The document discusses emotional, social, and personality development in children from infancy through adolescence, outlining major developmental milestones and influential theories. Key topics include attachment theory, the importance of the parent-child relationship in developing trust and emotional regulation, and factors like temperament that influence social and emotional growth. Erikson's psychosocial theory of development across the lifespan is also summarized.

1. Personality and Social
Development of Children
Dr. Reem Al-Sabah
Faculty of Medicine
Psychology 220

2. Emotional Development in Infancy
• The First Year
▫ At birth: distress and contentment
▫ Social smile appears around 6 weeks
▫ Anger (as early as 4 months)
▫ Fear (~ 9 months)
 Stranger wariness: an infant’s expression of
concern when a stranger appears.
 Separation anxiety: distress when a familiar
caregiver leaves.

4. • The Second Year
▫ Fear and anger, laughing and crying become
more discriminating
▫ New emotions appear: pride, shame,
embarrassment, guilt
 These emotions require a sense of self

6. Self Awareness
• The realization that one is a unique person
separate from others
▫ “me”, “mine”
• Emerges around 15-18 months
 Dot-of-rouge experiment: measured by reaction to
dot of rouge on face.
▫ Is the prerequisite for pride, guilt, shame,
embarrassment, jealousy, empathy

7. Pride and Shame
• “It seems that building self-esteem results not
from praising young children, but from enabling
them to accomplish things that make them feel
proud.”
(Berger, 2005)

8. Pride and Shame (Cont.)
• Strongly linked to self-concept
• Parental praise and self-esteem
▫ Negative comments diminish efforts and increase
shame
▫ Mixed evidence for effects of praise on self-
esteem
▫ Strong correlation between:
 pretending
 touching one’s own nose in the mirror,
 using first person pronouns

9. Erikson’s theory of
Psychosocial Development
1. Trust vs. Mistrust
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
5. Identity vs. Confusion
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation
8. Integrity vs. Despair

10. 1. Trust vs. Mistrust
• Birth-1year
• The development of trust is based on the
dependability and quality of the child’s caregivers
• Trust= will feel secure and safe in the world
• Mistrust= fear and belief that the world is
inconsistent and unpredictable

11. 2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
• Early childhood
• Toilet training
• Learning to control one’s body functions leads to
a feeling of control and a sense of independence
• Gaining control over other important events
(food choices, toy preferences, clothing
selection..)

12. 3. Initiative vs. Guilt
• Preschool years.
• Children begin to assert their power and control
over the world through directing play and other
social interaction.
• Feeing capable and able to lead others, or,
having a sense of guilt, self-doubt and lack of
initiative.

13. 4. Industry vs. Inferiority
• Early school years (5-11years).
• Through social interactions children begin to
develop a sense of pride in their
accomplishments and abilities.
• Encouragement by parents/teachers= children
will develop a feeling of competence and belief
in their skills.
• Little or no encouragement= children will doubt
their ability to be successful.

14. 5. Identity vs. Confusion
• Adolescence
• Children are exploring their independence and
developing a sense of self.

15. 6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Early adulthood.
• People are exploring personal relationships.
• It is vital that people develop close committed
relationships with other people

16. 7. Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Adulthood
• Continue to build their lives, focusing on career
and family.
• A feeling of contributing to the world by being
active in their home and in their community,
or, a feeling of not being productive and
uninvolved in the world.

17. 8. Integrity vs. Despair
• Old age.
• Reflecting back on life.
• Looking back with few regrets and feeling
satisfied. Proud of one’s accomplishments, or,
feeling bitter with many regrets.

18. Temperament
• Inborn differences between one person and
another in emotions, activity, and self-control.
• Temperamental traits originate in one’s genes,
but are influenced by experience.
• Examples: Infants differ in their reactions to
new situations (fearful or bold); some infants cry
easily, others seem “born tough”.

19. Personality
▫ The distinctive and characteristic patterns of
thought , emotions and behavior that define an
individual’s personal style of interacting with
the physical and social environment.
▫ Personality includes traits that are primarily
learned (e.g., honesty, humility)
▫ Temperamental traits (e.g., shyness and
aggression) are primarily genetic.

21. Measuring Temperament
• Pioneering research (began in the 1950s)
▫ Thomas and Chess– collected information from
parents, teachers and children (140 infants)
• The NYLS relied on parent reports and direct
observations to categorize infants as:
▫ EASY (40%)
▫ SLOW TO WARM UP (15%)
▫ DIFFICULT (10%)
▫ HARD TO CLASSIFY (35%)

22. Temperament and Caregiving
• It is important to appreciate each child’s
unique temperament.
• Goodness of fit: the match between the
child’s temperament and the environment
▫ This is especially important for a child with
a difficult temperament

23. Early Social Behavior
• 2 months– child smiles at the sight of its mother’s
or father’s face.
▫ Same worldwide (maturation)
▫ Blind babies (innate response)
• 3 or 4 months– recognize and prefer members of
their household. Fairly receptive to strangers.
• 7-9 months– begin to be fear strangers and show
distress when left with unfamiliar person or place.

24. • Between 14 and 18 months--Distress over
separation from parent peaks at this age
▫ Similar across many cultures around the world
▫ Two factors associated with this onset and
decline of this fear: Memory and Autonomy
• By age 3 years---most children secure in their
parents’ absence

26. The Development of Social Bonds
•Synchrony:
coordinated
interaction
between
caregiver and
infant that starts
the process of
attachment
MYRLEEN FERGUSON CATE / PHOTO EDIT

27. Early Emotional Responses
• Interactions between caregiver and infant are
crucial for emotional development (i.e., synchrony).
• Still face technique = studying synchrony by
assessing infant’s reaction when caregiver halts
synchronous behavior…(infants don’t like it!).

28. Attachment
• An infant’s tendency to seek closeness to
particular people and to feel more secure in
their presence

29. Signs of Attachment
• Infants show their desire to be with a caregiver
through:
• contact-maintaining behaviors (e.g., smile,
hold on to person), and
• proximity-seeking behaviors (e.g., crawl
toward person).

30. • Pioneering research:
▫ Harlow (1969), Wire monkey versus terry cloth
monkey.
▫ Bowlby (1975)
 Attachment in human infants
 Insecure early attachments leads to poor
relationships in adulthood

32. Measuring Attachment
• Mary Ainsworth (1978) measured attachment
through the “Strange Situation”
▫ Assessed the security of a child’s attachment at
12-18 months of age
▫ Results have correlated with child outcomes
later in life

35. • Based on their behaviors, babies were
characterized as:
▫ Securely attached --- will interact with the
mother when she returns
▫ Insecurely attached: avoidant--- avoid
interacting with the mother during the reunion
episodes.
▫ Insecurely attached: ambivalent--- show
resistance to the mother during the reunion
episodes.
• Disorganized: babies that show contradictory
behavior

37. Secure Attachment is Likely When:
• The parent is:
▫ sensitive to child’s needs
▫ responsive to signals
▫ engages in infant-caregiver play
▫ not overly stressed
• And when the infant is “easy” (Baby’s
temperament and parent’s responsiveness)

38. Personality of Caregiver
The mother’s personality obviously affects the quality
of interaction with her offspring

39. Attachment Over Time
• An infant can change attachment status over
time, especially if the social setting changes.
▫ Examples: divorce, abuse, remarriage
• Overall, secure attachment in infancy is
associated with positive outcomes later in life.