Emotional Development
Temperament
& Attachment
Modules 9-2 & 9-3
Emotional Development
 Basic
emotions are universal
 They
include happiness, fear, anger,
surprise, sadness, disgust, interest, etc.
 Facial
expressions (also universal) are the
most reliable cues
What is an emotion?
 Emotions
are responses, including
physiological responses
 Sense
or experience of feeling
 Leads
to expression, behavior; can be a
motive
 Related
to thoughts and beliefs as well as
immediate experience
Functionalist view of Emotion
 What
is their purpose?
 Emotions are means of communicating
and play a role in relationships.
 They are also linked to an individual’s
goals and motivation toward progress and
overcoming obstacles.
 Subjective evaluation of good and bad;
comparable to pain in the physical realm
Emotional Competence - Sarnii
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Awareness of emotional state
Detecting other’s emotions
Using emotional vocabulary appropriately
Empathy and sympathy
Realizing that inner emotional states do not
always correspond to expression
Awareness that emotional expression plays a
large role in relationships
Adaptively coping with negative emotions
What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?
 Gardners
“interpersonal intelligence”
 Salovey & Mayer (1990): ability to
perceive and express emotion accurately

MSCEIT (2002) Mayer-Salovey-Caruso
Emotional Intelligence Test
 Daniel
Goleman (1995) Published a book,
“Emotional Intelligence”
What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?
Salovey & Mayer (1990): ability to perceive
and express emotion accurately, including:
taking perspective
understanding the roles of emotion in
relationships
using feelings to facilitate thought
managing emotions such as anger
Emotions Gone Awry
.
. . Are the basis for some mental
disorders.
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Clinical depression
Bipolar disorder
Anxiety disorders
Intermittent explosive disorder
Antisocial personality disorder
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of
Infant & Toddler Personality
 Basic

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Trust vs. Mistrust
1st year of life
Quality of the caregiver’s behavior
 Autonomy

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vs. Shame & Doubt
2nd year of life
Reasonable expectations for impulse
control
Emotional Development in Infancy
 Primary
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emotions
Emerge early in life (first year)
Are culturally universal
Include
• Surprise
• Joy
• Anger
Sadness
Fear
Disgust
Emotional Milestones
Birth
2-3 mos.
3-4 mos.
6-8 mos.
8-12 mos.
18-30 mos.
attraction & withdrawal
Social smile, respond to
facial expression
Laugh at active stimuli
Anger, fear, attachment
Social referencing
Self-conscious emotions
(shame, guilt, pride)
Fear
in the 2nd half of the 1st year
 Intensifies & remains until 18+ months
 Stranger anxiety is the most frequent
expression of fear
 Appears

Stranger & situational characteristics
 Separation
protest also appears
 Partially depends upon temperament
and experiences
Anger
 Appears
about 6-8 months
 Generalized
distress is present in
young infants
 Anger
in older babies may be in
response to frustration
Social Referencing
 Reading
others’ emotional cues to
determine how to respond to a situation
 Infants
become better at this in the second
year of life
 We
still do this as adults, e.g., panic, riots,
looting, helping behavior
Regulation of Emotions
 Key
dimension of development
 Ability increases with age & development
 Shifts from external to internal in infancy
 Individuals develop strategies for this
 With age children develop greater capacity
to:
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Modulate arousal
Select & manage situations
Finding effective ways to cope with stress
Emotional Self-Regulation

Strategies used to adjust one’s own
emotional state to a comfortable level

Young infants turn away, suck, are easily
overwhelmed

Ability to self-regulate increases with brain
development, experience, ability to shift
attention and to move

Older infants distract themselves, leave the
situation
Emotions and the Self
 Self-conscious
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emotions:
Do not appear in animals
May not be universal
Require self-awareness
Emerge later (1 ½ - 2 ½ years)
Self-conscious Emotions

