DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

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DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

• WEEK ONE
• What is developmental psychology?
• Influences on development
• Early socialisation
• WEEK TWO
• Development of attachments
• WEEK THREE
• The effects of deprivation and separation

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What is developmental psychology?

• Historical and social background
• Study of development motivated by social and
  economic changes
• Industrial revolution in 19thC led to need for
  basic literacy and numeracy in factories
• Important to study mind of child so that
  education could be more effective
• Social factors e.g. better hygiene and control of
  childhood diseases

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What is developmental psychology?

• Historical and social background
• Adolescence as a distinct stage between childhood
  and adulthood defined by biological, historical
  and cultural changes.
• Western society became wealthy enough to protect
  child from adult responsibilities and increased
  period of education
• Social and medical advances have led to people
  living longer and in better health, raises
  important issues about the psychology of ageing

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What is developmental psychology?

• Developmental psychology concerned with the
  scientific understanding of age-related changes
  in experience and behaviour
• Four categories
• Physical- development of anatomy and physiology.
  
• Cognitive (or intellectual)- concerned with the
  development of cognitive processes e.g.
  perception, attention, language, memory and
  thinking (problem-solving)
• Social- looks at socialisation, child-rearing
  practices, groups and peer group influences
• Emotional- related to social development, also
  personality, temperament and identity.
• Categories interdependent e.g. social changes
  occur in parallel with physical changes in
  adolescence

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What is developmental psychology?

• Lifespan development
• Infancy
• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Adulthood
• Old age
• Development a continuous and dynamic process.
• Transition from one stage to the next always very
  gradual and difficult to detect on a daily basis.
• Physical maturity development complete?

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Influences on development

• Biological influences
• Genetic blueprint programmed physical and
  physiological development for individual
  (maturation) which starts at conception
• Progressive rate of development same for all
  children (within a range) and is genetically
  programmed.
• Motor skills and behaviours can only be developed
  and learned when individuals are maturationally,
  or biologically, ready.
• Jean Piaget suggested that maturation might
  be more important than motivation in learning.

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Influences on development

• Environmental influences
• The childhood shows the man, as morning shows
  the day Milton
• Importance of early experiences in development
• Family, school, culture
• How early do these experiences exert an influence
  e.g. is a mothers behaviour while child in the
  womb important ?
• Nature-nurture debate
• Development occurs through an interaction of
  biological factors (genetic programming) and
  social factors (quality of the environment)
• Discuss

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Early Socialisation

• Much of infants early learning is in the area of
  social development-two important aspects of this
  learning are sociability and attachment.
• Sociability the tendency to interact in a
  friendly and positive way with other people
• Attachment a fairly strong and long lasting
  emotional tie to one person
• Important to study the processes involved in the
  development of sociability and attachment.
• Activity In pairs, spend 5 minutes or so
  discussing the following questions
• Why are these forms of learning so important
  early on?
• What factors do you think influence the
  development of sociability and attachment?

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Early Socialisation

• Socialisation
• the process by which a societys behaviour
  patterns, standards and beliefs are transmitted
  from one individual to another. (Schaffer, 1995)
• As children interact with, and become like other
  members of their culture, they acquire the
  knowledge, skills, motives and aspirations that
  should enable them to adapt to their environment
  and function effectively within their
  communities.
• Sociability
• a childs willingness to engage others in social
  interaction, and to seek their attention or
  approval. (Schaffer, 1989)
• general tendency to want and seek the company of
  others a prerequisite for the development of
  attachments

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Sociability with care-givers

• Signs of sociability (e.g. smiling,
  attention-seeking) begin from an early age
  (Durkin, 1995)
• 2 day old infants can recognise their mothers
  (Bushnell, Sai and Mullin, 1989).
• Two thirds of babies preferred their mother over
  a female stranger, indicating they had some
  ability to recognise their own mothers
• Sociability of crucial importance in leading to
  close attachments with mother or other major
  care-giver

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Sociability with other infants

