Children

1. 7 Children Socioemotional Development in Infancy

2. Images of Children • The story of Darius’s fathering • Work-at-home father • Extensive father-child interactions • Introduction of child care center • Coordinated careers and child care

3. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Emotional Development • Emotion: feeling or affect of importance • Complex and varies in intensity • Positive and negative; affects behaviors • Biological influences • Influenced by experiences and culture • Influenced by one’s perceptions

4. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Early Emotions • Primary: present in humans, animals • Appear in first 6 months of life; surprise, anger, joy, sadness, fear • Self-conscious emotions • Appear after age 18 months; embarrassment, jealousy, empathy, pride, share, guilt • Responses to reactions of others • Research controversy on jealousy in infants

5. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Emotional Expression and Social Relationships • Two emotional expressions in infant communication • Crying • Basic: rhythmic, incited by hunger • Angry: excess air in vocal cords • Pain: louder, high pitched, sudden, longer • Smiling • Reflexive: natural, occurs 1 month after birth • Social: response to external stimuli

6. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Fear • Earliest emotion; appears about 6 months • Abused, neglected infants show it much earlier • Stranger anxiety: fear, wariness of strangers • Intense from 9 to 12 months • Not shown by all; intensity affected by social context and stranger behavior/traits • Separation protest: distress at being separated • peaks between 13 and 18 months

7. African Bushman 100 Antiguan Guatemala 80 Guatemalan Indian 60 Israeli Kibbutzim Percent of children who cried when mothers left 40 20 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 Age (in months) Separation Anxiety in Four Cultures

8. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Emotional Regulation and Coping • During first year: • Gradual control of arousal to adapt, reach goal • Self-soothing in early infancy • Redirected attention, self-distraction later in infancy • Language defines emotions by age 2 • Contexts affect emotional regulation • Caregiver responses matter, infant adapts

9. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Temperament • Chess & Thomas: 3 basic types (clusters) • Easy child: positive mood, easily adapts • Difficult child: resists change, shows irregular behaviors, reacts negatively (cries) • Slow-to-warm child: low mood intensity, low activity level, somewhat negative • One-third of children don’t fit into these types • Temperament: moderately stable in childhood

10. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Temperament • Kegan’s behavioral inhibition • Extroverted, bold child • Shy, subdued, timid child • Inhibited to unfamiliar; shows anxiety, distress at about 7 to 9 months of age • Inhibition intensity varies • Considerable consistency into early childhood

11. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Temperament • Rothbart and Bates’ Classification • Extraversion/surgency: positive, impulsive • Negative affectivity: easily distressed • Kegan’s inhibited child fits here • Effortful control: self-regulating, control varies • Overall, don’t pigeon-hole children • Multiple dimensions of temperament exist • Context and experiences have impact

12. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Biological Foundations and Experience • Biological influences: • Physiological characteristics associated with different temperaments • Gender, culture, and temperament • Goodness of Fit and Parenting • Goodness of fit: match between child’s temperament and environmental demands • Siblings differ in response to same parenting

13. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Parenting and Child’s Temperament • Attention to and respect for individuality • Structuring the child’s environment • The “difficult child” and packaged parenting programs • Flexible caregiver responses • Avoid “labeling” and self-fulfilling prophecy

14. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Personality Development • Personality: enduring characteristics of emotions and temperament • Erikson’s trust-versus-mistrust: • Infants experience world as either positive or negative outcomes; continuity not guaranteed • Sense of self: • real or imagined; motivating force in life • Self-recognition: about 18 months of age

15. Development of Emotions and Personality in Infancy Personality Development • The Developing Sense of Self • Separation and individualization process • Independence • Erikson’s 2nd stage: Autonomy versus shame and doubt • Self-determination and pride or overcontrol creates shame and doubt

16. Development of Self-Recognition in Infancy 100 Amsterdam study 80 Lewis and Brooks-Gunn study 60 Percent of infants who recognized themselves in a mirror 40 20 0 9-12 21-24 15-18 Age (in months)

17. Social Orientation/Understanding and Attachment in Infancy Social Orientation/Understanding • Infants motivated to understand the world • Social orientation: perceptions, interpretations • Face-to-face play; still-face paradigm • Different responses to humans and objects; stronger, positive responses to humans • Locomotion (crawl, walk, run) independence; lessens social interactions • Context and caregiver have effects

