Emotional Development and Attachment Chapter 10

What are the characteristics of emotion? The experience of an emotion includes your body’s physiological reaction to a situation, your interpretation of the situation, communication of the feeling to another person, and your own actions in response to the feeling.

How do you define temperament? The general way in which we respond to the experiences in the world, such as being timid or fearless.

Different types of temperament Infant temperaments have been characterized as easy, difficult, or slow to warm. Goodness of fit characterizes the match between the temperament of an infant and the type of demands placed on the infant by the environment.

How do emotions develop from complex to basic? Within the first year of life, infants demonstrate the basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger. Other emotions that rely on self-awareness, including pride, shame, and guilt, do not develop until preschool and beyond.

How do emotions connect us to other people? We share other people’s feelings when we have empathy for them. Empathy leads to feelings of sympathy which lead us to help others. Social referencing is the process by which children check with others to see how to react in an emotionally ambiguous situation.

How do children learn to control their emotions? Parental soothing and modeling. Infants also develop their own techniques of self-control (thumb sucking for self-soothing) Fear, anxiety, sadness, and anger are all normal emotions, and most children learn to deal with all of them as they age. Unmanaged: Anxiety disorders Phobias Clinical Depression ODD/Conduct disorder

What is attachment, how is it adaptive for survival and how does it develop? Attachment is a strong, positive emotional bond with a particular person who provides a sense of security. Adaptive (Save place to explore the environment, learning, and emotional self-regulation) John Bowlby Preattachment (birth to 6 weeks) Attachment in the making (6 weeks to 6-8 months) Clear-cut attachment (6-8 months to 18 months – 2 years) Goal-corrected partnership (18 months on…) Harlow Video

What are Ainsworth’s four types of attachment? Strange Situation Secure Anxious avoidant Anxious ambivalent/Resistant Disorganized/Disoriented

How do mother, father, and infant contribute to the development of attachment? Warm, responsive caretaking is related to secure attachment Father Own style that may not be the same as their partner Infant temperament, health issues, and other characteristics may all contribute to the quality of an infant’s attachment

What roles do biology and culture play in attachment? Infants who are deprived of attachment have different neurochemical reactions to interaction with people around them than infants with normal attachment experiences

What effect does infant attachment have on children’s development beyond infancy? For most infants, the type of attachment they experience does not change over time Securely attached infants tend to be more resilient in the face of stress, have a greater ability to form warm and trusting relationships, and show greater academic competence Insecure attachments to parents continues to be a risk factor even for adolescents

What effect does non-parental child care have on the development of attachment? Children are capable of forming multiple secure attachments High-quality child care does not harm a child’s attachment to their parents, but poor-quality child care can interact with poor mothering to create less secure attachment.

What is reactive attachment disorder? Occurs in children who have been deprived of a consistent caregiver or abused early in their lives They either withdraw from emotional connections to people or attach indiscriminately to anyone, not just to the people who take care of them Reactive Attachment Disorder

Activity Video Name four ways that parents and caregivers can aid a child's emotional development. What is the relationship between emotional development and cognitive development in early childhood? Why do children need to learn to regulate their emotions, and why is this one of the most challenging aspects of emotional development? Imagine that you are a caregiver with a 3-year-old child who hits other children when he gets frustrated. Name three ways you might teach this child how to better manage that emotion.

Social Development Chapter 12

What is social cognition? Social cognition is how we understand and think about our social interactions with others. To do this, we develop a theory of mind. The development of theory of mind can be assessed using the false belief paradigm. Autistic children fail to develop a theory of mind, and their inability to read social interactions is called mindblindness.

What are peer relationships like during infancy and early childhood? Infants with secure attachments are more likely to have positive relationships with peers. Imitation and pretend play are important forms of play interaction in early childhood. Conflicts among young children are part of the process of learning how to sustain a social relationship. By age 3, children can form friendships. Infant Play

What is play, and how does it develop? Play is self-chosen activity that is done for its own sake because it is fun. Piaget Practice play Symbolic/Sociodramatic play Games with rules

How does play affect children’s development? Physical activity Promotes health and brain development Emotional expression, emotional regulation, emotional understanding Develops social skills and friendships One of the best ways to learn Recess is important because it recharges body for learning

How do peer relationships change during middle childhood? Many find a best friend Not very many gender differences Sociometry is a technique used to measure peer status Popular Rejected Average Neglected Controversial Some children have a low level of rejection sensitivity, so being rejected by peers may not distress them

How do boys and girls differ in play? Boys tend to play farther away from home base and are more competitive in their play. Girls tend to play with a small group of friends and younger girls are involved with more make-believe play. However, there is HUGE overlap. Don’t let stereotypes throw you off.

What types of positive peer relationships to adolescents have? Adolescents spend an increasing amount of time with peers, and relationships become reciprocal Friends form cliques, and individual adolescents are placed within different crowds by their peers. Peer pressure Romantic relationships first emerge in adolescence

Darker side of peer relations Bullying is a threat to the well-being of a number of children and adolescents, and cyberbullying is a particularly vicious form of bulling. Bullies often have relatively poor self-concept, lack self- control, and do poorly in school. Victims of bullying may feel anxious or depressed. Most anti-bullying programs do not work…..why? Bullying Video

What is the nature of adolescent romantic relationships? Expectations are formed from peers and media. Teens with secure attachment relationships with parents/peers tend to have more positive romantic relationships. Those who suffered abuse are more likely to experience abuse in their romantic relationships. Adolescent romance allows teens to learn how to handle intimate relationships, and this predicts the nature of their relationships in early adulthood.

Activity Disney Movie Activity Main Character’s Social Group Structure of the Group Pros and Cons of the Group How might this group “look” in a school?