1 Psychology 1002 Lecture 4 Marc de Rosnay Consultation hour: 11.00 to 12.00 Thursday Brennan MacCallum Room: 444 9351 4528 [email protected].

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Psychology 1002 Lecture 4Psychology 1002 Lecture 4

Marc de Rosnay

Consultation hour:

11.00 to 12.00 Thursday

Brennan MacCallum

Room: 444

9351 4528

[email protected]

2

OverviewOverview11

Lectures 1 & 2: Built for EmotionEvolutionary and biological perspectives on emotion

Lecture 3: Emotion in InfancyAdaptive, functional and social perspectives

Lecture 4: Emotions in DevelopmentReferential understanding (onset of language), the onset self-consciousness and atypical development

Lecture 5: What is an Emotion?How should we think about emotions in the study of psychology?

1Overheads are only an aid for lectures, they are not exhaustive

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Lecture 3 and 4 overview

1. Background: The cognitive and emotional capabilities of infants

2. The primary attachment relationship and its role in emotional regulation

3. Social referencing: when cognition and emotion merge

4. The temperamental constellation of behavioural inhibition (BI)

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Bowlby: Attachment theoryBowlby: Attachment theory

• Attachment behavioural system: promoted the protection and survival of the infant (and species) in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness via the maintenance of proximity with a primary caregiver at times of distress or danger

• Attachment behaviours: – Crying and smiling:

maintain contact between infant and caregiver – Clinging and locomotion:

bring the infant in contact with the caregiver

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Bowlby: maternal deprivation and the emotional Bowlby: maternal deprivation and the emotional consequences of attachmentconsequences of attachment

“… what is believed to be essential for mental health is that the infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his mother” (1953; p. 13)

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The organization of attachment behaviorThe organization of attachment behavior

• The primary forum of emotion regulation is construed as relational: the attachment behavioural system

• Early attachment styles are seen to constrain subsequent development

• Sroufe (1996) describes how emotional development may be viewed as a movement from: “dyadic regulation to self-regulation”

• Therefore, individual differences in emotional self-regulation have their origins in distinctive caregiver-infant attachment relationships

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The organization of attachment behaviorThe organization of attachment behavior

• By 12 months of age infants have an organised set of responses to separations from their primary caregivers

• These responses are structured and predictable (within reason) and represent a crucial form of emotional regulation for the infant

• Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth and colleagues)

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The Strange SituationThe Strange Situation (Ainsworth et al., 1978) … Don’t memorize this!!!

Episode Person present time

1 Mother, Infant & Observer 30 sec

2 Mother & Infant 3 min

3 Stranger, Mother & Infant 3 min

4 Stranger & Infant ~ 3 min

5 Mother & Infant ~ 3 min

6 Infant alone ~ 3 min

7 Stranger & Infant ~ 3 min

8 Mother & Infant 3 min

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Attachment classifications (ABC system)Attachment classifications (ABC system)… don’t memorize this either!!

Grouping Proximity Contact Proximity avoidanc

e

Contact

resisting

Crying - reunion

AAvoidant

low low high low low

B

Secure

high high if distress

low low low

C

Ambivalent

high high low high moderate to high

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Patterns of attachment organisationPatterns of attachment organisation

Attachment behaviours, especially following reunion, are organised and fall into one of three

distinct and reliable patterns

(B) Secure: Flexible, secure base behaviour predominates

Any distress during separations quickly resolves on mother’s return, by seeking her out as a secure base, taking comfort from her presence. Stays in proximity/contact until reassured and ready to return to (genuine, high quality) exploration/play.

About 65%

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(A) Avoidant: Minimises the attachment relationship

Ignores/avoids mother (proximity/contact) on reunion. Often not upset by separation, and almost no distress on reunion. Does not use mother as a secure base. Takes little/no comfort from her presence. Does not any seek proximity/contact, and impoverished play/exploration can be a defensive strategy to avoid it.

About 25%

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(C) Ambivalent/Resistant: Maximisation of the attachment relationship (ineffectively)

Seeks contact/proximity with very strong protests/distress. But any effective secure base behaviour contradicted by angry resistance (e.g., hitting, squirming, increased distress on proximity). Often seeks, then rejects proximity/contact. A preoccupation with the mother on reunion delays/prevents return to play/exploration.

About 10%

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What follows from attachment?What follows from attachment?Minnesota Longitudinal Cohort Study

B: Competent with peers; more positive, less negative responses - deeper relationships

A: With peers alternate Hostile/Aggressive with Emotionally distant. Victimises play partners (exploiting, hostile, physically punitive & derogating). Insensitive/non-empathic to peer distress (e.g., ridicule upset child).

C: Dependent, passive & immature. Peers recognise & react to immaturity. With A children they are victimised & dominated; with B peers nurtured & led. Sensitive to peer’s distress, but inappropriate responses (e.g., self-comfort).

