1 The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development The interaction of infants’ emotions and their social context is dynamic This interplay is seen in a tiny

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The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development

• The interaction of infants’ emotions and their social context is dynamic

• This interplay is seen in a tiny baby smile at an engaging face or a toddler flop to the floor, kicking and screaming

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Emotional Development in Infancy

• Within the first two years, infants progress from reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social awareness.

• a period of life with high emotional responsiveness…

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Emotional Development in Infancy• Specific Emotions– infants progress from pleasure and pain• happy and relaxed when fed, then drift off to sleep• cry when hurt or hungry, are tired or frightened or

have colic– social smiles are evoked by a human face, normally

evident about 6 weeks after birth– anger is evident at 6 months

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• Specific Emotions– fully formed fear in response to some person,

thing, or situation emerges at about 9 months• stranger wariness… infant no longer smiles at any

friendly faces, and cries if an unfamiliar person moves to close, too quickly• separation anxiety… expressed in tears, dismay, or

anger when a familiar caregiver leaves

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• Specific Emotions– separation anxiety is normal at age 1• intensifies by age 2, and usually subsides after that

– 1-year-olds fear not just strangers but also anything unexpected

– emotions that emerge in the first month strengthen (reliable, distinct, recognizable) at about age 1

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• Self Awareness– ... emotional growth that has the infant

realizing that his or her body, mine, and actions are separate from those of other people• around age 1 an emerging sense of “me” and

“mine”– self-recognition emerges at about 18

months• pretending and using first person pronouns

– I, me, mine, myself, my

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Theories About Infant Psychosocial Development

• Psychoanalytic Theory– connects biosocial and psychosocial

development• emphasizing the need for response maternal care

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• Freud: Oral and Anal Stages– the first year is the oral stage• the mouth is the young infant’s primary source of

gratification

– the second year is the anal stage• the infant’s main pleasure comes from the anus…

sensual pleasure of bowel movement… the pleasure of controlling

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Theories About Infant Psychosocial Development• Erikson: Trust and

Autonomy– first psychosocial crisis…

infants learn basic trust if the world is a secure place where their basic needs (for food, comfort, attention, etc.) are met

– second stage crisis of psychosocial development … toddlers either succeed or fail in gaining a sense of self-rule over their own actions and bodies

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• Behaviorism– emotions and personality are molded as parents

reinforce or punish the child’s spontaneous behaviors– Infants experience social learning… learning by

observing others• apparent in families… from giggling to cursing… much

like their parents

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• Cognitive Theory– holds that thoughts and values determine a person’s

perspectives• early experiences are important

– beliefs, perceptions and memories

– infants use early relationships to develop a working model (remember schema)• a set of assumptions that the individual uses to

organize perceptions and experiences

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• Epigenetic Theory– holds that every human characteristic is strongly

influenced by each person’s unique genotype… inborn predispositions

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• Temperament– Inborn differences between

one person and another in emotions, activity, and self-control. Temperament is epigenetic, originating in genes but affected by child-rearing practices.

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• The Parents’ Role– infant temperament often changes with adult

guidance– interaction between culture influences and

inherited traits tend to shape behavior – parents need to find a goodness of fit• goodness of fit is a similarity of temperament and

values that produces a smooth interaction between an individual and his or her social context, including family, school, and community

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• Sociocultural Theory– “…human development occurs

in a cultural context.”– sociocultural theorists argue

culture:• has a substantial influence

on infants • has a major impact on

infant-caregiver relationships, thus the development of the infant

So the is question… How much influence does culture have?

