Emotional & Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Ch6 of textbook

Attatchment Theory

  • Attachment - A long-term affectionate relationship
  • Harlow (1959) - Rhesus monkey attachment study
    • Preference of comfort over food

Ethics Q:

Paradox of

animal research

Theory of Attatchment

  • John Bowlby (1969)- theory rooted in psychoanalysis
    • Infant attatchment is basis of future relationships
    • Form "Internal working model" of expectations
      • Preattachment Phase - 0 to 6wks
      • Attatchment in the making - 6wk to ~7mo
      • Clear-cut attachment- ~7mo to ~21 mo
      • Formation of reciprocal relationship- onward
  • Attachment - A long-term affectionate relationship
  • Harlow (1959) - Rhesus monkey attachment study

The Strange Situation

  • Ainsworth (1978)- measurement of infant attachment

 

Initially, yield 4 types of Attachment:

• Secure

• Anxious/Avoidant

• Ambivalent/Resistant

• Disorganized/Disoriented

Attatchment Theory

  • Focus on mothers, but Bowlby's theory allows more.
  • Impact of SES
    • Poverty and life stressors promote insecure attatchment
  • Impact o Culture
    • Individualistic (eg US) vs Collectivist (eg Japanese)
  • Interactional synchrony- When a caregiver responds to infant signals in appropriate fashion ("a dance")

Big Moods

  • Self-conscious emotions- around 1.5 - 3yrs old
    • Shame
    • Embarrassment
    • Guilt
    • Pride
    • Envy
  • Need to understand adult instructions on when/how to feel emotions
  • Need a sense of "self"

Development of "Self"

  • What is the "self" again? Is there such a thing as an individual?
  • self-recognition & self-awareness
    • Mirror/rouge study (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Empathy
    • Understanding of "self" in others
    • "What is it like to be a bat?" Thomas Nagel
  • Categorical self

Self-regulation

  • Self-control; self-regulation
    • Delay of gratification – Marshmallow Test

 

 

 

 

 

  • Effortful control Rothbart (2003):
    • capacity to voluntarily suppress a dominant response in order to execute a more adaptive response (executive functioning, inhibition of impulsivity)
    • Role of prefrontal cortex (PFC)?

 

Structure of Temperament

  • Thomas and Chess (1991) study
    • Easy: 40%
      • Good mood and quick to adapt. More social.
    • Difficult: 10%
      • Irregular routines and frequent crying
    • Slow-to-warm-up: 15%
      • low activity, somewhat negative
    • Unclassified: 35%
  • Mix of Emotionality, Socialibility, and Activity level
  • Stability is low in infancy and toddlerhood

 

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