CHAPTER 8

Imitation that occurs following a delay from the time the action is observed is called DEFERRED IMITATION.

MASTERY MOTIVATION: an inherent motivation to be competent in a particular situation.

WHEN THE INFANT BEGINS TO FOLLOW THE ADULT'S LINE OF GAZE OR POINTING IN ORDER TO DETECT SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT THE ADULT IS LOOKING AT IS CALLED JOINT VISUAL ATTENTION.

10-12 BEGIN TO PRODUCE SIMPLE GESTURES LIKE POINTING AND REQUESTING AT 10 MONTHS. AT 11 MONTHS, INFANTS BEGIN TO FOLLOW THE DIRECTION OF THE ADULT'S GAZE OR POINTING GESTURE. AT 10 MONTHS INFANTS USE POINTING IN INTENTIONALLY COMMUNICATIVE WAYS.

More active infants are less in need of adult encouragement and intervention in their play than less active infants......Thus adults can play important roles in the cognitive development of infants, particularly if their actions are designed to enhance the infant's' attention to objects and their properties.

10-12:infants are making the discovery that objects and events are related to each other. They can combine objects according to their function, their category, or how the need to be combined to achieve a goal.

Infants are most attached to the people who play and interact with them.

Attachments in humans is based more on social interaction and communication than on feeding or physical contact as predicted by psychoanalytic theory.

LEARNING THEORY: focused not on the feelings or concepts of the infant, but on the behaviors observed when the caregivers and infants are together. Caregivers seek positive reinforcements from their infants. Learning theory predicts that attachment behaviors develop by a complex process of mutual reinforcements.

BEHAVIOR ECOLOGY THEORY: Suggests that adults have inherited some kinds of caregiving responses that are triggered in the presence of infants and young children and that infants are innately drawn to particular aspects of the caregiver. For monkeys, physical contact with the mother is more important than food in the formation of attachments. Infant monkeys became attached to the soft object and not to the object that gave positive reinforcement (the food).

On the whole...there are few differences between attachment to mother and to father....infants can be adequately comforted in a stressful situation by either parent....but if both are present when a child needs comforting - the infant will usually choose the mother.

Of married couples....78% of infants had the same type of attachment security with both parents. The remaining 22% of the sample were more attached to one than the other...not necessarily the mothers.

Mothers who perceive themselves as having little control over their children's behavior and who suffer from depressed moods are more likely to have insecurely attached infants.

One can clearly see a pattern of intergenerational transmission of psychopathology.

RELATIONAL PLAY: Action that demonstrates a knowledge of the relationships between two objects.....like putting lids on pots. 10 month olds can place items in their proper categories. Can perceive cause and effect.

PIAGET'S COORDINATION OF SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS: intentional and deliberate. pushing away of her parent's hand with one hand and holding a toy in the other.

10-12: Developing of attachments. The child begins to see others as intentional beings . Attachment refers to a lasting emotional tie between people such that the individual strives to maintain closeness to the object of attachment and acts to ensure that the relationship continues.

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY (of attachment) - suggest that attachment is the normal resolution of the oral stages of development. If the id's oral urges are gratified regularly during the first few months of life, the baby will develop the expectation that needs can be met and that distress will not continue for long without some relief. Psychoanalytic theory prescribes that parents should wait a short time before responding to the crying baby at about 2 or 3 months. If the baby calms down, the parents have allowed the baby to meet this small crisis with his or her own resources. This leads the baby toward self control and makes the baby aware of the person who is responsible for satisfying the oral needs. This leads to a dependency on that particular person and later into affection, attachment, and trust.

AINSWORTH believed that virtually all infants are attached to their parents but differ in the sense of security they feel in relation to the adult.

QUALITY OF ATTACHMENT: The ease with which a distressed infant feels comforted by a caregiver. Quality of attachment has 4 basic patterns: 1. securely attached. 2. insecurely attached - resistant 3. insecurely attached - avoidant 4. disorganized - disoriented. Attachment quality is assessed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation Test (ASST). Infants are observed with their caregivers in an unfamiliar playroom. The test consists of 8 episodes....see Page 407. This test has proved reliable and the test - retest is reliable too.