Include empathy, embarrassment, envy,
pride, shame, guilt

Involve injury to or enhancement of the
sense of self

Appear as the sense of self emerges

Require adult instruction in when to feel
proud, ashamed or guilty
Self-conscious Emotions
 Shame,
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pride & guilt
Pride most often occurs in response to
successful achievement
Shame is a global response to a threat to the
self, also other-directed; reflects inability
Guilt is in response to specific failure, reflects
culpability
 These
emotions serve to regulate the
child’s behavior
Emotional Development
Self-conscious emotions
 By
age 3, these are clearly linked to selfevaluation
 Parents
should give feedback about
performance, not the worth of the child.
This causes intense self-conscious
emotional experience.
Self-conscious emotions
 Beginning
in early childhood, shame is
associated with feelings of personal
inadequacy, withdrawal and depression,
anger and aggression.

Underuse shame in our culture
 Guilt
is related to good adjustment.
 Reasons
for guilt or shame must be
considered.
Emotional Development – Ages 2-4

Emotional vocabulary expands rapidly

Come to understand causes, consequences,
and behavioral signs of emotion

Emphasize external factors

Can predict what people will do based on
emotion
Emotional Development – Ages 2-4

Small children do not deal well with conflicting
cues (mixed emotions).

Securely attached children are advanced in
emotional understanding.

Emotionally negative children experience more
peer rejection.
Maternal Depression & Child Development

Babies of depressed mothers are irritable
and have attachment difficulties

They sometimes withdraw into depression, or
imitate parental anger
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They can become impulsive & antisocial
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They develop a negative world view, lack
self-confidence, & perceive others as
threatening
Middle & Late Childhood
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Increasing
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awareness of the need for emotional management
ability to understand complex emotions
tendency to take events, situation into account
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Improved ability to conceal negative emotions
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Use self-directed strategies to redirect feelings:
distractions, denial, redirection
Gender Differences – Emotional
Expression
 Elementary
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School
Boys hide emotions like sadness more
Girls hide disappointment
 Adolescence
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Girls feel more sadness, shame, guilt
Boys deny their emotions
Adolescence
 Moodiness
and extreme, but fleeting
emotions
 5th
to 9th grade, 50% decrease in being
“very happy”
 Environmental
circumstances may be
more important than hormones to this
process
Emotions in Adulthood
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Older adults report:
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Fewer negative emotions
Better emotional control
More positive emotions
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More selective social relationships
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May have to do with the passage of time
Temperament
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Stable individual differences in quality and
intensity of emotional reaction, activity level,
attention, and emotional self-regulation
New York Longitudinal Study (1956), Thomas &
Chess, most comprehensive study of
temperament to date
• 141 children followed from infancy into adulthood
Temperament
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NYLS findings

Temperament is related to whether a person
will experience psychological problems

Parenting practices can modify children’s
emotional styles considerably
Temperament - Dimensions
 Activity
level
 Rhythmicity
 Distractibility
 Approach/withdrawal
 Adaptability
 Attention span/persistence
 Intensity of reaction
 Threshold of responsiveness
 Quality of mood
Temperament - Types

Easy (40%) – quickly establish regular
routines, generally cheerful, adapts well to
new experiences
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Difficult (10%) – irregular, slow to accept new
experiences, reacts negatively and intensely

Slow-to-warm-up (15%) – mild reactions,
adjusts slowly to new experience
• (35% not classified)
Measuring Temperament
 Parental
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interviews or questionnaires.
Convenient
Depth of knowledge
Biased & subjective
 Behavior
ratings by pediatricians,
teachers, and others

Observation
Is Temperament Biological?

It is often believed to be biological.

Identical twins have more similar temperaments
than fraternal ones.
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There are consistent ethnic and sex differences.

These may be explained by parenting
differences as well as genetic differences.
Is Temperament Biological?
 However,
it only has low to moderate
stability from one developmental period
to the next.
 Temperament
 It
develops with age.
can be modified by experiences, but
not from one extreme to the other.
Temperament: Continuity with Adulthood
 Easy
babies well adjusted in early
adulthood
 Difficult babies have social problems
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Men – less education
Women – marital problems
 Patterns
of inhibition & emotional control
also appear to persist
Temperament & Goodness-of-Fit

Creation of child-rearing environments that recognize
temperament and encourage adaptive functioning.