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• Ethnotheories• ethnotheory

– a theory that underlies the values and practices of a culture and that becomes apparent through analysis and comparison of those practices, although it is not usually apparent to the people within the culture

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–Proximal and Distal Parenting• proximal parenting–parenting practices that involve close physical

contact with the child’s entire body, such as cradling and swinging

• distal parenting–parenting practices that focus on the intellect

more than the body, such as talking with the baby and playing with an object

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The Development of Social Bonds

• Synchrony– is a coordinated

interaction between caregiver and infant, an exchange in which they respond to each other with split-second timing

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• Attachment– After WWII, homeless & orphaned children presented many

difficulties to society– John Bowlby, a psychoanalyst, is credited with first

articulating a Theory of Attachment– According to, proximity-seeking to the attachment figure in

the face of threat is the "set-goal" of the attachment behavioral system.[

– Ainsworth, writing in the 1960’s, atttachment “is an affectional tie” that an infant forms with the caregiver—a tie that binds them together in space and endured over time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory

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• Measuring Attachment– strange situation• developed by Ainsworth • a laboratory procedure for measuring attachment

by evoking infants’ reaction to stress

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• Secure and Insecure Attachment– secure attachment• relationships in which an infant obtains both

comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver

– insecure-avoidant attachment• a pattern of attachment in which an infant avoids

connection with the caregiver, as when the infant seems not to care about the caregiver’s presence, departure, or return

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• Secure and Insecure Attachment– insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment• a pattern of attachment in which anxiety and

uncertainty are evident, as when an infant is very upset at separation from the caregiver and both resists and seeks contact on reunion

– disorganized attachment• a type of attachment that is marked by an infant’s

inconsistent reactions to the caregiver’s departure and return

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• Secure and Insecure Attachment

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The Development of Social Bonds• Measuring Attachment

• Secure is more likely if:– The parent is usually sensitive and responsive to infant– There is high synchrony– The child’s temperament is “easy”– The parents aren’t stressed about income, marriage– The parents have a working model of secure attachment to

their own parents

Measuring Attachment, Con’t

• Insecure is more likely if:– The parent mistreats the child– The mother has a mental disorder– Parents are highly stressed about income, marriage– Parents are intrusive, controlling– Parents are alcoholics– The child’s temperament is difficult– The child’s temperament is “slow to warm up”

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• Insecure Attachment and Social Settings– infants shift in attachment status between one age

and another

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• Social Referencing– seeking information

about how to react to an unfamiliar ambiguous object or event by observing someone else’s expressions and reactions—that other person becomes a social reference

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• Referencing Mothers– most social referencing occurs with mothers– infants heed their mother’s wishes, expressed in tone

and facial expression

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• Referencing Fathers– increases in maternal

employment have expanded the social references available to infants

– fathers now spend considerable time with their children

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The Development of Social Bonds• Infant Day Care– more than ½ of all 1-year-olds in the U.S. are in

“regular scheduled” nonmaternal care– family day care

• child care that occurs in another caregiver’s home—usually the caregiver is paid at a lower rate than in center care, and usually one person shares of several children of various ages

– center day care• child care in a place especially designed for the purpose,

where several paid providers care for many children. Usually the children are grouped by age, the day care center is licensed, and providers are trained and certified in child development


• Infant Day Care– Normal social development can occur in Day Care– The following characteristics are useful in identifying

quality day care:• Adequate attention to each infant (2:5 adult to child ratio)

• Encouragement of language and sensorimotor development

• Attention to health and safety

• Professional caregivers (experience + degrees/certificates)

• Warm and responsive caregivers

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Parents• Parenting Style– Diana Baumrind (1967, 1972) studied 100

preschooler, in California (middle class, European Americans—the cohort and cultural limitations of this sample were not obvious at the time.)• parents differed on four important dimensions

– expressions of warmth– strategies for discipline– communication– expectations for maturity

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Parents• Baumrind’s Three Patterns of Parenting

• authoritarian parenting– child rearing with high behavioral standards, punishment

of misconduct, and low communication• permissive parenting

– child rearing with high nurturance and communication but rare punishment, guidance, or control

• authoritative parenting– child rearing in which the parents set limits but listen to

the child and are flexible

Baumrind’s Factors

• If you take two factors, Compassion and Control, you can make the following Table:

High Control Low Control

High Compassion

Authoritative Indulgent or Permissive

Low Compassion

Authoritarian “neglect”

Parents

• Any parenting strategy will be affected by the Temperament of both the parents and the children.

