Developmental Psychology - Essay Example

Developmental Psychology PART Object Permanence During the early stages of life, an infant first develops an "Out of sight, out of mind" attitude wherein, in their first three months, babies do not cry when their mothers leave them. On the other hand, when they reached the stage where they have developed a picture of their mother or anybody else they have used to seeing beside them, they develop an object of permanence that exhibit signs of separation anxiety. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence and http://www.drhull.com/ EncyMaster/O/object_permanence.html, May 6, 2006) Since birth, I had been my nephew's baby sitter. We see each other often than his parents. During his early stage of development, it was easy leaving him on a crib in the room where he is not able to see me. It was easy doing some other things aside from baby sitting him. However, when he reached the age of about one nine months or so, when he clearly recognizes me and reacts positively upon seeing me, I have observed that it was harder leaving him alone on a crib since he wails whenever he does not see me somewhere near him. I have found the situation difficult since it prevented me from doing other important things that I was supposed to do. He was no longer contented on the things I give him to keep him busy whenever I was not around. He would cry out loud when he did not see me around him. I have observed this incident for a number of times until my nephew was around more than a year old. The same situation happens with some of our neighbors' babies at the same stage as my nephew had exhibited that particular behavior. The same behaviors happen to the babies having different backgrounds. Therefore, no one can drive into a conclusion that these behaviors of babies are influenced by their backgrounds - an inherited behavior from parents or a controlled behavior by someone who takes care of them. An elaboration of these behaviors in the babies' developmental stage was theorized by Piaget as the concept of the Object of Permanence. According to Piaget, the incident of object permanence develops during the sensory-motor stage of cognitive development of infants. Object of permanence refers to the ability of the brain to retain and utilize visual images. It is used to describe the awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible. This situation is distinct from a baby's recognition memory. Piaget's experiment with the infants made him conclude that awareness is typically achieved on their eighth to ninth month of age. When these infants become aware of the objects around him, separation anxiety happens simultaneously. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object _permanence and http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/O/object_permanence.html, May 6, 2006) Because the child now learns how to appreciate the presence of things around him, he exhibit signs of awareness of the presence or the absence of these things around him. In this case, absence of the things around him makes him feel bad, and this is the reason why infants cry when they do not see their parents or somebody he was used to be beside him is not within his sight. The lack of object permanence in infants is exhibited in during their earlier stage of development. An example of this situation was when babies do not cry when they were left out alone from the time they acquired their eyesight after birth until around eight to nine months old when they already develop an awareness of the things around him. When infants on their third day of life of recognizing its mother, it is not yet well aware of her presence thus an "Out of sight, out of mind" attitude still dominates their cognitive character. However, when he reaches eight to nine months that he becomes aware of his mother's absence, the child develops the separation anxiety where losing her out of sight means losing her entirely which makes him cry so hard. (http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/O/object_permanence.html, May 6, 2006) This situation holds true about Piaget's theory since a number of incidents have proven its existence. However, based from my experiences with infants, eight to nine months is way too early for them to develop this behavior. Moreover, it must be clearly stated until when as to this behavior exists. Generally, this theory exists in a majority of the infants; however, there are also infants who develop this cognitive concept in a much later part of their cognitive development. PART 2: Post-Freudian Psychoanalysis A significant situation that would exemplify Klein's depressive position concept would be the love that one felt towards another person where you have hated that person at exactly the same time that you have learned to love him or her. Significantly, the same situation had happened with me at a particular point in my life towards my mother and me. During my teenage years that I was too overwhelmed about experiencing everything in the whole world, my mother was always there to say no and prevent me from doing the things I wanted. Since I had wanted to discover new things, try out things that are totally new to me, she would always keep me from getting the hang of things as a teenager. Whenever I would ask her permission to go somewhere with my friends, there were more no's and few yeses. That was the time when I started to hate her. I started hating her that sometimes I have cursed her for not allowing me to stay with my friends and be one of the groups. There even came a point when I never talked to her for saying no when I asked her permission to allow me to attend to a friend's party. This feeling was kept and went deeper that I thought we will never reconcile at some point in the future. Keeping the bad feeling with me towards my mother for quite sometime was a burden with me as I went on with my so-called life. But then, for an unexpected twist of time, I just felt so guilty about the way I have treated my mother so badly in the past years. I was not even able to decipher at exactly what particular time in the past that had made me feel that guilt but I did. There was not even a certain incident before that I can remember where we made up. Things just happen in a snap. And I thought that maybe it was just what mothers and children have to undergo at some point yet the love that they have with each other is still there, unexpressed because of hurtful situations that we have experienced with that person whom we have loved so much. Melanie Klein's concept of Depressive Position could help us better understand this situation among mothers and their children. According to Klein, one would realize that the mother that one hated was also the mother that one loved. The depressive position took place when one took in the mother as a whole object. One would inhibit the need to attack, and contain the feeling into oneself. This led to taking in and tolerating more pain. Klein's theory was also linked to ambivalence; one could love and hate the mother or any person and still have a relationship. (http://www.webster.edu/woolflm/klein.html# depressive, May 6, 2006) Based on the post-Freudian psychoanalytic concept of the mother and infant relationship, superego develops in the latter part of a person's development as opposed to Freud's theory that it happens during the early stages of a child's development. However, Klein associated a child's development with some parts of the mother's body such as her breasts for which she considers to have played an important role in the early development and later psychic disturbances in the child's psychological development. Excessive preoccupation with certain body parts or aspect of a person as opposed to the whole person creates a significant impact on the psychological development of a child, according to Klein. (http://www.webster.edu/woolflm/klein.html#depressive, May 6, 2006) On the other hand, based on Klein's association of the mother's breasts and the other body parts in the early development stages of as child towards depressive position does not play that much of an impact on the love-hate relationship between mothers and children. I may agree at some point that the initial connection and the initial love that the child was able to have, was through the bodily contacts that both have right after giving birth. However, it does not prove enough the relationship that the mother and the child have when they have gained conflict towards each other. In my opinion, it is only through malice that association of the mother's body parts to the relationship between the mother and the child that such becomes significant. It is the amount of love that the mother gives her child that counts. Hate is developed out of love. For without the concept of love, hate would not exist. References and Works Cited: Melanie Klein.http://www.webster.edu/woolflm/klein.html#depressive. May 6, 2006. Melanie Klein. http://www.mythosandlogos.com/Klein.html. May 6, 2006. Object Permanence. http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/O/object_permanence.html. May 6, 2006. Object Permanence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence. May 6, 2006. Robbins, Brent Dean and Goicoechea, Jessie. The Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions in the Psychogenesis of the Self: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Ontological Foundations of Object Relations Theory. http://mythosandlogos.com/objectrelations.html. May 6, 2006. Read More