DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY • WEEK ONE • What is developmental psychology? • Influences on development • Early socialisation • WEEK TWO • Development of attachments • WEEK THREE • The effects of deprivation and separation

What is developmental psychology? Historical and social background • Study of development motivated by social and economic changes • Industrial revolution in 19thC led to need for basic literacy and numeracy in factories • Important to study mind of child so that education could be more effective • Social factors e.g. better hygiene and control of childhood diseases

What is developmental psychology? Historical and social background • Adolescence as a distinct stage between childhood and adulthood defined by biological, historical and cultural changes. • Western society became wealthy enough to protect child from adult responsibilities and increased period of education • Social and medical advances have led to people living longer and in better health, raises important issues about the psychology of ageing

What is developmental psychology? • Developmental psychology concerned with the scientific understanding of age-related changes in experience and behaviour Four categories: • Physical- development of anatomy and physiology. • Cognitive (or intellectual)- concerned with the development of cognitive processes e.g. perception, attention, language, memory and thinking (problem-solving) • Social- looks at socialisation, child-rearing practices, groups and peer group influences • Emotional- related to social development, also personality, temperament and identity. Categories interdependent e.g. social changes occur in parallel with physical changes in adolescence

What is developmental psychology? Lifespan development • Infancy • Childhood • Adolescence • Adulthood • Old age • Development a continuous and dynamic process. • Transition from one stage to the next always very gradual and difficult to detect on a daily basis. • Physical maturity= development complete?

Influences on development Biological influences • ‘Genetic blueprint’ = programmed physical and physiological development for individual (maturation) which starts at conception • Progressive rate of development same for all children (within a range) and is genetically programmed. • Motor skills and behaviours can only be developed and learned when individuals are maturationally, or biologically, ready. Jean Piaget suggested that maturation might be more important than motivation in learning.

Influences on development Environmental influences ‘The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day’ Milton • Importance of early experiences in development • Family, school, culture • How early do these experiences exert an influence e.g. is a mother’s behaviour while child in the womb important ? • Nature-nurture debate • Development occurs through an interaction of biological factors (genetic programming) and social factors (quality of the environment) • Discuss

Early Socialisation • Much of infants’ early learning is in the area of social development-two important aspects of this learning are sociability and attachment. • Sociability: the tendency to interact in a friendly and positive way with other people • Attachment: a fairly strong and long lasting emotional tie to one person • Important to study the processes involved in the development of sociability and attachment. • Activity: In pairs, spend 5 minutes or so discussing the following questions: • Why are these forms of learning so important early on? • What factors do you think influence the development of sociability and attachment?

Early Socialisation Socialisation • ‘the process by which a society’s behaviour patterns, standards and beliefs are transmitted from one individual to another.’ (Schaffer, 1995) • As children interact with, and become like other members of their culture, they acquire the knowledge, skills, motives and aspirations that should enable them to adapt to their environment and function effectively within their communities. Sociability • ‘a child’s willingness to engage others in social interaction, and to seek their attention or approval.’ (Schaffer, 1989) • general tendency to want and seek the company of others a prerequisite for the development of attachments

Sociability with care-givers • Signs of sociability (e.g. smiling, attention-seeking) begin from an early age (Durkin, 1995) • 2 day old infants can recognise their mothers (Bushnell, Sai and Mullin, 1989). • Two thirds of babies preferred their mother over a female stranger, indicating they had some ability to recognise their own mothers • Sociability of crucial importance in leading to close attachments with mother or other major care-giver

Sociability with other infants • From around the age of 2 months infants become interested in other infants • At about 6 months smile at other infants and make noises • By 1 year use gestures with other infants, imitate each other, and laugh in the presence of other infants (Vandell & Mueller, 1980) • Studies observe infants in the same room as their mother and another infant • Becker (1977) found that infants paid more attention to the other infant than to their mother or their toys • Social behaviour increases between the ages of 6-12 months as infants are developing physical, cognitive and language skills and are better able to communicate with each other

Stage approach • Mueller and Lucas (1975) focused on early stages of the development of sociability and suggested 3 stages that infants go through • Object-centred stage: infants pay as much attention to toys as they do to each other • Simple interactive stage: infants more interested in other infants and will often try hard to influence the behaviour of another infant • Co-ordinated interactions stage (18mths>): infants gaze and smile at each other and start to co-operate to achieve common goals (e.g. games)

Sense of self and sociability • Brownwelland Carriger (1990) argued that infants need to have some sense of self to reach the last stage of co-ordinated interactions. • Assessed sense of self in two ways: • Can infant recognise itself in a mirror? (put red lipstick on head and if child recognises self will touch head when looking in a mirror) • Can infants discriminate between pictures of themselves among pictures of other infants? • Results: found that infants began to have co-ordinated interactions at about the same time as they showed evidence of a sense of self

Why are some children more sociable than others? • Ainsworth’s theory (1979): • Children who show secure attachment to their mother will tend to be more sociable than children who lack a secure attachment • Waters et al. (1979) assessed infants’ attachment behaviour at 15months and then social behaviour at 3 ½ years • Results: found that securely attached children were more sociable than those who were insecurely attached • E.g. more popular with other children, more sensitive to the feelings of other children, and more likely to initiate play activities • What do you think attachment means? How could we assess it?

