Chapter 6

1. Chapter 6 Section 6.2

2. Developmental Psychology: Social Development • Attachment behavior • John Bowlby • Close relationship with child and mother is a basic biological need. • Behaviors such as smiling, babbling, grasping and crying are genetically based social signals. • Encourage parental interaction. • Attachment behavior characterized by: • Proximity maintenance • Safe haven • Separation distress • Secure base • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0LFewt4Zk4&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

3. Developmental Psychology: Social Development • Bowlby • Internal working model • Motivation = biological base • Process = experience • Three elements of IWM • Ideas about attachment figures and what can be expected from them. • Ideas about the self. • Ideas about how the self and others relate. • IWM determines the child’s relationships with other people and the way the child sees him/herself in the future. • Children who experience neglect or rejection may develop a working model based on denial. • To protect themselves, children may see that parents do not love them because they may deserve the neglect. • IWM could contribute negatively to mental health (ex: depression.) • Humans tend to reproduce the working model (ex: families of abuse.)

4. Developmental psychology: Social Development • Shaffer (1996) • Attachment develops until around 7 months when a child shows specific attachments. • At this age a baby clearly shows separation anxiety when the primary caregiver leaves the child. • Research shows that discrimination between primary attachment occurs around 7 months. • Linked to brain maturation (visual cortex.) • Display of stranger anxiety/object permanence. • Brazleton et al (1975) • Observation of mothers and babies during interactions. • Interactional synchrony (probably facilitated by mirror neurons. • Babies became upset with ignored signals.

5. Developmental Psychology: Social development • Mary Ainsworth • Worked on the Ganda project in Uganda (1967) • Longitudinal study of naturalistic observations of mother-child interactions in the strange situation. • Consisted of 28 unweaned babies from several villages. • The children began at 15 weeks to 2 years. • Observed every 2 weeks for 2 hours at a time for a 9 month period. • Used an interpreter when interviewing the mothers. • Made rating scales to measure maternal sensitivity to baby’s signals.

6. Developmental Psychology: social development • Ainsworth • Replicated study in Baltimore (1971) and found the same distribution of attachment patterns. • 26 mother-infant pairs. • Visited every 3 to 4 weeks for the first year of life. • Came up with the Strange Situation Classification (SSC) which has 3 groups. • Type A-Avoidant (20%): child shows apparent indifference when mother leaves the room, and avoids contact when she returns. • Not afraid of strangers. • Mothers tend to be insensitive and not interested with child’s play. • Type B-Securely attached (70%): the child is upset when mother leaves, and happy upon her return. • Easily comforted by mother. • Mothers tend to be very interested in child’s play and actively support it and communicate with kids during play. • Type C-Ambivalent (10%): the child is upset when mother leaves the room and difficult to sooth upon her return. • The child seeks comfort, but rejects it. • Mothers tend to be inconsistent in their reactions to children. • *Type D-Insecure disorganized/disoriented attachment (Main and Solomon (1986) • No particular reaction when mother leaves or comes back. • Associated with childhood abuse and chronically depressed mothers. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

7. Developmental Psychology: Social Development • Ainsworth • Factors about attachment to consider: • Parental sensitivity – secure attachment is particularly dependant on emotionally responsive mothers. • Sensitive mothers tend to have securely attached babies. • Insensitive mothers tend to have insecurely attached babies. • Infant temperament – Kagan (1982) suggests that innate differences in children’s temperaments influence how the environment interacts with them. • Family circumstances – families may not be capable of providing the necessary support to the child (ex: abusive families.) • Mental health seems to be correlated with lack of formation of attachment to important people during childhood.

8. Developmental Psychology: Social Development • Cross-cultural studies • Bowlby and Ainsworth were in western societies. • Main (1990) – secure attachment will be the norm where the social environment is generally supportive of the child, while insecure attachment is the norm in less supportive contexts. • Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) – reviewed 32 worldwide studies involving 8 countries and over 2000 infants. • In Japan, Type A is eliminated and a high proportion of Type C. (important to note that Japanese childred are rarely separated from their mothers.) • Pattern of Type B being most prevalent across cultures. • Type A more common in western cultures.

