THE FIRST TWO YEARS

1
INFANCY

• THE FIRST TWO YEARS

2
CHAPTER 7

• PSYCHOSOCIAL
• DEVELOPMENT

3
QUESTIONS

• WHAT is temperament?
• WHY is attachment important?
• WHAT are Eriksons psychosocial stages for
  infancy?

4
TEMPERAMENT

• Ones inborn style of interacting with people and
  the environment

5
TEMPERAMENT

• Ones temperament influences how one reacts to
  people and how others react to the infant

6
ATTACHMENT

• Enduring social-emotional relationship between
  infants and their caregivers

7
TYPES OF ATTACHMENT

• Secure--caregiver provides comfort and confidence
• Insecure--overly dependent on or lacks confidence
  in the caregiver

8
ATTACHMENT

• The type of attachment developed in infancy may
  influence all later relationships

9
Attachment Research

• Rene Spitzs Orphanage Study
• Harry Harlows Surrogate Mother Study
• Mary Ainsworths Strange Situation Study

10
Rene Spitz

• No more convincing evidence of the absence of
  parental affection exists than that compiled by
  Rene Spitz.

11
Rene Spitz p2

• In a South American orphanage, Spitz observed and
  recorded what happened to 97 children who were
  deprived of emotional and physical contact with
  others. Because of a lack of funds, there was
  not enough staff to adequately care for these
  children, ages three months to three years old
• Nurses changed diapers, fed and bathed the
  children. But there was little time to hold,
  cuddle, and talk to them as a mother would.

12
Rene Spitz p. 3

• After 3 months, many of them showed signs of
  abnormality. Besides a loss of appetite and
  being unable to sleep well, many of the children
  lay with a vacant expression in their eyes.
• After 5 months, serious deterioration set in.
  They lay whimpering, with troubled and twisted
  faces. Often when a doctor or nurse would pick
  up an infant, it would scream in terror.

13
Rene Spitz p 4

• Twenty seven, almost 1/3, of the children died
  the first year, but not from the lack of food or
  health care. They died of a lack of touch and
  emotional nurture. Because of this, 7 more died
  the second year. Only 21 of the 97 survived,
  most suffering serious psychological damage.
• Rene Spitz,in Hospitalism An Inquire Into the
  Genesis of Psychiatric Conditions of Early
  Childhood. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 1
  (1946)53-74.

14
Harry Harlow

• The textbook Principles of General Psychology
  (1980 John Wiley sons) describes the
  experiments of Harry Harlow and associates at the
  Primate Laboratory of the University of
  Wisconsin
• In Harlows initial experiments infant monkeys
  were separated from their mothers at six to
  twelve hours after birth and were raised instead
  with substitute or surrogate mothers, made
  either of heavy wire or of wood covered with soft
  terry cloth. In one experiment both types of
  surrogates were present in the cage, but only one
  was equipped with a nipple from which the infant
  could nurse. Some infants received nourishment
  from the wire mother and others were fed from the
  cloth mother. Even when the

15
Harry Harlow p2

• wire mother was the source of nourishment, the
  infant monkey spent a greater amount of time
  clinging to the cloth surrogate.
• Unfortunately the actions of surrogate raised
  monkeys became bizarre later in life. They
  engaged in stereotyped behavior patterns such as
  clutching themselves, and rocking constantly back
  and forth they exhibited excessive and
  misdirected aggression
• Predictably The behavior of these monkeys as
  mothersthe motherless mothers as Harlow called
  themproved to be very inadequateThese mothers
  tended to be either indifferent or abusive toward
  their babies. The indifferent mothers did not
  nurse, comfort, or protect their young, but they
  did not harm them. The abusive mothers violently
  bit or otherwise injured their infants, to the
  point that many of them died.

16
Strange Situation

• The strange situation is a laboratory procedure
  used to assess infant attachment style. The
  procedure consists of the following 8 episodes.
• Parent infant are introduced to the
  experimental room.
• Parent infant are alone. Parent does not
  participate while infant explores.
• Stranger enters, converses with parent, then
  approaches infant. Parent leaves
  inconspicuously.
• First separation episode Strangers behavior is
  geared to that of infant.
• First reunion episode Parent greets and comforts
  infant, then leaves again.

17
Strange Situation p 2

• Second separation episode Infant is alone.
• Continuation of second separation episode
  Stranger enters and gears behavior to that of
  infant.
• Second reunion episode Parent enters, greets
  infant, and picks up infant stranger leaves
  inconspicuously.
• The infants behavior upon the parents return is
  the basis for classifying the infant into one of
  three attachment categories.

18
PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORYErik EriksonsStages 1
2
19
TRUST VS MISTRUST

• BIRTH TO 12 OR 18 MONTHS OF AGE
• RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT DEPENDS ON CAREGIVING

20
AUTONOMY VS DOUBT

• 12 or 18 months to 3 years
• Parental guidance and protection are key to
  gaining autonomy

21
AUTONOMY VS DOUBT

• Understanding toddlers NEED for Autonomy can
  diminish conflicts
• (Need--something essential to ones well being)

22
Chapter 7

The End