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Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

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Drawing by Minxin Cheng from a photo by Mikael Stenberg on Unsplash

W hether an infant is born in a hospital, community health center, or at home under the supervision of a midwife, in most cases the baby’s entry into the world is greeted with profound joy by those who will be central to the child’s social world for years to come. Unfortunately, too many infants are deprived of the healthy social experiences they need to thrive. Historical accounts of infants raised in orphanages present dis- turbing images of infants lying on their backs in metal cribs with bottles propped up to feed them, and social interactions limited to diaper changes (Spitz, 1945, 1965). Case studies of children reared in isolation—such as that of Genie pre- sented in Chapter 6, who was locked in a small room and deprived of human inter- action for the first 13 years of her life—demonstrate that social interaction is crucial to human development (Curtiss, 2014). All too often we hear of newborns who are abandoned, mistreated, or neglected. How do these atypical social-emotional experiences play out in children’s development? In the 1980s, investigations into the horrific environments of infants reared in Romanian institutions led to a landmark study, the Bucharest Early Interven- tion Project ( FIGURE 7.1 ). A group of 136 babies were randomly assigned to either high-quality foster care or “care as usual” in the institutions, and both groups were assessed on a number of outcomes several years later. (Note that babies assigned to the “care as usual” group could be adopted out, so the researchers did not prevent them from moving to a new home). The study design allowed researchers to rigorously test the role of early social and emotional experiences across physical, cognitive, and social domains of Tamis-LeMonda Child Devel pme t: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E Sinauer Associates/OUP Morales Studio TAMIS1e_07.Opener 06-30-21 PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT • Evolutionary Theory and the Functions of Emotions • Expressing Emotions • Understanding Emotions • Regulating Emotions • Temperament • Social and Cultural Contexts of Emotional Development and Temperament SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT • Attachment • Contexts of Attachment • Peer Relations and the Origins of Morality • Self-Identity • Contexts of Self-Identity Developmental Cascades Closing Thoughts: Cultivating Emotional and Social Competence

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development. Relative to children who were adopted into foster homes, institutionalized children were smaller in size, failed to grow properly, were severely impaired in mental functioning, showed abnormal brain development, and displayed social and emotional disorders. Additionally, the severity of negative effects depended on developmental timing: the younger the age of foster care placement, the greater the recovery. The developmental disturbances that emerge under con- ditions of extreme deprivation illustrate how much can go wrong when infants do not receive the emotional and social supports that are foundational to development, and con- versely, howmuch typically goes right in the presence of lov- ing caregivers regardless of differences in childrearing prac- tices. In the sections that follow, you will learn about early changes in infant emotional expression, understanding, and regulation; the formation of attachment and social relation- ships; how a sense of self develops; and the emergence of morality. You will learn about the sources of individual dif- ferences in these areas, including biological bases of tempera- ment, variations in early social interactions, and differences in cultural beliefs and practices, and youwill come to appreciate the cascading effects of infants’ emotional and social develop- ment across developmental time and domains.

© Mike Abrahams/Alamy Stock Photo FIGURE 7.1  Romania’s abandoned children.  Infants reared in Romanian institutions in the 1980s led to the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, which investigated the consequences of severely neglectful rearing condi- tions on development. Institutionalized children showed impaired mental functioning, abnormal brain develop- ment, and social and emotional disorders relative to children who were adopted into foster homes.

■  Emotional Development Infant emotions are in constant flux. Over the course of a day, infants are at times joyful, content, frightened, or distressed. One minute an infant plays with a shape sorter, and the next, throws the shapes across the floor in frustration. A little while later, the infant cries in hunger, and then the cries are subdued by a bottle. When the baby unsuccessfully attempts to pull a book off a shelf, the loud crash of books ushers in a new wave of distress. Fortunately, a caregiver is nearby to offer comfort and a hug. Infants’ emotional experiences in these situations illustrate five fundamental components of emotions (Lewis, Sullivan, &Michalson, 1985; Saarni et al., 2007):  ● Emotion elicitors ( triggers ) . The failed attempt at placing a shape, pangs of hunger, and the crashing of books result in the infant’s emotional distress.  ● Physiological changes. The infant’s heart rate and breathing quicken with distress.  ● Cognitive appraisal. The loud bang is unexpected and signals potential danger. The infant reacts to and evaluates differences between what the infant is currently experiencing and what is familiar or desired.  ● Emotional expression. The infant cries, scrunches the face, and waves the arms.  ● Communicative function. The infant’s crying gets the attention of someone nearby, who offers a bottle or hug to relieve the distress. These five features of emotions are universal and adaptive; they charac- terize the experiences of people everywhere at all periods in life. However, emotional development undergoes a lengthy period of impressive change in the first years of life. PROPERTY OF OXFORD Tamis-LeMonda Child Development: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E Sinauer Associates/OUP Morales Studio TAMIS1e_07.01 06-30-21

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Evolutionary Theory and the Functions of Emotions  251

