Social and Emotional

Development in Infants and

Toddlers
Yvezar A.Bolinao
Bse –Bio
Emotional and Social Development

• Social Smile: Smiling elicited by social

stimuli; not exclusive to seeing parents
• Self-Awareness: Awareness of oneself as
a person; can be tested by having infants
look in a mirror and see if they recognize
themselves
• Social Referencing: Observing other
people to get information or guidance
Figure 3.4
Mary Ainsworth and Attachment

• Separation Anxiety: Crying and

signs of fear when a child is left alone
or is with a stranger; generally
appears around 8-12 months
• Quality of Attachment (Ainsworth)
• Secure: Stable and positive
emotional bond
 Mary Ainsworth and Attachment

• Insecure-Avoidant: Tendency to avoid

reunion with parent or caregiver
• Insecure-Ambivalent: Desire to be
with parent or caregiver and some
resistance to being reunited with Mom
• Contact Comfort: Pleasant and
reassuring feeling babies get from
touching something warm and soft,
especially their mother
 Secure Attachment
 Mothers respond more consistently and
quickly to child’s distress and needs
 Moms show more sensitivity in interpreting
and responding to infants’ signals.
 Mothers express affection more
consistently and use more affectionate
touching, smiling, and verbal
communication
 Mothers maintain higher standards of
physical care
 Securely Attachment Children
 Do better in school and in future
achievements
 Make friends more easily
 Are more flexible
 Have more positive peer relationships
 Have more positive self-esteem
 Form close relations
 Are more positive and enthusiastic
 Less secure attachment is related
to:
 More adolescent and adult mental
health problems
 Less persistence at tasks
 More hostility or over dependence
 Lack of trust and good social
relationships
 Bowlby’s Attachment Phases
 Preattachment: Birth to 6 months
• Infant send signals to adult for contact, grasping,
crying, or gazing into adults eyes
 Phase 2: 6 weeks to 6-8 months
• Signal intensify and focus on caregiver. Still friendly to
strangers, but respond differently
 Phase 3: 6-8 months to 18 months-2 years
• More active in seeking and following caregivers. Show
separation anxiety
 Phase 4: 18 months-2 years and on
• Infants form reciprocal relationships with parents and
significant people in their life
Figure 3.11
 Play Years: Psychosocial
Mildred Parten’s Types of Play

 solitary play
 onlooker play
 parallel play
 associative play
 cooperative play
Play and Social Skills

• Solitary Play: When a child

plays alone even when with other
children
• Cooperative Play: When two or
more children must coordinate
their actions
 Definition: Temperament
McCall: “Temperament consists of
relatively consistent, basic
dispositions inherent in the person
that underlie and modulate the
expression of activity, reactivity,
emotionality, and sociability. “
Video on Temperament
Goldsmith, Buss, Plomin, Rothbart, Thomas and Chess, Hinde, McCall, 1987
Temperament and Environment
• Temperament: The physical “core” of
personality
• Easy Children: 40 %; relaxed and
agreeable
• Difficult Children: 10 %; moody, intense,
easily angered
• Slow-to-Warm-Up Children: 15 %;
restrained, unexpressive, shy
• Remaining Children: Do not fit into any
specific category
 How Is Temperament
Measured?
 Behavioral assessment
• Parent interviews or ratings
• Teacher ratings
• Direct observations by researchers
 Assessments of physiological
reactions
• Observation of motor activity and crying
• Heart rate, cortisol production
• EEG waves
 WE KNOW THAT
TEMPERAMENT:
 Is present from the beginning
 Is likely to be strongly influenced by
biological factors
 As development proceeds
temperament becomes more
influenced by experience and
context.
 MAJOR ELEMENTS OF
TEMPERAMENT
 Temperament can be modified by
experience and environment
 Social behavior is impacted by
temperament, because of individual
temperament and the way people respond
to child’s temperament
 Psychopathology and maladaptive
behavior are correlated with temperament
 Parent Temperament
 Interplay of temperament,
environment and experience
 Effects on parenting style
 Interactions of parent temperament
and child temperament