Ch04

							       Invitation to the Life Span
                  by Kathleen Stassen Berger


       Chapter 4 – The First Two Years:
         Psychosocial Development




PowerPoint Slides developed by
Martin Wolfger and Michael James
Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington
         Emotional Development
                   Infants’ Emotions
• Smiling and Laughing
    – Social smile (6 weeks): Evoked by viewing human faces
    – Laughter (3 to 4 months): Often associated with curiosity
•   Anger
    – First expressions at around 6 month
    – Healthy response to frustration
• Sadness
    – Indicates withdrawal and is accompanied by increased
      production of cortisol
    – Stressful experience for infants
          Emotional Development
• Fear: Emerges at about 9 months in
  response to people, things, or situations


• Stranger wariness:
   – Infant no longer smiles at any friendly face
     but cries or looks frightened when an
     unfamiliar person moves too close
• Separation anxiety:
   – Tears, dismay, or anger when a familiar
     caregiver leaves.
   – If it remains strong after age 3, it may be
     considered an emotional disorder.
         Emotional Development
                       Toddlers’ Emotions

• Anger and fear become less frequent and more focused
• Laughing and crying become louder and more
  discriminating
• New emotions:
   –   Pride
   –   Shame
   –   Embarrassment
   –   Guilt
• Require an awareness of other people
• Emerge from family interactions, influenced by the
  culture
      Emotional Development
• Self-awareness
  – A person’s realization that he or she is a distinct
    individual whose body, mind, and actions are
    separate from those of other people.
• First 4 months: Infants have no sense of self and
  may see themselves as part of their mothers.
• 5 months: Infants begin to develop an
  awareness of themselves as separate from their
  mothers.
• 15-18 months: Emergence of the Me-self
  – Sense of self as the “object of one’s knowledge”
        Emotional Development
       Mirror Recognition
• Classic experiment (M. Lewis &
  Brooks, 1978)
  – Babies aged 9–24 months looked
    into a mirror after a dot of rouge
    had been put on their noses.
  – None of the babies younger than
    12 months old reacted as if they
    knew the mark was on them.
  – 15- to 24-month-olds: Showed
    self-awareness by touching their
    own noses with curiosity.
Emotional Development
Brain Maturation and the Emotions
• Synesthesia
  – The stimulation of one sensory stimulus to the brain
    (sound, sight, touch, taste, or smell) by another.
  – Common in infants because boundaries between
    sensory parts of the cortex are less distinct.
• Cross-modal perception
  – Infant associates textures with vision, sounds with
    smells, own body with the bodies of others
  – Basis for early social understanding
• Synesthesia of emotions
  – Infant’s cry can be triggered by pain, fear, tiredness, or
    excitement; laughter can turn to tears.
  – Infants’ emotions are difficult to predict because of the
    way their brains are activated.
              Social Impulses
• Emotional Self-regulation
  – Directly connected to maturation of the anterior
    cingulate gyrus
• Particular people begin to arouse specific
  emotions
  – Toddlers get angry when a teasing older sibling
    approaches them or react with fear when entering the
    doctor’s office.
  – Memory triggers specific emotions based on previous
    experiences.
                         Stress
• Hypothalamus
   – Regulates various bodily functions and hormone production
   – May grow more slowly in stressed than in nonstressed
     infants
• Abuse (form of chronic stress)
   – Potential long-term effects on a child’s emotional
     development
   – High levels of stress hormones indicative of emotional
     impairment
   – Excessive stress in infants must be prevented
• Stress can be avoided by:
   – providing new mothers with help and emotional support
   – involving new fathers in the care of the infant
   – strengthening the relationship between mother and father
    Theories of Infant Psychosocial
            Development
               PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
FREUD: THE ORAL AND ANAL STAGES
• Oral stage (first year): The mouth is the young infant’s primary
  source of gratification
• Anal stage (second year): Infant’s main pleasure comes from the
  anus (e.g. sensual pleasure of bowel movements and the
  psychological pleasure of controlling them)