Difficult children are at risk for adjustment problems because
they withdraw and react negatively.

Western parents tend to resort to angry, punitive discipline.
The child responds with defiance/disobedience. Parents
give in and model inconsistency.
Kagan’s Behavioral Inhibition

Shy, subdued, timid child
 Vs.
 Sociable, bold, extraverted child
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Inhibition to the unfamiliar
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Begins about 7-9 months of age
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Shyness is considered a negative in
American culture (social anxiety).
Biological Inhibition Pattern
 High,
stable heartrate
 High
cortisol levels
 High
activity in right frontal lobes
Attachment & Daycare
Modules 9-1 & 14-1
What Is Attachment?
– an emotional bond
between two people
 Attachment
When, how & why does Attachment
develop?
 By
6 months, infants show obvious signs
of attachment to their mothers (primary
caregivers)
 Freud
suggested that this is the foundation
for all later relationships.
 Psychoanalysts
& behaviorists thought
that feeding was the basis for attachment.
What is the basis for Attachment?


1950s-Harry Harlowe showed that contact
comfort rather than feeding was the basis
for attachment in monkeys
Baby monkeys preferred terrycloth to wire
“surrogate mothers”
Social Development
 Harlow’s
Surrogate
Mother Experiments

Monkeys preferred
contact with the
comfortable cloth
mother, even while
feeding from the
nourishing wire
mother
Assessing attachment:
Ainsworth: The Strange Situation
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1 Parent/baby in playroom
2 Parent seated, baby plays
3 Stranger enters
4 Parent leaves, stranger responds to baby
5 Parent returns, stranger leaves
6 Parent leaves
7 Stranger enters & offers comfort
8 Parent returns
Attachment Patterns
Secure – (65%) parent is a secure base; may cry at
separation; seek contact on return
Insecure Avoidant – (20%) unresponsive to parent; not
distressed when leaves; treat stranger like parent; slow to
greet on reunion
Insecure Resistant – (10-15%) seek closeness, cling, fail to
explore; cry at separation angry, resistive behavior on
return; not easily comforted
Disorganized/disoriented – (5-10%) confused, contradictory
Attachment & Later Development

Attachment provides inner feelings of
affection & security.

Securely attached preschoolers were high in
self-esteem, socially competent, cooperative
and popular.
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Avoidantly attached agemates were isolated
and disconnected.
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Resistantly attached agemates were
disruptive and difficult.
Attachment Styles

Mary Ainsworth (1979) identified three attachment styles
between infants and caregiver:
 Secure attachment style (70%) - caregiver is
responsive to infant’s needs; infant trusts caregiver
 Avoidant attachment style (20%) - caregiver is
distant or rejecting; infant suppresses desire to be
close to caregiver
 Ambivalent attachment style (10%) - caregiver is
inconsistently available and overbearing with
affection; infant clings anxiously to caregiver and then
fights against closeness by pushing away
Links Between Attachment in Childhood and
Close Relationships in Adulthood

Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver (1987) examined
continuity between childhood attachment and romantic
relationships
 Securely attached infants are more likely to have a
secure attachment to adult romantic partner
 Individuals with avoidant attachment style in
childhood find it difficult to develop intimate
relationship in adulthood

Individuals can revise attachment styles in adulthood
Long-term Effects
 Stroufe
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& others, 2005
Longitudinal study (later childhood/teens)
Positive emotional health
Higher self-esteem
Self-confidence
Social competence with peers, teachers,
counselors, romantic partners
Attachment & Later Development

Securely attached had better social skills and
relationships with peers.

Secure attachment leads to improved
cognition, better social and emotional
competence in later years.

