Developmental Psychology Unit Content

Developmental Psychology Unit Content

1. Explanations Of Attachment

   • Learning Theory
     • Classical conditioning: is a form of learning that works through association.
     • Operant conditioning: is a form of leaning that works through rewards.
   • Bowlby's Theory
     • SO MAGIC: SO: SOcial releases-babies have social releases which unlock the innate tendency for adults to care for them. Montropy-if the mother isn't there the baby can form an attachment with another present person (one special bond). Adaptive-adapting to survive.Give good quality care-its the quality no tthe quantity of care that is important. Internal working model-the first attachment forms a template for relationships. Critical period-if an attachment isn't formed by 2.5 years. the child will be mentally + physically damaged.

2. Attachment Difficulities

   • Disruption of Attachment
     • when an attachment is formed but then taken away e.g caregiver goes to hospital.
   • Privation
     • when an attachment has never been formed e.g mother dies at birth.

3. Differences in Attachment

   • Types of Attachment
     • secure: baby shows shows separations protests. is happy when caregiver returns. shows stranger anxiety.
       • cff
     • insecure avoidant: little separation protest. does not need to be near caregiver treats starnger same( no stranger anxiety).
     • insecure resistant : high separation protest, and stranger anxiety, yet struggles when soothed.
   • Cultural Varation
     • "strange situation" research in different cultures: van-ljzendorn and kroonenburg reviewed 32 studies from 8 countries (meta analysis). Germany had a higher amount of insecure avoidant attachment.
     • Takahashi did strange situation with Japanese infants. found that insecure resistant attachments were more common in Japan
     • differences are due to bad parenting, problems with strange situation procedure and cultural differences. generalising these results would be "imposed Etic" because German parents are different to English parents or etc.

4. Attachment in Everyday Life

   • Day Care & Agression
     • NICHD: Aim was to investigate effects of daycre and development of children. procedure: in America, longitudinal study, over 1000 children, assessed at regular interval. Finding: the more tim a child spent in daycare of any quality, the more adults rated them as aggressive and assertive. Conclusion: suggests thst day care has negative effects on children. the effect has continued through into primary school.
   • Day Care and Peers
     • Di lilla: Procedure-a lab playroom with 62 pairs of same sex 5 year olds who had not met before they played together for 20 minutes. they were rated for pro-social behaviour and aggression. Results: children who experienced little or no daycare were more likey to behave prosocially. Gender was a predictors of both aggressive and pro social behaviour. Conclusion: daycare may have negative effect on the development of prosocial behaviour but does not affect aggressive behaviour.
   • Impact of Day Care
     • Social development: do children's attachment suffer due to the separation from primary caregiver?. (Aggression- does the daycare result in children showing more aggressive behaviour. Peer relations: does day care help them make friendly relationships with other peers.)
   • Types of day care e.g child minder, playgroup. A good day care has: low ratio of staff to children, adequate pace, appropriate toys and activities, minimising staff turnover so children can form stable attachments.