Emotional and Social
Development
Dr. LIN Dan
1
Outline
Attachment
Early emotional development
Temperament and personality
2
Theories
Psychoanalytic Perspectives
Erikson
Trust versus Mistrust
Helping the infant get its needs met consistently
Social relationships go beyond feeding
3
Theories
John Bowlby: Attachment theory from
Ethological Perspectives
The ability to make strong emotional
bonds is innate
These bonds have survival value
Bonds are maintained by instinctive
behaviors that create and sustain
proximity ( )
4
What is attachment?
+ An attachment ( ) is an emotional bond in
which a persons sense of security is bound up in
the relationship.
+ The child can use the caregiver as a safe base
+ who?
+ When?
+ Biological parents / grandparents / adoption /domestic
helper
+ DEPENDS on quantity and quality of the interactions
5
Harlows experiment:
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The Parents Attachment to the Infant
Synchrony ( )
The opportunity for parent and infant to
develop a mutual, interlocking pattern of
attachment behaviors
Takes practice over time to develop until
each participant follows the other
Highly synchronous 6 8-month-old
infants
Have larger vocabularies at age 2
Have higher intelligence scores at age 3
7
The Parents Attachment to the Infant
+ In the early weeks, fathers and
mothers have the same repertoire (
), such as Touch, talk to, and
cuddle the baby
8
The Parents Attachment to the Infant
After first few weeks,
fathers begin to spend more time playing
with baby. More physical roughhousing
Mothers end up doing more routine
caregiving than fathers. Talk to and smile
at the baby more
Baby benefit tremendously when
both kinds of interaction are available
to them
9
The Infants Attachment to the Parents
Establishing Attachment
Bowlby suggests there are 4 phases
1. Nonfocused orienting and signaling (0
3 months)
Uses an innate set of behavior patterns to
signal needs
Proximity promoting behaviors with everyone
with whom they come into contact
2. Focus on one or more figures (3 6
months)
Smiles at and signals need more to fewer
people, typically who regularly care for her
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The Infants Attachment to the Parents
Establishing Attachment
+ 3. Secure base behavior (6 24
months)
True attachment emerges
Proximity seeking behaviors
Most important person used as a safe
base for explorations
+ 4. Internal working model (
)(24 months and beyond)
Child can imagine how her behavior
would affect the bonds with her 11
Internal Working Model: A person's
mental representation of himself as a
child, his parents, and the nature of
the interactions with the parents as
he reconstructs and interprets their
interaction.
12
The Infants Attachment to the Parents
Attachment Behaviors
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
13
How is attachment assessed in infants?
Mary Ainsworths Strange Situation
Strange situation episodes Infants behavior
1. Infant, caregiver & experimenter
2. Infant & caregiver Quality of play
3. Infant, caregiver & stranger Reaction to stranger
4. Infant & stranger (separation 1) Separation anxiety
5. Infant & caregiver (reunion 1) Reaction to reunion
6. Infant alone (separation 2) Separation anxiety
7. Infant & stranger Ability to be soothed by stranger
8. Infant & caregiver (reunion 2) Reaction to reunion
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4 classifications of infant attachment
a. Secure (65%): Freely explore in
caregivers presence; visibly upset when
caregiver leaves; effectively soothed by
caregiver at reunion
b. Insecure-avoidant/detached (20%):
Active exploration with little attention to
caregiver; little or no distress at reunion;
ignore or avoid caregiver at reunion;
may show more positive behavior with
stranger
15
c. Insecure-resistant/ambivalent (10-
15%): Remain close to caregiver when
present; thoroughly distressed by
separation; mix of proximity seeking
and angry behavior at reunion
d. Disorganized/disoriented (5%):
Confused, contradictory behavior;
dazed, fearful facial expressions; frozen
postures
16
Stability of Attachment Quality
Dependent on childs life circumstances
Attachment is highly stable;
One study: 100% of children secure at 12 mos.
were secure at 6 yrs; 66% for disorganized; but
there are notable exceptions.