• From around the age of 2 months infants become
  interested in other infants
• At about 6 months smile at other infants and make
  noises
• By 1 year use gestures with other infants,
  imitate each other, and laugh in the presence of
  other infants (Vandell Mueller, 1980)
• Studies observe infants in the same room as their
  mother and another infant
• Becker (1977) found that infants paid more
  attention to the other infant than to their
  mother or their toys
• Social behaviour increases between the ages of
  6-12 months as infants are developing physical,
  cognitive and language skills and are better able
  to communicate with each other

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Stage approach

• Mueller and Lucas (1975) focused on early stages
  of the development of sociability and suggested
  3 stages that infants go through
• Object-centred stage infants pay as much
  attention to toys as they do to each other
• Simple interactive stage infants more interested
  in other infants and will often try hard to
  influence the behaviour of another infant
• Co-ordinated interactions stage (18mthsgt)
  infants gaze and smile at each other and start to
  co-operate to achieve common goals (e.g. games)

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Sense of self and sociability

• Brownwell and Carriger (1990) argued that infants
  need to have some sense of self to reach the last
  stage of co-ordinated interactions.
• Assessed sense of self in two ways
• Can infant recognise itself in a mirror? (put red
  lipstick on head and if child recognises self
  will touch head when looking in a mirror)
• Can infants discriminate between pictures of
  themselves among pictures of other infants?
• Results found that infants began to have
  co-ordinated interactions at about the same time
  as they showed evidence of a sense of self

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Why are some children more sociable than others?

• Ainsworths theory (1979)
• Children who show secure attachment to their
  mother will tend to be more sociable than
  children who lack a secure attachment
• Waters et al. (1979) assessed infants attachment
  behaviour at 15months and then social behaviour
  at 3 ½ years
• Results found that securely attached children
  were more sociable than those who were insecurely
  attached
• E.g. more popular with other children, more
  sensitive to the feelings of other children, and
  more likely to initiate play activities
• What do you think attachment means? How could we
  assess it?

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Parenting style

• Parents style of playing with their children
  will affect how sociable they are with other
  children
• Vandell and Wilson (1987) studied 9mth old
  infants.
• Found that infants whose mothers allowed them to
  decide what to play were more responsive when
  playing with other infants
• MacDonald and Parke (1984) studied children
  between the ages of 3 and 5.
• Found that children who had unfriendly
  interactions with other children tended to have
  parents who controlled playmaking by giving
  commands and ignoring their wishes
• Summary children tend to be more sociable if
  parents do not control playmaking

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Genetic factors

• Sociability an important part of personality
• About 30-40 of individual differences in most
  personality traits due to genetic factors (see
  Eysenck, chapter 27) .
• Evidence from twin studies
• Matheny (1983) assessed social smiling and fear
  of strangers in monozygotic (identical) twins and
  dizygotic (fraternal) twins
• Twins tested at 18months and 24months of age. At
  both ages the identical twins were much more
  similar than the fraternal twins.
• Summary findings suggest that heredity partially
  determines sociability in infants.

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ACTIVITY

• In your own words, describe three factors that
  influence a childs sociability. You should
  refer to research evidence in your answer.

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Attachment

• What is an attachment and how does it develop?
• An attachment is a close emotional relationship
  between two persons, characterised by mutual
  affection and a desire to maintain proximity
  (closeness). (Schaffer, 1993)
• The first attachment that infants form is seen as
  crucial for healthy development and serves as the
  model for all later attachments
• First attachment usually occurs in early stages
  of development between mother and child.
• Strong attachments can also be formed to other
  people with whom the infant has regular contact
  (Schaffer Emerson, 1964) e.g. Father or other
  main care-giver.
• First attachment is the starting point for
  lifelong social and emotional involvements with
  other people.

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Attachment

• What is an attachment and how does it develop?
• Research has shown that within days of birth a
  baby prefers a human face and responds to human
  sounds more than mechanical sounds
• Newborn attachment behaviours include crying,
  eye-contact, grasping and being soothed
• Attachment behaviour develops more in the first
  2-3months with smiling, reaching, arm-waving and
  by the 3rd month a baby can recognise a familiar
  face.
• Stern (1977) showed that when a mother talked to
  her infant, he would look intently at her face.
  He would then make noises but stop and wait for
  her to speak (or make a noise). The two form a
  conversation by recognising cues from each other.
  This is an important part of the development of
  attachment, and of language, and is known as
  mutual reciprocity.
• Up to 3months babies respond equally to any
  carer, then begin to respond to more familiar
  ones. From about 6-7months they begin to show a
  special preference for one or two people.