(D: Highest risk of psychopathology)

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Attachment: ConclusionsAttachment: Conclusions

• The attachment relationship is played out dynamically, the infant adapts to the mother and uses her as best he/she can; to a lesser extent, the mother also adapts to the infant

• Don’t think about attachment as a fixed behavioural response; the attachment behavioural system provides a foundation for flexible responding to the environment

• Remember,

Attachment behavioral system

Exploratory behavioral system

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3. 3. Social referencing: Social referencing: When cognition and emotion mergeWhen cognition and emotion merge

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When infants (~12 months) encounter a novel object they sometimes look towards a parent and (sometimes!) subsequently respond to the object in accord with the affect displayed by the parent

mother(referee)

infant(referrer)

object(referent)

Social referencing: The coming together of social information gathering (Baldwin & Moses, 1996)

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Mother stands here

Social referencing: The visual cliffSorce, Emde, Campos & Klinnert (1985)

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Mother


The height of the visual cliff can be manipulated to maximize infant uncertainty: no clear avoidance and much referencing

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Mother


30cm

+

FP Musical Ferris

Wheel!

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Mother


30cm

+

FP Musical Ferris

Wheel!

Paul Ekman - Copyright

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• Infants appreciate that parents can supply information–in the form of an emotional appraisal–about novel objects (i.e., person, thing or situation)

• Infants spontaneously seek such information from a third party or referee (e.g., parent or experimental confederate) to resolve their own uncertainty and to guide their actions

Social referencing: Implications

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• Infant needs to be able to decode signal

• Infant must understand referential quality of information

• Infant must appreciate the potential for social communication of information

• * Infant should have skills to elicit information

Social referencing: Pre-requisites Baldwin & Moses (1996)

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4. 4. The temperamental constellation of The temperamental constellation of behavioural inhibition behavioural inhibition (BI)(BI)

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What is temperament?What is temperament?

“Early appearing, stable individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation” (Berk, 2007)

• Reactivity: Quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention, and motor activity

• Self-regulation: Strategies that modify reactivity

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Behavioural Inhibition: BackgroundBehavioural Inhibition: Background

A temperament or style of reacting that some infants and young children exhibit when confronted with novel situations or unfamiliar adults or peers

“Inhibited toddlers and preschool children are characterized as displaying vigilant behaviors and motor quieting when confronted with novelty. They are unlikely to approach unfamiliar adults (…), show little spontaneous positive social initiation when placed with unfamiliar peers (…), and are thought of by parents and peers as anxious and fearful” (Fox et al., 2001; p. 1)

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Behavioural Inhibition: MeasurementBehavioural Inhibition: Measurement

Observational measures of infant (14 months) and toddler (approx. 24 months) reactions to unfamiliar stimuli in a laboratory

For example,– An unfamiliar room / environment– An adult stranger– A novel toy / object

Measures,– Latency to approach/touch– Latency to vocalize– Time in immediate proximity of mother– etc

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Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?Kagan and colleagues (1984, 1987)

• 22 toddlers identified as inhibited and 21 as non-inhibited

• At 4 years: inhibited toddlers more socially inhibited with unfamiliar peers and more vigilant and hesitant during testing

• At 5.5 years: inhibited toddlers more inhibited with peers in natural and laboratory settings

• But, by 6 years, 40% of the inhibited toddlers were no longer inhibited

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Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?

Reactivity

BI

Shyness and social fears

BI and social reticence

Social Phobia

4 mo

14 mo

Toddler

Childhood

Adolescence and adulthood

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Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?Fox et al (2001)

• Screened 433 children for temperamental patterns thought to predict BI (ie, reactivity at 4 months)

• Identified Low Reactive, High Negative and High Positive groups of infants (approx. 40 Ss in ea.)

• Measured BI at 14 and 24 months, and social reticence with unfamiliar peers at 48 months

• Able to examine continuity in BI over infancy and childhood

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Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?Is there continuity in Behavioural Inhibition?Fox et al (2001)

Sta

ndar

dize

d m

easu

re o

f B

I

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Continuity in BI: ConclusionsContinuity in BI: Conclusions

• Limitations in measurement aside, there is some evidence that BI is continuous across infancy and childhood

• There are a small number of High Reactive infants who go on to exhibit classic signs of BI as children

• It is not possible to determine that a pattern of infant High Reactivity at 4 months or BI at 14 months will result in a shyness or social fear in childhood, although such an outcome is more likely

• There is independent research (Kochanska, 1991) showing that the validity of the BI construct is questionable: – there is poor continuity between social and non-social BI and

infants are not always consistent in their degree of inhibition to novelty (see next slide)

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For example,– An unfamiliar room / environment – An adult stranger– A novel toy / object


We would normally expect that there was consistency between these different measures, but that isn’t so! (Kochanska, 1991)

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For example,– An unfamiliar room / environment NON-SOCIAL– An adult stranger SOCIAL– A novel toy / object NON-SOCIAL


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ConclusionsConclusions

• Emotion can be thought of as a discrete, personal brain-event, and indeed it is often treated as such in psychology

• However, we have seen that emotions are grounded in our evolutionary history and, at their most basic level, are universally understood signals: both intra- and inter-personally

• From very early in development, our emotional capabilities shape our interactions and our development

• There are certainly individual differences in emotion(ality), originating in both temperament and experience, but these must be seen against a backdrop of universality in emotional capabilities and responding

1 Psychology 1002 Lecture 4 Marc de Rosnay Consultation hour: 11.00 to 12.00 Thursday Brennan MacCallum Room: 444 9351 4528 [email protected].

Documents

caregiver slide

stranger infant

high slide

exhaustive slide

danger attachment behaviours

emotion lecture

emotional development

mother infant3