PSYC 4220 1st Edition Lect ure 15 Outline of Last Lecture I Language Development A Pre linguistic stage B Holophrase Stage C Naming Language Explosion D Telegraphic Period II Theories of Language Development Outline of Current Lecture I II III IV V VI VII Theories of Language Development Social and Personality Development in Infants Temperament Stability of Temperament Causes of Temperament Erikson s Psychosocial Stages Caregiver s attachment to Infant Current Lecture Theories of Language Development Both nature and nurture the integrationist perspective Infants biologically predisposed to learn language because of slowly maturing brain and drive to communicate Language rules learned out of necessity to organize growing vocabulary You learn the system because it makes it easier for you to communicate with the people of your language It is an indirect reward because you are now able to communicate Mere exposure to a language is not enough language is developed in context of social interactions without social interactions language will not be learned Direct reinforcement punishment may not be used but language is shaped taught in other ways Social and Personality Development in Infants Chapter 7 Temperament A person s characteristic mode of responding to events Includes behaviors and emotions Building blocks of personality influence their personality as they age Some of us stay the same as our temperament at birth and others change it depends The current model of temperament that researchers use today consist of either 6 or 9 dimensions researchers can t decide on one method over another but for test purposes remember 6 more modern ones Consists of dimension such as Positive affect sociability Some babies are high in ths and love to be held and cuddled and interacted with others are grouchy and hate being touched and talked to Fearful distress Any type of new stimuli is met with fearfulness and distress if the child is high in fearful distress this is often linked to shyness afraid of novelty have a strong physiological response heart speeds up etc Irritable distress Temper tantrums easily frustrated and very vocal about it if there desires aren t met you will have a negative response from the child Activity Level Crawl out of cribs move super quickly etc Attention span The faster you get bored the smarter you will be when you are older because it has to do with how quickly your brain can process information Rhythmicity Has to do with bodily functions eat poop sleep in same amounts always OR can be opposite and be super unpredictable 3 Categories of Temperament Easy temperament 40 think about the parts of temperament above High positive affect Adaptable to new experiences Easy to soothe Rhythmic Low distress Difficult Temperament 10 Low positive affect not happy babies High irritable distress if needs aren t met they get frustrated and everyone will know it Very active escape artist type babies go go go all day don t like naps Irregular eating and sleeping habits do well being put on a schedule Hard to soothe too active for that so don t enjoy being cuddled or held Slow to warm up temperament 15 High levels of fearful distress Don t like new novel or different things happen Low activity level you won t always know they are upset because they just aren t as active so aren t necessarily going to cry Slow to adapt to new experiences but can eventually if given time Remaining infants share qualities of two or more categories Stability of Temperament Longitudinal research indicates that activity level irritability sociability and fearfulness stay relatively stable over lifespan More extreme traits more likely to persist Causes of Temperament Heredity Identical twins are more similar in temperament than fraternal twins Environmental influences goodness of fit extent to which child s temperament is compatible with demands and expectations of environment How parents respond makes a difference Sometimes there is a bad fit between a parent and child Erikson s Psychosocial Stages Erik erikson 1902 1994 Stage theory used to explain how we develop our understanding of ourselves and other people He is a Freudian and thought his theory could go alongside Freud s theory Divided development into 8 stages Each stage is a crisis that the person must deal with Need to find the right balance between two extremes It is not really about developing either or It is more about finding the balance between the two If you do this appropriately you will be better developed and more emotionally sound and prepared for the next stage If not successful less healthy development and harder to deal with next stage But these crises are never completely solved ad can come up again later in life it is not that it is every completely done and over just because they are past that point in in age where Erikson though that stag ended Trust vs Mistrust need to find right balance between being trusting and a little bit skeptical Birth to 18 months Interactions with caregivers teach either a sense of trust or mistrust in other people the world themselves Consistent responsive caregiving is key If your needs are met and you are tended to when you cry you will develop the idea that people care for you the world is great other people are good If you are not consistently tended to or totally neglected you may become distrusting because you are not able to predict whether or not someone will come or they are not coming at all which makes the baby think no one cares for them so either the world sucks or they themselves suck Interestingly enough being overly cared for can also create distrust because the infant is being obsessively cared for not allowing them to predict when they will actually be able to have piece and not be fiddled with Caregiver s attachment to infant Attachment emotional tie that binds us to special people with whom we seek proximity and security Attachment relationships are reciprocal formed from interaction between caregiver and child Some caregiver attachment may form before birth i e viewing the ultrasound and seeing the baby and knowing the gender Infant characteristics may help attachment to form grasping Reciprocal socialization process in which infants behaviors invite further response from caregivers which in turn brig about further response from the infants Interactional synchrony look it up in book idea that we go through routines that help us to build attachments with our caregivers