Bee & Boyd, Lifespan Development, Chapter 6
- 1. Social and Personality Development in Infancy Chapter 6:
- 3. Theories of Social and Personality Development Psychoanalytic Perspectives: Freud and Erikson Freud: psychosexual stage related to infant attempts at needs satisfaction Oral stage Mother-child symbiotic relationship Nursing; fixation Erikson: psychosocial stage in which attending to infant needs and social development important Trust versus mistrust Relationship goes beyond feeding
- 4. Attachment The Parent’s Attachment to the Infant Synchrony: Opportunity for parent-infant development of mutual, interlocking pattern of attachment behaviors Takes practice to develop Provides developmental benefits
- 5. Theories of Social and Personality Development Ethological Perspectives: John Bowlby Attachment: Emotional bond in which a person’s sense of security is bound up in the relationship Strong emotional bond-making is innate Bonds maintained by instinctive behaviors that create and sustain proximity
- 6. Attachment The Parent’s Attachment to the Infant Mother’s bond with infant Bond dependent on synchrony Mothers provide more routine caregiving than fathers. After first few weeks, mothers talk to and smile more at baby.
- 7. Attachment The Parent’s Attachment to the Infant Father’s bond with infant The relationship depends on synchrony. Fathers have same repertoire as mothers. After first few weeks, fathers begin to spend more time playing with baby.
- 8. Attachment The Infant’s Attachment to the Parents Characteristics of attachment Safe haven Secure base Proximity maintenance Separation distress Now let’s look at how several theorists operationalize this construct.
- 9. Attachment The Infant’s Attachment to the Parents Establishing attachment: Bowlby’s 4 phases Nonfocused orienting and signaling (0–3 months) Focus on one or more figures (3–6 months) Secure base behavior (6–24 months) Internal model (24 months and beyond)
- 10. Attachment The Infant’s Attachment to the Parents Establishing attachment: Bowlby’s 4 phases How would you recognize each of Bowlby’s phases? What behaviors would you expect to see?
- 11. Attachment The Infant’s Attachment to the Parents Attachment behaviors
- 12. Attachment Secure and Insecure Attachments Mary Ainsworth Protocol: The Strange Situation Attachment styles: Secure attachment Insecure/avoidant attachment Insecure/ambivalent attachment Insecure/disorganized attachment
- 13. Attachment Stability of Attachment Quality Attachment stability Dependent on consistency of child’s life circumstances Influenced by major upheavals Internal models elaborated from year 1 until the age of 4 or 5
- 14. Attachment Caregiver Characteristics and Attachment Caregivers and attachment Several characteristics influence the attachment process: Emotional availability Contingent responsiveness
- 15. Attachment Secure and Insecure Attachments Insecure attachments Insecure/avoidant attachment Insecure/ambivalent attachment Insecure/disorganized attachment
- 16. Attachment Caregiver Characteristics and Attachment Other caregiver characteristics influencing secure attachment Marital status Education Age SES Mental health
- 17. What kind of attachment do you have with your parents? Has it changed since you were a child, or does it reflect the type of attachment you had when you were younger? What factors will influence your choice of childcare if the one or both parents decide to work? What would be best for your child? Questions To PonderQuestions To PonderQuestions To PonderQuestions To Ponder
- 18. Attachment Attachment Quality: Long Term Consequences The securely attached: More sociable More positive in relationships with friends Less clingy and dependent on teachers Less aggressive and disruptive More emotionally mature Continues into adolescence More likely to be leaders Have higher self-esteem
- 19. Attachment Attachment Quality: Long-Term Consequences Attachment quality and consequences Increased sociability throughout early, middle, and late adulthood Influence on parenting behaviors Foundation for future social relationships
- 20. Figure 6.1 Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Attachment Categories
- 21. Personality, Temperament, and Self-Concept Definitions Personality: Stable patterns in how people relate to those around them Temperament: Basic behavioral and emotional predispositions
- 22. Personality, Temperament, and Self-Concept Dimensions of Temperament Dimensions of temperament: How are these theorist alike? Different? Thomas and Chess Buss and Plomin How might results differ when temperament is viewed as a trait rather than a category?
- 23. Personality, Temperament, and Self-Concept Origins and Stability of Temperament Heredity Identical twins more alike in temperament than fraternal twins Long-term Stability Stable across long periods of time
- 24. Personality, Temperament, and Self-Concept Neurological Processes Heredity Basic differences in behaviors related to underlying neurological processes Neurotransmitters regulate brain responses to new information and unusual situations. Still difficult to demonstrate conclusively that neurological differences are cause or effect
- 25. Personality, Temperament, and Self-Concept Origins and Stability of Temperament Environment Sandra Scarr Niche-picking Thomas and Chess Goodness of fit Synchronous relationships Parental influence with children at temperamental extremes
- 26. Personality, Temperament, and Self-Concept Understanding Infant Sense of Self
- 27. Stop and Think! During the same months in which infants are developing an internal model of attachment and exploring their own unique temperament, they are also developing a unique sense of self. What implication does this have for parents and caregivers?
