Chapter 6: Psychosocial Development during the First Three Years
Foundations of Psychosocial Development
From infancy on. personality development is intertwined with social relationships: and this
combination is called psychosocial development.
Emotions
Emotions, such as sadness, joy, and fear, are subjective reactions to experience that are
associated with physiological and behavioral changes (Sroufe, 1997).
● First Signs of Emotion
-During the first month, newborns typically become quiet at the sound of a human voice or when
they are picked up.
-As time goes by, infants respond more to people smiling. cooing. reaching out. and eventually
going to them.
Crying
Crying is the most powerful way and sometimes the only way intants can communicate their
needs. Some research has distinguished four patterns of crying (Wolfi, 1969).
● the basic hunger cry (a rhythmic cry, which is not always associated with hunger)
● the angry cry (a variation of the rhythmic cry in which excess air is forced through the
vocal cords)
● the pain cry (a sudden onset of loud crying without preliminary moaning, sometimes
followed by holding the breath)
● the frustration cry (two or three drawn-out cries, with no prolonged breath-holding)
Smiling and Laughing
The earliest faint smiles occur spontaneously soon after birth, apparently as a result of
subcortical nervous system activity.
● The earliest waking smiles may be elicited by mild sensations, such as gentle jiggling or
blowing on the infant's skin.
● In the second week. a baby may smile drowsily after a feeding.
● By the third week, most infants begin to smile when they are alert and paying attention to
a caregiver's nodding head and voice.
● At about 1 month, smiles generally become more frequent and more social.
● During the second month, as visual recognition develops, babies smile more at visual
stimuli, such as faces they know
When Do Emotions Appear?
-Emotional development is an orderly process in which complex emotions untold from simpler
ones. According to one widely used model of emotional development, soon after birth babies
show signs of contentment, interest. and distress.
Self-conscious emotions, such as embarrassment, empathy, and envy, arise only after
children have developed self-awareness:the cognitive understanding that they have a
recognizable identity. separate and different from the rest of their world. This consciousness of
self seems to emerge between 15 and 24 months.
Empathy and Altruistic Helping
altruistic behavior- By acting out of concern for a stranger with no expectation of reward.
empathy, a growing ability to imagine how another person might feel in a particular situation.
Brain Growth and Emotional Development
The development of the brain after birth is closely connected with changes in emotional life.
-Four major shifts in brain organization roughly correspond to changes in emotional processing:
● During the first three months. differentiation of basic up after they've spilled. Guilt is
thought to develop emotions begins as the cerebral cortex becomes functional, bringing
cognitive perceptions into play.
● The second shift occurs around 9 or 10 months. when the frontal lobes begin to interact
with the limbic system, a seat of emotional reactions.
● The third shift takes place during the second year, when infants develop self-awareness,
self-conscious emotions, and a greater capacity for regulating their emotions and
activities.
● The fourth shift occurs around age 3. when hormonal changes in the autonomic
(involuntary) nervous system coincide with the emergence of evaluative emotions.
Temperament
Temperament is sometimes defined as a person's characteristic. biologically based way of
approaching and reacting to people and situations. Temperament has been described as the
how of behavior: not what people do, but how they go about doing it (Thomas & Chess, 1977).
The researchers were able to place most of the children in the study into one of three categories
(Table 6-2).
● Forty percent were "easy" children like Amy: generally happy, rhythmic in biological
functioning, and accepting of new experiences.
● Ten percent were what the researchers called "difficult" children like Brooke: more
irritable and harder to please. irregular in biological rhythms. and more intense in
expressing emotion.
● Fifteen percent were "slow-to-warm-up" children like Christina: mild but slow biological
rhythms ;to adapt to new people and situations (A. Thomas & Chess, 1977, 1984).
Earliest Social Experiences: The Infant in the Family
Infant care practices and patterns of interaction vary greatly around the world
depending on the culture's view of infants’ nature and needs.
● The Mother's Role -Mothering includes the comfort of close bodily contact. (Ex. Harry
Harlow Experiment on Rhesus monkeys)
● The Father's Role- the fathering role is essentially a social construction, having different
meanings in different cultures. The role may be taken or shared by someone other than
the biological father: mother’s brother (Botswana) & grandfather (Vietnam)
Gender: How Different Are Baby Boys and Girls?
● Boys are a bit longer and heavier and may be slightly stronger, but they are physically
more vulnerable from conception on.
● Girls are less reactive to stress and more likely to survive infancy
● Boys' brains at birth are about 10 percent larger than girls' brains, a difference that
continues into adulthood.
● On the other hand, the two sexes are equally sensitive to touch and tend to teethe, sit
up, and walk at about the same ages.
Developmental Issues in Infancy
Developing Trust
● Human babies are dependent on others for food, for protection, and for their very
lives for a far longer period than any other mammals. How do they come to trust
that their needs will be met? According to Erikson (1950), early experiences are
the key.
