In diverse cultures and ses groups, insecurely attached infants tend to have mothers who

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chapter 6 Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

This father takes time to build a strong, affectionate bond with his infant daughter. His warmth and sensitivity engender a sense of security in the baby—a vital foundation for all aspects of early development.

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chapter outline

Erikson’s Theory of Infant and Toddler Personality

Basic Trust versus Mistrust

Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt

Emotional Development

Development of Basic Emotions

Understanding and Responding to the Emotions of Others

Emergence of Self-Conscious Emotions

Beginnings of Emotional Self-Regulation

■ BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT Parental Depression and Child Development

Temperament and Development

The Structure of Temperament

Measuring Temperament

Stability of Temperament

Genetic and Environmental Influences

Temperament and Child Rearing: The Goodness-of-Fit Model

■ BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT Development of Shyness and Sociability

Development of Attachment

Bowlby’s Ethological Theory

Measuring the Security of Attachment

Stability of Attachment

Cultural Variations

Factors That Affect Attachment Security

Multiple Attachments

Attachment and Later Development

■ SOCIAL ISSUES: HEALTH Does Child Care in Infancy Threaten Attachment Security and

Later Adjustment?

■ CULTURAL INFLUENCES The Powerful Role of Paternal Warmth in Development

Self-Development

Self-Awareness

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Categorizing the Self

Self-Control

As Caitlin reached 8 months of age, her parents noticed that she had become more fearful.

One evening, when Carolyn and David left her with a babysitter, she wailed as they headed

for the door—an experience she had accepted easily a few weeks earlier. Caitlin and

Timmy’s caregiver Ginette also observed an increasing wariness of strangers. When she

turned to go to another room, both babies dropped their play to crawl after her. At the mail

carrier’s knock at the door, they clung to Ginette’s legs, reaching out to be picked up.

At the same time, each baby seemed more willful. Removing an object from the hand

produced little response at 5 months. But at 8 months, when Timmy’s mother, Vanessa, took

away a table knife he had managed to reach, Timmy burst into angry screams and could

not be consoled or distracted.

All Monica and Kevin knew about Grace’s first year was that she had been deeply loved by

her destitute, homeless mother. Separation from her, followed by a long journey to an

unfamiliar home, had left Grace in shock. At first she was extremely sad, turning away

when Monica or Kevin picked her up. But as Grace’s new parents held her close, spoke

gently, and satisfied her craving for food, Grace returned their affection. Two weeks after

her arrival, her despondency gave way to a sunny, easygoing disposition. She burst into a

wide grin, reached out at the sight of Monica and Kevin, and laughed at her brother Eli’s

funny faces. As her second birthday approached, she pointed to herself, exclaiming

“Gwace!” and laid claim to treasured possessions. “Gwace’s chicken!” she would announce

at mealtimes, sucking the marrow from the drumstick, a practice she had brought with her

from Cambodia.

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Taken together, the children’s reactions reflect two related aspects of personality

development during the first two years: close ties to others and a sense of self. We begin

with Erikson’s psychosocial theory, which provides an overview of personality

development during infancy and toddlerhood. Then, as we chart the course of emotional

development, we will discover why fear and anger became more apparent in Caitlin’s and

Timmy’s range of emotions by the end of the first year. Our attention then turns to

individual

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differences in temperament. We will examine genetic and environmental contributions to

these differences and their consequences for future development.

Next, we take up attachment to the caregiver, the child’s first affectionate tie. We will see

how the feelings of security that grow out of this important bond support the child’s sense

of independence and expanding social relationships.

Finally, we focus on early self-development. By the end of toddlerhood, Grace recognized

herself in mirrors and photographs, labeled herself as a girl, and showed the beginnings of

self-control. “Don’t touch!” she instructed herself one day as she resisted the desire to pull a

lamp cord out of its socket. Cognitive advances combine with social experiences to produce

these changes during the second year.

Erikson’s Theory of Infant and Toddler Personality

Our discussion of major theories in Chapter 1 revealed that the psychoanalytic perspective

is no longer in the mainstream of human development research. But one of its lasting

contributions is its ability to capture the essence of personality during each period of

development. Recall that Sigmund Freud believed that psychological health and

maladjustment could be traced to the quality of the child’s relationships with parents during

the early years. Although Freud’s preoccupation with the channeling of biological drives

and his neglect of important experiences beyond infancy and early childhood came to be

heavily criticized, the basic outlines of his theory were accepted and elaborated in several

subsequent theories. The most influential is Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory, also

introduced in Chapter 1.

