Infancy

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Infancy
Emotional Social Development
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Emotional Development

• Basic emotions are universal, suggesting
  evolutionarily adaptive
• Emotions develop in a sequence
• Happiness (6-10 wks) promotes bonding (social
  smiling)
• Anger (4-6 mo) allow infant to assert themselves
• Fear (6-8 mo) keeps infants safe (stranger
  anxiety)
• Social referencing (7-10 mo) fosters learning

But, do some infants have specific patterns of
emotion?
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Temperament

• Stable individual differences in quality
  intensity of emotional reactions, activity,
  attention
• Thomas Chess( 1956)
• Participants 141 infants followed from early
  infancy to adulthood
• Method parents rated child on 9 dimensions

Type



35 were not categorized!
Easy
40
Difficult
10
Slow-to-warm up
15
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• Is temperament stable?
• Low to moderate stability
• More stable after 2yrs
• Is it genetic or influenced by environment?
• Twin studies, cultural gender differences
  provide strong support for genetics
• Environment matters too Goodness-of-fit Model

Infants Temperament
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Eriksons Psychosocial Lifespan Theory of
Personality

• Personality is an interaction between
  psychological (inner) maturation societal
  demand
• 8 psychosocial stages of personality development
• Crisis of opposing tendencies to be resolved
• If successful, acquire personality strength
• Epigenetic principle sequence biologically
  fixed, but social context influences how crisis
  is resolved

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Stages of Personality Development
If trust autonomy not acquired, developmental
problems later
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Attachment

• Why do infants become attached to caregivers?
• Early theories suggested feeding
• Harlow Zimmerman (1959) rhesus monkey studies
  suggested something else

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Ethological theory of attachment J. Bowlby

• Promotes survival by keeping parent close
• Clear-cut attachment (6-8 months to 18mo-2yrs)
  infants develop separation anxiety
• Use caregiver as a secure base for exploration
• An internal-working-model develops is the
  foundation for future relationships

How do we measure attachment?
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Strange Situation
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Attachment Patterns
Pattern Exploration/Alone/Return




Secure attachment
Secure base/may cry/comforted
Avoidant
Ambivalent/not distressed/avoid
Resistant
Cling/distressed/angry or resist
Disorganized/disoriented
Some exploration/cry/confused
How common are these patterns?
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Prevalence of attachment patterns