- 28. Personality, Temperament, and Self- Concept Self-concept The subjective self Awareness by the child that he is separate from others and endures over time Appears by 8–12 months at the same time as object permanence Self-concept The objective self Toddler comes to understand he is an object in the world. The self has properties, such as gender.
- 29. Personality, Temperament, and Self- Concept Studying Self-Awareness Rouge test (Lewis and Brooks) Children at 21 months show self-recognition in a mirror. What does this tell us about children’s development? How do you know?
- 30. Figure 6.2: The Rouge Test
- 31. Personality, Temperament, and Self- Concept The Emotional Self First, babies learn to identify changes in emotional expression. Gradually they learn to “read” and respond to facial expressions. With age and experience, infants learn to interpret emotional perceptions of others to anticipate actions and guide own behavior.
- 32. True or False? Nonparental, quality care is beneficial for all children.
- 33. Effects of Nonparental Care Overview Arrangements vary considerably. Time in care varies. Some children in multiple care settings Younger children less likely to receive nonparental care
- 34. Figure 6.3 Nonparental Care Arrangements for Children under 6 in the U.S.
- 35. Effects of Nonparental Care Effects on Cognitive Development High-quality daycare has beneficial effects, especially for children from poor families. Later scores in reading and math related to daycare entry age and poverty
- 36. Effects of Nonparental Care Effects on Social Development Infant daycare has negative effects on attachment if started under 1 year. Parents whose behaviors are associated with insecure attachment have children who are negatively affected by early daycare. Early day care associated with greater risks for social problems in school-age children
- 37. Effects of Nonparental Care Research Challenges Complex interaction among numerous variables in all care types Nonparental care varies in quality and structure. Maternal attitudes toward care arrangement vary. Multiple care settings difficult to separate
- 38. Effects of Nonparental Care What’s Responsible? Nonparental care may induce child stress, causing higher levels of cortisol. Variations in ways stress-induced related to child age and temperament Individual and gender differences interact with nonparental care.
Editor's Notes
- #4: Freud Psychosexual stage: related to infant attempts at needs satisfaction Oral stage: derive satisfaction from the mouth Mother-child symbiotic relationship between mother and child Fixation could later result in swearing, nail biting. Erikson Trust versus mistrust Helping the infant get its needs met consistently Social relationships go beyond feeding. The symbiotic relationship helps develop the infant’s sense of both attachment and separation.
- #5: Synchrony—like a conversation, an emotional dance between mother and child Synchrony: Opportunity for parent-infant development of mutual, interlocking pattern of attachment behaviors Takes practice over time to develop until each participant follows the other Highly synchronous six- to eight-month-old infants: Have larger vocabularies at age two Have higher intelligence scores at age three
- #6: In Bowlby’s view, “the propensity to make strong emotional bonds to particular individuals [is] a basic component of human nature, already present in germinal form in the neonate” (Bowlby, 1988a, p. 3). While Bowlby and Ainsworth saw mothers as the most likely person to have an attachment, others could be attached as well. Such a relationship has survival value because it ensures that the infant will receive nurturance. The relationship is built and maintained by an interlocking repertoire of instinctive behaviors that create and sustain proximity between parent and child. First two years of life constitute a sensitive period for attachment in human infants.
- #8: Father’s bond with infant The relationship depends on synchrony. Fathers have the same repertoire as mothers.In early weeks, fathers touch, talk to, and cuddle the baby. After first few weeks, fathers begin to spend more time playing with baby. More physical roughhousing
- #10: 1. Nonfocused orienting and signaling (birth through three months) Uses an innate set of behavior patterns to signal needs Proximity promoting behaviors 2. Focus on one or more figures (three to six months) 3. Secure base behavior (six to twenty-four months) Proximity seeking behaviors Most important person used as a safe base for explorations 4. Internal model (twenty-four months and beyond) A child can imagine how her behavior would affect the bonds with her caregiver. Smiles more at people who regularly care for her
- #11: 1. Nonfocused orienting and signaling (birth through three months) Uses an innate set of behavior patterns to signal needs Proximity promoting behaviors 2. Focus on one or more figures (three to six months) 3. Secure base behavior (six to twenty-four months) Proximity seeking behaviors Most important person used as a safe base for explorations 4. Internal model (twenty-four months and beyond) A child can imagine how her behavior would affect the bonds with her caregiver. Smiles more at people who regularly care for her
- #12: Once clear attachment is established, related behavior begins appearing. Stranger anxiety Cling to mother when strangers are present Separation anxiety Infants cry and protest when separated from mother. Social referencing Use cues from caregiver facial expressions Helps to figure out novel situations Helps to learn to regulate emotions Separation anxiety occurs between six to eight months, rises in frequency until about twelve to sixteen months, and then declines. Social referencing begins at about ten months.
- #13: Mary Ainsworth: The Strange situation Protocol Series of eight episodes played in a laboratory Children between twelve and eighteen months Scenarios: With mother With mother and a stranger Alone with stranger Completely alone for a few minutes Reunited with the mother Alone again With the stranger again Reunited with the mother The reunion episodes provide the best assessment of attachment strength.