• Signs of a positive outcome in students: – Perseverance; – reports of higher and authentic self esteem– better grades– more friends (ie. likable)

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Parents• Cultural Variations

• effective Chinese, Caribbean, and African American parents are often stricter than effective parents of northern or western European backgrounds• Japanese mothers tend to use reasoning, empathy

and expressions of disappointment to control their children more than North American mothers do

– it is important to acknowledge that multicultural and international research has found that specific discipline methods and family rules are less important then parental warmth, support and concern

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Parents

• Discipline and Punishment– discipline varies a great deal from family to

family, culture to culture– ideal parents anticipate misbehavior and guide

their children towards patterns that will help them lifelong

– disciplinary techniques do not work quickly or automatically to teach desired behavior

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Parents

• Discipline and Punishment– first step is clarity• what is expected

– each family needs to decide its goals and make them explicit for the child

– second step is to remember • what the child is able to do

– parents forget how immature children’s control over their bodies and minds is

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Parents• Discipline and Punishment– time-out• an adult requires the child to sit quietly apart from

other people for a few minutes—for young children, one minute per year of age

– withdrawal of love• when the parent expresses disappointment or looks

sternly a the child, as if the child were no longer loveable

– induction• the parents talk with the child, getting the child to

understand why the behavior was wrong

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Parents• The Challenge of Media– many parent allow television watching and/or

computers because they keep children engaged– parents often ignore the possible impact on the

emotionally immature child who is dazzled by fast-moving images

– experts advise parents to minimize media exposure

Identity • Erik Erikson – 1902-1994– a follower of Freud, interested in

• culture diversity• social change• psychological crises

– described eight developmental stages1. Trust vs. Mistrust 2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt3. Initiative vs. Guilt4. Industry vs. Inferiority5. Identity vs. Role Confusion6. Intimacy vs. Isolation7. Generativity vs. Stagnation8. Integrity vs. Despair

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Identity, Generally definedA consistent definition of one’s self as a unique

individual, in terms of roles, attitudes, beliefs, and aspirations.

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Identity– identity versus diffusion• Erikson’s terms for the fifth stage of development, in

which the person tries to figure out “Who am I?” but is confused as to which of many possible roles to adopt.

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Identity, cont.– identity achievement• Erikson’s term for the attainment of identity, or the

point at which a person understands who he or she is as a unique individual, in accord with past experiences and future plans.

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Identity, cont.• Not Yet Achievement– identity diffusion is the opposite of identity

achievement…• it is a situation in which an adolescent does not seem

to know or care what his or her identity is.– “Whatever.”

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Identity, cont.• Not Yet Achievement– Foreclosure• Erickson’s term for premature identity formation, which

occurs when an adolescent adopts parents’ or society’s roles and values wholesale, without questioning and analysis.– short-circuit their search by not questioning traditional values

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Identity, cont.• Not Yet Achievement, cont.– moratorium• A way for adolescents to postpone making identity

achievement choices by finding an accepted way to avoid identity achievement. – going to college is the most common example

Identity

• If you take two factors, “Curiosity/Questions” and “Commitment”, you can make the following Table:

Identity High Curious Low Curious

High Commitment

Achieved Foreclosed

Low Commitment

Moratorium Diffuse

Which Identity Style?

• Eleanor's parents are both physicians. In college she chose to major in French and even spent a semester in France studying French art and culture. Upon graduation, she surprised her parents by announcing that she intended to go to medical school and had already made the necessary applications. A close friend in nursing and a summer job as a hospital volunteer had helped her arrive at her decision. Eleanor's identity status would probably be best described as ______. Why?


• Kevin has changed his college major several times; it will be about six years before he graduates. Since his parents have objected to this extra expense, Kevin has cheerfully taken a variety of jobs ranging from short-order cook to forest firefighter. He likes work that allows him time to think and be alone; the handful of friends he has are very much the same. Kevin's grades are generally high, though his record is marred by a number of "incompletes." He has had one very satisfying relationship with a young woman and is search rather anxiously for another. Kevin's' identity status would probably be described as __________. Why?


