CHAPTER 6
SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY
RESOURCES-AT-A-GLANCE
Detailed Outline
Learning
Objectives
Instructor’s Resources
Test Bank
MyPsychLab Connections
Chapter Introduction pp. 127-128
PowerPoint Slides
1-4
Theories of Social and Personality
Development pp. 128-130
Psychoanalytic Perspectives
Ethological Perspectives
6.1
6.2
Power Point Slides
5-7
MC 1-11
FI 74
SA 89–90
Long-Term Consequences
Cross-Cultural Research
on Attachment
Attachment pp. 130-137
The Parents’ Attachment to the
Infant
The Infant’s Attachment
to the Parents
6.3
6.4
6.5
Lecture Enhancers
Attachment Bonds
Individualistic Versus
Collectivist Cultures
MC 12-34
FI 75–80
SA 91–95
ES 104–105
Self-Concept
Power Point Slides
Personality, Temperament,
and Self-Concept pp. 138-142
Lecture Enhancer
The Relationship Between
MC 35-63
FI 81-87
Effects on Social Development
Interpreting Research on Nonparental
6.14
6.15
ES 110–111
Effects of Nonparental Care
pp. 142-147
Difficulties in Studying Nonparental
Care
6.12
PowerPoint Slides
36–44
MC 64-73
FI 88
SA 102-103
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Developmentalists of diverse theoretical orientations agree that the formation of a strong emotional
connection to a primary caregiver early in life is critical to healthy child development and has important
implications across the entire lifespan.
Freud believed that the weaning process in the oral stage of development influenced the development of
personality. Erikson emphasized the role of the family in providing for all of the infant’s needs, thereby
The development of synchrony, a set of mutually reinforcing and interlocking behaviors that characterize
most interactions between parent and infant, is essential to the development of the parents’ attachment to
the infant. According to Bowlby, the baby’s attachment to the parents emerges gradually across three
stages. Children differ in the security of their first attachments and in the internal working model that
A few key dimensions of temperament tend to cluster into three types: easy children, difficult children,
and slow-to-warm-up children. Heredity, neurological processes, and environment contribute to
individual differences in temperament. Infant temperament may affect security of attachment. The
goodness-of-fit between an infant’s temperament and the ways her environment respond to her is the real
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing Chapter 6, students should be able to answer the following questions:
6.1 How do Freud’s and Erikson’s views of personality development in the first 2 years differ?
6.2 What are the main ideas of attachment theory?
6.3 How does synchrony affect parent-infant relations?
6.4 What are the four phases of attachment and the behaviors associated with them?
6.5 What are the four attachment patterns that Ainsworth discovered?
6.6 What variables might affect a parent’s ability to establish an attachment relationship with an
infant?
6.7 What are the long-term consequences of attachment quality?
6.8 In what ways do patterns of attachment vary across cultures?
6.9 On which dimensions of temperament do most developmentalists agree?
6.14 What does research suggest about the risks of nonparental care with respect to social
development?
6.15 What variables should be taken into account in interpretations of research on nonparental care?
KEY TERMS
attachment (p. 130)
personality (p. 138)
attachment theory (p. 129)
secure attachment (p. 133)
autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (p. 134)
separation anxiety (p. 132)
goodness-of-fit (p. 140)
social referencing (p. 132)
insecure/ambivalent attachment (p. 133)
stranger anxiety (p. 132)
insecure/avoidant attachment (p. 133)
subjective self (p. 141)
insecure/disorganized attachment (p. 133)
synchrony (p. 130)
niche picking (p. 139)
temperament (p. 138)
objective (categorical) self (p. 141)
INTEGRATED CHAPTER TEACHING NOTES
THEORIES OF SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT (pp. 128-130)
Psychoanalytic Perspectives
LO 6.1 How do Freud’s and Erikson’s views of personality development in the first 2 years differ?
Freud proposed a series of psychosexual stages from birth through adolescence. In the oral stage, from
birth to two, infants derive satisfaction through the mouth. He believed that the weaning process needed
to be managed so that the infant’s need to suck was neither frustrated nor overgratified. Freud believed
Erikson went beyond Freud’s view. Nursing and weaning are important, he conceded, but they are only
two aspects of the overall social environment. He claimed that responding to the infant’s other needs by
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.1, p. 128)
What evidence have you observed of infants learning to trust or mistrust?
Ethological Perspectives
LO 6.2 What are the main ideas of attachment theory?
