Psychosocial Development

Perception of Faces

An infant's ability to perceive faces is the first sign that the child is developing a bond and interest with the human form. It was found through research that between 1 and 2.5 months, infants preferred a photo of [Page 820]a schematic face over a photo of a scrambled face, which suggests that newborns have an innate preference for the human form. Recently it has been found that motion may have a large effect on this preference.

Social Smiling

Social smiling represents the first social activity of an individual. Smiling begins at 1 to 2.5 months of age but occurs at any external stimulation the child receives. It is not until 2.5 to 3 months that infants smile to reciprocate another's smile, or to have their smile reciprocated. This event typically begins to establish a new emotional bond between the child and the child's caregiver as well as show how the infant is beginning to create a sense of self and others in his or her environment, although this is a very basic sense.

Temperament

Temperament is an example of the nature side of psychosocial development, in that it is the innate characteristics or personality of a person. Temperament is thought to consist of activity level, approachability, adaptability, intensity of reaction, quality of mood, distractibility, attention span, and other qualities. Three types of infant temperaments have been named:

• 1.
  Easy babies are those who are adaptable, typically happy and playful, and not easily distracted.
• 2.
  Difficult babies are not adaptable, usually irritable, and easily distracted.
• 3.
  Slow-to-warm-up babies take a little more time to adapt, are less active but happy, and are usually not very distractible.

Temperament is thought to extend throughout the life course and remain fairly stable.

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