Major upheavals can alter attachment
Internal models become elaborated from
when a child is 1 year until age of 4 or 5,
and more resistant to change by age 4
or 5.
17
Questions to Ponder
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?
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Caregiver Characteristics and Attachment
Factors influencing secure attachment
Emotional Responsiveness
Emotional availability
Caregiver who is able and willing to form
an emotional attachment
Contingent Responsiveness
Caregivers who are sensitive to the
childs cues and respond appropriately
Both are essential to formation of a
secure attachment
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Caregiver Characteristics and Attachment
Factors influencing secure attachment
Marital Status: married parents
have
Higher educational background
Higher socio-economic status
Older parents, compared to teenaged
parents
Psychiatric Illness
Depressed mothers interact less
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Attachment Quality: Long Term Consequences
The Securely Attached
More sociable
More positive in relationships with friends
Less clinging and dependent on teachers
Less aggressive and disruptive
More emotionally mature
Continues into adolescence
More likely to be leaders
Have higher self-esteem
21
Attachment Quality: Long Term Consequences
Cognitive Development:
Age 2: Secure babies more enthusiastic,
persistent, curious, exploratory; higher level
symbolic play with mother
Age 7: In task where mother encouraged them to
read,
securely attached children less distractible,
paid more attention to mother, required less
discipline.
This is a Vygotsky-type study: Cognitive
development occurs in a social context with
adults.
22
Social Development: Age 1-3: More
positive emotions, more empathy,
less aggressive, socially skilled, more
friends.
Follow-up at Age 11: children
securely attached as babies were
more confident, more socially
competent, higher self-esteem;
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Peer relations: Securely attached children spent more
time with peers. Form friends with other secure
children.
Internal Working Model is proposed as mechanism: 5-
year-old Children who are insecurely attached are
more likely to interpret an ambiguous event (bumping
into another child) as done with hostile intent
Securely attached children also better at
understanding emotions and regulating their
emotions.
They recall more positive emotional experiences,
while insecurely attached children recall more
negative experiences.
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Attachment Quality: Long Term Consequences
The Securely Attached
Increased sociability throughout
early, middle, and late adulthood
Affects their parenting behaviors
Demonstrates that the
attachment relationship can
become the foundation for future
social relationships
25
Questions to Ponder
Why might an adolescent who was
insecurely attached as an infant
become sexually active earlier and
practice riskier sex? Do you suppose
that particular behaviors may be part
of a continuing spiral of behavior that
is passed from one generation to the
next? List ways to break that spiral.
26
Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Attachment
Categories
Some form of secure attachments appear
in all cultures. Secure attachment is the
most common category.
Differences:
Israeli and Japanese babies more likely to be
ambivalent babies
Mothers in Japan are rarely separated from their
mothers.
Children in Israel are raised in group settings.
German babies more likely be Avoidant babies,
because mothers give rather explicit training toward
greater independence
27
Figure 6.1 Cross-Cultural Comparisons of
Attachment Categories
28
Topics for discussion
Early attachment to later love
relationship/parenting your own children
Hong Kongs special issue: children
cared by maid
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Early Emotional Development
Displaying Emotions
Sequencing of Distinct Emotions
At birth; interest, distress, disgust,
contentment
2-7 months; anger, sadness, joy, surprise,
fear (all basic emotions)
Middle of second year; embarrassment,
shame, pride, guilt, envy
Self-recognition and self-evaluation
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Figure 11.1 Young infants display a variety of emotional expressions.
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Table 11.1 Summary of Age of Appearance of Different Emotions
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The Beginnings of Specific Emotions
Smiling
Smiling is the first expression of
pleasure
Smiling:
Reflex smiling: Birth to 3-4 weeks.
Spontaneous, not in response to any stimulus.
Weeks 3-8: Smile in response to external
elicitorssuch as faces. The Duchenne Smile;
face lights up with pleasure, including
wrinkles around the eyes.
Special smile toward mother at 10 mos.
