(c) 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Chapter 4 Socioemotional Development in Infancy PowerPoints developed by Nicholas Greco IV, College of Lake County,

(c) 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Chapter 4

Socioemotional Development in Infancy

PowerPoints developed by Nicholas Greco IV, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL


What Are Emotions? Emotion -- feeling, or affect, that occurs when a

person is in a state or an interaction that is important to him or her, especially to his or her well-being

Emotions involve an individual’s communication with the world

In infancy, it is the communication aspect that is at the forefront of emotion

(Campos, 2009)


Classifying Emotions

Psychologists classify the broad range of emotions in many ways

Almost all classifications designate an emotion as either positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant)

Positive emotions include pleasant states such as happiness, joy, love, enthusiasm

Negative emotions include anxiety, anger, guilt, and sadness


Biological and Environmental Influences

Emotions are influenced both by biological foundations and by a person's experience

Facial expressions of basic emotions such as happiness, surprise, anger, and fear are the same across cultures Display rules—when, where, and how

emotions should be expressed—are not culturally universal

(Shiraev & Levy, 2010)


Early Emotions

In the first six months, infants may express surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust

Other emotions appear in the second half of the first year and by the second year jealousy, empathy, embarrassment, pride,

shame, and guiltthese have been called self-conscious

emotions or other-conscious emotions

(Lewis, 2007; Saarni & others, 2006)


Emotional Expressions and Relationships

Emotional expressions -- infants’ first relationships

Infants communicate emotions and this enables coordinated interactions with their caregivers

Parents change their emotional expressions in response to infants’ emotional expressions

Infants also modify their emotional expressions in response to their parents’ emotional expressions


Crying

Crying -- most important mechanism newborns have for communicating

Babies have at least three types of cries:basic cry

some infancy experts believe that hunger is one of the conditions that incite the basic cry

anger crypain cry

the pain cry may be stimulated by physical pain or by any high-intensity stimulus


Should Parents Respond to an Infant’s Cries?

Many developmentalists recommend that parents soothe a crying infant, especially in the first year

This reaction should help infants develop a sense of trust and secure attachment to the caregiver


Smiles

Two types of smiling can be distinguished in infants: Reflexive smile -- does not occur in response

to external stimuli and appears during the first month after birth, usually during sleep

Social smile -- occurs in response to an external stimulus Social smiling occurs as early as four

months of age in response to a caregiver’s voice

(Campos, 2005)


Fear Fear -- one of a baby’s earliest emotions

first appears at about 6 months and peaks at about 18 months

abused and neglected infants can show fear as early as 3 months

stranger anxiety -- most frequent expression of an infant’s fearusually emerges graduallydepends on the social context and the

characteristics of the stranger(Campos, 2005; Emde, Gaensbauer, & Harmon, 1976)


Frequency of Stranger Anxiety

Less stranger anxiety when they are in familiar settings

When infants feel secure, they are less likely to show stranger anxiety

Less fearful of child strangers than adult strangers

Less fearful of friendly, outgoing, smiling strangers than of passive, unsmiling strangers

Separation protest -- crying when the caregiver leaves

(Bretherton, Stolberg, & Kreye, 1981)



Social Referencing

Social referencing -- reading emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a particular situationhelps infants to interpret ambiguous situations

more accurately by the end of the first year, a parent’s facial

expression influences exploration of an unfamiliar environment

social referencing improves in the second year of life


Emotional Regulation and Coping

During the first year of life, infant develops ability to minimize the intensity and duration of emotional reactions

From early in infancy, babies put their thumbs in their mouths to self-soothe

In their second year, they may say things to themselves to help self-soothe

(Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Smith, 2004)


Emotional Regulation and Coping

Caregivers’ actions influence the infant’s neurobiological regulation of emotions Good strategy to soothe an infant before the

infant gets into an intense, agitated, uncontrolled state

Later in infancy, infants sometimes redirect their attention or distract themselves in order to reduce their arousal

(Laible & Thompson, 2007; de Haan & Gunnar, 2009; Thompson, 2006; Grolnick, Bridges, & Connell, 1996)


Contextual Adaptation

Contexts can influence emotional regulation

Often affected by fatigue, hunger, time of day, which people are around them, and where they are

Must learn to adapt to different contexts(Thompson, 2010)


Describing and Classifying Temperament Researchers have described and

classified the temperament of individuals in three different ways

Chess and Thomas’ Classification Easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up child

Kagan’s Behavioral Inhibition Inhibition to the unfamiliar

Effortful Control (Self-Regulation)


Effortful Control (Self-Regulation)

Effortful control (self-regulation) is an important dimension of temperamentInfants high on effortful control show an ability

to keep their arousal from getting too high and have strategies for soothing themselves

Infants low on effortful control are often unable to control their arousal; they are easily agitated and become intensely emotional

(Bates, 2008)


Biological Foundations and Influences

Children inherit a physiology that biases them to have a particular type of temperament

Physiological characteristics have been linked with different temperaments

Inhibited temperament is associated with a unique physiological patternhigh and stable heart rate high level of the hormone cortisolhigh activity in the right frontal lobe of the

brain (Kagan, 2010)


