Combo with "Chapter 6b: Temperament and Development" and 1 other

Thomas and Chess' Groundbreaking Investigation

"Results showed that temperament can increase a child's chances of experiencing psychological problems or, alternatively, protect a child from the negative effects of a highly stressful home life. At the same time, Thomas and Chess discovered that parenting practices can modify children's temperaments considerably." - said that there are 3 types of children: easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up children

What factors influence attachment security?

- 1. Early availability of a consistent caregiver - 2. Quality of Caregiving (Sensitive Caregiving & Interactional Synchrony) - 3. Infant Characteristics - 4. Family Circumstances - 5. Parents' Internal Working Models

Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment

At reunion, these infants show confused, contradictory behaviors - for example, looking away while the parent is holding them or approaching the parent with flat, depressed emotion. Most display a dazed facial expression, and a few cry out unexpectedly after having calmed down or display odd, frozen postures. - reflects the greatest insecurity

Resistant Attachment

Before separation, these infants seek closeness to the parent and often fail to explore. When the parent leaves, they are usually distressed, and on her return they combine clinginess with angry, resistive behavior, sometimes hitting and pushing. Many continue to cry after being picked up and cannot be comforted easily.

Categorical Self

Between 18 and 30 months, children develop a ___ ___ as they classify themselves and others on the basis of age ("baby", "boy", "man"), sex ("boy" or "girl"), physical characteristics ("big", "strong"), and even goodness versus badness ("I a good girl." "Tommy mean! MEANNN!")

Uninhibited (Sociable) Children

Children who display positive emotion to and approach novel stimuli.

Inhibited (Shy) Children

Children who react negatively to and withdraw from novel stimuli.

Self-Recognition

Identification of the self as a physically unique being. - children refer to themselves by name or with a personal pronoun, and also point to themselves in photographs - emerges around age 2

Strange Situation

Mary 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 - takes place through 8 short episodes - researchers have used this to identify four attachment patterns: Secure, Avoidant, Resistant, and Disorganized/Disoriented

Reactivity

Refers to quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention, and motor activity.

Sensitive Caregiving

Responding promptly, consistently, and appropriately to infants and holding them tenderly and carefully.

Compliance

The ability to show clear awareness of caregiver's wishes and expectations and can obey simple requests and commands. - emerges in infants between 12 - 18 months

Empathy

The ability to understand another's emotional state and feel with that person, or respond emotionally in a similar way.

Effortful Control

The capacity to voluntarily suppress a dominant response in order to plan and execute a more adaptive response. - Beginning in early childhood, ___ ___ predicts favorable development and adjustment in cultures as diverse as China and the US.

Formation of a Reciprocal Relationship

The stage in which rapid growth in representation and language permits toddlers to understand some of the factors that influence the parent's coming and going and to predict her return. As a result, separation protest declines. - children begin to negotiate with the caregiver, using requests and persuasion to alter her goals. - the fourth and final stage in the Ethological Theory of Attachment - child starts doing stuff to you, i.e.: If you look sad, child may pat you on the back to try to give you console.

Attachment

The strong affectionate tie we have with special people in our lives that leads us to feel pleasure when we interact with them and to be comforted by their nearness in times of stress.

Avoidant Attachment

These infants seem unresponsive to the parent when she is present. When she leaves, they usually are not distressed, and they react to the stranger in much the same way as the parent. - during reunion, they avoid or are slow to greet the parent, and when picked up, they often fail to cling.

Secure Attachment

These infants use the parent as a secure base. When separated, they may or may not cry, but if they do, it is because the parent is absent and they prefer her to the stranger. - when the parent returns, they actively seek contact, and their crying is reduced immediately

Slow-to-Warm-Up Child

This type of child is inactive, shows mild, low-key reactions to environmental stimuli, is negative in mood, and adjusts slowly to new experiences.

Difficult Child

This type of child is irregular in daily routines, is slow to accept new experiences, and tends to react negatively and intensely.

Easy Child

This type of child quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, is generally cheerful, and adapts easily to new experiences.

Delay of Gratification

Waiting for an appropriate time and place to engage in a tempting act. - ex: waiting before eating a treat, opening a present, or playing with a toy - emerges between ages 1.5 and 3

Attachment Q-Sort

A method for assessing the quality of attachment between ages 1 and 4 years through home observations of a variety of attachment-related behaviors. - either the parent or a highly trained observer sorts 90 behaviors ("child greets mother with a big smile when she enters the room", "if mother moves very far, child follows along") into nine categories ranging from "highly descriptive" to "not at all descriptive" of the child. Then a score, ranging from high to low in security, is computed.

Goodness-of-Fit Model

A model proposed by Thomas and Chess to describe how temperament and environment together can produce favorable outcomes. - involves creating child-rearing environments that recognize each child's temperament while encouraging more adaptive functioning - interesting = "Difficult children (who withdraw from new experiences and react negatively and intensely) frequently experience parenting that fits poorly with their dispositions, putting them at high risk for later adjustment problems...in contrast, when parents are positive and sensitive, which helps babies regulate emotion, difficultness declines by age 2 or 3."

Interactional Synchrony

A sensitively tuned "emotional dance", in which the caregiver responds to infant signals in a well-timed, rhythmic, appropriate fashion. - parents and babies match emotional states (especially positive ones like smiling) - separates the experiences of secure from insecure babies - however, it is important to keep in mind that cultures vary in their view of sensitivity toward infants.

Internal Working Model

A set of expectations about the availability of attachment figures and their likelihood of providing support during times of stress. - this becomes a vital part of personality, serving as a guide for all future close relationships - coined by Bowlby (Ethological Theory)

"Clear-Cut" Attachment Phase

A stage where attachment to the familiar caregiver is evident. Babies may also display separation anxiety (becoming upset when their trusted caregiver leaves) depending on their personal temperament and the current situation. - the third stage in the Ethological Theory of Attachment

Preattachment Phase

A stage where built-in signals - grasping, smiling, crying, and gazing into the adult's eyes - help bring newborn babies into close contact with other humans, who comfort them. - birth --> 6 weeks - the first stage in the Ethological Theory of Attachment

Attachment-in-the-Making Phase

A stage where infants respond differently to a familiar caregiver than to a stranger. - as infants learn that their own actions affect the behavior of those around them, they begin to develop a sense of trust (the expectation that the caregiver will respond when signaled) - 6 weeks to 6 - 8 months - the second stage in the Ethological Theory of Attachment

Ethological Theory of Attachment

A theory that recognizes the infant's emotional tie to the caregiver as an evolved response that promotes survival. - developed by Bowlby - attachment develops in 4 phases: Preattachment Phase, Attachment-in-the-Making Phase, "Clear-Cut" Attachment, & Formation of a Reciprocal Relationship

Temperament

Early-appearing, stable individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation.

Scale Errors

Errors made by toddlers in which they attempt to do things that their body size makes impossible.