Social and Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

1. Social and Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

2. Emotional and Social Development • Social Smile: Smiling elicited by social stimuli; not exclusive to seeing parents • Self-Awareness: Awareness of oneself as a person; can be tested by having infants look in a mirror and see if they recognize themselves • Social Referencing: Observing other people to get information or guidance

3. Figure 3.4

4. Mary Ainsworth and Attachment • Separation Anxiety: Crying and signs of fear when a child is left alone or is with a stranger; generally appears around 8-12 months • Quality of Attachment (Ainsworth) • Secure: Stable and positive emotional bond

5. Mary Ainsworth and Attachment • Insecure-Avoidant: Tendency to avoid reunion with parent or caregiver • Insecure-Ambivalent: Desire to be with parent or caregiver and some resistance to being reunited with Mom • Contact Comfort: Pleasant and reassuring feeling babies get from touching something warm and soft, especially their mother

6. Secure Attachment • Mothers respond more consistently and quickly to child’s distress and needs • Moms show more sensitivity in interpreting and responding to infants’ signals. • Mothers express affection more consistently and use more affectionate touching, smiling, and verbal communication • Mothers maintain higher standards of physical care

7. Securely Attachment Children • Do better in school and in future achievements • Make friends more easily • Are more flexible • Have more positive peer relationships • Have more positive self-esteem • Form close relations • Are more positive and enthusiastic

8. Less secure attachment is related to: • More adolescent and adult mental health problems • Less persistence at tasks • More hostility or over dependence • Lack of trust and good social relationships

9. Bowlby’s Attachment Phases • Preattachment: Birth to 6 months • Infant send signals to adult for contact, grasping, crying, or gazing into adults eyes • Phase 2: 6 weeks to 6-8 months • Signal intensify and focus on caregiver. Still friendly to strangers, but respond differently • Phase 3: 6-8 months to 18 months-2 years • More active in seeking and following caregivers. Show separation anxiety • Phase 4: 18 months-2 years and on • Infants form reciprocal relationships with parents and significant people in their life

10. Figure 3.11

11. Play Years: PsychosocialMildred Parten’s Types of Play • solitary play • onlooker play • parallel play • associative play • cooperative play

12. Play and Social Skills • Solitary Play: When a child plays alone even when with other children • Cooperative Play: When two or more children must coordinate their actions

13. Definition: Temperament McCall: “Temperament consists of relatively consistent, basic dispositions inherent in the person that underlie and modulate the expression of activity, reactivity, emotionality, and sociability. “ Video on Temperament Goldsmith, Buss, Plomin, Rothbart, Thomas and Chess, Hinde, McCall, 1987

14. Temperament and Environment • Temperament: The physical “core” of personality • Easy Children: 40 %; relaxed and agreeable • Difficult Children: 10 %; moody, intense, easily angered • Slow-to-Warm-Up Children: 15 %; restrained, unexpressive, shy • Remaining Children: Do not fit into any specific category

15. How Is Temperament Measured? • Behavioral assessment • Parent interviews or ratings • Teacher ratings • Direct observations by researchers • Assessments of physiological reactions • Observation of motor activity and crying • Heart rate, cortisol production • EEG waves

16. WE KNOW THAT TEMPERAMENT: • Is present from the beginning • Is likely to be strongly influenced by biological factors • As development proceeds temperament becomes more influenced by experience and context.

17. MAJOR ELEMENTS OF TEMPERAMENT • Temperament can be modified by experience and environment • Social behavior is impacted by temperament, because of individual temperament and the way people respond to child’s temperament • Psychopathology and maladaptive behavior are correlated with temperament

18. Parent Temperament • Interplay of temperament, environment and experience • Effects on parenting style • Interactions of parent temperament and child temperament

19. Goodness of Fit (Thomas & Chess 1977) • When a child’s temperament and environmental demands are in harmony then development is optimal (good fit) • When dissonance between temperament and environment exists, then maladjustment occurs (bad fit) • Adults should create child-rearing environments that recognize each child’s temperament while encouraging more adaptive functioning