1. Emotional Development

2. Module Objectives Chapter 9
Why do people have emotions?
At what ages do children begin to experience and express different emotions?
What is attachment?
When do children begin to understand other people’s emotions?

3. Andriea was so excited to meet her 7-month-old nephew Colin
Andriea was so excited to meet her 7-month-old nephew Colin. She rushed up to him while he was playing on the floor with his truck and swept him up in a big hug. After a brief, confused look, Colin burst into angry tears, as if to say “who are you? Put me down right now!
Think on your own…
Identify some of the emotions Colin may have felt. Also, what emotions could Andreia have felt?

4. Expressing Emotions
When reviewing the situation with Colin and Andreia joy, anger and surprise all appeared. These are considered “basic emotions”
Emotion is the language of a person's mental state of being, they are tied to the person's internal (physical) and external (social) sensory feeling.

5. Why do people feel emotions?
Modern research suggests that emotions are useful because they help people adapt to their environment (Izard & Ackerman, 2000).
For example, you’re walking down a dark street late one night. You become frightened…how does this affect your behavior?
The fear is adaptive because it allows you to organize your behavior around an important goal- avoiding danger.

6. Basic Emotions
Joy, anger, surprise, interest, disgust, distress, sadness and fear are all classified as “basic emotions” (Dragh-Lorenz, 2001).
Basic emotions are experienced by people worldwide and each consists of three elements:
A subjective feeling
A physiological change
An overt behavior

7. For example- you wake to the sound of a thunderstorm and then discover your roommate took your umbrella.
Subjectively you might be angry, physiologically your heart might be beating faster and overtly you might be scowling

8. How can we determine emotions in infants?
Facial expressions provide important clues about which emotion the child is experiencing…but they are only one component of emotion

9. Identify the Correct Emotion!
Fear
Disgust
Anger
Sadness
Interest
Joy
Interest: Brows raised, mouth may be rounded, lips may be pursed
Fear: mouth retraced, brows level and drawn up and in, eyelids lifted
Disgust: tongue protruding, upper lip raised, nose wrinkled
Anger: mouth squared at corners, brows drawn together and pointing down, eyes fixed straight ahead
Sadness: corners of the mouth turned down, inner portion of brows raised
Joy: bright eyes, cheeks lifted, mouth forms a smile

10. How did you do?
FEAR
DISGUST
INTEREST
ANGER
SADNESS
JOY

12. Facial Expressions
Do facial expressions accurately reflect an infant’s emotional state?
YES! Research has shown that infants (and adults) worldwide express basic emotions in the same way.
Humans have universal emotional expression, which suggests that we are biologically programmed to express emotions in a specific way.
How much of this is innate?
How much of this is based on experience?
Early on it may be hard to differentiate anger, fear, disgust from one another. Parents may attribute one emotion based on their own subjective experience but it may be the correct emotion

13. Development of Basic Emotions
Infants experience only two general emotions
pleasure and distress.
This will rapidly change and more discrete emotions will develop, by 9 months infants are thought to experience all basic emotions.
First few weeks of life:
Smiles related to internal physiological states, after feeding, or while asleep
Around 2-3 months:
Social smile appears (sometimes it is accompanied by cooing) – infant’s way of expressing pleasure at seeing another person
By 6-9 weeks – smiling occurs at the sight of toys, mobiles, and people
By 4 months:
Smiling is joined by laughter – usually when the baby experiences vigorous physical stimulation (such as tickling or bouncing on the knee)
By 1 year:
Infants laugh when a familiar event takes a novel turn. For example, an infant will laugh when her mother pretends to drink from a baby bottle or when a father drapes a diaper around his waist. Laughter is now a response to psychological stimulation as well as physical stimulation
By 18 months:
Social smiles become more frequent than smiling directed at nonhuman objects

14. Positive Emotions Smiles First month  reflex response
By 6 weeks  the social smile appears
By 7 months smiles toward people; encourages interaction and bonding
Laughing
By 3 to 4 months  during activities (i.e., playing)
By 1 year  response to unexpected events
By 2 years  response to own behavior or attempting to make others laugh

