Child Psychology

Data collection methods
1. Observations
  1. Children are observed at home, nursery, school or in a staged environment
    1. Can video it live, record it later or behind a one way mirror
  2. Data Collection
    1. Description of what the child is doing
    2. Tallying certain behaviours e.g playing with toys
    3. Can be difficult to do live so time or event sampling used
  3. Overt vs covert
    1. If child is aware they're being watched
    2. Parent or guardian HAS to be aware
  4. Participant vs non-participant
    1. Could be joinging the childs classes
      1. Behaviour may be more natural
  5. Naturalisitc vs structured
    1. Playgrounds or at home
    2. S: records behaviour in set up situation
  6. Evalution
    1. Cannot establish cause and effect as no manipulation of IV
      1. no evidence suggesting its due to parental relationships
      2. may lead to experiments later on
    2. Can be unreliable because unique viewpoints may cause researcher bias
      1. inter-rater reliability is established to over come this
    3. Naturalistic has good eco. validity
      1. Behaviour is natural
    4. Structured has bad eco. validity
      1. Behaviour may be artifical becuase of the staged enviornment
    5. Effects of artifical environment depends on childs age
      1. Young children may not be aware of what's happening so behaviour doesn't alter
    6. Naturalistic have no control over extraneous variables
      1. Replicating these are hard
      2. Structured are highly standardised so are reliable and replicable
    7. Naturalistic with adults doesnt require consent
      1. But with children you always need to gain parental consent
2. Questionnaires
  1. Respondents may not tell the truth or answer accurately because of social desirability bias
    1. Want to present a positive image
  2. May not be suitable for young children
3. Interviews
  1. Young children have a short attention span
    1. Lengthy interviewws would be innapropriate
  2. Language needs to be adjusted to suit younger, more vulnerable groups
  3. Can be recorded for easy data collection
  4. Interviewer effect possible
  5. Demand characteristics
  6. Can obtain more indepth data than questionnaires
    1. Can tailor questions around responses given
Cross-cultural research
1. To see if a behaviour is universal across countries or cultures
2. if not carried out findings are only relevant to one country
  1. Therefore culturally biased
3. Takahashi 1990
  1. Strange situation in other countries
  2. 60 mothers and their child observed
    1. 68% securely attached
    2. 0% avoidant-insecure
    3. 32% resistant
  3. Shows a cultural variation in children's behaviour when left alone
    1. Japanese teach their children that avoidant behaviour is impolite
    2. Strange situation test doesn't measure attachment effectively on a universal scale
4. Cross-sectional or longitudinal
5. May loose participants
  1. Threatens validity
6. Most carried out by meta- analysis
  1. Better for overall trends
Ethical issues
1. Parental consent must be gained
  1. Adult and child consent is not the same
    1. Due to comprehension and vulnerability
2. Children have the right to withdraw
  1. Researcher must have the competence to enforce this
3. Children permitted to ask questions and be fully informed
4. All information is confidential
5. Any information disclosed that may affect the child's wellbeing must be referred to an expert
6. Incentives may be offered
7. General human ethical guidelines
Bowlby's theory of attachment
1. Evolutionary theory to explain why children attach to their caregiver
2. Hunter-gatherers, children needed to maintain a close proximity to the adult for safety
  1. Evolved as a mechanism to ensure survival
    1. Around 6-9 months they have a stronger bond with one person
3. Stages of attachment
  1. Phase 1
    1. First few months babies respond indiscriminately towards any adult figure
    2. The baby orientates by eye contact, grasping and smiling to promote proximity
    3. Smiling becomes a social response to an adult after several weeks
  2. Phase 2
    1. Use social releasers (crying/ smiling) to promote proximity
    2. Only towards primary care giver
      1. 3-6 months old
  3. Phase 3
    1. 6 months
    2. Show intense attachment to primary caregiver
      1. Show distress at separation and joy at reunion
        Treat strangers with fear
        Continues until age 2 or 3.
    3. Maintain a safebase
4. Imprinting and attachment
  1. Drew parallels with animal research
    1. Konrad Lorenz
      1. Greylag geese immediately after hatching
      2. Chicks instinctively follow the closest moving object, then avoid all other moving objects
      3. Led to believe they had a pre-programmed behaviour that creates a bond between animal and its offspring to maintain close proximity
      4. Imprinting happened in the first 12-24 hours of life, but if had not happened after 32 hours, they were unlikely to imprint at all
        Critical period after which imprinting became irreversible
  2. Attachment in humans is slower than in animals; but the characteristics are the same
  3. Occurs in the first year of life
    1. So maybe sensitive period not critical
5. Safe base
  1. Previous theories of cupboard love
    1. Attachment was due to provision of food
      1. Satisfied a biological need
  2. Harlow and Zimmermann 1959
    1. Isolated 8 rhesus monkeys
      1. Choice of cloth or wire surrogate mother
        4 fed by wire surrogate
        4 fed by cloth surrogate
      2. All monkeys preferred the cloth surrogate regardless of where their food was coming from
        And spent no more than 2 hours a day suckling on the wire mother for food
      3. Some leaned across from cloth mother to suckle on wire mother
    2. Claimed that 'contact comfort' was critical in the development of attachment, not food
      1. Reinforced when monkeys were exposed to fear inducing stimuli
        Seeked comfort from cloth mother and once settled,challenged the object from its safe base.