Potential conflicts:
• Oral fixation: If a mother frustrates her infant’s urge to suck, the child
  may become an adult who is stuck (fixated) at the oral stage (e.g.
  eats, drinks, chews, bites, or talks excessively)
• Anal personality: Overly strict or premature toilet training may result
  in an adult with an unusually strong need for control, regularity and
  cleanliness
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
ERIKSON: TRUST AND AUTONOMY
• Trust versus Mistrust
  – Infants learn basic trust if the world is a secure place
    where their basic needs are met
• Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt
  – Toddlers either succeed or fail in gaining a sense of
    self-rule over their actions and their bodies
• Early problems can create an adult who is
  suspicious and pessimistic (mistrusting) or who
  is easily shamed (insufficient autonomy)
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
                  BEHAVIORISM
• Parents mold an infant’s emotions and
  personality through reinforcement and
  punishment
• Social learning
  – The acquisition of behavior patterns by observing the
    behavior of others
  – Demonstrated in the classic Bobo Doll study by Albert
    Bandura
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
               COGNITIVE THEORY
• Working model: Set of assumptions that the
  individual uses to organize perceptions and
  experiences
  – A person might assume that other people are
    trustworthy and be surprised by evidence that this
    working model of human behavior is erroneous.
  – The child’s interpretation of early experiences is more
    important than the experiences themselves.
  – New working models can be developed based on new
    experiences or reinterpretation of previous
    experiences.
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
                  ETHNOTHEORY
• A theory that underlies the values and practices
  of a culture but is not usually apparent to the
  people within the culture.
• Example:
  – Culture’s ethnotheory includes the belief in
    reincarnation
  – Children are not expected to show respect for adults,
    but adults must show respect for their reborn
    ancestors  indulgent child-rearing
  – Perceived as extremely lenient by Western cultures
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
              SYSTEMS THEORY
• Epigenetic approach to development,
  using all five characteristics of the life-
  span perspective (multidirectional,
  multicontextual, multicultural, multi
  disciplinary, and plastic)
  – Systems theory is especially insightful in
    interpreting temperament.
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
• Temperament
  – Inborn differences between one person and
    another in emotions, activity, and self-
    regulation
  – Temperament is epigenetic, originating in the
    genes but affected by child-rearing practices
• New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS)
  – Started in the 1960s
  – Found 4 categories of temperament
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
• Easy (40%)
• Difficult (10%)
• Slow to warm up (15%)
• Hard to classify (35%)
Additional findings:
• Temperament often changes in the early weeks
  but is increasingly stable by age 3
• Extreme temperaments at age 3 tend to carry
  over to adolescence and young adulthood
• Parenting practices are crucial, temperament
  can change or be changed
    Theories of Infant Psychosocial
            Development
•    The Big Five (acronym OCEAN)
     – Five basic clusters of personality traits that remain
       quite stable throughout life
     – Found in many cultures and among people of all
       ages