Parenting style • Parent’s style of playing with their children will affect how sociable they are with other children • Vandell and Wilson (1987) studied 9mth old infants. • Found that infants whose mothers allowed them to decide what to play were more responsive when playing with other infants • MacDonald and Parke (1984) studied children between the ages of 3 and 5. • Found that children who had unfriendly interactions with other children tended to have parents who controlled playmaking by giving commands and ignoring their wishes • Summary: children tend to be more sociable if parents do not control playmaking

Genetic factors • Sociability an important part of personality • About 30-40% of individual differences in most personality traits due to genetic factors (see Eysenck, chapter 27) . • Evidence from twin studies • Matheny (1983) assessed social smiling and fear of strangers in monozygotic (identical) twins and dizygotic (fraternal) twins • Twins tested at 18months and 24months of age. At both ages the identical twins were much more similar than the fraternal twins. • Summary: findings suggest that heredity partially determines sociability in infants.

ACTIVITY • In your own words, describe three factors that influence a child’s sociability. You should refer to research evidence in your answer.

Attachment What is an attachment and how does it develop? • An attachment is ‘a close emotional relationship between two persons, characterised by mutual affection and a desire to maintain proximity (closeness).’ (Schaffer, 1993) • The first attachment that infants form is seen as crucial for healthy development and serves as the model for all later attachments • First attachment usually occurs in early stages of development between mother and child. • Strong attachments can also be formed to other people with whom the infant has regular contact (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964) e.g. Father or other main care-giver. • First attachment is the starting point for lifelong social and emotional involvements with other people.

Attachment What is an attachment and how does it develop? • Research has shown that within days of birth a baby prefers a human face and responds to human sounds more than mechanical sounds • Newborn attachment behaviours include: crying, eye-contact, grasping and being soothed • Attachment behaviour develops more in the first 2-3months with smiling, reaching, arm-waving and by the 3rd month a baby can recognise a familiar face. • Stern (1977) showed that when a mother talked to her infant, he would look intently at her face. He would then make noises but stop and wait for her to speak (or make a noise). The two form a conversation by recognising cues from each other. This is an important part of the development of attachment, and of language, and is known as mutual reciprocity. • Up to 3months babies respond equally to any carer, then begin to respond to more familiar ones. From about 6-7months they begin to show a special preference for one or two people.

Attachment Measures of attachment • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) studied the development of attachments using three different measures: • Fear of strangers: the response of an infant to the arrival of a stranger, whether or not the mother is present • Separation anxiety: the amount of distress shown by a child when separated from the mother, and the degree of comfort and happiness shown when they are reunited. • Social referencing: the degree to which a child will look to an attached figure to see how he or she responds to something new. • Ainsworth and Bell (1970) incorporated these measures into the Strange Situation procedure used on infants at around 12months old. • Child’s reactions to the stranger, separation from the mother and to being re-united with its mother are all recorded in eight different episodes.

Attachment Schaffer and Emerson (1964): Stages of attachment • 1) Asocial stage (0-6weeks): smiling and crying not directed at any specific individuals • 2) Indiscriminate attachment (6weeks-7months): infant seeks attention from different individuals, and is generally content when he or she receives attention. Does not matter who is holding the baby, smiles at anyone and protests when put down, whoever is holding them. • Specific attachment (7mths-1 year): develops one specific attachment, usually to the mother. Fear of strangers and separation anxiety are intense for about 3-4 months. • Multiple attachments (1 year onwards): can develop strong attachments to other people important in their life. • Strength of attachment due to ‘sensitive responsiveness’ that the carer shows to the infant rather than the amount of time spent with the infant.