15. Reflexive Smile in a Sleeping Newborn
Reflexive smiles during sleep happen primarily during REM
Social smiles (start around 6-7 weeks of age) – mostly by the 3rd month
Occur frequently during interactions with parents and tend to elicit the parent’s delight, interest, and affection. This reaction from the parents then is likely to promote social smiling in the infant
Smiles occur with interesting objects as well as people – humans are much more likely to make an infant smile (considered a social smile if toward people)
By 7 months, infants start to smile primarily at familiar people rather than to just people in general. Unfamiliar people will start to elicit distress rather than smiles.
By 2 years, smiles are purposeful and are used to communicate positive emotions
Social Smile in an
8-Month-Old Infant

16. Negative Emotions Generalized distress
Newborns  hunger, pain, overstimulation
Anger and/or sadness
2 months  visible facial expression matches situation
Fear and/or distress
6-7 months to 2 years  stranger wariness
7 to 12 months  fear of novel toys, noises, sudden movements
8 to 15 months  separation anxiety
Negative emotions are hard to assess, suggesting undifferentiated distress early in life (response is not always consistent with the situation)
Anger gradually emerges with displays of distinct anger between 4-6 months
Infant will show anger if their favorite food or toy is taken away
As the infant understands goal-directed behavior, the infant will become angry when attempts to achieve a goal are frustrated (i.e., parent restrains an infant from picking up a toy)
Fear:
Stranger wariness starts at 6 months; when a stranger approaches the infant will look away and begin to fuss

17. Stranger Wariness
The emotion of fear is fully developed by 9 months and is expressed in two ways:
Stranger wariness
Separation anxiety
Stranger wariness is the distress that young children experience when they are exposed to people who are unfamiliar to them.
When a stranger approaches, a typical 6-month-old looks away and begins to fuss.
This begins somewhere between 8-9 months of age
reaching its peak at months.
Stranger anxiety – the caution and wariness displayed by infants when encountering an unfamiliar person.
Infants respond more positively to strangers who are children than to strangers who are adults – perhaps because their size is less intimidating.
The amount of anxiety depends on the stranger. Instead of rushing to greet or pick up the baby, the stranger should talk with other adults and after a while offer the baby a toy. Infants will more likely be curious about a stranger who does this rather than afraid.
Stranger anxiety starts to dissipate around 2 years of age. As this fear decreases, other fears take its place. Preschoolers are afraid of the dark, imaginary creatures. Fears decline in elementary school as children learn the difference between reality and appearance.

18. Stranger Wariness
At this time infants begin to realize that all people are not the same, and that the relationship they have with their primary caregivers is special.
How wary an infant feels around strangers depends on a number of factors.
Infants tend to be less fearful of strangers:
When the environment is familiar
If infants are given time to “warm up” to the strangers
Who are female than those who are male

19. Stranger Wariness
Stranger anxiety is adaptive because it emerges at the same time that the child is being to master crawling
Being wary of strangers provides a natural restraint and makes the infant less likely to wander away from familiar caregivers
Stranger anxiety gradually declines as infants learn to interpret facial expressions

20. Separation Anxiety
This is the intense fear or anxiety that occurs when a parent or caregiver leaves the child
This typically develops around the same time as object permanence and is universal across cultures.
Infants’ growing cognitive skills allow them to ask questions with no readily apparent answers
“Why is my mother leaving?”
“Where is she going?”
“Will she come back?”
Separation anxiety is universal across cultures
It peaks around 14 months and then starts to decrease.

21. Development of Complex Emotions
In addition to the basic emotions, people feel complex emotions such as embarrassment, pride, guilt and shame.
These are known as “self-conscious emotions” that involve feelings of success when’s standards are met and feelings of failure when they are not.

22. These complex emotions usually develop between 18 months and 3 years
Research suggests that these complex emotions depend on the child having self-awareness and consciousness of adult reactions (Lewis, 2000).
These complex emotions usually develop between 18 months and 3 years

23. Self-awareness
A foundation for emotional development is the realization that we are distinct individuals- separate from other people.
The emerging sense of “me” and “mine” fosters self-conscious emotions.