Evolutionary Theory and the Functions of Emotions

Darwin highlighted the role of emotions in human survival in his book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). Darwin claimed that both humans and nonhuman animals display a set of basic facial expressions, and he presented photographic evidence of humans’ and animals’ emotions to support his assertations. His photographs depicted impressive similarities, for example, in the eye muscle contrac- tions and teeth exposure associated with anger in humans and nonhuman primates. He proposed that six basic emotions can already be found in infants— anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, and sadness ( FIGURE 7.2 ). However, the basis for Darwin’s evolu- tionary perspective of emotions rests on the idea that emotions are universal and adaptive. Let’s consider evidence for each claim. Are Emotions Universal? LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.1  Discuss evidence suggesting that humans are hardwired for basic emotions and what indicates that these emotions are universal. In the late twentieth century, developmental scientists embraced Darwin’s theories and set out to investi-

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FIGURE 7.2  Darwin claimed that emotions serve critical survival functions in animals and humans.  His observations led him to propose that humans and animals alike experience six basic emotions of anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, and sad- ness. Here are photos taken from archives of Darwin’s work that show similarities among infants in their expression of distress, which offers evidence for the early emerging and universal nature of human basic emotions.

gate the universality of emotions. Paul Ekman (1971) suggested that humans were hardwired for basic emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise (and possibly contempt). Ekman conducted one of the most-cited stud- ies on the universality of emotions, in which he asked adults from the United States, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and a preliterate community in New Guinea to identify emotions of characters in a story by pointing to one of several photos of facial expressions. Adults across the different cultural communities generally interpreted the facial expressions in the same way, supporting the idea that people everywhere connect specific facial expressions with specific emotions. Similarly, the facial expressions of infants from European American, Chinese, and Japanese back- grounds indicate the early and universal presence of basic emotions. Infants’ cries, smiles, and expressions of distaste look the same across the world and are comparable to those of adults (Camras et al., 2007). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.1 1. List the basic emotions. 2. What evidence supports the proposition that humans are hardwired for basic emotions? Are Emotions Adaptive? LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.2  Describe the two vital functions that emotions serve. Emotions often get a bad rap, for example when someone is criticized for being overly emotional. However, emotions serve vital roles in everyday functioning: They prepare and motivate individuals for action and underpin social relationships with others (Saarni et al., 2007; Witherington, Campos, & Hertenstein, 2007). ✓ PROPERTY OF OXFORD Tamis-LeMonda Child Development: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E Sinauer Associates/OUP Morales Studio TAMIS1e_07.02 06-30-21

basic emotions  Universal emotions such as anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, and sadness

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Consider the role of emotions in action. Emotions prepare people to respond to environmental events or threats to survival. As one example, the detection of potentially threatening stimuli may insti- gate fear and the fight-or-flight response. Fear increases the visual field and speed of eye movements, allowing individuals to spot potentially threatening objects in the periphery (Susskind et al., 2008). Fear also leads to physiological responses that facilitate the ability to escape the threat, such as heavy breathing, the redistribution of blood in prepa- ration for rapid movement, and the organization of attention to pro- mote alertness (Shariff & Tracy, 2011). The emotion of disgust leads to a scrunching of the nose and mouth that constricts these openings ( FIGURE 7.3 ) and makes it less likely that the potentially dangerous substance will be inhaled (Chapman et al., 2009). Shame and embar- rassment lead to body constrictions—think of a child hovering in the presence of a bully—that reduce and hide vulnerable body areas from potential attackers (Shariff & Tracy, 2011). Emotions also communicate meaningful social information. The face, voice, and body signal fear, happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, and surprise, com- municating to others how a person feels and how others should respond. The squeals of laughter by an infant who delights in her father’s tickles elicit further play from him. An infant who is wary of an unfamiliar setting might cling to their mother, who will respond by comforting her baby. Reciprocally, infants can make use of the emotional reactions of others when situations are ambigu- ous—for example by looking to a sibling to gauge how to respond to a dog. If the sibling smiles and approaches the dog, the infant might also reach out to pet, but if the sibling shies away, the infant might do so as well. CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.2 1. What are some regulatory and social functions of emotions? Give an example of each function. Expressing Emotions Emotional expressions, as infants’ first communications, may be considered “the language of the baby” (Emde, 1980). Well before infants can talk, they express their emotions through smiles, raised brows, scrunched faces, tightly closed eyes, open and quivering mouths, and distress vocalizations. At the most general level, infants’ emotions can be grouped as positive (e.g., joy, love) or negative (e.g., anger, fear). Positive emotional states arise when infants’ goals are fulfilled—such as when a baby is pleased by a mother’s voice and hug. Negative emotional states arise when infants’ goals are blocked—such as when a tired infant does not have a caregiver nearby to comfort or put the infant to sleep (Campos et al., 1983; Izard, 1978). Infant Positive Emotions LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.3  Describe developments in infant smiling across the first year of life. Smiling is the most eagerly awaited emotional expression by parents. Parents often interpret their newborns’ smiles as expressions of joy, even though first smiles do not mean the same thing as the smiles of older infants. Newborn smiles are brief and even occur during sleep (Emde & Harmon, 1972). Between the third and eighth weeks of life, infants increasingly smile to exter- nal stimuli such as high-pitched voices, although they do not yet smile for the purpose of engaging in social interactions (Sroufe, 1996). Between 6 weeks and 3 ✓

© iStock.com/ ladendron FIGURE 7.3  Disgust.  The emotion of disgust leads to a scrunching of the nose and mouth that constricts these openings.

