emotional development

• emotional development 


  The continuous life-long development of skills that allow individuals to control, express, and recognise emotions
• Theories of attachment has been closely linked to emotional development
• emotional development - attachment

  attachment refers to the close emotional bond between an infant and the primary caregiver.
• attachment theory suggests that attachment is universal to all humans - appears in all races and cultures of people
• attachment theory has a biological basis - its main function is to increase survival, by helping the child seek proximity to someone who will take care of their physical and emotional needs
• attachment theory suggests that seeking attachment is innate and the sensitive period for attachment to occur for optimal development is in the first year of life.
• attachment theories - John Bowlby 


  • Believed that children who suffered loss and failure in early relationships were more likely to experience negative psychological consequences 

  • Determined four age-related phases in the development of attachment 
• attachment theory - Many Ainsworth

  • Carried on from Bowlby’s research
  • Introduced ‘separation’ and ‘stranger’ anxiety to attachment
  • Strange situation test – and experiment for infants 
• attachment theories - Harry Harlow

  • Studied role of feeding in infant-mother attachment
  • Most well-known experiment – looked at monkeys and which doll they preferred. A blanketed one, or one that provided food
  • Focussed on the effect of social isolation 
• Mary Ainsworth - attachment 


  Ainsworth expanded on the work of Bowlby by observing infant attachments in experimental setting
• Mary Ainsworth - attachment

  Described some behaviours that infants demonstrate to show attachment to a specific caregiver:

  • Crying to attract caregiver attention
  • Smiling more at the caregiver than at others
  • Vocalising more in the presence of a caregiver, than when alone/ with strangers
  • Fleeing to the caregiver when in danger
• Ainsworth - strange situation test 


  •A test performed on infants aged 9 – 18 months 

  • Consisted of a sequence of 8 events

  •The observer recorded three forms of behaviour:

  contact seeking,

  exploratory play and behaviour,

  and crying/ distress
• ainsworths types of attachment 


  three categories of infant attachment styles were developed through the observations

  • insecure avoidant attachment - type A
  • secure attachment - type B
  • insecure resistant attachment - type C
• Insecure avoidant attachment - type A

  • infant not affected by mothers presence or absence
  • rarely cried when mother left the room
  • showed little attention to her upon her return
  • neglectful, angry, hostile
• secure attachment - type B

  • distressed when mother leaves the room
  • happy and comforted by her returnz
  • open to exploration of the room when mother is present
  • loving, responsive, supportive
• insecure resistant attachment - type C

  • very distressed when mother leaves the room
  • not comforted by her return
  • heightened anxiety before, during and after test
  • did not actively explore the room even when mother was present
  • non-affectionate, unresponsive