a brief, detailed document containing information on Chapter 4 of Belsky's; Experiencing childhood and adolescence.
this document is a summary of chapter 4, holding information needed to write the essay for Assignment 1 : PYC4805 : Childhood
“The quality of attachment during infancy lays the foundation for healthy development in a
variety of realms” (Belsky, 2018, p. 114).
Discuss the development of attachment during infancy and how it relates to the competencies
of the infant. Also indicate how attachment milestones may influence the infant’s first social
relationships.
Your discussion (introduction, discussion, conclusion) should be no longer than 5 typed
pages (1.5 line spacing) and should be based on the information in the textbook only.
John Bowlby : attachment theory
- Children’s early experiences with caregivers shape their adult life.
- ATTACHMENT RESPONSE
Attachment Theory:
- Centring on the crucial importance to our species’ survival of being closely connected
with a caregiver during early childhood.
- Young children separated from their mothers : Bowlby noticed that babies need to be
physically close to a caregiver during the time when they are beginning to walk
- Prolonged disruptions in this biologically programmed attachment response caused
serious problems in adult life.
- Impulse to be close to a “significant other” is a basic human need at every age.
- Bowlby = Nature
- Bowlby : argued that the attachment response is genetically programmed into our
species to promote survival.
“Nature” of human similarities
Evolutionary psychologists : look to nature, or inborn biological forces that have
evolved to promote survival, to explain how children (and adults) behave.
Evolutionary psychologists : reactions cannot be changed by modifying the
reinforcers.
Evolutionary psychology : theory or worldview highlighting the role that inborn,
species-specific behaviours play in shaping behaviour.
This lacks the practical, action-oriented approach of behaviourism.
“Nature” of human differences
Behavioural genetics : research strategies devoted to examining the genetic
contribution to the differences we see among human beings.
Genetics : tendency to bite our nails, develop bipolar disorders, have specific attitudes
about life?
- Developmentalists understand that nature and nurture are not independent entities.
- Children’s genetic tendencies shape their wider-world experiences in two ways.
1. Evocative forces : children’s inborn talents and temperamental tendencies evoke, or
produce certain responses from the world.
2. Human relationships are ; Bidirectional (you get grumpy when with a grumpy person)
Evocative forces: The nature-interacts-with-nurture principle that genetic temperamental
tendencies and predispositions evoke, or produce, certain responses from other people.
Bidirectionality: The crucial principle that people affect one another, or that interpersonal
influences flow in both directions.
CHAPTER 4 : ATTACHMENT
- The powerful bond of love between a caregiver and child (or between any two people)
- In Harlow’s landmark study, baby monkeys clung to the cloth-covered “mother”
(which provided contact comfort) as they leaned over to feed from the wire-mesh
“mother”- vividly refuting the behaviourist idea that infants become “attached” to the
reinforcing stimulus that feeds them
- Bowlby argued that there is no such thing as “excessive mother love”.
- Having a primary attachment figure is crucial to development.
- Primary attachment figure : the closest person in a child’s or adult’s life.
Exploring the attachment response:
- Bowlby : crucial value of attachment based on evolutionary theory
- He argues that human beings have a critical period when the “attachment response”
‘comes out’.
- Proximity-seeking behaviour : our need to make contact with an attachment figure –
is activated when our survival is threatened at any age.
- Acting to maintain physical contact or to be close to an attachment figure
- Bowlby believed that threats to survival come in two categories.
- First – they may be activated by our internal state.
- when a toddler clings only to her mom, you know she must be tired.
- Second – they are evoked by wider-world dangers.
- Although we all need to touch base with our significant others when we feel
threatened, older children can be separated from their attachment figures for some
time.
- During infancy and toddlerhood, simply being physically apart causes distress.
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