Chapter 2: Infancy

1. Chapter 2: Infancy Module 2.3 Social and Personality Development in Infancy

2. DEVELOPING THE ROOTS OF SOCIABILITY

3. Basic Familiar Expressions • Remarkably similar across the most diverse cultures • Nonverbal encoding fairly consistent among people of all ages 129

4. Facial Expression of Emotions • Important nonverbal communication tool used in everyday social interactions

5. Who IS that strange person, anyway? • Stranger anxiety • Memory developsability to recognize familiar people emergesabililty to anticipate and predict events increasesappearance of unknown person causes fear • Common around 6 months • Significant difference among infants and situations 130

6. Separation Anxiety • Distress displayed by infants when a customary care provider departs 131

7. Separation Anxiety • Universal across cultures • Begins about 7-8 months; peaks around 14 months • Largely attributable to same reasons as stranger anxiety 131

8. Smiling • Earliest smiles: little meaning • 6 to 9 weeks: • Begin reliable smiling • Smile first relatively indiscriminate then selective • 18 months: • Social smiling more frequent toward humans than nonhuman objects • End of 2nd year: • Use smiling purposefully • Show sensitivity to emotional expressions of others 131

9. Decoding Others’ Facial and Vocal Expressions • Imitative abilities early in life may pave way for nonverbal decoding • Infants interpret others’ facial and vocal expressions that carry meaning • In first 6 to 8 weeks • By 4 months 132

10. If you’re happy and she knows it… • Social referencing • First occurs around 8-9 months • Intentional search for cues • Aids in understanding others’ behavior in context 132

11. Do infants really know who they are?

12. Development of Self-Awareness • Roots of self-awareness • Begin to grow around 12 months • Influenced by cultural upbringing • Research • Rouge spot • Average awareness begins 17 to 24 months • Complicated tasks requests • Awareness of inabilities around 23-24 months 133

13. Just Think About That! • Theory of mind • Knowledge and beliefs how mind works and influences behavior • Child explanations used to explain how others think 133

14. How does a theory of mind develop? • See other people as compliant agents • Begin to understand causality and intentionality • Demonstrate rudiments of empathy • Begin to use deception to fool others 133

15. Review and Apply REVIEW • Infants appear to express and to experience emotions, and their emotions broaden in range to reflect increasingly complex emotional states. 134

16. Review and Apply REVIEW • The ability to decode the nonverbal facial and vocal expressions of others develops early in infants. • Infants develop self-awareness, the knowledge that they exist separately from the rest of the world, after about 12 months of age and by the age of 2, children have developed the rudiments of a theory of mind. 134

17. Review and Apply APPLY • Why would the sad or flat emotional expressiveness of a depressed parent be hard on an infant? How might it be counteracted? 134

18. FORMING RELATIONSHIPS

19. Understanding Attachment • Earliest animal research suggests attachment based on biologically determined factors • Lorenz imprinted goslings • Harlow contact-seeking monkeys 135

20. Understanding Attachment • Earliest human research suggests attachment based on needs for safety and security • Bowlby: • Attachment provides home base through qualitatively unique relationship with individual who best provides safety • As children become more independent, they progressively roam further away from their secure base 135

21. Attachment and Love Theories of Attachment • Bowlby— stresses importance of attachment in first year and responsiveness of caregiver

22. Attachment and Love Theories of Attachment • Bowlby • Phase 1: birth to 2 months: direct attachment to human figures • Phase 2: 2 to 7 months of age: directs attachment to primary caregiver; distinguish familiar from unfamiliar • Phase 3: 7 to 24 months of age: specific attachments and seeks contact/increased locomotor skills • Phase 4: 24 months and older: aware of other’s feelings & goals/ plans activities

23. Ainsworth Strange Situation Widely used experimental technique to measure attachment Sequence of staged episodes that illustrate strength of attachment between child and (typically) mother How Strange! 135

24. Reactions to Strange Situation vary considerably One-year-olds typically show one of four major patterns (See Table 2-9 for summary) Do all infants attach? 135

25. Attachment and Love Individual Differences and the Strange Situation • Ainsworth’s measure of infant attachment to caregiver • Requires infant to move through a series of introductions, separations, and reunions • Some infants have more positive attachments than others

26. Attachment and Love Attachment Categories Caregiver is secure base to explore environment from Securely attached Shows insecurity by avoiding the caregiver Insecure avoidant Clings to caregiver, then resists by fighting against the closeness Insecure resistant Shows insecurity by being disorganized, disoriented Insecure disorganized

