1. Chapter 11 Emotional Development, Temperament and Attachment

2. 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

3. Figure 11.1 Young infants display a variety of emotional expressions.

4. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Parents influence self-evaluative emotions
If mothers are critical of failure, shame follows failure, little evidence of pride after success
Opposite if mothers were positive about successes
Guilt more likely than shame if reason why behavior was wrong

5. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Socialization of Emotions
Emotional display rules – societal circumstances for emotional expression
Mothers tend to model only positive emotions to young infants
Become more responsive to infants’ positive emotions

6. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Regulating Emotions
Ability develops very slowly
Present in 6-month-olds
Toddlers rarely regulate fear
Parents may want children to feel emotional arousal to teach them
To sympathize with victims
Feel guilty for their transgressions
Feel pride

7. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Acquiring Emotional Display Rules
Age 3 can disguise true feelings
But at 13, still difficult to suppress anger
Ability in older adolescents is linked with being more prosocial, ability to resist peer pressure

8. Figure 11.2 With age, children are better able to display positive emotional reactions after receiving a disappointing gift. ADAPTED FROM SAARNI, 1984.

9. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Recognizing and Interpreting Emotions
Social Referencing
7-10 months – use others emotional reactions to regulate own behavior
Second year, look to others reactions after appraising a new situation
Conversations about Emotions
18-24 months
Contributor to empathy

10. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Later Milestones in Emotional Understanding
Labeling emotional expressions of others improves during childhood
4-5 infer emotion from body movements
Emotion may be due to past event
By 8, same situation may cause different emotions

11. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Emotions and Early Social Development
Emotional displays are communicative
Interpreting others emotions provides knowledge
Emotional competence is crucial to social competence
Emotional expressivity
Emotional knowledge
Emotional regulation

12. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Temperament – individual differences in
Fearful distress
Irritable distress
Positive affect / sociability
Activity level
Attention span / persistence
Rhythmicity

13. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Hereditary and Environmental Influences on Temperament
Hereditary Influences
Identical twins more similar than fraternal twins
Moderately heritable

14. Figure 11.3 Average correlations in infant temperament among identical twins, fraternal twins, and nontwin siblings born at different times. BASED ON BRAUNGART ET AL., 1992; EMDE ET AL., 1992.

15. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Environmental Influences
Shared environment influences positive aspects of temperament
Nonshared environment influences negative aspects
Cultural Influences
Shy and reserved a disadvantage in the U.S., but valued in Asian cultures

16. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Stability of Temperament
Activity level, irritability, sociability, fearfulness – moderately stable
Behavioral inhibition
Moderately stable at extremes
Considerable fluctuation for other individuals

17. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Early Temperamental Profiles and Later Development
Easy (40%) – even tempered, positive, open to new experiences
Difficult (10%) – active, irritable, irregular in habits
Slow-to-warm-up (15%) – inactive, moody, respond to novelty mildly negatively

18. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Temperamental Profiles and Adjustment
Difficult – problems adjusting to school activities, irritable, aggressive
Slow-to-warm – half may be ignored or neglected by peers due to hesitancy to try new activities

19. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Child Rearing and Temperament
Temperament can change
Goodness of fit between temperamental style and patterns of child rearing

20. ATTACHMENT
Attachment – strong affectional ties that we feel with special people in our lives
Attachments as Reciprocal Relationships
Infants and parents become attached to each other
Establishment of Interactional Synchrony
Synchronized routines – coordinated interactions between infant and caregiver
Important for emotional attachments

21. ATTACHMENT
How Do Infants Become Attached?
The Growth of Primary Attachments
The Asocial Phase (0-6 weeks)
Social and nonsocial stimuli produce positive reactions
The Phase of Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks – 6/7 months)
Favor people, but any person is OK

22. ATTACHMENT
The Specific Attachments Phase (7-9 months)
1st true attachment; favor one person
Secure base for exploration
The Phase of Multiple Attachments (9-18 months)
Attachment to other people, additional family members, regular babysitter

23. ATTACHMENT
Theories of Attachment
Psychoanalytic Theory: I Love You Because You Feed Me
Freud – pleasure of eating results in attraction to person providing pleasure
Erickson – responsiveness to child’s needs more important than feeding

