Week 3: Prenatal (continued again) PDF

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Week 3: Prenatal (continued again)
PSYC 2030...

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Week 4. Emotional Development  Stranger Wariness( 8 or 9 months into 2nd year): o Infant no longer smiles at any friendly face but cries or looks frightened when an unfamiliar person moves too close. 

Separation anxiety o Tears, dismay, or anger clinging, when a familiar caregiver leaves. o If it remains strong after age 3, it may be considered a problem.

How stress can impact infant  Hypothalamus o Regulates various bodily functions (hunger/growth) and hormone production. o May slow grow if an infant is often stressed. 

Abuse(form of chronic stress) o Potential long-term effects on a child’s emotional development o Excessive stress in infants must be prevented.

Emotional Development – Temperament  Temperament o -Inborn Differences (shyness/aggression) between one person and another in emotions, activity, and self-regulation. o Temperament is epigenetic, originating in the genes o Affected by child-rearing practices, can be changed. 

New York longitudinal Study (NYLS) o Started in the 1960’s exposed infants to frightening mobile and sounds o Found 4 categories of temperament

Easy (40 %) Difficult (10%) Slow to warm up (15%) Hard to classify (35%) Overlap of temperament & Personality

Personality Traits (honesty, humility, compassion, etc.) said to be learned, while temperament is biological. Goodness of Fit  A similarity of temperament and values that produces a smooth interaction between an individual and their social context. o Includes parents, family, school & community 

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With a good fit o Parents of difficult babies build a close relationship o Parents of exuberant, curious infants learn to protect them from harm. o Parents of slow-to-warm-up toddlers give them time to adjust.

Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development  

Erikson: Trust and autonomy Trust versus mistrust (0-1) o Infants learn basic trust if the world is a secure place where their basic needs are met.

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Autonomy versus shame and doubt (1-3) o Toddlers either succeed or fail in gaining a sense of self-rule over their actions and bodies. Early problems can create an adult who is suspicious and pessimistic (mistrusting) or who is easily shamed (insufficient autonomy)

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Behaviorism o Parents mold an infant’s emotions and personality through reinforcement and punishment Social learning o The acquisition of behavior patterns by observing the behavior of others o Demonstrated in the classic bobo doll study by Albert Bandura Cognitive Theory  Thoughts and values determine the persons perspective o The child’s interpretation of early experiences is more important than the experiences themselves. o New ways of thinking can be developed based on new experiences or reinterpretation/perception of previous experiences.

Development of Social Bonds

 Synchrony o Coordinated, rapid, and smooth exchange of responses between a caregiver and an infant. 

Synchrony in the first few months o Becomes more frequent ad elaborate o Helps infants learn to read others emotions and to develop the skills of social interaction o Usually begins with parents imitating infants

Social-Emotional Development 

Attachment is defined as an active, intense, emotional relationship between 2 people that endures over time.

Ainsworth Study (1967) Secure and Insecure Attachment 1. Secure Attachment – an infant obtains both comfort and confidence from presence of caregiver. (Roots-caregiver sensitive/responsive/synchrony, infant’s temperaments is easy, parents not stressed about income, other children, marriage, etc.) 2. Insecure-Avoidant Attachment: infants seems to not care about the caregiver’s presence, departure, or return. (Roots-intrusive & controlling parents, alcoholic father, neglect, parental stress & slow to warm up temperature.

Insights from Romania 

In the early 1990’s, thousands of children were adopted from Romanian orphanages. Many of these children displayed adverse outcomes.

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Research on them confirms that early experience, not genetics, is the main problem.

Social Referencing 

Social Referencing o Seeking information about how to react to an unfamiliar or ambiguous object or event by observing someone else’s expressions and reactions. o Mothers use a variety of expressions, vocalizations, and gestures to convey social information to their infants....