Chapter 6:

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Psychosocial Development During the First 3 Years

Source: Papalia & Martorell (15th ed.), Santrock (17th ed.), Boyd & Bee (7th ed.)
Foundations of Psychosocial Development Example:
• Personality ▪ Pride, shame, and guilt.
o The relatively consistent blend of emotions, • Altruistic Helping and Apathy
temperament, thought, and behavior that makes a o Altruistic Behavior
person unique. ▪ Activity intended to help another person
with no expectation of reward.
o Empathy
▪ Ability to put oneself in another person’s
place and feel what the other person feels.
o Mirror Neurons
▪ Neurons that fire when a person does
something or observes someone else
doing the same thing.
• Collaborative Activities and Cultural Transmission
o Overimitation
▪ Infants closely copying all actions they see
an adult do, even if some of the actions
are clearly irrelevant or impractical.
▪ Across cultures, children are capable of
generalizing information learned via
overimitation to new objects,
demonstrating the utility of such social
Early Emotional Development learning.
• Emotions
o Subjective reactions to experience that are Temperament
associated with physiological and behavioral • Characteristic disposition, or style of approaching and reacting
changes. to situations.
o Babies show signs of contentment, interest, and • 3 Classifications (Chess and Thomas)
distress soon after birth. o Easy Children
o The emergence of these basic, or primary, emotions ▪ Generally happy, rhythmic in biological
is related to neurological maturation. functioning, and accepting of new
• Crying experiences.
o Higher pitch and a more monotonic vocalization is o Difficult Children
associated with autonomic system activity during ▪ More irritable and harder to please,
stressful procedures in infants. irregular in biological rhythms, wary of new
o Basic Cry experiences, and more intense in
▪ Consists of a cry, followed by a briefer expressing emotion.
silence, then a shorter whistle that is o Slow-to-Warm-Up Children
somewhat higher in pitch than the main ▪ Mild but slow to adapt to new people and
cry, then another brief rest before the next situations.
cry. • 3 Classifications (Rothbart and Bates)
o Anger Cry o Extraversion/Surgency
▪ A variation of the basic cry in which more ▪ Approach, activity, smiling, and laughter.
excess air is forced through the vocal o Negative Affectivity
cords. ▪ Fear, frustration, sadness, and discomfort.
o Pain Cry ▪ Easily distressed.
▪ A sudden appearance of a long, initial loud ▪ May cry and fret more often.
cry without preliminary moaning, followed o Effortful Control (Self-Regulation)
by breath-holding. ▪ Attentional focusing and shifting, inhibitory
o Frustration Cry control, perceptual sensitivity, and low-
▪ Two or three drawn-out cries, with no intensity pleasure.
prolonged breath-holding. • Temperament develops as various emotions and self-
• Smiling and Laughing regulatory capacities appear, and it can change in response to
o Social Smiling parental treatment and other life experiences.
▪ Beginning in the 2nd month, newborn • Cultural influences that affect its expression and are
infants gaze at their parents and smile at transmitted via caregiving practices:
them, signaling positive participation in the o Collectivism and individualism
relationship. o Power distance ((how equally distributed power is in
o Anticipatory Smiling a culture)
▪ Infant smiles at an object and then gazes o Long-term orientation (how focused on the future a
at an adult while still smiling. culture is)
• Self-Conscious Emotions o Masculinity
o Emotions that depend on self-awareness. o Uncertainty avoidance
o Arise only after children have developed self- • Goodness to Fit
awareness. o Match between a child’s temperament and the
Example: environmental demands and constraints the child
▪ Embarrassment, empathy, and envy. must deal with.
• Self-Awareness • Behavioral Inhibition
o Cognitive understanding that they have a o Babies with high behavioral inhibition become
recognizable identity, separate and different from the physiologically aroused, pumping their arms and
rest of their world. legs vigorously and sometimes arching their backs
• Self-Evaluative Emotions when presented with new stimulus.
o Emotions that depend on both self-awareness and o Babies with low behavioral inhibition are relaxed and
knowledge of socially accepted standards of show little distress or motor activity, and often calmly
behavior. stare at new stimuli.

