Infancy & Childhood

Module 3.6a Social-Emotional Development: Infancy & Childhood

LEARNING TARGETS:

• Explain how caregiver infant attachment bonds form.
• Explain how psychologists have studied attachment differences, and explain what they’ve learned.
• Explain how experiencing adversity affects children’s social development.
• Explain the onset and development of children’s self-concept.
• Explain the differences among the four main parenting styles.

Influences on Development

• Ecological systems theory – Different environments affect our cognitive, social, & biological development.
• The theory is based on the idea that people interact with many different systems throughout their lives, and that these systems affect their behavior. 
• Used in many fields, including social work, education, and child development. 

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Areas of Influence:

• Microsystem: The immediate environment, such as family, school, or peers 
• Mesosystem: The relationships between the microsystems, such as the relationship between a child's family and school 
• Exosystem: Indirect influences, such as a parent's boss who may affect how the parent interacts with their child 
• Macrosystem: The culture of an individual, such as their ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and society 
• Chronosystem: The dimension of time, such as major life transitions like divorce 

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Caregiver-Infant Attachment Bonds

• Attachment - An emotional tie with another person resulting in seeking closeness & showing distress when separated
• Body contact, familiarity, and responsiveness all contribute to attachment.
• Children develop strong attachments to their parents/caregivers – those they are comfortable & familiar with.
• Stranger Anxiety – Develops around 8 months when children have schemas for familiar faces & can’t assimilate new faces to these remembered schemas.
• Play “Stranger Anxiety” Video (#16 from Worth’s Digital Media Archive DVD)

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Attachment:�Harry Harlow’s Monkey Experiments

Harlow’s Monkeys

The monkeys spent most of their time by the cloth mother.

Harry Harlow’s �Study of�Attachment�See Harlow’s Experiment (6 min)

• Many thought that attachment was the result of baby associating food with parents
• Harlow noticed monkey’s raised alone became upset when their blankets where taken away for washing.
• Experiment: Infant rhesus monkeys were placed with two surrogate mothers:
1. Wire “Mother” with milk-producing bottle
2. Soft cloth “Mother” – No bottle
• Attachment was based on “contact comfort” rather than feeding
• Monkey’s routinely returned to Cloth Mother and used her as a secure base when exploring.

How Important was Body Contact?�

Familiarity & Imprinting in Animals

• Imprinting - A process by which certain animals, early in life, form attachments usually within hours after hatching.
• Imprinting develops within a critical period - an optimal period when certain events must happen for that animal to develop properly.
• Konrad Lorenz studied imprinting in geese.

Fact: Werewolves protect those they imprint on.

Imprinting vs Familiarity

• Goslings are imprinted to follow the first large moving object they see. (see an example HERE)
• Human children have a sensitive period where they become fond of familiar people/things (exposure effect)

Familiarity

• Familiarity - Sense of contentment with that which is already known
• Infants are familiar with their parents and caregivers.
• Mere Exposure Effect – being around an object long enough will cause one to develop an affection for the object

Infant Attachment

Intense emotional bond between infant and caregiver

• An infant’s ability to thrive physically and psychologically depends in part on the quality of attachment.
• Infants can form multiple attachments (parents, grandparents, caregivers).

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Ainsworth’s �Strange Situation�See Experiment Here (4 min)�

• Mother-child interactions observed in a playroom under four conditions:
• Study done with infants between 1 and 2 years old
• Observe how child responds when mom leaves the room and then returns.

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Forms of Attachment

• Securely attached - explores the room when mother is present, becomes upset and explores less when mother is not present, shows pleasure when mother returns
• Created when caregivers are consistently responsive to the child’s needs

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Forms of Attachment�Examples of Attachment (3 min)

• Insecure Attachment - become extremely distressed when the mother leaves the room and, when reunited, are hard to soothe

3 Types of Insecure Attachment:

1. Avoidantly attached - child avoids mother and acts coldly to her
2. Anxious resistant attachment - child remains close to mother and remains distressed despite her attempts to comfort
3. Disorganized attachment – no consistent behavior during separation and reunion.