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months of age, social smiles emerge—smiles directed to people, particularly primary caregivers (Emde &Harmon, 1972). Social smiles contain cheek rais- ing that is thought to distinguish genuine and nongenuine expressions of happiness ( FIGURE 7.4 ) (Messinger, Fogel, & Dickson, 2001). Smiling continues to change as infants become familiar with people and their environments. By 4 months of age, infants smile in response to the smiles of their caregivers and other familiar people, who continue to respond by smiling back (Ruvolo, Messinger, &Movellan, 2015). By the end of the first year, infants display different smiles across situations and people, such as broad-open smiles and belly laughs during playful interactions but reserved, tentative smiles to a stranger’s greeting (Messinger & Fogel, 2007). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.3 1. Approximately when do different types of smiles typically occur in developmental time? Infant Negative Emotions LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.4 Explain alternative interpretations of infant distress around the emotions of anger and fear. Distress represents the first negative emotion. Newborns express distress across various situations ranging from hunger to getting shots. Over the next several months, infants express negative emotions in situations that arouse anger, fear, wariness, and perhaps frustration. Anger Infants as young as 2 months of age react with what some researchers infer to be anger, as seen in “arm restraint” lab tasks in which mothers gently hold down infants’ arms for 2 minutes (Stifter & Spinrad, 2002; Moscardino &Axia, 2006). Infants of 4 to 5 months of age express anger when a goal is blocked, as found when infants could no longer play music by pulling on a ribbon after being taught how to do so (Sullivan & Lewis, 2003). Anger increases in intensity and frequency from 4 to 16 months of age (and later into the second year) in line with infants’ growing cognitive understanding (Braungart-Rieker, Hill-Soderlund, & Karrass, 2010) ( FIGURE 7.5 ). That is, toddlers increase their ✓

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FIGURE 7.4 Social smiles emerge between 6 weeks and 3 months of age. Social smiles are thought to reflect genu- ine expressions of happiness and are characterized by cheek raising during the smile.

social smiles Smiles directed to people, particularly to caregivers, with the purpose of engaging in social interactions

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FIGURE 7.5 Infant anger and fear reactions increase from 4 to 16 months of age. The left panel shows increases in infant anger, with each line representing an infant followed over age. The right panel shows increases in infant fear, again with each line representing an infant. (After J. Braungart-Rieker et al. 2010. Dev Psychol 46: 791–804. Copyright © 2010 by American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permission.) UNIVERSITY PRESS

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displays of anger because they understand not only that their goals are being blocked, but also that someone is preventing them from getting what they want. That’s why they get angry when being put down for a nap. However, infants cannot tell scientists what they are feeling. And so researchers make their best guesses about infant emotions. Are infants truly angry when their arms are restrained? When and whether infants experience specific emotions in ways similar to children and adults has generated much debate (Camras & Shutter, 2010) ( FIGURE 7.6 ). Fear The emotion of fear has strong roots in infancy. From an evolu- tionary perspective, an innate, universal, and early fear of snakes, spiders, heights, and other potentially threatening stimuli may benefit survival and thus be adaptive (Poulton & Menzies, 2002). Alternatively, infants may rapidly learn to fear certain threatening stimuli through experience rather than inborn tendencies (Öhman & Mineka, 2001; Seligman, 1971). How do researchers test whether infants “fear” certain stimuli? One approach is to present infants with pictures or replicas of threatening and nonthreatening stimuli—such as snakes versus frogs—and compare infants’ responses to each. Early studies suggested that infants quickly learn to avoid certain stimuli over others. For example, when researchers presented 14-month-old infants with a toy spider, infants avoided the spider when their mothers expressed fear. Even after mothers later expressed joy at seeing the toy spider, infants continued to avoid the spider (Zarbatany & Lamb, 1985). Similar findings have been documented in nonhuman animals. Researchers presented lab-reared rhesus monkeys with videos of wild rhesus monkeys displaying fear in the presence of real and toy snakes and nonfearful behav- iors in the presence of wooden blocks or plastic flowers. The rhesus monkeys quickly learned to express fear in the presence of snakes, but not to the blocks or flowers ( FIGURE 7.7 ) (Cook & Mineka, 1989, 1990). However, the interpretation that infants innately experience “fear” in the presence of certain threatening stimuli has been challenged (e.g., LoBue & Adolph, 2019). If infants naturally find spiders, snakes, and the like to be scary, they should show a high startle response and quickened heart rate— physiological markers of fear in adults. But infants do not show any such evidence of fear when presented with pictures of snakes versus frogs. They do, however, look more at snakes and spiders than at nonthreatening stimuli (Thrasher & LoBue, 2016). Thus, infants may be biased to detect and attend to threatening stimuli, even if they are not naturally afraid. Such perceptual biases may then facilitate learning to fear snakes and other threats after brief exposures, as infants learn through others or their own discoveries that such stimuli are indeed dangerous (LoBue & Adolph, 2019; LoBue & DeLoache, 2010; LoBue & Rakison, 2013) ( FIGURE 7.8 ). Self-Conscious Emotions Although it may be difficult to infer the meaning of infants’ emotional expressions in the first year of life, emotions become more differentiated in the second and third years. Furthermore, toddlers begin to display behaviors that suggest the emergence of the self-conscious emotions. Self- conscious emotions relate to a sense of self and other awareness, such as embarrassment, pride, guilt, and shame (Tracy, Robins, & Tangney, 2007). For example, infants avoid eye contact and hide their face when they are the

© iStock.com/wildcat78 FIGURE 7.6  Expressions of anger generalize to a range of situations in toddlerhood.  In the sec- ond year, infants extend their anger (or distress) to a wide range of situations such as when someone blocks their goals (e.g., being put down for a nap).