The ethological perspective claims that all animals, including humans, possess innate predispositions that
strongly influence their development. Thus, the ethological approach to social and personality
development proposes that evolutionary forces have endowed infants with genes that predispose them to
form emotional bonds with their caregivers, an approach known as attachment theory. Ethologists view
the infant’s capacity for forming social relationships as highly resistant to environmental forces, such as
variations in the quality of parenting. Ethologists do claim, however, that the first 2 years after birth
constitute a sensitive period for the formation of such relationships. They say that infants who fail to
form a close relationship with a caregiver before the age of 2 are at risk for future social and personality
problems.
Because they hypothesize that early emotional bonds influence later social and personality development,
ethological perspectives have been very influential in the study of development. In John Bowlby’s
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.1, pp. 129-130)
If internal models tend to persist and to affect later relationships, is this the same as saying that the first
few years of life are a critical period for the creation of patterns of relationships? How else could we
conceptualize it?
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 6.1, p. 129)
No Easy Answers: Adoption and Development
How might a child’s internal models affect who is adopted?
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 6.1-6.2, pp. 128-130)
How would learning theorists’ explanations of early social relationships and their influences on later
relationships differ from those of the psychoanalysts and the ethologists?
ATTACHMENT (pp. 130-137)
MyPsychLab connections
Simulate: Attachment Classifications in the Strange Situation, p. 133
Watch: Attachment in Infants, p. 130
Watch: Toddlerhood: Separation Anxiety across Cultures, p. 132
The Parents’ Attachment to the Infant
LO 6.3 How does synchrony affect parent-infant relations?
Synchrony is the mutual, interlocking pattern of behaviors between parent and child that results in a
smooth “dance” of interaction. This involves the baby signaling her or his needs and the parent’s
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.3, p. 130)
In what ways does synchrony manifest itself in interactions between adults?
The father’s bond, like the mother’s, seems to depend more on the development of synchrony than on
contact immediately after birth. Aiding the development of such mutuality is the fact that fathers seem to
have the same repertoire of attachment behaviors as do mothers. In the early weeks after birth, Dads
touch, talk to, and cuddle their babies in the same ways that mothers do. After this initial bonding, a kind
of specialization occurs. Dads spend more time playing with the baby, including more roughhousing,
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.3, pp. 130-131)
Can you think of ways a researcher might try to figure out whether the differences between mothers and
fathers in their typical ways of interacting with babies are cultural or built-in?
By 6 months, infants display distinctive patterns of responding to these mother-father distinctions. Signs
of positive emotional states, such as smiling, appear gradually and subtly when they are interacting with
The Infant’s Attachment to the Parents
LO 6.4 What are the four phases of attachment and the behaviors associated with them?
Like the parent’s bond to the baby, the baby’s attachment emerges gradually and is based on her ability to
Establishing Attachment
Bowlby suggested four phases in the development of the infant’s attachment:
▪ Phase1: Nonfocused orienting and signaling (birth to 3 months). Babies exhibit behavior, such as
crying, smiling, and making eye contact, that draw the attention of others and signal their needs to
everyone with whom they come into contact.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.4, pp. 131-132)
Speculate as to how a baby’s preference for one caregiver over another, such as preferring Grandma to
Mom, might influence the relationships in the family.
Attachment Behaviors
Once the child has developed a clear attachment, at about six to 8 months, several related behaviors also
begin appearing. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, attachment behaviors that are rare before 5 or
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.4, p. 132)
What do you suppose is the relationship between the development of these anxieties and the development
of the object permanence?
Another attachment behavior is social referencing. Infants use cues from the facial expressions and the
emotional tone of voice used by their attachment figures to help them figure out what to do in novel
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.4, p. 132)
Ask the class to give examples of social referencing.
Variations in Attachment Quality
LO 6.5 What are four attachment patterns that Ainsworth discovered?
Secure and Insecure Attachments
Variations in the quality of the first attachment relationship are now almost universally described using
Mary Ainsworth’s category system. The Ainsworth system distinguishes between secure attachment and
two types of insecure attachment, which psychologists assess using a procedure called the Strange
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.5, pp. 132-133)
What might have happened in a child’s life so that she developed each of the patterns of attachment?
Stability of Attachment Classification
When the child’s family environment or life circumstances are reasonably consistent, the security or
attachment also seems to remain consistent, even over many years. When the child’s circumstances
change in some major way, however, the security of the child’s attachment may change as well, either
from secure to insecure, or the reverse.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.5, pp. 133-134)
How might a child’s pattern of attachment affect his success in kindergarten?