Ainsworth’s Types of Attachment

Attachment & Day Care

Temperament�&�Attachment

Temperament

• A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
• A child might be:
• “easy”
• “slow to warm”
• “difficult” baby
• Temperament shown in infancy appears to carry through a person’s life.
• Temperament has a genetic and biological basis, but that environmental experiences can modify a child’s basic temperament.
• Positive parenting interventions helped difficult children form secure attachments (68%) vs. those in the control group (28%)
• Families with active fathers tend to have less risky behaviors, cope better with stress & perform better in school.

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Temperament

• Easy—adaptable, positive mood, regular habits

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• Slow to Warm Up—low activity, somewhat slow to adapt, generally withdraw from new situations

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• Difficult—intense emotions, irritable, cry frequently

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• Average—unable to classify
• (1/3 of all children)

Temperament

• Play “Bringing Up Monkeys” (9:40)
• Segment #23 from Scientific American Frontiers DVD

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• Consider these questions as you watch:
• Is monkey personality genetic or learned from their parents?
• Can we change your personality by changing parenting styles?
• In extreme situations what wins out? Genes or Parenting Style?

Effects of Attachment�on Relationships Later in Life

• Secure Attachment creates a sense of basic trust – the world is predictable & reliable (Erik Erikson)
• Secure attachment predicts social competence, less fear of failure, greater drive to achieve, more success socially & academically.
• Insecure attachment to others – tend to be anxious & looking out for potential threats
• Anxious Attachment – constantly crave acceptance, look for signs of rejection – cling to their partners.
• Avoidant Attachment – experience discomfort when they get close to others, decreases commitment - maintain distance from others.

Deprivation of �Attachment

• Unresponsive environments that ignore their children lead to no attachments.
• Deprivation of attachment is linked to negative outcome:
• had lower IQ
• more anxiety
• 4x the rate of ADHD
• tend to be more abusive parents themselves
• A responsive environment helps most infants recover from attachment disruption.

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Trauma, Abuse, & Poverty

• Adverse childhoods can lead to resilient, well-adjusted adults. Hardships short of trauma boost mental toughness.
• Enduring abuse can lead to long term issues. Children who were abused by parents have higher chance of becoming abusive parents themselves.
• Brain changes take place in those suffering extreme trauma:
• Heightened activity in threat-detecting areas of brain.
• Difficulty regulating negative emotions.
• Stronger startle responses.
• Changes in serotonin levels that calm aggressive impulses – creating bullying behavior
• Greater the abuse, the greater the odds of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, suicide.
• Growing up in extreme poverty can cause many of the same issues.
• Neglect, abuse, and stress can have epigenetic effects.

Development of Self-Concept

• After attachment in infancy, Children form a self-concept – an understanding of who they are
• Different than self-esteem – how we feel about ourselves
• Our view of ourselves affects our actions.
• Self-Awareness – The Mirror Test

See Website for links to see how this works!

List of Animals that have passed the Mirror Test

Baumrind’s Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian – impose rules & expect obedience, coercive

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• Authoritative - both demanding & responsive, enforces rules but explains reasons for them, confrontive
• Give & Take more with kids

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• Permissive – submit to child’s desires, few demands & punishments, unrestraining

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• Neglectful - completely uninvolved, careless, inattentive

Parenting Styles

Effects on Children

• Authoritarian correlates with children who are:
• unhappy, fearful, withdrawn, unspontaneous, and irritable
• this style promotes resentment and rebellion.
• Permissive correlates with children who are:
• immature, impulsive, and aggressive
• struggle with self-control
• Authoritative correlates with children who are:
• cheerful, socially competent, energetic, and friendly.
• show high levels of self-esteem, self-reliance, and self-control

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• 2 Possible Reasons for Correlation
• Children’s traits may influence parenting
• Shared genes for social competence between parents and their children

Suggestions for Being an Authoritative Parent

1. Let your children know that you love them.
2. Listen to your children.
3. Use induction to teach as you discipline.
4. Work with your child’s temperamental qualities.
5. Understand your child’s age-related cognitive abilities and limitations.
6. Don’t expect perfection, and learn to go with the flow.

Culture & Child Rearing

• Western Individualist Cultures stress INDEPENDENCE:
• Be True to Yourself!
• Be all YOU can be!
• Asian & African Collectivist Cultures stress FAMILY SELF:
• Family-self - What you do either shames or honors the family

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• Children can thrive under either cultural system