Relationships between parents adn children can change over time and the most recent pattern of emotional communication between them - the most updated internal working model - best predicts child behavior.

The early development of the parent - infant relationship is crucial for the continuing social and emotional development of the infant. On the other hand, attachment can change as relationships improve or worsen, and infants can derive benefits from a secure attachment to any person.

SUMMARY: 10-12 Infants begin to walk. Balance is the limiting factor in the stability.

The onset of the independent locomotion enhances both cognitive and social development.

Disorders or attachment are both behavioral and neurophysiological.

infants are able to form attachments equally with mothers and fathers.

3. INSECURE-AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT: tend not to be upset when left with an unfamiliar person or in a strange setting. During the reunion episode, they may avoid approaching caregivers for comfort and may actively resist any attempts to be comforted by turning away and squirming to get down if picked up. Seem to be neutral in their emotions regarding the mother. They may have masked anger.

#'s 1, 2, and 3 are considered within the normal range of functioning.

10-12 Teasing games are opportunities for infants to experience mixed emotions and develop their skills at emotion regulation.

10-12 genuine turn-taking exchanges with peers begin. Specific attachments develop.

DISORDERS OF ATTACHMENT.... In some cases attachment patterns are so severely disturbed that they will typically require the intervention of a Parent-Infant Mental Health specialists because the problems are too difficult for the family to handle alone. This includes: #4. DISORGANIZED-DISORIENTED ATTACHMENT: display contradictory behavior during the ASST. The infant may give a broad smile and then abruptly turn away from the mother. Or infant may approach the mother by crawling backward toward her with gaze averted from her....or star at a wall. Almost all of these type of attachments - come from a family with a history of child abuse, maltreatment, maternal psychopathology, infant malnutrition and ro alcoholism. These infants are at risk for developing psychopathology when they get older.

2 other types of attachment disorders: 1. Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) Begins before age 4 and marked by: a. inhibitions. child is excessively inhibited , hypervigilant or ambivalent or contradictory. Resists comforting. 2. Disinhibitions: The child shows indiscriminate sociability with inability to form appropriate selective attachments. Lack of ability to become attached to any particular attachment figure. They may be overly familiar with strangers, show seductive or manipulative or other inappropriate behavior. No stable attachment can form. Can become violent with caregivers, animals or other children. Prone to lying, stealing and sexually inappropriate behavior. Treatment is difficult.

1. SECURE ATTACHMENT: seeks comfort from the caregiver during the reunion (#8) and once comforted will return to the independent play. A securely attached infant will show interest in objects and in the stranger and will get acquainted with the unfamiliar setting by making brief forays, always returning to the adult's side using the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore. They will feel comfortable and secure in most situations.

2. INSECURE-RESISTANT ATTACHMENT: have a more difficult time feeling comfortable in a strange situation. They will vacillate between mother and an interesting object, but once near the object, they will not explore as freely as will the securely attached infants. More wary of strangers and tend to get more upset when the mother leaves the room. Will show ambivalent responses to the mother, first approaching her and then pushing her away. Have limited coping skills, have mothers who are inconsistently available.

The more time the father spends with the infant, the more extroverted the father and the greater the father's marital and work satisfaction, the more likely it is the father and infant will share a secure attachment and mutual communication;.

ADOPTION: Research on the outcomes of parent-child attachment and marital relationships during the infancy period show that there are few differences between adoptive and non adoptive families in spite of the differences in the transition to parenthood. There is about the same percentage of secure infants (70%). But if the child has had significant trauma prior to adoption there is the risk of an attachment disorder.

By 8 or 9 months infants begin to develop some of the same kinds of emotional feelings of closeness to the parents that the parents had felt for the infant since before the birth.

ATTACHMENT SYSTEM - the network of feelings and cognitions related to the object of attachment.