Basic Trust versus Mistrust

Erikson accepted Freud’s emphasis on the importance of the parent–infant relationship

during feeding, but he expanded and enriched Freud’s view. A healthy outcome during

infancy, Erikson believed, does not depend on the amount of food or oral stimulation

offered but rather on the quality of caregiving: relieving discomfort promptly and

sensitively, holding the infant gently, waiting patiently until the baby has had enough milk,

and weaning when the infant shows less interest in breast or bottle.

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Erikson recognized that no parent can be perfectly in tune with the baby’s needs. Many

factors affect parental responsiveness—personal happiness, current life conditions (for

example, additional young children in the family), and culturally valued child-rearing

practices. But when the balance of care is sympathetic and loving, the psychological conflict

of the first year—basic trust versus mistrust—is resolved on the positive side. The trusting

infant expects the world to be good and gratifying, so he feels confident about venturing out

and exploring it. The mistrustful baby cannot count on the kindness and compassion of

others, so she protects herself by withdrawing from people and things around her.

Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt

With the transition to toddlerhood, Freud viewed the parents’ manner of toilet training as

decisive for psychological health. In Erikson’ view, toilet training is only one of many

influential experiences. The familiar refrains of newly walking, talking toddlers—“No!” “Do

it myself!”—reveal that they have entered a period of budding selfhood. They want to

decide for themselves, not just in toileting but also in other situations. The conflict of

toddlerhood, autonomy versus shame and doubt, is resolved favorably when parents

provide young children with suitable guidance and reasonable choices. A self-confident,

secure 2-year-old has parents who do not criticize or attack him when he fails at new skills

—using the toilet, eating with a spoon, or putting away toys. And they meet his assertions of

independence with tolerance and understanding—for example, by giving him an extra five

minutes to finish his play before leaving for the grocery store. In contrast, when parents are

over- or undercontrolling, the outcome is a child who feels forced and shamed and who

doubts his ability to control his impulses and act competently on his own.

In sum, basic trust and autonomy grow out of warm, sensitive parenting and reasonable

expectations for impulse control starting in the second year. If children emerge from the

first few years without sufficient trust in caregivers and without a healthy sense of

individuality, the seeds are sown for adjustment problems. Adults who have difficulty

establishing intimate ties, who are overly dependent on a loved one, or who continually

doubt their own ability to meet new challenges may not have fully mastered the tasks of

trust and autonomy during infancy and toddlerhood.

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On a visit to a science museum, a 2-year-old insists on exploring a flight simulator. As the mother supports her toddler’s desire to “do it myself,” she fosters a healthy sense of autonomy.

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Emotional Development

TAKE A MOMENT… Observe several infants and toddlers, noting the emotions each displays,

the cues you rely on to interpret the baby’s emotional state, and how caregivers respond.

Researchers have conducted many such observations to find out how babies convey their

emotions and interpret those of others. They have discovered that emotions play powerful

roles in organizing the attainments that Erikson regarded as so important: social

relationships, exploration of the environment, and discovery of the self (Halle, 2003; Saarni

et al., 2006).

Think back to the dynamic systems perspective introduced in Chapters 1 and 4. As you read

about early emotional development in the sections that follow, notice how emotions are an

integral part of young children’s dynamic systems of action. Emotions energize

development. At the same time, they are an aspect of the system that develops, becoming

more varied and complex as children reorganize their behavior to attain new goals

(Campos, Frankel, & Camras, 2004; Thompson, Winer, & Goodvin, 2011).

Because infants cannot describe their feelings, determining exactly which emotions they are

experiencing is a challenge. Cross-cultural evidence reveals that people around the world

associate photographs of different facial expressions with emotions in the same way

(Ekman, 2003; Ekman & Friesen, 1972). These findings inspired researchers to analyze

infants’ facial patterns to determine the range of emotions they display at different ages. But

to express a particular emotion, infants, children, and adults actually use diverse responses

—not just facial expressions but also vocalizations and body movements—which vary with

their developing capacities, goals, and contexts. Therefore, to infer babies’ emotions as

accurately as possible, researchers are best off attending to multiple interacting behavioral

cues and seeing how they vary across situations believed to elicit different emotions (Lewis,

2000, 2008).