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Attachment

• Measures of attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) studied the
  development of attachments using three different
  measures
• Fear of strangers the response of an infant to
  the arrival of a stranger, whether or not the
  mother is present
• Separation anxiety the amount of distress shown
  by a child when separated from the mother, and
  the degree of comfort and happiness shown when
  they are reunited.
• Social referencing the degree to which a child
  will look to an attached figure to see how he or
  she responds to something new.
• Ainsworth and Bell (1970) incorporated these
  measures into the Strange Situation procedure
  used on infants at around 12months old.
• Childs reactions to the stranger, separation
  from the mother and to being re-united with its
  mother are all recorded in eight different
  episodes.

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Attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) Stages of attachment
• 1) Asocial stage (0-6weeks) smiling and crying
  not directed at any specific individuals
• 2) Indiscriminate attachment (6weeks-7months)
  infant seeks attention from different
  individuals, and is generally content when he or
  she receives attention. Does not matter who is
  holding the baby, smiles at anyone and protests
  when put down, whoever is holding them.
• Specific attachment (7mths-1 year) develops one
  specific attachment, usually to the mother. Fear
  of strangers and separation anxiety are intense
  for about 3-4 months.
• Multiple attachments (1 year onwards) can
  develop strong attachments to other people
  important in their life.
• Strength of attachment due to sensitive
  responsiveness that the carer shows to the
  infant rather than the amount of time spent with
  the infant.

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Attachment

• How do attachments vary?
• Infants vary in terms of the quality of the
  attachment bond between them and their attachment
  figure
• Research shows that attachments can be weak or
  strong, insecure or secure.
• Ainsworth et al, (1971, 1978) measured the
  quality of attachment using the Strange Situation
  procedure.
• Infants placed in a playroom and behaviour
  observed during eight different episodes
• Infants reactions to these episodes allow it to
  be placed in one of three categories

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Attachment

• The eight episodes in the Strange Situation
• Mother, Infant, Observer 30 secs mother and
  infant introduced to the play room.
• Mother, Infant 3mins Mother and infant left
  alone to explore room.
• Stranger, Mother, Infant 3mins Stranger enters
  and talks with mother. Stranger gradually
  approaches infant.
• Stranger, Infant 3mins or less Mother leaves
  and stranger interacts with infant
• Mother, Infant 3mins or more mother returns,
  greets and comforts infant
• Infant 3mins or less infant left alone
• Stranger, infant 3mins or less stranger returns
  and attempts to interact with infant
• Mother, infant 3mins mother returns, greets and
  picks up infant.

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Attachment

• 3 categories of attachment type
• Secure attachment (type B) infant content when
  mother present and explored playroom but
  distressed in her absence and greeted her
  positively on her return. Stranger provided
  little comfort in absence of the mother but
  infant friendly towards them in presence of
  mother. Clear difference in the infants
  reactions to the mother and to the stranger.
  Mothers described as sensitive. Approx 70 of
  American infants show secure attachment.
• Anxious-avoidant attachment (type A) infant does
  not seek contact with the mother, and shows
  little distress when separated from her. Infant
  avoids contact with the mother upon her return.
  The infant treats the stranger in a similar way
  to the mother, often avoiding him or her. Approx
  20 of American infants display this attachment
  type of behaviour.
• Anxious-resistant attachment (type C) infant
  seems unsure of their mother. Showed intense
  distress when she was absent but rejected her
  when she returned. These infants also showed
  resistance towards the stranger. These mothers
  appeared to behave ambivalently towards their
  infants. Approx 10 of American infants are
  resistant.