Attachment How do attachments vary? • Infants vary in terms of the quality of the attachment bond between them and their attachment figure • Research shows that attachments can be weak or strong, insecure or secure. • Ainsworth et al, (1971, 1978) measured the quality of attachment using the Strange Situation procedure. • Infants placed in a playroom and behaviour observed during eight different episodes • Infant’s reactions to these episodes allow it to be placed in one of three categories

Attachment The eight episodes in the ‘Strange Situation’: • Mother, Infant, Observer; 30 secs; mother and infant introduced to the play room. • Mother, Infant; 3mins; Mother and infant left alone to explore room. • Stranger, Mother, Infant; 3mins; Stranger enters and talks with mother. Stranger gradually approaches infant. • Stranger, Infant; 3mins or less; Mother leaves and stranger interacts with infant • Mother, Infant; 3mins or more; mother returns, greets and comforts infant • Infant; 3mins or less; infant left alone • Stranger, infant; 3mins or less; stranger returns and attempts to interact with infant • Mother, infant; 3mins; mother returns, greets and picks up infant.

Attachment 3 categories of attachment type: • Secure attachment (type B): infant content when mother present and explored playroom but distressed in her absence and greeted her positively on her return. Stranger provided little comfort in absence of the mother but infant friendly towards them in presence of mother. Clear difference in the infant’s reactions to the mother and to the stranger. Mothers described as sensitive. Approx 70% of American infants show secure attachment. • Anxious-avoidant attachment (type A): infant does not seek contact with the mother, and shows little distress when separated from her. Infant avoids contact with the mother upon her return. The infant treats the stranger in a similar way to the mother, often avoiding him or her. Approx 20% of American infants display this attachment type of behaviour. • Anxious-resistant attachment (type C): infant seems unsure of their mother. Showed intense distress when she was absent but rejected her when she returned. These infants also showed resistance towards the stranger. These mothers appeared to behave ambivalently towards their infants. Approx 10% of American infants are resistant.

Attachment Ainsworth’s (1982) care-giving hypothesis : • Sensitivity of mother to infant’s needs and consistency of behaviour of crucial importance. • Mothers of securely attached infants very sensitive to their needs and responded to their infants in an emotionally expressive way. • Mothers of resistant infants interested, but often misunderstood their infants’ behaviour. Importantly, these mothers were inconsistent in the way they treated their infants. • Mothers of avoidant infants behaved in two different ways. Many were uninterested, often rejecting them and tending to be self-centred and rigid in their behaviour. Others acted in a suffocating way, always interacting with their infants even when the infant did not want any interaction. • A strong early attachment provides a secure base for social development. • Early attachment behaviour should predict later social and emotional development.

Attachment • Criticisms of Ainsworth’s study • Small sample size • Cultural bias • Low ecological validity • Placed infants in stressful situation • Only mother used as attachment figure • Yet, much research to support the care-giving hypothesis (Durkin, 1995) particularly emphasising the importance of maternal sensitivity and interaction style. • Strange situation test useful procedure for studying socio-emotional development in infancy and evidence suggests that secure attachment appears to predict future social competence (Stroufe et al, 1983)

Attachment • Challenges to Ainsworth • Bates, Maslin and Frankel (1985) found that attachment style at 12 months did not predict the presence of behavioural problems at 3 years of age. • Vaughn et al (1980) have shown that attachment may change depending on variations in the family circumstances suggesting that attachment types are not a permanent characteristic. • Main and Solomon (1986) argued that a small number of children displayed a fourth type of attachment referred to as disorganised (type D). These children show inconsistent behaviour, confusion and indecision and generally act as if the attachment figure and environment is fear-inducing. • Temperament hypothesis: many have criticised the care-giving hypothesis as it over emphasises the role played by the care-giver and ignores the part played by the infant. Innate differences in temperament or personality could influence the quality of attachment (Kagan, 1984). Children with a difficult temperament may have problems developing attachments (Larsen & Deiner, 1987). • Seifer et al (1996) carried out longitudinal study on infants at 6, 9, and 12 months of age. Key finding: ‘Maternal sensitivity was…unrelated to strange situation classification.

Attachment • Cross-cultural variations in attachments • Behaviour, attitudes, norms and values differ across cultures. Relationship between infants and care-givers will vary across cultures because of different child-rearing styles and beliefs about which qualities should be nurtured. • Results of 32 Strange Situation studies (UK, USA, Germany, Japan, China, Japan, Sweden, Netherlands and Israel) summarised by Van Ijzendoom and Kroonenberg (1988) • Considerable consistency in overall distribution of attachments across cultures. Secure attachment most common type. • Significant differences in distribution of insecure attachments. In Western culture dominant insecure type anxious-avoidant, in non-Western cultures, anxious-resistant. In China, both insecure types equally distributed. • Key finding: variation within cultures 1 and a half times greater than variation between cultures.

