Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology

1. The Nature of Attachment

   • Attachment: an emotional bond between people, its a 2 way process(reciprocal) that lasts a long time. It leads to certain behaviours such as proximity-seeking and helps protect the infant
     • Attachment focuses on social and emotional needs
       • Most responsive person to the child's needs= person who child is most attached to (Schaffer and Emerson)
     • Proximity-seeking: Being close (following)
     • Behaviours
       • Proximity-seeking: being close to a person
       • Fear of strangers: Anxiety
       • Separation Anxiety: Show distress
     • Purposes
       • SURVIVAL: to protect from danger and keep safe
       • Provides and INTERNAL WORKING MODEL about relationships which leads to expectations about future relationships
   • Types of Attachment
     • Secure
       • Some separation anxiety, high willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, enthusiastic reunion
     • Insecure-avoidant
       • Low separation anxiety, high willingness to explore, low stranger anxiety, indifferent reunion
     • Insecure-resistant
       • Very high separation anxiety, low willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, seeks and rejects upon reunion
     • Factor influencing attachment type
       • Caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness
       • Maternal depression
       • Temperament (personality) of child
     • Stranger situation-Mary Ainsworth
       • Criticisms
         • Child could be used to separation and being with strangers- being at Day-care
         • An unfamiliar environment so children may act different than usual
         • Child may not be observed with their main attachment figure
   • Cross-cultural variations in Attachment
     • Individualistic cultures: Value independence and the importance of the individual e.g. western
     • Collectivistic culture: Emphasises the importance of the group. Groups often share tasks, belongings and childrearing e.g. many African cultures and tribes
     • Similarities: the most common attachment in all cultures is secure.
     • Differences: Israel-more insecure resistant, Japan-more insecure resistant, Germany-more insecure avoidant
     • Evaluation: Variation within cultures is greater than variation between cultures

2. Theories of Attachment

   • Learning Theory- all behaviour is learnt (not innate), it is a result of conditioning
     • Classical Conditioning- Learning through ASSOCIATION
       • Infant learns to associate feeding/comfort with primary carer/mother
       • Mother acquires comforting properties by association
       • The association between an individual and a sense of pleasure is the attachment bond
     • Operant Conditioning- Learning through REINFORCEMENT
       • Infant learns that crying smiling brings positive response from adults (Reinforcement)
       • Adult learns that responding to cries brings relief from noise (negative reinforcement)
       • The reward is food and this is the main reinforcer
       • Infant becomes attached to the person who supplies the food
   • Bowlby's Theory
     • Attachment is biologically pre-programmed into children (innate)
       • Encoded in human genes
       • Evolves and persists because of its adaptiveness
       • Imprinting- lorenz (chicks)
     • Infants emit SOCIAL RELEASERS to which biologically attuned
       • Crying
       • Cooing
       • Thus stimulates caregiving from adults
     • Infants who become attached to their caregiver are more likely to survive and reproduce
     • Attachment 'genes' are passed on through generations and infants are born with an innate drive to attach
     • Monotropy
       • Infants are programmed to attach to whomever responds to their releasing stimuli
         • They select one main attachment figure (primary), its used as a safe base for exploring the world
         • The primary attachment is the template for future social relationships (internal working model)
         • Children also develop secondary attachments who also contributed to social development
       • Not everyone agrees
       • Responds to emotional needs
     • Internal Working Model- Helps a child predict and control it environment, early attachment acts as a template for future relationships
     • Critical period:7 months-3 years
       • Sensitive period: 9-12 months
     • Supporting evidence: Lorenz(imoprinting), Harlow's monkeys, Schaffer and Emerson, Hazan and Shaver(the love quiz)

3. The effects of Day-care on Children's social Development

   • Effects=social development (the child's ability to form relationships with others and interact): measured by 1)Positive peer relations 2)Negative Aggression
   • Bowlby's view: Repeated seperation leads to insecure attachment
   • NICHD report 2001
     • Longitudinal study
     • Children that spend more than 10 hours a week are more aggressive in school
     • Rated by teachers and mothers
     • 3x more likely to have behavioural problems

4. Non-experimental methods: Observations and correlations

5. Non-observational methods: Interviews and questionnaires