A well-balanced argument which highlights the main aspects of the psychodynamic debate.
This is useful for students that are studying AS/A Level Psychology under the EDQUAS exam board.
This has been marked by a lecturer and has been scored a 20/20 or in other words an A*.
A primary care-giver of an infant is the person who is most responsible for an infant’s health,
development and well-being. There is an on-going debate with two sides. The mother should be
the primary care-giver of an infant and the mother doesn’t need to the primary care-giver of an
infant.
One reason as to why the mother should be the primary care-giver of an infant is due to
feeding. The NHS recommends that infants should be breasted for at least the frst sii months
of their lives. This is due to reports statng that breasteeding ofers the healthiest start for
infants. It protects the infant from numerous infectons and diseases. The NHS also claims that
‘it can build a strong physical and emotonal bond between the mother and the baby’ – which is
important in subsequent emotonal development. This means that anyone else, including the
father, is limited to a supportng care-giver role. Therefore, these evidences prove that the
mother should be the infant’s primary care-giver as the infant’s mother is the only individual
who is able to breasteed the child. Which makes it more practcal and essental to the infant’s
survival.
On the other hand, the mother doesn’t need to be the primary care-giver of an infant due to
feeding. Behaviourists believe that infants were classically conditoned to associate their mother
with a sense of pleasure: food (unconditoned stmuluss creates pleasure (unconditoned
responses. The mother is associated with feeding and hence becomes a conditoned stmulus
producing a conditoned response. However, there is a lot of studies that demonstrates that
food does not equal love. Harlow and Harlow (1959s placed infant monkeys with two wire
‘mothers’. One had a feeding botle atached and the other was covered in sof cloth. The
monkeys spent most of their tme on the cloth-covered ‘mother’ – especially clinging onto the
cloth-covered ‘mother’ when frightened. Thus shows that food does not create an emotonal
bond – contact and comfort does.
Another reason as to why the mother should be the primary care-giver of an infant is because
mothers are not fathers. Women are best for the role of primary care-givers because most men
are just not psychologically equipped to form an intense emotonal relatonship. This may also
be due to biological and social factors. In terms of biology, the female hormone oestrogen
underlies caring behaviours so women are generally more oriented towards emotonal
relatonships than men. In terms of social factors, there are sei-stereotypes that afect male
behaviour, such as it e=being rather feminine to be sensitve to the needs of others. Heermann
et al. also found evidence that men are indeed less sensitve to infant cues than mothers. This
shows the that mother should be the primary care-giver of an infant.
However, there is plenty of evidence that men are quite capable of forming close atachments
with their children. In cases such as single (males parent families. The view that men are not
emotonal is outdated. Our changing stereotypes meant that both men and women feel freer to
take on roles traditonally reserved for the opposite sei. A women is not the only parent who
becomes hormonally adapted to parenthood. Despite the evidence found by Heermann et al.,
Frodi et al. showed videotapes of infants crying and found no diferences between the biological
responses of men and women. Therefore showing that the mother does not need to be the
primary care-giver of an infant.
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