Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood

Emotional and Social Development

• Children are born with social needs and innate tendencies to seek direct contact with adults, usually mothers.
• Human babies are relatively helpless and need others to survive.

What is Attachment?

• Attachment is the first social relationship and a strong emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver, providing security and comfort.
• It provides a safe base for the infant to explore the world.
• Attachment is identified through proximity-seeking behaviors, where infants like to be near those they are attached to.

Attachment Theory

• Attachment Theory explains emotional relationships and caregiver-infant interactions.
• It grew out of John Bowlby's studies of maternal deprivation from the 1950s.
• Infants show their attachment through proximity-seeking behaviors.

Evidence for Maternal Deprivation

• Maternal deprivation can have grave and far-reaching effects on a child's character and future life.
• Examples of maternal deprivation include:
  • "Juvenile delinquents" raised in correction institutions.
  • Children in hospitals for long periods.
  • Children raised without maternal care.
• These children often:
  • Grew less well.
  • Had "retarded" physical, emotional, or intellectual development.
  • Were superficially friendly and unstable in their relationships.

Harlow's Experiments

• Harlow's "Monkey Love Experiments" showed that comfort is important for developing monkeys and that the need for affection creates a stronger bond between mother and infant than physical needs (food).
• His research suggested that the development of a child's love for their caregiver is emotional rather than physiological.

Bowlby's Phases of Attachment Formation

• Phase 1: Indiscriminant Sociability (0-2 months): Infant shows no preference among caregivers.
• Phase 2: Attachments in the Making (2-7 months): Increasing preference for most familiar and responsive individuals.
• Phase 3: Specific, Clear-Cut Attachments (7-24 months): Infant displays separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
• Phase 4: Goal-Coordinated Partnerships (24 months): Infant can increasingly tolerate short parental absences.

Why Do Infants Form Attachments?

• Infants form attachments because it promotes survival.
• An infant's emotional tie with its mother (principal caregiver) evolved because it promotes survival.
• Early interactions with a parent are crucial to "normal development."

Bowlby's Theory in Brief

• Bowlby emphasized the importance of the relationship between a child and a single primary caregiver.
• He believed that this attachment occurred instinctively, leading to changes in policy and practice in institutions.

Critiquing the Evidence

• Some studies have small sample sizes, such as Bowlby's study of only 14 juveniles.
• Sweeping conclusions may be drawn from limited evidence.

Attachment Types

• There are different types of attachment, reflecting differences in patterns of interaction with the mother.
• The attachment type dictates present and future patterns of relationships.

Investigating Attachment Types

• The Strange Situation (Ainsworth 1978) is a method used to investigate attachment types.
• It involves a 20-minute session in a lab where the mother and 12-month-old child are introduced to an experimenter.
• The mother leaves the room for three minutes, and the child is left alone with the experimenter.
• The mother returns, reunites with the child, and then both the mother and experimenter leave the room for three minutes and return.

The Strange Situation

• The situation is videotaped to observe differences in coping with the stress of separation.
• Four different types of attachment are identified: secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-resistant, and disorganized-disoriented.

Factors that Influence Attachment

• Caregiver's responsiveness and sensitivity.
• Baby's temperament.
• Cultural and environmental factors.
• Deprivation: separation from a main caregiver, leading to a break in attachment.

Inter-generational Transmission of Attachment

• Childhood attachment experiences can have an impact on adults in their attachment with their own children.
• The Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan & Main, 1985) uses current representations of past attachment experiences.

Defining Deprivation and Separation

• Deprivation refers to the break in an infant's attachment with its main caregiver, either short-term or long-term.
• Separation refers to when an infant is no longer with its main caregiver for some reason, again either short-term or long-term.
• Separation leads to deprivation.

Case Study: Genie and Other Deprived Children

• Genie, a child who was isolated and deprived of social interaction, showed significant developmental delays.
• Other examples of deprived children include "wild children" and feral children.
• Evidence from Eastern European countries following the collapse of communism, such as the Czech twins, also shows the effects of deprivation on development.