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Attachment

• Ainsworths (1982) care-giving hypothesis
• Sensitivity of mother to infants needs and
  consistency of behaviour of crucial importance.
• Mothers of securely attached infants very
  sensitive to their needs and responded to their
  infants in an emotionally expressive way.
• Mothers of resistant infants interested, but
  often misunderstood their infants behaviour.
  Importantly, these mothers were inconsistent in
  the way they treated their infants.
• Mothers of avoidant infants behaved in two
  different ways. Many were uninterested, often
  rejecting them and tending to be self-centred and
  rigid in their behaviour. Others acted in a
  suffocating way, always interacting with their
  infants even when the infant did not want any
  interaction.
• A strong early attachment provides a secure base
  for social development.
• Early attachment behaviour should predict later
  social and emotional development.

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Attachment

• Criticisms of Ainsworths study
• Small sample size
• Cultural bias
• Low ecological validity
• Placed infants in stressful situation
• Only mother used as attachment figure
• Yet, much research to support the care-giving
  hypothesis (Durkin, 1995) particularly
  emphasising the importance of maternal
  sensitivity and interaction style.
• Strange situation test useful procedure for
  studying socio-emotional development in infancy
  and evidence suggests that secure attachment
  appears to predict future social competence
  (Stroufe et al, 1983)

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Attachment

• Challenges to Ainsworth
• Bates, Maslin and Frankel (1985) found that
  attachment style at 12 months did not predict the
  presence of behavioural problems at 3 years of
  age.
• Vaughn et al (1980) have shown that attachment
  may change depending on variations in the family
  circumstances suggesting that attachment types
  are not a permanent characteristic.
• Main and Solomon (1986) argued that a small
  number of children displayed a fourth type of
  attachment referred to as disorganised (type D).
  These children show inconsistent behaviour,
  confusion and indecision and generally act as if
  the attachment figure and environment is
  fear-inducing.
• Temperament hypothesis many have criticised the
  care-giving hypothesis as it over emphasises the
  role played by the care-giver and ignores the
  part played by the infant. Innate differences in
  temperament or personality could influence the
  quality of attachment (Kagan, 1984). Children
  with a difficult temperament may have problems
  developing attachments (Larsen Deiner, 1987).
  
• Seifer et al (1996) carried out longitudinal
  study on infants at 6, 9, and 12 months of age.
  Key finding Maternal sensitivity wasunrelated
  to strange situation classification.

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Attachment

• Cross-cultural variations in attachments
• Behaviour, attitudes, norms and values differ
  across cultures. Relationship between infants and
  care-givers will vary across cultures because of
  different child-rearing styles and beliefs about
  which qualities should be nurtured.
• Results of 32 Strange Situation studies (UK, USA,
  Germany, Japan, China, Japan, Sweden, Netherlands
  and Israel) summarised by Van Ijzendoom and
  Kroonenberg (1988)
• Considerable consistency in overall distribution
  of attachments across cultures. Secure
  attachment most common type.
• Significant differences in distribution of
  insecure attachments. In Western culture
  dominant insecure type anxious-avoidant, in
  non-Western cultures, anxious-resistant. In
  China, both insecure types equally distributed.
• Key finding variation within cultures 1 and a
  half times greater than variation between
  cultures.

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• ACTIVITY DESCRIBE AND DISCUSS THE CARE-GIVING
  HYPOTHESIS PROPOSED BY AINSWORTH TO EXPLAIN
  ATTACHMENT BEHAVIOURS.

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Attachment

• Theories of attachment The Psychodynamic
  approach
• Freud (1924) The reason why the infant in arms
  wants to perceive the presence of its mother is
  only because it already knows by experience that
  she satisfies all its needs without delay.
• Mother a source of food, comfort and warmth,
  already experienced in the womb.
• Theory of psychosexual development first stage
  oral stage lasting till 18months. Infant
  experiences satisfaction through oral
  experiences..
• Unhealthy attachments develop when infants
  deprived of food and oral pleasure.
• Freud argued that adult personality depends on
  childhood experiences and the mothers status was
  established unalterably for a whole lifetime as
  the first and strongest love object and as the
  prototype for all later love-relations.
• Emphasis on breast-feeding

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Attachment

• The Psychodynamic approach Evaluation
• Hypothesis Is attachment dependent on the
  provision of food?
• Study Harry Harlow (1959) carried out
  experiments with very young rhesus monkeys
  separated from their mothers.
• Method Monkeys placed in a cage with two
  surrogate mothers constructed from wire mesh
  cylinders, each with a face. One was wrapped
  with towelling for contact comfort and the other
  was bare wire.
• Milk provided by wire mother for some of the
  monkeys, and provided by cloth mother for the
  others.

