Infant Childcare Considerations
JayLee23The First Two Years: The Social World
chapter four
Invitation to the Life Span
Kathleen Stassen Berger | Fourth edition
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At About This Time: Developing Emotions
Birth | Distress; contentment |
6 weeks | Social smile |
3 months | Laughter; curiosity |
4 months | Full, responsive smiles |
4–8 months | Anger |
9–14 months | Fear of social events (strangers, separation from caregiver) |
12 months | Fear of unexpected sights and sounds |
18 months | Self- awareness; pride; shame; embarrassment |
As always, culture and experience influence the norms of development. This is especially true for emotional development after the first eight months.
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Emotional Development (part 1)
Early emotions
High emotional responsiveness
Pain
Pleasure
Crying
Typical: Hurt, hungry, tired, frightened
Colic: Uncontrollable; reflux and immature swallowing
Excessive
Reactive pain and pleasure progresses to complex social awareness.
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Emotional Development (part 2)
Smiling and laughing
Social smile (6 weeks): Evoked by viewing human faces
Laughter (3 to 4 months): Often emerges as curiosity
Anger
First expressions at around 6 months
Healthy response to frustration
Sadness
Indicates withdrawal and is accompanied by increased production of cortisol
Stressful experience for infants
Emotional Development (part 3)
Infant emotions
Fear
Emerges at about 9 months in response to people, things, or situations
Stranger wariness
Infant no longer smiles at any friendly face but cries or looks frightened when an unfamiliar person moves too close.
Separation anxiety
Tears, dismay, or anger when a familiar caregiver leaves
If it remains strong after age 3, it may be considered an emotional disorder.
Both Santa's smile and Olivia's grimace are appropriate reactions for people of their age.
Adults playing Santa must smile no matter what, and if Olivia smiled that would be troubling to anyone who knows about 7-month-olds.
But why did someone scare this infant by putting her in the grip of an oddly dressed, bearded stranger?
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Emotional Development (part 4)
Toddlers’ emotions
Anger and fear become less frequent and more focused.
Laughing and crying become louder and more discriminating.
Temper tantrums may appear.
New emotions
Pride
Shame
Embarrassment
Disgust
Guilt
Require an awareness of other people
Emerge from family interactions, influenced by the culture
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Emotional Development (part 5)
Self-awareness
Person's realization that he or she is a distinct individual whose body, mind, and actions are separate from those of other people.
Emotional Development (part 6)
Mirror Recognition
Classic experiment (M. Lewis & Brooks, 1978)
Babies aged 9–24 months looked into a mirror after a dot of rouge had been put on their noses.
None of the babies younger than 12 months old reacted as if they knew the mark was on them.
15- to 24-month-olds showed self-awareness by touching their own noses with curiosity.
At 18 months, he is at the beginning of self-awareness, testing to see whether his mirror image will meet his finger.
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Temperament (part 1)
Temperament
Biologically-based core of individual differences in
Style of approach
Response to the environment that is stable across time and situations
Temperamental traits are genetic; personality traits are learned.
Temperament is not the same as personality, although temperamental inclinations may lead to personality differences.
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Temperament (part 2)
Three dimensions of temperament are found
Effortful control (regulating attention and emotion, self-soothing)
Negative mood (fearful, angry, unhappy)
Exuberant (active, social, not shy)
Each dimension
Affects later personality and achievement.
Is associated with distinctive brain patterns and behaviors.
Do Babies’ Temperaments Change?
Sometimes it is possible. Especially if they were fearful.
Adults who are reassuring help children overcome an innate fearfulness.
If fearful children do not change, it is not known whether that's because their parents are not sufficiently reassuring (nurture) or because they are temperamentally more fearful (nature).
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Development of Social Bonds (part 1)
Synchrony
Coordinated, rapid, and smooth exchange of responses between a caregiver and an infant
Synchrony in the first few months
Becomes more frequent and elaborate.
Helps infants learn to read others' emotions and to develop the skills of social interaction.
Usually begins with parents imitating infants.
Is Synchrony Needed for Normal Development?
Experiments using the still-face technique
Experimental practice in which an adult keeps his or her face unmoving and expressionless in face-to-face interaction with an infant
Babies are very upset by the still face and show signs of stress.
Conclusions
Parent's responsiveness to an infant aids psychological and biological development.
Infants' brains need social interaction to develop to their fullest.
Development of Social Bonds (part 2)
Attachment
Lasting emotional bond that one person has with another
Begins to form in early infancy and influences a person's close relationships throughout life.
Attachment Types (part 1)
Insecure-avoidant attachment (A)
An infant avoids connection with the caregiver, as when the infant seems not to care about the caregiver's presence, departure, or return.
Secure attachment (B)
An infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver.
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Attachment Types (part 2)
Insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment (C)
An infant's anxiety and uncertainty are evident, as when the infant becomes very upset at separation from the caregiver and both resists and seeks contact on reunion.
Disorganized attachment (D)
A type of attachment that is marked by an infant's inconsistent reactions to the caregiver's departure and return.
Measuring Attachment (Ainsworth)
Strange Situation
A laboratory procedure for measuring attachment by evoking infants' reactions to the stress of various adults' comings and goings in an unfamiliar playroom.
Key observed behaviors
Exploration of the toys. A secure toddler plays happily.
Reaction to the caregiver's departure. A secure toddler misses the caregiver.
