Transcript Theories of Human Development

Emotional Development,
Temperament, and
Attachment
Chapter 11
Emotional Development
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Theories
– Watson
 Fear
 Rage
 Love
 Learned through classical conditioning
– 1960s, operant conditioning…
– Social learning theory…
Emotional Development
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Darwin: Universal facial expressions
– Evidence for Darwin’s theory
 Cross-cultural similarity
 Identifying facial expressions
– Used Fore, a preliterate society in New Guinea
Emotional Development
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Innate or learned??
– Some researchers believe that all of the basic
emotions (those that can be directly inferred
from facial expressions) are present in the
first few weeks of life
– At birth, babies show interest, distress,
disgust, and contentment
– Between 2-7 months, anger, sadness, joy,
surprise, and fear develop
– May be biologically programmed
Emotional Development
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Hiatt, Campos, & Emde
– Examined happiness, surprise, and fear in 1012 month olds
– Presented with 6 situations:
 2 intended to produce happiness
 2 intended to produce surprise
 2 intended to produce fear
Emotional Development
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Hiatt, Campos, & Emde (con’t)
– Do two situations designed to produce the
same emotional state elicit similar facial
expressions?
– Are these patterns different from other
situations?
– Are there other signs that the infant is
experiencing the intended emotion?
Emotional Development
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Sternberg, Campos, & Emde
– Provoked anger in 7-month-olds by frustrating
them
– Infants displayed anger expressions: brows
joined together with vertical line between
them, eyelids narrowed, mouth squared
Emotional Development
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Ganchrow looked at newborns in the first
day of life – at their first feeding
– Newborns fed sweet or bitter liquids
– Elicited different expressions
Appears that infants can demonstrate
different facial expressions and appear to
experience these emotions as well
 Can they also recognize emotions?
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Emotional Development
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Caron, Caron, & Myers – visual
discrimination
– Showed 4-7 m/o a sequence of pictures:
 4 different women, each expressing the same
emotion (happiness or surprise)
 Infants habituate to pictures…
Emotional Development
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Walker-Andrews – matching faces & voices
– Presented 5 and 7 m/o with 2 films side by
side
– One showed a person making an angry
expression, the other a happy expression
– Lower part of face was hidden
– Soundtrack was presented
Emotional Development
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Does all of this support Darwin’s claim that
infants have the innate ability to recognize
the meaning of emotional facial
expressions?
Emotional Development
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Haviland & Lelwica
– Mothers sat facing 10 week old babies
– Mother displayed 3 emotions: happiness,
sadness, anger
 Facial expressions + tone of voice
Emotional Development
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Social Referencing
– Infants use adults’ reactions to events as
guides to how they should react to the same
event
– Happens in uncertain situations
Emotional Development
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Social Referencing (con’t)
– Klinnert
 Mother and 12-18 month old infant, mother seated
in corner
 Mother previously trained to demonstrate:
happiness, fear, neutral expression
 Mother had wireless earplug
 3 toys presented, one at a time:
– Green remote control dinosaur, head of incredible hulk,
remote control spider
Emotional Development
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Social Referencing – Klinnert (con’t)
– Approached mother more quickly after fear,
stayed near her and touched her more
– Approached toy more when mother smiled
– In between for neutral
Emotional Development
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Campos & Klinnert
– Placed infants on visual cliff with medium
drop off
– Mother on one side of cliff, baby on other
Emotional Development
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Darwin’s theory, revisited
– At least some facial expressions seem to be
universal
– Still not certain if expressions are innate, but
appear early in infancy
– Not sure if ability to recognize expressions is
innate, but is present during infancy
Emotional Development
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Basic emotions
– Interest, distress, disgust, contentment,
anger, sadness, joy, surprise, fear
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Complex/secondary emotions
– Depend on social experience – understanding
social rules and standards
– Shame, guilt, pride, embarrassment, envy
Emotional Development
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Complex/secondary emotions (con’t)
– Require social experience
– Parental approval/disapproval defines
standards
– Culture defines standards
– Appear at end of second year, as children
develop a sense of self
Emotional Development
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Complex/secondary emotions (con’t)
– Alessandri & Lewis (1996)
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4-5 y/o children engaged with puzzles and
maternal reactions were monitored
– Kelley, Brownell, & Campbell (2000)
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Maternal evaluative feedback rated during
challenging task when toddlers were 2 years old
Self-evaluative affect (pride & shame) rated
during achievement tasks when toddlers were 3
years old
Emotional Development
Children more likely to show shame if
parents belittle them (e.g., “You are so
bad for breaking that toy.”)
