CHAPTER 6 SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY

CHAPTER 6 SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY

Learning Objectives LO 6 -1 Do infants experience emotions? LO 6 -2 What sort of mental lives do infants have? LO 6 -3 What is attachment in infancy and how does it affect a person's future social competence? LO 6 -4 What roles do other people play in infants’ social development? LO 6 -5 What individual differences distinguish one infant from another? LO 6 -6 How does non-parental child care impact infants?

DEVELOPING THE ROOTS OF SOCIABILITY

Emotions in Infancy: Do Infants Experience Emotional Highs and Lows? • Infants display facial expressions indicative of their emotional states • Basic expressions are remarkably similar across the most diverse cultures

Infant Emotional Expressions Izard (MAX) • At birth: – Interest – Distress – Disgust • Over next months: – Clues of other emotions emerge • Kinds and degree of emotions expressed vary • Mirrors Darwin's 1872 inborn expressions view is valid

Infant Emotional Expressions Figure 6 -2 Emergence of Emotional Expressions Emotional expressions emerge at roughly the times shown in the figure. Keep in mind that expressions in the first few weeks after birth do not necessarily reflect particular inner feelings.

But…what are emotions? Developmentalists believe that true emotions have three components: – Biological arousal – Cognitive component – Behavioral components • Nonverbal expressions of infants represent actual emotional experiences (sometimes called nonverbal encoding) • Emotional expressions may not only reflect emotional experiences, but may also help regulate the emotion itself

Interpreting Infant Emotional Expressions Two Different Views • Infants display adult-like • Infant nonverbal expressions represent emotional experiences • If displays are innate, facial expressions may • Expressions may help occur without to regulate emotion as accompanying cognitive basic expressions are referents -- reflexive modified and better controlled with age -adaptive

Emotional Development in Infants • Infants do appear to experience emotions, although the range of emotions at birth is fairly restricted. • Older infants both display and experience a wider range of increasingly complex emotions. • As children develop they also experience a wider array of emotions.

When young feelings and hearts meet… • Advances in infants’ emotional life are made possible by increasing sophistication of brain • Initially, differentiation of emotions occurs as cerebral cortex becomes operative in first three months of life • By age of 9 or 10 months, structures that make up limbic system (the site of emotional reactions) begin to grow • Limbic system starts to work in tandem with frontal lobes, allowing for increased range of emotions

Limbic System • Located on both sides of the thalamus, right under the cerebrum. • Not a separate object but a collection of structures • Includes the olfactory bulbs, hippocampus, amygdala, anterior thalamic nuclei, fornix, column of fornix, mamillary body, septum pellucidum, habenular commisure, cingulate gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, limbic cortex, limbic midbrain areas and pons. • Supports a variety of functions: emotion, motivation, long -term memory, and olfaction • Primarily responsible for – emotional life – formation of memories.

Who IS that strange person, anyway? • Stranger anxiety – Memory develops ability to recognize familiar people emerges abililty to anticipate and predict events increases appearance of unknown person causes fear – Commonly starts around 6 months – Significant difference among infants and situations • Ameliorated by: – Exposure to lots of people – Gender (Females less fear invoking) – Age (Children less fear invoking) – Individual differences

Separation Anxiety • the distress displayed by infants when a customary care provider leaves their presence. • a universal phenomenon across cultures/races • begins around seven or eight months. • peaks around 14 months • begins to decline after 14/15 months • Attributable to same factors as stranger anxiety • There are individual differences • May reappear in the elderly.

Separation Anxiety

Smiling Really? !! • Earliest smiles: little meaning • 6 to 9 weeks: Really? !! – Begin reliable smiling – Smile first relatively indiscriminate then selective • 18 months: – Social smiling more frequent toward humans than nonhuman objects (Dogs? ) • End of 2 nd year: – Use smiling purposefully – Show sensitivity to emotional expressions of others

Decoding Others’ Facial and Vocal Expressions Imitative abilities may pave way for nonverbal decoding Infants interpret facial & vocal expressions that carry meaning – In first 6 to 8 weeks little attention paid to facial expressions due to limited visual precision – By 4 months understand underlying emotions tied to facial and vocal expressions of others – By 5 months discriminate happy and sad vocal expressions – By 7 months respond to appropriately matched vocal/facial expressions

Social referencing • The intentional search for information about others’ feelings to help explain the meaning of uncertain circumstances and events. (Do dogs do this? ) • This is a fairly sophisticated social ability • Infants need it – To understand the significance of others’ behavior, • Uses cues like facial expressions – To understand the meaning of those behaviors • within the context of a specific situation.

