- attachment
- emotional and affective bond between an infant and their primary caregiver
- attention-seeking behavior
- emotion regulation strategy that consists of an effort to obtain a caregiver’s attention for comfort and support
- attentional distraction
- emotion regulation strategy that consists of turning away from a stressful sound, sight, or event
- autonomy
- sense of independence or freedom to control yourself and your actions
- autonomy versus doubt
- second stage in Erikson’s theory of personality development, in which the toddler forms a sense of autonomy based on whether they are encouraged to try new skills and tasks
- blended family
- family that includes stepparents or stepsiblings
- body-as-obstacle test
- test of self-awareness in which an infant needs to move their body to accomplish a goal
- center care
- childcare provided in a commercial center that is regulated and licensed by the government
- commuter family
- family in which one or more family members split their time between households
- difficult temperament (undercontrolled/exuberant)
- temperament in which the infant has an irregular routine, high intensity, and negative mood and is slow to adapt to new experiences
- disorganized attachment
- pattern of behavior in which infants are confused or inconsistent in their response to the absence of their caregiver
- dyadic regulation
- process of calming an infant down through touch, feeding, or distraction
- easy temperament (resilient)
- temperament in which an infant may be more adaptable and able to thrive in a variety of contexts, establishes a routine quickly, and typically has a positive mood
- effortful control
- includes traits related to impulse control and inhibition, including the ability to maintain attention and control responses to experiences
- emotion
- temporary affective state or feeling that influences an individual’s physiology, facial expressions, and motivations
- emotion regulation
- ability to calm ourselves and move from a state of high arousal to a state of lower arousal
- emotional awareness
- insight into one’s own emotional state and that of others
- emotional labeling
- process of recognizing and identifying one’s own current affective state
- escape behavior
- emotion regulation strategy that consists of distancing or removing ourselves from an upsetting event or experience
- family
- two or more persons who are legally or genetically related, who act as a unit, and who share financial resources
- family care
- childcare provided by family members in the child’s home or the relative’s home
- gender socialization
- the process by which individuals are exposed to and learn gender roles and expectations in their culture
- gender stereotypes
- societal expectations and assumptions based on an individual’s sex or gender identity
- goodness of fit
- degree to which an infant’s temperament and their surrounding environment match and complement each other
- home daycare
- childcare provided in another home by another family, either formally or informally
- insecure ambivalent attachment
- pattern of behavior in which infants become especially distressed during both the absence of their caregiver and their return
- insecure avoidant attachment
- pattern of behavior in which infants show indifference to the absence and return of their caregiver
- intergenerational family
- family that includes aunts, uncles, cousins, or grandparents
- internal working model
- infants’ cognitive understanding of how relationships work and their expectations
- involuntary imitation
- immediate, reflexive imitation that occurs in infants between two and four months of age
- joint attention
- when infants focus their attention on the same object, person, or experience as a social partner
- kewpie doll effect
- motivation to care for an infant because of their rounded features
- mirror neurons
- neurons that react when individuals observe another individual and then perform the same action
- mirror test
- (also, rouge test) test of infant visual self-recognition in which the baby is placed in front of a mirror with a red mark on their nose
- moods
- long-lasting dispositions that describe an individual’s level of arousal and pleasure
- nanny services
- childcare provided by a nonfamily member who cares for children at the child’s home
- negative affectivity
- tendency to experience and express distress, discomfort, and avoidance behavior; associated with lower emotion regulation
- nuclear family
- family that includes two caregivers and their children
- object-relations theory
- theory about the way infants begin to understand their world through their relationship with their primary caregiver
- personality
- long-lasting pattern of behavior, attitudes, thoughts, and emotions consistent across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood
- primary caregiver
- individual who spends the most time caring for an infant in the first year of life
- primary emotions
- biologically based feelings that appear early in the first year of life and are associated with distinct and universal facial expressions
- secondary emotions
- situationally specific emotions that start to develop in the second year of life and require infants to have a sense of self
- secure attachment
- pattern of behavior in which infants become distressed during the absence of their caregiver but feel secure and comforted upon the caregiver’s return
- secure base
- safe place the caregiver gives the infant from which to explore the world around them
- self-conscious emotions
- secondary emotions that respond to an individual’s awareness of how others view them
- self-recognition
- ability to visually identify ourselves when looking at a mirror or a photo
- self-soothing
- emotion regulation strategy that consists of calming ourselves through sucking, breathing, and relaxation
- sense of self
- awareness of self as different from others
- separation anxiety
- distress that infants feel when their primary caregiver is absent
- single-parent family
- family that includes one caregiver and their children
- slow-to-warm-up temperament (overcontrolled/inhibited)
- temperament in which infant may be more prone to anxious or fearful behavior and have a lower activity level and lower mood intensity
- social cognition
- ability to understand another person’s thoughts, emotions, or intentions
- social referencing
- strategy of looking at others to see how they are responding during ambiguous and novel situations to inform one’s own reaction
- social smile
- involuntary smile that infants begin to display at approximately two months of age in response to seeing another smiling face
- Strange Situation
- experiment in which infants and primary caregivers are separated and reunited multiple times in a research lab to examine attachment style
- stranger anxiety
- infant’s fear reaction when encountering a new person or someone they do not often see
- surgency (also, extraversion)
- a trait characterized by high levels of physical activity, sociability, and spontaneity
- synchrony
- interaction between caregiver and child involving responding to each other’s emotions in reciprocal and sensitive ways
- temperament
- innate, biological components of individuality present as consistent patterns of behavior shortly after birth
- transgenerational attachment
- attachment patterns passed down through generations of one family
- trust versus mistrust
- first stage in Erikson’s theory of personality development, in which infants form a sense of trust toward others based on how reliably their caregivers meet their needs
- voluntary imitation
- purposeful imitation of others’ gestures and facial expressions that infants begin to display at approximately eight months of age