1. Openness: imaginative, curious, welcoming new
   experiences
2. Conscientiousness: organized, deliberate, conforming
3. Extroversion: outgoing, assertive, active
4. Agreeableness: kind, helpful, easygoing
5. Neuroticism: anxious, moody, self-critical
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
• Longitudinal study of infant temperament (Fox et al.,
  2001): Grouped 4-month-olds into three distinct types
  based on responses to fearful stimulation
   – Positive (exuberant)
   – Negative
   – Inhibited (fearful)
• Less than half altered their responses as they grew older
   – Fearful infants were most likely to change
   – Exuberant infants were least likely to change
   – Maturation and child rearing has effect on inborn temperament
Theories of Infant Psychosocial
        Development
     The Effects of Parenting
• Proximal parenting
  – Caregiving practices that involve being
    physically close to the baby, with frequent
    holding and touching
• Distal parenting
  – Caregiving practices that involve remaining
    distant from the baby, providing toys, food,
    and face-to-face communication with minimal
    holding and touching
The Effects of Parenting
              Goodness of Fit
• A similarity of temperament and values that
  produces a smooth interaction between an
  individual and his or her social context, including
  family, school, and community
• With a good fit
   – parents of difficult babies build a close relationship
   – parents of exuberant, curious infants learn to protect
     them from harm
   – parents of slow-to-warm-up toddlers give them time to
     adjust
                        Synchrony
• A coordinated, rapid, and smooth
  exchange of responses between a
  caregiver and an infant
• Synchrony in the first few months
   – Becomes more frequent and more
     elaborate
   – Helps infants learn to read others’
     emotions and to develop the skills of
     social interaction
   – Synchrony usually begins with
     parents imitating infants
  Is Synchrony Needed for Normal
           Development?
• Experiments using the still-face technique
  – An experimental practice in which an adult keeps his
    or her face unmoving and expressionless in face-to-
    face interaction with an infant
  – Babies are very upset by the still face and show signs
    of stress
• Conclusions:
  – A parent’s responsiveness to an infant aids
    psychological and biological development
  – Infants’ brains need social interaction to develop to
    their fullest
               Attachment
• Attachment is a lasting emotional bond
  that one person has with another.
  – Attachments begin to form in early infancy
    and influence a person’s close relationships
    throughout life
Attachment
             Attachment Types
1.   Secure attachment: An infant obtains both comfort
     and confidence from the presence of his or her
     caregiver.
2.   Insecure-avoidant attachment: An infant avoids
     connection with the caregiver, as when the infant
     seems not to care about the caregiver’s presence,
     departure, or return.
3.   Insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment: An
     infant’s anxiety and uncertainty are evident, as when
     the infant becomes very upset at separation from the
     caregiver and both resists and seeks contact on
     reunion.
4.   Disorganized attachment: A type of attachment that
     is marked by an infant’s inconsistent reactions to the
     caregiver’s departure and return.
Attachment Types
       Measuring Attachment
• Strange Situation
  – A laboratory procedure for measuring attachment by
    evoking infants’ reactions to the stress of various
    adults’ comings and goings in an unfamiliar playroom.
• Key behaviors to observe:
  – Exploration of the toys. A secure toddler plays
    happily.
  – Reaction to the caregiver’s departure. A secure
    toddler misses the caregiver.
  – Reaction to the caregiver’s return. A secure toddler
    welcomes the caregiver’s reappearance.
Measuring Attachment
Measuring Attachment
             Social Referencing
• Social referencing
   – Seeking information about how to
     react to an unfamiliar or
     ambiguous object or event by
     observing someone else’s
     expressions and reactions. That
     other person becomes a social
     reference.
• Mothers use a variety of
  expressions, vocalizations, and
  gestures to convey social
  information to their infants.
     Fathers as Social Partners
• Fathers usually spend less time with
  infants than mothers do and are less
  involved parents
• Reasons:
   – Fathers’ own ideas of appropriate
     male behavior
   – Mothers often limit fathers’
     interactions with their children
• Quality of marital relationship is best
  predictor
   – Happier husbands tend to be
     more involved fathers
   Comparing Mothers and Fathers
• Selected research findings:
   – Teenagers are less likely to lash out at friends and authorities if
     they experienced a warm, responsive relationship with their
     fathers as infants (Trautmann-Villalba et al., 2006).
   – Infants may be equally securely attached to both parents, more
     attached to their mothers, or more attached to their fathers
     (Belsky et al., 2006).
   – Close father–infant relationships can teach infants (especially
     boys) appropriate expressions of emotion (Boyce et al., 2006).
   – Close relationships with their infants reduce fathers’ risk of
     depression (Borke et al., 2007; Bronte-Tinkew et al., 2007).
   – Mothers tend to engage in more caregiving and comforting, and
     fathers tend to engage in more high-intensity play (Kochanska et
     al., 2008).
   – When toddlers are about to explore, they often seek their father’s
     approval, expecting fun from their fathers and comfort from their
     mothers (Lamb, 2000).
             Infant Day Care
• Family day care
  – Child care that includes several children of various
    ages and usually occurs in the home of a woman who
    is paid to provide it.
• Center day care
  – Child care that occurs in a place especially designed
    for the purpose, where several paid adults care for
    many children.
  – Usually the children are grouped by age, the day-care
    center is licensed, and providers are trained and
    certified in child development.
Infant Day Care
 The Effects of Infant Day Care
• The impact of nonmaternal care depends on
  many factors.
• Psychosocial characteristics, including secure
  attachment, are influenced more by the mother’s
  warmth than by the number of hours spent in
  nonmaternal care.
• Quality of care is crucial, no matter who provides
  that care.
The Effects of Infant Day Care