ACTIVITY: DESCRIBE AND DISCUSS THE CARE-GIVING HYPOTHESIS PROPOSED BY AINSWORTH TO EXPLAIN ATTACHMENT BEHAVIOURS.

Attachment • Theories of attachment: The Psychodynamic approach • Freud (1924) ‘The reason why the infant in arms wants to perceive the presence of its mother is only because it already knows by experience that she satisfies all its needs without delay. ‘ • Mother a source of food, comfort and warmth, already experienced in the womb. • Theory of psychosexual development: first stage oral stage lasting till 18months. Infant experiences satisfaction through oral experiences.. • Unhealthy attachments develop when infants deprived of food and oral pleasure. • Freud argued that adult personality depends on childhood experiences and the mother’s status was ‘established unalterably for a whole lifetime as the first and strongest love object and as the prototype for all later love-relations. • Emphasis on breast-feeding

Attachment • The Psychodynamic approach: Evaluation • Hypothesis: Is attachment dependent on the provision of food? • Study: Harry Harlow (1959): carried out experiments with very young rhesus monkeys separated from their mothers. • Method:Monkeys placed in a cage with two ‘surrogate mothers’ constructed from wire mesh cylinders, each with a face. One was wrapped with towelling for contact comfort and the other was bare wire. • Milk provided by wire mother for some of the monkeys, and provided by cloth mother for the others.

Results • All of the monkeys spent most of their time on the cloth mother even when she did not supply milk. • In later life monkeys were indifferent or abusive to other monkeys and had difficulty with mating and parenting. • Conclusion: innate need for contact comfort as basic as the need for food, but preferable to food comfort. • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) also found that infants were more likely to become attached to adults who were responsive to them, than those who provided only care-giving duties.

Learning Theory • Basic principle of learning theory is that all behaviour is learned as a result of either classical or operant conditioning. • Classical conditioning related to primary drives such as hunger, thirst. Involves naturally occurring reactions known as a reflex. E.g. Pavlov’s dogs. • Infants born with innate reflex responses (e.g. rooting, sucking, swallowing) • Attachment explained as person providing the food becomes associated with the food (e.g. the bell in Pavlov’s experiment) and the conditioned response (pleasure).

Operant conditioning (Skinner) related to secondary drives. Any behaviour which is reinforced (e.g. rats pressing a lever were rewarded with food) will be associated with the consequence and hence is more likely to be repeated. • Infants attachment to it’s mother may involve a secondary drive that evolves as a result of the mother providing it with food. E.g. learn to associate smiling and close contact with mother and reward of food. Hence, this type of behaviour is repeated. • Yet Harlow’s study also challenges the learning theory explanation of attachment. Food not the sole explanation.

Attachment • Social learning theory proposed by Hay and Vespo (1988) : attachment occurs because parents ‘deliberately teach their children to love them and to understand human relationships.’ • How do parents achieve these goals? • Modelling: children learn to imitate the affectionate behaviour shown by their parents • Direct instruction: parents teach their children in a direct and explicit way to attend to them and to show affection • Social facilitation: parents watch their children carefully and provide assistance as and when necessary. • Has led to detailed consideration of the interactional processes that occur between parents and children. • Yet strong emotional intensity of attachment not really explained (Durkin, 1995)

Attachment • Ethological theories of attachment • Attachment important as it ensures survival of the infant by keeping it close to its caregiver. Mother often the source of food in lactating mammals or provides suitable nourishment. Recognition of mother therefore has evolutionary value. • Konrad Lorenz (1937) studied the behaviour of Greylag geese and found that they follow the first moving object they see (usually the mother), 12-17 hours after hatching). • Process known asimprinting occurs during a short critical period and tends to be irreversible. • Lorenz believed that imprinting was switched on and off at the end of the critical period. • Imprinting occurs without any feeding taking place and challenges both the psychodynamic and learning theories of attachment. • Bonding process which occurs as a result of imprinting desirable for survival and future reproduction.

Evolutionary Theory Bowlby (1953) • Attachment is biologically pre-programmed into children at birth • Encoded in the human genes • Evolves and persists because of its adaptiveness (i.e. it is evolutionarily useful) • Emphasis on bond between mother and infant and how this influences later personality formation. • Influenced by ethological concept of imprinting and Freud’s views of the importance of maternal care. www.psychlotron.org.uk

www.psychlotron.org.uk

Evolutionary Theory • Infants emit social releasers, to which adults are biologically attuned • Physical appearance • Crying, smiling etc. • These stimulate caregiving from adults www.psychlotron.org.uk