        Those raised with the wire surrogate continued to be fearful
6. Monotropy
  1. Bowlby listed several behaviours that children tend to display towards one particular person
    1. Based on research of Mary Ainsworth 1967
    2. Vocalise and smile more when interacting with mother
      1. Cries when nursed by somebody else
  2. Although multiple people may care, the main caregiver has a special bond with the child
    1. Most likely, but not exclusively the mother
7. Internal working model
  1. Suggested that personality development into adulthood was defined b early attachment experiences
  2. Child's experience of a continuous, loving and sensitive mother is formed as a mental representation
    1. Forms a basis for subsequent romantic relationships and attachments with offspring
      1. A mother who provides a safe base helps to promote competence and resilience in later life.
      2. A sensitive responsive mother builds a positive internal working memory for a child to utilise in later and adulthood relationships
      3. Different experiences in childhood can have averse consequences for later development, including less resilience and dependency
8. Evaluation
  1. Debated a lot!
  2. Schaffer and Emerson 1964
    1. 60 glaswegian babies
    2. 17% had formed multiple attachments as soon as behaviour was shown
    3. 50% at 4 months had 1-5 attachments
    4. 18 months 18% had made only 1 attachment
    5. Found higher protest towards being left by one person in particular- hierarchical order
9. Child and adult attachment
  1. Support for internal working model
  2. Hazan and shaver 1987
    1. Tested to see if early attachments formed a template or model for later romantic relationships using the 'love quiz'
    2. Had to recall childhood relationships and talk about individual beliefs about romantic relationships
    3. Published in a local newspaper and responses invited. 620 people responded.
    4. Those as secure relationships with parent more likely to think romantic relationships are trusting, enduring ad accepting of faults
    5. Insecure= obsession, attraction and jealousy and feared intimacy
    6. Supports Bowlbys theory
    7. Recall of relationships may not be accurate
Ainsworth's work on attachment
1. Studied 28 Uganda infants (26 families)
  1. Securely attached= mom as safe base
  2. Insecurely attached= cling to mom and refuse to venture away with confidence
    1. Cry more even when being held
  3. Mothers sensitive to child's behavioural cues were more likely to become securely attached
    1. Associated with maternal sensitivity hypothesis
2. 1963, Baltimore, USA. Middle class families
  1. Observed parent-child interactions for 4 hours each month from first few weeks of birth
  2. Sensitive parenting was associated with happier children who cried less
  3. At 12 months they invited them to a lab experiment to understand how the babies would respond in a strange situation
3. The 'strange situation' test
  1. Procedure
    1. 20 minutes long
    2. 8 episodes
    3. • Mum and child are invited to play together in a lab play room by a researcher, who then leaves. • The mother sits on a chair and the child plays on the floor with the toys. • A stranger enters the room with mother and child and talks to the mum. • The mother leaves the room, leaving stranger with the child. • Mother returns and stranger leaves. • The mother leaves and the child is alone. • The stranger enters and comforts/ interacts with the child. • Mother returns and stranger leaves.
  2. Attachment types
    1. Insecure avoidant (A)
      1. Separation anxiety= none, not upset when mum leaves
      2. Stranger fear= none, interacts and can be comforted
      3. Reunion behaviour= Did not seek- ignored mother, averted gaze
      4. Exploring= Explores independently doesn't use a safe base
      5. Insensitive, interfering and rejecting
      6. 20%
    2. Secure (B)
      1. Separation anxiety= very distressed
      2. Stranger fear= avoids and resists comfort
      3. Reunion behaviour= seeks comfort, quick to sooth
      4. Exploring= explores from safe base
      5. Sensitive, responsive
      6. 70%
    3. Insecure resistant (C)
      1. Separation anxiety= intense distress
      2. Stranger fear= Fearful
      3. Reunion behaviour= approaches but pushes away angrily
      4. Exploring= clung to mum doesn't explore
      5. Inconsistent
      6. 10%
  3. Evaluation
    1. Widely used and highly standardised
    2. Lacks ecological validity
      1. May behaviour differently in more familiar surroundings
    3. Could be unethical as children are distressed
      1. Researchers are trained to recognise distress and withdraw them when needed
    4. Conducted in a controlled environment
      1. Reliable and repeatable
    5. Behaviour is reviewed by many professionals to establish inter-rater reliability
    6. May not be useful data is children are used to separation e.g attend day care
    7. Kagan's 1984 temperament hypothesis can be used to criticise the research
      1. In particular mother sensitivity and attachment type association
      2. Argues that response in strange situation is a result of their temperament rather than their attachment type
      3. If independent they can come across insecure avoidant

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