If you’re happy and she knows it… • Social referencing – First occurs around 8 -9 months – Intentional search for cues • Functions – Aids in understanding others’ behavior in context – Plays important role in helping infants experience own emotions – Helps in using others to understand meaning of ambiguous social situations

How does social referencing operate? Two explanations: Observing someone else's facial expression brings about emotion expression represents Viewing another's facial expression simply provides information But ‘of age’ infants become upset when adults provide conflicting cues

Do infants really know who they are?

Self Awareness • “Standard test for Intelligent Animals “Mirror Test” – Nearly all great apes: – Humans Bonobos – Chimpanzees – Orangutans – Gorillas (some) – Bottlenose dolphins – Orcas – Elephants – European Magpies – only non-mammal to pass – Very young infants do not have self awareness – they don’t recognize themselves in photos or mirrors.

Self Awareness 2 But it’s more complicated than this: • Most dogs quickly learn to ignore their reflection in a mirror. This is interpreted as ‘failing” the test. • But dogs react to OTHER dog’s reflections. • Dogs USE mirrors to watch their owners & reliably respond to owners reflected hand commands • Dogs use mirrors to find hidden food • So, perhaps dogs are just not interested in looking at themselves!

Development of Self-Awareness Roots of self-awareness • Begin to grow around 12 months • Influenced by cultural upbringing Research • Rouge spot – Average awareness begins 17/18 to 24 months • Complicated tasks requests – Awareness of inabilities around 23 -24 months

Just Think About That! Theory of mind • Knowledge & beliefs about how the mind works & influences behavior • Infant perspectives on mental lives of self and others • Child explanations used to explain how others think

How does a theory of mind develop? • begin to understand that others’ behaviors – have meaning – behaviors they see people enacting are designed to accomplish particular goals – in contrast to the “behaviors” of inanimate objects. • See other people as compliant agents (beings similar to themselves who behave under their own power and respond to the infant's requests. ) • Begin to understand causality and intentionality

How does a theory of mind develop? As capacity to understand intentionality and causality grows infants: • During 2 nd year demonstrate rudiments of empathy • an emotional response that corresponds to the feelings of another person. • At 24 months of age sometimes comfort others • Show concern for others • Must be aware of the emotional states of others.

How does a theory of mind develop? Around 2 years • Begin to use deception to fool others • A child who plays “pretend” and who uses falsehoods • must be aware others hold beliefs about the world • These beliefs can be manipulated.

FORMING RELATIONSHIPS

What is attachment? Attachment • Positive emotional bond that develops between a child and a particular, special individual • When children experience attachment to a given person • they feel pleasure when they are with them • They feel comforted by their presence when in distress. • Most important aspect of infant social development

Understanding Attachment • Earliest animal research suggests attachment based on biologically determined factors – Lorenz imprinted goslings – Harlow contactseeking monkeys Figure 6 -4 Monkey Mothers Matter Harlow's research showed that monkeys preferred the warm, soft “mother” to the wire “monkey” that provided food.

Lorenz • Ethologist • Ethology is the scientific and objective study of animal behavior. • Imprinting is the behavior that takes place during a critical period and involves attachment to the first moving object that is observed.

Harry Harlow • Debunked zeitgeist that babies bonded w/ mothers because of substance. • He gave infant monkeys the choice of – cuddling a wire “monkey” that provided food – a soft, terry cloth monkey that was warm but did not provide food. • Baby monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth monkey, although they made occasional expeditions to the wire monkey to nurse. • Harlow suggested that the preference for the warm cloth monkey provided contact comfort.

Understanding Attachment Earliest human research suggests attachment based on needs for safety and security Bowlby: – Attachment provides home base through qualitatively unique relationship with individual who best provides safety and security – Attachment provides a type of home base – As children become more independent, they progressively roam further away from their secure base

How Strange! Ainsworth Strange Situation and Patterns of Attachment • Widely used experimental technique to measure attachment • Sequence of staged episodes that illustrate strength of attachment between child and (typically) mother

Do all infants attach? • Reactions to Strange Situation vary considerably • One-year-olds typically show one of three major patterns • A fourth has been added

And then there were four… Recent expansion of Ainsworth work suggests fourth category • Disorganized-disoriented – Inconsistent, contradictory, and confused behavior – May be least securely attached – Reactive attachment disorder

Reactive Attachment Disorder • cases where development of attachment has been severely disrupted • children may suffer from a psychological problem characterized by extreme problems in forming attachments to others. • In young children, it can be displayed in feeding difficulties, unresponsiveness to social overtures from others, and a general failure to thrive. • It is rare and typically the result of abuse or neglect. • Often seen in abused animals.