24. The onset of self-awareness is evident when infants of various ages are compared.
Very young infants have no sense of self. It is theorized that for the first 4 months, infants see themselves as part of their mothers (Mahler et al., 1975)

25. Later developments
As children grow they continue to experience basic and complex emotions but are elicited by different situations and events.
The cognitive growth elementary school children have means they experience shame and guilt in situations they would not have as preschool children (Reimer, 1996).
Example: unlike preschool children, many school-age children would be ashamed if they neglected to defend a classmate who was wrongfully accused of theft.

26. Identifying Emotions in Others’
By 4 to 7 months infants begin to distinguish facial expressions associated with different emotions.
Infants can distinguish a happy, smiling face from a sad, frowning face- but they may not understand the emotional significance (Ludemann, 1991).
Infants can discriminate facial expressions by 5 months – but they may not understand the significance

27. How can we tell whether infants understand the emotions expressed in a face?
The best evidence of this is that infants often match their own emotions to other people’s emotions (Walker-Andrews, 2001).
When happy mothers smile and talk in a pleasant voice  infants express happiness themselves
When mothers are angry or sad  infants become distressed

28. Twenty-three-month-old Stephanie watches as her older brother Erik and his friend Leo argue loudly with each other and begin to wrestle. Uncertain of what is happening, Stephanie glances at her mother. Her mother, though, wears a smile, knowing that Erik and Leo are just playing. On seeing her mother’s reaction, Stephanie smiles too, mimicking her mother’s facial expression.

29. Social Referencing
By the end of the first year, infants in an unfamiliar or ambiguous environment often look at their mother/father as if searching for cues to help them interpret the situation.
At this age, infants generally use parents’ emotional signals to guide their interpretations of, and reactions to, potentially upsetting or dangerous events and objects.
By the end of the first year, infants generally use parents’ emotional signals to guide their interpretations of, and reactions to, potentially upsetting or dangerous events and objects.
How does it work?
Observing someone else’s facial expression brings about the emotion the expression represents
Viewing someone else’s facial expression may solely provide information
Infants that receive mixed signals from their mothers and fathers become quite upset. Mixed messages are a real source of stress for the infant.
Another example:
Infants were given an unusual toy to play with. The amount of time the infant played with it depended on their mothers’ facial expressions. When their mothers displayed disgust, they played with it significantly less than when their mothers appeared pleased. When given the opportunity to play with the same toy later, the infant revealed lasting consequences of their mothers’ earlier behavior -- despite the mothers’ now neutral facial reactions.
OPTION1: the infant who views someone looking sad may come to feel sad himself, and his behavior may simply be affected by that
OPTION2: the infant does not experience the particular emotion represented by the other person’s facial expression, she simply uses the display as data to guide her own behavior.

30. Parents influence how the child perceives a new object
If the parent looks afraid when shown a novel object, 12-month-olds are less likely to play with the toy than if a parent looks happy (Repacholi, 1998).
Also, social referencing shows that infants are remarkable skilled at using their parent’s emotions to direct their own behavior.

31. As their cognitive skills continue to grow, children begin to understand why people feel as they do.
Example: a kindergarten child knows that unpleasant events often make a person sad or angry (Levine, 1995)
Children at this age also know that they more often feel sad when they think about the undesirable event itself
They can understand that remembering a past sad event can make a person unhappy (Lagattuta, 1997).

32. Display Rules
A social group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions and when and where displays of emotions should be suppressed or masked by displays of other emotions
Prosocial motive
Using verbal or facial display rules to protect someone else’s feelings
Self-protective motive
Using verbal or facial display rules to protect their own feelings
Example of display rule: Children in the US learn that they are supposed to express happiness or gratitude when they receive a gift from grandma, and by all means, to suppress any disappointment they may feel should the gift turn out to be pink fuzzy footed pajamas.
In preschool and elementary school, children gain a better understanding of the when and why display rules. The increase in their understanding is related to the increase in the child’s cognitive capabilities.
Children who are higher than their peers in reasoning on Piagetian preoperational and concrete operational conservation tasks exhibit greater understanding of emotions.

33. Example of display rule: Children in the US learn that they are supposed to express happiness or gratitude when they receive a gift from grandma, and by all means, to suppress any disappointment they may feel should the gift turn out to be pink fuzzy footed pajamas.