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© iStock.com/Cvrk FIGURE 7.7  Learning fear.  Michael Cook and Susan Mineka (1990) presented rhesus monkeys who had never been in the wild and never seen a snake with edited videos of two other monkeys expressing fear: one monkey expressed fear toward a plastic flower and the other toward a plastic snake. When examiners later presented the rhesus monkeys with the two objects, the monkeys responded with fear to the snake, but did not express fear to the flower. Such findings suggest

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Tamis-LeMonda Child Development: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E Sinauer Associates/OUP Morales Studio TAMIS1e_07.07 06-30-21 preparedness toward learning to fear certain types of stimuli. Here is a photo of a frightened juvenile monkey seeking comfort from an adult.

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center of attention, suggesting that they are embarrassed (Lewis, 1995). Toddlers also express behaviors that suggest shame and guilt. A 2-year-old may react to accidentally breaking a toy by hiding the toy and avoiding the caregiver (shame) or attempting to repair the toy (guilt) (Barrett, Zahn-Waxler, & Cole, 1993). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.4 1. How might researchers determine which negative emotion(s) underlie an infant’s cry? 2. When do babies begin to show self-conscious emotions? Give an example. Understanding Emotions Understandingemotions is critical to social relationships. Emotionunderstanding refers to understanding people’s emotional reactions to specific situations, evaluating the circumstances that led to the emotional response, and inferring what people want and might do in specific emotional situations (Camras & Halberstadt, 2017). These are not easy to do. It takes many years of social inter- actions and cognitive development for children to understand how others feel, and even then, they often make errors. Infants are so new to the world that their understanding of emotions pales compared to that of children and adults. Still, infants display the precursors of emotion understanding in their abilities to (1) discriminate among different emotions and different intensities of emotions; (2) connect emotional expres- sions to meaning, such as recognizing that a smile signals joy and a frown sig- nals sadness; and (3) seek and use emotional information to guide their actions. Discriminating Emotions LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.5 Define emotion discrimination and discuss how it is demonstrated by infants. Emotion discrimination is the ability to distinguish among emotional expres- sions (Camras & Shuster, 2013). Remarkably, even newborns display rudimen- tary capacities to discriminate among emotions. They open their eyes more ✓ Tamis-LeMonda Child Development: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E Sinauer Associates/OUP Morales Studio T 1e_07.08 06-30-21 FIGURE 7.8 Infants may be biased to attend to potentially threatening stimuli, without being afraid. Developmental psychologist Vanessa LoBue and colleagues tested whether infants show evidence of fear to threatening stimuli, or instead are just biased to detecting such stimuli. They assessed infants’ propensity to look at snakes relative to other animals such as elephants or rhinoceroses while also monitor- ing their physiological responses. They found that snakes elicit infant attention, but infants do not necessarily display “fear” based on measures of heart rate and other physiological indices. (After J. S. DeLoache and V. LoBue. 2009. Dev Sci 12: 201–207.) PROPERTY OF OXFORD emotion understanding Infants’ ability to discriminate among emo- tions; connect emotional expres- sions to meaning; and seek and use emotional information to guide their actions self-conscious emotions Emotions that involve a sense of self-awareness and are based on others’ perceptions, such as embarrassment, pride, guilt, and shame

emotion discrimination The abil- ity to distinguish among emotional expressions such as sad and angry speech or faces UNIVERSITY PRESS

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when presented with happy speech than when presented with sad, angry, and neutral speech, and they look more at happy than neutral faces (Mastropieri & Turkewitz, 1999; Rigato et al., 2011). And with age, infants’ skill at discriminat- ing among emotions improves. A review of studies on infants’ emotion under- standing showed that 4- and 5-month-olds distinguish happy from negative facial expressions such as anger; and by around 7 months of age, infants rec- ognize similarities among people’s emotions, as seen in their categorization of happy faces together and angry faces together (e.g., Ruba & Repacholi, 2019). Young infants likewise respond to gradations in the intensity of emotion expressions, such as by distinguishing between smiles that are subtle versus full-blown. In a clever habituation-novelty preference study (see Chapters 4 and 5) researchers examined 3-month-old infants’ perceptions of smiling in relation to their interactions with mothers at home (Kuchuk, Vibbert, & Bornstein, 1986). Infants were shown a series of pictures of a woman smiling, ranging from a sub- tle upturn of the lips to a full-blown smile with teeth exposed. Infants looked longer to a smile of a different intensity after being habituated to a slightly larger or smaller smile. Moreover, infants’ experience with smiles aided their discrimination: Infants with mothers who more frequently encouraged their infants to look at them as they smiled were better able to distinguish among the different smile gradients. Thus, infants’ experiences looking at the smiling face of their mothers supported their ability to distinguish among smiles. Infants are also able to connect emotional information in the face to infor- mation in the voice. Matching studies , which ask whether infants are able to “match” the emotional content of stimuli presented in different modalities such as face and voice, reveal this ability. In such studies, researchers present infants with side-by-side displays of two facial expressions, such as happy and sad, along with an audio recording of a voice that matches one of the facial expres- sions. If infants look longer to the facial expression that matches the voice, it suggests that they have connected the emotions across visual and auditory channels. By 5 months of age infants look longer to a positive facial expression when hearing a happy voice than when hearing an angry voice and can even match the emotions in faces to the emotions in vocalizations of other babies (Vaillant-Molina, Bahrick, & Flom, 2013) ( FIGURE 7.9 ). Additionally, infants match emotions in facial expressions and voices at even younger ages when

