early relationships

Nota:

• for the formation of a bond 

Nota:

• shows children are innately social

1. Melzoff and moore's facial expressions

   Nota:

   • significant association between the models behaviour and the infants behaviour. Infants are able to imitate specific facial expressions or hand movements

Nota:

• babies coordinate their actions in time with adult speech. securely attached bonds had more interactional synchrony - Isabella

Nota:

• adults use distinctive language patterns when talking to children. Usually slow, repetitive, varied in intonation and consisting of small messages

1. myers - immediate physical contact is neither necessary nor sufficient for the development of attatchment
2. young babies are not intentionally social

   Nota:

   • babies will respond in a similar way to inanimate objects 
   1. 5 and 12 week old babies would not imitate expressions simulated using objects
3. Interactional synchrony is not related to security of attachment in all cultures
4. No evidence suggests that motherese directly affects the formation or quality of an attachement

Nota:

• infant monkeys preferred to spend time close to the cloth mother even though food was on the wire mother. These monkeys were antisocial and aggressive

1. Darwin suggests that it is safe to generalize findings from animal research

   Nota:

   • All species are genetically related. The field of comparative psychology involves studing other species then making extrapolations
2. unethical

   Nota:

   • caused the monkey's distress
   1. the only way to determine cause and effect
3. used to support Bowlby's hypothesis that babies have a critical period

Nota:

• infants attach to the person who provides nurture in the form of food

Nota:

• animals display an innate, instinctual drive to maintain proximity to caregiver for protection

Nota:

• babies attach to those who can best communicate with them and understand their needs 

Nota:

• early relationships act as a model for future ones

1. Evaluation
   1. The internal working model is too general to be used
   2. Pessimistic, deterministic view

      Nota:

      • suggesting if your first relationship is unhappy and insecure then all future relationships will be 
   3. Combines several perspectives

      Nota:

      • Cognitive perspective - understanding of attachment Behaviourist - rewarding behaviour makes it likely to be repeated

Nota:

• using mainly proximity seeking and maintenance of proximity ainsworth found 65% of infants have secure attachments, then insecure avoidant and insecure ambivalent

1. Insecure avoidant

   Nota:

   • ignores mother, treats her like a stranger
2. Secure

   Nota:

   • happy with mother, distressed when mother leaves, wary of stranger
3. Insecure ambivalent

   Nota:

   • fussy, difficult and cries a lot. Distressed when mother leaves, not comforted by her return
4. Evaluation
   1. replicated many times

      Nota:

      • to test reliability over time and over culture 
      • others have found a relationship between infant attachment and later life attachment
   2. The behaviours in each category are questionable

      Nota:

      • proximity seeking is seen as a sign of a secure attachment, however a secure infant are often happy to explore
   3. neglected wider influences on attachment

      Nota:

      • additional factors might affect security of attachment e.g. temperament or socio-economic background
   4. Fixed categories are over-simplified

      Nota:

      • it is more sensible to consider attachment as a two dimensional construct 

Nota:

• German infants had the highest proportion of insecure avoidant infants. Israeli and Japanese infants showed the highest proportion of insecure ambivalent behaviour

1. Cross cultural

Nota:

• people fall into 4 categories -  insecure dismissing autonomous secure insecure preoccupied unresolved

Nota:

• on a scale of 1 - 9, 1 being least like child and 9 most like the child

1. short term
   1. crying and struggling
   2. despair
   3. detatchment
2. Long term
   1. fear of future deprivation
   2. clingy behaviour
   3. aggression
3. Belsky's day care

   Nota:

   • 26% of children in day care for less than 20 hours a week showed insecure attachments compared to 41% for more than 20 hours

1. consequences
   1. delinquent behaviour
   2. aggression
   3. no language
2. Koluchova twins

   Nota:

   • within 3 years (from 7 - 10) the tins had adopted language and had an average intelligence level with normal attachments
3. Rutters romanian orphans

   Nota:

   • around 50% of romanian orphans showed intellectual deficits. British orphans showed none. After 4 years there was no significant difference