerable fluctuation for other individuals
ATTACHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
• Attachment – strong affectional ties that
we feel with special people in our lives
• Attachments as Reciprocal Relationships
– Infants and parents become attached to each
other
• Establishment of Interactional Synchrony
– Synchronized routines – coordinated
interactions between infant and caregiver
• Important for emotional attachments
ATTACHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
• How Do Infants Become Attached?
– The Growth of Primary Attachments
• The Asocial Phase (0–6 weeks)
– Social and nonsocial stimuli produce positive reactions
• The Phase of Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks –
6/7 months)
– Favor people, but any person is OK
ATTACHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
• The Specific Attachment Phase (7–9 months)
– first true attachment; favor one person
– Secure base for exploration
• The Phase of Multiple Attachments (9–18 months)
– Attachment to other people, additional family members,
regular babysitter
ATTACHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
• Theories of Attachment
– Psychoanalytic Theory:
• I Love You Because You Feed Me
– Freud – pleasure of eating results in attraction to person
providing pleasure
ATTACHMENT
– Learning Theory:
• I Love You Because You Reward Me
– Feeding elicits positive responses from infant increasing
caregiver’s affection
– Infants learn feeding time provides comfort, mother is
important
• Harlow’s study – contact comfort is more
important to attachment than food
ATTACHMENT
– Cognitive-Developmental Theory:
• To Love You, I Must Know You Will Always Be There
– For attachment, must discriminate familiar people from
strangers
– Object permanence
– Although each theory is incomplete, all are
important
ATTACHMENT
• Contemporary Theories of Attachment: The
Ethological Theory
– Attachment contributes to survival
– Preadapted characteristic – predisposition to
form attachments
– “Kewpie doll” appearance may promote
attachment; not necessary
– Crying – difficult to ignore, as are smiles
•
Figure 10.4 Infants of many species display the “kewpie doll effect,” which makes them
appear lovable and elicits caregivers’ attention. Adapted from “The Innate Forms of
Possible Experience,” by K. Z. Lorenz, 1943, Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie, 5, 233-409.
ATTACHMENT
• Attachment-Related Fears of Infancy
– Stranger Anxiety
• Begin at time of primary attachment
• Peaks at 8–10 months, then declines
– Separation Anxiety
• Appears at 6-8 months
• Peaks at 14–18 months
• Gradual decline, but may be visible in adolescents
APPLYING RESEARCH:
COMBATING STRANGER ANXIETY
• Keep familiar companions available
• Arrange for companions to respond favorably
to stranger
• Make setting more familiar
• Be a sensitive, unobtrusive stranger
• Try looking a little less strange to the child
ATTACHMENT
– Why Do Infants Fear Strangers and
Separations?
• The Ethological Viewpoint
– Biologically programmed to fear strangers and
circumstances where familiar companions are not present
• The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint
– Violating schemes of familiar faces and knowing someone
will return
•
Table 10.2 Overview of Theories of Attachment. Note: Each theory of attachment has a different
perspective on the basis of attachment and attachment related behaviors. Each theory can help to explain
the complexity of the attachment relationship.
ATTACHMENT
• Individual Differences in Attachment
Quality
– Assessing Attachment Security
• Strange Situation
– Naturalistic caregiver/infant interaction to look for secure
base
– Brief separation
– Reunion episode
ATTACHMENT
– Secure Attachment (65%)
•
•
•
•
Explores situation
May be upset by separations
Warm greeting on return, seeks comfort
Outgoing with strangers when mother is present
ATTACHMENT
– Resistant Attachment (10%)
• Little exploration, want to be close
• Very distressed upon separation
• Ambivalent on return, want to be close, but will
resist physical contact
• Wary of strangers even when mother is present
ATTACHMENT
– Avoidant Attachment (20%)
• Little distress when separated
• Ignore mother on return
• Often sociable with strangers, but may ignore or
avoid them
ATTACHMENT
– Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment (5%)
• Most insecure
• Confusion about whether to approach or avoid the
mother when reunited
– Strange situation in general not useful for
characterizing children much older than 2
ATTACHMENT
– Attachment Q-set – for 1- to 5-year-olds
• Trained observer sorts 90 descriptors into “most
like” to “least-like” categories
• Resulting profile represents level of secure
attachment
ATTACHMENT
– Cultural Variations in Attachment
Classifications
• Percentages in each category vary due to variations
in child rearing
• What is secure or insecure varies also
– Stressing dependency on others versus independency
ATTACHMENT
• Fathers as Caregivers
– Attachment
• Later half of first year,
–
–
–
–
–
Positive attitude toward parenting
Spends time with infant
Sensitive caregiver
More likely to provide playful stimulation
Can assume all roles of a parent
ATTACHMENT
– Fathers as Contributors to Emotional Security
and Other Social Competencies
• Infants with secure attachments to both parents
– Less anxious and socially withdrawn
– Better adjustment to school
• Infants securely attached to father (even if not
residing in home)
– Better emotional self-regulation
– Social competencies
– Less delinquency
ATTACHMENT
• Factors That Influence Attachment Security
– Quality of Caregiving
• Caregiving hypothesis
– Mothers of securely attached infants are sensitive,
responsive caregivers
– Resistant children tend to have inconsistent caregiving
•
Table 10.3 Six Characteristics of Caregiving That Lead to Secure Attachment. Note: These six aspects of
caregiving are moderately correlated with each other. Source: Based on “Sensitivity and Attachment: A
Meta-Analysis on Parental Antecedents of Infant Attachment,” by M. S. De Wolff and M. N. van IJzendoorn,
1997, Child Development, 68, 571-591.
