Children’s friendship with others help them develop their emotional understanding, interaction, empathy and social skills. Children who lack friends tend to feel isolated, suffer insecurities and usually withdraw themselves more. They may struggle to communicate, share and understand the needs and feelings of others. As they grow older the insecurities may lead to self-hate and self-harm. They will also lack people to confide in or go to for advice Child neglect, often overlooked, is the most common form of child maltreatment.
Insecurity can also mean fear of abandonment or fear of being replaced. Parents may also fear that questions or criticism will put their child at a disadvantage in school. However, in most cases, the provider is the secondary attachment for the child. Guilt is another emotion parents sometimes may feel because the parents are not there as much as they should be because of work or other obligations. Parents are often show frustration at not being there and being able to help their children in addition to not getting to see them as much as the teachers do.
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.
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. There results were as followed, Ainsworth found that 22% of the infants were avoidant-insecure, 66% were classed as having a secure attachment and 12% were resistant-insecure. In conclusion the study showed that there were three significant differences between infants and their form of attachment that can be placed in three categories. Also that the mother’s behavior may be significant in determining the infants attachment type as there was an association between the mother’s behavior and the child’s. Although this research has helped many psychologists (Erickson et al, Everett waters) with their experiments this one may not be very valid, because the results may not apply to infants with different cultures and beliefs, therefore we cannot generalize the results as it was only tested on middle-class US children.
Discuss Research Into Different Types Of Attachment Mary Ainsworth did a study and designed an experiment to assess different types of attachment between infants and caregiver. Ainsworth did a “strange situation” study which involved observing children between the ages of 12 to 18 months responding to situation in which they were briefly left alone and then reunited with their mother. The experiment was a controlled observation done by using video cameras in a purpose built laboratory playroom. From the strange situation study they found both similarities and differences in the ways that infants behaved. In terms of similarities they noted that proximity-seeking and contact maintaining behaviour intensified during separation and when the stranger appeared whereas resisting and avoiding behaviours occurred rarely towards the caregiver prior to separation.
For example, when the child was abused, he did not get a chance to deal with his emotions; this caused the child to subconsciously hide his ability to trust in the shadow. Finally, there is the stage of rationalization. This involves a courier of emotions and memories known as the” animus”. The role of the animus is to help retrieve memories from shadow to help rationalize the fear and help the psyche function in a normal way. For instance, the child finally understands that his parents didn’t abuse him, but
For example if a father leaves the mother unexpectedly and the mother cannot cope looking after the child on her own then the child will be optionally put in care or a care order put in place. Once a family have a breakdown this can put a lot of stress on individuals in the family including the children. The children may struggle with their situation and begin to show signs of behavioural problems, this will stress the single parent and then the child once again may be optionally or forced to be put into care. • Suspected abuse- if there are signs that the parents are abusing the child this can be from physical, emotional, social and intellectual abuse then this would be another reason for the child to have a care order put in
The Strange Situation procedure was formulated to observe attachment relationships between a caregiver and children between the age of nine and 18 months. It was developed by Mary Ainsworth, a developmental psychologist. Originally it was devised to enable children to be classified into the attachment styles known as secure, anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent. As research accumulated and atypical patterns of attachment became more apparent it was further developed by Main and Solomon in 1986 and 1990 to include the new category of disorganized/disoriented attachment. In this procedure the child is observed playing for 20 minutes while caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room, recreating the flow of the familiar and unfamiliar presence in most children's lives.
Outline and evaluate into individual differences in attachment. The Strange Situation (SS) is a controlled observation, 12-18 month old infants were left in a room with their mother. Eight different scenarios occurred, including being approached by a stranger, the infant being left alone, the mother returning, etc. The infant’s reactions were constantly observed. Say about background of SS & who designed it, where it was.
As mothers, especially for the first time, our life are turned completely upside down. It can cause us to go through extreme crisis change. If is not treated the proper way, it can cause major problem on how our baby can develop cognitively and emotionally. Research has shown that mothers who suffer from postpartum are less sensitive to their babies than mothers who do not which can cause the infant to pretty much give up on the world and feel that it is a very