SUMMARY

Emotional Development

1. Two emotions, contentment and distress, appear as soon as an infant is born. Smiles and laughter are evident in the early months. Between 4 and 8 months of age, anger emerges in reaction to restriction and frustration, and it becomes stronger by age 1.

2. Reflexive fear is apparent in very young infants. Fear of something specific, including fear of strangers and of separation, is typically strong toward the end of the first year.

3. In the second year, social awareness produces more selective fear, anger, and joy. As infants become increasingly self-aware, emotions emerge that encourage an interface between the self and others—specifically, pride, shame, and affection. Self-recognition (measured by the mirror/rouge test) emerges at about 18 months.

Brain and Emotions

4. Stress impedes early brain and emotional development. Some infants are particularly vulnerable to the effects of early maltreatment.

5. Temperament is a set of genetic traits whose expression is influenced by the context. Inborn temperament is linked to later personality, although plasticity is also evident. At least in the United States, parents tend to encourage exuberance and discourage fear.

The Development of Social Bonds

6. Often by 2 months, and clearly by 6 months, infants become more responsive and social, and synchrony is evident. Infants are disturbed by a still face because they expect and need social interaction.

7. Attachment, measured by the baby’s reaction to the caregiver’s presence, departure, and return in the Strange Situation, is crucial. Some infants seem indifferent (type A attachment—insecure-avoidant) or overly dependent (type C—insecure-resistant/ambivalent), instead of secure (type B). Disorganized attachment (type D) is the most worrisome. Secure attachment provides encouragement for infant exploration and may influence the person lifelong.

8. As they play, toddlers engage in social referencing, looking to other people’s facial expressions and body language to detect what is safe, frightening, or fun. Fathers tend to help toddlers become more adventuresome.

9. Infants frequently use fathers as partners in synchrony, as attachment figures, and as social references, developing emotions and exploring their world via father caregiving.

Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development

10. According to all major theories, caregiver behavior is especially influential in the first two years. Freud stressed the mother’s impact on oral and anal pleasure; Erikson emphasized trust and autonomy. Both believed that the impact of these is lifelong.

11. Behaviorists focus on learning; parents teach their babies many things, including when to be fearful or joyful. Cognitive theory holds that infants develop working models based on their experiences. Both these theories suggest that later developments can modify early experiences.

12. Humanism notes that some adults are stuck in their own unfinished development, which impairs their ability to give infants the loving responses they need.

13. Evolutionary theorists recognize that both infants and caregivers have impulses and emotions, developed over millennia, that foster the survival of each new member of the human species.

Infant Day Care

14. The impact of non-maternal care depends on many factors; it varies from one nation, one family, and even one child to another. Girls and infants from low-income households are more likely than boys from high-income households to benefit.

15. Although each theory and each culture has a somewhat different emphasis, all agree that quality of care (responsive, individualized, stable) is crucial, particularly in infancy, no matter who provides that care.