Social and Personality Development in Infancy

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Chapter 7
Child Development, 3/e by Robert Feldman

• Social and Personality Development in Infancy

Created by Barbara H. Bratsch
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• What sort of emotional lives do infants have?
• What sort of mental lives do infants have?
• What is attachment in infancy, and how does it
  relate to the future social competence of
  individuals?
• What roles do other people play in infants
  social development?
• What sorts of individual differences do infants
  display?
• Is day care beneficial or harmful to infants?

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Universals in Facial Expressions

• In every culture, infants show similar facial
  expressions relating to basic emotions. The
  degree of emotional expressiveness varies between
  infants.

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• Differential emotions theory suggests that
  emotional expressions not only reflect emotional
  experiences, but also help regulate emotions
  themselves

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• Stranger anxiety is the caution and wariness that
  infants display when encountering an unfamiliar
  person
• Separation anxiety is the distress displayed by
  infants when a customary care provider departs

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• Social smile is the response to other individuals
• Social referencing is the intentional search for
  information about others feelings to help
  explain the meaning of uncertain circumstances
  and events
• Self-awareness is the knowledge that one exists
  separately from the rest of the world and begins
  around 12 months old

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• Theory of Mind childrens knowledge and beliefs
  about their mental world
• Empathy an emotional response that corresponds
  to the feelings of another person

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Forging Relationships

• Attachment is the positive emotional bond that
  develops between a child and particular
  individual
• Konrad Lorenz first labeled imprinting as
  attachment that occurred between him and newborn
  goslings
• Harry Harlows experiments with monkeys indicated
  attachment to cloth monkeys vs. wire monkeys
  bearing food
• Mary Ainsworth developed the Ainsworth Strange
  Situation test consisting of a sequence of staged
  episodes that illustrate the strength of
  attachment between a child and mother

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Patterns of Attachment

• Secure attachment children use the mother as
  home base and become upset when she leaves and
  seek her instantly when she returns
• Avoidant attachment children do not seek
  proximity to mother, are not distressed when she
  leaves and do not usually seek her out when she
  returns
• Ambivalent attachment a combination of positive
  and negative reactions to mother
• Disorganized-disoriented attachment
  inconsistent and often contradictory behavior,
  such as approaching mother when she returns but
  not looking at her

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Mothers vs. Fathers and Attachment

• Mothers tend to be more involved in feeding and
  nurturing and fathers tend to spend more time
  playing with children

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Infant Interactions

• Mutual regulation model infants and parents
  learn to communicate emotional states to one
  another and respond appropriately
• Reciprocal socialization a process in which
  infants behaviors invite further responses from
  caregivers or other infants, which in turn brings
  about further responses from the infants

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Infant Interactions
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Personality

• The assortment of
• enduring characteristics
• that differentiate
• one individual
• from another

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• Eriksons theory of psychosocial development
  how individuals come to understand themselves and
  the meaning of others behavior and their own
• Trust vs. Mistrust infants develop a sense of
  trust and mistrust, largely depending on how well
  their needs are met by their caregivers
• Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Toddlers (aged 18
  months to 3 years) develop independence and
  autonomy if they are allowed the freedom to
  explore or come to feel shame and self-doubt if
  they are restricted or overprotected

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Temperament

• Patterns of arousal and emotionality that are
  consistent and enduring characteristics of an
  individual

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Categorizing Temperament

• Easy babies have a positive disposition. They are
  curious, have regular bodily functions, are
  adaptable, and have moderate to high intensity of
  emotions. About 40 of babies are easy babies.
• Difficult babies have more negative moods, slower
  to adapt, tend to withdraw in new situations and
  make up about 10 of all infants.
• Slow-to-warm babies are inactive and calm in
  their environment. They generally are negative
  and withdraw in new situations. Approximately 15
  of infants are slow-to warm.
• 35 of infants are a combination

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• Goodness of Fit
• development is dependent upon the degree of match
  between childrens temperament and the nature and
  demands of the environment in which they are
  being raised.

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Gender the sense of being male or female

• Male infants tend to be fussier and more active
  than females
• Female infants tend to sleep less disturbed than
  males

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Infant child care