Infant Emotions and Development Quiz

Chapter 5: Infant/Toddler Psychosocial Development

• Learning Objectives: Explain emotional development in infants and toddlers, describe temperament and biological markers of temperament, describe infant social behavior, explain the significance of the still-face paradigm, explain intergenerational transmission of caring, explain the dominance system, describe self-development, explain self-regulation and its development, describe early language development, and discuss assessment of infants and toddlers.

Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

• Emotional Responses: Infants exhibit attraction to pleasant situations and withdrawal from unpleasant stimuli. Attraction activates the Behavioral Approach System (BAS) while withdrawal activates the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). These brain circuits controlling approach and withdrawal are not fully formed at birth, leading to limited emotional responses.
• Primary Emotions and Age: Infants' primary emotions (e.g., interest, curiosity, surprise, joy, pain, sadness, disgust, anger, fear) emerge at different ages reflected in facial expressions. Table 5-1 outlines the progression.

Temperament

• Differentials: Differences in temperament between children are visible from birth. Three approaches measure these individual differences in infancy.

The Mother-Infant System

• Communication: Caregivers experience their infants differently, and this dynamic influences the mother-infant interaction, impacting the communication pattern. Goodness of fit is key, where matching styles allow smooth interaction.
• Infant Styles: Easy (40%), slow-to-warm-up (15%), and difficult (10%) are defined based on infant behaviors impacting caregiving and system functionality. Difficult infants need additional support.
• Influence: Parents are affected by their children as much as the other way round. Temperament differences also impact parent-child relationship dynamics and parental satisfaction.

The Biopsychology of Temperament

• Biological Markers: Temperament has biological markers, including frontal EEG asymmetry (right frontal cortex activity relates to the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), while left frontal cortex activity relates to the Behavioral Approach System (BAS)), and skin conductance (sympathetic nervous system activation in response to fear or stress).
• Heart Rate: Another biological marker is heart rate variability (RSA), which relates to parasympathetic activity.

Infant Social Behavior

• Trust vs. Mistrust (Erikson): Infants develop trust when caregivers respond to their needs. Conversely, mistrust develops when care is inconsistent leading to future issues in social interaction.
• Attachment: Infants develop attachment bonds by 9 months, showing a preference for their caregivers.

Child's Play and Direct Evidence for Internal Working Models of Caregiving

• Imitative Behaviors: Infants imitate the behaviors of others, forming internal working models about giving and receiving care. These models influence play and interaction, and these preverbal memories can be used to learn about giving care.

Empathy in Infants and Toddlers

• Development: Empathy emerges over 8-16 months, reflected in an attempt to assist or help distressed individuals.
• Cognitive Aspects: Empathy relates to perspective taking and emotional contagion, with empathy for familiar figures preceding empathy in unfamiliar individuals.

The Dominance System

• Agency: Infants' understanding of agency—a feeling of control over their actions and consequences—develops by 6 months. Infants' sense of self and self-concepts develop around this age and involve understanding the agency of others and self-interest.

The Sexual System

• Biological Development: Children's understanding of gender develops from birth onward with the recognition of male and female categories typically around 6 to 12 months. Schemas around gender influence other social interactions.

Infant and Toddler Cognition, Serve and Return, Self-Regulation, and Early Language

• Cognition: Development focuses on sensory-motor experiences and the development of visual systems and attention in the first 3 months. Memory and imitation evolve during this period. Object permanence occurs around 9 months.
• Serve and Return: Effective caregiver responses to infant cues are critical for brain development, communication, and social skills. The relationship between responsiveness and child development is important from birth onward.
• Self-Regulation: Infants’ ability to self-soothe or regulate emotions is absent or limited in infancy but starts developing by 3 months. External help is sought by a child to improve self-regulation.
• Language Development: From birth to 2 years, infants progress from reflexive behavior to intentional actions in their attempt to communicate, exhibiting imitation, comprehension, and language production stages. Table 5-4 illustrates language milestones.
• Infant-directed speech: Infants respond more to this type of speech which is used in all cultures. Infant directed speech is tuned to child's interests, in addition to clarity and enthusiasm.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) in Toddlers

• Characteristics: ASDs manifest around a child's first birthday, and include difficulties in social communication, play behavior, language, sensory differences, and motor development, as well as attention and eating.

Early Language Milestone Scale (ELM)

• Assessment: This assessment measures developmental milestones around speech and language from birth to 3 years.

Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS)

• Assessment: This assessment examines the behavior and neurological status of infants up to 2 months.