Lifespan overheads, chapter 6: emotional and social development in infancy and toddlerhood 1
Chapter 6: Emotional & Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood
Erikson’s theory on infant and toddler personality:
 basic trust versus mistrust: The trusting infant expects the world to be good and gratifying, so they will feel confident about venturing out and exploring it. A mistrustful baby will withdraw from people and things around them.
 autonomy versus shame and doubt: Parents should permit kids to attempt new skills without fear of criticism. A parent who is overcontrolling or undercontrolling leads to a child who feels shamed, and doubts his/her ability to act competently independently.
Emotional Development
Development of basic emotions :
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happiness: o Newborns smile when full, during sleep, in response to touches and sounds o By end of 1 st month, babies smile at interesting sights o Between 6-10 weeks, the human face evokes the social smile o Laughter appears round 3-4 months o By 6 months, infants smile and laugh more often when interacting with familiar people o During the 2 nd year the smile becomes a deliberate social signal

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anger and fear: o newborns respond with generalized distress to many unpleasant stimuli o 1 st 2 months: fleeting expressions of anger appear as babies cry o older babies show anger in a wider range of situations o the most common expression of fear, arising at about 6 months, is stranger anxiety . o these emotions may have survival value past 6 months
Understanding and responding to others’ emotions :
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Within the first few months, babies match the feeling tone of the caregiver in face-to-face communication.
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between 7-10 months, infants perceive facial expressions as organized patterns, and can match the emotion in a voice with the appropriate face
 social referencing : actively seek emotional information from a trusted person in an uncertain situation
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By the middle of the 2 nd year, they begin to appreciate that others’ emotional reactions may differ from their own

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Self-Conscious Emotions: shame, embarrassment, guilt, envy, pride
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peak at the end of the 2 nd year, as the sense of self emerges
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Between 18-24 months, children can display shame, embarrassment, pride
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By age 3 they begin to show envy.
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Parents teach when to feel these things
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help children acquire socially and culturally valued behaviours and goals
Emotional Self-Regulation:
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in the early months, infants have only a limited capacity to regulate their emotional states
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by the end of the 1 st year, infants can regulate feelings more effectively by approaching or retreating from various situations
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caregivers provide infants with lessons about socially approved ways or expressing feelings.
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Cultures that express collectivism usually place greater emphasis on socially appropriate behaviour
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By the 2 nd year, kids have a vocabulary to talk about feelings

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Temperament and Development
Temperament : stable individual differences in quality and intensity of emotional reaction, activity level, attention, and emotional self-regulation.
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the New York Longitudinal Study (1956) (Thomas &
Chess): followed 141 children from early infancy well into adulthood. o temperament predicts later psychological problems o temperament is not fixed and unchangeable
The structure of temperament:
1) the easy child (40 %)
2) the difficult child (10%)
3) the slow-to-warm-up child (15%)
Measuring temperament:
(1) interviews with parents
(2) behaviour ratings by doctors, nurses, caregivers
(3) direct observation by researchers.
(4) physiological measures
 inhibited infants have higher heart rates, cortisol, blood pressure, pupil dilation when faced with novelty and challenge.
 inhibited babies: greater right frontal brain wave activity, whereas sociable babies have the opposite pattern

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Stability of temperament : shyness and sociability are only stable in those who are at the extremes to begin with.
Genetic influences: about 50% of the individual differences among us can be traced to differences in genetic makeup
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there are also consistent ethnic and sex differences: o Chinese and Japanese babies tend to be less active, irritable, and vocal, more easily soothed, and better at quieting themselves than Caucasian babies. o boys tend to be more active and daring than girls, who tend to be more anxious and timid
Environmental Differences :
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within the first few hours after birth, parents already perceive boys and girls differently o Parents encourage sons to be physically active and daughters to seek help and physical closeness
The Goodness-of-Fit model (Thomas & Chess, 1977):
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children with difficult temperaments are at high risk for later adjustment problems because they experience parenting that fits poorly with their dispositions.
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difficult and shy children benefit from warm, accepting parenting that makes firm but reasonable demands for mastering new experiences.

