Module 2.

3
Emotional and Social
Development in Infancy and
Toddlerhood
(Refer to Chapter No. 6 of L. Berk’s Book)

PPT made by Dr. Anjali Maurya

Classroom Activity
Expressive Baby videosStill Face Experiment
Still face Experiment with Dads
 Erikson’s Theory of Infant and
Toddler Personality
• Infancy: Basic trust vs. Mistrust (0-1 year) • Toddlerhood: Autonomy vs. Shame and
• Healthy outcome depends on quality of Doubt (1-2/3 years)
caregiving, not just feeding.
• Toddlers strive for independence (“No!”
• Key caregiving qualities: Prompt relief, gentle “Do it myself!”).
handling, patient feeding, sensitive
attunement. • Positive resolution: 1) Parents offer
• Positive resolution: 1) Care is sympathetic & reasonable choices, guidance, & patience.
loving. 2) Infant develops trust, feels world is 2) Encourages confidence, self-control, and
safe and dependable. competence.
• Negative resolution: 1) Care is inconsistent, • Negative resolution: 1) Over- or under
harsh, or neglectful. 2) Infant develops control, criticism or shaming. 2) Leads to
mistrust, leading to withdrawal and insecurity. doubt, dependence, or lack of confidence.
• Influenced by parental well-being, family
conditions, and cultural child-rearing values.
Emotional Development in
Infancy and Toddlerhood
Understanding
Infant Emotions
• Emotions organize key developmental processes — social
bonds, exploration, self-awareness.
• Infants’ emotional expressions studied through facial, vocal &
gestural cues (Ekman; Camras).
• Dynamic Systems Perspective:
• Emotions energize and organize action systems.
• Emotional expressions become more varied, complex, and intentional
with age.
• Early emotional life: 2 global states
• Attraction to pleasant stimulation.
• Withdrawal from unpleasant stimulation.
 Formation of Basic Emotions
• Basic Emotions
Happiness • Interest • Surprise • Fear • Anger • Sadness
• Disgust
→ Universal, adaptive, and evolutionarily rooted.
• Developmental Process
Caregiver mirroring (sensitive, contingent responses)
helps infants refine expressions to adult-like forms.
Emotional signals gradually become organized &
situation-specific.
I. Joyful face + relaxed posture → “This is fun!”
II. Sad face + drooping body → “I’m despondent.”
III. Angry face + crying → “Change this unpleasant event!”
Development of Specific Basic
Emotions
Happiness Anger & Sadness
• Early: reflex smiles (sleep, fullness). • 4–6 months onward: anger
• 6–10 weeks: Social smile appears. increases with frustration or
• 3–4 months: Laughter emerges → restraint.
faster info processing. • Reflects growing intentional
• 5-7 months: start finding absurd behavior and desire for control.
events funny
• Anger is also adaptive.
• Strengthens parent–child bond and
motivates exploration. • Sadness rarer, seen in disrupted
• 10-12 months: Laugh varies caregiver communication.
according to the context
• Fear
• Rises from 6 months → stranger anxiety
common.
• Fear level influenced by temperament,
context, and culture.
• Efe infants (Congo): low stranger anxiety
(shared caregiving).
• Israeli kibbutz infants: higher stranger
anxiety (environmental threat).
• Fear promotes secure base behavior and
cautious exploration.
• Two conflicting tendencies: Approach &
Avoidance (Balance between the two)
Understanding & Responding to
Emotions of Others
• Early Emotional Sensitivity
• 3 months: expect mutual interaction — smile, gaze, coo, and wait for a response.
• 4–5 months: distinguish positive vs. negative emotions in voices and faces.
• “Like me” awareness (Meltzoff, 2013): early imitation builds understanding that
others have feelings like the self.
• From Imitation to Social Understanding
• Joint attention: infants understand emotions are linked to specific events or objects.
• Social referencing (8–10 months): seek emotional cues from caregivers in uncertain
situations.
• Parent’s voice + face → most effective in guiding behavior. Example: baby avoids a
stranger if mother shows fear.
• By 18 months: toddlers realize others’ emotions can differ from their own
(Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997).
Self-Conscious Emotions &
Emotional Self-Regulation
• Emergence of Self-Conscious Emotions (18–24 months)
• Appear with self-awareness: guilt, shame, embarrassment, envy, pride.
• Require adult instruction in when to feel each emotion.
• Cultural variation:
• Western → pride in personal success.
• Eastern/collectivist → modesty, shame for disrupting social harmony.
• Beginnings of Emotional Self-Regulation (adjusting emotional intensity to
achieve goals) gets developed through:
i. Maturation of prefrontal cortex.
ii. Sensitive caregiving that soothes, distracts, and models calm response
• ACTIVITY (Jealousy)
Temperament and
Attachment Development
Ainsworth's "The Strange Situation Study"
Temperament and Development
• Temperament is early-appearing, stable individual differences in reactivity
(emotional, attentional, motor) and self-regulation. It forms the foundation
of adult personality and is influenced by both biological factors and care-
giving experiences.
• Thomas & Chess (1956): New York Longitudinal Study has identified three
major types:
• Easy child (40%) – regular routines, cheerful, adaptable.
• Difficult child (10%) – irregular, intense, slow to adapt.
• Slow-to-warm-up (15%) – low activity, mild reactions, adjusts slowly.
• Remaining 35% showed mixed patterns.
• Parenting can modify temperament → supportive care buffers risk.
Temperament and Development
• Mary Rothbart’s Model (Modern View)
• Combines emotional, attentional, and activity traits.
• Key Dimensions:
• Emotion: Fearful distress, irritable distress, positive affect.
• Attention: Attention span/persistence.
• Action: Activity level.
• Adds Effortful Control → ability to inhibit impulses, focus attention,
and manage emotion.
• Predicts positive outcomes across cultures:
→ persistence, moral maturity, social competence, stress resistance.
Attachment — Bowlby’s Ethological
Theory
• Attachment: Strong affectionate tie leading to
pleasure in interaction and comfort in stress.
• Not based on feeding alone (Harlow’s monkey
studies).
• Rooted in evolutionary need for safety and survival
(Bowlby, 1969).
Bowlby’s Four Phases of Attachment
Development

