Ainsworth’s strange situation The strange situation was an experiment carried out by Mary Ainsworth to measure and test the nature of attachment between an infant and their caregiver. The strange situation (SS) was used to look at how infants react under a stressful situation e.g. separated from caregiver (causing separation anxiety) and also the presence of a stranger (stranger anxiety). Furthermore it aimed to encourage infants to explore. There were a panel of experienced judges that observed the behaviours that were observed between the infants and caregivers.
The strange situation was devised in order to measure and test the nature of attachment between an infant and their caregiver. The strange situation was used to see how infants react under stressful situations such as separation from the caregiver (causing separation anxiety) and also the presence of a stranger (stranger anxiety). It also aimed to encourage exploration by putting the infants into a novel situation and thus testing the secure base concept of Bowlby's theory of attachment. Observers watched the behaviours displayed between the infants and caregiver from behind one way mirrors and collected data every 15 seconds on various different criteria, they also measured the intensity of the behaviour on a scale of 1-7. The strange situation procedure consisted of 8 different episodes that were devised to highlight/provoke certain behaviours.
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.
When shown together there evidence provided a way of proving how levels of security in these relationships have substantial impact upon infants development. It is important to mention that the “strange situation” technique has received criticisms surrounding ethics with regards to intentionally inflicting distress upon infants by purposely separating them from their attachment figure however it has been argued that this situation is something that does occur naturally in an infants life. The ecological validity of the research and its ability to be generalised within different cultures has also been questioned as the study used only a sample of westernised participants. For Bowlby the IWM only had capacity to change in the period of infancy after this it is fixed for the rest of a persons life therefore a link should be able to be demonstrated between infant attachment classifications and adult attachment classifications. Continuing from the work of Bowlby and Ainsworth the adult attachment interview was developed by Main, here an adults ability to integrate childhood memories of relationships with attachment figures into working models of relationships was assessed identifying in accordance to Main three
His findings into attachment radically challenged the prevalent behaviourist theory of Watson of learned infant attachment in response to constant stimuli and the psychoanalytical theory of Freud that attachment was based on biological needs or ‘cupboard love’ theories as unreliable. (Custance, 2010). Within this essay I will attempt to describe both Harlow’s and Ainsworth research methods and compare and contrast their findings and criticisms. Harry Harlow’s work on attachment focused on the bond between infant and mother. Harlow wanted to investigate whether attachment was based on the ‘cupboard love’ theory of Freud and Watson or on Bowlby’s suggestion that attachment was an innate tendency in response to warmth and tactility.
Bowlby put forward the principle of monotropy, believing that the infant displays a strong innate tendency to form an attachment with one significant person, not necessarily, but usually the mother. (Gross, R. 2005). This was criticised by Rutter (1981), who claimed that the mother is not special in the way that the infant shows its attachment, as children will show a whole range of attachment behaviours towards a variety of people. Bowlby (1969), cited in Martin et al 2007 p. 546) claimed that the most important attachment behaviours are sucking, cuddling, looking, smiling and crying. According to Freud the newborn infant lives in a solipsistic world of ‘primary narcissism’ and experiences a build-up of tension with the need to suck the breast as an expression of his infantile sexuality.
Kimberly Clark What name? Once someone has a baby, the first thing they is name the baby. Within the analytical text written by Stephen Levitt; He introduces several situations that are culturally and economically related. For example Levitt provides his view upon names is that the name determines how successful that baby turns out. Whereas, in the alternative article that discredits the book ‘Freakonomics’ and Levitt’s argument; written by Dinardo he places his view on ‘Freakonomics’ and states that it is more about Levitts’ personal beliefs and thoughts and less about facts.
What is the general purpose of the study? What questions does it raise? This study centers on the concern that children, biological parents, and guardians involved in foster care visitations are inadequately prepared. The Familyconnect tool was designed to enrich visitation amongst foster children and their biological parents, as well improve the relationship between foster and biological parents. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Familyconnect tool.
Another goal of this study was to support the importance of relationships between siblings and the impact that placement in foster care (separate or apart) may have on that relationship. The study did have limitations; it ignored other family influences such as parenting, birth order, and gender differences. Positivity and negativity were assessed as separate entities in the sibling relationship. It would be helpful in future research to balance between those two entities in respect to the relationship between the siblings. The study has given insight as to how negative sibling relationships can adversely affect adjustment in foster care and how positivity between siblings can help ease behavioral problems and
If a parent was expecting a baby and maybe the other child wasn’t happy about it, we as a setting we could do role play with the dolls making references to when you have a baby brother or sister you could help mummy, you can cuddle the baby etc. This helps support the childs needs by making them feel safe and help them to understand what to expect | Psychoanalytic – Sigmund Freud | Main points of theoryTheories of personality are interesting; Sigmund Freud is particularly famous for his psychosexual theory of development which is often used to explain unconscious thoughts and actions. However this theory has not been scientifically agreed with but has helped those working with children to understand that there is a link between our mind and our unconscious actions