24. ATTACHMENT
Learning Theory: I Love You Because You Reward Me
Feeding elicits positive responses from infant increasing caregiver’s affection
Infants learn feeding time provides comfort, mother is important
Harlow’s study – comfort is more important to attachment than food
Feeding practices not linked to attachment

25. ATTACHMENT
Cognitive-Developmental Theory: To Love You, I Must Know You Will Always Be There
For attachment, must discriminate familiar people from strangers
Object permanence

26. ATTACHMENT
Ethological Theory: Perhaps I Was Born to Love
Attachment contributes to survival
Preadapted characteristic – predisposition to form attachments
“Kewpie doll” appearance may promote attachment; not necessary
Crying – difficult to ignore, as are smiles

27. Figure Infants of many species display the “Kewpie doll effect,” which makes them appear lovable and elicits caregivers’ attention. ADAPTED FROM LORENZ, 1943.

28. ATTACHMENT
Comparing the Four Theoretical Approaches
Caregivers do play an important role in infants emotional development, take care of me and you are worthy of affection
Infants are active participants in the attachment process emitting innate responses
Timing is related to cognitive development
All approaches are important!

29. Table 11. 1 Overview of Theories of Attachment
Table 11.1 Overview of Theories of Attachment. Each theory of attachment has a different perspective on the basis of attachment and attachment related behaviors, and together the four theories help explain the complexity of the attachment relationship.

30. ATTACHMENT
Attachment-Related Fears of Infancy
Stranger Anxiety
Begin at time of primary attachment
Peaks at 8-10 months, then declines
Separation Anxiety
Appears at 6-8 months
Peaks at months
Gradual decline, but may be visible in adolescents

31. ATTACHMENT
Why Do Infants Fear Strangers and Separations?
The ethological viewpoint
Biologically programmed to fear strangers and circumstances where familiar companions are not present
The cognitive-developmental viewpoint
Violating schemes of familiar faces and knowing someone will return

32. ATTACHMENT
Individual Differences in Attachment Quality
Assessing Attachment Security
Strange Situation
Naturalistic caregiver/infant interaction to look for secure base
Brief separation
Reunion episode

33. Table 11. 2 The Eight Episodes of the Strange Situation
Table 11.2 The Eight Episodes of the Strange Situation. NOTE: Episodes two through eight last for three minutes each, although separation episodes may be cut short and reunion episodes may be expanded for babies who become extremely upset. BASED ON AINSWORTH et al., 1978.

34. ATTACHMENT
Secure Attachment (65%)
Explores situation
May be upset by separations
Warm greeting on return, seeks comfort
Outgoing with strangers when mother is present

35. ATTACHMENT
Resistant Attachment (10%)
Little exploration, want to be close
Very distressed upon separation
Ambivalent on return, want to be close, but will resist physical contact
Wary of strangers even when mother is present

36. ATTACHMENT
Avoidant Attachment (20%)
Little distress when separated
Ignore mother on return
Often sociable with strangers, but may ignore or avoid them

37. ATTACHMENT
Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment (5%)
Most insecure
Confusion about whether to approach or avoid the mother when reunited
Strange situation in general not useful for characterizing children much older than 2

38. ATTACHMENT
Attachment Q-set – for 1- to 5-year-olds
Trained observer sorts 90 descriptors into “most like” to “least-like” categories
Result is level of secure attachment

39. ATTACHMENT
Cultural Variations in Attachment Classifications
Percentages in each category vary due to variations in child rearing
What is secure or insecure varies also
Stressing dependency on others versus independency

40. ATTACHMENT
Fathers as Caregivers
Attachment
Later half of first year,
Positive attitude toward parenting
Spends time with infant
Sensitive caregiver
More likely to provide playful stimulation
Can assume all roles of a parent

41. ATTACHMENT
Fathers as Contributors to Emotional Security and Other Social Competencies
Infants with secure attachments to both parents, most socially responsive
Infants securely attached to one parent were better than those insecurely attached to both

42. Figure 11.5 Average levels of social responsiveness and emotional conflict shown by infants who were either securely or insecurely attached to their mothers and fathers. NOTE: Social responsiveness ratings could vary from 1 (wary, distressed) to 9 (happy, responsive). Conflict ratings could vary from 1 (no conflict) to 5 (very conflicted). SOURCE: Adapted from Main & Weston, 1981.

43. ATTACHMENT
Factors That Influence Attachment Security
Quality of Caregiving
Mothers of securely attached infants are sensitive, responsive caregivers
Resistant infants have parents who are inconsistent in their caregiving
Avoidant infants have parents who are impatient and rejecting, or overstimulating

44. Table 11.3 Aspects of caregiving that promote secure mother-infant attachments. NOTE: These six aspects of caregiving are moderately correlated with each other. Source: Based on data from De Wolff and van Ijzendoorn, 1997.

45. ATTACHMENT
Quality of Caregiving, continued
Disorganized/disoriented infants were often neglected or abused

46. ATTACHMENT
Who is At Risk of Becoming an Insensitive Caregiver?
Clinically depressed individuals
Caregivers who were unloved, neglected, or abused as children
Caregivers with unplanned pregnancies

47. ATTACHMENT
Ecological Constraints on Caregiving Sensitivity
Insensitive parenting more likely
Health, legal, financial problems
Unhappy marriages
What Can be Done to Assist Insensitive Caregivers?
Interventions work and promote secure attachments

48. ATTACHMENT
Infant Characteristics
Temperament hypothesis – infants’ temperament influences style of attachment (Kagan)

49. Table 11.4 Percentage of 1-year-olds who can be classified as temperamentally “Easy,” “Difficult,” “Slow to Warm Up” who have established secure, resistant, and avoidant attachments with their mothers. SOURCE: Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Thomas & Chess, 1977.

50. ATTACHMENT
Does Temperament Explain Attachment Security?
No – elements are related but not a good explanation
Secure attachment to one caregiver, insecure to another
Interventions increase secure attachment
Role of shared environment

51. Figure 11.6 Comparing the impact of maternal and child problem behaviors on the incidence of insecure attachments. Maternal problems were associated with a sharp increase in insecure attachments, whereas child problems were not. BASED ON VAN IJZENDOORN ET AL., 1992.

52. ATTACHMENT
The Combined Influences of Caregiving and Temperament
Quality of caregiving determines whether attachment will be secure or insecure
Temperament determines the type of insecurity displayed by infants

53. ATTACHMENT
Attachment and Later Development
Long-Term Correlates of Secure and Insecure Attachments
Secure attachments predict intellectual curiosity and social competency later in childhood – visible at years old

54. ATTACHMENT
Why Might Attachment Quality Forecast Later Outcomes?
Attachments as Working Models of Self and Others
Cognitive representations
Others are dependable or not, I am lovable or not
Stable over time

55. Figure 11.7 Four perspectives on close emotional relationships that evolve from the positive or negative “working models” of self and others that people construct from their experiences with intimate companions. ADAPTED FROM BARTHOLOGEW & HOROWITZ, 1991.

56. Figure 11.8 Because of differences in their internal working models, securely attached children are biased to remember positive experiences and insecurely attached children to remember negative experiences. BASED ON BELSKY, SPRITZ, & CRNIC, 1996.

57. ATTACHMENT
Parents’ Working Models and Attachment
Also impact infants’ attachment style
Even if measured prior to infants birth
Mothers with secure attachment representations like interacting with infants more

58. ATTACHMENT
Is Attachment History Destiny?
No.
Secure attachment with one person can offset an insecure attachment with the mother
Secure can become insecure as life events change

59. ATTACHMENT
Working Moms, Day-Care, and Early Emotional Development
40% of children cared for full-time by parents
Quality of Alternative Care
Very uneven in the U.S.
Low risk of adverse outcomes if day care is excellent

60. Table 11.5 Characteristics of high-quality infant and toddler day care.

61. ATTACHMENT
Parenting and Parents’ Attitude about Work
Mothers happier and more sensitive if employment status matches attitude
Children who receive sensitive, responsive care at home are at little risk of poor emotional outcomes from day care
Excellent day care helps buffer children against emotional insecurity should parenting be less than optimal

62. ATTACHMENT
Worst outcome is due to insensitive parenting and poor alternative care
The U.S. needs a better policy for parental leave for child care
4 months of unpaid leave is not optimal
Other industrialized nations are much better
Middle class parents face greatest day care challenge

63. Table 11.6 Sample parental-leave policies in modern industrialized nations. SOURCE: KAMERMAN, 2000.