This chapter will examine infants’ social and emotional relationships. Infants form strong bonds with caregivers very early in life. They come to know, become attached to, and show a desire to be with a small and very select group of people in their lives.

Whom babies become attached to is not so important as that they have at least one person in their lives whom they care about and who cares about them deeply. These relationships in infancy are crucial for later healthy development.

I. Trust and Attachment

A. Emotionally healthy babies come to understand that they have nurturing, responsive caregivers who meet their basic needs.

B. They come to view the world as safe and predictable

C. Security is another word to describe this emotional state

D. A degree of mistrust is also healthy and important for survival

E. Babies who are abused or neglected will not resolve this emotional conflict in a positive way

F. They may be impaired from entering into relationships with others and may be wary of new situations or people

G. They may be unable to advance to later stages of psychosocial development, and so are more likely to suffer mental health problems later in life

H. Attachment Formation

1. Forming an emotional bond with others in infancy is called attachment

2. Babies and significant adults become attached to one another

3. Babies most often form attachments to multiple caregivers

4. Bowlby identified stages that infants go through in the formation of bonds with caregivers

5. In the early months, babies show great interest in all people

6. Babies between 4 and 6 months of age begin to prefer interacting with certain familiar people

7. By 6 months of age, they show an intense desire to be with just these familiar caregivers and show concern when they are not present

I. Separation Anxiety and Stranger Anxiety

1. Between 6 and 8 months of age, babies show stranger anxiety, a fear of unfamiliar persons that often results in great upset

2. After 6 months of age, babies begin to show separation anxiety, a fear of being separated from caregivers

3. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety vary from infant to infant and situation to situation

4. A baby who is with a parent or caregiver is less likely to become upset over the appearance of strangers

5. Early experiences with being away from caregivers and meeting strangers will reduce both types of anxiety

6. Cultural beliefs about infant care may affect separation anxiety and stranger anxiety in infants

7. Parents may inadvertently communicate their worries to children

8. Mothers or fathers leaving their children in infant care, for example, can express upset through language or facial expression

9. Such behaviors may increase infant distress

10. 2-year-olds showed less upset at parents’ departure in child care when the separation was explained to them clearly ahead of time

11. Separation was also found to be smoother if the departing parent suggested activities for the child to engage in during separation

J. Types of Attachment

1. Mary Ainsworth devised a research method for examining the nature of attachment which she called the strange situation procedure

2. In this procedure, babies are placed in a playroom

a. first, the baby plays with toys in the presence of the mother

b. next, the mother leaves and an unfamiliar person enters

c. the mother returns briefly, then leaves again, and the baby plays alone

d. many babies in this situation cry when their mothers depart, but this reaction isn’t the important point of the procedure

e. what is significant, according to Ainsworth, is what babies do when the mother returns

f. some babies greet their mothers joyously; others do not

g. it is the nature of the reunion, from Ainsworth’s perspective, that reveals the quality of the mother-child bond

3. Babies can be categorized as demonstrating either secure attachment or insecure attachment

4. A securely attached baby will play happily with toys during the mother’s presence in a strange situation

5. Upon her departure, the baby may cry, but the reunion will be a happy one

6. The baby may hug or cling to the mother for a time but will quickly stop crying

7. Insecurely attached babies behave differently in a strange situation

8. Two distinct behavioral patterns among insecure babies have been labeled:

a. Insecure/avoidant babies may or may not show upset when their mothers leave; they will completely ignore them when they return

b. Insecure/ambivalent babies alternate between extreme upset and upset and angry rejection when the mother returns to the playroom

c. such a baby may first cling to the mother during their reunion and then push her away or even strike her

9. Attachment appears to affect development in later childhood

10. Securely attached infants tend to be more friendly and competent and to have more positive views of themselves in later childhood

11. Insecure/ambivalent infants tend to become timid, dependent, and whiny in later childhood

12. They are also more inhibited in their exploration and play with peers

K. Cultural Variations in Infant attachment

1. Babies of many cultural groups around the world fall into secure or insecure categories of attachment at approximately the same rates as American infants

2. Caution must be used in relying on separation and reunion behaviors to measure attachment; more culturally sensitive methods of observing infant-caregiver bonds may be needed

L. Parenting behaviors influence attachment formation

M. Two dimensions of parenting have been found to lead to secure attachment in babies: responsiveness and warm physical contact

N. Responsiveness involves carefully interpreting babies’ signals and responding in appropriate ways

O. Warm, physical contact is a separate dimension of parenting

P. Nurturing parents spend lots of time in physical contact with their babies, holding them, bouncing them, playing with them, or simply gazing into their eyes

Q. Do warmth and responsiveness lead to attachment in all cultures?

R. Some cross-cultural research suggests that these basic attachment processes are universal

S. Responsiveness and warmth are important caregiving behaviors in all cultures, but how these are expressed varies greatly

T. Great care must be taken not to misinterpret cultural expressions of warmth or responsiveness

U. Some attachment behaviors may be delivered without a great deal of affection or enthusiasm, but these are effective parenting interactions, nonetheless

V. Attachment and Infants with Special Needs

1. Folk wisdom suggests that infants with various cognitive and social disorders create stress for parents, and that parents’ responsiveness or warmth might be negatively affected