10-12: infants become upset when their goals are blocked and are pleased when they achieve an intended goal. They also develop new emotions regarding their relationships with other people.

Anger is the emotion most frequently elicited in infants when their goals have been disrupted. Fear first apperar around 10 months.

Children who were maltreated in infancy and were scored as having a disorganized attachment at 1 year continue to be disorganized during early childhood, evidence of child behavior problems...is a serious developmental problem and should be cause for concern and intervention at an early age.

Attachment has long - term effects because of an INTERNAL WORKING MODEL: a sense of self and of other people that allows one to anticipate future behavior, react to new situations in a competent manner and appraise the likelihood of success for action.

Also fine motor development also improves.

By 10 months, infants are beginning to discover the relationships between objects, between people and objects and between people.

10-12: infants are becoming emotionally complex. Aware of the relationships between objects and between events, they are also aware of the relationships between their different feelings.

By 9 or 10 months infants can distinguish more expressions and they are beginning to use the emotional info displayed by others in a meaningful manner.

10 - 12 MONTHS: infants develop strong and permanent attachments to their primary caregivers. Do not like separations. May become afraid of strangers. Develop a SUBJECTIVE sense of self.

By age of 1 - infant growth rates have leveled off. most are eating a variety of foods. Holding own spoons and can drink from a cup with both hands. Will have teeth to help chew their food.

Some studies suggest that infant temperament is a direct predictor of attachment.

Concurrent social support for the family is a predictor of the infant's attachment.

Neither the parent nor infant is solely responsible for the attachment outcome.....it has more to do with the way the parent and infant have developed their relationship to maintain proximity in times of stress.

Cultural differences in the macrosystem should also contribute to differences in attachment, independent of maternal and infant behavior. Avoidant classifications are more frequent in North America and Northern Europe while resistant classifications are more frequent in Japan, Indonesia and Israel.

Infants can perceive and act on relationships between objects such as between cups and saucers etc.

Infants can now imitate actions that they have never performed before and can reproduce acts even after a 24 hour delay.

10 - 12: new forms of expressions of anger, fear, sadness and joy.

Express mixed emotions and ambivalence.

Fear of Heights...tested by using a visual cliff.

Fear of Unpredictable objects and movements.....

Acquired fears....Infants may become fearful of an otherwise benign situation because it reminds them of something they found stressful, fearful or painful in the past. Acquired fears are learned.

Fear of strangers... two types: 1. fear of particular people or people wearing particular kind of clothing or hairstyle. 2. a general wariness of the unfamiliar that appears in most infants about 8 months.

ATTACHMENT BEHAVIOR: the overt signals such as crying and following that bring the parent and child into close proximity.

IF AN INFANT DOES NOT GET UPSET WHEN HIS OR HER MOTHER LEAVES, IT DOES NOT INDICATE A LACK OF ATTACHMENT. RATHER - IT MAY INDICATE THE INFANT'S RELATIVE FEELINGS OF SECURITY TO CARRY ON TEMPORARILY WITHOUT THE MOTHER PRESENT.

10-12: Infants seem to become less obsessive in their attention to objects and more likely to share their interest in objects with adults. It is as if the infant realizes, for the first time that others have different intentions and that the infant must act in a way that helps to coordinate intentions between self and others.

INTERSUBJECTIVITY: THE ABILITY THE INFANT HAS REALIZING FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT OTHERS HAVE DIFFERENT INTENTIONS, AND THAT THE INFANT MUST ACT IN A WAY THAT HELPS TO COORDINATE INTENTIONS BETWEEN SELF AND OTHER. THIS IS ALSO CALLED COORDINATED JOINT ATTENTION.

A-NOT-B ERROR: The infant who finds the object at location A, the first location, cannot find the object at location B, the second location......WHY? Piaget believes the infant's definition of the object includes its location.