34. Display Rules Continued…
Same for boys and girls – NO
In elementary school in the US:
Girls believe that it is more acceptable to express emotions like pain whereas boys do not
Girls are more attuned than boys to the need to inhibit emotional displays that may hurt someone else’s feelings
Children seem to be attuned to display rules if they are valued in their culture or if an awareness of them serves an important function in the family

35. Think on Your Own…
Recall a recent situation in which you engaged in social referencing.
Why did you look to the reactions of others to determine your own reaction to the situation?
Did you use display rules? Why?
If you didn’t -should you have?
Was it an ambiguous situation -- just like with infants.
What set of norms dictated your behavior. Have you ever broken display rules? What display rules have you learned? What happened if you broke the rules?

36. Identifying Emotions
By age 3, children have the ability to label a few emotional expressions
Best at labeling happiness
The ability to label anger, fear, and sadness gradually appears between the ages of 4-6
The ability to label pride, shame, and guilt gradually appears between the ages of 8-9
The ability to discriminate and label different emotions helps children to respond appropriately to their own and others’ emotions. As the cognitive skills of children grow, children begin to understand why people feel as they do
If a child understands that he or she is experiencing guilt, the child may understand the need to make reparation to diminish the guilt. A child who can see that a peer is angry can devise ways to avoid or appease that peer.
Children who are more skilled than their peers at interpreting others’ displays of emotions are also higher in social competence.
By 3 years: children are good at identifying happy situations. They are less able to identify fear or anger inducing situations.
By preschool and elementary school the ability to identify fear and anger situations increases.
By 7 years: children start being able to understand pride, guilt, shame and jealousy.

37. Between the ages of 4-8, children have the ability to label others’ emotions by their body movements
-Four-year-olds good at sad movements
-Five-year-olds good at sad, fear, and happy movements
-Eight-year-olds good at sad, fear, happy, and anger movements

38. Measure of Children’s Ability to Label Others’ Emotions
Children are asked to view pictures like these and identify the emotions of the characters.
With age, children can better identify appropriate emotions.

39. The school age child
Elementary school children begin to comprehend that people can have “mixed feelings”.
By about 8 yrs. children can realize how people can feel good and bad at the same time, which coincides with concrete operational thinking.
A child recognizes that a situation can produce two opposing feelings
For example- A child can be happy and scared about staying home alone.

40. What was Your first social-emotional relationship?

41. The first special relationship we experience develops between parent and child
It is believed that this relationship will influence the development of our future relationships

42. What is Attachment? Attachment is an enduring emotional connection
A close emotional bond that is “person-specific” and is enduring across time and space.
Infants show their attachment through proximity-seeking behaviors, meaning infants (and adults) like to be near those we are attached.
Actions such as approaching, following, and climbing into the lap demonstrate the need to be physically close. As well as contact-maintaining behaviors such as clinging, resisting being put down all are evidence of attachment.

43. List 5 people and reflect on why that relationship involves attachment
Think on Your Own…
Who are you attached to?
List 5 people and reflect on why that relationship involves attachment

44. Harry Harlow (1959) “The Monkey Love experiments”
Harlow evaluated whether feeding or contact comfort was more important to infant attachment.
The young animals were “raised” by two kinds of surrogate monkey mother machines.
One mother was made of soft terry cloth, the other made of wire mesh
He separated infant monkeys from their mothers a few hours after birth,

45. “Monkey Love Experiments”
Harlow's monkey studies demonstrated that the need for affection created a stronger bond between mother and infant than did physical needs (food).

46. “Monkey Love Experiments”
Harlow’s work suggested that the development of a child’s love for their caregiver was emotional rather than physiological
Attachment was closely associated with critical periods in early life, after which it was difficult or impossible to compensate for the loss of initial emotional security.