 Children more likely to experience guilt if
parents criticize inappropriate behavior but
provide explanations for why it was
wrong, how it affected others, and what
can be done as reparation.
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Regulating Emotions
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Ability develops slowly
– Young infants
– End of second year
– 18-24 months
Regulating Emotions
Toddlers have difficulty regulating fear
 Adults can foster emotional regulation
through distraction and understanding
 Exposure to negative emotions, regardless
of at whom they are directed, relates to
higher negative emotionality and lower
ability to regulate
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Emotional Understanding
<3: difficulty identifying and labeling
emotional expressions
 4-5: able to identify happiness, anger,
sadness from body movements; can also
understand that current emotional state
may be based on previous experiences
 Emotional understanding continues to
improve
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Emotional Understanding
8: some situations elicit different
emotions in different people
 6-9: can experience two emotions
simultaneously
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Attachment
A strong, enduring emotional tie to a
specific other person
 Seen in desire to seek out and be near the
other person
 Usually mother or primary caretaker
 Doesn’t have to be biological mother
 Can have multiple attachments
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Theories of Attachment
Psychoanalytic theory
 Secondary drive/learning theory
 Counterevidence – Harry Harlow
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– Newborn monkeys separated from mothers
– Raised with artificial surrogates (dummies)
Theories of Attachment
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Bowlby’s Ethological Theory
– Emphasizes evolutionary roots and biological
functions of behavior
– Three behaviors indicative of attachment
 Stranger anxiety
 Separation protest
 Secure base behavior
Individual Differences in
Attachment
Develop expectations about social
relationships through social interactions
during first two years
 Develop “internal working model”
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– Of self and others…
– May affect later social relationships
Assessing Attachment
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Strange Situation (Mary Ainsworth)
– Rationale
 Attachment has survival value
 Attachment behaviors should be triggered
in times of stress
Episodes 2-8 last for 3 minutes each, although separation episodes may be
truncated and reunion episodes may be expanded for babies who become
extremely upset
Types of Attachment
Secure (65% of U.S. babies)
 Avoidant (insecure; 20% of U.S. babies)
 Ambivalent/resistant (insecure; 10-15% of
U.S. babies)
 Disorganized (insecure; 5-10% of U.S.
