Emotional Development
Psychosocial development during infancy can be seen as two interwoven
strands — nature/nurture, or universal/particular, or experience-
expectant/experience-dependent. To portray these strands with words in a
book, we must pull them apart, so this chapter is a zigzag, turning from
universal to particular and back, again and again.
Early Emotions
We begin with universal: In their first two years, all infants progress from
reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of socioemotional awareness, a
movement from basic instincts to learned responses (see At About This Time).
AT ABOUT THIS TIME
Developing Emotions
Birth Distress; contentment
6 weeks Social smile
3 months Laughter; curiosity
4 months Full, responsive smiles
4–8 months Anger
9–14 months Fear of social events (strangers, separation from caregiver)
12 months Fear of unexpected sights and sounds
18 months Self-awareness; pride; shame; embarrassment
As always, culture and experience influence the norms of development. This is especially true for
emotional development after the first 8 months.
At first, comfort predominates: Newborns are content and relaxed when fed
and drifting off to sleep. Discomfort is also part of daily life: Newborns cry
when they are hurt or hungry, tired or frightened (as by a loud noise or a
sudden loss of support).
By the second week and increasing to six weeks, some infants have bouts of
uncontrollable crying, commonly referred to as colic, perhaps the result of
immature digestion or the infant version of a migraine headache (Gelfand,
2018). Others have reflux, probably the result of immature swallowing. About
10 to 20 percent of babies cry “excessively,” defined as more than three hours a
day, more than three days a week, for more than three weeks.
Fortunately, early emotions do not necessarily predict later life. A longitudinal
study of 291 infants found that, by age 2, infants with colic were no more likely
to have behavioral problems than those without (G. Bell et al., 2018). As you
will later read, newborn temperament is shaped by caregiver response.
Smiling and Laughing
Soon, crying decreases and additional emotions become recognizable. Colic
usually subsides by 3 months. Happiness is expressed by a fleeting social
smile, evoked by a human face at about 6 weeks (Wörmann et al., 2012).
social smile
A smile evoked by a human face, normally first evident in infants about six weeks after birth.
Preterm babies smile later, because the social smile is affected by age since
conception, not age since birth (White-Traut et al., 2018). The social smile is
universal; all babies do it when they are old enough, evidence of the human
social impulse.
Laughter builds over the first months, often in tandem with curiosity: A typical
6-month-old chortles upon discovering new things, particularly social
experiences that balance familiarity and surprise, such as Daddy making a
funny face. That is just what Piaget would expect, “making interesting
experiences last.” Very young infants prefer seeing happy faces over sad ones,
even if the happy faces are not looking at them (Kim & Johnson, 2013).
Soon happiness becomes more discriminating. In one study, infants first
enjoyed a video of dancing to music as it normally occurs, on the beat. Then
some watched a video in which the sound track was mismatched with dancing.
Eight- to twelve-month-old babies, compared to younger ones, were quite
curious — but less delighted — about offbeat dancing. The researchers
concluded “babies know bad dancing when they see it” (Hannon et al., 2017).
Developmentally Correct Both Santa’s smile and Olivia’s grimace are appropriate
reactions for people of their age. Adults playing Santa must smile no matter what,
and if Olivia smiled, that would be troubling to anyone who knows about 7-month-
olds. Yet every Christmas, thousands of parents wait in line to put their infants on the
laps of oddly dressed, bearded strangers.
Anger and Sadness
Crying in pain and smiling in pleasure are soon joined by emotions more
responsive to external experiences. Anger is notable at 6 months, usually
triggered by frustration.
For example, to study infant emotions, researchers “crouched behind the child
and gently restrained his or her arms for 2 min[utes] or until 20 s[econds] of
hard crying ensued” (Mills-Koonce et al., 2011, p. 390). “Hard crying” was not
rare: Infants hate to be strapped in, caged in, closed in, or just held in place
when they want to explore.
In infancy, anger is a healthy response to frustration, unlike sadness, which
also may appear in the first months (Thiam et al., 2017). Sadness indicates
withdrawal instead of a bid for help, and it is accompanied by a greater
increase in the body’s production of cortisol. For that reason,
developmentalists are troubled if a very young baby is sad.
Fear
Fear begins with unexpected events, such as fear of falling or of loud noises,
but soon it involves human interaction. Indeed, being frightened of something,
from snakes to strangers, may depend on three factors: awareness of
discrepancy, inborn temperament, and social context. Two kinds of social fear
are typical, increasing from the middle of the first year:
Separation anxiety — clinging and crying when a familiar caregiver is
about to leave. Some separation anxiety is normal at age 1, may be more
intense by age 2, and then usually subsides.
Stranger wariness — fear of unfamiliar people, especially when they move
too close, too quickly. Knowing that, in the subway incident that opened