47. What happened to these monkeys?
Monkeys raised without their mothers or other monkeys were socially maladjusted the rest of their lives.
When confronted with fear, they displayed autistic and institutionalized behaviors-throwing themselves on the floor, clutched themselves, rocked back and forth, and screamed in terror.
They were incapable of having sexual relations and they were also unable to parent their offspring, either abusing or neglecting them.
"Not even in our most devious dreams could we have designed a surrogate as evil as these real monkey mothers were," he wrote. [5]

48. What does this mean for humans?
Harlow showed that the development of attachment was closely associated with critical periods in early life, after which it was difficult or impossible to compensate for the loss of initial emotional security
Further experiments in which abusive conditions were created showed that no matter how abusive the mothers were, the baby monkeys always came back and displayed affection towards them.
Even in the face of abuse, the need for love was overwhelming
When Harlow placed his subjects in total isolation for the first eights months of life, denying them contact with other infants or with either type of surrogate mother, they were permanently damaged.
He found that, just as they were incapable of having sexual relations, they were also unable to parent their offspring, either abusing or neglecting them. "Not even in our most devious dreams could we have designed a surrogate as evil as these real monkey mothers were," he wrote. [5] Having no social experience themselves, they were incapable of appropriate social interaction. One mother held her baby's face to the floor and chewed off his feet and fingers. Another crushed her baby's head. Most of them simply ignored their offspring.

49. Do we all need attachment and physical contact?
Yes, according the theories of John Bowlby (1969, 1991), that children who form an attachment to an adult are more likely to survive.
Attachment not only deepens the parent-child relationship, but may have contributed to human survival.

50. Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
According to Bowlby, the development of attachment takes place in four phases:
Preattachment
Attachment-in-the-Making
Clear-cut (or True) Attachment
Reciprocal Relationships
John Bowlby was influenced by Freud’s theory of how infants’ early relationships with mothers shape later development.
But Bowlby replaced the psychoanalytic view with the concept of the infant’s using the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment.
This concept was influenced by the ethological theory of Konrad Lorenz. Ethological view was prompted by work on imprinting of Lorenz (covered in chapter 9).
Bowlby believed that an infant and its primary caregiver form an attachment. The newborn is biologically equipped to elicit the attachment behavior.
Lorenz talked about the kewpie-doll effect: the notion that infantlike facial features are perceived as cute and lovable and elicit favorable responses from others. So, babyish facial features may elicit the positive attention from others -- the more attractive the baby, the more favorably mothers and others respond to the baby.
According to Bolby,the baby has innate reflexive responses that have an endearing quality about them. The baby cries, clings, coos, and smiles. Later, the infant crawls, walks, and follows the mother. The infant’s goal is to keep the primary caregiver nearby.
If the infant can reinforce the caregiver;s behaviors -- when they come to me I smile and coo -- the parent or caregiver is more like to spend time with the infant later.

51. Preattachment Birth to 6 weeks
The infant produces innate signals (crying, clinging, smiling, or sucking) that bring others to his/her side and the infant is comforted by these interactions.
The infant’s behaviors and the response they evoke from adults create an interactive system that is the first step in the formation of attachment.
Infants instinctively direct their attachments to human figures. Strangers, siblings, and parents are equally likely to elicit smiling or crying on the part of the infant.
By the end of this time the infant is showing a preference for social smiling -- especially at human faces.

52. Attachment-in-the-Making 6 weeks to 6-8 months
Infants begin to respond preferentially to familiar people
Infants are forming expectations about how their caregivers will respond to their needs, and as a result, develop (or not) a sense of trust in them
Infants do not experience stranger anxiety yet. Infants enjoy the company of humans but tend to be somewhat indiscriminate. They smile more at people than at objects. They like being held -- may start to fuss when put down.
Attachment becomes focused on one figure --- usually the primary caregiver, as the baby gradually learns to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar people. They are soothed more quickly by a regular caregiver but enjoy attention from almost anyone.
Parents are also learning how to become more proficient in reading and reacting appropriately to the baby’s signals. The baby is learning what his parents are like and how he might regulate their behavior.

53. Clear-cut Attachment 6-8 months to 1.5-2 years
By 7-8 months, infants have singles out the attachment figure, usually the mother, as a special person.
The mother now serves as a secure base
Infants actively seek contact with their caregivers
They happily greet their mother when she appears
They may exhibit separation anxiety when she leaves
This behavior reflects cognitive growth as well. The infant now has a mental representation of mother and an understanding that she will be there to meet the infant’s needs.
Specific attachments develop. Now start to see stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
With increased locomotor skills, babies actively seek contact with regular caregivers, such as the mother or father. The infant will try to follow along the mother, usually, to stay close. They usually will greet mom warmly when she returns.

