Chapter 5: Psychosocial Development in the First 2 Years

Question 1

Psychosocial development

Answer 1

an aspect of development that explains how we acquire attitudes and skills that encompass changes in our interaction with and understandings of one another, as well as knowledge and understanding of ourselves as members of society

Question 2

Transition to Parenthood

Answer 2

• Major adjustment for first-time parents- Personal, familial, social, professional
• Adjustment to family roles
• Reallocation of household tasks
• Changes in parents’ social and emotional interactions
• Marital satisfaction of new parents related to paternal involvement

Question 3

Erikson’s Two major tasks of psychosocial development in infancy

Answer 3

1. Trust (vs. mistrust) 2. Autonomy (vs. shame and doubt)

Question 4

Most important factor in maintaining marital satisfaction

Answer 4

Higher levels of paternal involvement with a baby- especially in caregiving

Question 5

Caregiver-infant synchrony

Answer 5

Patterns of closely coordinated social and emotional interactions

Co-regulation

• Joint attention
• Reciprocal turn-taking in interactions

Goodness-of-fit

• Match of mood and temperament
• Mismatch leads to later adjustment problems
• Thomas and Chess (1977) model

Question 6

Father-Infant Interactions

Answer 6

• Increased involvement of fathers
• Increased role-reversal
• Fathers’ style of play different from mothers’- Shorter, more active, less ritualized

Question 7

• Jain, Belsky, and Crnic (1996) interaction types (fathers, 4):

Answer 7

• Caregivers
• Playmates-teachers
• Disciplinarians
• Disengaged

Fathers with caregiver and playmates-teachers interactions types tend to be more educated, better adjusted emotionally, were able to rely on others and experienced fewer daily hassles than disciplinarian and disengaged fathers

Question 8

Fathers with caregiver and playmates-teachers interactions types

Answer 8

tend to be more educated, better adjusted emotionally, were able to rely on others and experienced fewer daily hassles than disciplinarian and disengaged fathers

Question 9

Interactions with siblings and grandparents

Answer 9

Siblings

• Relationship with parents disrupted by new arrival
• May take caring role
• Use parentese to communicate
• Conflict and jealousy if preferential treatment is given to one child

Grandparents

• Secondary source of support and advice
• May be primary caregivers

Question 10

Forms of non-parental childcare

Answer 10

Formal, regulated care
• Long day-care, after-school care

Informal care
• Family or friends

Childcare meets parents’ needs

• Employment, socialisation, respite, dealing with personal or family matters

Question 11

Interactions with peers

Reciprocal socialisation

Mutual regulation model

Answer 11

• Basis for future social interactions
• Quality of parent-child relationship determines behaviour with peers (i.e., attachment)
• Day-care experience related to positive peer relationships

Reciprocal socialisation

• Invites and elicits response

Mutual regulation model

• Communicate and respond effectively

Question 12

Attachment

Etholgocial view

Psychoanalytic view

Harlow and Zimmerman (1959)

Answer 12

Attachment: strong and enduring emotional bond that develops between an infant and caregiver in first year of life

Ethological view
• Biologically based, inherited adaptation

Psychoanalytic view
• Emotional ties with mother provide basis for future relationships

Comfort more important than food

• proved by Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) reesus monkey experiment

Question 13

How attachment is inferred

Answer 13

by signalling and approach behaviours

Signaling behaviours:

Crying

Cooing

Babbling

Approach behaviours

Smiling

Clinging

Non-nutritional sucking

Following or gazing

Question 14

Bowlby’s Phases of Attachment (4)

Answer 14

Phase 1 (birth - 2 months)

• Indiscriminate sociability

Phase 2 (2 - 7 months)
• Attachments in the making
• Increasing preference for familiar carers

Phase 3 (7 - 24 months)

• Specific, clear-cut attachments
• Separation and stranger anxiety

Phase 4 (24 months +)

• Goal-coordinated partnerships

Question 15

The strange situation (Ainsworth)

Answer 15

Question 16

Patterns of attachment

Answer 16

• Secure (60-70%)
• Anxious-resistant (10%)
• Anxious-avoidant (20%)
• Disorganised-disoriented (5-10%)

Question 17

Secure attachment

Answer 17

• 65 – 70%
• When first alone with mothers, typically played happily
• Wary when stranger entered; still played happily
• When left alone with stranger, typically stopped playing and searched for mother
• Happy when mother returned and actively sought contact and interaction
• When left alone again with stranger, they were easily comforted

