Contemporary and Critical Developmental Psychology - Essay Example

Running Head: Contemporary and Critical developmental psychology Contemporary and Critical developmental psychologyBy _____________________ Introduction There is no doubt that a high-quality mother-infant relationship requires a healthy and positive environment for development in the social and ecological context. It is within this first intimate relationship that an infant begins to develop a foundation of security. Now, if he is subjected to a well-groomed and capable mother, he learns to confront various challenges and cognitive concepts while establishing social patterns that are helpful to an infant into later stages of development. The quality of the mother-infant relationship is largely a function of the mother's behaviour, particularly her sensitivity to the baby's cues and signals and her ability to attune her response to the baby's needs and characteristics. Research also points to various factors that underlie a mother's sensitivity and responsiveness; knowledge and understanding of child development, realistic attitudes and expectations about child rearing, and healthy resolution of the mother's issues about how she was cared for in her own childhood. Successful mothers are always seemed to be those women who are being raised up in healthy social and ecological context. Mention the role caregivers play in determining the course of their babies' social and Emotional development Developmental theorists play an important part in identifying infants' ability to regulate resources which are necessary for babies' social, emotional and cognitive development and information processing. Such regulations are helpful in determining babies' interactions with individuals and objects in their environment. (Luster et al, 2002, p. 6) Among those resources the most vital reckon by caregivers is the development of relationships with other people, particularly parents. The reason is simple, as parents are the first individuals subjected to listen infant's non-verbal communication, in fact they are the ones to note down their babies first impression. The universal developmental stages, review speculations concerning the origins of individual differences in attachments, differences that may be consequences of very early interactions between parents or other caregivers and infants. After reviewing they identify those differences in the types of attachment infant's form with their parents, that are often unrevealing and may affect children's later cognitive, social, and personality development. (Bornstein et al, 2002, p. 371) Such differences lead to understand the hidden sentiments and impressions the infants unintentionally imitate from their mothers or caretakers. Emotional development and temperamental individuality help shape the child's encounters with the social and objective world. Emotional reactions organise how a baby responds to events, and parents devote careful attention to these reactions in their efforts to manage, pacify, accentuate, or redirect them. This is usually done over the course of the first 2 years of life which provokes changes in a child's emotional reactions and demarcate important transitions in development that are meaningful to caregivers, whether they concern the first elicited smiles, the earliest indications of stranger wariness, or the emergence of nascent expressions of embarrassment. These emotional reactions are significant also because they are viewed by parents as indicators of an emerging individuality as cues to what the child's behavioural style is like now and will be like in future. Along with variations in activity level and other dimensions, individual differences in predominant mood, soothability, and emotional intensity define dimensions of temperamental individuality by which infants become behaviourally organised early in life, and by which parents increasingly characterise their children. (2002, p. 371) Indeed, Rothbart and Bates (1998) defined temperament partly in terms of individual differences in emotional reactivity, which they view as constitutionally based (i.e., genetically or biologically based), showing stability over time, and having an impact on the child's interaction with social partners. Thus, studies of emotions and temperament are not only linked because they involve similar aspects of behavioural individuality, but because they significantly guide the child's immediate reactions and enduring predispositions in encounters with the surrounding world. (2002, p. 329) Emotional measurement in infancy is defined in terms of constituent processes, which identify the range of emotions that infants develop at different ages. The range of emotions depends on underlying cognitive, experiential, and physiological processes. In this context if we analyse facial expressions of an infant, they reliably reflect underlying emotional arousal in infants, the primary benefit of this level of detail is that it enables the researcher to specify precisely and unambiguously when a particular emotion is being experienced, as well as delineating specific transitions or fluctuations between emotions and the temporal course of emotional arousal and decline. This is especially useful when researchers are studying the baby's