Social Development

• Innate basis to attachment
• Critical period of 3 years for maternal contact, changed to sensitive period

Once attached, behaviour is typically...

• Proximity seeking to attachment figure
• Use of mother as a secure base
• Separation protest when separated from attachment figure

• Patterns of relationships transfer to adult life

• In the 1950's - post war, unemployment and sometimes lack of a father figure

• Studies done in institutions which lack stimulation and consistent carers

• Link between separation and later behaviour is not that clear

• Damage can be reversed if effective attachment formed

• Monotropy is rare as more than one relationship is formed

Through the strange situation, a lab procedure to measure attachment 

• Child with mother 

• Child with stranger 

• Child alone 

• Child reunited with mother and stranger 

• Type A - insecure, anxious/avoidant

• Type B - secure

• Type C - insecure, anxious/resistant to comfort

• Type D - insecure/disorganised

Attachment types predict aspects of later development 

Parental responsiveness

• Extent that parents are supportive and aware of child's individual needs

Parental demandingness 

• Expectations of integration into family
• Psychological control

• Authoritarian style - demanding 

• Permissive/indulgent style - little control but nurturing

• Authoritative style - guidance and compromise

• Uninvolved style - non-responsive but demanding

• Friendships and bullying 

• Gender identity

• Bronfenbrenner's ecology model

• Moral development

• Temperament of the child

• Teach standards, rules and values

• Provide role models

• Make attributions about the child 

• Create the environment the child lives in 

Consistent behavioural tendencies:

• Stability - consistent relative levels of behaviour
• Continuity - consistent underlying traits over time

Categories of dimensions:

• Emotional responses - general mood
• Attentional orientation - how easily distracted
• Motor activity - intensity and frequency 

• Activity levels

• Regularity

• Adaptability to change in routine

• Response to new situations

• Level of sensory threshold 

• Intensity of response

• Positive vs negative moods

• Distractability 

• Persistence and attention span 

• Easy - adaptable, positive and normal eating/sleeping

• Difficult - irritable irregular patterns 

• Slow to warm up - low activity, withdraw from stimulation, slow adaptation and mild reactions

• Child's appearance

• Child's temperament 

• Child's behaviour

Lerner and Galambos (1985) - Goodness to fit

• Temperament is transactional

• Positive child temperament leads to positive parenting

• Critical and negative parental attitudes to children

• Low status background

• Poor marital relationships

• High levels of depression in mothers