Title: Chapter 11 Emotional Development and the Establishment of Intimate Relationships
1Chapter 11 Emotional Development and the
Establishment of Intimate Relationships
2Displaying Emotions The Development (and
Control) of Emotional Expressions
- Sequencing of discrete emotions
- At birth Interest, distress, disgust,
contentment - 2.5 to 7 months Primary emotions (anger,
sadness, joy, surprise, fear) - 2 years Secondary emotions (embarrassment,
shame, guilt, envy, pride) - Socialization of emotions and emotional
self-regulation - Regulating emotions begins around 6 months of age
and becomes increasingly complex. - Acquiring emotional display rules comes earlier
in communal peoples such as the Japanese.
3Displaying Emotions The Development (and
Control) of Emotional Expressions
4Recognizing and Interpreting Emotions
- Social referencing becomes obvious from 7 to 10
months of age. - Conversations about emotions begin around 18 to
24 months of age. - Family conversations centering on emotional
experiences can help toddlers achieve better
understanding of feelings. - By age 4 or 5, children can correctly infer
whether a person is happy, angry, or sad.
5Temperament and Development
- Five attributes Activity level, irritability,
soothability, fearfulness, sociability - Hereditary influences
- Heritability coefficients are moderate, at best.
- Components are genetically influenced.
- Environmental influences on temperament
- Home environment of siblings clearly influences
positively toned aspects of temperament. - Nonshared environmental influences contribute to
negatively toned attributes. - Activity level, irritability, sociability, and
shyness are stable temperament components.
6New York Longitudinal Study
- NYLS suggests the existence of three temperament
types - Easy baby Has regular patterns of eating,
sleeping, and toileting. This type adapts to new
situations and shows low intensity reactions (40
of babies show this pattern) - Difficult baby Has less predictable schedules,
withdraws from new situations, and reacts
intensely to stimuli (10of infants) - Slow to warm up baby Adapts poorly to changing
situations, is less active (15 of infants show
this pattern)
7Face to Face Interactions
- Mothers and infants engage in face to face
interactions - Mother and child develop an interactional
synchrony in which the mother learns to
concentrate her interactions when the infant is
paying attention to her and to withhold
interactions when the infant is in a period of
inattention - Mothers and infants develop a turn-taking style
of interaction in which the mother and infant
take turns responding to each other
8Temperament and Development (cont.)
- Figure 11.3
- Average correlations in infant temperament among
identical twins, fraternal twins and nontwin - siblings born at different times. Based on
Braungart et al., 1992 Emde et al., 1992.
9What Are Emotional Attachments?
- Attachments are reciprocal relationships.
- Establishment of interactional synchrony
- Coordinated interactions between infant and
caregiver occur several times a day. - Important to establishing emotional attachments
10The Growth of Primary Attachments
- The asocial phase (0 to 6 weeks)
- The phase of indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks
to 6 or 7 months) - The phase of specific attachments (approximately
7 to 9 months) - The phase of multiple attachments
11Theories of Attachment
- Psychoanalytic theory
- Freud I love you because you feed me.
- Erikson Overall responsiveness to child's needs
is most important. - Learning theory Rewardingness leads to love.
- Cognitive-developmental theory To love you, I
must know you will always be there. - Ethological theory Perhaps I was born to love.
- Origins of the ethological viewpoint Animal
research with Konrad Lorenz - Attachment in humans does not follow imprinting,
but perhaps human infants have inherited a number
of attributes that help them to maintain contact
with others and to elicit caregiving.
12Theories of Attachment (cont.)
- Figure 11.4
- Infants of many species display the kewpie-doll
effect that makes them appear lovable and - elicits caregivers attention. Adapted from
Lorenz., 1943
13Two Attachment-Related Fears of Infancy
- Stranger anxiety
- Separation anxiety
- Why do infants fear strangers and separations?
- The ethological viewpoint states that a fear or
avoidance response has become biologically
programmed. - The cognitive-developmental viewpoint states that
infants have developed stable schemes concerning
their caregivers.
14Assessing Attachment
- Ainsworth Strange Situation
- Assesses the reactivity of the child to a
situation involving the introduction of a
stranger and a separation of the mother from the
child - This procedure is limited in sampling time and
restricts the mother to a limited style - Attachment Q set
- Trained observers code the interactions of mother
and child in the home setting
15Individual Differences in Attachment Quality
- Assessing attachment security through the strange
situation test - Secure attachment (65) are distressed when their
mother leaves, but are happy when she returns - Resistant attachment (15) are distressed
throughout the procedure but particularly during
separation - Avoidant attachment (20) show little distress at
separation and avoid the mother when she returns - Disorganized/disoriented attachment (occasional)
- Cultural variations in attachment classifications
reflect cultural variations in child rearing.
16Factors That Influence Attachment Security
- Quality of caregiving Mothers of securely
attached infants are sensitive, responsive
caregivers from the beginning. - Who is at risk of becoming an insensitive
caregiver? - Clinical depression
- Caregivers who felt unloved, neglected, or abused
as children - Caregivers whose pregnancies were unplanned and
whose babies were unwanted - Ecological constraints on caregiving sensitivity
- Health-related, legal, or financial problems
- Unhappy marriages
- Interventions can assist insensitive caregivers
in becoming sensitive to their infants. - Infant characteristics
- Temperament can not explain attachment security.
17Factors That Influence Attachment Security (cont.)
18Factors That Influence Attachment Security (cont.)
19Factors That Influence Attachment Security (cont.)
- Figure 11.5
- Comparing the impact maternal and child problem
behaviors on the incidence of insecure - attachments. Maternal problems were associated
with a sharp increased in insecure - attachments, whereas child problems were not.
Based on van Ijzendoorn et al., 1992.
20Attachment and Later Development
- Long-term correlates of secure attachments
- Problem solving
- Complexity and creativity in symbolic play
- More attractive to toddlers as playmates
- Long-term correlates of insecure attachments
- Hostile and aggressive preschool and grade school
children - Peers likely to reject
- Social and emotional withdrawal
- Why might attachment quality forecast later
outcomes? - Attachments as working models of self and others
- Parents working models influence attachment
patterns formed with their infants. - Attachment history is not destiny.
21The Unattached Infant
- Effects of social deprivation in infancy and
childhood - By 6 months of age, infants no longer respond to
environment or social contact. - Over long term, unattached infants lag behind in
development in every way. - Reactive attachment disorder is possible.
- Why is early deprivation harmful?
- Infants need sustained interactions with
responsive companions in order to develop
normally. - Infants need to believe that they have some
control over the social environment.
22The Unattached Infant (cont.)
- Children can recover from early deprivation
effects if placed with highly responsive,
affectionate caregivers. - Recovery seems to go especially well if children
are deprived for less than two years and have not
been physically abused.
23Maternal Employment, Day Care, and Early
Emotional Development
- Quality of alternative care is very important in
development of secure attachments. - Parenting and parents' attitudes about work may
be as important to the child's social and
emotional well-being as mother's actual
employment status. - Even when children receive less-than-optimal
alternative care, outcomes depend greatly on the
parenting they receive.
24Maternal Employment, Day Care, and Early
Emotional Development