emotional reactions to social events such as the approach of an unfamiliar adult in which short-term changes in the infant's facial expressions may reveal significant changes in the infant's appraisal of the stranger. (2002, p. 335) Unfortunately, emotional development often makes it difficult to tell whether fundamental change has occurred in an underlying construct, or whether there is simply some superficial change in the way in which an unchanging construct is expressed. Again, the distinction is best illustrated by example. Fear may look the same in the faces of 6-month-olds and 18-month-olds, and thus we may use a scoring technique to assess fear at these two ages in order to determine whether there is temporal stability in levels of fearfulness. By contrast, 9-month-olds may express affection for their parents by clinging, crying, and asking to be held; one year later, signals like talking and smiling may have become more common ways to express attachment. These developmental changes do not necessarily mean that attachments have changed in strength; they may simply indicate that different means have been found to mediate emotional relationships. (2002, p. 16) Goldberg (1977) and Lamb and Easter brooks (1981) list a number of infant characteristics that affect parental affection; these include infants' responsiveness, readability, and predictability. Responsiveness refers to the extent and quality of infant reactivity to stimulation, and readability to the definitiveness of infant behavioural signals. An 'easily read' infant is one who produces unambiguous cues that allow caregivers to recognise the infant's states quickly, interpret the infant's signals promptly, and thus respond contingently. Predictability refers to the degree to which the infant's behaviours can be anticipated reliably from contextual events or the infant's own preceding behaviours. The health and developmental maturity of infants also affect the parents' behaviour and the quality of infant-parent interaction. (Goldberg & DiVitto, 2002). Developmental psychological perspectives on Mother-Infant Relationship The parent-child relationship provides the key context for the development of the child's perception of self-sense and self in relation to others (Stern, 1985). Understanding the quality of the parent-infant relationship within which the infant or young child is developing plays an important role in the assessment of social and emotional functioning and in formulating a diagnostic profile for infants and young children. (Carter & Declarmen, 2004, p. 25) Anna Freud (1970) described the quality of the early mother-infant relationship as paramount to the child's subsequent psychological development. When a mother consistently reads her infant's cues and sensitively responds to her child's physical and emotional needs, providing an "auxiliary ego" for the young child, her infant feels satisfied. With the infant's needs gratified, the infant turns his or her emotional interests from the self to the proximal environment, which includes the mother. When the infant initiates expressions of affection toward the mother and she responds in kind, the pair form an emotional bond. These early relational patterns characterised by emotional reciprocity become the template for the young child's future relationships and are likely to foster a healthy progression along developmental lines through subsequent developmental stages (Freud, 1963). In contrast, there is also a "rejecting mother", which is described, as being incapable of or unwilling to identify and respond to her infant's needs, has been associated with subsequent developmental psychopathology in the child. (Carter & Declarmen, 2004, p. 27) Mother infant relationship is also influenced by social interaction in which according to Self & Noble (1981) mothers 'speak' to their infants in nonverbal as well as verbal ways. The nonverbal language is rich in emotional openness enriched in expressions, and is contextually meaningful, as well as contingent on the infant's on-going behaviour. On the other hand the infant enjoys such non-verbal talks of his/her mother and responds in terms of facial expressions and gestures. To all appearances babies are very responsive to these emotional messages. The emotional messages of mothers have an attention-arousing function as well as an attention-maintaining function. (Luster et al, 2002, p. 84) The early stages of the mother-infant face-to-face interaction create intense states of excitement and pleasure in young infants, and that an opponent-process model can add to our understanding of sequencing of affect during face-to-face interaction. (Fogel & Field, 1982, p. 33) Brazelton et al. (1974) provide a clinical description of the mother-infant interaction in the early months of life. They show how the mother attempts to carefully adjust the timing of her behaviour to follow the natural cycles of the infant. As the infant begins to gaze towards the mother, the mother begins to increase her level of involvement, gradually building up to a peak of excitement that culminates in a smile. The smile is followed by a relative decline in the infant's engagement, during which time the mother reduces her stimulation level. Similarly, Fogel (1977) and Kaye and Fogel (1980) found