1. Chapter 4

2. Function of Emotions  Survival – emotions motivate us  Communication  Enhances cognitive functions  Emotions are related to mental (& physical) health & wellness - key is a healthy balance between emotional awareness, emotional acceptance, and emotional expression (emotional intelligence – ability to perceive emotions, to identify & understand their meaning, to Integrate them with other kinds of cognition & to manage them)

3.  Infants have some basic emotional systems in place at birth; the range of emotional expression increases dramatically over the first two years of life.  Certain facial expressions are interpreted as the same emotions across cultures at birth: distress, contentment, disgust, interest 2 mths – 6 mths: anger, surprise, fear, sadness social emotions: depend on self-recognition & higher levels of cognitive functioning – emerge last half of 2 nd year of life (pride, shame, guilt, embarrasment)

4.  Izard’s Differential Emotions Theory ◦ Emotions are a direct product of the underlying neural processes related to each of the emotional expressions; babies faces mirror felt emotions ◦ Emotions are innate and do not require cognitive components, such as appraisal or intent to exist ◦ Learning plays a role in emotional expression & regulation  Sroufe’s Developmental Position ◦ Emotions are not fully formed at birth. They develop from undifferentiated responses into more differentiated ones, finally into an integrated emotional repertoire (orthogenetic) - maturation

5.  Adult caregivers help to manage a newborn’s affect & responsive caregiving scaffolds infants’ own self- regulation of emotions  Social referencing – infants use the emotional information provided by caregivers to help them interpret situations that are ambiguous (p. 132)  Still face paradigm – parent is non-responsive or emotionally withdrawn; child’s initial response is other-directed coping (tries to get her to resume the normal interaction style); if parent still does not engage, child usually resorts to self-directed coping (self-comfort); negative mood persists for several minutes afterward – baby looks at parent less for several minutes

6.  Interactive repair – prodding toward longer periods of positive affect - helps the infant depend upon the caregiver and shapes own sense of social effectiveness, which enhances communication & promotes engagement with the external environment  A mother’s depression predisposes her child to more depressed affect – less positive affect, look away more often, display more anger, intrusiveness, and poorly timed responses; interactions go unrepaired ◦ less laughing, more fussing, more negative emotional periods (increased right frontal activation & lowered left frontal activation), increased levels of self-directed coping, elevated heart rates & cortisol levels, future social relations & cognitive development can be affected

7.  Seven discrete, but interacting emotional systems (circuits), which are also in relationship with higher cortical areas; these circuits operate semiautomatically when triggered, producing the emotional responses of seeking, rage, fear, lust, nurturance, sorrow, and play  Low-road processing (amygdala highjack) – early warning emotional system provides survival advantage – quicker, more powerful, & longer lasting, but less rational responses than information processed first via the cortex (high-road processing); reason & emotion work in concert  Anxiety disorders – conditioning of stimuli via the brain’s fear system; Treatment – lengthy & difficult: help the more rational cortex gain control over emotional centers through new learning

8.  Right hemisphere – recognizes & interprets nonverbal behavior; more mature than the left in infancy; involved in social bonding  Normal social interaction and the formation of social bonds activate the opiate system – thus, narcotics may function like a social relationship

9.  Behavioral Approach System (p. 130)  Behavior Inhibition System (p. 130)

10. Early relationships lay the groundwork for future interactions with others, self-concept, and outlook on life  Basic Trust – seeing others as dependable and trustworthy; influences how we see ourselves because if others can be trusted to provide for one’s needs, then one must be worthy of care  Working models – prototypes of social functioning that affect the child’s expectations and behavior in future relationships.

