Early Socialisation

Attachment is a strong emotional tie that developts between infant and primary caregiver.

They look for 4 main things when children have a strong attachment to someone and these are;

Promximity seeking

Distress when seperated

Please when reunited

General behaviour to primary caregiver.

Also called the Learning theory, They use the aspect of conditioning to explain attachment.

Classical Conditioning says that infants are born with reflexs, such as food produces pleasure response when given it. Food giver becomes associated with please and will always be the pleasure giver with or without food.

Operant conditioning says that infants learn to cry and then will be given food, example when the baby cries and is then given food it will learn that if they want food they just have to cry and will be given it,

A weakness of this theory is that there is research evidence against it

They believe that the infant becomes attached to mother as they are the source of food, comfort and warmth

This is by John Bowlby, he beleives three main things which are;

Infants and carers are "programmed" to attach to each other

That the attachment takes part during the critical period which is up to the age of 2 and 1/2 years in which bowlby believed if the attachment was not made before then, they would never be able to attach and become a delinquent

The final point was that these attachments play an important part in later life as being a base for being realtionships

A strenght of this theory is that it has reasearch to support it

A weakness however is that what he says are assumptions not fact

Both Schaffer and Emerson and Bowlby believed that children went throught stages but they differ from what they say,

Schaffer and Emerson believed it went as so;

Asocial ( 0-6 weeks)

Indiscriminate (6 weeks- 6 months)

Specific ( 7 months- 1 year)

Multiple this is when they can and do make several attachments ( 1 year+)

Bowlby believed they were;

Pre-attachment (0-2 months)

In making (2-6 months)

Specific ( 6 months- 1 year)

Goal corrected partnership (2 years+)

Type A is aviodant- insecure is when they are not bothered by her absence or show interest in mothers return. This is seen to be when the mother just ignores her infant

Type B is Securely this is when the infant is subdud when the mother leaves and greets her postiviely when she returns in room. This is seen to be when the mother is sensitive.

Type C is Resistant- insecure this is when they show distress when the mother leaves but when she returns they reject her.  This is seen to be with an inconsistant type of mothering.

Deprevation is when something is taken away from the infant for a period of time.

A study to show deprevation is that of Bowlby in 1944 when he studied Juvienille theives

The aim of his study was the test the Maternel Deprevaton Hypothesis. He used 88 PPs aged from 5 to 16. He split them up into 2 groups of 44 one group was a group of theives while the other weren't. From the group of theives 16 of them were seen to be affetionless psychopaths, while the second group had adjustment problems but none were seen to be affectionless psychopaths. He also interviewed the children and parents to get a backgroud on them.

He found that 86% of the theives were affectionless psychopaths and had suffered from seperation some point in there lives. The other 17% had also suffered from seperation at some point. Out of the non theives 4% of them had suffered seperation.

Separation is when the infants are temperely away from their main caregiver

A study that shows this is by Robertson and Roberston in 1968, The looked at mothers who were in hospital for 9 to 27 days and the three stages that the children went through, First stage- Protest cries and shows signs of panic. The second- Despair is when after a day infant losses interest in things and becomes withdrawn from things and the final stage of Detachment the infant becomes interested in surrondins again, if carer returns child doesn't show interest to them. Damage done repairs after time.

They found that different things can effect the infants ability to cope with seperation, like;

Age, Level of maturity, Realtionship with parent and  Quality of care.

Privation is when the infant has never been able to make an attachment with caregiver

The study for privation is by Hodges and Tizard in 1989, the aim of their study was to see the effects of privation on their social and emotional development. They study was a longitunidal natural study where they was 65 infants less than 4 months old, by the age of 4 years, 24 of them were adopted, 15 went back to own home and the rest stayed. They  interviewed the adopted and those who went to original home again at the ages of 8 and 16. They found that there was a difference between the adopted and restored one.

Effects of day care,

Social Development, if there is no parent around them at times it can lead to avoidance and insecurity of attachments.

Aggression they may be more likely to have higher aggression levels and anti social behaviour if more than 20hours per week at day care.

Peer relations they have a greater sense of independence, cooperation, conformity and socialility