Social and personality development - articles

Ontogenetic adaptations

serve an adaptive function at a specific time in development and disappear when they are no longer functional

Deferred adaptations

serve to prepare infants and children for life as an adult or for the acquisition of important skills that will be useful throughout life

conditional adaptations

in which current con- ditions serve as a cue to future environments

infantile reflexes

can be viewed as a ontogenetic adaptations

neonatal imitation

matching the facial gestures of a model

→ ontogenetic adaptation (to foster interactions)

reasons to consider neonatal imitation as an ontogenetic adaptation

1. decrease after 2 months

2. associated subcortical brain areas (unlike real imitation)

overestimation of abilities in childhood

enhanced self-efficacy → improvment

the strongest preparator of infant attachment

parental state of mind regarding attachment

effective intervention (Dozier)

focusing on parental sensitivity and initiated after ~ 6 months

intervention strategies designed to foster secure attachment style

1) strategies that target parental sensitivity

2) strategies that strive to alter parental representation with respect to their own histories of caregiving

intervention for disorganised attachment

targeting the reduction of atypical caregiver behaviour (no relation to caregivers sensitivity)

Effects of low income family

less secure attachment

higher levels of negative mood an inattention

lower levels of prosocial behaviour

links between low family income and behaviour problems

substance abuse

genetic differences

exposure trauma

→ more research to identify which correlates are the most amenable to intervention efforts

improving economic status

may not reduce behavioural problems in children on promote their psychosocial development

helps improving cognitive development (no social and behavioural adjustment)

people who are relatively secure are more likely to

• be committed to their relationships,

• be more supportive and engaged parents,

• report fewer depressive symptoms,

• be able to adapt to stressful events in constructive ways

NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development

At age 18 assessment the children’s attachment styles

• those who were insecure at age 18 were more likely - to have had less supportive parenting and to have had lower quality friendships

socialization-selection asymmetries in development

implication of socialization-selection asymmetries

• people are more malleable early in life than later

• stability will be higher later in life than earlier

attachment styles in adulthood

• may be better understood with respect to recent interpersonal experiences rather than distal ones alone