Chapter 6

Social Referencing

- "Reading" emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a particular situation. - Babies often use their mothers as a social reference

Reactivity

- A child's threshold for arousal, which could be evidenced at the physiological, emotional, or motor level.

Categorization

- A fundamental element of information processing - The natural tendency of humans to sort objects into groups

Attachment Scheme

- A set of internal mental representations that an infant has of the anticipated responses of a caregiver.

Intersubjectivity

- A shared repertoire of emotions that enables infants and their caregivers to inderstand each other and create shared meanings. -They can engage in reciprocal, rhythmic interactions, appreciate state changes in one another, and modify their actions in response to emotional information about one another.

Swaddling

- A soothing technique, used in many cultures, that involves wrapping a baby tightly in cloths or a blanket

Critical Period

- A time of maximal sensitivity or readiness for the development of certain skills or behavior patterns - From studies, we can say that a critical period for attachment must begin at 6 months of age and ends at around age 2. - After that, may result in affectionless adolescents unable to form close relationships with others

Working Model

- According to Bowlby's theory, the mental representation of a caregiver that allows children beyond age 3 to be physically apart from a primary caregiver and predicts their behavior in relationships. - Studies suggest that the internal working model of an attachment relationship may be transmitted across generations.

Sensorimotor Adaptation

- According to Piaget, the primary mechanism underlying the growth of intelligence during infancy - Infants use their reflexes to explore their world, and they gradually alter their reflexive responses to take into account the unique properties of objects around them. This provides the basis for sensorimotor intelligence.

Touch

- Active and passive sense. - Babies use it to explore objects, people, and their own bodies - Sucking is one of the earliest coping strategies infants use to calm themselves - By 5 or 6 months, infants can use their hands for the controlled examination of objects.

Strange Situation

- Ainsworth's method for assessing infant attachment to the mother, based on a series of brief separations and reunions with the mother in a playroom situation

Attachment Behavior System

- An organized pattern of infant signals and adult responses that lead to a protective, trusting relationship during the very earliest stage of development.

Apgar Scoring Method

- Assessment method of the newborn based on 5 life signs: heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, response to stimulation, and skin color, scored on a scale of 0 to 2. - Most importantly, it is used to evaluate the need for immediate intervention. - Used twice: at 1st minute after birth, and again at 5 minutes.

Sensitivity

- Attentiveness to the infant's state, accurate interpretation of the infant's signals, and well-timed responses that promote mutually rewarding interactions.

Development of Attachment

- Babies are born prepared to become attached to their primary care giver; determined by learning. - Before 6 months, infants are unable to differentiate mother and so do not show anxiety at separation. - 3 stages: 1. Pre-attachment phase (0-3mo) attach to humans, social smile. 2. Attachment in the making phase (3-6mo) focus on primary caregiver, more responsive to familiars 3. Seek physical proximity (6-9) stranger anxiety 4. Clear-cut attachment (9-12mo) internal representation of caregivers, separation anxiety (object permanence), secure base. 5. Reciprocal relationship (>12mo) uses many different behaviors to influence the behavior of their parents and other objects of attachment in order to satisfy their own needs for closeness.

Hopefulness

- Babies are ego-centric and have the adaptive ego quality of hope - Allows babies to set new goals and take new risks

Self-Regulation

- Behavioral inhibition - A continuum from bold or brazen to inhibited and cautious. - The two dimensions function together to shape children's typical reactions to environmental stimulation and their ability to inhibit or express these reactions at an emotional or behavioral level.

Synchrony

- Coordinated interaction between the caregiver and the infant, also sometimes called Responsiveness - Ability of parents to adjust their behavior to that of an infant

Habituation

- Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. - Allows infants to shift attention to new aspects of the environment as others become familiar. - As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Stranger Anxiety

- Develops when infants are around 6-7 months ending around 18 months. - If a stranger approaches, the infant becomes afraid and reaches for the caregiver

Reactive Attachment Disorder

- Disturbed and inappropriate social relatedness Two types: - Inhibited: very withdrawn, hypervigilent in social contacts, resistant to comfort, failure to initiate/response in age-expected manner - Uninhibited: overly friendly and attaching to any new person, indiscriminate sociability assoc. w/ chronic neglect or multiple changes in care givers

Feedback System of Emotions

- Feedback loops in emotion show how sensory information is evaluated and translated into action or some other outcome that normalizes the relationship between the individual and the triggering event

Sensory/Perceptual Capacities

- Function as an interconnected system to provide a variety of sources of information about the environment at the same time. e.g. a nursing baby taking in the taste and smell of the milk and mom, hearing sounds of mom, touching mom's skin, and becoming familiar with mom all at the same time.

Goal-Corrected Partnership

- In Bowlby's attachment theory, the capacity that emerges in toddler hood and early school age in which children begin to find more flexible and adaptive ways to maintain proximity with the object of attachment and to seek reassurance under stressful situations. As a result, children are able to manage negotiated separations more easily.

Foundational Category

- In cognitive development, a fundamental mental classification, such as the distinction between human beings and inanimate objects. - Babies will stop smiling at objects and smile only at people

Mismatch

- Infant and caregiver are not involved in the same behaviors or states at the same time

Synchrony

- Infant and caregiver move from one state to the next in a fluid manner - Interactions of the infant and caregiver are rhythmic, well timed, and mutually rewarding

Withdrawal

- Infants characterized by withdrawal may show evidence of passivity, lethargy, and neutral or negative affect.

Faceness

- Infants exhibit preference for face-like stimuli - By 6 or 7 months, infants show surprise when facial features are disorganized or upside down.

Secure Attachment

- Infants who have this attachment actively explore their environment and interact with strangers while their mother are present.