● If trust predominates, as it should, children develop the virtue of hove: the belief
that they can fulfill their needs and obtain their desires (Erikson, 1982).
● Trust vs. mistrust (Erickson eight stages of psychosocial development)
Developing Attachments
● Attachment is a reciprocal. enduring emotional tie between an infant and a
caregiver, each of whom contributes to the quality of the relationship.
Three main patterns of attachment according to Ainsworth and colleagues:
1. Secure attachment- cry pr protest when mother leaves and greet her happily
when she returns.
-cooperative and relatively free from anger.
2. Avoidant attachment- rarely cry when mother leaves but returning occasionally
for reassurance.
-they are tend to be angry and do not reach out in time of need.
3. Ambivalent (resistant) attachment- becomes anxious even before mother leaves
and are rarely very upset when she goes out. When she returns, shows their
ambivalence while seeking contact with her while at the same time resisting it by
kicking or squirming.
- hard to comfort.
Stranger Anxiety and Separation Anxiety
● stranger anxiety, wariness of a person she does not know.
● separation anxiety, distress when a familiar caregiver leaves her.
*Other researcher (Main & Solomon) has identified a fourth attachment pattern,
disorganized-disorder attachment; babies with this pattern seem to lack an organized
strategy to deal with the stress of the strange situation.
-shows contradictory, repetitive, or misdirected behaviours.
Long-Term Effects of Attachment
As attachment theory proposes, security of attachment seems to affect emotional,
social, and cognitive competence. The more secure a child's attachment to a nurturing
adult, the more likely that the child will develop good relationships with
Athere
Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)-asks adults to recall and interpret feelings and exeri-
ences related to their childhood attachments.
Emotional Communication with Caregivers:Mutual Regulation
Infants are communicating beings; they have a strong drive to interact with others
(Striano, 2004). The ability of both infant and caregiver to respond appropriately and
sensitively to each other's mental and emotional states is known as mutual regulation.
Social Referencing
When babies look at their caregivers on encountering a new person or toy, they are
engaging in social referencing, seeking emotional information to guide behavior
(Hertenstein & Campos. 2004).
The Emerging Sense of Self
The self-concept is our image of ourselves our total picture of our abilities and
self-concept Sense of self:traits. It describes what we know and reel about ourselves
and guides our actions [Harter. 1996). Children incorporate into their self-image the
picture that others reflect back to them.
Development of Autonomy
As children mature physically, cognitively, and emotionally they are driven to seek
independence from the very adults to whom they are attached
>autonomy vs. shame and doubt (Erickson eight stages of psychosocial development)
The Roots of Moral Development: Socialization and Internalization
● Socialization is the process by which children develop habits, skills, values, and
motives that make them responsible. productive members of society.
● Socialization rests on internalization of these standards. Children who are
successfully socialized no longer obey rules or commands merely to get rewards
or avoid punishment: they have made society's standards their own.
Contact with Other Children
Siblings
● Sibling relationships play a distinct role in socialization.
● Sibling conflicts can become a vehicle for understanding social
relationships.
Sociability with Nonsiblings
Infants and even more so toddlers show interest in people outside the home,
particularly people their own size. During the first few months, they look, smile.
and coo at other babies
Children of Working Parents
Effects of Maternal Employment
Longitudinal data on 900 European American children from the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care.
discussed in the next section. showed negative effects on cognitive development
at 15 months to 3 years when mothers worked 30 or more hours a week bv a
child's 9th month. Maternal sensitivity. a high-quality home environ-ment, and
high-quality child care lessened but did not eliminate these negative effects.
Early Child Care
Factors in Impact of Child Care The impact of early child care may depend on
the type, amount, quality, and stability of care as well as the family's income and
the age at which children start receiving nonmaternal care.
Maltreatment: Abuse and Neglect
Maltreatment: Facts and Figures
Maltreatment takes several specific forms, and the same child can be a victim
of more than one type:
● Physical abuse- injury to the body through punching, beating, kicking,
shaking, or burning.
● Neglect- failure to meet child’s basic needs, such as food, clothing,
medical care, protection, and supervision.
● Sexual abuse- any sexual activity involving a child and an older person.
● Emotional maltreatment- including rejection, terrorization, isolation,
exploitation, degradation, ridicule, or failure to provide emotional support
(ex. Love and affection)
-Some infants die of failure to thrive, often due to neglect.
-Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a form of maltreatment found mainly in
children under 2 years, most often in infants.
Long-Term Effects of Maltreatment
Consequences of maltreatment may be physical, emotional, cognitive, and social
and these types or consequences are often interrelated. A physical blow to a
child's head can cause brain damage resulting in cognitive delays and emotional
and social problems. Similarly, severe neglect or unloving parents can have
traumatic effects on the developing brain.