that mothers tended to reduce their facial expressiveness when the infants were gazing away from the interaction, and to increase their expressiveness when the infants were gazing at them. In a more recent study, it is noted that the mother's expressiveness tended to inhibit the 2 month old's gaze state changes. When the mother was expressive, the infant was less likely to change gaze state (at or away from the mother) than when the mother was not expressive. (Luster et al, 2002, p. 84) The mother-infant relationship is the strongest bond and the most valuable gift a baby enjoys as long as influence of factors make it positive. For example, mothers who have a positive relationship with their infants are supported, both emotionally and instrumentally, by others in their network of family or friends. Also, numerous studies point to the deleterious effects of stressful life events on the mother-infant relationship, a neighbourhood, and larger social systems with beliefs and mores relevant to infant development and parenting (for example, social-cultural values). The mother-infant relationship also takes shape within a developmental course that is influenced not only by current ecology, but also by ecological forces that operated in earlier stages of the mother's life. It seems reasonable to expect that there are, within all levels of ecology past and present, factors that either support or hinder a mother's ability to sustain the sensitive care an infant needs and therefore affect the quality of the mother-infant relationship. (Luster et al, 2002, p. 84) Critical psychological perspectives on mother-infant interaction The critical theories started emerging in 1969 when Lewis & Goldberg suggested a theory of responsiveness regarding mother infant relationship. They suggested that responsivity of mother towards a crying infant could be appropriately defined as reinforcement. Reinforcement of specific behaviours, such as cry, should lead to more cry behaviour. In contrast, the responsivity notion asserted that a responsive mother, rather than reinforcing crying and perpetuating the crying response, should satisfy the child's basic need that the crying response reflects. Thus, it should not lead to more crying. (Gewirtz & Kurtines, 1991, p. 4) In a study of British adolescents, Crockenberg (1988) reported that mothers with high levels of emotional and instrumental support from their families responded relatively quickly when their babies cried. Likewise, seeking help from extended family members was related to the provision of a supportive home environment in a sample of teens studied by Stevens (1988). Another study to document the importance of support for teen parents focused on security of attachment as the outcome; Frodi (1984) found that a secure attachment between the infant and the mother was more likely to occur if the mother had an extensive support network, and if the grandmother helped with child care. Similarly, Colletta (1981) found that teen mothers with inadequate support systems rejected their infants more often than teens that were well supported. Some research suggests that the type and source of support that is most valuable for the adolescent mother may change over time. Crockenberg found that support from the family of origin was positively related to the mothers' sensitivity and accessibility to their 3-month-old infants. In contrast, family support was unrelated to the extent to which the mothers exhibited angry and punitive behavior when the children were 2 years old (Crockenberg, 1987). Partner support, however, was important at the 2-year follow-up if the mother had a history of nonacceptance by her own mother. The most angry and punitive mothers had experienced rejection in childhood and lacked support from their current partners. (Luster et al, 2002, p. 88) Within personal social networks, the role of grandmothers has probably received the greatest attention as a critical source of support for mothers. In general, as discussed by Apfel & Seitz (1991), grandmothers fulfil a number of roles i.e., to replace, supplement or share, support, and/or mentor the parent. As noted by Spieker & Bensley (1994), the few studies conducted on the influence of social support on quality of attachment of infants born to teenage mothers find proportions of securely and insecurely attached infants similar to those of older parents, mainly because grandmothers provided a great deal of care to their grandchildren. However, there were no positive differences in adolescent maternal behaviour as a function of degree of grandmother involvement. Despite the benefits conferred to the babies, the authors hypothesise that in some circumstances, grandmother support may actually constrain the development of adolescent mothers' parenting skills (Spieker & Bensley, 1994). The most critical aspect of mother-infant relationship arises when it comes to work, with mothers who have a large personal social network than with mothers who are socially isolated in their communities if the large network is not supportive of good parenting. In an example drawn from our experience, family support professionals working with first-time mothers who were substance abusers reported their frustration with the personal social networks of the mothers. Because