babies)
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Assessing Attachment
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Attachment Q-sort (AQS)
– Sort descriptors into categories ranging from “most
like” to “least like” the child at home
– Seems to correlate well with Strange Situation
classifications
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Adult Attachment Inventory in adults
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–
–
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Relates to current relationships
Relates to parenting
http://www.yourpersonality.net/affect/
http://www.web-research-design.net/cgibin/crq/crq.pl
Consistency of Attachment
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Sroufe & Waters classified 50 infants at 12
months and again at 18 months
– 48 classified same
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Less stable families  more change
(although most still classified the same)
Quality of Caregiving
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Sensitivity-insensitivity
Acceptance-rejection
Cooperation-interference
Accessibiilty-ignoring
Secure  high on all four dimensions
Avoidant  rejecting and insensitive
Resistant  rejecting and either interfering or
ignoring
Disorganized  abuse/neglect
Fathers
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Young et al. (1995) found that perceived
paternal love and caring was predictive
of children’s life satisfaction with a
national sample of 640 12- to 16-yearolds living in two-parent families
Father-child conflict, but not motherchild conflict, was positively associated
with adolescent depression (Cole &
McPherson, 1993)
Fathers (con’t)
Forehand and Nousianen (1993) found that
when mothers were high in acceptance, the
acceptance of fathers made an enormous
difference
 low father acceptance scores were associated
with children with poorer cognitive competence
 high father acceptance scores were associated
with children with significantly better cognitive
competence
 infants still seem to prefer mother in times of
stress, but fathers are important…
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Consequences of Attachment
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Problem-solving
– Secure attachment  enthusiasm, followed
directions, seldom cried or became angry,
asked for help when needed
– Insecure attachment  ignored directions,
easily frustrated, gave up quickly, seldom
asked for help, even when needed
Consequences of Attachment
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Social Adjustment
– Secure attachment  social leaders; initiated
activities, showed empathy, curiosity
– Insecure attachment  socially withdrawn,
less curiosity
– Follow up at 11-12 and 15-16 years
 Secure attachment  displayed better social skills,
had better peer relations, and were more likely to
have close friends
Consequences of Attachment
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Information Processing
– Belsky, Spritz, & Crnic (1996) gave 3 y/o a
puppet show
– children saw positive (e.g., a birthday party)
and negative (e.g., spilling juice) events
Cross-Cultural Studies
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Northern Germany (Grossman)
N. Germany
U.S.
A
49%
26%
B
33%
57%
C
12%
17%
Cross-Cultural Studies
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Japan (Miyake et al.)
N. Germany
U.S.
Japan
A
49%
26%
0%
B
33%
57%
72%
C
12%
17%
28%
Daycare and Attachment
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NICHD study of early childcare
– No relation between childcare (e.g., age of
entry, hours per week, type of facility) and
attachment above and beyond effects of
mother-child relationship
– Combined effects worse than those of low
maternal sensitivity and responsiveness alone
Challenges
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Nativist
– Innate temperament influences personality
and social behavior
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Later experience
– Early experience doesn’t necessarily have
irreversible, lasting effects
Temperament
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Person’s style of behavior and pattern of
emotional reactions
– Fearful distress
– Irritable distress
– Positive affect
– Activity level
– Attention span/persistence
– Rhythmicity
Temperament
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Hereditary and Environmental Influences
on Temperament
– Hereditary Influences
– Environmental Influences
Temperament
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Hereditary and Environmental Influences
on Temperament
– Cultural Influences
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Stability of Temperament
– Activity level, irritability, sociability, fearfulness
– Behavioral inhibition
Temperamental Profiles
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Thomas & Chess
– Easy (40%) – even tempered, positive, open
to new experiences
– Difficult (10%) – active, irritable, irregular in
habits
– Slow-to-warm-up (15%) – inactive, moody,
respond to novelty mildly negatively
Temperament and Later
Adjustment
“Spirited” at 2-3 years  70% have
behavior problems at age 5-6
 Slow to warm up  50% had problems
with social interaction at age 8-10
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Goodness-of-fit…
Temperament and Attachment
Doesn’t explain correlation between
attachment and maternal behavior
 Kochanska
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– Caregiving  secure vs. insecure attachment
– Temperament  avoidant vs.
resistant/ambivalent insecure attachment
Temperament and Attachment
Direct:
temperament  attachment
 Indirect:
Temperament
Temperament
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Parental
Behavior
Attachment
Classification
Temperament and Attachment
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Ainsworth/Sroufe:
Early Parental
Behavior
Early
Attachment
Infant
Behavior
Child’s Later
Behavior
Temperament and Attachment
Lamb:
Early Parental
Behavior
Later Parental
Behavior
Early
Attachment
Later
Attachment
Infant
Behavior
Child’s Later
Behavior
Temperament and Attachment
Early Parental
Behavior
Early
Temperament
Later
Temperament
Early
Attachment
Later
Behavior
Later Parental
Behavior