Infancy and Toddlerhood: Personality Development and Sociocultural Development

Psychosocial Development in Infancy

• Bond
• Attachment
• Imprinting

Emotion and Cognition
 

Personality Development

• Early theories viewed that the mother created the child’s personality through the method of child-rearing
• Freud
• Erikson
• Watson

• Developing relationship between infant and mother

• Mary Ainsworth developed a measure to assess attachment in the laboratory
•  secure attachment
• insecure attachment
• Ambivalent attachment

Ainsworth and Bowlby’s Milestones

• Emotional development of the infant within the first relationship -
•   1) Self-regulation and interest in the world (B-3 mos)
•   2) Falling in love (2-7 mos)
•   3) Developing Intentional Communication (3-10 mos)
•   4) Emergence of an organized sense of self (9-18 mos)
•   5) Creating emotional ideas (18-36 mos)
•   6) Emotional thinking: the basis for fantasy, reality, and self-esteem (30-48 mos)

• According to Ainsworth, attachment security depends on
•   1) How sensitive and responsive the caregiver is to the infant’s signals
•   2) Parents who have secure relationships with their parents

The Role of the Father

• The role of the father has undergone many transformations
• Although fathers’ contact with his children has increased in recent years, it is still 1/3 that of mom

• When compared to the interaction of mothers
•   1) Fathers provide bursts of stimulation
•   2) Fathers respond more to motor cues, mothers to social cues
•   3) Fathers engage in more stimulating and unpredictable play, such as rough-and-tumble play
•   4) Fathers respond more to boys, mothers to girls

• Cultural forces also play a role in shaping personality
• Family
• School
• Social institutions
• All need to be supportive and helpful

• Infant care techniques likely to encourage optimum development:
• Daniel Stern
• Rudolph Schaffer
• Mary Ainsworth -
• T.G.R. Bower

• Why are some mothers more sensitive and effective than others are?
• Is it always a good idea for the mother to take primary responsibility for child rearing?

• 1) Psychoanalyst
• 2) Erickson
• 3) Klaus & Kennell
• 4) temperament
• 5) Hormonal imbalance
• 6) Cultural sex stereotypes and experiences
• 7) Masculine males & masculine females

• The characteristics of the child might also shape the parent’s attitudes toward child care
• If the child is attractive, easy to care for, and responsive, parents tend to be more nurturant
• If the child is unattractive, difficult to care for, given to uncontrollable crying, make unpredictable demands, and/or with special needs, the parents may become disenchanted with parenting and child rearing