Chapter Six

1. Chapter Six Emotional Development and Attachment

2. Early Emotional Development • Emotions are • Subjective reactions • Usually experienced cognitively • Generally has a form of physiological arousal • Communicated to others through behavior • Functions of emotions • Communicates feelings, social interactions • Affects mental and physical health • Helps develop emotional intelligence

3. Early Emotional Development • Perspectives on emotional development • Genetic-maturational perspective • Emotions have biological underpinnings • Individual differences in temperament • Identical and fraternal twin research • Learning perspective • Individual emotional expressions result from individual experiences • Experiences elicit and reinforce responses

4. Early Emotional Development • Perspectives on emotional development • Functionalist perspective • Help in achieving goals and adapting to the environment • Emphasizes roles in social relationships • Emotional signals (social cues) guide behaviors • Emotions attached to memories

5. Early Emotional Development • Developing emotional expressions • Infants have a wide range of emotions at a very early age • Newborns have specific emotions • Facial expressions emerge • Two types of emotions: • Primary emotions (i.e., startle) • Secondary emotions (i.e., shame)

6. Shame Pride Fear Guilt Joy Embarrassment Surprise Disgust Jealousy Emerge early in life – no introspection or self-reflection is required Emerge later in development – self- conscious emotions Secondary emotions Interest Sadness Primary emotions Emotional development influenced by Experiences Environment Genetics Emotions

7. Primary Emotions Development • Smiling and laughter are the first expressions of pleasure • Newborn infants display reflex smiles • Infants show preferences for human faces • Special smiles for mothers – Duchenne smiles • Not all babies smile with equal frequency; individual, cultural, and sex differences exist • A wide array of stimuli can make baby laugh

8. Primary Emotions Development • Primary emotions • Spontaneous, origins unknown • Smiles signal pleasure, encourage social interactions with caregiver and others • Wide range of stimuli has effects later, responses to visual stimuli increase • More selective with smiles at 3 months • Some gender differences in interactions between parents/caregivers and infant • Consistent ethnicity differences seen

9. Primary Emotions Development • Primary emotions • Increased laughing at 7 months • Response to social games at end of first year • Negative emotions • Wariness develops at about 3 months • Unfamiliar events cause distress in most • Stranger distress at 7 to 9 months, reactions vary by previous experiences • Social referencing

10. 35 Social 30 Visual 25 Laughter at stimuli (percent) 20 Tactile 15 10 Auditory 5 0 4-6 7-9 10-12 Age (in months) What Makes Children Laugh?

11. Primary Emotions Development • Fear is one of the first negative emotions • Fear of strangers emerges as wariness at 3 months, and true fear around 9 months • As babies age, more distressing behaviors and discrimination toward the unfamiliar shown • Stranger distress appears not to be universal, infant reactions vary among some cultures, and individual differences may be linked to temperament

12. Primary Emotions Development • Individual differences in emotions • Are related to one’s social adjustment • Contextual factors can affect infant reactions to strangers • Infants use social referencing to know how to act in uncertain situations • The degree of control a child has over a situation affects her or his reactions

13. 14 Compares faces 12 10 Shows distress Looks sober 8 Number of Children 6 4 2 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Age (in months) The Onset of Stranger Distress

14. Primary Emotions Development • Characteristics of a stranger affect babies’ emotional reactions • Separation protest – a fear that appears to be universal and peaks in Western infants at about 15 months • Separation anxiety sometimes reappears in other forms at later ages

15. 100 African Bushman 80 60 Percentage of Children who cried when mother left 40 Antiguan (Guatemala) 20 Guatemalan Indian Israeli (kibbutzim) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Age (in months) Separation Protest

16. Secondary Emotions Development • Pride, shame, guilt, and jealousy are complex emotions, related to adjustments • Differentiating between pride and shame is linked to task performance and responses from others • “easy” and “difficult” • “success” and “failure” • “joy” and “sadness”

17. 2.5 2 1.5 Mean number of expressions of pride and shame 1 0.5 0 Easy Difficult Task difficulty Pride, Shame, and Task Difficulty

18. Secondary Emotions Development • Guilt emotions are linked to personal responsibility; influenced by degree of control one has over a given situation • Jealousy is a common emotion that all experience; a social emotion occurring among established social relationships • How jealousy is expressed by children changes across development

19. Recognizing Emotions in Others • Facial expressions communicate feelings and wishes to children who do not yet understand speech – joy is recognized earlier than anger (a functional value) • Quality and quantity of interactions between parents and infants affects children’s ability to recognize emotions