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Results

• All of the monkeys spent most of their time on
  the cloth mother even when she did not supply
  milk.
• In later life monkeys were indifferent or abusive
  to other monkeys and had difficulty with mating
  and parenting.
• Conclusion innate need for contact comfort as
  basic as the need for food, but preferable to
  food comfort.
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) also found that
  infants were more likely to become attached to
  adults who were responsive to them, than those
  who provided only care-giving duties.

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Learning Theory

• Basic principle of learning theory is that all
  behaviour is learned as a result of either
  classical or operant conditioning.
• Classical conditioning related to primary drives
  such as hunger, thirst. Involves naturally
  occurring reactions known as a reflex. E.g.
  Pavlovs dogs.
• Infants born with innate reflex responses (e.g.
  rooting, sucking, swallowing)
• Attachment explained as person providing the food
  becomes associated with the food (e.g. the bell
  in Pavlovs experiment) and the conditioned
  response (pleasure).

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• Operant conditioning (Skinner) related to
  secondary drives. Any behaviour which is
  reinforced (e.g. rats pressing a lever were
  rewarded with food) will be associated with the
  consequence and hence is more likely to be
  repeated.
• Infants attachment to its mother may involve a
  secondary drive that evolves as a result of the
  mother providing it with food. E.g. learn to
  associate smiling and close contact with mother
  and reward of food. Hence, this type of behaviour
  is repeated.
• Yet Harlows study also challenges the learning
  theory explanation of attachment. Food not the
  sole explanation.

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Attachment

• Social learning theory proposed by Hay and Vespo
  (1988) attachment occurs because parents
  deliberately teach their children to love them
  and to understand human relationships.
• How do parents achieve these goals?
• Modelling children learn to imitate the
  affectionate behaviour shown by their parents
• Direct instruction parents teach their children
  in a direct and explicit way to attend to them
  and to show affection
• Social facilitation parents watch their children
  carefully and provide assistance as and when
  necessary.
• Has led to detailed consideration of the
  interactional processes that occur between
  parents and children.
• Yet strong emotional intensity of attachment not
  really explained (Durkin, 1995)

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Attachment

• Ethological theories of attachment
• Attachment important as it ensures survival of
  the infant by keeping it close to its caregiver.
  Mother often the source of food in lactating
  mammals or provides suitable nourishment.
  Recognition of mother therefore has evolutionary
  value.
• Konrad Lorenz (1937) studied the behaviour of
  Greylag geese and found that they follow the
  first moving object they see (usually the
  mother), 12-17 hours after hatching).
• Process known as imprinting occurs during a short
  critical period and tends to be irreversible.
• Lorenz believed that imprinting was switched on
  and off at the end of the critical period.
• Imprinting occurs without any feeding taking
  place and challenges both the psychodynamic and
  learning theories of attachment.
• Bonding process which occurs as a result of
  imprinting desirable for survival and future
  reproduction.

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Evolutionary Theory Bowlby (1953)

• Attachment is biologically pre-programmed into
  children at birth
• Encoded in the human genes
• Evolves and persists because of its adaptiveness
  (i.e. it is evolutionarily useful)
• Emphasis on bond between mother and infant and
  how this influences later personality formation.
• Influenced by ethological concept of imprinting
  and Freuds views of the importance of maternal
  care.

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Evolutionary Theory

• Infants emit social releasers, to which adults
  are biologically attuned
• Physical appearance
• Crying, smiling etc.
• These stimulate caregiving from adults

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Evolutionary Theory

• Infants are programmed to attach to whomever
  responds to their releasing stimuli
• They select one special attachment figure
  (monotropy), who is used as a safe base for
  exploring the world
• The primary attachment is the template for future
  social relationships
• Critical period during which attachment must take
  place ends at some point between 1 and 3 years
  of age.