Gender, Culture, and Temperament

Parents may have different reactions to temperament, depending on the sex of the baby

Reaction to temperament may depend in part on culture

Many aspects of a child’s environment can encourage or discourage the persistence of temperament characteristics

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Goodness of Fit and Implications for

Parenting Goodness of fit -- the match between

temperament and the environmental demands with which child must cope

Children differ from each other very early in lifedifferences have important implications for

parent-child interactionattention to and respect for individuality structure the child’s environment avoid applying negative labels to the child

(Putnam, Sanson, & Rothbart, 2002)


Personality Development

Personality -- the enduring personal characteristics of individualsEmotions and temperament form key

aspects Trust

Erikson -- first year of life is characterized by the trust versus mistrust stage/crisis

Identity -- sense of who they are and what makes them different from everyone else


Self-Recognition Infants begin to develop a rudimentary

form of self-recognition -- being attentive and positive toward one’s image in a mirror as early as 3 months

A more complete index of self-recognition -- the ability to recognize one’s physical featuresemerges in the second year

(Pipp, Fischer, & Jennings, 1987; Thompson, 2006)



Independence

Erikson (1968) stressed that independence is an important issue in the second year of life Erikson’s second stage of development is

identified as “autonomy versus shame and doubt”

autonomy builds as the infant’s mental and motor abilities develop

when caregivers are impatient and do for toddlers what they are capable of doing themselves, shame and doubt develop


Social Orientation Infants are captivated by the social world

early in development Face-to-face play characterizes caregiver-

infant interactions at about 2 to 3 months of age

Their interaction with peers increases considerably in the latter half of the second year

Between 18 to 24 months, imitative and reciprocal play increases


Attachment Attachment -- a close emotional bond between

two people Freud theorized that infants become attached to

the person or object that provides oral satisfaction

Harry Harlow’s classic study Four phases based on Bowlby’s

conceptualization of attachment Phase 1: From birth to 2 monthsPhase 2: From 2 to 7 monthsPhase 3: From 7 to 24 monthsPhase 4: From 24 months on


Theories of Attachment

Bowlby -- belief in an internal working model of attachmenta simple mental model of the caregiver, their

relationship, and the self as deserving of nurturant care

Mary Ainsworth (1979) created the Strange Situationthe degree to which the caregiver’s presence

provides the infant with security and confidence

(Thompson, 2006; Ainsworth, 1979)


Individual Differences in Attachment

Based on how babies respond in the Strange Situation securely attached babies use the caregiver as a

secure base insecure avoidant babies show insecurity by avoiding

the mother insecure resistant babies often cling to the caregiver

and then resist fighting against the closeness insecure disorganized babies -- disorganized and

disoriented


Criticisms of Attachment Theory

Kagan and others believe that too much emphasis has been placed on the attachment bond in infancy

Jerome Kagan sees infants as highly resilient and adaptivethey are equipped to stay on a positive

developmental course Attachment theory ignores the diversity of

socializing agents and contexts in an infant’s world

(Kagan, 1987, 2002)


Social Contexts: The Family A constellation of subsystems

complex whole made up of interrelated, interacting parts

defined in terms of generation, gender, rolesubsystems have reciprocal influences on

each other marital relations, parenting, and infant

behavior and development can have both direct and indirect effects on each other

(Jay Belsky,1981)



Reciprocal Socialization

Socialization that is bidirectionalchildren socialize parents just as parents

socialize children Scaffolding -- timing interactions so that

the infant experiences turn-taking with the parents scaffolding involves parental behavior that

supports children’s effortscaregivers provide a positive, reciprocal

framework for interaction


Maternal and Paternal Caregiving

Mothers spend considerably more time in caregiving with infants and children than do fathersMothers are more likely to have managerial role

Fathers have the ability to act sensitively and responsively with their infants

Typical father behaves differently toward an infant than the typical mother

Father’s presence in a child’s life is beneficialLeads to more success in school

(Lamb, 2010; Parke & Buriel, 2006)


Parental Leave

More young children are in child care than at any other time in U.S. history

U.S. adults tend not to receive paid leave to care for their young children

The United States allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for parents who are caring for a newborn

The European Union has mandated a 14-week maternity leave


Variations in Child Care Factors that influence the effects of child

carethe age of the childthe type of child care the quality of the program


Types of Child Care

Large centers with elaborate facilities Private homes Commercial operations or nonprofit

centers run by churches, civic groups, and employers

Child care providers varyProfessionalsUntrained adults who want to earn extra

money


Quality of Care Makes a Difference

Poor-quality child care is more likely for families with few resources (psychological, social, and economic)

Extensive child care was harmful to low-income children only when the care was of low quality

High-quality care was linked with fewer internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety) and externalizing problems (e.g., aggressive and destructive behaviors)


Strategies to Follow in Choosing Child Care

Recognize that the quality of your parenting is a key factor in your child’s development

Make decisions that will improve the likelihood you will be good parents

Monitor your child’s development Take some time to find the best child care (Kathleen McCartney, 2003)

Documents

(c) 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Chapter 4 Socioemotional Development in Infancy PowerPoints developed by Nicholas Greco IV, College of Lake County,