SOCIOEMOTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT IN
INFANCY
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Chapter 7
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Emotion: Feeling or affect of importance
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Complex and varies in intensity
Positive and negative; affects behaviors
Biological influences
Influenced by experiences and culture
Influenced by one’s perceptions
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EARLY EMOTIONS
• Primary emotions: present in humans, animals
• Appear in first 6 months of life; surprise, anger, joy,
sadness, fear
• Self-conscious emotions
• Appear after age 18 months; embarrassment, jealousy,
empathy, pride, share, guilt
• Responses to reactions of others
• Research controversy on jealousy in infants
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EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION
AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
• Two emotional expressions in infant
communication
• Crying
• Basic - Rhythmic, incited by hunger
• Angry - Excess air in vocal cords
• Pain - Louder, high pitched, sudden, longer
• Smiling
• Reflexive - Natural, occurs 1 month after birth
• Social - Response to external stimuli
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FEAR
• Earliest emotion; appears about 6 months
• Abused, neglected infants show it much earlier
• Stranger anxiety: Fear, wariness of strangers
• Intense from 9 to 12 months
• Not shown by all; intensity affected by social context and
stranger behavior/traits
• Separation protest: Distress at being separated
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FIGURE 7.3 - SEPARATION PROTEST IN
FOUR CULTURES
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EMOTIONAL REGULATION AND
COPING
• During first year:
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Gradual control of arousal to adapt, reach goal
Self-soothing in early infancy
Redirected attention, self-distraction later in infancy
Language defines emotions by age 2
• Contexts affect emotional regulation
• Caregiver responses matter, infant adapts
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TEMPERAMENT
• An individual’s behavioral style and
characteristic way of emotionally responding.
• Chess & Thomas: 3 basic types (clusters)
• Easy child : Positive mood, easily adapts
• Difficult child: Resists change, shows irregular
behaviors, reacts negatively (cries)
• Slow-to-warm child: Low mood intensity, low activity
level, somewhat negative
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TEMPERAMENT
• Kegan’s behavioral inhibition
• Extroverted, bold child
• Shy, subdued, timid child
• Inhibited to unfamiliar; shows anxiety, distress at about 7 to 9
months of age
• Inhibition intensity varies
• Considerable consistency into early childhood
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TEMPERAMENT
• Rothbart and Bates’ Classification
• Extraversion/surgency - Positive, impulsive
• Negative affectivity - Easily distressed
• Kegan’s inhibited child fits here
• Effortful control - Self-regulating, control varies
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BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS AND
EXPERIENCE
• Biological influences:
• Physiological characteristics associated with different
temperaments
• Gender, culture, and temperament
• Goodness of Fit and Parenting
• Goodness of fit: Match between child’s temperament
and environmental demands
• Siblings differ in response to same parenting
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PARENTING AND CHILD’S
TEMPERAMENT
• Attention to and respect for individuality
• Structuring the child’s environment
• The “difficult child” and packaged parenting
programs
• Flexible caregiver responses
• Avoid “labeling” and self-fulfilling prophecy
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PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
• Personality: enduring characteristics of
emotions and temperament
• Erikson’s trust-versus-mistrust:
• Infants experience world as either positive or negative
outcomes; continuity not guaranteed
• Sense of self:
• real or imagined; motivating force in life
• Self-recognition: about 18 months of age
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PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
• Trust
• The first year of life is characterized by the trust versus
mistrust stage of development
• The developing sense of self
• Separation and individualization process
• Independence
• Erikson’s 2 nd stage - Autonomy versus shame and doubt
• Self-determination and pride or overcontrol creates
shame and doubt
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SOCIAL
ORIENTATION/UNDERSTANDING
• Infants motivated to understand the world
• Social orientation - Perceptions, interpretations
• Face-to-face play; still-face paradigm
• Different responses to humans and objects; stronger, positive
responses to humans
• Locomotion (crawl, walk, run) independence; lessens
social interactions
• Context and caregiver have effects
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INTENTION, GOAL-DIRECTED
BEHAVIOR, AND COOPERATION
• Important to cognitive development
• Joint attention and gaze: Help understand others’
intentions
• Social referencing: Ability to ‘read’ emotional cues of
others
• Affects infants’ perceptions of others
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ATTACHMENT AND ITS
DEVELOPMENT
• Attachment; close emotional bond
• Freud
• Attachment to source of oral satisfaction
• Disproved by Harlow’s research: physical comfort preferred for
security
• Erikson:
• First year is key for attachment, physical comfort plays role
here
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ATTACHMENT AND ITS
DEVELOPMENT
• Bowlby - Ethological view - attachment is
innate predisposition
• Attachment: 4 phases of social cognition
• Phase 1: birth to 2 months – draws to humans
• Phase 2: 2 to 7 months– focus on one person
• Phase 3: 7 to 24 months – actively seek regular contact with
caregivers
• Phase 4: From 24 months on– aware of others’ goals, feelings,
actions
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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN
ATTACHMENT
• Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
• Measures attachment by observation
• Infant experiences series of contexts
• 3 reactions to new situation
• Secure: Positive, confident exploration
• Insecure-avoidant: Little interaction with caregiver, no
distress
• Insecure-resistant: Clings to caregiver
• Insecure disorganized: Disoriented, dazed
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THE STRANGE SITUATION
THE FAMILY
• Complex, constellation of subsystems
• Reciprocal influences on each other
• The transition to parenthood
• New parents must adapt: time, finances, roles
• Marital satisfaction decreases after birth
• Parental cooperation has effect
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THE FAMILY
• Reciprocal socialization is bidirectional
• Scaffolding: Positive parental behavior supports
children’s efforts
• Children’s skills increase
• Support modified to suit children’s level of
development
• Mothers and fathers both competent caregivers, but
behave differently
• Fathers: more physical in play interactions
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CHILD CARE
• Child Care Policies Around the World
• Five types of parental leave
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Maternity leave
Paternity leave
Parental leave
Child-rearing leave
Family leave
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CHILD CARE
• Variations in child care
• Type varies greatly:
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Large centers/elaborate facilities, homes
Commercial; nonprofit, churches, employers
Professionals
Mothers earning additional monies
Quality matters
• Low-income children: academic benefits
• High quality linked to environment
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CHILD CARE
• Patterns of use
• High reliance and early entry
• Socioeconomic factors affect amount and type
• Income level, education, marital status
• Dependence on mother’s income
• Quality affected by group size, caregiver-child ratio,
caregiver (behavior, education, skills)
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CHILD CARE
• Amount of child care
• High-quality care and fewer hours in care lead to
positive outcomes
• Family and parenting influences
• Influence not weakened by extensive child care; parents
have significant influence in children regulating
emotions
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