9. Developmental Psychology: Social Development • Attachment and the formation of relationships • Hazan and Shaver (1987) took Bowlby’s theory and related it to adult relationships. • Could explain positive (caring, intimacy, trust) and negative (fear of intimacy, jealousy, emotional inconsistency) in adults. • Translated Ainsowrth’s three attachment styles to make them suitable for adult relationships. • Devised a “love quiz” and published it in a local newspaper. • 620 self-selected participants aged 14-82 with a mean age of 36. • 205 males, 415 females • A second sample included 108 college students. • 20% showed anxious-avoidant, 20% anxious-ambivalent, and 60% securely attached.

10. Developmental Psychology: Social Development • The Hazan and Shaver love quiz: • http://psychology.about.com/library/quiz/bl-attachment-quiz.htm • Theorized that love is a process that shares important similarities with early attachment relationships. • Theorists warn against drawing too many conclusions between early childhood experience and adult relationships.

11. Development Psychology: Social Development • Effects of deprivation or trauma in childhood on later development • Resilient – ability to recover or bounce back from even very stressful events. • Rutter et al. (2001) – longitudinal study on Romanian children. • Attachment problems (with a large percentage of the children.) • No clear differentiation with adults. • “Near autistic features.” • Age of children at adoption mattered. • Rutter argued that normal social functionaing is better the earlier the child leaves the institution. • Those who had the most long-lasting deprivation were functioning normal by the age of 6.

12. Development Psychology: Social Development • Koluchova (1971, 1991) study on a set of Czech twin boys. • The mother died when they were 11 months and the father remarried when the kids were around 18 months. • The kids were deprived of adequate food, proper exercise or stimulation, a heated room, or interaction of any kind except for with each other from age 18 months to 7 years. • The twins were sent to foster care and a school for the mentally retarded. • Eventually, were able to be introduced to the normal classroom. • Adopted by two caring sisters. • Were estimated to have an IQ of 40 when found, but by 14 both kids had between a 90 and 100 IQ. • The boys are now married and leave normal lives.

13. Development Psychology: Social Development • Resilience • Schoon et al (2002) – should be seen as a positive adaptation and not a personality attribute. • Today’s research differentiates between specific risk factors and specific outcomes. • Some attributes that can hinder normal development: • Parental conflict • Collapse of the family • Poverty • Parental drug abuse • Social isolation • Criminal family background • Belonging to a minority group • Positive factors • Intelligence • Sociability • Special talents • Close relationships to a parent or parental substitute • Authoritative parents • Socio-economic resources • Good school • Relationships with pro-social adults

14. Development Psychology: Social Development • Three factors that appear particularly important with it comes to protection from the damaging effects of stressful events. • The temperament of the child • A close relationship with at least one parent • Social support in the community • Werner (2005) • Kauai Longitudinal Study • An entire cohort of those born on the Hawaiian island of Kauai investigated at ages 1, 2, 10, 18, 32, and 40. • 30% of group had risk factors • Born and raised in poverty • Complications around birth • Family had many problems • Reared by mothers with hardly any education. • 66% of children who experienced 4 or more risk factors by age 2 developed learning and behavior problems by age 10 or delinquency/mental problems by 18.

15. Development Psychology: Social Development • Building resilience: • The New York Center for Children suggests the following. • Home visit programmes • Teen mother parent education and parent groups • Head start and early head start programmes • After-school programmes in all high-risk communities. • Lowenthal (2001) – important to establish safe and predictable learning environments to maltreated children. • Engle et al (2007) – reviewed programmes in developing countries and found overall gains in skills such as sociability, self-confidence, and motivation. • Walker et al (2007) – studied ways to prevent intergenerational transmission of poverty and suggested: • Food programmes • Child development programmes for children with developmental problems. • UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) • Assisted governments supporting parenting prograames in 60 countries and at least 30 developing countries. • Engle et al (2007) – suggested: • Targeting improved nutrition to prevent stunting. • Stimulation of cognitive and social-emotional skills. • Currie (2001) – in developed countries, long-term benefits are derived from: • High-quality early interventions from centre-based programmes for disadvantaged children. • Results in better school achievement • better employment opportunities • better health outcomes • less welfare dependency • lower crime rates

16. Development Psychology: Social Development • Freud’s defense mechanisms • http://allpsych.com/psychology101/defenses.html • http://www.psychologyfitness.com/category/freuds-defense-mechanisms/ *Not responsible for defense mechanisms for exam.