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ATTACHMENT

• Evidence for Bowlbys theory
• Klaus and Kennell (1976) sensitive period
  immediately after birth in which bonding can
  occur through skin to skin contact
• Study 2 groups of infants, one group had routine
  contact with mothers for feeding sessions in
  first three days of life, others had extended
  contact for several hours a day.
• Mothers returned to hospital one month later
  evidence that more bonding had occurred in the
  extended contact group. During feeding,
  extended-contact mothers cuddled and comforted
  their babies more and also maintained more eye
  contact with them. Difference in groups still
  evident one year later.

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ATTACHMENT

• Durkin (1995) criticised Klaus and Kennell study.
  Mothers in original study mostly unmarried
  teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Cross cultural evidence Lozoff (1983) found that
  mothers in cultures that encouraged early bodily
  contact between mother and baby were no more
  affectionate towards their babies than mothers
  from other cultures.
• Also found that mothers in cultures which
  encourage breast-feeding did not show greater
  bonding with their babies than mothers in other
  cultures.
• General view relationship between mother and
  baby develops and changes over time rather being
  fixed shortly after birth

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ATTACHMENT

• Bowlbys monotropy hypothesis infants form only
  one strong attachment, typically to the mother.
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study.
• Measured attachment using Strange situation
  procedure
• By 10 months of age 59 of infants had formed
  more than one attachment.
• By 18months 87.
• Older infants were mainly attached to their
  mother although 30 were mainly attached to the
  father.
• Few children only have a strong attachment to
  their mother as suggested by Bowlby.

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ACTIVITY

• COMPILE TABLE OF DIFFERENT THEORIES OF
  ATTACHMENT
• INCLUDE
• MAIN POINTS,
• EVIDENCE FOR AND AGAINST,
• ETHICAL OR METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH,
• MAIN RESEARCHERS

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EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION

• From his own research and from the studies of
  Goldfarb (1943) and Spitz Wolf (1946) of
  children brought up in residential care and
  orphanages, Bowlby combined his theory of the
  critical period in attachment formation with his
  theory of monotropy to form his
• maternal deprivation hypothesis
• breaking the maternal bond during the early
  years of a childs life is likely to have serious
  effects on its intellectual, social, and
  emotional development.
• Negative effects of maternal deprivation are
  permanent and irreversible.

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EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION

• Spitz (1945), Spitz and Wolf (1946) studied
  children raised in very poor South American
  orphanages. Staff over-worked and rarely talked
  to or held the children.
• Findings over one-third of children died before
  reaching their first birthday. Many of the
  children showed anaclitic depression a state
  involving loss of appetite and resigned
  helplessness.
• Goldfarb (1943) compared two groups of infants
  from a poor orphanage. One group had spent a few
  months there before being fostered, the other
  group consisted of infants who had spent three
  years there before fostering.
• Findings Both groups tested at various times up
  till the age of 12. Infants in the group who had
  spent three years at the orphanage did less well
  than the others, were less socially mature, and
  were more likely to be aggressive.
• Do these findings provide evidence for Bowlbys
  theory? Children suffered from a lack of
  stimulation and attention as well as maternal
  deprivation.

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EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION

• Maternal Deprivation occurs when a child is
  separated from the mother. If the mother- infant
  attachment is broken in the first years of life,
  the childs emotional and intellectual
  development will be permanently harmed.
• Study Bowlby (1944) 2 groups of 44 juveniles.
  Group 1 contained juvenile thieves and Group 2
  contained juveniles who were emotionally
  disturbed but had no known criminal record.
• Bowlby investigated the early years of all the
  juveniles and found that half of group 1 had been
  separated from their mother for longer than six
  months before they reached the age of 5. Only two
  of the juveniles in group 2 had experienced this
  type of separation.

