Social and Personality Development in Infancy

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Chapter 6

• Social and Personality Development in Infancy

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In This Chapter
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Theories of Social and Personality
DevelopmentPsychoanalytic Perspectives Freud
and Erikson

• Freud psychosexual stage related to infant
  attempts at needs satisfaction
• Oral stage
• Mother-child symbiotic relationship
• Nursing fixation

• Erikson psychosocial stage in which attending to
  infant needs and social development important
• Trust versus mistrust
• Relationship goes beyond feeding

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AttachmentThe Parents Attachment to the Infant

• Synchrony Opportunity for parent-infant
  development of mutual, interlocking pattern of
  attachment behaviors
• Takes practice to develop
• Provides developmental benefits

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Theories of Social and Personality
DevelopmentEthological Perspectives John Bowlby

• Attachment Emotional bond in which a persons
  sense of security is bound up in the relationship
• Strong emotional bond-making is innate
• Bonds maintained by instinctive behaviors that
  create and sustain proximity

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AttachmentThe Parents Attachment to the Infant

• Mothers bond with infant
• Bond dependent on synchrony
• Mothers provide more routine caregiving than
  fathers.
• After first few weeks, mothers talk to and smile
  more at baby.

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AttachmentThe Parents Attachment to the Infant

• Fathers bond with infant
• The relationship depends on synchrony.
• Fathers have same repertoire as mothers.
• After first few weeks, fathers begin to spend
  more time playing with baby.

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AttachmentThe Infants Attachment to the Parents

• Characteristics of attachment
• Safe haven
• Secure base
• Proximity maintenance
• Separation distress
• Now lets look at how several theorists
  operationalize this construct.

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AttachmentThe Infants Attachment to the Parents

• Establishing attachment Bowlbys 4 phases
• Nonfocused orienting and signaling (03 months)
• Focus on one or more figures (36 months)
• Secure base behavior (624 months)
• Internal model (24 months and beyond)

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AttachmentThe Infants Attachment to the Parents

• Establishing attachment Bowlbys 4 phases
• How would you recognize each of Bowlbys phases?
• What behaviors would you expect to see?

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AttachmentThe Infants Attachment to the Parents

• Attachment behaviors

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AttachmentSecure and Insecure Attachments

• Mary Ainsworth
• Protocol The Strange Situation
• Attachment styles
• Secure attachment
• Insecure/avoidant attachment
• Insecure/ambivalent attachment
• Insecure/disorganized attachment

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AttachmentStability of Attachment Quality

• Attachment stability
• Dependent on consistency of childs life
  circumstances
• Influenced by major upheavals
• Internal models elaborated from year 1 until the
  age of 4 or 5

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AttachmentCaregiver Characteristics and
Attachment

• Caregivers and attachment
• Several characteristics influence the attachment
  process
• Emotional availability
• Contingent responsiveness

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AttachmentSecure and Insecure Attachments

• Insecure attachments
• Insecure/avoidant attachment
• Insecure/ambivalent attachment
• Insecure/disorganized attachment

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AttachmentCaregiver Characteristics and
Attachment

• Other caregiver characteristics influencing
  secure attachment
• Marital status
• Education
• Age
• SES
• Mental health

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Questions To Ponder

• What kind of attachment do you have with your
  parents? Has it changed since you were a child,
  or does it reflect the type of attachment you had
  when you were younger?
• What factors will influence your choice of
  childcare if the one or both parents decide to
  work? What would be best for your child?

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AttachmentAttachment Quality Long Term
Consequences

• The securely attached
• More sociable
• More positive in relationships with friends
• Less clingy and dependent on teachers
• Less aggressive and disruptive
• More emotionally mature
• Continues into adolescence
• More likely to be leaders
• Have higher self-esteem

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AttachmentAttachment Quality Long-Term
Consequences

• Attachment quality and consequences
• Increased sociability throughout early, middle,
  and late adulthood
• Influence on parenting behaviors
• Foundation for future social relationships

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Figure 6.1 Cross-Cultural Comparisons of
Attachment Categories
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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptDefini
tions

• Personality Stable patterns in how people relate
  to those around them
• Temperament Basic behavioral and emotional
  predispositions

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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptDimens
ions of Temperament

• Dimensions of temperament How are these theorist
  alike? Different?
• Thomas and Chess
• Buss and Plomin
• How might results differ when temperament is
  viewed as a trait rather than a category?

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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptOrigin
s and Stability of Temperament

• Heredity
• Identical twins more alike in temperament than
  fraternal twins
• Long-term Stability
• Stable across long periods of time

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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptNeurol
ogical Processes

• Heredity
• Basic differences in behaviors related to
  underlying neurological processes
• Neurotransmitters regulate brain responses to new
  information and unusual situations.
• Still difficult to demonstrate conclusively that
  neurological differences are cause or effect

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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptOrigin
s and Stability of Temperament

• Environment
• Sandra Scarr
• Niche-picking
• Thomas and Chess
• Goodness of fit
• Synchronous relationships
• Parental influence with children at temperamental
  extremes

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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptUnders
tanding Infant Sense of Self
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Stop and Think!

• During the same months in which infants are
  developing an internal model of attachment and
  exploring their own unique temperament, they are
  also developing a unique sense of self.
• What implication does this have for parents and
  caregivers?

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Personality, Temperament, and Self-Concept

• Self-concept
• The subjective self
• Awareness by the child that he is separate from
  others and endures over time
• Appears by 812 months at the same time as object
  permanence

• Self-concept
• The objective self
• Toddler comes to understand he is an object in
  the world.
• The self has properties, such as gender.

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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptStudyin
g Self-Awareness

• Rouge test (Lewis and Brooks)
• Children at 21 months show self-recognition in a
  mirror.
• What does this tell us about childrens
  development? How do you know?

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Figure 6.2 The Rouge Test
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Personality, Temperament, and Self-ConceptThe
Emotional Self

• First, babies learn to identify changes in
  emotional expression.
• Gradually they learn to read and respond to
  facial expressions.
• With age and experience, infants learn to
  interpret emotional perceptions of others to
  anticipate actions and guide own behavior.

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True or False?

• Nonparental, quality care is beneficial for all
  children.

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Effects of Nonparental CareOverview

• Arrangements vary considerably.
• Time in care varies.
• Some children in multiple care settings
• Younger children less likely to receive
  nonparental care

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Figure 6.3 Nonparental Care Arrangements for
Children under 6 in the U.S.
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Effects of Nonparental CareEffects on Cognitive
Development

• High-quality daycare has beneficial effects,
  especially for children from poor families.
• Later scores in reading and math related to
  daycare entry age and poverty

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Effects of Nonparental Care Effects on Social
Development

• Infant daycare has negative effects on attachment
  if started under 1 year.
• Parents whose behaviors are associated with
  insecure attachment have children who are
  negatively affected by early daycare.
• Early day care associated with greater risks for
  social problems in school-age children

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Effects of Nonparental Care Research Challenges

• Complex interaction among numerous variables in
  all care types
• Nonparental care varies in quality and structure.
• Maternal attitudes toward care arrangement vary.
• Multiple care settings difficult to separate

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Effects of Nonparental Care Whats Responsible?

• Nonparental care may induce child stress, causing
  higher levels of cortisol.
• Variations in ways stress-induced related to
  child age and temperament
• Individual and gender differences interact with
  nonparental care.