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 Early Social Experiences: The Family • Flexible and resilient when
• Ideal Mother stressed.
o Someone who is warm and physically loving with ▪ Avoidant Attachment
children, takes joy in their mutual interactions, • Pattern in which an infant rarely
shields the baby from danger, praises and talks to cries when separated from the
the child, and responds quickly and well when the primary caregiver and avoids
child is sad or in need. contact on their return.
• Father’s Role • Outwardly unaffected by a
o They are not always involved in their children’s lives. caregiver leaving or returning.
o Father involvement is tied to factors such as the ▪ Ambivalent (Resistant) Attachment
ability to accumulate materials goods, the equality of • Pattern in which an infant
parental contributions to the family diet, population becomes anxious before the
density, how peaceful or warlike a culture is, and the primary caregiver leaves, is
marriage structure of a culture. extremely upset during their
o A father’s frequent and positive involvement with his absence, and both seeks and
child, from infancy on, is directly related to the child’s resists contact on their return.
well-being and physical, cognitive, and social ▪ Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment
development, as well as to the avoidance of risk and • Added by Main & Solomon
delinquency. • Pattern in which an infant, after
• Gender separation from the primary
o Significance of being male or female. caregiver, shows contradictory,
o Boys and girls achieve the motor milestones of repetitious, or misdirected
infancy about the same times. behaviors on their return.
• Gender-Typing o Stranger Anxiety
o Children learn behavior their culture considers ▪ Wariness of strange people and places,
appropriate for each sex. shown by some infants during the second
half of the 1st year.
Developmental Issues in Infancy o Separation Anxiety
• Developing Trust ▪ Distress shown by someone, typically an
o Basic sense of Erikson’s trust vs. mistrust. infant, when a familiar caregiver leaves.
• Developing Attachments • Mutual Regulation
o Attachment o Process by which infant and caregiver communicate
▪ Reciprocal, enduring tie between two emotional states to each other and respond
people—especially between infant and appropriately.
caregiver—each of whom contributes to o Interactional Synchrony
the quality of the relationship. ▪ The synchronized coordination of behavior
o John Bowlby and affect between a caregiver and an
▪ Attachment styles are the result of infant.
repeated interactions with a caregiver. o Still-Face Paradigm
o Four Phases (John Bowlby) ▪ Experimental methodology used to
▪ Phase 1 (birth – 2 months) demonstrate interactional synchrony in
• Infants instinctively direct their which a parent first interacts typically with
attachment to human figures. their child, then keeps their face still and
• Strangers, siblings, and parents expressionless, and then ends with a
are equally likely to elicit smiling return to typical behavior.
or crying from the infant. • Social Referencing
▪ Phase 2 (2 – 7 months) o Understanding an ambiguous situation by seeking
• Attachment becomes focused on another person’s perception of it.
one figure, usually the primary
caregiver, as the baby gradually Developmental Issues in Toddlerhood
learns to distinguish familiar • Emerging Sense of Self
from unfamiliar people. o Self-Concept
▪ Phase 3 (7 – 24 months) ▪ Image of ourselves.
• With increased locomotor skills, ▪ Our total picture of our abilities and traits.
babies actively seek contact ▪ Describes what we know and feel about
with regular caregivers, such as ourselves and guides our actions.
the mother or father. • Development of Autonomy
▪ Phase 4 (24 months onward) o Erikson’s Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt
• Children become aware of others’ ▪ Children achieve a balance between self-
feelings, goals, and plans and determination and control by others.
begin to take these into account • Moral Development and Socialization
in forming their own actions. o Socialization
o Strange Situation (Ainsworth) ▪ Development of habits, skills, values, and
▪ The mother twice leaves the baby in an motives shared by responsible, productive
unfamiliar room, the first time with a members of a society.
stranger. o Internalization
▪ The second time she leaves the baby ▪ During socialization, process by which
alone, and the stranger comes back children accept societal standards of
before the mother does. conduct as their own.
▪ The mother then encourages the baby to o Self-Regulation
explore and play again and gives comfort ▪ Control of behavior to conform to a
if the baby seems to need it. caregiver’s demands or expectations,
o Attachment Styles (Ainsworth) even when the caregiver is not present.
▪ Secure Attachment ▪ Foundation of socialization.
• Pattern in which an infant is ▪ Its growth parallels the development of the
quickly and effectively able to self-conscious and evaluative emotions,
obtain comfort from an such as empathy, shame, and guilt.
attachment figure in the face of
distress.

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 o Conscience
▪ Internal standards of behavior, which
usually control one’s conduct and produce
emotional discomfort when violated.
o Situational Compliance
▪ Kochanska’s term for obedience of a
parent’s orders only in the presence of
signs of ongoing parental control.
o Committed Compliance
▪ Kochanska’s term for wholehearted
obedience of a parent’s orders without
reminders or lapses.
o Receptive Cooperation
▪ Kochanska’s term for eager willingness to
cooperate harmoniously with a parent in
daily interactions.

Relationships with Other Children

• Siblings
o Sibling conflict increases dramatically after the
younger child reaches 18 months.
o Constructive conflict with siblings helps children
recognize each other’s needs, wishes, and point of
view, and it helps them learn how to fight, disagree,
and compromise within the context of a safe, stable
relationship.
o The quality of sibling relationships tends to carry
over to relationships with other children.
• Peers
o Infants and toddlers show interest in people outside
the home, particularly people their own size.
o Conflict can help children learn how to negotiate and
resolve disputes.

Child Maltreatment
• Physical Abuse
o Action taken deliberately to endanger another
person, involving potential bodily injury.
• Neglect
o Failure to meet a child’s basic needs, such as food,
clothing, medical care, protection, and supervision.
• Sexual Abuse
o Physically or psychologically harmful sexual activity
or any sexual activity involving a child and an older
person.
• Emotional Maltreatment
o Rejection, terrorization, isolation, exploitation,
degradation, ridicule, or failure to provide emotional
support, love, and affection.
o Other action or inaction that may cause behavioral,
cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders.
• Sex Trafficking
o The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision,
or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a
commercial sex act.
• Nonorganic Failure to Thrive
o Slowed or arrested physical growth with no known
medical cause, accompanied by poor developmental
and emotional functioning.
o Evident in babies who do not receive nurturance and
affection or who are neglected.
• Shaken Baby Syndrome
o Form of maltreatment in which shaking an infant or
toddler can cause brain damage, paralysis, or death.

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