Chapter 13
Lifespan development 2: Social and emotional development
Maternal-deprivation hypothesis- suggests that attachment bonds between parent
and infant in the first few years of life to ensure well-adjusted socio-emotional
development. Lack if this may cause mal-adjusted behaviour later in life. (John
Bowlby, 1994).
®Infancy and early childhood
Newborn emotions and emotional development
-infants show feelings through: expressions, vocalizations and behaviours.
- Basic emotions: distress, contentment, interest
- Later, these emotions branch out and become more fine-grained: begin to show joy,
surprise (branch of contentment), disgust, anger, fear and sadness (from distress).
-At 18 months: infants develop a sense of self-which sets the stage for: envy,
embarrassment and empathy.
- 2 years: toddlers learn about performance standards and rules which bring about:
pride, shame, guilt.
Just as emotional reactions become more diverse with age so does emotion
regulation.
DEF: emotional regulation- process by which we evaluate and modify emotional
reactions.
Examples of this: when a child turns his/her head away from something unpleasant
or cling to a caretaker to soothe themselves.
-As children grow older, these things become part of their overall emotional
competence-this will influence social behaviour and how well-liked a person
becomes.
Social referencing- the way in which infants or children use the emotions of another
person (caretaker) to guide their actions. E.g. a visual cliff is presented to the baby, if
the mother who is placed on the other side of the cliff, looks fearful, the baby will be
unlikely to cross-over. The opposite occurs when the mom adopts a happy
expression.
, PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Developmental psychologists have investigated the individual differences in the
personalities of infants (known as temperament) and have attempted to describe
them.
Infant temperament
Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess (1977) found that most infants could be classified
into:
1. Easy infants- eat and sleep on schedule, playful, accept new situations with
little fuss.
2. Difficult infants- irritable, fussy eaters and sleepers and reacted negatively to
new situations.
3. Slow-to-warm-up infants- least active, fairly negative responses to new
situations and slowly adapt over time.
Difficult infants were found to be more like to develop emotional and behavioural
problems.
Think about shyness. (Which forms part of a general temperament style called
behavioural inhibition)
- Inhibited infants- quiet and timid, cry and withdraw from something
unfamiliar.(20-25% of infants)
- Uninhibited infants- sociable, verbal and spontaneous.
By the age of 7:
- Infants who were mildly inhibited or uninhibited between 1-2 years did not
necessarily become shy as they got older.
- While highly uninhibited infants tended to become sociable and talkative
- Highly inhibited- develop into quiet, shy, cautious.
Erikson’s psychosocial Theory (BAII)
He believed our personalities develop through psychosocial stages which each
involved a different ‘crisis.’
