Developmental Learning Objectives:

a. Describe early emotional development and how nature and nurture contribute to the development of attachment. (Chapter 14) Both adults and infants have behaviors that promote the formation of attachments
– Babies will
• Follow (proximity-seeking behavior)
• Suck and cling
• Smile and vocalize
• Express negative emotions such as fretting and crying
– Adults respond to infants’ signals
• The hormone oxytocin promotes attachment
• Attachment is the product of nature and nurture interacting over time
• Bonding is a more biologically-based process in which parent and infant form a connection in the first hours after birth when a mother is likely to be exhilarated and her newborn highly alert
– Nurture also contributes to emotional development
• Caregivers help shape infants’ predominant patterns of emotional expression
• Mothers serve as models of positive emotions and elicit positive emotions from their babies
• Mothers also respond selectively to their babies’ expressions: they become increasingly responsive to their babies’ expressions of happiness, interest, and surprise and less responsive to negative emotions
b. Identify the types of attachment relationships. (Chapter 14) • Secure
• Resistant
• Avoidant
• Disorganized/Disoriented
• c. Identify the features that characterize peer relations and friendships throughout the life span. (Chapter 14) Infants show an interest in other babies from an early age and show capacities for sharing, cooperation, and sympathy in their first year
• Infants begin to interact with peers in earnest in about the middle of the first year
– Smile or babble at their companions, vocalize, offer toys, and gesture to one another; may share toys nicely or may squabble
– Can relate meaningfully in groups of three
• By about 18 months, infants are able to engage in simple forms of reciprocal, complementary play with peers
– Can adopt and reverse roles in their play: the toddler who receives a toy may immediately offer a toy in return, or the one who has been the chaser will become the chasee
• Toward the end of the second year, infants have become proficient at turn-taking and reciprocal exchange, especially if they are securely attached to their parents

d. Summarize trends related to families in the US. (Chapter 15)
– More children living in poverty
• The higher number of single-parent families has affected the proportion of children living in poverty
– About 18% of children in the United States live in poverty today
» 35% of African-American children are poor
» 29% of Hispanic-American children are poor
» 43% of children in female-headed families are poor
– More multigenerational families economic necessity has forced an increasing number of Americans to live in multi-generational households
– Fewer caregivers for aging adults
• More aging adults have fewer children to provide care as a result of
– Smaller families with fewer children
– Increases in the numbers of adults living alone
– Increased longevity
– Increased geographic mobility
– The large Baby Boom generation now entering old age

e. Compare and contrast the father-infant and mother-infant relationships. (Chapter 15)
– Researchers find that fathers and mothers are more similar than different in the ways they interact with infants and young children
• Fathers are no less able than mothers to feed their babies effectively
• Both fathers and mothers provide sensitive parenting, become objects of attachment, and serve as secure bases for their infants’ explorations
– No basis exists for thinking that mothers are uniquely qualified to parent or that men are hopelessly inept around babies
– How mothers and fathers interact with their children and contribute to children’s development (continued)
– Fathers and mothers differ in both the quantity and the style of the parenting they provide
– Mothers spend more time with children than fathers do