EC Dev Chapter 7 PDF

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EC Dev Chapter 7 Review Questions...

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CHAPTER 7 Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood Review Questions 1) Why do many infants show stranger anxiety in the second half of the first year? What factors can increase or decrease wariness of strangers? Many infants show stranger anxiety in the second half of the first year as it is the most frequent expression of fear to unfamiliar adults. It depends on a number of factors including temperament, past experiences with strangers, and the current situation. The stranger's style of interaction such as warm, playing a familiar game, approaching slowly can be useful in reducing the baby's fear. Infant rearing practices can also modify stranger anxiety 2) Why do children of depressed parents have difficulty regulating emotions? What implications do their weak self-regulatory skills have for their response to cognitive and social challenges? Children of depressed parents develop disorganized/disoriented attachment. Persistently depressed mothers, low marital satisfaction, parents suffering from a traumatic event, often engage in frightening, contradicting behaviors, which results in children having difficulty regulating emotions. 3) At age 14 months, Reggie built a block tower and gleefully knocked it down. But at age 2, he called to his mother and pointed proudly at his tall block tower. What explains this change in Reggie’s emotional behavior? Guilt, shame, embarrassment, envy, and pride. These emotions keep and individual within social boundaries and reinforce positive actions while discouraging negative ones. This helps a child accomplish prosocial goals by teaching what is an acceptable interaction, helping the child act in ways considered favorable. 4) Describe several recent instances illustrating how you typically manage negative emotions. How might your early experiences, gender, and cultural background have influenced your style of emotional self-regulation? I typically manage negative emotions by either not talking about it, overthinking it or getting super frustrated and losing my patience. These are definitely not the best coping mechanisms, however, at a younger age, I was afraid to talk to my parents about how I feel about certain things because they were very disciplinarian and I can see how it has transcended into the way I manage my emotions now. 5) Describe emotionally reactive and easy-going children’s differential susceptibility to rearing experiences. Why are emotionally reactive children who receive warm, supportive parenting at

especially low risk for self-regulation difficulties? Emotional self-regulation refers to the strategies we use to adjust our emotional state to a comfortable level of intensity so we can accomplish our goals. It requires voluntary, effortful management of emotions and effortful control improves gradually as the prefrontal cortex matures and with the assistance of caregivers. When caregivers fail to regulate stressful experiences for the baby, brain structures that buffer stress may not develop properly, resulting in an anxious, reactive child who has reduced capacity for managing emotional problems. The ease with which children manage their reactivity depends on the type and strength of the reactive emotion. Emotionally reactive toddlers function worse than other children when exposed to inept parenting, yet benefit most from good parenting.

6) Explain how findings on ethnic and gender differences in temperament illustrate gene-environment correlation, discussed on page 84 in Chapter 2. Ethnic differences are reflected in passive or evocative correlation as parental styles will be reflected through a child's passivity or lack thereof, for example, Asian parents are said to be more passive. Gender differences play a role in active correlation and niche picking as boys are generally taught to be more physically active and girls are not 7) Mandy and Jeff are parents of 2-year-old inhibited Sam and 3-year-old emotionally reactive Maria. Explain the importance of effortful control to Mandy and Jeff, and suggest ways they can strengthen it in each of their children. For both, effortful control is essential as the parents must remain conistent and calm as well as adaptive rather than temperamental. For Sam, I would encourage them to be warm and supportive to foster development. Also to push their children out of their comfort zone appropriately. They must make sure to also be aware of the inhibited temperament and tailor their parenting accordingly. For Maria, I would make sure to be more sensitive especially while the child is very young. Also to make sure to instill good social values in the child. Lastly, I would say to not self-blame as that can lead to a cycle of negativity that will be felt by the child 8) How would you describe your temperament as a young child? Do you think it has remained stable, or has it changed? What factors might be involved? My temperament changed during my childhood. In my early childhood, I was easy going but as I got a bit older and puberty hit my parents started enforcing more rules and I became a bit more rebellious. I believe that my temperament continues to change as I continue to evolve and adapt to new environments.