18. Intention, Goal-directed behavior, and Cooperation • Important to cognitive development • Joint attention and gaze: help understand others’ intentions • Occurs between 7 to 11 months, intensifies • Cooperation; connect self-intentions and those of others (link to social competence) • Social referencing: • Ability to ‘read’ emotional cues of others • Affects infants’ perceptions of others

19. Social Orientation/Understanding and Attachment in Infancy Attachment and Its Development • Attachment; close emotional bond • Freud: • Attachment to source of oral satisfaction • Disproved by Harlow’s research: physical comfort preferred for security • Erikson: • First year is key for attachment, physical comfort plays role here

20. 24 Fed by cloth mother Fed by wire mother . . . . . . 18 Hours per day spent with cloth mother . . Mean hours per day 12 . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . Hours per day spent with wire mother 0 1-5 11-10 21-25 6-10 16-20 Age (days) Harlow’s Results: Contact time with wire and cloth surrogate mothers

21. Social Orientation/Understanding and Attachment in Infancy Attachment and Its Development • Bowlby: ethological view - attachment is innate predisposition • Attachment: 4 phases of social cognition • Phase 1; birth to 2 mos. – draws to humans • Phase 2: 2 to 7 mos. – focus on one person • Phase 3: 7 to 24 mos. – actively seek regular contact with caregivers • Phase 4: after 2 yrs. – aware of others’ goals, feelings, actions

22. Social Orientation/Understanding and Attachment in Infancy Individual Differences in Attachment • Ainsworth’sStrange Situation • Measures attachment by observation • Infant experiences series of contexts • 3 reactions to new situation • Secure: positive, confident exploration • Insecure-avoidant; little interaction with caregiver, no distress • Insecure-resistant: clings to caregiver • Insecure disorganized: disoriented, dazed

23. Avoidant Secure 70 Resistant 60 50 40 Percentage of infants 30 20 10 0 U.S. Germany Japan Cross-Cultural Comparison of Attachment: Ainsworth’s strange situation applied to infants in three countries in 1988

24. Social Orientation/Understanding and Attachment in Infancy Differences in Attachment • Criticisms • Measures may be culturally-biased • Lab experiments may not reflect real life • Early attachment is significant • Secure linked to high self-esteem, social competence, self-confidence to adolescence • Less continuity for other children • Infants: resilient and adaptive in life • Attachment theory ignores diversity

25. Social Contexts’ Affect On Socieoemotional Development in Infancy The Family • Complex, constellation of subsystems • Reciprocal influences on each other • The Transition to Parenthood • New parents must adapt: time, finances, roles • Marital satisfaction decreases after birth • Parental cooperation has effect

26. Social Contexts’ Affect On Socieoemotional Development in Infancy The Family • Reciprocal Socialization is bidirectional • Scaffolding: positive parental behavior supports children’s efforts • Children’s skills increase • Support modified to suit children’s level of development • Mothers and fathers both competent caregivers, but behave differently • Fathers: more physical in play interactions

27. Social Contexts’ Affect On Socieoemotional Development in Infancy Child Care • Child Care Policies Around the World • Five types of parental leave • Maternity leave • Paternity leave • Parental leave • Child-rearing leave • Family leave • Europe: leader of new ‘leave’ standards • Average of 16 weeks, 70% of wages paid

28. Social Contexts’ Affect On Socieoemotional Development in Infancy Child Care • Variations in child care • Type varies greatly: • Large centers/elaborate facilities, homes • Commercial; nonprofit, churches, employers • Professionals • Mothers earning additional monies • Quality matters • Low-income children: academic benefits • High quality linked to environment

29. Social Contexts’ Affect On Socieoemotional Development in Infancy Child Care • Patterns of use • High reliance and early entry • By 4 months, nearly 3/4 of infants have had some non-maternal child care • Socioeconomic factors affect amount and type • Income level, education, marital status • Dependence on mother’s income • Quality affected by group size, caregiver-child ratio, caregiver (behavior, education, skills)

30. Social Contexts’ Affect On Socieoemotional Development in Infancy Child Care • Amount of child care • High-quality care and fewer hours in care lead to positive outcomes • Family and parenting influences • Influence not weakened by extensive child care; parents have significant influence in children regulating emotions

31. 7 The End