54. Reciprocal Relationships 1.5-2 years and beyond
As the cognitive and language abilities of toddlers increase, they being to understand their parents feelings, goals and motives
They are better able to act as partners in the attachment relationship
They often take initiative in interactions and negotiate with parents
They cope with separation more effectively because they can now anticipate the return.
This occurs within weeks after forming their initial attachment with mom -- now will have attachments with others like fathers, grandparents, siblings, or even a regular babysitter or nanny. By 18 months most infants are attached to more than one person.
Reciprocal relationship: parent becomes attached to infant, and the infant becomes attached to the parent.
A goal-corrected partnership is formed in which children become aware of others’s feelings, goals, and plans, and begin to take these into account in forming their own actions.
Outcome of the phases is:
Internal working model of attachment: The mental representation of self in context of others.

55. The Quality of Attachment
Based on how the infant reacts to separation from the caregiver and the reunion by using a procedure known as the Strange Situation.
Ainsworth (1993) and others have identified 4 basic types of attachment relationships

57. Strange Situation Episode Event Attachment Behavior 1
Caregiver/Child enter room
None 2
Caregiver/Child alone
Caregiver as a secure base 3
Stranger enters
Reaction to stranger 4
Child and Stranger
Separation anxiety and stranger comfort 5
Caregiver returns
Reunion reaction 6
Child alone
Separation anxiety 7
Stranger comfort 8
Ainsworth conducted naturalistic observation of parents and children in Uganda (1954). She also devised the Strange Situation test to assess attachment.
Research is conducted in an unfamiliar context (a laboratory playroom) likely to heighten the child’s need for a parent. Observers rated children on behavioral scale.
Episode 1: Observer shows the experimental room to the mother and infant, then leaves the room.
Episode 2: Infant is allowed to explore the playroom for 3 minutes, the mother watches but does not participate.
Episode 3: A stranger enters the room and remains silent for 1 minute, then talks to the baby for 1 minute, and then approaches the baby. Mother leaves unobtrusively.
Episode 4: The stranger does not play with the baby but attempts to comfort the baby if necessary.
Episode 5: After 3 minutes, the mother returns, greets, and consoles the baby.
Episode 6: When the baby has returned to play, the mother leaves again, this time saying “bye-bye” as she leaves
Episode 7: Stranger attempts to calm and play with the baby.
Episode 8: After 3 minutes, the mother returns and the stranger leaves.

58. Ainsworth’s Three Attachment Categories
Secure Attachment
Insecure/Resistant
Insecure/Avoidant

59. Classifications of Infant Attachment
Label
Proximity Seeking
Contact Maintaining
Proximity Avoiding
Contact Resisting
Crying
Secure
High
(if distressed)
Low
High or Low
Avoidant
Resistant
(often pre-separation)
Occasionally
Moderate to High
This classification best describes 1-year-olds
Crying:
First line -- pre-separation
Second line -- during separation
Third line -- during reunion

60. Types of Attachment
Secure attachment is a relationship of trust and confidence.
The baby may or may not cry when the mother leaves, but when she returns, the baby wants to be with her and if the baby is crying, the baby stops.
During infancy this relationship provides a secure base for exploration of the environment.
This group seems to say “I missed you terribly, but now that you’re back, I’m okay.”
60-65% of American children have secure attachment relationships (Kail, 2007).

61. A secure attachment relationship is likely to develop when parents respond to their infant’s needs reliably and sensitively

62. 3 Types of Insecure Attachment
A relationship that is unstable or unpredictable, characterized by the infant’s fear, anxiety, anger or indifference toward the caregiver
Insecure-Avoidant attachment:
A pattern of insecure attachment in which infants or young children seem somewhat indifferent toward their caregivers and may even avoid their caregivers
The baby is not upset when the mother leaves, and, when she returns, may ignore her by looking or turning away

63. 20% of American infant have avoidant- attachment
If they do get upset when left alone, they are as easily comforted by a stranger as by a parent. As if to say, “you left me again, I always have to take care of myself!”
20% of American infant have avoidant- attachment

64. Resistant/ambivalent Attachment
A pattern of insecure attachment in which infants or young children are clingy and stay close to their caregivers rather than exploring their environment.
The baby is upset when the mother leaves and remains upset or even angry when she returns, and is difficult to console
Because the child can’t depend on the parent for attunement and connection, he develops a sense of anxiety and feelings of insecurity

65. Insecure Attachments (p.221)
Disorganized attachment is a pattern of insecure attachment in which infants or young children have no consistent way to coping with the stress of the Strange Situation
The baby seems confused when the mother leaves and, when she returns, seems as if the baby doesn’t really understand what’s happening…”what’s going on here?”
They want to approach their mother, but they also seem to regard her as a source of fear from which they want to withdraw
When children have experiences with parents that leave them overwhelmed, traumatized, and frightened, the youngsters become disorganized and chaotic.