ATTACHMENT
– Quality of Caregiving, continued
– Resistant infants have parents who are inconsistent in
their caregiving
– Avoidant infants have parents who are impatient and
unresponsive, or overstimulating
– Disorganized/disoriented infants were often neglected or
abused
ATTACHMENT
• Who is At Risk of Becoming an Insensitive
Caregiver?
– Clinically depressed individuals
– Caregivers who were unloved, neglected, or abused as
children
– Caregivers with unplanned pregnancies
ATTACHMENT
• Ecological Constraints on Caregiving Sensitivity
– Insensitive parenting more likely
» Health, legal, financial problems
» Unhappy marriages
• What Can be Done to Assist Insensitive Caregivers?
– Interventions work and promote secure attachments
ATTACHMENT
– Infant Characteristics
• Temperament hypothesis (Kagan)
– Strange situation measures differences in infant
temperament
– Infants’ temperament influences style of attachment
•
Table 10.4 Percentage of 1-Year-Olds Who Can Be Classified as Temperamentally “Easy,” “Difficult,” and
“Slow to Warm Up” Who Have Established Secure, Resistant, and Avoidant Attachments with Their
Mothers. Sources: Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall, 1978; Thomas and Chess, 1977.
ATTACHMENT
• Does Temperament Explain Attachment Security?
– No – elements are related but not a good explanation
» Secure attachment to one caregiver, insecure to
another
» Interventions increase secure attachment
» Role of shared environment
•
Figure 10.5 Comparing the impact of maternal
and child problem behaviors on the incidence of
insecure attachments. Maternal problems were
associated with a sharp increase in insecure
attachments, whereas child problems were not.
Based on “The Relative Effects of Maternal and
Child Problems on the Quality of Attachment: A
Meta-Analysis of Attachment in Clinical Samples,”
by M. H. Van Ijzendoorn, S. Goldberg, P. M.
Kroonenberg, and O. J. Frenkel, 1992, Child
Development, 63, 840-858. Copyright © 1992 by
the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
ATTACHMENT
– The Combined Influences of Caregiving and
Temperament
• Quality of caregiving determines whether
attachment will be secure or insecure
• Temperament determines the type of insecurity
displayed by infants
ATTACHMENT
• Attachment and Later Development
– Long-Term Correlates of Secure and Insecure
Attachments
• Infants with disorganized attachments are at risk of
becoming hostile and aggressive grade school
children
• Majority of adolescents and young adults from
stable family backgrounds display the same kind of
attachment as they had in infancy
ATTACHMENT
• Why Might Attachment Quality Forecast
Later Outcomes?
– Attachments as Working Models of Self and
Others
• Cognitive representations
– Others are dependable or not
– I am lovable or not
• Those with positive models of the self and others
– remember more positive events; earn higher grades;
develop better social skills
•
Figure 10.6 Four perspectives on close emotional relationships that evolve from the positive or negative
“working models” of self and others that people construct from their experiences with intimate
companions. Adapted from “Attachment Styles among Young Adults: A Test of a Four-Category Model,” by K.
Bartholomew & L. M. Horowitz, 1991, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, p. 226-244.
Copyright © 1991 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
•
Figure 10.7 Because of differences in their
internal working models, securely attached
children are biased to remember positive
experiences and insecurely attached children to
remember negative experiences. Based on Table
1, p. 113, in J. Belsky, B. Spritz, & K. Crnic, 1996,
“Infant Attachment Security and AffectiveCognitive Information Processing at Age 3,”
Psychological Science, 7, 111-114. Reprinted by
permission of Blackwell Publishing.
ATTACHMENT
– Parents’ Working Models and Attachment
• Also impact infants’ attachment style
• Even if measured prior to infants birth
• Mothers with secure attachment representations
like interacting with infants more
ATTACHMENT
• Is Attachment History Destiny?
– No
• Secure attachment with one person can offset an
insecure attachment with the mother
• Secure can become insecure as life events change