SocioemotionalDevelopment in Infancy - Amazon S3 · SocioemotionalDevelopment in Infancy Study Unit 1 -Chapter 2 -Topic 2 Learning Outcomes • Explain the key socioemotional development

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Socioemotional Development

in Infancy

Study Unit 1 - Chapter 2 - Topic 2

Learning Outcomes

• Explain the key socioemotional development in infancy.

• Explain the attachment theory and its impact on child development.

• Apply the knowledge base in life-span development to the impact of

infancy attachment on childhood and adolescence.


At the end of the study topic, you will be able to:

Socioemotional Development in Infancy

Socioemotional processes refer to changes in the individual’s relationships with other

people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality.


Emotional

DevelopmentTemperament

Personality

Development

1 2 3

In this section, we will be looking into the following aspects of infant development:

Attachment

4

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Emotional Development

• Emotion plays a key role in human development.

• Definition: Emotion is a feeling or affect that involves a mixture of physiological

arousal (e.g. a fast heartbeat) and overt behaviour (e.g. smile or frown).

Positive Emotions

• High energy

• Excitement

• Calm

• Quiet

• Joy

Negative Emotions

• Anxiety

• Anger

• Guilt

• Sadness

1


Emotional Development

• Emotions are influenced by biological foundations and environmental experiences.

• In ‘The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals’, Charles Darwin (1872/1965)

stated that the facial expressions of humans are innate, not learned; are the same in

all cultures around the world; and evolved from the emotions of animals.

• Today, psychologists still emphasise that emotions, especially facial expressions of

emotions, have strong biological foundation (Goldsmith, 2002).

� For example, children who are blind from birth and have never observed the

smile or frown on another person’s face smile and frown in the same way that

children with normal vision do.

• Emotions are the first language with which parents and infants communicate before

infant acquires speech (Maccoby, 1992).

• Infants react to their parents’ facial expressions and tone of voice. In return, parents

‘read’ what the infant is trying to communicate, responding appropriately when their

infants are either distressed or happy.


1

Early Developmental Change in Emotion


Primary emotions are

present in humans and other

animals.

• 3 months – joy; sadness;

disgust

• 2 to 6 months – anger

• First 6 months – surprise

• 6 to 8 months – fear

(peaks at 18 months)

Self-conscious emotions

require cognition, especially

consciousness.

• 1½ to 2 years – empathy;

jealousy; embarrassment

• 2½ years – pride; shame;

guilt

1 2

1



Click on any of the buttons

to read the explanation.

Smiling

Crying

Fear

Stranger

Anxiety

1





Smiling

Crying

Fear

Stranger

Anxiety

• Crying is most important mechanism newborns have for

communicating with their world.

• For instance, it is important for caregiver to distinguish basic

cry, anger cry, and pain cry. A hungry baby will use his/her

basic cry to communicate his/her hunger.

1





Smiling

Crying

Fear

Stranger

Anxiety

• Another communication tool of infant.

• Reflexive smile refers to smile that does not occur in response to

external stimuli and appears during the first month after birth,

usually during sleep.

• Social smile is the type of smile that occurs in response to an

external stimulus, typically a face. This type of smile does not

occur until 2 to 3 months of age.

1





Smiling

Crying

Fear

Stranger

Anxiety

• The most frequent expression of an infant’s fear involves

stranger anxiety, in which an infant shows a fear and wariness of

strangers.

• In addition to stranger anxiety, infants experience fear of being

separated from their caregiver. This is called separation anxiety.

1





Smiling

Crying

Fear

Stranger

Anxiety

• Stranger anxiety usually emerges at about 6 months of

age in the form of wary reaction.

• By age of 9 months, the fear of strangers is often more

intense, and it continues to escalate through the infant’s

first birthday.

• Infants show less stranger anxiety when they are in

familiar settings. Who the stranger is and how the

stranger behaves also influence stranger anxiety in

infants.

1

Early Developmental Change in Emotion: Social Referencing

• Social referencing involves “reading” emotional cues in others to help determine how

to act in a particular situation.

• Its development helps infants to interpret ambiguous situations more accurately, as

when they encounter a stranger and need to know whether to fear the person

(Hertenstein & Campos, 2004).

• In Walden’s (1992) study 14 to 22 months older infants were more likely to look at

their mothers’ faces as a source of information for how to act compared with younger

babies.

• Infants become better at social referencing in the second year of life.

• At this age, they tend to “check” with their mother before they act; they look at her to

see if she is happy, angry, or fearful.


1

Early developmental Change in Emotion:

Emotional Regulation and Coping

• During the first year of life, the infant gradually develops an ability to inhibit, or

minimise, the intensity and the duration of emotional reactions.

• Context can influence emotional regulation.

• Infants often are affected by fatigue, hunger, time of day, people around them,

and where they are.


1

Temperament

• Temperament is defined as an individual’s behavioural style and characteristic way of

emotionally responding (Rothbart & Putnam, 2002).

• One infant might be cheerful and happy much of the time; another baby might cry

a lot and more often display a negative mood.

Chess and Thomas’ Classification

Kagan’s Behavioural

Inhibition

Rothbart and Bates’

Classification

1 2 3

Click on any of the buttons to read the explanation.

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Temperament - Chess and Thomas





Three basic types/clusters

of temperament:

• Easy child.

• Difficult child.

• Slow-to-warm-up child.

1 2 3

2



Inhibition


Classification



Temperament - Kagan





1 2 3

2

• Focuses on differences

between shy, subdued,

timid child and a

sociable, extraverted,

bold child.



Inhibition


Classification



Temperament - Rothbart and Bates





1 2 3

2

• Extraversion.

• Negative affectivity.

• Effortful control (self-

regulation).



Inhibition


Classification



Temperament & ‘Goodness of Fit’

• Physiological characteristics are associated with different temperaments.

• Kagen (1997, 2003) argues that children inherit a physiology that biases them to

develop

a particular type of temperament.

• However, through experience they may learn to modify their temperament to some

degree.

• Gender may be an important factor shaping the context that influences the fate of

temperament.

� Parents may react differently to a child’s temperament depending on whether the

child is a boy or a girl and on the culture in which they live (Kerr, 2001).

� For instance, a mother may be more responsive to the crying of an irritable girl

than

an irritable boy.


2

Temperament & ‘Goodness of Fit’

• On the culture front, an active temperament might be valued in some cultures (such

as the United States) but not in other cultures (such as China).

• Due to the vast different and biological basis for temperament, the concept of

‘goodness of fit’ comes in. Children differ from each other even at very early in life.

• Goodness of fit refers to the match between a child’s temperament and the

environment demands with which the child must cope (Thompson & others, 2008).


2

Temperamental Variations & Parenting

• What are the implications of temperamental variations for parenting?

• According to Ann Sanson and Mary Rothbart (1995), the following are some conclusions

regarding the best parenting strategies in relation to children’s temperament.


• We need to be careful not to pigeon-hole children into categories without examining

the context in which temperament occurs. Caregivers’ behaviour needs to be taken

into account when considering a child’s temperament.

The “difficult child” and

packaged parenting

programmes – identifying

a ‘difficult child’ might be

helpful but maintaining the

labelling throughout may

not be productive.

Structuring the

child’s environment –

crowded & noisy

environment may pose

greater problem for

some children than

others.

Attention to and

respect for individuality

– the need to be sensitive

and flexible to the infant’s

signals and needs.

1 2 3

2

Personality Development - Trust vs. Mistrust

• According to Erikson (1968), the first year of life is characterised by the trust-versus-

mistrust stage of psychosocial development.

� Infants learn trust when they are cared for in a consistent, warm manner.

� If infants are not well fed and kept warm on a consistent basis, a sense of

mistrust is likely to develop.

• Trust vs. mistrust is not resolved once and for all in the first year of life.

� For example, children who leave infancy with a sense of trust can still have their

sense of mistrust activated at a later stage, perhaps if their parents are

separated or divorced under conflicting circumstances.


3

Personality Development – Construct Selves

• Infants are not ‘given’ a self by their parents or the culture; rather, they find and

construct selves (Rochat, 2002).

• To determine whether infants can recognise themselves, psychologists have used

mirrors.

� For example, the observer watches to see how often the infant touches his/her

nose. Next, the infant is placed in front of a mirror, and observers detect whether

nose touching increases. Research found that infant begins to recognise self

toward the end of the second year of life.


3

Attachment

• Attachment can be defined as a close emotional bond between an infant and

a caregiver.

– Visualise a situation in which a small, curly haired girl named Danielle, age 11

months, begins to whimper. After a few seconds, she begins to wail. Soon her

mother comes into the room, and Danielle’s crying ceases. Quickly, Danielle

crawls over to where her mother is seated and reaches out to be held. Danielle

has just demonstrated attachment to her mother.

• There are at least three theories about infant attachment which provide influential

views:

– Sigmund Freud - believed that infants become attached to the person or object

that provides oral satisfaction (e.g. feeding).

• However, Harry Harlow (1958) in his study has demonstrated that feeding is

not the crucial element in the attachment process and that contact comfort is

important.