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• Conclusions
• 32 of the juvenile thieves showed affectionless
  psychopathy that is they displayed a lack of
  guilt and remorse. Unable to care about or feel
  affection for others.
• 64 of these had experienced deprivation in
  early childhood.
• Bowlby concluded that anti-social behaviour of
  the Group 1 juveniles was due to maternal
  deprivation. Criticisms?

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EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION

• Rutter (1981) Bowlbys finding should be
  reinterpreted due to important difference between
  deprivation and privation.
• Deprivation occurs when child has formed an
  important attachment, but is then separated from
  that attachment figure.
• Privation occurs when a child has never formed a
  close relationship with anyone.
• Juvenile delinquents in Bowlbys study had
  experienced several changes of home and principal
  care-giver during their early childhood. Rutter
  argued that their later problems were due to
  privation rather than deprivation.
• Rutter concluded that privation leads to an
  initial phase of clinging, dependent behaviour,
  followed by attention-seeking, uninhibited,
  indiscriminate friendliness and finally a
  personality characterised by lack of guilt, an
  inability to keep rules and an inability to form
  lasting friendships.

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Short-term Effects of Maternal Deprivation

• Occur when the child is separated from any
  attached figure and these last a few months.
• Robertson and Bowlby (1952) studied young
  children, separated from their mother for some
  time, often because she had gone into hospital.
• 3 different behaviours shown in young children
• Distress - the child cries, protests and shows
  physical agitation
• Despair - the child is miserable and listless
• Detachment - the child seems to have accepted the
  situation and shows little interest when reunited
  with the attached figure.
•  
• Not all children go through the 3 stages and
  there are differences between them in terms of
  how much distress is experienced.
•  

52
Short-term Effects of Maternal Deprivation

• Stacey et al. (1970) -good previous separations
  help the child to cope with subsequent
  separations and to become more independent and
  self-sufficient.
• Robertson and Robertson (1971) - if steps taken
  to minimise distress such as becoming familiar
  with new surroundings before separation takes
  place and sticking to established daily routine
  then children show less distress.
• Rutter (1972) - during a separation, child is
  often in a strange environment, with strange
  routines and strange people. Importance of
  familiar objects. A child who has experienced a
  happy separation will show much less distress in
  unhappy separations, for example, a hospital
  stay.

53
How can Studies on the Short-term Effects of
Maternal Deprivation be Applied?

• Importance of good quality day care
• Mayall and Petrie (1977) studied 39 registered
  child-minders in inner London.
• - found that quality of care varied considerably.
  In some settings, although the childs physical
  needs were adequately met, there was little
  evidence of stimulation or involvement with the
  children.
• Findings these children showed less security
  than at home, and lower intellectual abilities
  than would be expected.

54
EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION

•  
• Kagan et al (1980) - looked at children who were
  in day care for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week,
  over 5 years (longitudinal study). The children
  were tested at intervals for cognitive
  development, social development and attachment to
  the mother.
• Results no difference between the day care
  children when they were compared to a control
  group of children cared for at home provided that
  the day care facilities
• were staffed by experienced carers with frequent
  and lengthy personal contact between child and
  adult
• had good child-to-child carer ratio with low
  staff turnover and familiar routines
• had appropriate equipment and stimulating
  activities.
•  Conclusion good quality day care has no serious
  negative effect on childrens development.

55
EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION

• So what are the Effects of Poor Quality Day Care?
• Howes (1990) studied children entering poor
  quality day care before the age of 12 months, and
  who stayed there throughout the pre-school
  period.
• They were then assessed at school. Teachers rated
  these children as being easily distracted, with
  difficulties focusing on an activity and becoming
  involved in it. They were also less considerate
  of others, than children who had not experienced
  day care.
• Conclusions - poor quality day care is associated
  with a lack of the skills necessary for cognitive
  development, and poor social relationships with
  other children.