9) What factors explain stability in attachment pattern for some children and change for others? Are these factors also involved in the link between attachment in infancy and later development? Explain. The major factors that influence stability in attachment pattern and attachment security are: (1) early availability of a consistent caregiver, (2) quality of caregiving, (3) the baby’s characteristics, and (4) family context, including parents’ internal working models. These factors are involved in the link between attachment in infancy and later development. For example, infants who move from insecurity to security typically have well-adjusted mothers with positive family and friendship ties. In contrast, in low-SES families with many daily stresses and little social support, attachment generally moves away from security or changes from one insecure pattern to another and in follow-ups extending from infancy to late adolescence and early adulthood, shifts from security to insecurity were associated with single parenthood, maternal depression, and poor family functioning and parenting quality, including child maltreatment. Securely attached babies more often maintain their attachment status than insecure babies. 10) Review research on emotional self-regulation on pages 252–253. How do the caregiving experiences of securely attached infants promote the development of emotional self-regulation? Emotional self-regulation requires voluntary, effortful management of emotions. Evidence indicates that fully normal emotional development depends on establishing a close tie with a caregiver early in life. Many disorganized/disoriented infants and children experience unstable caregiving, which can disrupt emotional self-regulation so severely that confused, ambivalent feelings often persist, impairing the child-rearing of the next generation. Infants whose parents respond contingently and sympathetically to their emotional cues tend to be less fussy and fearful, to express more pleasurable emotion, to be more interested in exploration, and to be easier to soothe. 11) What attachment pattern did Timmy display when Vanessa picked him up from child care, and what factors probably contributed to it? Vanessa noticed that, unlike the other children, who reached out, crawled, or ran to their parents, Timmy ignored her. Timmy is displaying avoidant attachment as seems unresponsive to Vanessa and is slow to greet her on the reunion. Timmy’s behavior reects a repeated nding: Job loss, a failing marriage, nancial difficulties, or parental psychological problems (such as anxiety or depression) can undermine attachment indirectly by interfering with parental sensitivity. These stressors can also affect babies’ sense of security directly by altering the emotional climate of the family (for example, exposing them to angry adult interactions) or by disrupting familiar daily routines (Finger et al., 2009; Thompson, 2013).

12) How would you characterize your internal working model? What factors, in addition to your early relationship with your parents, might have influenced it? The internal working model refers to the expectations about the availability of attachment figures and their likelihood of providing support during times of stress. The internal working model becomes a vital part of the personality, serving as a guide for all future close relationships. As I evolve and adapt to new environments, I believe that my internal working model adapts as well. This adaptation is usually a smooth process and I think this is due to a major adaptation in my cognitive and emotional development that happened when my sister was born early in my childhood. 13) Why is insisting that infants comply with parental directives inappropriate? What competencies are necessary for the emergence of compliance and self-control? Rather than insisting on complying, gradually increasing rules in a manner consistent with the toddler’s developing capacities would be more appropriate. As cognition and language improve, toddlers can follow more rules related to safety, respect for people and property, family routines, manners, and simple chores. 14) What type of early parenting fosters the development of emotional self-regulation, secure attachment, and self-control? Why, in each instance, is it effective? A parenting style that emphasizes acceptance, responsiveness and open communication, as well as trust and encouragement, fosters the development of emotional self-regulation, secure attachment, and self-control. Effortful control leads to self-regulation. Caregivers’ contributions to a child's self-regulation style. Young infants depend on caregivers to soothe and encourage them. Parents being able to adequately meet these demands leads to the appropriate self-regulatory mechanism being developed in children 15) Len, a caregiver of 1- and 2-year-olds, wonders whether toddlers recognize themselves. List signs of self-recognition in the second year that Len can observe. What behaviors reveal that toddlers are still forming objective representations of their own physical features? The development of self-recognition has been studied mainly by examining infants' responses to their reflections in mirrors. The definitive test is whether or not the infant is capable of using the reflection to notice and respond to a mark on the face or head by touching the mark. Before 15 months, children look at their reflection and see the mark on their face in the mirror, but they don't realize that the mark is on their own face. When children are between 15 and 24 months, they begin to realize that the reflection they see is their own, and they either point to the mark on their face or try to wipe it away. In other words, they understand that the reflection in the mirror is more than a familiar face–it is their own face.

16) In view of research on toddlers’ compliance, active resistance, and budding capacity to delay gratification, do you think that “the terrible twos,” a commonly used expression to characterize typical toddler behavior, is an apt description? Explain. The term "terrible twos" has long been used to describe the changes that parents often observe in 2-year-old children. A child’s behavior at this age is characterized by rapid shifts in a child's mood and behaviors — and the parents' difficulty of dealing with them. These changes, however, are a normal part of child development. Two-year-olds undergo major motor, intellectual, social and emotional changes. Children at this age can also understand much more speech than they can express — a factor that contributes to emotions and behaviors that are difficult for parents to interpret. Two-year-olds are struggling with their reliance on their parents and their desire for independence. The difficulty of this normal development can lead to inappropriate behavior, frustration, out-of-control feelings, and tantrums....