Imitations of newborns occur only for acts that the can already do. Newborn imitation is slow and does not happen for all infants. Six month olds can imitate actions that they have not done before but only if you give them many demonstrations and allow them plenty of time to process the information. Between 10 - 12 months, infants become more proficient at imitating actions that they see for the first time or have not done before.

SOME STUDIES FIND THAT DAY CARE INFANTS ARE MORE AVOIDANT THAN HOME CARE INFANTS.

SECURELY ATTACHED CHILDREN AT 1 YEAR WERE FOUND DURING LATER INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD TO BE MORE SOCIABLE WITH PEERS AND UNFAMILIAR ADULTS, TO BE MORE AWARE OF THEIR EMOTIONS AND TO BE MRE SECURELY ATTACHED TO THEIR MOTHERS AT 6 YEARS OF AGE. ALSO BETTER PROBLEM SOLVERS, MORE PERSISTENT AND ENTHUSIASTIC, TO BE MORE SOCIALLY COMPETENT AND LESS LONELY AND TO HAVE FEWER BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS.

SADNESS: BY 9 OR 10 MONTHS - sadness accompanies a feeling of loss.

SEPARATION DISTRESS: separating from caregivers. If mothers leave their babies behind in the company of the regular caregiver - there is little or no separation distress. The longer parents take to say good bye the harder it is for the babies to initially adjust to the new situation.

AFFECTIVE SHARING: Occurs when infants wish to communicate their feelings to another person or to confirm their feelings with another person. LIke infant proud of themselves by putting on a lid...they look at mother and expect a smile in return to confirm their accomplishment.

SOCIAL REFERENCING: occurs when infants face an uncertain situation. They look to another person's emotional expressions to help them decide what to do in this situation.APPRAISAL is the ability to use cognitive comparisons of alternate interpretations to regulate one's emotions. They look to another person to decide what to fee.

Japanese always say sorry, sorry to their infants when they return after leaving them....this makes Japanese infants show more distress when being left.

Smiling is a reflection of a socially shared emotion.

Girls begin to use their mothers as emotional guides more than boys do at this age.

Summary: by second half of the first year, emotion is no longer a private experience. Infants begin to alter their own emotions according to what others are expressing. They are simply aware that feelings can be shared and that they have feelings.

3 explainations as to the causes of secure and insecure attachments at 1 year of age: 1. variations in the parent's ability to create a warm adn sensitive relationship with the baby during the first year 2. temperamental factors in the child that no parental response can change 3. issues that arise in the relationship between parent and infant that cannot be attributed directly to either one of them.

The more responsive the mother is to the infant's needs at 3 months, such as during face to face play or in responding relatively soon to the infant's cries, the more likely the baby is to be securely attached at 1 year. Reciprocal social interactions are also associated with secure attachment.

Between 9 - 12 months, infants begin to make a variety of sounds that attentive caregivers recognize as words or work-like utterances. The child's first words of this sort have sound patterns similar to the favorite sounds the child makes when babbling.

The sense of "I" is the SUBJECTIVE SELF: The subjective self is participatory. They have a sense of "I" but no word or concept for it.

John Bowlby - developed a BEHAVIOR ECOLOGY THEORY OF ATTACHMENT. He suggested that mutual responsiveness and attraction between adults and infants resulted not because of mutual reinforcements but because the physical appearance and behavior of both the adult and the infant innately attract the other.

The way attachment forms over the first years of life - whether it is secure or insecure, and to whom - is experience-dependent affecting both brain and behavior. Bowlby says that as the infant develops cognitively, attachment shift from relying on innate responses to any adult to identifying and recognizing a particular adult and seeking that adult in an intentional, goal-oriented manner.

SYMMETRICAL GAIT: THE WAY ADULTS WALK. New walkers gait is very unsymmetrical! New walkers become symmetrical after about 6 months of walking.BALANCE, not the timing of the limb movements is the limiting factor.

Walking infants increase their frequency and duration of social contacts. Walking increases the ability for infants to find hidden objects....spatial arrangements are understood better. 10-12: Understanding of reaching improves.