• Wendy's mother is a psychologist who is heavily involved in women's groups and women's issues. Wendy admires her mother very much, having seen her strength tested in a bitter divorce when Wendy was just eight years old. Wendy believes that she, too, will be a strong and assertive young woman. She avoids people (especially men) who either doesn't see her in the light or try to bring out 'other sides' she may have. She steers clear of her stepmother, who (although pleasant) is, in Wendy's opinion, not a feminist. Wendy' college grades are very high, and her course selections reflect an unvarying interest in psychology, politics, and women's studies. Wendy's identity status would probably be described as ____________. Why?

Which Identity Style?• Ronald is a freshman at a college near his old high school. He

chooses to come home nearly every weekend, but doesn't enjoy himself once he is home. He doesn't' participate in any family activities. He avoids talking to his parents or old high school friends, preferring to spend his time playing video games in his room. Periodically he engages in impulsive shopping. After these sprees, he talks excitedly about the new clothes or electronic gadget he's acquired. He gets angry if his parents ask him what he is going to do with his life, and angrier still if they patronize him. Ronald is enrolled in a courses he has been told are easy, and he does not have strong interests in these or any other courses. Ronald's identity status would probably be described as _________. Why?

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Identity, cont.• Four Arenas of Identity Achievement highlighted

by Erikson…– religious identity• few teenagers achieve• most religions expect young people to struggle with

theological questions– sexual or gender identity

• “sex/sexual” referring to biological male/female characteristics• “gender” referring to cultural and social characteristics

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Identity, cont.• Four Arenas of Identity Achievement…– “political” or “ethnic” identity• political, identifying with a party• ethnic, identifying with a person

– vocational identity• few teenagers can find meaningful work• most available jobs are different from in the past• the required skills for many vocations take years to

attain – makes it premature to select at age 16

Personality

• Definitions– There are many– Not all psychologists agree on how to define

Personality• A generally accepted definition: – Long term patterned behavior that is influenced

by a range of factors, including Biological, Cognitive, Social, and Motivational.

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Persistent Problems in Personality Theory

1. The mind-body problem– Cartesian dualism: the viewpoint that mind and

body are separate entities.

2. Influences of situation vs. traits of a person.

3. Nature vs. nurture: a problem of causality

4. Determinism vs. freedom

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Persistent Problems in Personality Theory

5. Stability vs. change of personality over time

6. Reification: when people “concretize” abstract concepts (anxiety, intelligence, etc.)

7. Extrapolation: extending known data into unknown areas.

8. Diversity vs. Similarity

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Methods for Studying Personality

• Clinical case studies• Historical case studies• Laboratory studies• Psychological testing• Physiological methods

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Validity and Measurement

• Validity: does a test really measure what it claims to?

• The method of measurement depends on what is being measured.

Reliability & Measurement

• Reliability is the consistency of – a set of measurements or – of a measuring instrument, often used to describe

a test. – Reliability is inversely related to random error.

Broad types of Psychological Tests

• By using tests, psychologists attempt to measure, explain, and predict their behavior and personality.

• Two major categories:– Projective Tests and Interviews– Self-Report tests and Interviews

Tests

• Projective Tests – Given that people are not good judges of their

own behavior, projective tests are used to uncover aspects of a person's unconscious motives. • The Rorschach, or inkblot test, is a series of inkblots

that the requires the test subject to make interpretations of the inkblots. To make these interpretations, the person must project their personality into the ambiguous ink blot. The analysis of this projection is what psychologists can use to discover your personality.

Tests

• Self-Report Tests – The Rorschach and other projective tests are difficult to

master and many scientists argue that these projective tests are not reliable--that is, they don't show consistency overtime. That argument aside, self-report tests are often a simple and efficient way to measure personality, mostly by the use of questionnaires. • The MMPI, for example, is a large questionnaire that asks

about 500 true-false questions that ask about behavior and thoughts. By analyzing the responses, a pattern of personality is found.