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Girls smile more than boys' could be
evolved bias to greater social interest;
this results in more social interaction
for girls.
Figure 1: laughter in infancy is
increasingly caused by social (making
faces) and visual stimuli; less by
tactile ( ) (e.g., tickling)
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Laughter at stimuli (percent) What Makes Children Laugh?
35 Social
30
Visual
25
20
Tactile
15
10 Auditory
5
0
4-6 7-9 10-12
Age (in months)
35
Fig. 1
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Fear
Wariness ( ) (3 mos.): distress in
response to events they cant assimilate (
); strangers are objects of interest and
wariness, but not immediate negative
reaction.
Fear: negative reaction to event with
specific meaning, such as a stranger.
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Individual differences in fearfulness
Relation to Temperament?
Contextual Features
Stranger characteristics
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Stranger anxiety
- Fear of stranger
- Emerges in 6-7 months
- Peaks in 8-10 months
- Declines over 2nd year
38
Separation anxiety
- Fear of being away from caregiver
- Emerges by end of 1st year
- Peaks in 14-20 months
- Declines over preschool years
39
Social referencing
Use of another persons emotional
reaction as guidance for ones own
responses, especially in unfamiliar
situations (8-10 months)
Visual Cliff Study: Babies attend to mothers
emotional expressions to get information on
what to do.
40
41
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Pride, Guilt, Jealousy, and Shame
Pride, Guilt, Jealousy, and Shame: The
Self-Conscious Emotions
Emerge toward middle of second year
(~18 mos.) Require a sense of self;
Rouge test: Before this age, children
show no embarrassment when seeing
themselves in a mirror with rouge on
their face
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Children recognizing themselves (percent) Whats That On My Nose?
80
70
60 Lewis &
Brooks-
50 Gunns study
40
Amsterdams
study
30
20
10
0
9-12 15-18 21-24
Age (in
months)
43
Fig. 3
True guilt emerges only in middle
childhood, around age 9 when children
have a clear sense of personal
responsibility
Younger children will say they are guilty
but seem not to understand that their
own responsibility is critical.
Differentiating between pride and shame
is linked to task performance and
responses from others
44
New York Longitudinal Study
(Thomas & Chess)
9 dimensions of temperament ( / )
Mood: Predominant quality positive vs. negative
Activity: Proportion of time active vs. inactive
Rhythm: Regularity of biological cycles predictable vs.
unpredictable
Threshold ( ): Sensitivity to stimulation noticing vs. not
noticing small changes
Intensity: Strength of emotional reactions extreme highs
and lows vs. mellow
Approach/Withdrawal: Response to novelty bold vs. shy
Adaptability: Response to environmental changes rolling
with the punches vs. slow to acclimate
Persistence: Response to challenges and obstacles
keeping at it vs. giving up
Distractibility: Ability to focus attention noticing every
distraction vs. concentration
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4 types of temperament
- Easy (40%): Positive mood; rhythmic in
body functions; adaptable; mild reactions
- Difficult (10%): Negative mood;
arrhythmic in body functions; inadaptable;
intense reactions
- Slow-to-warm-up (15%): Low in activity;
withdrawal from novelty; slow to adapt; mild
reactions
- Average (35%): Not particularly high or
low on any dimensions
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Temperament: Nature versus.
Nurture?
- Childs innate personality
- Environment
- Goodness of fit: Good fit desirable
outcomes; Poor fit undesirable
outcomes
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What is Personality?
An individuals characteristic patterns of
thought, emotion, and behavior, together
with the psychological mechanisms
hidden or notbehind those patterns
Basically, what makes a self: What makes
one individual similar and different from
another individual?
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Types of personality
assessment
Projective tests
Rorschach inkblot
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Other more objective tests, for example
Big Five
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI)
Cattells sixteen traits
Big Five personality traits
Longitudinal research suggests some
stability
Emerge during middle childhood
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism
Openness
Early temperament and
later personality
References
Textbook
Funder, D. C. (2010). The Personality
Puzzle. New York: W. W. Norton.
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