the mothers had a relatively large network of so-called friends with whom they had very frequent contact, they did not perceive a need for social connection and support. Yet these 'friends' were largely unsupportive of and, destructive to the well being of the mother, the child, and the mother-child relationship. Standing in the way of healthy behaviour and good parenting, this social network became a liability rather than an asset. (Luster et al, 2002, p. 93) Another perspective, which is noticed by few researchers, refers to those mothers who are single parents. Such mothers instead of being social prefer to live in isolation. As a result their infants are so much attached to them that after attaining initial development phases they lack self-confidence in their personalities. Such children seem to be dependant upon their mothers or care takers and never lead a successful and confident life. According to Luster et al (2002), advice offered to parents clearly changed over time and, to a certain extent, presented mixed messages about critical issues in caring for infants. For example, according to a study, the message about mother-infant relationships from the 1950s to the early 1970s was that mothers are of primary importance to their infant's development, while from the mid-1970s until the mid 1980s, the message was that the quality of interactions between mothers and babies was important but less central to healthy infant development. The message about working mothers and childcare in the 1950s and 1960s reflected the maternal role as full-time caregiver for the infants, and if maternal work outside the home was necessary, in-home infant care was considered the only option. By the 1980s, the messages were both about reassuring mothers about 'quality not quantity' and that staying home was also a viable role for mothers. (Luster et al, 2002, p. 104) Conclusion It would not be wrong to say that it is the mother who is responsible for grooming a child. A mother is a live example for the infant to follow, from which he learns and adopts various attitudes, moods and even social behaviours. This can be seen from studying the example of such mothers who are unsocial, as an outcome, their children after a certain period seem isolated, thereby avoiding gatherings and social circle. So, the initial years of a child's life are influenced by the social understanding he/she inherits from parents particularly mother. It is this understanding, which serves as the ground root for a child for the rest of his life. Mothers act as models of behaviour to imitate. They offer direct coaching when they interact with their infants, however it does not matter for which method they adopt to interact with their babies. Infants understand their mother's verbal as well as non-verbal behaviour and love to respond. Infants grasp each and every action of their mother via their approval or disapproval. They offer rewards ranging from smiles to praise, to gifts and punishments ranging from tears to verbal ridicule. Above all, the infant's interaction with their mothers provides an opportunity for them to learn different attitudes, which they imitate for the rest of their lives. It is for this reason that infants who are subjected to literate and positive minded mothers grow up in sharp and confident personalities, devoid of any psychological disorder. References & Bibliography Apfel, N.H., & Seitz, V. (1991). Four models of adolescent-mother grandmother relationships in black inner-city families, Family Relations, 40, 421-429. Bornstein H. Marc, Lamb E. Michael & Teti M. Douglas, (2002) Development in Infancy: An Introduction: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ. Carter Alice & Delcarmen Rebecca, (2004) Handbook of Infant, Toddler and Preschool Mental Health Assessment: Oxford University Press: London. Crockenberg, S. (1987). Predictors and correlates of anger toward and punitive control of toddlers by adolescent mothers. Child Development, 58, 964-975 Fogel Alan & Field Tiffany, (1982) Emotion and Early Interaction: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, NJ. London. Freud, A. (1963). The concept of developmental lines In: The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 18, 245-265. Gewirtz L. Jacob & Kurtines M. William, (1991) Intersections with Attachment: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, NJ. Goldberg, S., & DiVitto, B. (2002). "Parenting children born preterm". In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol 1. Children and parenting (2nd ed., pp. 329-354). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Luster Tom, Karraker Hildebrandt & Fitzgerald E. Hiram, (2002) Infant Development: Ecological Perspectives: Routledge Falmer: New York. London. Rothbarts & Bates (1998) in Bornstein H. Marc, Lamb E. Michael & Teti M. Douglas, (2002) Development in Infancy: An Introduction: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ. Spieker, S.J., & Bensley, L. (1994). Roles of living arrangements and grandmother social support in adolescent mothering and infant attachment. In: Developmental Psychology, 30, 102- 111 Stern (1985) In Carter Alice & Delcarmen Rebecca, (2004) Handbook of Infant, Toddler and Preschool Mental Health Assessment: Oxford University Press: London. Read More