Preattachment (0–6 wks):

• Built-in signals (crying, grasping) bring adults close; no separation

protest.

Attachment-in-the-making (6 wks–6–8 mos):

• Prefer familiar caregivers; develop trust, no protest at separation.

Clear-cut attachment (6–8 mos–18 mos/2 yrs):

• Separation anxiety appears; caregiver = secure base for exploration.

Reciprocal relationship (18 mos–2 yrs+):

• Understanding of parent’s coming/going; negotiation reduces protest.

Attachment — Bowlby’s Ethological
Theory
Internal Working Model
• Mental representation of caregiver’s availability,
support, and love.
• Becomes part of personality — shapes future trust and
relationships.
• Securely attached toddlers → expect responsiveness;
insecurely attached → uncertainty and withdrawal.
Patterns of Attachment (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Main
& Solomon, 1990)

4.
1. Secure Attachment 2. Insecure–Avoidant 3. Insecure–Resistant
Disorganized/Disoriented
(≈60%) (≈15%) (≈10%)
(≈15%)
• Uses parent as a secure • Unresponsive to parent; • Clingy, anxious, little • Most insecure pattern.
base for exploration. little distress on exploration. • Confused, contradictory
• May/may not cry when separation. • Strong distress when reunion behaviors (e.g.,
parent leaves; prefers • Reacts to stranger parent leaves. dazed, frozen,
parent over stranger. similarly to parent. • On reunion → angry + fearful).Often linked to
• On reunion → shows • On reunion → avoids or resistant (struggles, abuse, neglect, or
joy, seeks comfort, slow to greet; minimal cannot be comforted). inconsistent caregiving.
returns to [Link] to clinging.
sensitive, responsive
caregiving.
Self Development
• At birth, infants sense that they are physically distinct from their
surroundings, an implicit self‑awareness that expands during the first
few months.
• In the middle of the second year, explicit awareness of the self’s
physical features emerges.
• Around age 2, self-recognition is clearly evident as toddlers identify
themselves in photos and by name. However, scale errors, attempting
to do things that their body size makes impossible, are common at
this age.
 Self Development

Self-awareness leads to toddlers’ first efforts to appreciate

another’s perspective, including early signs of empathy. As
language strengthens, children develop a categorical self,
classifying themselves and others on the basis of social
categories.
Self-awareness also contributes to self-control. Compliance
emerges between 12 and 18 months, followed by delay of
gratification, which strengthens between 1½ and 4 years.
Children who experience parental warmth and gentle
encouragement are likely to be advanced in self-control.