The mother as primary care-giver of an infant Flashcards
FOR THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Feeding
The NHS recommends that infants need be breastfed for at least the first 6 months of their lives to protect them from numerous diseases and build a strong physical and emotional bond between the mother and baby. Therefore, the mother would have to be available every two hours which makes them essential and practical to ensure the infant’s survival that the mother is the PCG. This means others such as the father are limited to a supporting caregiving role.
AGAINST THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Feeding
1950s behaviourists promoted the view that infants were classically conditioned to associate their mother with a sense of pleasure; food equals pleasure, and mother is associated with feeding. However, several studies demonstrated that food does not equal love. Harry Harlow (1960) placed infant monkeys with two wire ‘mothers’. One had a feeding bottle attached and the other was covered in soft cloth. The monkeys spent most of their time on the cloth-covered ‘mother’, most especially clinging to this ‘mother’ when frightened. This demonstrated that food does not create an emotional bond, contact comfort does.
FOR THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Freud’s view
Freud believed that the mother-infant dynamic was of the greatest importance in the oral stage of psychosexual development, this is because they depend on their mother to satisfy the needs of their libido. Overindulgence or frustration leads to emotional problems later in life, such as neediness or pessimism respectively. Freud also claimed that separation anxiety is caused by the infant realising that their bodily needs will be unsatisfied if separation is allowed to occur.
AGAINST THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Freud’s view
Freud’s ideas about the different roles played by the mother and father really may simply reflect the norms and values that were held by society in the early half of the 20th century, when women weren’t allowed to vote. If he were writing today, he might portray a quite different picture of the father’s role. Freud did recognise the importance of the role of the father. For example, in 1930 Freud claimed, “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection”.
FOR THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Deprivation damage
John Bowlby’s classic research demonstrated that early and prolonged separation between a child and its mother can have long-lasting emotional effects. He developed the maternal deprivation hypothesis, which states that a mother’s love in infancy is just as important for a child’s mental health as vitamins and minerals are for physical health. He also proposed that attachment to one caregiver has special importance for survival, which he referred to as monotropy.
AGAINST THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Deprivation damage
Bowlby used the term ‘maternal’ in the maternal deprivation hypothesis, he did not mean this was exclusively the child’s mother because he stated that a child should have a relationship with their mother or a permanent mother substitute. Bowlby presented research that some children show no ill effects from early separation. The children in this study were very ill with tuberculosis and spent years in hospital with little contact with their families, most showed few problems later in life. Bowlby et al suggested that those children who coped better may have been better attached to their mothers in the first place and thus more resilient.
FOR THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Moms not dads
Most men are just not psychologically equipped to form this kind of intense emotional relationship. In terms, of the biology of the female hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour so women, generally are more oriented towards emotional relationships than men. In terms of social factors, there continue to be sex stereotypes that affect male behaviour, such as being feminine to be sensitive to the needs of others. However, Frodi et al (1978) showed videotapes of infants crying and found no differences in the biological responses of men and women.
AGAINST THE MOTHER BEING THE PCG: Moms not dads
There is plenty of evidence that men are quite capable of forming close attachments with their children, as is the case in single-parent families. Our changing stereotypes have meant that both men and women feel freer to take on roles traditionally reserved for the opposite sex, so women are not the only parent who becomes hormonally adapted to parenthood. Research by Gettler et al found that a father’s testosterone level drops to help them respond more sensitively to his children’s needs.
CONCLUSION
I believe the view of the mother being the PCG is very traditional and doesn’t fit in with the modern society that we live in today because the reality is that healthy development relies on multiple important relationships. Also, research has shown that while women more often are the main emotional figure in the child’s life men typically provide an equally important ingredient in development.