Typical Personality Assessment

• Most Assessments occur in the context of discovering whether employees have the aptitude and necessary traits to perform well in a particular job. – This is not technically “personality assessment”

• There are tests online– Dating websites– Just for fun

Typical Assessment

• Be cautious about online tests– Many are not controlled, nor have scientific rigor

in analysing the results. There are good ones, however:• http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/• This particular site uses the “trait” approach, and more

specifically uses the Big-5 test, or the NEO-PI

http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/

Typical Assessment

• In the case of a psychological evaluation, more rigor and personal attention is given– Perhaps for legal reasons, such as divorce,

understanding the motivations of someone who commits a crime

– Perhaps for Mental Health reasons:• To improve the effectiveness of psychotherapy or while

in the hospital

Psychological Assessment

• Personality/psychological tests may:– Include an Intelligence test– Last 3 hours to days (with several breaks)– Will use a combination of various tests:• Interviews• Self-Report questionnaires• Projective tests

Hypothesis testing and Personality

• Throughout it’s history, Psychology and it’s practitioners, as all sciences, have discovered that their beliefs about the causes of behavior can be wrong.

• To prevent this, psychologists are trained to approach a personality assessment as an opportunity to test and rule out hypotheses.

Hypothesis Testing

• What are some ways that a psychologist would be able to generate hypotheses about a person’s personality?– Reports, – Police– Hospital– School– Employer– In person interview, perhaps even at the beginning of

the formal assessment.

Hypotheses and Personality

• The goal is to make predictions and hypotheses about a person, and then to use the tests to rule those hypotheses out. – For example, perhaps you are hypothesizing that a

person is afraid to speak up for themselves• There are self-report tests that measure this behavior• There are interview techniques that can elicit this behavior,

or even to relax it

– The point is to use various sources to rule out your hypotheses. If you can’t, then you may be getting close to being able to describe a person’s personality.

Major personality Theories

• Psychoanalysis• Humanistic– Existential vs Humanistic

• Trait• Social cognitive

Psychoanalysis

• Joseph Breuer was Freud's mentor and it is given some credit for the beginning of psychoanalysis

• Began in late 1800s • Tenants include:– Motivation is caused by unconscious drives– These drives conflict with social norms and appropriateness– Anxiety ensues– Defense mechanisms:

• 1. Reduce anxiety, and• 2. Protect self esteem.

Structure of personality

• Freud theorized 3 structures:– The ID– The ego– The super ego

• We’re born with the ID which operates on the “pleasure principle”.

• The ego and super ego are developmental milestones.

Structure, continued

• The ego operates on the “ reality principle “

• Literally the ID translate to “ the it”• The ego translates to “I”• The super ego translates to “above I“

• Metaphorically, think of a cartoon with a a moral dilemma. What are two apparitions that appear on either shoulder?

Defense mechanisms

• There are many different types of defense mechanisms (comment on objectivity)

• Here is a sample: – Denial– Repression– Projection– Reaction formation– Rationalization– Sublimation– Displacement

Defense mechanisms, con’t

• We develop defense mechanisms through our lives • Some are more primitive than others;

– For instance repression is psychologically more advanced than denial.

• Freud didn’t say the following, just note that this is more contemporary:

• Defense mechanisms are created by– Genetic predispositions– Childhood experiences (Freud's emphasis)– Specific instruction from parents– Behavioral reinforcement

Personality development in psychoanalysis

• One of Freud's more controversial series includes how we developed our personality structures

• He posited for stages with a “period” after the third stage : – Oral stage, 0-1 year– Anal stage, 1-3 years– Phallic stage, 3-5 years– Latency period, 5-11 years– Genitals stage, adolescence and adulthood

Personally development

• This is controversial because Freud had to theorize reasons for it behavior that he witnessed in children and adults.

• Unfortunately, his method allowed for much interpretation and some have suggested that much of Freud's theory is actually a projection of his own personality

• However, Freud was an astute observer and many of his observations, and certainly descriptions of the defense mechanisms are clearly face valid.

personality development

• Remember that in the history of the world “the machine” was the dominant worldview, with a presumption of that there had to be some energy pushing us into action

• Early in his career Freud literally believed that he could empirically measure this energy almost like a fluid

• This energy, called “libido”, flowed through our bodies.

Libido

• It was this energy that’s allowed us to experience life and pleasure

• And literally, he believed this energy could get “hung up” in particular places of your body.

• This is not that different, from the Greeks suggesting that our organs could move about inside our body

Libido

• Developmentally, it is normal for this libido to progress from one body area to another. These are otherwise known as erogenous zones

• However, if a person encountered some sort of psychological trauma it is possible for this libido to get stuck in one of these zones.

• So, your personality is too a large extent dependent on whether your libido got stuck at any one particular stage during development

Oral stage

• From birth to 1 year • Remember the “ pleasure principle” • Pleasure is attained through putting things in the mouth • Frustration is first experienced • If frustrated too much, the child can get stuck in this stage • If weaned too soon, the world is unsafe and the person

acts hostile and angry and “bitter”, may exhibit “ biting sarcasm”.

• If too late, a person can become demanding, passive, with low frustration tolerance

Anal stage

• Approximately 1 – 3 years • The anus becomes the source of pleasure in

that children learn the autonomy of control • Who is the boss of me? • If toilet trained too soon, a person may

become stingy, overly cleanly, overly organized • If too late, a person is disorganized, messy

Phallic stage

• 3 -5 years • Controversial, and somewhat complicated • The genital region awakens with libido – How young do children begin to masturbate?

• Boys and girls begin to notice differences between the sexes

• Each are theorized to develop “stories” about these differences

Phallic

• Boys come to believe that girls have been castrated

• Boys notice and begin to want mom’s attention, a sort of possessive demand

• Mom is the object of the boy’s desire – Examples

• Dad is a competitor. And he will castrate you-this is called the oedipus complex

Phallic

• So boys, have a conflict and the way they resolve it is to become more like dad– Gender appropriate behavior, I wanna be like dad,

with a masculine life • Note that this solution is a reaffirmation of

sublimation

Phallic for girls

• Girls want to possess dad, which is known as the electra complex

• Notes that the object of affection for boys is consistent, where girls switch from mom to dad

• Girls have “penis envy”, which for that period of time represented power

Phallic for girls

• So, girls must live vicariously through the power of a man

• “if I take on a gender role of a woman (like mom) then I can obtain a man like dad”

• All pretty hypothetical, eh? • Note the similarity to sublimation

Latency period

• Conflict and anxiety subside or what Freud calls latency.

• Kids appear to focus on learning how to learn and playing with same sexed peers

Genital stage

• The final stage of development and Freud's stage theory.

• Basically with the onset of puberty the genital region awakens, and you pick up where you left off from the phallic stage

• If the phallic stage ended with sublimation into gender roles then as adults you will be able to relate to other adults, both of the same and opposite sex.

• Otherwise, you may have neurotic tendencies

Other psychodynamic theories

• Freud had a large emphasis placed upon sexuality and libidinal drives. Others disagreed.

• Karen Horney believed men had “Womb envy” because only women can truly create another life. She also gave more attention to social relationships then did Freud.

• Carl Jung was considered by Freud to be his heir apparent, but they parted ways over serious disagreement about our motivations.

Others, continued

• Carl Jung is probably most well known for his idea called the collective unconscious

• Erik Erikson, we’ve covered, but he focused on anxiety caused by loss of connection to socially important others

• Current psychoanalysis is more commonly referred to “ object relations theory” which emphasizes anxiety surrounding relationships

Documents

1 The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development The interaction of infants’ emotions and their social context is dynamic This interplay is seen in a tiny