66. Disorganized Attachment
Disorganized attachment leads to difficulties in the regulation of emotions, social communication, academic reasoning as well as to more severe emotional problems.
This type of attachment occurs when the child’s’ need for emotional closeness remains unseen or ignored.
Less than 5% of middle-class Americans fall into this category.
This rate is considerably higher in samples in which parents are having difficulties with their own working models of attachment.

67. Identify the Attachment Relationship
A baby in this group might say “I missed you terribly, but now that you’re back, I’m okay.”
A baby in this group might say “You left me again. I always have to take care of myself.”
A baby in this group might say “Why do you do this? I get so angry when you’re like this.”
Secure
Insecure/Avoidant
Insecure/Resistant
Disorganized/Disoriented

68. How Did You Do?
A baby in this group might say “I missed you terribly, but now that you’re back, I’m okay.”
A baby in this group might say “You left me again. I always have to take care of myself.”
A baby in this group might say “Why do you do this? I get so angry when you’re like this.”
Secure
Insecure/Avoidant
Secure
Insecure/Avoidant
Insecure/Resistant
Disorganized/Disoriented
Insecure/resistant

69. Infants develop an Internal working model, which are a set of expectations about parents’ availability and responsiveness

70. Adult Attachment
Adult attachment models are based on adults’ perceptions of their own childhood relationships with their parents and of the continuing influence of those relationships
Autonomous or Secure
Dismissing
Preoccupied
Secure:
Describe childhood experiences objectively and mention both positive and negative aspects of their parents
Descriptions are coherent, consistent, and relevant to the questions. They describe their past in a balanced manner, recalling both positive and negative features of their parents and their relationships with them. Early attachments are influential in their development.
Dismissing (Insecure):
Describe childhood experiences in very general terms and often idealize their parents Cannot remember interactions with parents related to their attachment, or they minimize the impact that these experiences had on them. They may also contradict themselves when describing attachment-related experiences.
Preoccupied (Insecure):
Describe childhood experiences emotionally and often express anger or confusion regarding relationships with their parents.
Focused on their parents and tend to provide confused and angry accounts of attachment-related experiences. They often seem to be caught up in their attachment memories that they cannot provide a coherent description of them.
Unresolved (Insecure):
Appear to be suffering from the aftermath of past traumatic experiences of loss or abuse. Show lapses of reasoning, may not make any sense.

71. The attachment of parents is a significant factor in the attachment styles of their children
Autonomous (secure) parents tend to be sensitive, warm parents and their infants are usually securely attached to them. Autonomous adults probably had secure relationships as children.
Preoccupied and dismissive parents tend to have insecurely attached infants, this relationship is not as strong for preoccupied parents.
Unresolved parents tend to have disorganized infants.
Infants typically form the same type of attachment relationships with both parents. An infant who is securely attached to its mother is usually securely attached to its father. Siblings usually have the same type of attachment relationship with their parents.
Are the attachments between mother and father the same? In unusually stressful circumstances, infants prefer to be soothed by their mothers, rather than by their fathers (Lamb, 1977). Why? Fathers are more the play figure whereas mothers are the ones directly responsible for feeding and nurturing. Also, the play between father and child is different than the play between mother and child.

72. Securely attached infants appear to grow up to be better adjusted and more socially skilled than insecurely attached children.
Why?
Children with secure attachment are more likely to develop productive and constructive internal working models of attachment. Children who experience sensitive, supportive parenting are likely to learn that it is acceptable to express emotions in an appropriate way and that emotional communication with others is important.
Children with insecure attachment, whose parents tend to be nonresponsive to their signals of distress, are likely to learn to inhibit emotional expressiveness and to not seek comfort from other people.