matching studies  Studies that assess whether infants are able to match the emotional content of stimuli presented in different modali- ties, such as face and voice

Negative expressed by their vocalizations.  Researchers presented 5-month-old infants with videos of infants displaying negative and positive expressions. The videos were accompanied by positive or negative infant vocal expressions. Infants “matched” the vocal expressions to their congruent facial expressions by looking more to the face that matched the affect that they heard. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Pair 1 Pair 2 Positive From M. Vaillant-Molina. 2013. Infancy 18: E97–E111 FIGURE 7.9  Infants match emotions in the faces of other infants to the emotions

Understanding Emotions   257

From R. Hepach and G. Westermann. 2013. J Exp Child Psychol 115: 16–29

presented with their mothers’ faces (Kahana-Kalman &Walker-Andrews, 2001). Late in the first year, infants match positive emotions to positive events (Skerry & Spelke, 2014), and by the second year, infants match negative emotions to negative events (e.g., Reschke et al., 2017; Ruba, Meltzoff, & Repacholi, 2019). When researchers monitor infants’ eye movements with eye trackers, they find that infants attend to the mouth area in particular to figure out how emo- tions in faces relate to emotions in voices (Palama, Malsert, & Gentaz, 2018). As infants enter their second year, they consider a person’s actions when evaluat- ing emotions, such as understanding that a person whose face appears to be angry might hit a toy tiger and a person whose face appears to be happy might pet a toy tiger (Hepach & Westermann, 2013) ( FIGURE 7.10 ). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.5 1. What evidence suggests that newborns and very young infants can distinguish among different types of emotional expressions and gradations of emotional expressions? Using Emotional Information LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.6  Describe evidence suggesting that infants attach meaning to the emotions they observe in other people. Distinguishing among emotions is only a first step in understanding emotions. Infants must also learn to use emotional information, which requires connecting people’s expressions to what people actually feel or intend to communicate. To illustrate, imagine the following situation: A toddler runs across the playground and stumbles over a toy, landing belly down on the ground. She briefly hesi- tates and looks up to her mother who is seated on a nearby bench. Her mother ✓ Tamis-L Monda Child Devel pment: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E S auer Associ tes/OUP Morales Studio TAMIS1e_07.10 06-30-21 FIGURE 7.10  Infants match emotions with actions.  Infants were shown clips of actors who displayed happiness or anger, and then either pet or hit a stuffed animal. Infant looking time suggested that they were able to infer that someone who shows a happy face will be more likely to pat a stuffed animal (top row) but unlikely to hit the animal (second row). Conversely, someone who shows an angry face will be more likely to hit an animal (third row) than to pat it (bottom row). PROPERTY OF OXFORD

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leaps from the bench, scoops up her daughter, and holds her close in panic. The toddler registers her mother’s alarm, quickly computes that what happened was scary, and breaks into sobs. The toddler has just demonstrated her skill at seeking and using the emotional information in her mother’s face, actions, and voice to guide her own behaviors. Social referencing refers to the seeking and use of social information in ambiguous situations. When do infants exhibit social referencing? During the first year of life, infants remain limited in their social-referencing abilities. They do not yet grasp connections among emotional expressions (such as a fearful voice and face), their causes (the object in front of the child), and behavioral responses (avoid- ance) (Camras & Shuster, 2013). By around 12 months, however, infants avoid objects of another person’s expressed fear. For example, infants cross a visual cliff (see Chapter 4) when their mothers stand at the other side and display joy, but avoid crossing when mothers display fear (Sorce et al., 1985). Similarly, infants approach or avoid toys and strangers based on how other people react (Feinman et al., 1992; Saarni et al., 2007). Donna Mumme and Anne Fernald (2003) examined 10- and 12-month-old infants’ behaviors after an experimenter’s different reactions to novel objects. Infants observed the experimenter’s neutral, positive, or negative reaction toward one of two unfamiliar objects. When later given the opportunity to play with the objects, 12-month-olds, but not 10-month-olds, avoided the object when the experimenter reacted negatively, but showed no avoidance when the experimenter reacted neutrally or positively ( FIGURE 7.11 ).

social referencing The seeking and use of social information in ambiguous situations, such as when a toddler looks at a mother’s face when uncertain about how to react to a strange person

