Why have psychologists stressed the importance of attachment behaviours in development?
Why have psychologists stressed the importance of attachment behaviours in development?Many theorists agree that social contact early in a child's life is important for healthy personality development. This is the most important relationship of the child development period as it is from this that the child drives its confidence in the world. A break from this relationship is experienced as highly distressing and constitutes a considerable trauma (Schaffer 1964). Through frequent social and emotional exchanges with parents the infant not only defines itself, but also acquires a particular style and orientation that some researchers believe is carried over into later life (Sroufe 1978). Therefore, the relationship between an infant and its caregiver and its development is one that has generated much interest to developmental psychologists. John Bowlby (1958, 1968) put forward a comprehensive account of attachment and believed that the infant and mother instinctively trigger each other's behaviour to form an attachment bond. Attachment can therefore be defined as ' the ability to form focused, permanent and emotionally meaningful relationships with specific others' (Butterworth & Harris 1994). In child psychology, attachm
Research implies that there are, therefore three main characteristics of attachment behaviours: Firstly, the infant seeks the closeness and proximity of the caregiver. ,(1998) Making Decisions about Children, (2nd Ed. Most significantly, on reunion with their mother they show no more than a casual greeting and may ignore, or pointedly look away from turn away from, or move away from the caregiver. Hospitalisation of infants in particular has benefited from this research in that caregivers are now allowed to stay in hospital with their babies or young children. Conversely, infant behaviour such as crying, cooing, smiling etc are elicited by the caregivers specific actions e. Secondly, that the infant shows distress at separation from the attachment figure and then relief upon reunion, i. This then allows them to move freely through the world again through exploration and play. 6-10 weeks: The mother/caregivers face evokes a more immediate and generous smile than any other does. through smiling and eye to eye contacts. An explanation of this is that with prolonged separation, the emotional upheaval is so great that the infants behavioural structure is disorganised, and cannot be put back together immediately.
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