Social Development in Infancy

Question 1

How fast is mother regonition or infants?

Answer 1

rapid recognition of mother’s voice
Mother’s voice can be heard clearly inside the womb (Richards, Frentzen, Gerhardt, et al. 1992)
by four weeks, infants prefer their own mother’s voice to that of another female (Mehler, 1978).

rapid recognition of mother’s face
babies of 7 hours preferred to look at picture of mother than of stranger with same colour hair even when image was colour reversed (Walton & Bower 1991)
Meltzoff & Moore (1977) Babies imitate facial expressions from birth.
Beginnings of social communication? Field et al. (1985)

Question 2

Outline the developing interactions between infant and mother and father

Answer 2

At 3 months babies smiled and vocalized more when mothers imitated them.

smiling Newborn’s reflex smile by 6 weeks babies smile to mother’s face and voice by 3 months the baby’s smiles are synchronised with the mother’s

Linked with cogntive development 

babbling from 2 months babies coo and laugh when people are talking to them or smiling.

Question 3

Outline social referencing

Answer 3

Occurs between 9 and 10 months of age (Klinnert, 1984)

When confronted with a novel or uncomfortable situation, infants may look to their caregivers (mother, father, day-care) for cues as to how to respond.

Need to:

 Note changes in expression  

 Note the nature and intensity of expression  

Note how this reflects internal mental state  

Note where attention is directed

Question 4

Do infants recognise different emotional expressions?

Answer 4

Recognition of emotion expression:
7-month-olds’ brains react differently to happy & fearful expressions (Nelson & de Haan, 1996)
7-month-olds can distinguish between happy & surprised expressions (Caron et al., 1982)
At 8 months infants can distinguish happy from angry faces (Ludemann & Nelson, 1988)
Understanding of emotion expression:
Visual cliff experiment (Campos & Sternberg, 1981; Sorce et al., 1985)

Question 5

Outline understnading of emitonal expression in infants

Answer 5

Visual cliff experiment (Campos & Sternberg, 1981; Sorce et al., 1985)
Sorce et al. (1985) 12-month-olds
Mothers on otherside: Happy= will cross
Mother on other side fearful expression: won’t cross

Question 6

Explore shared visual attention

Answer 6

Emerges between 6 and 12 months
Flom et al. (2004)
3 Conditions (look; look & point; look, point, & verbalize)
Better than chance performance with look & point (but not if object out of visual field)
When object is 2nd in visual field, better than chance performance when look, point & verbalize

Flom et al. (2004)
Explored if parent’s small or large head turns mattered ▪ Only mattered if looking in front of the infant
Infants followed larger turns more than smaller turns
▪ In particular when outside visual field

Question 7

Outline joint attention and pointing

Answer 7

Protoimparative pointing - pointing to say look at this
Protodeclarative pointing- pointing to say I want

Those who point with fingers rather than hand
Understood goal for what they’re pointing for
Generally better caregiver relationships
Children with parents who also points more likely to point more.

It is not until about 12 months of age that pointing has a communicative purpose (Schaffer, 1984)
10-12 pointing is to try and get objects that are out of reach
Around 2 years of age, infants will point then look at parent, then look back at object they are pointing to

Question 8

why is interaction between infant and caregiver important?

Answer 8

Attachment!!

The quality of one’s attachments is presumed by many researchers to be stable over time

Question 9

Outline the importance of attachment

Answer 9

The quality of one’s attachments is presumed by many researchers to be stable over time
Brennan & Shaver (1998)
 Researchers have related attachment during infancy with later childhood patterns of ego resilience, affect regulation, and problem solving in stressful situations.
 Insecure romantic attachment styles in adulthood have been related to loneliness, anxiety, depression, physical symptoms, negative affectivity, neuroticism, low self-esteem, and maladaptive coping strategies with negative affect

Question 10

Outline 8 theories of attachment

Answer 10

Bowlby’s work considers attachment as a model of close relationships
Ainsworth’s work considers a set of overt behaviours
Past attachment theory:
Freudian psychoanalytic theory:
Attachment to caregiver forms because they provide the oral gratification
Learning theory: Attachment to caregiver forms because they are the secondary reinforcer
Cognitive development theory: Attachment occurs after the infant is able to differentiate between the self and others, and have object permanence- remembering a person after someone leaves a visual field
Ethological theory: Attachment forms due to instinctual responses to ensure its protection and survival.

Question 11

outline the origins of Bowlbys ideas

Answer 11

influenced by Harlow’s (1971) research on rhesus monkey’s reared apart from their mother

aimed to explain the formation of the earliest attachment bonds between infant and mother using ethological principles reformulated in human terms

the mother provides a secure base from which the developing infant can explore the world and periodically return in safety

(1907-1990)

Baby rhesus monkeys reared alone were given the choice of:
A cloth covered support that did not dispense food
A wire support that dispensed milk

Question 12

give the key ideas to bowlbys theory

Answer 12

Needs both strong social relationship and adequate physical care
Biological need for a baby to form a major and significant attachment to one individual
The attachment figure is constructed from the child’s past experiences with that person – whether he or she is sensitive, available, consistent, predictable, etc.