Evolutionary Theory • Infants are programmed to attach to whomever responds to their releasing stimuli • They select one special attachment figure (monotropy), who is used as a safe base for exploring the world • The primary attachment is the template for future social relationships • Critical period during which attachment must take place: ends at some point between 1 and 3 years of age. www.psychlotron.org.uk

ATTACHMENT • Evidence for Bowlby’s theory • Klaus and Kennell (1976): sensitive period immediately after birth in which bonding can occur through skin to skin contact • Study: 2 groups of infants, one group had routine contact with mothers for feeding sessions in first three days of life, others had extended contact for several hours a day. • Mothers returned to hospital one month later: evidence that more bonding had occurred in the extended contact group. During feeding, extended-contact mothers cuddled and comforted their babies more and also maintained more eye contact with them. Difference in groups still evident one year later.

ATTACHMENT • Durkin (1995) criticised Klaus and Kennell study. Mothers in original study mostly unmarried teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds. • Cross cultural evidence: Lozoff (1983) found that mothers in cultures that encouraged early bodily contact between mother and baby were no more affectionate towards their babies than mothers from other cultures. • Also found that mothers in cultures which encourage breast-feeding did not show greater bonding with their babies than mothers in other cultures. • General view: relationship between mother and baby develops and changes over time rather being fixed shortly after birth

ATTACHMENT • Bowlby’s monotropy hypothesis: infants form only one strong attachment, typically to the mother. • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study. • Measured attachment using Strange situation procedure: • By 10 months of age: 59% of infants had formed more than one attachment. • By 18months: 87%. • Older infants were mainly attached to their mother although 30% were mainly attached to the father. • Few children only have a strong attachment to their mother as suggested by Bowlby.

ACTIVITY: • COMPILE TABLE OF DIFFERENT THEORIES OF ATTACHMENT • INCLUDE: • MAIN POINTS, • EVIDENCE FOR AND AGAINST, • ETHICAL OR METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH, • MAIN RESEARCHERS

EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION • From his own research and from the studies of Goldfarb (1943) and Spitz & Wolf (1946) of children brought up in residential care and orphanages, Bowlby combined his theory of the critical period in attachment formation with his theory of monotropy to form his • maternal deprivation hypothesis: • = breaking the maternal bond during the early years of a child’s life is likely to have serious effects on its intellectual, social, and emotional development. • = Negative effects of maternal deprivation are permanent and irreversible.

EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION • Spitz (1945), Spitz and Wolf (1946): studied children raised in very poor South American orphanages. Staff over-worked and rarely talked to or held the children. • Findings: over one-third of children died before reaching their first birthday. Many of the children showed anaclitic depression = a state involving loss of appetite and resigned helplessness. • Goldfarb (1943):compared two groups of infants from a poor orphanage. One group had spent a few months there before being fostered, the other group consisted of infants who had spent three years there before fostering. • Findings: Both groups tested at various times up till the age of 12. Infants in the group who had spent three years at the orphanage did less well than the others, were less socially mature, and were more likely to be aggressive. • Do these findings provide evidence for Bowlby’s theory? Children suffered from a lack of stimulation and attention as well as maternal deprivation.

EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION • Maternal Deprivation occurs when a child is separated from the mother. If the mother- infant attachment is broken in the first years of life, the child’s emotional and intellectual development will be permanently harmed. • Study: Bowlby (1944) 2 groups of 44 juveniles. Group 1 contained juvenile thieves and Group 2 contained juveniles who were emotionally disturbed but had no known criminal record. • Bowlby investigated the early years of all the juveniles and found that half of group 1 had been separated from their mother for longer than six months before they reached the age of 5. Only two of the juveniles in group 2 had experienced this type of separation.

Conclusions: • 32% of the juvenile thieves showed ‘affectionless psychopathy’that is they displayed a lack of guilt and remorse. Unable to care about or feel affection for others. • 64% of these had experienced deprivation in early childhood. • Bowlby concluded that anti-social behaviour of the Group 1 juveniles was due to maternal deprivation. Criticisms?

EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION • Rutter (1981): Bowlby’s finding should be reinterpreted due to important difference between deprivation and privation. • Deprivation: occurs when child has formed an important attachment, but is then separated from that attachment figure. • Privation: occurs when a child has never formed a close relationship with anyone. • Juvenile delinquents in Bowlby’s study had experienced several changes of home and principal care-giver during their early childhood. Rutter argued that their later problems were due to privation rather than deprivation. • Rutter concluded that privation leads to ‘an initial phase of clinging, dependent behaviour, followed by attention-seeking, uninhibited, indiscriminate friendliness and finally a personality characterised by lack of guilt, an inability to keep rules and an inability to form lasting friendships.’

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY