Child Development CD; Week 9 Attachment Patterns Essay Strange-Situation Method In the video, Mary Ainsworth devised what she called the strange situation experiment. This experiment is to test the different types of attachments, children age 14 months form to their caregivers or mothers. Her concern was to find the reaction and level of attachment and quality of attachment children have toward their caregivers. She is showing the behavior of a child, when a stranger is present with the mother present and when there mother leaves the room. Will the child warm up to the stranger when mom is gone?
Firstly the parent and the child would play together before the parent would sit down and let the child play on its own this would be in order to asses if and how the infant uses the parent as a secure base. Next a stranger would enter the room and start talking to the mother to observe how the child reacts to the presence of a stranger, i.e. any stranger anxiety. The parent would then leave the child and the stranger in the room and the stranger would offer the child any comfort if needed, this would test for anxiety upon separation between the child and the parent. After a short period of time the parent will re-enter the room greet the child and offer comfort if needed and the stranger will leave, the reunion behaviour will be observed here i.e.
Describe and evaluate Ainsworth's work on attachment (12 marks) In 1978 Ainsworth et al studied the reactions of young children to brief separations from their mother in order to determine the nature of attachment behaviours and types of attachments Ainsworth’s procedure is known as the strange situation. In the study she conducted she use controlled observation infants were exposed to a sequence of 3 minute-episodes. The total observation period lasted for approximately 25 minutes. First the infant and mother were introduced to the observation room by the researcher, then the researcher left the room. After a while a stranger entered and had a brief conversation with the mother.
In her essay “Kiddy Thinks,” Alison Gopnik discusses the importance of the cognitive development of children in the first few years of their life. She also attempts to break the traditional view that children, in their early stages, think quite differently than adults. Gopnik uses a logical standard of evaluation to provide information on the different stages children go through when developing important cognitive skills. She supports her information with a variety of experiments as a researcher, and personal experiences as a parent. Unfortunately, she concludes her essay with political and social issues, which weakens her argument as it drifts away from her purpose.
At the age of four 25 of them were returned to their biological families, 33 of them were adopted and 7 of them were kept in the institution and occasionally adopted. They collected the data on the adolescents by interviewing the mothers (sometimes with the father present), interviewing the children, using self – report questionnaires, having the teachers of the adolescents complete a questionnaire on their relationships with their peers and the relationship with the teacher, and finally a Rutter ‘B’ scale psychometric test that identifies psychiatric problems such as depression. Their findings had been compared to the control group of children who had not been institutionalised. The findings showed that the children who were adopted formed stronger attachments to their adoptive mothers than the ‘restored’ children did with their natural mothers. However, according to their teachers both groups of children were unsuccessful compared to the control group at forming peer relationships and tended to seek the attention and the approval of adults.
Describe and evaluate research that suggests that there are different types of attachment Mary Ainsworth (1970) preformed an experiment called ‘Strange situation’ to study how infants behaved under mild stressful situation by separation and stranger anxiety. The procedure followed 8 steps; the first was that the mother and the infant were put in a room (the laboratory where Ainsworth sat behind a stained glass observing and notating) full of toys, then a stranger walked in without any interaction with the child or mother. Soon after the mother walked out, leaving the stranger and the infant alone (separation and stranger anxiety). After a short while the mother would re-enter to greet and/or comfort, then the infant was left alone (specifically examining the behavior during separation). The stranger then enters in an attempt to comfort the child then after a short while the mother would walk in and the stranger would leave inconspicuously.
I will be explaining the principle psychological perspectives applied to the understanding of the development of individuals. One of the major theorists of cognitive development was Jean Piaget, who argued that cognitive development occurs in four different stages: 1. The sensori-motor stage (0-2 Years): during this stage children are very egocentric; they cannot see the world from the viewpoints of others. From birth to around 1 month old, infants use reflexes like rooting and sucking, relying on their five senses to explore the world around them. A couple of months on from this stage, an infant would learn to coordinate sensation with two types of schema: habit and circular reactions, causing a primary circular reaction.
They described Clara as a quiet child who has recently begun throwing temper tantrums, during which she is inconsolable. Her sleep and eating patterns have changed, and she no longer wants to go to preschool.” (University of Phoenix, (2012), para. Clinical Assessment). The information provided regarding Clara is not substantial enough to make a diagnosis or to begin a plan of action for treatment. The parents should provide information regarding when Clara was adopted; if the adoption was recent Clara may still be in an adjustment phase to her new living environment.
Q. Describe and evaluate research into individual differences in attachment (12 marks) A. Mary Ainsworth devised an assessment technique called the ‘strange situation’ which investigated the differences in attachment between a caregiver and a child. 160 middle classed infants aged 12-18 months were put under conditions of mild stress in a controlled observation. The infants were put in a controlled play room with their mother and a stranger. Throughout the set up, the infants were judged on an intensity scale of 1-7 (1 being the lowest and 7 the highest) which described their behaviour.
This then turns into general orientation, and the attachments bring their attention to each other. Research from Schaffer and Emerson show that attachment behaviours developed in stages which were loosely linked to age. Most babies started to show separation anxiety from their attachment figure at around 25 – 32weeks (6 – 8 months) indicating an attachment had been