First relationships

First relationships

1. Trevarthen- face to face between mom & baby refine in early months

2. Cohn & Tronick

   • 3mth showed protest/wariness when mom showed depressed expressions

3. Babies designed to learn, esp socially

   • predisposed to direct their attention towards people
     • development involved interaction between child/environment
       • formation of relationships starting point for psycho development
         • research focus on dyadic relationships

4. many ideas have roots in Freud

   • early childhood crucial to development of adult personality
     • Freud interested in Oedipal phase
       • Klein- role of relationships from birth
         • subjective interpretation important source of info
           • some psychologists see as unacceptable, but still influencial

5. Relationships invovle mental representations

   • internal models include thoughts/feelings about the other
     • psychoanalytic- handle intense feelings for another by projection
       • locating own feelings within them
         • sometimes overestimate intentional capacity of infant, attribute meaning to reflex behaviour
           • attributions made on infant motives, intentions, will shape carers behaviour/feelings towards them

6. main carer not necessarily mom, but needs to be consistent

   • much research biased
     • based on mom/infant pairs, idealised image, biased samples
       • research minimises involvement of emotions, pos & neg
         • may challenge self confidence of mom