- #14: Internal models: pictures of their relationships with parents and other key adults By age 5, child has clear internal models of the mother, a self model, and a model of relationships.
- #15: Several characteristics influence the attachment process: Emotional availability Caregiver who is able and willing to form an emotional attachment Contingent responsiveness Caregivers who are sensitive to the child’s cues and respond appropriately Both are essential to the formation of a secure attachment. Economically or emotionally distressed parents may be too distracted by their problems which prevents the investment of emotions in the parent–infant relationship.
- #16: Insecure/avoidant attachment Mother rejects or regularly withdraws from infant. Mother overly intrusive or overly stimulating Insecure/ambivalent attachment Primary caregiver inconsistently or unreliably available to child Insecure/disorganized attachment Likely when child has been abused, or when parent has unresolved childhood trauma When a child’s family environment or life circumstances are relatively consistent, the security or insecurity also seem to remain consistent. When the child’s family changes—if (for example) there is a divorce—the attachment may change.
- #17: Psychiatric illness Depressed mothers interact less. Married parents produce more secure attachments than cohabiting or single parents. Higher education produces better attachments. Poverty is difficult on attachment. Older mothers display more sensitive caregiving skills. Children of depressed mothers are more likely to display aggression and social withdrawal in school.
- #21: Some forms of secure attachments appear in all cultures. Secure attachment is the most common category. Israel and Japan have more ambivalent than avoidant attachments. The Strange Situation may not effectively measure these cultures. Mothers in Japan are rarely separated from their infants. Children in Israel are raised in group settings. German researchers suggest avoidant shows up because mothers give rather explicit training toward greater independence. Avoidance of overinterpretation important!
- #23: Thomas and Chess: activity level, rhythmicity, approach/withdrawal, adaptability to new experiences, threshold of responsiveness, intensity of reaction, quality of mood, distractibility, and persistence Other theorists, such as Buss and Plomin, have identified three dimensions: activity level, emotionality, and sociability.
- #24: Kagan asserts that shyness is based on differing thresholds for arousal in the parts of the brain that control responses to uncertainty: the amygdala and the hypothalamus. Dopamine and serotonin: genes that regulate these chemicals fail to protect the child from over-stimulation.
- #25: Kagan asserts that shyness is based on differing thresholds for arousal in the parts of the brain that control responses to uncertainty: the amygdala and the hypothalamus. Dopamine and serotonin: genes that regulate these chemicals fail to protect the child from over-stimulation.
- #26: Environment Sandra Scarr: Niche picking Thomas and Chess: Goodness of fit Synchronous relationships may modify heredity effects. Parental influence is greater with children at the extremes of the temperament continuum.
- #27: Environment Sandra Scarr: Niche picking Thomas and Chess: Goodness of fit Synchronous relationships may modify heredity effects. Parental influence is greater with children at the extremes of the temperament continuum.
- #28: Environment Sandra Scarr: Niche picking Thomas and Chess: Goodness of fit Synchronous relationships may modify heredity effects. Parental influence is greater with children at the extremes of the temperament continuum.
- #29: Objective self: the self also has properties, such as gender, size, a name, and qualities like shyness or boldness, coordination or clumsiness. It is this self-awareness that is the hallmark of the “me” self.
- #30: Rouge test (Lewis and Brooks) Ask: What does this mean? Why do you think this occurs? Children at twenty-one months show self-recognition in the mirror. Same age that children name themselves, use “I,” “me,” and “mine” Same time when maturity of region of brain where temporal and parietal lobes meet
- #31: Classic study shows the rate at which children refer to themselves by name and touch or do not touch rouge dot on nose.
- #32: Babies learn to identify changes in emotional expression. Starts at two to three months Infants can “read” and respond to facial expressions. Around seven months Babies interpret emotional perceptions of others to anticipate and guide actions. Respond to much wider variety of emotions and distinguish among happy, surprised, angry, interested, sad Around one year Emotion perceptions of others help babies to anticipate others’ actions and guide their own behavior.
- #33: 1970: 18 percent of U.S. married women with children under 6 were in the labor force. Now: 64 percent are in the workforce at least part-time. At least half of children under 12 months are cared for by someone else at least part-time.
- #34: 1970 :18 percent of U.S. married women with children under 6 were in the labor force. Now: 64 percent are in the workforce at least part-time. At least half of children under 12 months are cared for by someone else at least part-time.
- #35: Children younger than 6 years whose mothers are employed are cared for in a variety of settings.
- #36: Difference in vocabulary: white middle-class children had smaller vocabularies after entering daycare. This difference was not found in black families. Children from poor families who began daycare before age one had higher reading and math scores at the start of school than did children of middle-class families who entered daycare in infancy.
- #37: In 1985, Jay Belsky sounded the alarm about the negative effects of daycare on children under one year of age. Infant daycare has negative effects on attachment if started under one year. Heightened risk for insecure attachment
- #39: Nonparental care may induce child stress, causing higher levels of cortisol. May affect child’s brain development Boys more insecurely attached to caregivers in nonparental care BUT Differences between children in parental and nonparental care are very small.