– Erik Erikson - believed that the first year of life is the key time for the

development of attachment (trust vs. mistrust stage).

• Erikson believed that responsive, sensitive parenting contributes to

an infant’s sense of trust.


4

Theory of Attachment: John Bowlby (1969, 1989)

John Bowlby

• Ethological perspective of British psychiatrist – also stresses the importance of

attachment in the first year of life and the responsiveness of the caregiver.

• He argues that the newborn is biologically equipped (e.g. cries, clings, coos, smiles)

to elicit attachment behaviour.

• The immediate result is to keep the primary caregiver nearby; the long-term effect is

to increase the infant’s chance of survival.


From birth to

2 months.

Infants

instinctively

direct their

attachment to

human

figures.

From 2 to 7

months.

Attachment

becomes

focused on

one figure,

usually the

primary

caregiver.

From 7 to 24

months. Specific

attachment

developed. With

increased

locomotor skills,

babies actively

seek contact with

regular caregiver.

From 24 months

on. Children

become aware of

others’ feelings,

goals and plans

and begin to take

these into

account in

forming their own

actions.

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

Phases of attachment are:

4

Individual Differences in the Strange Situation

• Mary Ainsworth (1979) created the ‘strange situation’ – an observational measure of

infant attachment in which the infant experiences a series of introductions,

separations, and reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger in a prescribed

order.

• Based on how babies respond to the strange situation, they are described as being

securely or insecurely attached to the caregiver:

– Securely attached babies: use the caregiver as a secure base from which to

explore the environment.

– Insecure avoidant babies: show insecurity by avoiding caregiver.

– Insecure resistant babies: often cling to the caregiver, then resist her by fighting

against the closeness, perhaps by kicking or pushing away.

– Insecure disorganised babies: show insecurity by being disorganised and

disoriented.


4

Individual Differences in the Strange Situation

• However, some critics believe that behaviour in the Strange Situation (like any other

laboratory assessment) might not indicate what infants would do in a natural

environment.


What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think culture plays

a part in infants’ behaviour?

4

The Significance of Attachment

• Ainsworth believes that secure attachment in the first year of life provides an

important foundation for psychological development later in life.

• Secure attachment in infancy is important because it reflects a positive parent-infant

relationship and provides the foundation that supports healthy socioemotional

development in the years that follow.

• However, not all developmentalists believe that attachment in infancy is the only path

to competence in life.

• Jerome Kagan (1987, 2000), for example, believes that infants are highly resilient

and adaptive; he argues that they are evolutionarily equipped to stay on a positive

developmental course, even in the face of wide variations in parenting.

• Kagan and others stress that genetic and temperament characteristics play more

important roles in a child’s social competence.


At this point, take some time to think about your own life experiences.

• What are your opinions on the significant of attachment in infancy?

• Is the style of care-giving linked with the quality of the infant’s

attachment?

4

Child-care


Recognise that the

quality of your

parenting is a key

factor in your child’s

development.

Monitor your child’s

development.

• Child-care quality is very important!

• High-quality childcare: caregiver encourage the children to be engaged in a variety of

activities, have frequent, positive interactions that include smiling, touching, holding,

and speaking at the child’s eye level, respond properly to the child’s questions or

requests, and encourage children to talk about their experiences, feelings, and ideas.

Take some time

to find the best

child-care.

Some strategies to consider in regard to child-care:

1 2 3

Reflective Question

We have learnt from the socioemotional development of young children that

identifying and choosing the right childcare is important.


• Imagine that a friend of yours is getting ready to put her

baby in child care. What advice would you give her?

• Do you think she should stay home with her baby? Why or

why not?

Summary


• Emotional, temperament, and personality development are the

important building blocks of the socioemotional processes in humans.

• Crying, smiling and fear are basic displays of emotion in infancy.

• Social referencing or “reading” emotional cues begins at a very young

age within the infant-caregiver relationship.

• While temperament is dependent on nature, nurture plays an

important role.

• There are at least three theories about infant attachment which

provide influential views.

• Among some interesting issues are the relationship between the

attachment patterns that infants display and their potential long-term

effects.

In this topic, you learnt that:

References and Additional Learning Resources

• Santrock, J. W. (2013). Life-Span Development (14th Edition),

McGraw-Hill International (Chapter 6).

• Note: All references not listed here are based on the text in Santrock

(2013).


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SocioemotionalDevelopment in Infancy - Amazon S3 · SocioemotionalDevelopment in Infancy Study Unit 1 -Chapter 2 -Topic 2 Learning Outcomes • Explain the key socioemotional development