Question 18

Anxious-resistant attachment

Answer 18

• 10%
• Stayed close to mother; explored minimally
• When mother returns, actively sought contact, but at same time resisted mother’s effort to comfort them
• Refused comfort from stranger

Question 19

Anxious-avoidant attachment

Answer 19

• 20%
• Little involvement with mother
• Treated mother and stranger the same
• Rarely cried on separation
• Mixed response on mother’s return – low level engagement and tendency to avoid
• Uninterested in the environment

Question 20

Disorganised-disoriented attachment

Answer 20

• Rare category – later added by Main and colleagues
• Somewhere between 5 – 10%
• Greatest degree of insecurity
• Confused/unpredictable and contradictory reactions to mother’s leaving and returning
• May appear dazed/disoriented when reunited

Question 21

Cross-cultural variations of attachment

Answer 21

• Patterns of attachment vary across and within cultures
• Cultural values
  
  • Personal independence
  • Expectations of compliance
• Temperament
• Child-rearing practices
  
  • Restricted contact with others

Question 22

Consequences of attachment

Answer 22

• Securely attached infants cooperate better with adults, comply better with rules, learn more readily from parents
• Less securely attached do not learn as well form parents
• Disorganised-disoriented attachment found in disturbed caregiving
• Patterns persist into preschool years and beyond

Question 23

Parental influences on attachment

Answer 23

Mothers

• Sensitivity of care most important
• Based on their own ‘working models’

Fathers

• Similar to mothers’ attachment, but interactions are different
• Spend less time with children
• Parental conflict can impact on attachment, particularly for fathers

Question 24

Working models

Answer 24

internalized perceptions, feelings and expectations regarding social and emotional relationships with significant caregivers

Question 25

Factors Affecting Attachment

Answer 25

Quality of caregiving
• Respond promptly and consistently

• “Interactional synchrony”

Infant characteristics
• E.g., temperament, special needs, prematurity, illness

Family circumstances

• Stressful or calm?

Parents’ internal working models

• Parents’ own attachment experiences
• Parents’ ability to accept their past

Question 26

Temperament

Infants classed as easy, difficult or slow-to-warm- up, based on ratings in nine dimensions:

Answer 26

• Activity
• Rhythmicity
• Approach-withdrawal
• Adaptability to new situations
• Emotional reactivity
• Responsiveness to stimulation
• Quality of mood
• Distractibility
• Attention span

Question 27

Emotional capabilities

Answer 27

Question 28

Childcare and multiple carers

Answer 28

• Many factors influencing non-maternal care: e.g., dual-income and single parent families, changing ideas about child-rearing
• Conflicting research findings on effects of non- maternal attachment in infants and toddlers
• Quality of care important
• Cultural evidence of benefits of multiple carers through adding to a network of secure attachments or compensating for absence

Question 29

Adult attachment styles (4)

Answer 29

Adult Attachment Interview

• Adult assessment of their childhood attachment

1. Autonomous (secure)
2. Dismissing (insecure)
3. Preoccupied (insecure)
4. Unresolved-disorganised

Question 30

Erikson: Toddler Development

Stage 1

Stage 2

Answer 30

Stage 1: Basic trust vs. mistrust
• Trust helps develop hope
• Mistrust leads to fear, distress, apathy

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

• Autonomy leads to independence
• Shame leads to loss of self-respect
• Imbalance may also lead to shyness
• Boundaries provide social and physical safety*
• Parents need to balance freedom and control*

Question 31

Sources of autonomy

Answer 31

Identification
• Draws on psychoanalytic theory

Operant conditioning
• Reinforcement for desirable behaviours

Observational learning
• Imitation of parents and caregivers

Social referencing
• Sensitivity to feelings of parents
• Ability to use cues to guide responses

Question 32

Development of self

Answer 32

Self-recognition and self-awareness

• Rouge test

Self-description and self-evaluation

• Self-descriptive vocabulary

Knowledge of standards and emotional response to wrongdoing

• Start to accept responsibility, apologise, and make reparation
• Start to initiate challenging activities

Question 33

Development of Competence and Self- Esteem (White 1993)

Answer 33

suggests socially competent toddlers likely to display capabilities in these areas:

• Getting and holding adult attention
• Using adults as resources for difficult tasks
• Expressing affection and mild annoyance to adults
• Leading and following peers
• Expressing affection and mild annoyance to peers
• Competing with peers
• Showing pride in accomplishments
• Engaging in role play or make-believe