Attachment and Autism Disorders
Influenced by Bowlby’s theory attachment, developmentalists once believed that autism spectrum
disorders (ASD), a group of disorders that impair an individual’s ability to understand and engage in the
give-and-take of social relationships, result from a disturbance in the attachment process caused by
Clinicians use a three-category system to describe the severity of an individual’s ASD.
• Children with Level 1 ASD have very limited or nonexistent language skills, display stereotypic
behaviors such as hand-flapping and rocking, and have a severely limited range of interests.
Treatments such as intensive social skills training and behavior modification for stereotypical behaviors
can reduce the impact of ASD symptoms on children’s lives. Successful treatments are most successful
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.5, p. 135)
Based on what you know about social skills and behavior modification, who suggestions would you give
parents whose infant or child exhibits behaviors similar to those of an ASD?
Caregiver Characteristics and Attachment
LO 6.6 What variables might affect a parent’s ability to establish an attachment relationship with an
infant?
Emotional Responsiveness
Studies of parent-child interactions suggest that one crucial ingredient for a secure attachment is
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.6, p. 135)
Why do you suppose the parents’ sensitivity to the child’s cues and their response to them have such an
impact on attachment?
A low level of responsiveness appears to be an ingredient in any type of insecure attachment, but each of
the sub-varieties of insecure attachment has additional distinct antecedents. The avoidant pattern is more
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.6, p. 135)
Do you suppose poverty correlates with insecure attachment? What factors might be involved?
Marital Status
The caregiver’s marital and socioeconomic status predict attachment quality. Infants whose parents are
married are more likely to be securely attached than babies whose parents are either cohabiting or single.
Married parents typically have more education and are less likely to be poor than parents in the other
groups.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.6, p. 135)
What are some ways that parents experiencing marital conflict might help their child maintain secure
attachment?
Mental Health
Psychiatric illness, especially depression, is another caregiver characteristic that appears to be related to
attachment quality. Depression appears to diminish a mother’s capacity to interpret and respond to
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.6, p. 135)
What are some examples of the kinds of later problems infants of depressed mothers might face?
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.6, p. 135)
How might a friend or relative who observes a mother’s depression help reestablish synchrony with the
infant?
Long-Term Consequences of Attachment Quality
LO 6.7 What are the long-term consequences of attachment quality?
Attachment theory proposes that early emotional relationships shape later ones. Thus researchers have
examined the links between Ainsworth’s classification system and a wide range of other behaviors in
infants, children, adolescents, and adults. Children rated as securely attached in infancy show differences
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.7, p. 136)
Why might an adolescent who was insecurely attached as an infant become sexually active earlier and
practice riskier sex? Do you suppose that particular behaviors may be part of a continuing spiral of
behavior that is passed from one generation to the next? List ways to break that spiral.
Developmentalists have also begun to examine the question of whether an adult’s internal model of
attachment affects his or her parenting style. Mothers who are themselves securely attached are more
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.7, p. 136)
If you believe your own internal model of attachment is not secure, what can you do about it? Can you
overcome past experiences and patterns to be a “better parent” for your children? If you believe you are
Cross-Cultural Research on Attachment
LO 6.8 In what ways do patterns of attachment vary across cultures?
Studies in a variety of countries support Ainsworth’s notion that some form of “secure base behavior”
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 6.3-6.8, pp. 136-137)
Look back at the discussion of synchrony at the beginning of this section. How do you think it is
manifested in adult relationships, and in what ways do you thing synchrony, or the lack thereof,
influences those relationships?
PERSONALITY, TEMPERAMENT, AND SELF-CONCEPT (pp. 138-142)
MyPsychLab Connections
Watch: Self-Awareness, p. 141
Psychologists typically use the word personality to describe differences in the ways children and adults
Dimensions of Temperament
LO 6.9 On which dimensions of temperament do most developmentalists agree?
Psychologists who study infant temperament have yet to agree on a basic set of temperament dimensions.
Thomas and Chess included a list of nine dimensions that tended to cluster into three types:
▪ Easy children (40% of infants) approach new events positively, try new foods without much fuss, and
Other researchers have examined temperament from a trait rather than from a categorical perspective.
They view temperament as a function of how much or how little of various characteristics she possesses.