20. Emotional Regulation • Learning to regulate expressions of emotions is difficult for infants and children • Prenatal: unintentional (thumb sucking) • Deliberate regulation (i.e., use of distraction) • Methods of emotional control change as children grow older

21. Emotional Regulation • Social pressure requires more self-control over emotions as children age • Children learn emotional display rules as a way of conforming to social norms • Earliest efforts are based on imitation • Later efforts include appraising situations • Culture influences how appraisals are made • Understanding may occur as young as 2 years of age

22. Age (in months) What’s That On My Nose? 80 70 60 Lewis & Brooks-Gunn’s study 50 Children recognizing themselves (percent) 40 Amsterdam’s study 30 20 10 0 9-12 15-18 21-24

23. How Children Think About Emotions • Children learn to match emotional reactions to specific events through emotional scripts • Emotional scripts get more complex as children mature • Children realize complex scripts include desires, goals, and intentions of others • Children realize conflicting feelingscan be experienced at the same time

24. How Children Think About Emotions • Families play a major role in children’s emotional development • Children learn by watching emotional reactions of family members • Type of home and parenting styles makes a difference in what is learned • Socialization is a two-way process and temperaments affect interactions

25. The Development of Attachment • Attachment is closely related to emotional development • Forms in second half of first year • Evidenced by separation protests • Enhances parents’ effectiveness in later socialization of their children • Evolves over first 2 years of life

26. The Development of Attachment • Theories of attachment • Psychoanalytic theory: attachment is linked to gratification of innate drives • Learning theory: • Traditionally, primary drive of hunger is reduced by primary reinforcer (food) and secondary reinforcer is one who feeds • Harlow: attachment comforts in stress • Currently, attachment not dependent upon child’s feeding

27. The Development of Attachment • Theories of attachment • Cognitive developmental theory: • Specific attachment based on object permanence • Physical proximity to attachment figures lessens in importance as children grow • Psychological contact maintained through words, smiles, and looks

28. The Development of Attachment • Theories of attachment • Bowlby’s ethological theory: • Infant attachment has roots in instinctual infant responses important for survival and protection • Based partly on animal’s imprinting process • Infant’s early social signaling systems (i.e., smiling and crying) play active role in formation of attachment

29. The Development of Attachment • Attachment • Evolves in stages or steps • Develops for those regularly interacted with such as mothers, siblings, and peers • Father-child interaction affected by culture and type of society one lives in • Mothers and fathers differences in play modes or styles continue as children grow • fathers more physical • mothers more verbal

30. The Nature and Quality of Attachment • Early attachment formation is not uniform • Many seem to form highly secure attachments • Assessment is based on the Strange Situation and Ainsworth’s classifications • Styles of caregiving are linked to attachment; sensitive care linked to secure attachments, and unavailable or rejecting linked to insecurity • Deficient forms of parenting often result in approach/avoidance behavior in children

31. Secure Insecure-avoidant Insecure-resistant Insecure-disorganized Ainsworth Classifications

32. The Nature and Quality of Attachment • New assessment method: Attachment Q Sort (AQS) • Other assessment instruments exist • Questions of usefulness of Ainsworth’s model

33. The Nature and Quality of Attachment • Parents’ role in attachment • Attachment is relationship • Styles of parent-child interaction patterns have impact – sensitive care seems best • Attachment studies show interesting comparisons between cultures • Parents transmit internal working models of attachment (intergenerational effect); unsatisfying effects can be overcome

34. The Nature and Quality of Attachment • Effect of infant temperament • Influence on attachment is probably mediated by many other factors • Stability in quality of attachment exists from one period to another • Some cross-cultural support was found • This stability does not preclude change • Quality of infant-parent attachment affects the child’s development

35. The Nature and Quality of Attachment • Cognitive development • Quality of caregiver relationships important to child’s cognitive development; findings are supported cross-culturally • Securely attached children are seen as • More socially competent; increases with age • Less dependent on adults

36. The Nature and Quality of Attachment • Emotions: • Affect links between attachment and social competence • Sense of self is crucial to child’s development • There is no evidence that being in child care prevents infant-parent attachments; the amount of time spent in daycare and type of care can affect infant-parent relationships

37. The Nature and Quality of Attachment • Stability of staff in child-care facilities • Affects quality of relationship between care providers and children in daycare • High training level of staff promotes secure attachments with children • Children in high-quality programs have more positive effects on child development • Quality of child care appears linked to social class of families using the services

38. Are Child Care and Enrichment Programs Only for the Affluent? Low-income Affluent (b) (a) 80 80 70 70 60 60 50 50 Percent of 3- to 5-year-olds enrolled in preschool Percent of schools offering extended-day and enrichment programs 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10 0 0 Families Neighborhoods

39. The End