2. Infants with certain challenges might have poor relationships with parents because they have impaired communication systems

3. However, research does not support these assumptions

4. Parent-infant bonds have been found to form in the most trying of circumstances

5. The mental health and functioning of adults is far more critical in the process of attachment than are childhood disorders

W. Interventions that affect attachment

1. One of the most unique of these interventions involved simply giving mothers front carriers resembling the homemade slings used in African villages

2. When mothers used these, they were in close, continual physical contact with their babies

3. Parents were not taught to interact with their babies in any special way; they simply were given the carriers when their babies were 3 months old

4. At 13 months, babies of all cultural groups were more securely attached to their mothers than those whose mothers did not receive the carriers

5. Close body contact led to positive findings, regardless of how mothers interacted with their babies as they carried them

II. Autonomy

A. Marked changes in social behavior occur during the second year of life

B. When toddlers become more intellectually competent, they tend to be more curious and eager to explore- An example: even dangerous parking lots.

C. When they discover that "no" is a powerful social word that has great impact on family members, they want to use it

D. When they acquire new motor abilities, they want to exercise them

E. Once children are trustful of adults and know that their basic needs will be met, they are willing to venture away from the safety of parents and family

F. They now wish to become individuals apart from the adults of parents and family

G. They now wish to become individuals apart from the adults with whom they have bonded

H. With this striving for individuality, children often assert themselves, rebel against rules, and assume a negative affect when confronted with adult control ("Terrible Twos")

I. These challenging, though necessary, behaviors are explained by the next emotional conflict which humans encounter: autonomy versus shame and doubt

J. The emotionally healthy toddler gradually acquires a sense of autonomy-a feeling of individuality and uniqueness apart from parents

K. Creating environments in which children can become independent in thought and action will contribute to children’s autonomy

L. Cultural variations in autonomy

1. Cultural beliefs, methods of discipline, or infant personality may explain why each family faces unique experiences in toddlerhood

2. Behaviors during this period are so diverse across cultures and sexes, in fact, that some have concluded Erikson’s descriptions of autonomy are inaccurate

3. In many cultures, toddlers are discouraged from separating from parents

4. In these families, children are carried and breasted, and sleep with adults throughout infancy and even into older childhood

5. In other cultures, self-sufficiency is encouraged very early in life

6. Children of these groups may demonstrate expressions of independence that are stronger than even Erikson would have predicted

7. Gender may influence whether babies are encouraged to be autonomous

8. In Western society, independence is a characteristic of males not females

III. Temperament

A. Parents often report that infants exhibit unique personality types, even in the earliest months of life

** B. Temperament is a general emotional disposition which is consistently observed throughout development

C. Babies are born with basic temperaments that will influence their social relationships and emotional health for years to come

D. Babies could be categorized into three personality types that could be identified at birth: easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up

E. Easy babies have sunny dispositions, are friendly around strangers, and are easily consoled

F. Babies in the difficult category cry easily, show less positive affect, and react negatively to new circumstances and unfamiliar people

G. A third temperament type is called the slow-to-warm-up personality

H. Babies with this disposition are very wary of strangers and reluctant to separate from parents

I. They may show less overt emotion, positive or negative

J. Some babies, then, will have clearly identifiable and persistent personality traits and others will not

K. Subjects still showed roughly the same personality types in adolescence

L. Temperament and Attachment

1. It makes no difference whether babies are grouchy and unsmiling, timid and quiet, passive and unplayful; parents find ways to create positive interactions and foster warm bonds

2. This fact speaks to the powerful, loving urge of parents and babies to form relationships with one another

M. Temperament and Culture

1. Within all cultures, some babies are difficult and others are easy; some are shy and others bold

2. Although very early experience could explain some of these unique personality differences, researchers conclude that genetics is most influential

3.  Certain personality types may be more highly valued in one culture than in another

IV. Early Emotions

A. Early infant emotions both shape and are shaped by relationships with others

B. Parents appear to play a critical role in teaching babies emotions

C. They demonstrate various emotional states through exaggerated facial expressions or intonation

D. Babies rely on adult expressions to guide their own feelings

E. For example, babies who see mothers displaying positive facial features show less distress in the presence of a stranger and are more likely to explore an unusual object

F. In a process called social referencing, babies refer to adult emotional reactions to determine how they should feel

G. Another way that adults transmit feelings is through their responses to infant emotional expressions

H. Culture and Emotions

1. Cross-cultural research suggests that basic human emotions are universal

2. Such feelings as fear, happiness, and anger are part of human interactions within all cultural groups and are expressed through similar facial expressions

3. What may vary by culture, are the times and places when certain emotions may be expressed

V. Infant Relationships and Egocentrism

A. An infant trait that influences social relationships is egocentrism

B. Egocentrism is a kind of thinking in which young children have difficulty understanding the perspectives of other people

C. Babies often think their needs are most important and that everything in the world belongs to them

D. While toddlers are egocentric, they can also be very kind and sociable

E. They share objects with their parents and other toddlers without being asked, give spontaneous hugs and interact quite well with peers-smiling, laughing, and offering toys as they play

F. It may be that there is an ongoing struggle in the second year of life between the needs of self and the desire to be with others