Following is a list of a few key dimensions:
▪ Activity level is a tendency to move often and vigorously, rather than to remain passive or immobile.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.9, p. 138)
How would you describe your own temperament as a child? Is your adult personality similar to the
temperament you displayed in childhood?
Origins and Stability of Temperament
LO 6.10 What are the roles of heredity, neurological processes, and environment in the formation
of temperament?
Because temperamental differences appear so early in life, even during the prenatal period, it may seem
Heredity
Studies of twins in many countries show that identical twins are quite a lot more alike in their
temperaments or personalities than are fraternal twins.
Long-Term Stability
There is growing evidence of consistency in temperamental rating over rather long periods of infancy and
childhood. It seems that babies who approach the world with some eagerness and with a positive attitude
Neurological Processes
Some research indicates that the basic differences in behavior can be attributed to underlying
physiological patterns.
▪ Studies have also examined the genes that control the function of two important neurotransmitters,
Environment
Critics of neurological studies point out that it is impossible to know whether such findings are causes or
effects of temperament. They argue that behavior shapes the brain. Thus, shy children may exhibit
different neurological patterns than outgoing children because their exhibition of shy behavior contributes
to the neural networks that developmental processes in the brain, such as pruning, allow to develop and
those that are shut down due to lack of use.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.10, pp. 139-140)
What are some examples of niche picking?
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.10, p. 140)
What are some examples of goodness-of-fit and examples that lack goodness-of-fit.
Feature box Activity (Learning Objective 6.11, p. 140)
Research Report: Gender Differences in Temperament
Self-Concept
LO 6.11 How do the subjective self, the objective self, and the emotional self develop during the
first 2 years?
At the same time the infant is developing an attachment to his parents, he is developing a parallel internal
model of self. Freud and Piaget believed that babies began life with no sense of separateness. Freud
emphasized the symbiotic relationship between the mother and the infant in which the two were joined as
if they were one. Piaget believed that the understanding of the concept of object permanence was
necessary for the child’s attaining self-permanence. Both of these aspects of early self-development
reappear in current descriptions of the emergence of the sense of self.
The Subjective Self
The child’s first task is to figure out that she is separate from others and that this separate self endures
The Objective Self
The second step in the process of developing the sense of self is to understand that she is also an object in
the world. This self-awareness is the hallmark of the second phase of identity development called the
objective self. It is sometimes termed the categorical self, because once the child achieves self–
The Emotional Self
Development of the emotional self begins when the baby learns to identify changes in emotions expressed
in others’ faces at 2 to 3 months. By 5 to 7 months, babies respond differently to strangers’ faces
As the infant’s understanding of others’ emotions advances, it is matched by parallel progressions in the
baby’s expression of emotions. At birth, infants have different facial expressions for interest, pain, and
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 6.9-6.11, pp. 138-142)
How do you think your genes and environment interacted to produce the temperamental characteristics
and self-concept that you have today?
EFFECTS OF NONPARENTAL CARE (pp. 142-147)
MyPsychLab Connections
Watch: Day Care, p. 143
As women with young children enter the workforce in great numbers, it is typical for infants as well as
school-age children to spend a significant amount of time being cared for by someone other than a parent.
Difficulties in Studying Nonparental Care
LO 6.12 Why is it difficult to study the effects of nonparental care on development?
There are many factors involved in the issue of day care that confound the question of how much impact
nonparental care has on infants and young children.
▪ There are many different kinds of care arrangements under the general title of “nonparental care.”
The most common pattern is for a child to be cared for by a family member in the child’s or family
member’s home. A majority of 3– to 6-year-olds who are cared for by relatives or in family day care are
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.12, p. 143)
What differences might you expect to find between employed and non-employed mothers of infants?
How might those differences affect the likelihood that a child would be securely or insecurely attached?
Effects on Physical and Cognitive Development
LO 6.13 What might be the effects of nonparental care on physical and cognitive development?
Researches have discovered that infants and young children in all types of nonparental care arrangements
are more likely to be overweight both early in life and when they reach school age than children who are
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.13, p. 144)
Ask the class to think of other reasons for the concern about infants and young children being
overweight.
Some evidence supports the notion that high-quality day care has beneficial effects on many children’s
overall cognitive development, particularly for children in poor families. Several studies, however, point
to possible negative effects of day-care experience on cognitive development. One possibility is that the
care is less stimulating than full-time home care would be for that child, day has negative effects.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.13, p. 144)
Do you buy this argument? What other explanations can you come up with?