Infant references mother’s face and avoids the novel object

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Infant references mother’s face and reaches for the novel object FIGURE 7.11 Infants approach or avoid stimuli in line with the emotional reactions of other people. Infants use social information offered by others in ambiguous situ- ations (such as when confronting unfamiliar objects or people), a behavior referred to as “social referencing.” For example, when the mother or an adult expresses fear to a novel object, the infant avoids playing with the object. In contrast, when the mother or adult expresses happiness to a novel object, the infant reaches and approaches. (After D. Mumme et al. 1996. Child Dev 67: 3219–3237.) PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Mother shows happy face

Regulating Emotions  259

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.6 1. What is social referencing and why is it considered adaptive? 2. What methods do developmental researchers use to examine infant social referencing? Regulating Emotions ✓

Most everyone is familiar with the “terrible twos,” the frequent emotional eruptions of toddlers when they don’t get what they want. Imagine a common grocery-store scenario: A father and his 2-year-old daughter are in line to pay for their groceries. The toddler pulls a bag of candy off the shelf. The father abruptly removes the candy and places it back on the shelf. His daughter again pulls the candy from the shelf. After several repeats of their tug-of-war, the father warns “No candy!” His daughter arches her back, kicks her legs, and screams. This scene illustrates the immense difficulty that infants and toddlers have in self- regulation , the ability to control attention, emotions, thinking, and behavior. In the next section, we examine the emotional component of self-regulation. Development of Infant Emotion Regulation LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.7  Describe the development of emotion regulation in the first years of life. Emotion regulation refers to the monitoring, evaluating, and moderating of emotional responses, particularly under stressful situations (Calkins &Hill, 2007). Across the first two years of life, infants change from initially relying on other people to help them regulate, to independently attempting to calm themselves. Initially, infants have little control over their emotions. In fact, primary care- givers play a central role in helping young infants regulate their emotions and arousal (Perry, Calkins, & Bell, 2016). Adults may comfort or distract their dis- tressed infants, for example by hugging and rocking them and offering them toys. Such behaviors help teach infants strategies that can reduce emotional arousal. Toward the end of the first year, infants begin to independently control their emotions. For example, infants may look away from an unpleasant event, or soothe themselves by sucking their thumb (Fox & Calkins, 2003; Stifter & Braungart, 1995). In the second and third years of life, toddlers broaden their regulation strategies to include distractions such as singing and playing finger games to occupy themselves (Grolnick, Bridges, & Connell, 1996; Stansbury & Sigman, 2000). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.7 1. What are some strategies that older infants and toddlers might use to regulate their emotions? ✓ effortful control  A child’s capacity to voluntarily regulate attention and behavior when responding to emo- tionally challenging situations PROPERTY OF OXFORD self-regulation  The ability to control attention, emotions, thinking, and behavior emotion regulation  The monitor- ing, evaluating, and moderating of emotional responses, especially in stressful situations

Effortful Control LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.8  Explain the attentional and behavioral components involved in infants’ effortful control. Effortful control refers to a child’s capacity to voluntarily regulate attention and behaviors when responding to emotionally challenging situations (Eisenberg et al., 2010; Rothbart & Bates, 2006). For example, the attentional component of effortful control is seen when a toddler looks away from a frightening scene on television so as not to become distressed ( FIGURE 7.12 ). The behavioral component of effortful con- trol might involve refraining from throwing toys across the floor when upset (Grolnick, Cosgrove, & Bridges, 1996). Attentional and

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FIGURE 7.12  Effortful control.  The attentional component of effortful control might be seen when a toddler looks away from a frightening scene on television or blocks his ears when hearing loud noises as a way to not become distressed. UNIVERSITY PRESS

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behavioral components of effortful control both require inhibitory control —the suppression of a dominant or preferred response in favor of an acceptable one (Diamond, 1991; Eisenberg et al., 2010). In the current examples, looking at the screen and throwing toys would be the dominant response, whereas looking away and refraining from throwingwould be the alternative, acceptable response. Inhibitory control improves throughout toddlerhood, as children learn to manage their impulses and comply with adults. Infants with strong skills in attention and inhibitory control followed requests to clean up toys and not touch forbidden objects months later at 13–15 months of age (Kochanska, Tjebkes, & Fortnan, 1998; Kochanska & Kim, 2014). As we will see in later chapters, the term self-regulation (rather than effortful control) describes older children’s management of attention, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.8 1. What is effortful control? 2. What is the connection between emotion regulation and inhibitory control? Temperament Infants differ in how they emotionally respond to different situations, even as newborns. Parents with more than one child can attest to the uniqueness of each baby’s disposition. They might describe one infant as easy going, content to play alone, curious, and eager to approach new situations. In contrast, they might describe their other infant as fussy, excitable, unable to be soothed, and easily distracted. What explains early differences among infants? Temperament has received a great deal of attention. Temperament refers to a child’s intensity of reactivity and regulation of emotions, activity, and attention (Rothbart, Derryberry, & Hershey, 2000). As we will see, a child’s temperament is present from birth, stable over time, and thought to offer a window into personality in later life. The History of Temperament Studies LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.9  Discuss how the work of Thomas and Chess advanced an understanding of temperament. Some of the most influential research on infant temperament can be traced to the work of the husband-wife team of Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess, who launched the New York Longitudinal Study in 1956. Thomas and Chess chal- lenged the assumption (by many behaviorists at the time) that people respond in the same ways to the same stimuli. They noted that the identical situation— such as the approach of a stranger—could yield dramatically different reactions in infants with different temperaments. To explore differences among infants in temperament, Thomas and Chess (1977) extensively interviewed mothers of 3-month-olds about their infants’ reactions to novel people and situations, energy level, positive and negative emotions, adaptability to change, rhythmicity (how regular an infant was in sleeping, eating, etc.), general mood, and distractibility. Based on mothers’ responses, they identified three temperament profiles (35% of infants did not fit these profiles):  ● Easy babies , 40% of the sample, readily adapted to the environment, had regular eating and sleeping patterns, displayed positive emotions, showed low to moderate intensity of reactions, and approached novel stimuli.  ● Difficult babies , 10% of the sample, took a relatively long time to adjust to new environments, had irregular patterns, cried frequently, displayed high intensity in both positive and negative emotions, and tended to withdraw from new situations. ✓ temperament  Individual differ- ences among infants in intensity of reactivity and regulation of emotions, activity, and attention PROPERTY OF OXFORD inhibitory control  An executive function that suppresses a dominant or preferred response in favor of an acceptable, more adaptive response