Development of Basic Emotions

Basic emotions—happiness, interest, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust—are

universal in humans and other primates and have a long evolutionary history of promoting

survival. Do infants come into the world with the ability to express basic emotions?

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Although signs of some emotions are present, babies’ earliest emotional life consists of little

more than two global arousal states: attraction to pleasant stimulation and withdrawal from

unpleasant stimulation (Camras et al., 2003; Fox, 1991). Only gradually do emotions become

clear, well-organized signals.

According to one view, sensitive, contingent caregiver communication, in which parents

selectively mirror aspects of the baby’s diffuse emotional behavior, helps infants construct

emotional expressions that more closely resemble those of adults (Gergely & Watson, 1999).

With age, face, voice, and posture start to form organized patterns that vary meaningfully

with environmental events. For example, Caitlin typically responded to her parents’ playful

interaction with a joyful face, pleasant babbling, and a relaxed posture, as if to say, “This is

fun!” In contrast, an unresponsive parent often evokes a sad face, fussy sounds, and a

drooping body (sending the message, “I’m despondent”) or an angry face, crying, and “pick-

me-up” gestures (as if to say, “Change this unpleasant event!”) (Weinberg & Tronick, 1994;

Yale et al., 1999). Gradually, emotional expressions become well-organized and specific—

and therefore provide more precise information about the baby’s internal state.

Four basic emotions—happiness, anger, sadness, and fear—have received the most research

attention. Let’s see how they develop.

Happiness.

Happiness—expressed first in blissful smiles and later through exuberant laughter—

contributes to many aspects of development. When infants achieve new skills, they smile

and laugh, displaying delight in motor and cognitive mastery. As the smile encourages

caregivers to be affectionate and stimulating, the baby smiles even more (Aksan &

Kochanska, 2004). Happiness binds parent and baby into a warm, supportive relationship

that fosters the infant’s developing competencies.

During the early weeks, newborn babies smile when full, during REM sleep, and in response

to gentle touches and sounds, such as stroking of the skin, rocking, and the mother’s soft,

high-pitched voice. By the end of the first month, infants smile at dynamic, eye-catching

sights, such as a bright object jumping suddenly across their field of vision. Between 6 and

10 weeks, the parent’s communication evokes a broad grin called the social smile (Lavelli &

Fogel, 2005; Sroufe & Waters, 1976). These changes parallel the development of infant

perceptual capacities—in particular, sensitivity to visual patterns, including the human face

(see Chapter 4). And social smiling becomes better-organized and stable as babies learn to

use it to evoke and sustain pleasurable face-to-face interaction.

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Laughter, which appears around 3 to 4 months, reflects faster processing of information

than smiling. But, as with smiling, the first laughs occur in response to very active stimuli,

such as the parent saying playfully, “I’m gonna get you!” and kissing the baby’s tummy. As

infants understand more about their world, they laugh at events with subtler elements of

surprise, such as a silent game of peekaboo (Sroufe & Wunsch, 1972).

Around the middle of the first year, infants smile and laugh more when interacting with

familiar people, a preference that strengthens the parent–child bond. Between 8 and 10

months, infants more often interrupt their play with an interesting toy to relay their delight

to an attentive adult (Venezia et al., 2004). And like adults, 10- to 12-month-olds have several

smiles, which vary with context—a broad, “cheek-raised” smile in response to a parent’s

greeting; a reserved, muted smile for a friendly stranger; and a “mouth-open” smile during

stimulating play (Bolzani et al., 2002; Messinger & Fogel, 2007). By the end of the first year,

the smile has become a deliberate social signal.

Anger and Sadness.

Newborn babies respond with generalized distress to a variety of unpleasant experiences,

including hunger, painful medical procedures, changes in body temperature, and too much

or too little stimulation. From 4 to 6 months into the second year, angry expressions

increase in frequency and intensity (Braungart-Rieker, Hill-Soderlund, & Karrass, 2010).

Older infants also react with anger in a wider range of situations—when an interesting

object or event is removed, an expected pleasant event does not occur, their arms are

restrained, the caregiver leaves for a brief time, or they are put down for a nap (Camras et

al., 1992; Stenberg & Campos, 1990; Sullivan & Lewis, 2003).