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Development of Attachment
Attachment : the strong, affectional tie we feel for special people in our lives that leads us to experience pleasure and joy when we interact with them and to be comforted by their nearness during times of stress.
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by end of 1 st year, infants have become attached to familiar people who have responded to their needs for physical care and stimulation.
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Freud: feeding is the primary context in which caregivers and babies build attachment.
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Behaviourists: infa nts learn to associate mother’s smell, sight, feel, touch, voice, with being fed
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However research has shown that attachment does not depend on hunger satisfaction. o Harlow & Zimmerman ’s (1959) rhesus monkey study o infants often become attached to members of the family who seldom or never feed them
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ethological theory of attachment: o Bowlby (1969): the human infant is endowed with a set of built-in behaviors that help keep the parent nearby, increasing the chances that the infant will be protected from harm.

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4 phases to attachment
 preattachment (birth to 6 weeks)
 attachment-in-the-making (6 weeks to 8 months)
 clear-cut attachment (6-8 months to 18 months-
2years)
 formation of a reciprocal relationship o children construct an enduring affectional tie to the caregiver that they can use as a secure base even in their absence. o becomes a big part of the child’s personality, and serves as an internal working model about the availability of attachment figures and their likelihood of providing support during times of stress. o becomes the model for all future close relationships
Measuring Attachment Security
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The Strange Situation Test (Mary Ainsworth):
1) Secure attachment
2) Resistant attachment
3) Avoidant attachment
4) Disorganized/disoriented attachment

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Factors affecting attachment researchers have focused on 4 important influences on attachment:
 opportunity for attachment: o Rene Spitz
’ (1945) study of institutionalized infants o Rutter’s (1966) study of institutional turn-over rates o fully normal development may depend on establishing close bonds with caregivers in the first few years of life.
 quality of caregiving : sensitive caregiving has been found to distinguish securely from insecurely attached infants. o interactional synchrony o Avoidant babies  overstimulating, intrusive care o Resistant infants
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inconsistent care o Disorganized-disoriented infants  often in abusive households or with a depressed mother
 infant characteristics : o prematurity, complications during birth, and newborn illness can affect bonding, especially in poor homes
 family circumstances : in families where there is stress and instability, the rate of insecure attachment is especially high. o Adults with unhappy upbringings are not destined to become insensitive parents; the way they view their childhoods is much more influential in how they rear their children than their actual history.

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Multiple Attachments:
Bowlby (1969): infants are predisposed to direct their attachment to a single special person, especially when upset. But this preference declines over the 2 nd year of life, permitting other attachments to develop and enrich their world.
 fathers: o mothers tend to spend more time in physical caring and expressing affection, playing conventional games like peekaboo, and talking to their infants o fathers spend more time in playful interaction - playing exciting, physical games, especially with their infant sons
 siblings : 80% of American children grow up with at least one sibling. Infants are comforted by the presence of their older sibling when mom is absent. And in the 2 nd year, they often imitate and play with the older child. o mothers are more positive and playful with second borns than first borns
Attachment and later development :
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securely attached kids: rated in preschool as high in self esteem, socially competent, cooperative, popular.
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avoidantly attached kids: seen as isolated and disconnected
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resistantly attached kids: seen as disruptive, difficult.
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by age 11, securely attached kids had better relationships, social skills.
 young children who have affectional ties outside dysfunctional family are likely to fare well.

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Self-Development in the 1 st Two years of life
Self awareness
The I-self and the Me-self: the earliest aspect of the self to emerge is the “I-self”: a sense of self as subject, or agent, who is separate from but attends to and acts on objects and other people.
During the 2 nd year, they start to construct the “me-self”, a reflective observer who treats the self as an object of knowledge and evaluation. They become consciously aware of the self’s features.
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9
–to-24 month-olds were put in front of a mirror with a dab of red dye on their noses. Younger infants touched the mirror as if the red mark was on another baby in front of them. But by 15 months, they began to rub their own noses.
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By age 2, almost all children use their name or I or me to label their image or refer to themselves.
Categorizing the self: between 18 and 30 months, children categorize themselves and others on the basis of age, sex, physical characteristics, and even goodness and badness.
Self-control:
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to be able to control themselves, kids have to be able to think of themselves as separate, autonomous beings who can direct their own actions.
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We first see this around 12 to 18 months, in compliance with caregivers’ wishes
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Around 18 months, the capacity for self-control appears, and improves steadily throughout childhood.

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In one study, children were given three tasks that required them to resist temptation.
1) asked not to touch a toy telephone
2) asked not to lift up cups and eat the raisins underneath until the experimenter said it was ok
3) told not to open a gift until the experimenter had finished her work
The ability to wait increased steadily between 18 and 30 months. Those who were especially self-controlled were also more advanced in language development.