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 ● Slow-to-warm-up babies , 15% of the sample, were slow to adapt to new environments and exhibited low activity and intensity, a moderate level of negative emotions, and a tendency to withdraw from new situations (Thomas, Chess, & Birch, 1970). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.9 1. Describe “easy babies,” “difficult babies,” and “slow-to-warm-up babies” as identified by Thomas and Chess. Contemporary Models of Temperament LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.10  Summarize how the research of Rothbart and Bates contributed to the current conceptualization of temperament. Thework of Thomas andChess sparkedmuch subsequent research, including that of developmentalistsMary Rothbart and Jack Bates (Rothbart &Bates, 2006). Roth- bart and Bates measured temperament by asking parents to report on their infants’ behaviors across a variety of situations. They asked questions such as, “When being dressed or undressed, how often does your baby cry, sit quietly, watch, etc.?”and “When having a toy taken away, howoften does your baby____?” Based on parents’ responses, Rothbart identified six dimensions of temperament:  ● Activity : The infant’s level of gross motor activity, including moving the arms, legs, torso, squirming, and so forth  ● Positive affect : The infant’s expressions of happiness through smiling and laughter  ● Fear : The infant’s intensity of reaction to novel stimuli (including distress), time it takes the baby to approach new situations and people, and inhibition —withdrawal from unfamiliar situations and people  ● Distress to limitations : The infant’s distress in relation to desired goals, such as waiting for food, being confined, being dressed, being prevented from accessing an object  ● Soothability : The infant’s reduction of fussing, crying, or distress when soothed by a caregiver or the self  ● Attention : The infant’s vocalizing, looking at and/or engagement with an object for an extended period of time When Rothbart and colleagues analyzed these six dimensions together, they identified three components of temperament: surgency, negative reactivity, and orienting regulation ( FIGURE 7.13 ) (e.g., Putnam, Gartstein, & Rothbart, 2006). Infants and toddlers ranged from low to high in their scores on these components. ✓ inhibition  A dimension of tempera- ment that reflects an infant’s with- drawal from and intense reaction to unfamiliar situations and people PROPERTY OF OXFORD

FIGURE 7.13  Rothbart and Bates’s temperament dimensions.  Temperament refers to a person’s intensity of reactivity and regulation of emotions, activity, and attention. Rothbart and colleagues identified six dimensions of temperament that combined into three overall compo- nents of temperament—negative reactivity, surgency, and orienting regulation. Marked differences exist among infants in these compo- nents of temperament. (After M. K. Rothbart and J. E. Bates. 2006. In Handbook of Child Psychology: Social, Emotional, and Personality Development . N. Eisenberg et al. [Eds.], pp. 99–166. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ.)

Temperament dimensions 1. Activity 2. Positive effect 3. Fear 4. Distress to limitations 5. Soothability 6. Attention

Negative reactivity indexes infant fear, frustration, sadness, and low soothability. UNIVERSITY PRESS Surgency measures an infant’s activity level and intensity of pleasure. Orienting regulation refers to an infant’s ability to regulate attention toward goals and away from distressing situations.