Anxious-Resistant Attachment

- Infants who show this attachment are very cautious in the presence of a stranger. - Behavior is noticeably disrupted when caregiver leaves. - When caregiver returns, infant wants to be close to caregiver but may be very angry and difficult to soothe or comfort. - May come from inconsistency in caregiving

Anxious-Avoidant Attachment

- Infants who show this attachment avoid contact with their mothers after separation or ignore their efforts to interact. They show less distress at being alone than other babies. - Can be a result of mother not wanting baby initially, may distrust mom.

Low-birthweight Babies

- Infants who weigh less than 5 lbs 6 oz (2,500 grams). - May result from prematurity, mother's inadequate diet, smoking, or use of drugs. - Those considered "small for their gestational age" (SGA) are at greater risk for health problems than pre-mies of average weight for gestational age.

Reaching and Grasping

- May play the greatest role in infant cognitive development - newborns make poorly coordinated swipes known as pre-reaching - reaching improves as depth perception improves; once infants can reach they modify their grasp - By 12 months, babies master pincer grasp (index finger and thumb) to pick up tiny things, lift latches, turn knobs, etc.

Reflexive

- Means that a specific stimulus will evoke a particular motor response without any voluntary control or direction.

Nature and Nurture

- Nature: Normal children achieve the same developmental milestones at similar times due to maturation; any differences in people are due to genetics and physiology. - Nurture: Influence of physical/social environment factors in shaping human development.

Motor Sequence

- Order in which a child is able to perform new movements. - Motor sequence depends on the development of the brain and nerves.

Temperament

- Patterns of arousal and emotionality that are consistent and enduring characteristics of an individual - Infants with difficult temperament are at risk for behavioral problems when their mothers are unpredictable and harsh, but not when their mothers are responsive and warm

Communication Repairs

- Periods of recovery in normal mother-infant interactions that follow periods of mismatch, so that infants and mothers cycle again through points of coordination in their interactions

Causal Schemes

- Piaget and Inhelder described 6 phases in the development of causal schemes: - Reflexes: From Birth - e.g. Grasp reflex - First Habits: From 2nd week - e.g. Grasp rattle - Circular Reactions: From 4th month - e.g. Grasp rattle and make banging noise on table - Coordination of Means and Ends: From 8th month - e.g. Grasp rattle and shake to play with dog - Experimentation with New Means: From 11th month - e.g. Use rattle to bang a drum - Insight: From 18th month - e.g. Use rattle and string to make new toy

Sensorimotor Intelligence

- Piaget's term for the way infants think by using their senses and motor skills during the first period of cognitive development

Separation Anxiety

- Refers to severe distress that occurs when a child is separated from his or her primary caretaker - Begins 7-8 months of age and peaks in intensity at 14-18 months and then gradually declines

Emotional Regulation

- Strategies for coping with intense emotions, both positive and negative. Caregiver behavior and observation are important factors in the development of it.

Mutuality

- The Central Process of infancy (resolves trust vs mistrust) - Built on the consistency with which the caregiver responds appropriately to the infant's needs.

Trust vs Mistrust

- The Psychosocial crisis of infancy. - Mutuality is the central process used to resolve it (mutuality with the caregiver) - Focuses on the fundamental nature of an infant's sense of connection to the social world - Trust: an appraisal of the availability, dependability, and sensitivity of another person - Mistrust: infant wariness, lack of confidence in the caregiver, and doubt in one's own lovableness

Visual Acuity

- The ability to perceive detail in a visual stimulus. - At birth 20/600-20/1200. - By 6-12 months of age infant can see as well as adult.

Plasticity

- The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.

Cultural and Subcultural Differences

- The culture's beliefs about infants, including how fragile or vulnerable they are, how best to help infants cope with distress, and what skills or temperamental qualities are most valued, are likely to shape a caregiver's practices.

Matching

- The infant and the caregiver are involved in similar behaviors or states at the same time

Emotional Differentiation

- The more highly emotionally differentiated a person is, the more able s/he is to experience a full range of emotions, to understand them, and to act rationally while experiencing them. - Developed through experience with other people in emotional situations - Peter Wolff described 7 states of arousal in newborn infants: crying (contributes to the infant's survival), alert inactivity, waking activity, drowsiness, periodic sleep, irregular sleep, regular sleep.

Imprinting

- The process of forming a strong social attachment at some point after birth

Object Permanence and Attachment

- The process through which infants establish a scheme for objects as permanent and subject to all the laws of nature is closely linked to their understanding of themselves and their relationships with each other - Applies to humans and inanimate objects

Attachment

- The process through which people develop specific, positive emotional bonds with others

Object Permanence

- The realization of infants that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight

Causality

- The relationship between cause and effect - Babies learn to associate specific actions with regularly occurring outcomes; they can select a desirable outcome and then perform the behavior that will produce it

Disorganized Attachment

- These infants have no consistent strategy for managing their distress - They behave in contradictory, unpredictable ways that seem to convey feelings of fear or utter confusion.

Infant Characteristics

- When referring to the quality of attachment, infant characteristics can influence attachment. - Infants born with physical abnormalities are more likely to evoke responses of rejection or neglect from caregivers. - Infant's temperament (fearfulness, sociability, and the intensity of negative emotions) may also negatively influence attachment.

Taste and Smell

- newborns are responsive to different tastes and odors - within a few hours, show preference for sweet liquids

Coordination

Refers to two related characteristics of interaction - Matching and Synchrony

Patterns of Attachment

a. Secure: as long as mother is present infant plays comfortably with others and react positively to strangers. Become upset when mothers leave and can't be consoled by strangers. b. Anxious/Avoidant-> may or may not cry when mothers leave the room. Strangers are as likely to comfort them as their mothers. c. Anxious/ resistant attachment. Appear anxious even when mothers are near. Resistant to comforting, even from mothers.