PS1040 - Social development in infancy

• Rapid recognition of the mothers voice


  - Mother's voice can be heard clearly inside the womb (Richards et al., 1992) -- fetal heart rate responds to mother's voice at 32 weeks gestation

  
  

  - Pre-term infants (born 32-37 weeks) heart rates respond more to mother's voice than stranger or mother silent condition (Vastani et al., 2017)

  
  

  - By four-weeks, infants prefer their own mother's voice to that of another female (Mehler, 1978)
• Rapid recognition of mothers face


  Babies of 7 hours preferred to look at a picture of mother than of stranger with same colour hair even when image was colour reversed (Walton & Bower, 1991)
• Imitation


  Meltzoff & Moore (1977)

  
  

  - Babies imitate facial expressions from birth

  - Recent evidence to suggest this is not consistently found (Oostenbroek et al., 2016) but this may be due to experimental conditions (Maltzoff et al., 2018 response to Oostenbroek et al) - Beginnings of social communication?
• Field et al (1985)

  At 3 months babies smiled and vocalised more when mothers imitated them
• Smiling (developing interaction with mother)


  - 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
• Babbling (developing interaction)


  From 2 months babies coo and laugh when people are talking to them or smiling
• Flom et al. (2004)


  - Joint attention (shared visual attention)

  - Emerges between 6 and 12 months

  - 3 conditions (look; look & point; look, point & verbalise) with 9 month olds

  - 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 & verbalise
• Do infants recognise/understand different emotional expressions?


  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)
• Attachment: Brennan & Shaver (1998)


  - Researchers have related attachment during infancy with later childhood patterns if 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
• Attachment theory


  Attempts to explain the origins of social and emotional behaviour through our attachment to others (Lewis et al., 2000)
• Freudian psychoanalytic theory (attachment)


  Attachment to caregiver forms because they provide the oral gratification
• Learning theory (attachment)


  Attachment to caregiver forms because they are the secondary reinforcer
• Cognitive development theory (attachment)


  Attachment occurs after the infant is able to differentiate between the self and others, and have object permanence
• Ethological theory (attachment)


  Attachment forms due to instinctual responses to ensure its protection and survival
• John Bowlby's theory of attachment


  - 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
• Key ideas of Bowlby (attachment and loss)


  - Needs both strong social relationship and adequate physical care

  - Biological need for a baby to form a major and significant attachment to one individual (monotropy)

  - The attachment figure is constructed from the child's past experiences with that person - whether he or she is sensitive, available, consistent, predictable etc.
• Harlow (1958)


  - Research on maternal deprivation in monkeys

  - Baby rhesus monkeys reared alone were given of:

  
  

  --> A cloth covered support that did not dispense

  --> A wire support that dispensed milk
• Attachment patterns


  - Secure attachment relationship leads the child into a range of psychologically healthy developmental pathways and independence

  
  

  - Insecure patterns of attachment (i.e. loss of attachment figure or no attachment) contributed to later abnormal behaviour
• 44 Thieves Study (Bowlby)


  - 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
• Bowlby's theories


  - Monotropy

  - Affectionless psychopathy

  - Maternal deprivation hypothesis

  - The critical period

  - Developmental retardation

  - Imprinting

  - Safe base

  - Internal working model
• Monotropy


  A child has an innate need to attach to one main figure

  
  

  Bowlby suggested that the relationship between the child and single primary caregiver was of importance
• Critical period


  0-2 years

  
  

  If the attachment with primary figure is broken or disrupted during the critical two year period, the child will suffer irreversible long-term consequences of this maternal deprivation
• Maternal deprivation hypothesis


  Bowlby believed that a child should have a continuous and loving relationship with a primary caregiver

  
  

  The continual disruption of the attachment between infant and primary caregiver could result in long term cognitive, social and emotional difficulties for that infant.
• Schaffer & 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
• The Strange Situation (1969)


  Ainsworth (1969)

  
  

  The strange situation is a standardised procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth to observe attachment security in children within the context of caregiver relationships.
• The steps of the strange situation

  1. Mother and infant enter observation room

  
  

  2. Stranger enters and talks to mother then leaves

  
  

  3. Mother leaves

  
  

  4. Mother returns

  
  

  5. Mother leaves

  
  

  6. Stranger enters

  
  

  7. Mother returns
• Secure attachment


  - 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 attachment


  - 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 attachment


  - Stays close to mother, does not move away to play with toys

  - Cries when mother leaves the room

  - When mother returns baby is not comforted

  - Baby seeks contact with mother but resists her attempts at comfort
• Insecure-disorganised attachment


  - Lacks organised ability to deal with stress

  - When mother returns, child may appear disorganised and confused by caregiver's return

  - May act dazed at mothers return or cry loudly while trying to get on mother's knee
• Formation of attachment


  - 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 at 18 years
• Can defining features of attachment change?


  - Defining features can change for attachment

  - Importance may shift from proximity to attachment figure to availability of attachment figure

  - Individual differences in temperament and sociability affect attachment
• Important attachments in life


  - Important attachments formed throughout life

  - Infancy through to middle childhood most important attachments tend to be caregivers
• Influences on attachment quality


  Caregiver factors

  - depression

  - previous experience

  - day care arrangements

  
  

  Child factors

  - child temperament
• McMahon et al. (2006)


  - Explored maternal depression, maternal attachment and child attachment

  - 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
• Application of Bowlby's research


  - Introduction of facilities in hospital for parents to stay with young children

  - Child care in orphanages

  - E.g. Rutter ERA - Romanian orphanages
• Belsky & Rovine (1988)


  - 149 first-born infants

  
  

  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
• Belsky & Rovine (1988) - security with both parents...


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


  - Strange situation not as stressful

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

  - Other measures of insecurity do not show these infants as being any different (e.g. self-confidence and emotional adjustment)
• 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