- Social and emotional development: the importance of attachmento Attachment: strong emotional bond with others that continues over timeo Lorenz & geese: young geese became attached to Lorenz (they followed him, etc.) Imprinting concept Don’t have to attach to mother or even same species, just your “primary caregiver”o Bowlby: infants have traits that elicit certain nurturing responses They want nurturing in order to surviveo Harlow’s research on monkeys (& video) There was a wire “mother” monkey which contained milk, and a cloth “mother” monkey with no milk The baby monkey ran toward the cloth mother for comfort even though there 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 adulthoodo 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 attachmento Orphanages and abuse deprive children of attachmento Romanian orphanages If children were neglected they had trouble with attachment issues and aggression 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 developmento Parental warmth is importanto 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 tooo 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 - Daycareo 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 daycareo Daycare produces children with slightly higher thinking/language skills and aggressiveness/defiance, and stress hormoneso Working parents compensate for not seeing their child with high-quality time with them outside of work- Divorceo Divorce itself does not affect childreno Rather, exposure to conflict, or viewing domestic abuse do have a negative impact on childreno 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 allchildren); aka “highly reactive” “easy” children are less reactive and tend to be calm (~25% of all children); aka “low reactive”) The rest are normalo 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 trainingo 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 havehigh 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 developmento Temperament: innate biological behavioral and emotional styleo Shyness is one style that can be consistent and enduringo “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 Your temperament continues as you grow older (high vs. low reactive) Monkeys are the same way 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 thin 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 twoo This shows the complexity of