11.  Attachment Theory – Infant and caregiver participate in an attachment system that has evolved to serve the purpose of keeping the infant safe and assuring his/her survival. proximity maintenance secure base – on-going protection safe haven when distressed  Separation anxiety, stranger anxiety – a marker of attachment (7-8 months of age)  Behavior (e.g. crying, clinging) must be interpreted within its social context to understand its significance

12. Primary caregiver sensitivity is important; Other factors: temperament, cultural context, and family variables  Strange Situation Test: measurement technique developed by Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues (p. 126) – a stress test  Three patterns of infant response (managing the stress): ◦ Securely attached (65%) ◦ Anxious ambivalent – insecurely attached (10%) – tend to be fearful infants who are insecurely attached ◦ Avoidant – insecurely attached (20%); tend to be non-fearful infants who are insecurely attached  Fourth pattern later described by Main & Solomon ◦ Disorganized/disoriented – insecurely attached – strong association with maltreatment – not managing the stress

13. Skills that foster social bonding – p. 141 Example of sensitive caregiving – table 4.2, p. 142

14.  Fearfulness or reactivity (proneness to cry; pull away from new stimuli)  Irritability or negative emotionality (fussiness to frustrating events)  Activity level (intensity and quantity of movement)  Positive affect (smiling & laughing)  Attention-persistence (duration of looking)

15.  New York Longitudinal Study by Thomas and Chess found four temperament types (table 4.3, p. 144) ◦ Difficult babies (10%) – more fearful, irritable, active, less positive affect, more irregular ◦ Easy babies (40%) – more placid, less active, more positive, more regular in their rhythms ◦ Slow-to-warm-up babies (15%) – like easy babies in many ways, but like difficult babies in their fearfulness, showing more wariness in new situations than most babies. ◦ Mixed or variable (35%) - did not fit well into any of the more extreme groups.

16. Infant temperament may show some persistence into later years  70% of difficult babies have later adjustment probs  easy babies do not often have later adjustment probs  when there are problems, goodness of fit between caregiving & needs made the difference  Infants have the best outcomes when securely attached to both parents

17. Temperament & sensitivity of care interact at several levels to produce attachment security  Infant temperament affects caregiving  Caregiving can change or moderate temperament  Across cultures, although specifics may vary & working models have different meanings & consequences  Many, esp. easy babies, can tolerate a broad range of caregiving responses  Peer networks, quality schooling, emotional climate of the home also influence socioemotional development  SES & social support influence parenting quality  By 9 months the behavior of mother & infant are coordinated  At 13 months, strange situation test performance was related to both proneness to distress & mother’s personalities

18. Early attachment launches processes that can have long-term consequences, but the quality of care that continues can strengthen or redirect those processes  Stability: The quality of caregiving in each attachment relationship may be important - mothers & fathers tend to be similar in quality - mothers tend to be more positive & responsive - fathers’ care is more impacted by relationship with mother  Change: Over-time, the quality of attachment with a caregiver can change if caregiving quality changes - Secure attachments are less likely to change - Those in low SES groups are more likely to change

19.  AAI – Adult Attachment Inventory  Parents’ working models of attachment seem to influence caregiving, affecting infants’ attachment security (generational) – perhaps parents whose concepts of relationships are more coherent, or who have come to terms with past relationships are more likely to behave consistently & sensitively with their infants, fostering a secure attachment; similarities in temperament between parent & infant may also be influential

20.  The specifics of parenting practices are not as important as the overall quality of infant-caregiver relationships  Parenting practices must be considered within context Application-  Daycare - p. 148; multiple interacting factors, including age, amount of time, quality of care, gender, & parent sensitivity  Infant mental-health – family counseling to improve relationships; correct faulty assumptions about development; provide a voice for the baby; provide support for parents; facilitate the learning of new skills

21.  Fourth pattern later described by Main & Solomon ◦ Disorganized Attachment – insecurely attached – strong association with maltreatment &/or frightening behavior – the attachment figure is both threat & safe haven; marital discord may also relate ◦ Reactive Attachment Disorder – highly disturbed & inappropriate social relatedness (inhibited & disinhibited types) in early childhood, which is not due to other mental disorders or to developmental delay or Pervasive Developmental Disorder