Chapter 10 - Emotional Development and Attachment

Late Bloomers

10% of 17 to 19 year olds say that they have had no experience with romantic relationships that lasted more than four months.

Entry into Romantic Attractions and Affiliations

11 to 13. This stage is triggered by puberty. They become intensely interested in romance, and it dominates many conversations with the same-sex friends. They develop crushes, and share their crushes. Dating occurs in group settings.

Exploring Romantic Relationships

14 to 16. Two types of romantic involvement occur: casual dating and group dating. Casual dating emerges between individuals who are mutually attracted, they are often short lived, and last a few months, at best.

Early Bloomers

15 to 20 percent of 11 to 13 year olds say that they are currently in a romantic relationship and 35% who indicate that they have had some prior experience in romantic relationships.

Variations in Child Care

15% of children 5 years of age and younger attend more than one child-care arrangement. A study of 2 and 3 year olds revealed that an increase in the number of child-care arrangements the children experience was linked to an increase in behavioral problems and a decrease prosocial behavior.

Consolidating Dyadic Romantic Bonds

17 to 19. At the end of the high school years, more serious romantic relationships develop. These bonds are stable and enduring and typically last one year or more.

Phases of attachment

4 phases

Attachment

A close emotional bond between two people.

Anger Cry

A cry similar to the basic cry but with more excess air forced through the vocal cords.

Basic Cry

A rhythmic pattern usually consisting of a cry, a brief silence, a shorter inspiratory whistle that is higher pitched than the main cry, and then a brief rest before the next cry.

Social smile

A smile in response to an external stimulus, which, early in development typically is a face.

Reflexive Smile

A smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli. It happens during the month after birth, usually during sleep.

Pain Cry

A sudden, initial loud cry followed by breath holding, without preliminary moaning.

Stranger Situation

Ainsworth's observational measure of infant attachment to a caregiver that requires the infant to move through a series of introductions, separations, and reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger in a prescribed order.

Affectionate Love

Also called companionate love, this type of love occurs when individuals desire to have another person near and have a deep, caring affection for the person.

Romantic Love

Also called passionate love, or eros, this type of love has strong components of sexuality and infatuation, and is often predominates in the early part of a love relationship.

Temperament

An individual's behavioral style and characteristic way of responding.

Stranger Anxiety

An infant's fear of and wariness toward strangers; it tends to appear in the second half of the first year of life (6 months). By 9 months, the fear of strangers is often more intense. infants show less stranger anxiety when they are in familiar settings. It appears when infants feel secure, they are less likely to show stranger anxiety.

Avoidant Attachment Style

Are hesitant about getting involved in romantic relationships and once in a relationship tend to distance themselves from their partner.

Emotional Competence

Becoming emotional competent involves developing a number of skills in social contexts, including the following: Having awareness of one's emotional state, detecting other's emotions, using the vocabulary of emotion terms in socially and culturally appropriate ways, having empathetic and sympathetic sensitivity to others' emotional experiences, recognizing that inner emotional states do not have to correspond to outer expressions, adaptively coping with negative emotions by using self-regulatory strategies that reduce the intensity or duration of such emotional states, having awareness that the expression of emotions plays a major role in relationships, viewing oneself overall as feeling the way one wants to feel As children acquire these skills, they are more likely to effectively manage their emotions, become resilient in the face of stressful circumstances, and develop more positive relationships.

Face-to-face play

Begins to characterize caregiver-infant interactions when the infant is about 2 to 3 months of age. May include vocalization, touch, and gestures.

Coping with Stress

By 10 years of age most children are able to use these strategies to cope with stress. Disasters can particularly effect a child's ability to cope with stress. Outcomes of this stress can result in acute stress reactions, depression, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Depends on the nature and severity of the disaster and the type of support available to the child.

Rothbart and Bate's Classification

Discribe in three ways: - Extraversion/surgency: approach, pleasure, activity, smiling, and laughter [Kagan's uninhibited child fits here] - Negative Affectivity: fear, frustration, sadness, and discomfort [Kagan's inhibited child fits here] - Effortful Control (self-control): attention focusing and shifting, inhibitory control, perceptual sensitivity, and low-intensity pleasure

Chess and Thomas Classification

Identified three types, or clusters, of temperament: - An easy child: is generally in a positive mood, quickly established regular routines in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences. - A difficult child: Reacts negatively and cries frequently, engages in irregular daily routines, and is slow to accept change. - A slow-to-warm-up child: has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, and displays a low intensity of mood. 40% = easy 10% = difficult 15% = slow to warm up Other 35% = did not fit any of them

Development of Emotion - Middle and Late Childhood

Many children show marked improvement in understanding and managing their emotions. When they face stressful situations, their coping abilities may be challenged.

