Infancy and childhood development: temperament styles & attachment

Temperament style = a child's emotional and behavioral style of responding to the world

1) Easy (easily soothed)

2) Difficult (irritated easily)

3) Slow to warm up (in the middle of difficult and easy)

Attachment Experiment

Mary Ainsworth conducted an experiment to test the four types of attachment

• Mother left her baby in a room and came back; babies reacted differently interacting with stranger who entered in her place

Secure Attachment Style (mother is loving)

• baby is willing to explore; looks at mom (checks in)

• when the mother leaves and stranger enters, infant is upset but easily soothed

Avoidant Attachment Style (mother is insensitive to the baby’s needs)

• explores a little; doesn’t check in with mom

• doesn’t care when mom leaves or enters

Ambivalent Attachment Style (mother is inconsistent)

• Baby is dingy; upset when stranger enter

• Has a tantrum when mom leaves; when she reenters, baby must be held but then pushes and kicks her

Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment Style (mother is abusive)

• Dazed, depressed in general

• When mother reenters they may approach her with their head down or looking away

  → may be afraid

Imprinting

infant animals get attached to and follow the first animal they see after birth

• Konrad Lorenz coined this term

  → baby ducks saw him first right after birth, and they followed him

  • shows attachment has a critical period

Contact comfort

Harry Harlow discovered this

• before him, psychologists thought that babies are attached to the mother because she had the food

• Experiment: had monkeys and two mothers (terrycloth and wire mom)

• wire had food, but the baby monkeys spent more time with the terrycloth mom; showed they valued comfort and formed attachment based on that and not food-related needs

Self concept

image you have of yourself

• infants begin to separate themselves from their surroundings