Reaction to the caregiver's return. A secure toddler welcomes the caregiver's reappearance.
Can You Use Attachment Theory to Explain What You See?
Excited, Troubled, Comforted—This sequence is repeated daily for one-year-olds, which is why the same sequence is replicated to measure attachment. As you see, toys are no substitute for a mother’s comfort if the infant or toddler is secure, as this one seems to be. Some, however, cry inconsolably or throw toys angrily when left alone.
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Insights from Romania
In late 1980s, thousands of Romanian children were part of international adoptions.
Infants adopted before 6 months fared best; those adopted after 12 months often suffered a variety of adverse outcomes.
What have you learned about attachment that might explain these outcomes?
Predictors of Attachment Type
Use Table 4.1 to complete the information.
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Secure attachment (type B) is more likely if:
Insecure attachment is more likely if:
Development of Social Bonds (part 3)
Social referencing
Seeking emotional responses or information from other people
Observing someone else's expressions and reactions and using the other person as a social reference
Development of Social Bonds (part 4)
Parental social referencing
Mothers use a variety of expressions, vocalizations, and gestures to convey social information to their infants.
Synchrony, attachment, and social referencing are all apparent with fathers, sometimes even more than with mothers.
Social referencing has many practical applications.
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Development of Social Bonds (part 5)
Fathers
Within every U.S. ethnic group, contemporary fathers are more involved than previously noted.
Involvement influenced by many factors
Social contexts
Within-group role models
Less rigid gender roles
Cultural variations
Social referencing has many practical applications.
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Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development (part 1)
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud: oral and anal stages
Oral stage (first year)
Anal stage (second year)
Potential conflicts
Oral fixation
Anal personality
FREUD: Oral and anal stages
Oral stage (first year): The mouth is the young infant's primary source of gratification.
Anal stage (second year): Infant's main pleasure comes from the anus (e.g., sensual pleasure of bowel movements and the psychological pleasure of controlling them)
Potential conflicts:
Oral fixation: If a mother frustrates her infant's urge to suck, the child may become an adult who is stuck (fixated) at the oral stage (e.g., eats, drinks, chews, bites, or talks excessively)
Anal personality: Overly strict or premature toilet training may result in an adult with an unusually strong need for control, regularity, and cleanliness.
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Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development (part 2)
Psychosocial Theory
Erikson: trust and autonomy stages
Trust versus mistrust
Infants learn basic trust if the world is a secure place where their basic needs are met.
Autonomy versus shame and doubt
Toddlers either succeed or fail in gaining a sense of self-rule over their actions and their bodies.
Early problems
An adult who is suspicious and pessimistic (mistrusting) or who is easily shamed (insufficient autonomy) can be created.
Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development (part 3)
Behaviorism
Bandura: social learning theory
Parents mold an infant's emotions and personality through reinforcement and punishment.
Behavior patterns acquired by observing the behavior of others
Gender roles in particular are learned.
The Effects of Parenting
Proximal parenting
Caregiving practices that involve being physically close to the baby, with frequent holding and touching
Distal parenting
Caregiving practices that involve remaining distant from the baby, providing toys, food, and face-to-face communication with minimal holding and touching
According to behaviorism, each action reinforces a lesson that the baby learns, in this case about people and objects.
Research findings
Notable cultural difference exists with newborns and older children. Culture is especially pivotal for the proximal/distal response.
Distal parenting results
May produce children who were self-aware but less obedient.
Proximal parenting results
May produce toddlers who were less self-aware but more compliant.
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Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development (part 4)
Cognitive Theory
Working model: Set of assumptions that the individual uses to organize perceptions and experiences
The child's interpretation of early experiences is more important than the experiences themselves.
New working models can be developed based on new experiences or reinterpretation of previous experiences.
Working models formed in childhood echo lifelong.
A person might assume that other people are trustworthy and be surprised by evidence that this working model of human behavior is erroneous.
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Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development (part 5)
Evolutionary theory
A human child must be nourished, protected, and taught much longer than offspring of any other species. Infant and parent emotions ensure this lengthy protection
Evolutionary theory holds that the emotions of attachment— love, jealousy, even clinginess and anger— keep toddlers near caregivers who remain vigilant.
Allocare (the care of children by caregivers who are not their biological parents) is important
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High-Quality Day Care
High-quality day care during infancy has five essential characteristics:
Adequate attention to each infant.
Encouragement of language and sensorimotor development.
Attention to health and safety.
Professional caregivers.
Warm and responsive caregivers.
High-quality day care during infancy has five essential characteristics:
1. Adequate attention to each infant. A small group of infants needs two reliable, familiar, loving caregivers. Continuity of care is crucial.
2. Encouragement of language and sensorimotor development. Infants need language— songs, conversations, and positive talk—and easily manipulated toys.
3. Attention to health and safety. Cleanliness routines (e.g., handwashing), accident prevention (e.g., no small objects), and safe areas to explore are essential.
4. Professional caregivers. Caregivers should have experience and degrees/certificates in early-childhood education. Turnover should be low, morale high, and enthusiasm evident.
5. Warm and responsive caregivers. Providers should engage the children in active play and guide them in problem solving. Quiet, obedient children may indicate unresponsive care.
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Conclusions
Individualized care with stable caregivers seems best.
Relationships are important; each infant needs personal responsiveness.
Instability of nonmaternal care is problematic.