As a new parent, you are likely
interested and concerned about how your infant is feeling emotionally. It is
easy to assume that your newborn is happy and excited if he or she is smiling and
clapping. However, as your child matures they begin to develop social and self-
awareness, which are foundations of emotional growth and bring about a wide
range of complex emotions. “Within the first two years, infants progress from
reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social awareness.” (Lewis,
2010-Berger 194)
Soon after only being able to express pleasure
and pain, infants are expressing happiness through the “social smile.” This
special smile is induced by the sight of another human face around six weeks.
(Berger 192) Between 2-4 months, infants show curiosity and also begin to
laugh. The interesting fact is that laughter develops simultaneously with
curiosity. Examples would be an infant laughing when discovering something new
or when a familiar person makes a silly face. (Berger 192) By 6 months, an
infant will express anger, usually by crying and is typically a response to
frustration. Anger is actually a healthy response to frustration, as opposed to
sadness which can be a sign of withdrawal and can lead to health issues. Then
around 9 months, infants develop two different types of social fear. The first
is stranger wariness and is when an infant no longer smiles at any friendly
face, but cries if an unfamiliar person moves too close. (Berger 193) The
second type of social fear is separation anxiety is when an infant cries, shows
dismay or anger when a familiar person leaves them.
During toddlerhood the emotions
that were present before become more keen and prominent. There are new emotions
developing like pride, shame, embarrassment, disgust, and guilt. These emotions
require social awareness, which emerges from family interactions and is
influenced by culture. (Berger 193) Basically, toddlers learn (to their own
extent) what is acceptable and “the norms” of their own family and social
culture. Toddlers begin to reflect what
their family and culture value, whether it is courage, modesty, or pride, etc.
Self-awareness is the realization
that one’s body, mind and activities are separate from those from other people.
(Berger 194) As you could imagine, this is a huge step in emotional development
in infants. Researchers have been able to study toddlers and have determined
that around 18 months old, a child can recognize themselves in a mirror.
Toddlers may also use words like “I”, “me” or “mine,” displaying their
comprehension that they separate from their parents, for example.
There are a few main aspects of
brain maturation that affect social emotions. One is social impulses, for
example, certain familiar people evoke specific emotions infants. This is
particularly due to past experiences as well as brain maturation. Another
aspect that determines brain maturation is stress. Too high of stress in
infants, makes them produce excessive amounts of a hormone called cortisol, and
too high levels of cortisol for long periods can cause abnormal brain
development. A third aspect is synesthesia, in which one sense riggers another
on the brain. For example, many infants cry at everything whether they are
afraid or happy. In other words, an infant could be laughing and something then
their brain triggers a response for crying because it is confused due to
certain developments in the brain.
Temperament is defined as the
“biologically based core of individual differences in style of approach and
response to the environment that is stable across time and situations.” Your
infant’s temperament is directly linked to the alleles on their genes. Studies
show that environmental factors such as poor nutrition or stressful/abusive
living situations can actually change those particular alleles, causing
emotional disabilities or deficiencies. Personality is not the same as
temperament; however they both may share similar traits. Temperament is
considered to be strictly genetic, while personality traits are thought to be
learned. (Berger 196)
Now let me discuss about the
theories of infant psychosocial development. Masters of psychoanalytic
theories, Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson, came up with their own stages of
psychosocial development. Freud described the infant’s first 12 months as the
“oral stage.” This is because during this time, infants receive most of their
gratification through the mouth. Examples would be finger sucking, teething or
breastfeeding. Freud states that during an infant’s second year of life is the
“anal stage.” This is because infants receive the majority of their pleasure
from performing a bowel movement and then mastering the technique. Freud
believed that infant’s “oral fixation” and toilet training are actually stages
that every infant must go through at some time; however, he believed timing of
these events were crucial. He thought that the parents must not rush, nor try
to delay the timing in which their infants pass through these stages. In other
words, they must come and naturally and with instinct.
Erikson described his stages of
development as crises. He believed that the first 18 months of an infant’s life
is the “trust versus mistrust” crisis. This is when infants learn whether the
“world can be trusted to satisfy basic needs.” (Berger 199) The needs for the
infant would be things like food and comfort from a parent. Erikson believes
that after 18 months, infants enter the “autonomy versus shame and doubt”
crisis. This is when self-awareness becomes prominent and they to want to have
control their own actions, so they do not feel shame or doubt. Freud and
Erikson shared a common belief that problems in infancy could last a lifetime,
in turn making a adults that are mistrusting.
Additionally to Freud’s and
Erikson’s psychoanalytic theories is behaviorism. Behaviorism can display how
emotions and personality are developed as a response to the parent’s positive
and negative reinforcements to the infant’s behaviors. Behaviorists have now
studied “social learning,” in which infants learn by watching others. There is
a classic experiment conducted by Albert Bandura:
Children watched
an adult hitting rubber Bobo clown with a mallet and then treated the doll the
same way. In this experiment, those children had good reason to follow the
example; they were frustrated by being told they could not play with some
attractive toys and were then left alone with a mallet and the Bobo doll,
having just seen an adult hit the doll. Both boys and girls pounded and kicked
Bobo. (Berger 200)
This infant is displaying a contemporary form of Bandura's "social learning" experiment
The social learning theory of
behaviorism accepts the genetic influences, yet stresses that examples from the
parents can have an extreme effect on emotional development.
For all parents, first-timers and
experienced veterans; I hope that the information presented here and our entire
blog has given you a better understanding of infant and toddler development.
-Chris
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