Development of Emotion - Infancy

Michael Lewis studies this.

Expressing Emotions

To experience self-conscious emotions, children must first be able to refer to themselves and be aware of themselves as distinct from others. Ex: Pride, shame, embarrassment and guilt are self conscious emotions. Self conscious emotions don't appear to develop until self-awareness appears in the second half of the second year of life. During the early childhood years these emotions become more common. They are influenced by parents' responses to children's behavior.

Emotion-dismissing parents

View their role as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions.

Stress and Gender

Women and men differ in the way they experience and respond to stressors. Women are more vulnerable to social stressors such as those involving romance, family and work. Women are more likely to become depressed. When men face stress, they become aggressive, withdraw from social contact, or drink alcohol.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

The theory that older adults become more selective about their activities and social relationships in order to maintain emotional well-being.

Development of Emotion - Early Childhood

The young child's growing awareness of self is linked to the ability to feel an expanding range of emotions. Young children, like adults, experience many emotions during the course of a day.

Kagan's Behavioral Inhibition

This focuses on the difference between a shy, subdued, timid child and a social, extraverted, bold child. Inhibition to the unfamiliar Uninhibited

Social Referencing

"Reading" emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a specific situation.

Insecure Resistant Children

Children who might cling to the caregiver, then resist her by fighting against the closeness, perhaps by kicking or pushing away. Have caregivers that tend to be inconsistent; sometimes they respond to their babies' needs, and sometimes they don't. They tend not to be very affectionate with their babies and show little synchrony when interacting with them.

Insecure Avoidant Children

Children who show insecurity by avoiding the mother. Have caregivers who tend to be unavailable or rejecting. The often don't respond to their babies signals and have little physical contact with them. When they do interact with their babies, they may behave in an angry and irritable way.

Insecure Disorganized Children

Children who show insecurity by being disorganized and disoriented. Have caregivers that often neglect or physically abuse them. In some cases, these caregivers are depressed.

Securely Attached Children

Children who use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment. Have caregivers who are sensitive to their signals and are consistently available to respond to their infant's needs.

Emotion Regulation and Coping

During the first year of life, the infant gradually develops an ability to inhibit, or minimize, the intensity and duration of emotional reactions. Later in infancy, when they become aroused, infants sometimes distract themselves in order to reduce their arousal. By 2 years of age, toddlers can use language to define their feeling states and the context that is upsetting them. Contexts can influence emotion regulation. Infants must learn to adapt to different contexts that require emotion regulation. Emotionally reactive infants who also showed a high level of emotion regulation were more likely to have primary caregivers who engaged in positive parenting behavior during a parent-child integration task.

Early Emotions - Primary Emotions

Emotions that are present in humans and other animals; these emotions appear in the first six months of the human infant's development. These emotions include surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust.

Early Emotions - Self-conscious Emotions

Emotions that require consciousness and a sense of "me"; they include empathy, jealousy, embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt, most of which first appear at some point after 18 months of age when a sense of self becomes consolidated in toddlers.

Parental Leave

Europe is leading the way in creating new standards for parental leave. They mandate a 14-week maternity leave. Today in many European countries working parents on leave receive from 70 percent of the worker's prior wage to the full wage, and paid leave averages about 16 weeks. The US currently allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Oxytocin

Hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It is released in the mother during breast feeding and by contact and warmth. Fathers also release oxytocin.

Developmental Social Neuroscience

Examines connections between socioemotional processes, development, and the brain. Attachment is one of the main areas that is focused on.

Older adults

Experience more positive emotion than and less negative emotion than younger adults.

Emotion

Feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is engaged in an interaction that is important to him or her, especially to his or her well-being. Infancy: Emotions have important roles. 1) Communication with others 2) Behavioral organization. Communicate joy sadness, interest and fear. Influenced by biological foundations and by a person's experience.

Phase 2

From 2 to 7 months. Attachment becomes focused on 1 figure, which is usually the primary caregiver.

Phase 4

From 24 months on. Children become aware of others' feelings, goals, and plans and begin to take these into account in forming their own actions.

Phase 3

From 7 to 24 months. Specific attachments develop. With increased locomotor skills, babies actively seek contact with regular caregivers such as the mother or father.

Phase 1

From birth to 2 months. Infants instinctively direct their attachment to human figures.

Gender and Temperament

Gender may be an important factor shaping the environment context that influence's temperament.

Secure Attachment Style (Adults)

Have positive views of relationships, find it easy to get close to others, and are not overly concerned with, or stressed out about romantic relationships. These adults tend to enjoy sexuality in the context of a committed relationship and are less likely than others to have one-night stands.

