social and emotional development infancy

• Forming the Roots of Sociability


  • Emotions, Social Referencing
• Theories about Infant Social and Emotional Development

  • Forming Relationships: Attachment
  • Individual Differences in Infancy: Temperament
• Attachment

  A close emotional bond between infant and primary caregiver, begins to develop in the 1st year and continues through life, the nature of our attachment during infancy affects how we relate to others throughout the rest of our lives
• Theories about Attachment


  • Sigmund Freud's Drive-Reduction Theory
  • Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Theory
  • John Bowlby's Attachment Theory
• Freud believed that attachment grew out of caregiver's ability to satisfy a child's oral needs, but feeding is not the crucial element in the attachment process
• Physical contact and immediate comfort are important in the attachment process
• Erikson's view of infant's attachment development


  Physical comfort and sensitive care are key to establishing a basic trust in infants, which is the foundation for attachment
• Bowlby's Attachment Theory


  Human infant is born with a set of built-in behaviors that help keep the parent nearby, which increases the infant's chances of survival, and having a strong, firm attachment provides a secure base from which the child can gain independence
• Strange Situation


  • Measures attachment between 1 and 2 years, 8 short episodes (separations & reunions with the caregiver)
• Secure attachment


  Most infants fall into this category (2/3), caregiver's presence is used as a secure base from which to explore the environment, mildly protest separation, and reestablish positive interaction upon reunion
• Insecure-Avoidant attachment


  About 20% of infants, unresponsive to the caregiver's presence, not distressed by separation, and avoid or slow to greet the caregiver upon reunion
• Insecure-Resistant attachment


  About 10% of infants, seek closeness to the parent and fail to explore, usually distressed by separation, and display angry, resistive behavior upon reunion
• Insecure-Disorganized/Disoriented attachment


  Reflects the greatest insecurity, babies might appear confused, dazed, and fearful, especially during the reunion, often show contradictory behavior
• Caregiving Styles and Attachment

  Secure attachment: sensitive to infant's signals, consistently available

  Avoidant attachment: unavailable, rejecting

  Resistant attachment: inconsistent

  Disorganized/disoriented attachment: neglecting or physically abusive
• As a measure of attachment, the Strange Situation may be culturally biased, and the degree to which children are encouraged to be independent varies across cultures and can affect whether children are categorized as insecure/resistant or secure attached
• Despite cultural variations, the secure pattern is still the most common attachment quality in all societies studied
• Attachment is an important foundation for later social and psychological development, but not all children who are not securely attached as infants experience difficulties later in life, and some research suggests that those who had avoidant and resistant attachment do quite well later in life (later experiences also play an important role)
• Temperament


  Inborn differences between one person and another in emotions, activity, and self-control
• Dimensions of temperament


  • Activity level
  • Rhythmicity
  • Approach/withdrawal
  • Adaptability
  • Threshold of responsiveness
  • Intensity of reaction
  • Quality of mood
  • Distractibility
  • Attention span and persistence
• Easy child


  • Regular routines in infancy
  • Generally cheerful
  • Adapts easily to new experiences
• Slow-to-warm-up child


  • Inactive
  • Mild, low-key reactions to environmental stimuli
  • Negative in mood
  • Adjusts slowly to new experiences
• Difficult child


  • Irregular in daily routines
  • Tends to react negatively and intensely
  • Slow to accept new experiences
• Difficult children


  • High risk for adjustment problems
  • Both anxious withdrawal and aggressive behavior in early and middle childhood
• Slow-to-warm-up children


  • Fewer problems in the early years (compared to difficult children)
  • Tend to show excessive fearfulness and slow, constricted behavior in the late preschool and school years
• Genetic influences on temperament


  Identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins across wide range of temperamental and personality traits
• Environmental influences on temperament

  • Temperament changes with age
  • Parenting, child rearing practices, culture influence temperament
  • Parents need to find a goodness of fit
• Goodness-of-fit model


  • How temperament and environment can together produce favorable outcomes
  • Children with different temperaments have different child-rearing needs
• Cephalocaudal pattern of physical growth
• Proximodistal pattern of physical growth
• Height and weight growth slows down in toddlerhood compared to first year
• Head size decreases as a proportion of body length from birth to adulthood
• Gross motor skills in toddlerhood

  • Walking
  • Climbing
  • Running
  • Jumping
  • Hopping
  • Throwing
  • Catching
• Fine motor skills in toddlerhood

  • Using fingers
  • Drawing circles
  • String large beads
  • Open doors using knobs
  • Hold crayons
• Piaget's sensorimotor substages


  • Simple reflexes (Birth - 1M)
  • First habits & primary circular reactions (1 - 4M)
  • Secondary circular reactions (4 to 8M)
  • Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12M)
  • Tertiary circular reactions, novelty & curiosity (12-18M)
  • Internalization of schemes (18-24M)
• Internalization of schemes


  • Mental representation
  • Object permanence
  • Deferred imitation
  • Make-believe play
  • Problem solving
• Two-word utterances


  • Emerge at 18-24 months
  • With gesture, tone, and context
  • Identification, location, repetition, nonexistence, possession, question
• Telegraphic speech


  Characteristic of early language development
• Supporting early language development


  • Natural readiness
  • A social environment
• Child-directed speech (CDS)


  • High-pitched
  • Exaggerated expression
  • Very clear pronunciation
  • Infants & toddlers prefer CDS
• Reading to toddlers supports early language development