28
Socioemotional Development in Infants and Toddlers Chapter 6

Socioemotional Development in Infants and Toddlers Chapter 6

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Socioemotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

Chapter 6

Attachment

• emotional tie to a specific person or persons• exists across time and space• infants tend to form attachments with primary

caregivers

Attachment

• Bowlby’s early work– Early infancy—orientation without discrimination.

(2-4 mos)• Orients to any attending adult• Little discrimination among caregiving adults

– Middle infancy—orientation with discrimination (6-8 mos)• Gazing preference for primary caregivers• Responds differentially to primary caregivers

Bowlby’s Early Work on Attachment

– Late infancy early toddlerhood—safe-base attachment (6-12 mos)• Actively seek to be near caregivers• Seek proximal contact• Become distressed when caregiver leaves (bond across

time and space)

– Toddlerhood—goal corrected partnerships• Recognize motives of caregivers• Toddler adjusts behaviors to needs and motives of

caregivers

Ainsworth’s work

• Strange situation (page 193, Table 6.1)– Stranger anxiety—signals attachment– Separation anxiety—signals attachment

• Attachment Status– Secure Attachment

• Mother return: infant seeks contact; cling tightly; allows mother to comfort and soothe• Majority of infants show secure attachment

Ainsworth’s work

• Attachment Status– Insecure Avoidant Attachment• No preference for mother (avoids or shows

equal preference for mother and stranger)• Mother leaves infants undisturbed; • Continue playing with stranger

Ainsworth’s work

• Attachment Status– Insecure Resistant\ Ambivalent Attachment• Exaggerated stranger and separation anxiety• Exaggerated need to maintain proximal contact with

mother• Some resistant to mother’s attempts to soothe• Some passive with mother’s attempts to console• Some variable in response (cycles of calm and anger)• Variable in status

Ainsworth’s work

• Attachment Status• Parental quality and attachment (sensitive

responsiveness)– Secure Attachment

• Timely response• Appropriate response

– Insecure disorganized or disoriented Attachments• abusive parents or parents who suffered abuse themselves

Ainsworth’s work

• Insecure Attachments– indifferent parenting—response only when necessary or

when the parent is impacted– indulgent parenting—over stimulating; intrusive; – unresponsive parenting—neglectful

• Mothers of insecurely attached infants– tense– irritable– unresponsive; little interest– mechanical handling– scheduled vs. demand feeding

Infant Characteristics, Caregiver Characteristics and Attachments

• Easy Infants--associated with greater frequency of secure attachments

• Special needs—associated with insecure attachments

• Fussy or difficult infants associated with higher levels of irritability-- tend to develop insecure attachments with mothers who have low levels of social support

• Model tends to be bidirectional with infant characteristics interacting with caregiver characteristics to yield the attachment status

Infant Characteristics, Caregiver Characteristics and Attachments

• Fathers’ role in attachment: – fathers’ roles tend to reflect mothers’ roles in

relationships with attachment statuses

• Child care and caregiver attachment: – with quality child care, no difference in

attachment given caregiver is responsive in sensitive and timely ways when with infant

Infant Characteristics, Caregiver Characteristics and Attachments

• NICHD—Child Care Report (2006):– Quality of out of home child care related to:• Family income, education, parenting style• Higher quality out of home child care related to higher

levels of cognitive and social development• Effect sizes range from moderate to small

Attachment and Developmental Outcomes

• Long-term outcomes: – securely attached infants tend to have some early

advantage over other attachment statuses;

– higher quality care later in childhood and adolescence can overcome early attachment challenges;

Social Risk and Children’s Health Outcomes

• Larson, et al. (2008)– High School education or less– Family income <200% federal poverty level– Single parent household– Minority racial/ethnic group– Uninsured– Family conflict– Low maternal mental health– Unsafe neighborhood

Social Risk and Children’s Health Outcomes

• Larson, et al. findings:– Overall, family income, minority status, &

maternal mental health independently predicted poorer health status

– As the number of social risk factors increased the child’s health status decreased

– Mechanism of effect is likely related to cumulative higher levels of stress as number of risks increase

Erikson’s first psychosocial stage: Trust vs. Mistrust

• Two tasks:– establish sense that the environment is going to

meet basic needs in a timely and appropriate manner

– establish sense that the self is an active agent in one’s own outcomes

Erikson’s first psychosocial stage: Trust vs. Mistrust

• caregivers who establish a sensitive responsiveness are likely to develop a sense of trust

• infant comes to learn that differential cries relate to differential outcomes

• Infant develops a sense of contingency between behaviors and outcomes—a sense of agency

Erikson’s 2nd psychosocial stage: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

• Toddler seeks to assert preferences beyond simple needs (e.g. particular type of food rather than simply hunger)

• Caregivers can provide choices of acceptable options to establish a sense of autonomy

• Caregivers who are not sensitive to and provide opportunities for toddlers to exercise some preference can create doubt within the toddler

Temperament

• The reactivity of the infant to the environment• Genetics plays a significant role in

temperament• Temperament is measured across nine

dimensions (Table 6.5, pg 204)– Activity level, rhythmicity, intensity of reaction,

etc.– Profile based on levels of each dimension

Temperament• Temperament Constellations:– Easy: generally positive; stable rhythm of

movement, sleep adapts to new situations, smiles– Slow-to-Warm-Up: slow to adapt to new

situations; mildly negative response; more intense reactions than Easy babies but less than difficult babies

– Difficult: intense negative reactions to new situations; slow to adapt; irregular patterns of sleeping and activity overall;

Temperament

• Based on an interaction of genetics and interactions with the environment

• Balance between temperament and environment determines outcomes

Temperament

• Scarr:– Passive: infant’s environment is frequently based

on biological parents so, genetic tendency is reinforced by the environment

– Parents who accommodate to their infant’s temperament tend to have more successful outcomes

Emotions

• In the first 12 months of life, infants tend to respond differentially and more sensitively to expressed emotions by caregiver– Fear, anger, sadness, interest, joy resulted in

differential responses to the visual cliff– Infants reference the reactions of caregivers as

cues for their own reactions– From very early on, infants tend to respond to

distress cries from other infants

Emotions• Toddlers:– Sense of self as independent entity leads to:• Self conscious emotions• Expanded emotional repertoire–Guilt, embarrassed, pride

– Comparison of one’s own behaviors to some standard is linked to cognitive and social development

Infant and Toddler Play• Infant Play– Mutual gaze—first awareness of the other– Sensorimotor Play—• Focus is on interactions with motion and

objects in the environment• Some level of novelty is preferred• Repetition of actions is frequent• Toys over which infants can assert control tend

to be preferred and build a sense of agency (Bandura, 1977; c.f. Erikson, trust—mistrust)

Infant and Toddler Play

• Toddler Play– With language, mobility, and cognitive

development, toddlers move to more socially mediated play

– Coordinated imitation—tend to repeat others’ actions

– Early toddler play remains focused on motion and objects (e.g. block stacking)

– As maturation occurs, more social role play begins;

Infant and Toddler Play• Toddler Play– More advanced levels of social play (negotiating

roles, changing roles) tend to be related to more lasting friendships across childhood

– Conflicts arise!• Distraction and diversion tend to work best

with toddlers• Conflicts tend to be based on possession of

objects or turns at some desired activity• Possession is ownership (similar to dog rules)

Infant and Toddler Play

• Toddler Play– As language and symbolic thought improve,

toddlers begin make-believe play– Imaginary roles and substitution of one object for

another (shoe becomes a truck) occurs– Children can appear to be much more cognitively

advanced in play with peers than alone.