Question 13

Outline evidence given by bowlby on why secure attachment is needed

Answer 13

secure attachment relationship leads the child into a range of psychologically healthy developmental pathways and independence -> positive interworking model
insecure patterns of attachment (i.e. loss of attachment figure or no attachment) contributed to later abnormal behaviour
Bowlby’s initial interest in the importance of attachment came from working in a school for maladjusted children
He interviewed 44 adolescents who had been convicted for thieving about their childhood experiences

Problems?

Question 14

Outline developments in Bowlbys theory

Answer 14

Monotropy (Bowlby)
Attachment is usually only to one person

Fathers role according to Bowlby (1953, p13)… “Nevertheless, as the illegitimate child knows, fathers have their uses even in infancy. Not only do they provide for their wives to enable them to devote themselves unrestrictedly to the care of the infant and toddler, but, by providing love and companionship, to support the mother emotionally and help her maintain that harmonious contented mood in the atmosphere of which the infant thrives.”

Question 15

Outline the view of Schaffer and Emerson

Answer 15

Schaffer and Emerson: 1964
attachment is often to more than one key figure (e.g. father, siblings, grand parents, family pets)
poor attachment to one person can be offset by strong attachment to another

Question 16

Outline Ainsworth’s strange situation (1969)

Answer 16

mother and infant enter observation room
infant play observed
2. stranger enters and talks to mother
infant reaction to stranger observed
3. mother leaves  infant reaction observed
4. mother returns  infant reaction to mother observed 5. mother leaves  infant reaction observed
6. stranger enters  infant reaction to stranger observed
7. mother returns  infant reaction observe

Question 17

Outline Ainsworths findings

Answer 17

Securely attached- majority (around 60%)
plays happily but keeps close eye on mother
positive reaction to stranger
cries when mother leaves room
when mother returns baby is rapidly comforted

Insecure-avoidant – 20%
indifferent to mother
often does not cry when mother leaves room
stranger can provide comfort if baby cries
when mother returns baby may turn or look away

Insecure-resistant – 10-15%
stays close to mother, does not move away to play with toys
cries when mother leaves room when mother returns baby is not comforted
baby seeks contact with mother but resists her attempts at comfort

Insecure-disorganised –10-15%
lacks organised ability to deal with stress
when mother returns, child may appear disorganized and confused by caregiver’s return
may act dazed at mothers return, or cry loudly while trying to get on mother’s knee

Question 18

is attachment indefinate?

Answer 18

Formation of attachment in infancy does not have inevitably irreversible consequences
Lewis et al (2000) found that attachment at 1 year was not related to attachment style at 18 years
Important attachments are formed throughout life

individual differences in temperament and sociability affect attachment

Question 19

Outline influences of attachment quality

Answer 19

Caregiver factors:
Depression
Previous experience
Day care arrangements

Child factors:
-Child temperament
Contradictory evidence:
More common in low SES groups
Maybe it is more to do with intergenerational history of depression/attachment???
McMahon et al. (2006)
Mothers who suffer from postnatal depression were more likely to have insecure attachment styles themselves
Children whose mothers suffer from chronic postnatal depression were more likely to have insecure attachment styles

Question 20

Outline how attachement is assessed in adults

Answer 20

Adult attachment Interview (Main 1991)
asks about childhood experiences and adult perspective on them
 Benoit & Parker (1994)

Question 21

give the practical implications of attachment research

Answer 21

Bowlby’s work
Introduction of facilities in hospital for parents to stay with young children
Child care in orphanages
Babies in Romanian orphanages
Not always possible to apply theory directly because no one model works for all children (e.g., daycare, multiple caretakers)

Findings from the Full-time DC group
 Mothers with insecure infants: 
Interpersonal sensitivity and empathy, and marital satisfaction
 Must look at motivation for working 
Mothers with secure infants:
 Alternative care arrangements

BUT …
in examining security with both parents, infants in full-time day care, it was found that:
36% of boys were insecurely attached to both
29% of boys were securely attached to both
Clarke-Stewart (1989) pointed out that this is not such a big difference

Question 22

Why might we see so much insecurity for infants in day care for more than 20 hours a week?!

Answer 22

Strange situation not as stressful due to being in day care seeing strangers all the time, in different environments, mother keeps coming and going- may have become attached to people in day-care.

Mothers who work (& infants) differ in many ways from those who do not

NOTE: other measures of insecurity do not show these infants as being any different (e.g., self-confidence and emotional adjustment)

So… maybe not just time spent in child care.

Question 23

fulltime childcare and assessment implications?

Answer 23

So… maybe not just time spent in child care.  NICHD (Applebaum et al., 1997) found relationships with maternal sensitivity and responsiveness, as well as interactions with quality of childcare  Low maternal sensitivity and responsiveness when combined with low quality of child care = less secure infants at 15 months

So… maybe not just time spent in child care.  Pluess & Belsky (2009) found that infant temperament and quality of childcare result in different childhood outcomes

Question 24

What are the issues in measuring infancy attachemnet

Answer 24

The ‘strange situation’
attachment is a continuum and classification into discrete categories is misleading
only assesses attachment behaviour in one situation does not take cultural practice into account
does not identify all children with abnormal social relationships (e.g., autistic children)