PSY311H5 Chapter Notes -Prefrontal Cortex, Deeper Understanding, Emotional Expression
Document Summary
Social behavior is influenced by social agents in social systems. Social behavior varies across both situations and individuals. Research on social development can inform social policy. Social policy can inform research on social development. The child is socially competent from an early age. Infants are competent and active beings who possess a wide range of social and emotional capabilities communicate their needs. Newborns can use their sensory, perceptual, and motor capacities to respond to social signals and. By age 1 infants can use social referencing to guide their behavior in uncertain situations and can produce social signals to alert others to interesting events. By age 2 infants can infer that other people have thoughts, feelings, and intentions. Crying, smiling, and looking are organized response patterns that enable even very young infants to interact with others. Infants develop working models of their social world that guide interactions with others. Across development children use social information in increasingly organized and strategic ways.