56
DAY CARE RECOMMENDATIONS
57
Long Term Effects of Deprivation/Privation

•  
• Rutter (1981) suggested that the effects of
  deprivation depend on the precise reasons for the
  separation.
•  
• - studied boys between 9 and 12 years of age who
  had experienced a separation when they were much
  younger.
• Found that well-adjusted boys separated because
  of factors such as housing problems or physical
  illness. Maladjusted boys separated because of
  problems with social relationships within the
  family.
•  

58
ACTIVITY

• Read Hodges Tizard (1989) on p.18 of the
  textbook and summarise the aim, method, results,
  conclusion and evaluation.
•  

59
EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION AND SEPARATION

• A few researchers have looked at the effects of
  very extreme privation and isolation on children
• Koluchova (1976) studied identical twins in
  Czechoslavakia who had spent most of the first
  seven years of their lives locked in a cellar.
  The twins were barely able to talk and relied on
  hand gestures rather than speech. The twins were
  fostered at about age 9 and by the age of 14
  their behaviour was essentially normal.
• Curtiss (1989) reported the case study of Genie
  who spent most of her life locked in a room at
  her home. She had very little contact with anyone
  and was discouraged from making any sounds. She
  was found in 1970 aged 13 years.
•  
• Genie was unable to speak and did not understand
  language.
•  
• After considerable education she was able to
  perform tasks which did not require language. Her
  language skills did not reach normal adult
  levels.

60
SUMMARY

• evidence indicates most of the adverse effects of
  maternal deprivation or privation can be
  reversed, and that children are more resilient
  than Bowlby believed.
• However, the case of Genie suggests that the
  ability to develop language skills may be
  partially lost if language development is held
  back during early childhood.

61
Development of Child-Rearing and Parenting Skills

• Different styles of parenting affect the biology,
  growth, health, cognitive development and
  psychological well-being of the child.
•  
• The interaction of different styles of
  child-rearing was studied by Baumrind (1972)
•  
• Three main styles were found
• Permissive parenting - high in nurturance, low in
  parental expectation, control and communication.
• Authoritarian parenting - high in control and
  expectation but low in nurturance and
  communication
• Authoritative parenting - high on all four
  characteristics.

62
Development of Child-Rearing and Parenting Skills

• Steinberg and Dornbusch (1992) carried out a
  longitudinal study of high school children in the
  US. Concluded that
• Children are affected by parental style and this
  may persist into adulthood
• Children respond positively to parents who are
  both affectionate and firm (authoritative)
• Parental styles and peer groups interact with the
  dominant culture in which the child develops.

63
Cultural Variation

•  
• Konner (1977) reported that in Botswana the
  Zhun/twasi people hardly ever let their babies
  cry. This seems to be because the infants live in
  the same room as the rest of the family. As a
  result, the infants are breast-fed at the
  slightest sign of distress.
• Parents can exercise varying degrees of
  discipline in child rearing. American and Western
  children see harsh discipline and strict control
  as hostile and rejecting.
• Conversely, for Japanese and Korean children this
  behaviour is seen as a sign that the parents
  care. If however, these children are then exposed
  to the more permissive parenting, their
  perception changes.
•  

64
Cultural Values

• Individualistic cultures (e.g. UK, USA) focus on
  personal achievement, whereas collectivistic
  cultures (e.g. China) focus on group effort and
  co-operation.
• Parents in collectivistic societies tend to be
  relatively demanding, because they want their
  children to become co-operative and obedient
  members of society.
• Parents in individualistic societies tend to be
  permissive, to encourage their children to become
  independent.

65
Social Variation

•  
• It is possible that the socio-economic status of
  families may affect different patterns of child
  rearing. This may be due, in part, to the
  parental expectations for their childs future
  job.
•  
• Working-class parents are more likely to
  emphasise obedience, neatness and good manners
  (Kohn, 1977) but the children are less likely to
  be confident about their future.
• Middle class parents have higher expectations for
  their childrens future and the children tend to
  develop a more positive and optimistic attitude.
•   
• Health visitors and social workers should be able
  to identify parents who are struggling with
  parenting or children who are showing evidence of
  neglect. Such parents could be introduced to
  experienced parents in the relaxed setting of a
  parent and toddler group where they can observe
  good parenting skills (see p.23-26 for more info
  on parenting skills).
• Activity Read p.20-23 and answer the two
  questions that follow.