27. Attachment and Love The Significance of Attachment • Secure attachment in first year is important foundation for psychological development • Some developmentalists believe too much emphasis on attachment bond in infancy • Ignores the diversity of socializing agents and contexts that exists in an infant’s world • Ignores that infants are highly resilient and adaptive

28. Attachment and Love Caregiving Styles and Attachment Classification

29. Table 2-9

30. And then there were four… • Recent expansion of Ainsworth work suggests fourth category: disorganized-disoriented • Inconsistent, contradictory, and confused behavior • May be least securely attached 136

31. Yes Securely attached 1- year-old males show fewer psychological difficulties at older ages Securely attached infants are more socially and emotionally competent later and more positively viewed Adult romantic relationships are associated with attachment style developed during infancy But Children who do not have a secure attachment style during infancy do not invariably experience difficulties later in life Children with a secure attachment at age 1 do not always have good adjustment later in life Does the quality of attachment have significant consequences for later life relationships? 136

32. What roles do parents play in producing attachment? Mothers • Sensitivity to their infants’ needs and desires is hallmark of mothers of securely attached infants • Aware of moods and feelings • Responsive in face-to-face interactions • Feeds “on demand” • Demonstrates warmth and affection • Responds rapidly and positively to cues 136

33. What roles do parents play in producing attachment? Fathers • Expressions of nurturance, warmth, affection, support, and concern are extremely important to infant emotional and social well-being 137

34. Cultural Differences • Differences in ways fathers and mothers play with their children occur in many US families and in very diverse cultures How then does culture affect attachment? 137

35. Developmental Diversity Does attachment differ across cultures? • Research findings suggest human attachment is not as culturally universal as Bowlby predicted • Certain attachment patterns seem more likely among infants of particular cultures: • Germany • Israel and Japan • China and Canada 137

36. Which conclusion is “Right”?

37. Feldman’s Conclusions • Attachment is viewed as susceptible to cultural norms and expectations • Cross-cultural and within-cultural differences reflect nature of measure employed and expectations of various cultures 137

38. Feldman’s Conclusions • Attachment should be viewed as a general tendency, that varies in way it is expressed according to how actively caregivers in a society seek to instill independence in their children • Secure attachment, as defined by the Western-oriented Strange Situation, is seen earliest in cultures that promote independence, but may be delayed in societies in which independence is less important cultural value 137

39. Hey Baby, Baby! • Babies react positively to presence of peers from early in life and engage in rudimentary forms of social interaction • Infants’ sociability is expressed in several ways • Earliest months of life • Nine- to twelve-month-olds 137

40. “Expert” Infants • With age, infants begin to imitate each other • Impart information and skills from “experts” infant peers • May be inborn skill 138

41. Mirror, mirror, in the brain… • Mirror neurons • Fire not only when an individual enacts particular behavior, but also when individual simply observes another organism carrying out same behavior • Help infants understand others’ actions and to develop theory of mind • Dysfunction may be related to some developmental disorders 138

42. Review and Apply REVIEW • Attachment, the positive emotional bond between an infant and a significant individual, affects a person’s later social competence as an adult. 138

43. Review and Apply REVIEW • Infants and the persons with whom they interact engage in reciprocal socialization as they mutually adjust to one another’s interactions. • Infants react differently to other children than to inanimate objects, and gradually they engage in increasing amounts of peer social interaction. 138

44. Review and Apply APPLY • In what sort of society might an avoidant attachment style be encouraged by cultural attitudes toward child rearing? In such a society, would characterizing the infant’s consistent avoidance of its mother as anger be an accurate interpretation? 138

45. DIFFERENCES AMONG INFANTS

46. Characteristics That Make Infants Unique Personality • Sum total of enduring characteristics differentiating one individual from another • From birth onward, infants begin to show unique, stable traits and behaviors that ultimately lead to their development as distinct, special individuals 139

47. What were YOU like?

48. Erikson: Psychosocial Development Early experiences responsible for shaping key aspects of personalities • Stage 1: trust versus mistrust • Trust = sense of hope and success • Mistrust = sense of harsh, unfriendly world • Stage 2: autonomy-versus-shame-and-doubt stage • Autonomy = sense of independence • Shame and doubt = sense of self-doubt and unhappiness 139

49. Another View: Temperament and Stabilities in Infant Behavior What is temperament?

50. How does temperament apply to infants? • Temperament • Refers to how children behave, as opposed to what they do or why they do it • Displays as differences in general disposition from birth, largely due initially to genetic factors • Tends to be fairly stable well into adolescence • Is not fixed and unchangeable and can be modified by childrearing practices 139