Chapter 10: Emotional Development and Attachment
Learning Objectives
- Describe emotional development during infancy
- Describe temperament and the goodness-of-fit model
- Contrast styles of attachment
- Describe the historical foundations of attachment research
In emotional and social development, forming healthy relationships is very important. While the child is learning about their place in various relationships, they are also developing an understanding of emotion. A two-year-old does not have a good grasp on their emotions, but by the time a child is six, they understand their emotions better. They also understand how to control their emotions—even to the point that they may put on a different emotion than they are actually feeling. Later on, they understand that other people have emotions and that all of the emotions involved in a situation (theirs and other people’s) should be taken into consideration.
One especially important emotional development in infancy, is the development of attachment to a caregiver. Attachment is a long-standing connection or bond with others. Developmental psychologists are interested in how infants reach this milestone. They ask such questions as: How do parent and infant attachment bonds form? How does neglect affect these bonds? What accounts for children’s attachment differences?
All of these are issues we will examine in this section.