Does the quality of attachment have significant consequences for later life relationships? Yes • Securely attached 1 -yearold males show fewer psychological difficulties at older ages • Securely attached infants are more socially and emotionally competent later and more positively viewed • Adult romantic relationships are associated with attachment style developed during infancy But • Children who do not have a secure attachment style during infancy do not invariably experience difficulties later in life • Children with a secure attachment at age 1 do not always have good adjustment later in life

What roles do parents play in producing attachment? Mothers • Sensitivity to their infants’ needs and desires is hallmark of mothers of securely attached infants – Aware of moods and feelings – Responsive in face-to-face interactions – Feeds “on demand” – Demonstrates warmth and affection – Responds rapidly and positively to cues

interactional synchrony • Caregivers respond to infants appropriately and both caregiver and child match emotional states. • Mothers of secure infants tend to provide the appropriate level of response using interactional synchrony • Conversely • Mothers produce insecurely attached infants by – ignoring infant’s behavioral cues – behave inconsistently with them – ignore or reject their social efforts.

How do mothers learn to respond? • Mothers typically respond to their infants based on their own attachment styles Mothers learn from • Generational attachment patterns • Infant's ability to provide effective cues • Participation in interactional synchrony

What roles do parents play in producing attachment? Early research • Bowlby suggested uniqueness of mother-infant relationship • Early traditional social views consider mother care to be “natural” Contemporary view • Fathers’ expressions of nurturance, warmth, affection, support, and concern are extremely important to infant emotional and social well-being

Do all infants attach to only one parent? Infants’ social bonds extend beyond their parents, especially as they grow older • Most infants form their first primary relationship with one person • One-third have multiple relationships • By 18 months, most infants have formed multiple relationships

Baby loves ME best…or maybe just differently • Nature of maternal and paternal attachment differs • Qualitative difference related to what parents do with infants • Under stress, most infants prefer to be soothed by their mother rather than by their father.

So…what DO parents do all day? Mothers feed and nurture and fathers play…

Moms vs. Dads • Mothers spend a greater proportion of their time feeding and directly nurturing their children. • In contrast, fathers spend more time, proportionally, playing with infants. • Almost all fathers do contribute to child care: – Surveys show that 95 percent say they do some childcare chores every day. – But on average they still do less than mothers.

Parental Play • Nature of fathers’ play with their babies is often quite different from that of mothers. • Fathers engage in more physical, rough-and-tumble activities with their children. • Mothers play traditional games such as peek-a-boo and games with more verbal elements. • These differences in the ways that fathers and mothers play with their children occur even in the minority of families in the United States in which the father is the primary caregiver.

Cultural Differences • Differences in ways fathers and mothers play with their children occur in many US families and in very diverse cultures • Fathers in Australia, Israel, India, Japan, Mexico, and even in the Aka Pygmy tribe in central Africa all engage more in play than in caregiving • Even though the amount of time they spend with their infants varies widely. How then does culture affect attachment?

Developmental Diversity Does attachment differ across cultures? • Research findings suggest human attachment is not as culturally universal as Bowlby predicted • Certain attachment patterns seem more likely among infants of particular cultures: – Germany – most fell into the avoidant category. – Israel and Japan – smaller proportion of infants who were securely attached – China and Canada – Chinese children are more inhibited than Canadians in the Strange Situation.

Developmental Diversity Research Problems • Most of the data on attachment have been obtained by using the Ainsworth Strange Situation • This may not be the most appropriate measure in non. Western cultures.

Which conclusion is “Right”?

Feldman's Conclusions • Attachment is viewed as susceptible to cultural norms and expectations • Cross-cultural and within-cultural differences reflect nature of measure employed and expectations of various cultures

Feldman's Conclusions • Attachment should be viewed as a general tendency • It varies in way it is expressed according to how actively caregivers in a society seek to instill independence in their children • USA values independency so it may provide an extreme case (MVT).

Feldman's Conclusions • Secure attachment, as defined by the Western-oriented Strange Situation, is seen earliest in cultures that promote independence, but may be delayed in societies in which independence is less important cultural value

Mom’s Interactions • Across almost all cultures, mothers behave in typical ways with their infants. • They tend to exaggerate their facial and vocal expressions—the nonverbal equivalent of the infantdirected speech that they use when they speak to infants. • Similarly, they often imitate their infants’ behavior, responding to distinctive sounds and movements by repeating them.

Mom Games Across Cultures • There are even types of games, such as peek-a-boo, itsy -bitsy spider, and pat-a-cake, that are nearly universal. • In pat-a-cake, both infant and parent act jointly to regulate turn-taking behavior • At 3 months, infants and their mothers have about the same influence on each other's behavior • By 6 months, infants have more control over turn taking, • By 9 months once again become roughly equivalent in terms of mutual influence.

