When Infants Have Feelings Essay

Smiling
There are two types of smiling in infants which are reflexive smile and social smile. Reflexive smile does not occur in response to external stimuli. It happens during the month after birth, usually during sleep (Santrock, 2008). While, social smile is a smile in response to an external stimulus, typically is face. It occurs as early as four months of age in response to a caregiver's voice (Santrock, 2008). This smile signals that the infant's active and have positive participation in the relationship.
Fear
This emotion typically first appears at about 6 months of age and peaks at about 18 months. However, abused and neglected infants can show fear as early as 3 months (Santrock, 2008). The most frequent expression of an infant's fear involves stranger anxiety. It happened when infants feel uncomfortable or frightened when they are approached by someone they do not know. It occurs even though the child is with a trusted caregiver and in a safe environment. Theses symptoms include getting quiet and staring at the stranger, verbally protesting by cries or other vocalizations, and hiding behind a parent.
Stranger anxiety is an infant's fear and wariness of strangers. It is usually emerges gradually (Santrock, 2008). It tends to appear in the second half of the first year of life. However, not all infants show distress when encounter a stranger. It depends on the social context and the characteristics of the stranger.
Infants show less stranger anxiety when they are in familiar settings (Santrock, 2008). In one study, infants show little stranger anxiety when they met a stranger in their own home, but much greater fear when they are in a research laboratory. Infants also show less stranger anxiety when they are sitting on their mothers' laps than when placed in an infant seat several feet away from their mothers (Bohlin & Hagekull, 1993). It is because they feel secure, so they are less likely to show stranger anxiety. Who the stranger is and how the strange behaviors also influence stranger anxiety in infants.
Emotional Regulation and Coping
Infants develop the ability to inhibit or minimize the duration of emotional reactions at the first year of life. It refers to a way in which young children control their own emotions (Santrock, 2008). Even very young infants display certain behaviors to control unpleasant emotional states. For example, the babies put their thumbs in their mouths to soothe themselves. But, at first must be the caregivers help them to soothe their emotions, such sing lullabyes to the infants or gently strokes them. These caregiver's actions will influence the infant to regulate their emotions sooner. Soothing the infants may help them to reduce their level of stress hormones (Santrock, 2008). This strategy is good for infants to avoid them getting into an agitated, intense and being uncontrolled state. Later, by age of two years, they can use their language to infer their feeling and emotions. This type of communication will help the caregivers to help them to