Social and emotional development the importance of attachment o Attachment strong emotional bond with others that continues over time o Lorenz geese young geese became attached to Lorenz they followed him etc Don t have to attach to mother or even same species just your primary o Bowlby infants have traits that elicit certain nurturing responses They want nurturing in order to survive o Harlow s research on monkeys video There was a wire mother monkey which contained milk and a cloth mother The baby monkey ran toward the cloth mother for comfort even though there Imprinting concept caregiver monkey with no milk was no milk there Findings The cloth mother acts as a secure base that the baby monkey runs to and then they go out and explore the world Disputed view that attachment is due to food Contact comfort is important to attachment Harlow demonstrates that an attachment bond includes Having a safe base when distressed Having a secure base for exploration Monkeys in a strange situation without a mother were terrified Attachment and temperament are important for development into adulthood o Research by Mary Ainsworth The strange situation Ainsworth researched how children reacted in strange situations She found that there were 3 categories of children Securely attached 60 of children they were upset when the mother left and ran to their mother for comfort upon her return Avoidant 20 were indifferent to the mother leaving and returning Anxious ambivalent 15 they were upset when their mother left and ran to her upon her return but then were angry at her and pushed her away Disorganized category 5 no consistent responses Deprivation of attachment o Orphanages and abuse deprive children of attachment o Romanian orphanages aggression If children were neglected they had trouble with attachment issues and If institutionalized for more than 8 months lasting emotional scars If adopted after age 2 poor attachment This illustrates a critical period Harlow s monkeys experienced the same type of effect neglect abuse or isolation led to attachment issues 30 of people who are abused will abuse their own children Do parents matter o Yes different styles of parenting impact development o Parental warmth is important o There are 3 types of parenting Permissive indulgent indifferent children have trouble with self regulation later Authoritarian my way or the highway style generally use physical discipline they parent in one way don t adjust for different children kids don t learn to self regulate because of too much parental regulation Authoritative better style of parenting have rules and structure but there is room for negotiation kids tend to regulate their own behavior Fathers matter too Daycare o Father s appropriate parenting predicts health and well being as well as the mother s o A British study found that children with involved fathers do better in school o There is no major impact on attachment if a child is enrolled in high quality daycare o Poor daycare is boring and unresponsive and does impact attachment Poverty can lead to poor daycare o Daycare produces children with slightly higher thinking language skills and aggressiveness defiance and stress hormones o Working parents compensate for not seeing their child with high quality time with them outside of work Divorce o Divorce itself does not affect children o Rather exposure to conflict or viewing domestic abuse do have a negative impact on children o Poverty and lack of the involvement by the father after the divorce also have an impact on children Not all children are the same o difficult vs easy children difficult children are more reactive to stimuli and are upset easier 25 of all children aka highly reactive easy children are less reactive and tend to be calm 25 of all children aka low reactive The rest are normal o Van den Boom did research on child temperament and found that mothers who had sensitivity training adjusted their treatment to the needs of the child and were better at parenting difficult children than mothers who had no training o Video on temperament Kagan s research Emphasis on nature vs nurture for very young children Could foreshadow at 4 months whether a child would become introverted shy or social Toys were swung in front of the child If the child thrashed its limbs and became tense and upset it was likely to become a shy child If the child was quiet and calm it was likely to become a social child This is because shy children can t handle too many stimuli and social children seek out more More research showed that when shown a toy very shy children tended to have high activity in one hemisphere of the brain very social children had high activity in the other and normal children used both hemispheres about equally Temperament and development o Temperament innate biological behavioral and emotional style o Shyness is one style that can be consistent and enduring o Goodness of fit matters you need an environment with the right amount of stimulation not too much or too little o Video on temperament and the environment Monkeys are the same way Your temperament continues as you grow older high vs low reactive If monkeys were placed with a parent with the opposite temperament of themselves they become like their parent over time nurture nature Kagan s pale grey fabric metaphor o The fabric is made up of think black and white threads that you can t distinguish much like humans who are made up of nature vs nurture you can t distinguish between the two o This shows the complexity of development