Social Development
Social Development
• Up until about a year,
infants do not mind
strange people (maybe
because everyone is
strange to them).
• At about a year,
infants develop
stranger anxiety.
• Why do you think it
starts at about a
year?
Examine attachment in childhood
and its role in the subsequent
formation of relationships
Attachment
• The most important
social construct an
infant must develop is
attachment (a bond
with a caregiver).
• Lorenz discovered
that some animals
form attachment
through imprinting.
Attachment
• Harry Harlow and
his monkeys.
• Harry showed that
monkeys needed
touch to form
attachment.
Click the monkey to see a video of Harlow’s
experiment.
Attachment
• Critical Periods: the
optimal period shortly
after birth when an
organism’s exposure to
certain stimuli or
experiences produce
proper development.
• Those who are deprived of
touch have trouble forming
attachment when they are
older.
Click on the monkey to see
what a baby monkey does
when he HAS attachment and
imagine what it is like when
he does not (like above).
Bowlby's Inner Working Model
• Child develops cognitive
model (IWM) based on
quality of early parentinfant interaction
• This model influences one's
expectations about self and
relationship with others
•
•
e.g., secure child has developed an internalized
view of self as lovable and others as caring and
trustworthy
e.g., maltreated child has developed view of self as
unlovable and of others as not dependable
Mary Ainsworth and her Strange
Situation
• carried out the Ganda
Project which was an
observational study of 28
mothers interacting with
their child performed in
Uganda over nine months
(longitudinal).
• The observations were
naturalistic (in the family
living room).
Mary Ainsworth and her Strange
Situation
• She determined that
maternal sensitivity to the
infant’s signals and needs
as these were considered
to be important factors in
the development of
attachment.
• Ainsworth replicated the
study in the USA in 1971
with 26 families.
“The Strange Situation paradigm”,
• a procedure with several
sequences performed in a
laboratory to test a child’s
attachment pattern to the
mother.
1. the child’s reaction to
the mother’s departure
2. how the child reacts to
her when she returns
3. how the child reacts to a
stranger
Types of Attachment
• Three types of
attachment:
Secure Attachment
• (type B)
• 70% of American infants
• The infant shows distress
when the mother leaves
the room and quickly
seeks contact with her
when she returns.
• The infant is easily
soothed by the mother.
Ambivalent attachment
• (type C)
• 10% of American infants
• The infant shows
distress when the
mother leaves the room.
• The baby seeks contact
on her return but at the
same time rejects it.
Avoidant attachment
• (type A)
• 20% of American infants
• The infant does not
show distress when the
mother leaves the room
and avoids contact
when she returns.
• The baby is not afraid of
a stranger.
https://enjoypsych.wikispaces.com/Examine+attachment+in+childhood+and+its+rol
e+in+the+subsequent+formation+of+relationships.
Continuity in attachment patterns in
romantic love
• Does your attachment style
when you are a baby relate
to the love you feel as an
adult?
• Hazan and Shaver (1987)
suggested that romantic
love is an attachment
process which is
experienced differently by
different people because of
variations in their
attachment histories.
Hazan and Shaver
• People have formed “inner
working models” of themselves
and social interaction with
partners based on their
attachment history.
• These inner working models are
an important source of
continuity between early and
later feelings and behavior.
• In other words…we are reliving
our childhood bonds in our
adult romantic relationships.
Hazan and Shaver
Aim To investigate:
1. whether the same distribution of
childhood attachment patterns
was manifested in a study on
adult love relationships
2. whether the difference in
attachment patterns could be
linked to different attachment
histories
3. whether respondents’
descriptions of their love
relationships could be classified
as secure, avoidant, or
ambivalent.
Procedure
•
•
•
The first was a “love quiz” (survey with
forced choices) in a local newspaper.
The researchers used 620 participants
(205 males, 415 females, mean age 36,
91% were heterosexual).
The questionnaire included statements
characterizing the most important love
relationship and childhood relationship
with parents (attachment history).
Ainsworth et al.’s (1978) attachment
categories were translated into terms
appropriate to adult love. It was
assumed that beliefs about romantic
love could be measured as an “inner
working model”.
When it comes to Romantic
Relationships…
Results
• Around 56% of the
respondents classified
themselves as secure
• found in relatively easy to
get close to others
• described their relationships
as trusting
• Rarely worried about being
abandoned
• Reported much fewer
divorces
• About 20% described
themselves as
anxious/ambivalent
• Showed a preoccupation
of with love accompanied
by expectations of
rejection
• Described their
relationships as volatile
and marked by frequent
jealousy
• About 24% were
classified as avoidant
adults.
• They found it difficult to
get close to others
• Described their
relationships as lacking
intimacy and trust.
Hazan and Shaver
• Romantic Love is an
attachment process.
• Our intimate
relationships follow the
same patterns of
attachment as in
infancy.
Hazan and Shaver
• So a person who had an
Ambivalent attachment
as a baby will tend to
have romantic
relationships marked by
anxiety and ambivalence.
• So basically…people
relive their early bonding
with their parents in their
adult romantic
relationships.
Parenting Styles
• Authoritarian
Parents
• Permissive
Parents
• Authoritative
Parents