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Surgency is a measure of an infant’s activity level and intensity of pleasure. Infants who score high in surgency show a lot of happiness through smiling and laughter, energetically approach new situations, and are low on shyness. Negative reactivity indexes infant fear, frustration, sadness, and low soothability. Infants who are high on negative reactivity are distressed by unfa- miliar events or frustrating situations and have difficulties regulating their emo- tions. For example, 5-month-olds differ in how upset they get at having their arms restrained, a sign of high negative reactivity, and how quickly they recover from distress, a sign of low emotional regulation. Some infants don’t cry at all when restrained; others cry but calm down; and others display intense, sus- tained crying that forces the experiment to end early (Porter et al., 2009). Orienting regulation refers to an infant’s ability to regulate attention toward goals and away from distressing situations. Infants high on orienting are able to regulate their emotions well (Rothbart, Posner, & Boylan, 1990). For example, infants who were more attentive during a block task were less likely to become frustrated during arm restraint and toy removal tasks than were infants with low attention (Calkins et al., 2002). And 9-month-old infants who were better able to attend to a picture without being distracted showed greater positive affect and less social withdrawal from peers than infants who had difficulty maintaining attention (Pérez-Edgar & Fox, 2000). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.10 1. What are the six dimensions of temperament identified by Mary Rothbart and Jack Bates? 2. How do these six dimensions relate to the temperament components of surgency, negative reactivity, and orienting regulation? Whereas emotions are fleeting, temperament can be stable from infancy through toddlerhood, childhood, and even adulthood (Caspi et al., 2003; Kochanska & Knaack, 2003; Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Thomas and Chess found that “slow-to- warm-up” babies were excessively fearful and cautious in new situations in the preschool and school years (Chess & Thomas, 1984). And infant temperament helps explain sociability, negative reactivity, attention, and effortful control in childhood and adulthood. For example, Mary Rothbart (2007) found similarities between infant and toddler temperaments and adulthood traits of personality as represented in the “Big five of personality”:  ● Openness —the degree of intellectual curiosity and openness to new experiences  ● Conscientiousness —the tendency to be organized and self-disciplined  ● Extraversion —energy, surgency, outgoingness, and the tendency to seek stimulation through social interactions  ● Neuroticism —vulnerability to quickly experiencing unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, anger, and depression  ● Agreeableness —the tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than antagonistic toward others In particular, the temperament component of negative reactivity predicted adult neuroticism; the temperament component of orienting regulation pre- dicted openness; the temperament component of effortful control predicted conscientiousness; and the temperament component of surgency predicted extraversion ( FIGURE 7.14 ). ✓ Stability in Temperament LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.11  State evidence for the stability of temperament.

surgency  An infant’s activity level and intensity of pleasure; infants with high surgency show a lot of happi- ness by smiling and laughing negative reactivity  An infant’s high arousal in response to sensory stimuli; infants with high negative reactivity display fear, frustration, sadness, and low soothability

orienting regulation  An infant’s ability to regulate attention toward goals and away from distressing situations

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What accounts for stability from early to later temperament? The answer lies in the interaction between a child’s biology and environmental experiences. The term evocative effects refers to a type of gene-environment association (see Chapter 2) in which a child’s inherited characteristics evoke strong responses from others that strengthen the child’s characteristics. For example, an infant may become highly distressed when being changed, meeting new people, hearing loud noises, being put down to sleep, and so forth. The infant’s negativity can make it difficult for parents to interact sensitively and calmly. If the infant’s parents become irritable and abrupt in their interactions, the infant’s negativity may strengthen over time. CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.11 1. What evidence suggests that temperament is stable? 2. Provide an example of how biological factors may interact with experience to influence temperament over time. ✓

Infant Temperament Negative reactivity Orienting regulation Effortful control Surgency

Adult Personality: Big Five Openness to experience Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism

FIGURE 7.14 Toddler temperament predicts adulthood traits. Mary Rothbart and colleagues identified stability from early temperament to later personality. The temperament component of negative reactivity predicted adult neuroticism; the temperament component of orienting/regu- lation predicted openness; the temperament component of effortful control predicted consci- entiousness; and the temperament component of surgency predicted extraversion. (After D. E. Evans and M. K. Rothbart. 2007. J Res Pers 41: 868–888.)

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Tamis-LeMonda Child Development: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E Sinauer Associates/OUP Morales Studio TL1e_07.14 04-20-21 goodness of fit The extent to which a person’s temperament matches the requirements, expec- tations, and opportunities of the environment PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS All infants grow in their understanding, expression, and regulation of emotions, and show temperamental differences that are stable over time. However, parenting and cultural contexts continually sculpt infants’ emo- tional development and temperament, thus molding the person an infant will one day become. Contexts of Infant Temperament and Goodness of Fit LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.12 Explain the concept of goodness of fit and why an infant’s temperament should be studied in the context of social and cultural influences. We learned that temperament is stable. However, this does not mean that an infant’s initial disposition fully determines later personality, or that changes in temperament do not occur. In fact, the strength of associations from early temperament to later outcomes is relatively low (Putnam, Sanson, & Roth- bart, 2002). That’s because many factors contribute to later personality. An infant who is initially high in negative reactivity can eventually learn how to regulate emotions just as an infant who is frightened by unfamiliar situations may eventually welcome new experiences. Indeed, infants’ early experiences and temperament work together to grow a personality (Rothbart, 2007). Social influences on temperament are best understood under the frame- work of goodness of fit —the extent to which a person’s temperament matches the requirements, expectations, and opportunities of the environ- ment (Chess & Thomas, 1991). Specifically, childrearing practices can modify a child’s temperament for better or for worse: harsh parenting can lead to escalating negative reactivity in children just as supportive parenting can teach children how to regulate their negative reactions. Consider how goodness of fit may play out in infants’ everyday experi- ences. Imagine that an infant reacts with high negativity to a new situation, such as a family reunion at an unfamiliar home. If the infant is forced into the arms of strange relatives, the infant’s negative reactions may escalate. In contrast, if the infant is allowed some time to adjust to the new environment, the infant will be more likely to positively engage with others. In the latter evocative effects A type of gene- environment association in which a child’s inherited characteristics evoke strong responses from others that strengthen the child’s characteristics