Disorganized attachment is consistently related
to high hostility and aggression in school

Study of children age 11 at summer camp
Attachment & Later Development
 Continuity
of caregiving
 The picture can change over the years.
 The best predictor of adult function is
not secure attachment in infancy, but
whether the child experienced a family
divorce.
Attachment in Adolescence
• Study using the AAI – Adult Attachment Interview
 Teenagers
securely attached to parents
have better:
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Social competence
Self esteem
Emotional adjustment
Physical health
Behavior (fewer problem behaviors)
Types of Attachment in Adolescence
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Secure autonomous
Dismissing avoidant
• Rejected by caregiver; deny importance of
attachment; related to violent behavior
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Preoccupied ambivalent
• Attachment seeking; parent inconsistently
available; high conflict

Unresolved disorganized
• Had traumatic experience; disoriented, fearful
Adult Attachment Styles
 Secure
– good relationships
avoidant – difficulty establishing
relationships; quickly end relationships;
prone to one-night stands, depression
 Insecure
– less trusting, more jealous,
tend to anger and emotional intensity
 Ambivalent
Factors in Security of Attachment
I. Opportunity – orphans, working
parents
2. Baby’s Characteristics - temperament
3. Family Context
4. Quality of Caregiving - Erikson
Factors – 1. Opportunity
Institutionalized babies often have
emotional difficulties because they are
prevented from establishing a bond.
Adoptions show the first bond can be
established as late as 4-6 years.
These children may have an
excessive desire for adult attention and
few friendships.
Factors – 2. Baby Characteristics
Prematurity, birth complications, newborn
illness.
Temperamentally difficult babies?
Factors – 3. Family Circumstances
Divorce
Financial strain
Career demands/role conflicts
Parents’ childhood experiences
Factors – 4. Quality of Caregiving
Sensitive caregiving and interactional
synchrony related to secure attachment
across cultures
Overly stimulating, intrusive care associated
with avoidant attachment.
Inconsistent care associated with resistant
attachment.
Child abuse and neglect associated with
disorganized attachment.
Children in Childcare

In U.S. Currently 2+ million children in childcare; 5+ million in
kindergarten
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Parental Preferences
• Relative care
• Non-relative (unlicensed) care
• Child-care Center
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Employer
Church
Commercial
Percentages of children shift from relative to
commercial as the children get older.
Quality of Childcare Factors
 Provider
training
 Adult to child ratio (<10; <20)
 Planned curriculum
 Rich Language Environment (conversation)
 Sensitive caregivers (when to intervene)
 Appropriate materials and activities
 Safety & Cleanliness
Cognitive Development
 Rule
of Thumb
 Daycare
attendance slows the cognitive
development of middle-class children
somewhat.
 Daycare
speeds up the cognitive
development of disadvantaged children.
Unrealistic Comparisons
 Can
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
anybody afford daycare this good?
Example: Harvard Demonstration Project
Staff pediatrician
Non-teaching director
3:1 infant/teacher ratio
Teachers and aides trained to smile
Childcare and Attachment

Childcare children at 15 months with unresponsive
mothers showed insecure attachment; not at 36
months

Vanelli (2004)
 Children in daycare <30 hours/week compared to
children in daycare >40 hours. More daycare
• More illness
• More behavior problems
• Less sensitive interaction with mother
Attachment & Daycare
Infants placed in full-time child care before 12
months of age are more likely to display
insecure attachment (Belsky, 1992).
Explanations:
Could be mom’s work stresses,
Could be healthy autonomy.
Could be quality of daycare.
Could be an interaction effect.
Attachment & Childcare
 NICHD

Study (longitudinal, 1300 children)
Regardless of quality of care, children 4.5 – 5
years old, children averaging 30 hours or
more per week of daycare were rated by
mothers, caregivers, and kindergarten
teachers as having more behavior problems,
especially defiance, disobedience, and
aggression.
What is the purpose of daycare anyway?

Babysitting for working moms

Fear that your child will get behind

China – good academic start
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Japan – experience as a group member
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U.S. - To make children more independent
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Start children on the road to good citizenship