Social and Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

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Social and Emotional Development in Infants and
Toddlers
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• Emotional and Social Development
• Social Smile Smiling elicited by social
  stimuli not exclusive to seeing parents
• Self-Awareness Awareness of oneself as a
  person can be tested by having infants look in a
  mirror and see if they recognize themselves
• Social Referencing Observing other people to
  get information or guidance

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Figure 3.4
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• Mary Ainsworth and Attachment
• Separation Anxiety Crying and signs of fear
  when a child is left alone or is with a stranger
  generally appears around 8-12 months
• Quality of Attachment (Ainsworth)
• Secure Stable and positive emotional bond

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Mary Ainsworth and Attachment

• Insecure-Avoidant Tendency to avoid reunion
  with parent or caregiver
• Insecure-Ambivalent Desire to be with parent
  or caregiver and some resistance to being
  reunited with Mom
• Contact Comfort Pleasant and reassuring
  feeling babies get from touching something warm
  and soft, especially their mother

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Secure Attachment

• Mothers respond more consistently and quickly to
  childs distress and needs
• Moms show more sensitivity in interpreting and
  responding to infants signals.
• Mothers express affection more consistently and
  use more affectionate touching, smiling, and
  verbal communication
• Mothers maintain higher standards of physical care

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Securely Attachment Children

• Do better in school and in future achievements
• Make friends more easily
• Are more flexible
• Have more positive peer relationships
• Have more positive self-esteem
• Form close relations
• Are more positive and enthusiastic

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Less secure attachment is related to

• More adolescent and adult mental health problems
• Less persistence at tasks
• More hostility or over dependence
• Lack of trust and good social relationships

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Bowlbys Attachment Phases

• Preattachment Birth to 6 months
• Infant send signals to adult for contact,
  grasping, crying, or gazing into adults eyes
• Phase 2 6 weeks to 6-8 months
• Signal intensify and focus on caregiver. Still
  friendly to strangers, but respond differently
• Phase 3 6-8 months to 18 months-2 years
• More active in seeking and following caregivers.
  Show separation anxiety
• Phase 4 18 months-2 years and on
• Infants form reciprocal relationships with
  parents and significant people in their life

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Figure 3.11
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Play Years PsychosocialMildred Partens Types
of Play

• solitary play
• onlooker play
• parallel play
• associative play
• cooperative play

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• Play and Social Skills
• Solitary Play When a child plays alone even
  when with other children
• Cooperative Play When two or more children
  must coordinate their actions

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Definition Temperament
McCall Temperament consists of relatively
consistent, basic dispositions inherent in the
person that underlie and modulate the expression
of activity, reactivity, emotionality, and
sociability. Video on Temperament Goldsmith,
Buss, Plomin, Rothbart, Thomas and Chess, Hinde,
McCall, 1987
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• Temperament and Environment
• Temperament The physical core of personality
• Easy Children 40 relaxed and agreeable
• Difficult Children 10 moody, intense,
  easily angered
• Slow-to-Warm-Up Children 15 restrained,
  unexpressive, shy
• Remaining Children Do not fit into any
  specific category

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How Is Temperament Measured?

• Behavioral assessment
• Parent interviews or ratings
• Teacher ratings
• Direct observations by researchers
• Assessments of physiological reactions
• Observation of motor activity and crying
• Heart rate, cortisol production
• EEG waves

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WE KNOW THAT TEMPERAMENT

• Is present from the beginning
• Is likely to be strongly influenced by biological
  factors
• As development proceeds temperament becomes more
  influenced by experience and context.

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MAJOR ELEMENTS OF TEMPERAMENT

• Temperament can be modified by experience and
  environment
• Social behavior is impacted by temperament,
  because of individual temperament and the way
  people respond to childs temperament
• Psychopathology and maladaptive behavior are
  correlated with temperament

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Parent Temperament

• Interplay of temperament, environment and
  experience
• Effects on parenting style
• Interactions of parent temperament and child
  temperament

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Goodness of Fit (Thomas Chess 1977)

• When a childs temperament and environmental
  demands are in harmony then development is
  optimal (good fit)
• When dissonance between temperament and
  environment exists, then maladjustment occurs
  (bad fit)
• Adults should create child-rearing environments
  that recognize each childs temperament while
  encouraging more adaptive functioning