Developing Working Relationships • Relationship development is ongoing process – Communication of emotional states facilitated through mutual regulation model – Young infants are able to read, or decode, and react to facial expressions of their caregivers through reciprocal socialization

Sequence of Infant-Caregiver Interaction

Hey Baby, Baby! Infants’ sociability with their peers • From earliest months – Smile, laugh, and vocalize while looking at peers – Show more interest in peers than inanimate objects – Show preference for familiar peers • By nine to twelve months – Present and accept toys from peers – Play social games – Expecially with peers they know

“Expert” Infants With age, infants begin to imitate each other • Impart information and skills from “experts” infant peers • Abilities learned from the “experts” are retained and later utilized to a remarkable degree • May be inborn skill • Recent evidence shows that even 6 -week-old infants can perform delayed imitation of a novel stimulus to which they have earlier been exposed

Mirror, mirror, in the brain… Mirror neurons (inferior frontal gyrus ) • Fire not only when an individual enacts particular behavior, but also when individual simply observes another organism carrying out same behavior • Help infants understand others’ actions and to develop theory of mind • Dysfunction may be related to some developmental disorders –Theories of Mind –Autism

! e m i T t x e N DIFFERENCES AMONG INFANTS

Characteristics That Make Infants Unique Personality • Sum total of enduring characteristics differentiating one individual from another • From birth onward, infants begin to show unique, stable traits and behaviors that ultimately lead to their development as distinct, special individuals

What were YOU like?

Erikson: Psychosocial Development Early experiences responsible for shaping key aspects of personalities • Stage 1: trust versus mistrust – Trust = sense of hope and success – Mistrust = sense of harsh, unfriendly world • Stage 2: autonomy-versus-shame-and-doubt stage – Autonomy = sense of independence – Shame and doubt = sense of self-doubt and unhappiness

Another View: Temperament and Stabilities in Infant Behavior What is temperament?

How does temperament apply to infants? Temperament • Refers to how children behave, as opposed to what they do or why they do it • Displays as differences in general disposition from birth, largely due initially to genetic factors • Tends to be fairly stable well into adolescence • Is not fixed and unchangeable and can be modified by childrearing practices

Dimensions of Temperament

Categorizing Temperament Babies can be described according to one of several temperament profiles: Easy babies Difficult babies Inconsistently Slow-to-warm categorized up babies

Does temperament matter?

Biological Basis of Temperament Overview • Recent approaches to temperament grow out of behavioral genetics framework • Temperamental characteristics seen as inherited traits that are stable across the lifespan For example, physiological reactivity to novel stimuli • Clear biological basis underlying inhibition to the unfamiliar – Rapid increase in heartbeat, blood pressure, pupil dilation, and high excitability of brain's limbic system

True or false? Behavior exhibited by girls and boys is interpreted in very different ways by adults.

How is this difference manifested? • Parent-child play patterns • Different styles of activity and interaction from parents • Parental gender-based interpretation of child behavior

Gender Differences Adults view behavior of children through lens of gender • All cultures prescribe gender roles for males and females • These roles differ greatly between cultures • Considerable amount of disagreement over extent and causes of gender differences • Differences between male and female infants, are generally minor

Gender Roles Gender differences emerge with age • By age 1: – Able to distinguish between males and females – Girls prefer to play with dolls or stuffed animals, while boys seek out blocks and trucks • By age 2: – Boys behave more independently and less compliantly than girls • May be reinforced by parental choices or by hormonal levels

And so… • Differences in behavior between boys and girls begin in infancy and continue throughout childhood (and beyond) • Although gender differences have complex causes, representing some combination of innate, biologically related factors and environmental factors • These differences play profound role in social and emotional development of infants

Family Life in 21 st Century • Number of single-parent families has increased dramatically in last two decades • Average size of families is shrinking • Despite overall decline, half million births to teenage women, the vast majority of whom are unmarried • Close to 50 percent of children under age of 3 are cared for by other adults while their parents work, and more than half of mothers of infants work outside home • One in three US children lives in low income households

Where Are Children Cared For?

Good news, bad news! Good news: Direct benefits • High-quality child care outside home produces only minor differences Good news: Indirect benefits • Children in lower income households and those whose mothers are single may benefit Bad news: • Infants less secure when in low-quality child care • Children who spend long hours lower have ability to work independently • Children who spend ten or more hours a week in group child care for a year or more have an increased probability of being disruptive in class

How would you. . . • Advise a new parent about research-based, potential effects of child care on their newborn? • Identify a quality child care center in your own town or city?

Choosing the Right Infant Care Provider The American Psychological Association suggests that parents consider these questions in choosing a program: • Are there enough providers? • Are group sizes manageable? • Has the center complied with all governmental regulations, and is it licensed? • Do the people providing the care seem to like what they are doing?