Effects on Social Development
LO 6.14 What does research suggest about the risks of nonparental care with respect to social
development?
The formation of an attachment relationship appears to be central to social development during infancy
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.14, pp. 144-145)
What other behaviors might the parents display that would affect infants insecure attachment?
When children reach school age, those who entered nonparental care during the early months after birth
are at greater risk for social problems than children who spent less time in nonparental care. They were
parenting styles, thereby indicating that day-care effects are likely to be parenting effects in disguise.
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.14, pp. 144-145)
How do you think the way you were cared for (at home or not, by a parent or by another adult)
influenced your development?
Interpreting Research on Nonparental Care
LO 6.15 What variables should be taken into account in interpretations of research on
nonparental care?
Researchers found that one physiological factor affecting infants is the level of the stress hormone
cortisol. The level of the hormone increased from morning to afternoon in infants enrolled in center–
based care. By contrast, cortisol levels decreased over the course of the day in home-reared infants. The
Discussion Launcher (Learning Objective 6.15, pp. 145-146)
Why might boys in nonparental care be more at risk for insecure attachment than girls?
Feature Box Activity (Learning Objective 6.14, p. 146)
Developmental Science at Home: Choosing a Day-Care Center
How would you rank the criteria for choosing a day-care center?
Critical Thinking Question (Learning Objectives 6.12-6.15, pp. 142-147)
An experimental study could answer cause-and-effect questions about the effects of nonparental care, but
why would such a study be unethical?
LECTURE ENHANCERS
Attachment Bonds
Try to put yourself in the position of an infant. It is difficult for us, as adults, to imagine what it is like to
be an infant with no certain sense of what the world is, why it operates the way it does, or what role(s) we
are meant to play within it. Yet these are the very intellectual tasks that infants confront.
From the moment a child is born (in fact the process may start prior to birth with the development of
hearing), she is trying to negotiate a place in the world. A significant contributor to this process is the
development of a strong relationship with mother and father, or whoever the child’s primary caregiver(s)
happen to be.
When we discuss the bonds that develop between caregiver and child, it is usually referred to as
These developing emotional bonds are progressing at the same time that the child is developing a sense of
self. Cognitive development, self-development, and emotional development are occurring at an
amazingly rapid pace during infancy. There are two important questions to consider:
▪ What role do others play in this developmental process because of the effect they have on the child’s
maturing emotional bonds? The attachment behaviors that we will note between primary caregiver
Attachment behaviors (such as smiling at the sight of the primary caregiver, wanting to be held by that
person, or expressing distress when that individual leaves the room) illustrate the child’s sense of her own
self, and represent the type of relationship that is developing between the child and the adult. A child
who is shy or withdrawn, for example, might be particularly likely to exhibit signs of distress when the
Individualistic Versus Collectivist Cultures
Cultural differences in child rearing practices and in views about self exist. In a very simple sense,
cultures can be divided into two types, individualistic or collectivist.
▪ Individualistic cultures stress the importance of the individual. American culture, overall, is usually
considered an individualistic culture. Phrases such as “looking out for number one,” and “I did it my
way” illustrate this viewpoint. Although, on the surface, there is nothing wrong with this viewpoint,
it is important that we consider its implications. Individuals within these kinds of cultures are
encouraged to do things for themselves. This, of course, allows one to take all the credit when things
go well, but it also requires the individual to accept responsibility when things go wrong. This
Attachment patterns are going to be linked to these cultural differences. Persons in individualistic
The Relationship between Self and Cognitive Development
There is an important connection between the child’s self and cognitive development. It makes sense that
a child’s self-related views will be profoundly influenced by his cognitive capabilities. The initial
categories that a child develops are very dichotomous; they are very either-or oriented. I am either good
or I am bad. Hand-in-hand with this is a difficulty in separating an evaluation of the child’s behavior and
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Media
▪ MyPsychLab—MyPsychLab contains a variety of engaging activities and assessments that aid in
teaching and learning, including the following tools:
o Writing Space. A single place to create, track, and grade writing assignments, provide writing
resources, and exchange meaningful, personalized feedback with students quickly and easily. For
Fall 2014 courses, Writing Space for the 7th edition will contain new auto-graded writing
prompts. Instructors can also offer their own writing prompts and rubrics through this tool.
▪ MyPsychLab Connections
o Simulate: Attachment Classifications in the Strange Situations, p. 133
o Watch: Attachment in Infants, p. 130