Sensitive Response Parents

Help their infants grow emotionally, whether the infants respond in distressed or happy ways.

Developmental Changes in Emotion

Improved emotional understanding, marked improvements in the ability to suppress or conceal negative emotional reactions, the use of self-initiated strategies for redirecting feelings, an increased tendency to take into fuller account the events leading to emotional reactions, and development of a capacity for genuine empathy.

Development of Emotion

Infancy, early childhood, middle and late childhood, adolescence, adult development and aging

Emotional Expression and Social Relatioships

Involved in infants' first relationships. The ability of infants to communicate emotions permits coordinated interactions with their caregivers and the beginning of an emotional bond between them. Emotions are mutually regulated between infants and their caregiver. (Reciprocal or Synchronous)

Arousal

Involves a state of alertness or activation, which can reach levels that are too high for effective functioning. Ex: Anger often requires regulation In infancy and early childhood, regulation of development gradually shifts from external sources to self-initiated, internal sources. With age they are more capable of using cognitive strategies for regulating emotion. Ineffective emotion regulation is linked with a lower level of executive function, difficulty succeeding in school, a lower level of moral development, failure to adequately cope with stress, and difficulty in peer relations.

Developmental Cascade Model

Involves connections across domains over time that influence development pathways and outcomes.

Emotion-coaching parents

Monitor their children's emotions, view their children's negative emotions as opportunities for teaching, assist them in labeling emotions, and coach them in how to deal effectively with emotions. Interact with their children in a less rejecting manner, use more scaffolding and praise, and are more nurturant that are emotion dismissing parents. These children are better at soothing themselves when they got upset, are more effective in regulating their negative affect, focus their attention better, and have fewer behavior problems than children of emotion dismissing parents. Young children are more likely to openly discuss difficult emotional circumstances when they are securely attached to their mother.

Crying

Most important mechanism newborns have for communicating with their world. The first cry verifies that the baby's lungs have filled with air. Cries also provide information about the baby's central nervous system. Newborns tend to respond with cries and negative facial expressions when they hear other newborns cry. Newborns of depressed mothers showed less vocal distress when another infant cried, reflecting emotional and physiological dysregulation.

Fear

One of a baby's easiest emotions, which typically appears at about 6 months of age and peaks at about 18 months. Abused infants can show fear at 3 months of age.

Sternbergs Triangular Theory of Love

Theory that love includes three components or dimensions: Passion, intimacy, and commitment. Passion - a physical and sexual attraction to another Intimacy - is the emotional feelings of warmth, closeness, and sharing in a relationship. Commitment - our cognitive appraisal of the relationship and our intent to maintain the relationship even in the face of problems.

Understanding Emotions

One of the most important changes in emotional development in early childhood is understanding emotions. Children increasingly understand emotion. Between 2 and 4 years of age, children considerably increase the number of terms they use to describe emotions. They also learn about causes and consequences of feelings. When they are 4 to 5 years of age, children show an increased ability to reflect on emotions. Understand that the same event can cause different feelings. They understand that they need to regulate their emotions to fit in. By 5 years of age, most children can accurately identify emotions that are produced by challenging circumstances and being able to cope with them.

Emotion-Based Prevention Program (EBP)

Program that consists of a teacher-conducted emotions course in the classroom, emotion tutoring and coaching teacher dialogues, and weekly parent messages that reinforce the lessons taught in the classroom. To improve young children's understanding of emotions.

Seperation Protest

Reaction that occurs when infants experience fear of being separated from a caregiver, which results in crying when the caregiver leaves. Displayed by infants at approximately 7 to 8 months and peaks at about 15 months.

Anxious Attachment Style

These individuals demand closeness, are less trusting, and are emotional, jealous, and possessive.

Smiling

Smiling is critical as a means of developing a new social skill and is a key social signal. Smiling and laughter at 7 months of age were associated with self-regulation at 7 years of age.

Fight-or-Flight

Taylor's view that when men experience stress, they are more likely to become aggressive, withdraw from social contact, or drink alcohol.

Tend and Befriend

Taylor's view that when women experience stress, they are more likely to seek social alliances with others, especially female friends.

Emotion Regulation

The ability to control one's emotions. Consists of effectively managing arousal to adapt to circumstances and to reach a goal.

Face Paradigm

The caregiver alternated between engaging in face-to-face interaction with the infant and remaining still and unresponsive.

Regulating Emotions

The growth of emotions regulation in children as fundamental to the development of social competence.

Goodness of fit

The match between a child's temperament and the environmental demands the child must cope with.