Emotional Development, Temperament, and Attachment

1. Emotional Development, Temperament, and Attachment Chapter 11

2. Emotional Development • Theories • Watson • Fear • Rage • Love • Learned through classical conditioning • 1960s, operant conditioning… • Social learning theory…

3. Emotional Development • Darwin: Universal facial expressions • Evidence for Darwin’s theory • Cross-cultural similarity • Identifying facial expressions • Used Fore, a preliterate society in New Guinea

4. Emotional Development • 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

5. Emotional Development • Hiatt, Campos, & Emde • Examined happiness, surprise, and fear in 10-12 month olds • Presented with 6 situations: • 2 intended to produce happiness • 2 intended to produce surprise • 2 intended to produce fear

6. Emotional Development • 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?

7. Emotional Development • 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

8. Emotional Development • 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?

9. Emotional Development • 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…

10. Emotional Development • 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

11. Emotional Development • Does all of this support Darwin’s claim that infants have the innate ability to recognize the meaning of emotional facial expressions?

12. Emotional Development • Haviland & Lelwica • Mothers sat facing 10 week old babies • Mother displayed 3 emotions: happiness, sadness, anger • Facial expressions + tone of voice

13. Emotional Development • Social Referencing • Infants use adults’ reactions to events as guides to how they should react to the same event • Happens in uncertain situations

14. Emotional Development • 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

15. Emotional Development • 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

16. Emotional Development • Campos & Klinnert • Placed infants on visual cliff with medium drop off • Mother on one side of cliff, baby on other

17. Emotional Development • 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

18. Emotional Development • Basic emotions • Interest, distress, disgust, contentment, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, fear • Complex/secondary emotions • Depend on social experience – understanding social rules and standards • Shame, guilt, pride, embarrassment, envy

19. Emotional Development • 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

20. Emotional Development • Complex/secondary emotions (con’t) • Alessandri & Lewis (1996) • 4-5 y/o children engaged with puzzles and maternal reactions were monitored • Kelley, Brownell, & Campbell (2000) • 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

21. 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.

22. Regulating Emotions • Ability develops slowly • Young infants • End of second year • 18-24 months

23. 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

24. 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

25. Emotional Understanding • 8: some situations elicit different emotions in different people • 6-9: can experience two emotions simultaneously

26. 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

27. Theories of Attachment • Psychoanalytic theory • Secondary drive/learning theory • Counterevidence – Harry Harlow • Newborn monkeys separated from mothers • Raised with artificial surrogates (dummies)

28. Theories of Attachment • Bowlby’s Ethological Theory • Emphasizes evolutionary roots and biological functions of behavior • Three behaviors indicative of attachment • Stranger anxiety • Separation protest • Secure base behavior

29. Individual Differences in Attachment • Develop expectations about social relationships through social interactions during first two years • Develop “internal working model” • Of self and others… • May affect later social relationships

30. Assessing Attachment • Strange Situation (Mary Ainsworth) • Rationale • Attachment has survival value • Attachment behaviors should be triggered in times of stress

31. 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

32. 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)

33. Assessing Attachment • 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 • Adult Attachment Inventory in adults • Relates to current relationships • Relates to parenting • http://www.yourpersonality.net/affect/ • http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl

34. Consistency of Attachment • Sroufe & Waters classified 50 infants at 12 months and again at 18 months • 48 classified same • Less stable families  more change (although most still classified the same)

35. Quality of Caregiving • 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

36. Fathers • 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-year-olds living in two-parent families • Father-child conflict, but not mother-child conflict, was positively associated with adolescent depression (Cole & McPherson, 1993)

37. 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…

38. Consequences of Attachment • 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

39. Consequences of Attachment • 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

40. Consequences of Attachment • 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

41. Cross-Cultural Studies • Northern Germany (Grossman) A B C N. Germany 49% 33% 12% U.S. 26% 57% 17%

42. Cross-Cultural Studies • Japan (Miyake et al.) A B C N. Germany 49% 33% 12% U.S. 26% 57% 17% Japan 0% 72% 28%

43. Daycare and Attachment • 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

44. Challenges • Nativist • Innate temperament influences personality and social behavior • Later experience • Early experience doesn’t necessarily have irreversible, lasting effects

45. Temperament • Person’s style of behavior and pattern of emotional reactions • Fearful distress • Irritable distress • Positive affect • Activity level • Attention span/persistence • Rhythmicity

46. Temperament • Hereditary and Environmental Influences on Temperament • Hereditary Influences • Environmental Influences

47. Temperament • Hereditary and Environmental Influences on Temperament • Cultural Influences • Stability of Temperament • Activity level, irritability, sociability, fearfulness • Behavioral inhibition

48. Temperamental Profiles • 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

49. 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 • Goodness-of-fit…

50. Temperament and Attachment • Doesn’t explain correlation between attachment and maternal behavior • Kochanska • Caregiving  secure vs. insecure attachment • Temperament  avoidant vs. resistant/ambivalent insecure attachment