emotional development
Why is understanding emotional development important?
Along with physical and cognitive development, every child progresses through phases of emotional development. Arguably, all children differ in their individual development. Studies have shown that parents admit to having little information on emotional development, even though they also admit that their actions have great influence on their children's emotional development.
Emotions are not as easy to study or recognize as cognition, and for many decades the study of emotional development lagged behind study in other areas of child development. However, by the early twenty-first century researchers had developed several theories on emotional development.
John Bowlby's Attachment Theory
Mainly when exploring attachment, the theories of John Bowlby (26 February 1907 - 2 Septmber 1990) are the most heavily examined. Bowlby was a British Psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, most notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.
Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Bowlsby describes four stages to the development of attachment:
Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation Classification
Psychologist Mary Ainsworth, a student of Bowlby, devised an assessment technique called the Strange Situation Classification (SSC) in order to investigate how attachments might vary between children. Her goal was to determine and classify the nature of attachment behaviors and styles of attachment.
The experiment is set up in a small room with one way glass so the behavior of the infant can be observed. Infants were aged between 12 and 18 months. The sample comprised about 100 middle class American families.
The procedure, known as the ‘Strange Situation’, was conducted by observing the behavior of the infant in a series of seven 3-minute episodes, as follows:
For each child, four categories of behaviors are measured and observed: (1) separation anxiety: the unease the infant shows when left by the caregiver, (2) the infant’s willingness to explore, (3) stranger anxiety: the infant’s response to the presence of a stranger, and (4) reunion behavior: the way the caregiver was greeted on return. The observer notes down the behavior displayed and scores the behavior for intensity on a scale 1 to 7.
Along with physical and cognitive development, every child progresses through phases of emotional development. Arguably, all children differ in their individual development. Studies have shown that parents admit to having little information on emotional development, even though they also admit that their actions have great influence on their children's emotional development.
Emotions are not as easy to study or recognize as cognition, and for many decades the study of emotional development lagged behind study in other areas of child development. However, by the early twenty-first century researchers had developed several theories on emotional development.
John Bowlby's Attachment Theory
Mainly when exploring attachment, the theories of John Bowlby (26 February 1907 - 2 Septmber 1990) are the most heavily examined. Bowlby was a British Psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, most notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory.
Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Bowlsby describes four stages to the development of attachment:
- Preattachment (birth to 6 weeks): sensory prefaces bring infants close to parents
- Attachment in the making (6 weeks to 6-8 months): infants develop stranger anxiety, differentiating from those they know and those they do not.
- Clear-cut attachment (6-8 months to 18 months-2 years): infant develops separation anxiety when a person he is attached to leaves him
- Goal-corrected partnership (18 months on): toddlers create reciprocal relationships with their mothers
Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation Classification
Psychologist Mary Ainsworth, a student of Bowlby, devised an assessment technique called the Strange Situation Classification (SSC) in order to investigate how attachments might vary between children. Her goal was to determine and classify the nature of attachment behaviors and styles of attachment.
The experiment is set up in a small room with one way glass so the behavior of the infant can be observed. Infants were aged between 12 and 18 months. The sample comprised about 100 middle class American families.
The procedure, known as the ‘Strange Situation’, was conducted by observing the behavior of the infant in a series of seven 3-minute episodes, as follows:
- Parent and infant alone.
- Stranger joins parent and infant.
- Parent leaves infant and stranger alone.
- Parent returns and stranger leaves.
- Parent leaves; infant left completely alone.
- Stranger returns.
- Parent returns and stranger leaves.
For each child, four categories of behaviors are measured and observed: (1) separation anxiety: the unease the infant shows when left by the caregiver, (2) the infant’s willingness to explore, (3) stranger anxiety: the infant’s response to the presence of a stranger, and (4) reunion behavior: the way the caregiver was greeted on return. The observer notes down the behavior displayed and scores the behavior for intensity on a scale 1 to 7.
On the basis of their behaviors, the children were categorized into three groups, with a fourth added later. Each of these groups reflects a different kind of attachment relationship with the caregiver.
Secure attachment: A child who is securely attached to its mother will explore freely while the mother is present, will engage with strangers, will be visibly upset when the mother departs and happy to see the mother return. However, the child will not engage with a stranger if their mother is not in the room. |
Anxious-ambivalent/resistant: A child with an anxious-resistant attachment style is anxious of exploration and of strangers, even when the mother is present. When the mother departs, the child is extremely distressed. The child will be ambivalent when she returns - seeking to remain close to the mother but resentful, and also resistant when the mother initiates attention. When reunited with the mother, the baby may also hit or push his mother when she approaches and fail to cling to her when she picks him up.
Anxious-avoidant attachment: A child with the anxious-avoidant insecure attachment style will avoid or ignore the caregiver - showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns. The child may run away from the caregiver when he/she approaches and fail to cling to her/him when picked up. The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there. Strangers will not be treated much differently from the caregiver. There is not much emotional range regardless of who is in the room or if it is empty.
Disorganized/disoriented: A fourth category was added by Ainsworth's colleague Mary Main and Ainsworth accepted the validity of this modification.
Research has shown a correlation between infant attachment and developmental outcomes in the long run. These outcomes are illustrated in the table below.
Anxious-avoidant attachment: A child with the anxious-avoidant insecure attachment style will avoid or ignore the caregiver - showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns. The child may run away from the caregiver when he/she approaches and fail to cling to her/him when picked up. The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there. Strangers will not be treated much differently from the caregiver. There is not much emotional range regardless of who is in the room or if it is empty.
Disorganized/disoriented: A fourth category was added by Ainsworth's colleague Mary Main and Ainsworth accepted the validity of this modification.
Research has shown a correlation between infant attachment and developmental outcomes in the long run. These outcomes are illustrated in the table below.
Emotional Development
Emotional development is the growth in the child's ability to distinguish between and to express their emotions in socially acceptable ways and to be able to understand the emotional content of other peoples communication. According to social-emotional development theory, there are eight psychosocial stages developed by Erik Erikson through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage, the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds upon the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future.
However, mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage. Erikson's stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a function of negotiating his or her biological forces and sociocultural forces. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis of these two conflicting forces (as shown in the table below). If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), he or she emerges from the stage with the corresponding virtue. For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame & doubt) with more trust than mistrust, he or she carries the virtue of hope into the remaining life stages.
For more information on Erikson's psychosocial stages, click this button:
Emotional development is the growth in the child's ability to distinguish between and to express their emotions in socially acceptable ways and to be able to understand the emotional content of other peoples communication. According to social-emotional development theory, there are eight psychosocial stages developed by Erik Erikson through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage, the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds upon the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future.
However, mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage. Erikson's stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a function of negotiating his or her biological forces and sociocultural forces. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis of these two conflicting forces (as shown in the table below). If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), he or she emerges from the stage with the corresponding virtue. For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame & doubt) with more trust than mistrust, he or she carries the virtue of hope into the remaining life stages.
For more information on Erikson's psychosocial stages, click this button: