Transcript Early Socialisation

Early Socialisation Access
As each of us intuitively knows, attachment to
others is the basis of a happy and fulfilling life.
The infant’s earliest attachments are the
blueprints of all future relationships. This is why
psychologists stress the significance of infant and
childhood experiences as being crucial to a
person’s ability to relate to the world in either a
meaningful or a destructive manner.
Bowlby’s attachment theory
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One definition of attachment is that it is an
emotional tie which requires time to be
established and is reciprocal in nature. Both
people invest in its development through
interaction. In infancy, an attachment is formed
with ‘the primary caregiver or caregivers’.
Attachments to others develop initially because
the infant cannot survive without the care of
another. Consequently, there must be an ‘innate’
or ‘inborn’ tendency to form attachments. Once
an attachment is formed, it becomes the basis of
the way other relationships are conducted
throughout life (Bowlby, 1951).
Conrad Lorenz and bonding
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Research concerning the ‘bonding’
between mother and child or the primary
caregiver and child has been influenced by
similar research into animal behaviour.
Conrad Lorenz (1937) was one of the
pioneers of research into the early ‘bonds’
connecting a mother and her offspring.
He observed that some animals ‘imprint’
at birth and that this is evidenced by their
predilection to follow their mother or the
first living thing they see.
Conrad Lorenz’ research on imprinting
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Lorenz conducted his research on birds
because birds can walk from the moment
the eggs that contain them are hatched.
He placed some gosling eggs in an
incubator and waited until they hatched.
Lorenz was the first living being they saw
and they proceeded to follow him
everywhere in the same way that goslings
follow their biological mother if she is the
first living creature they see.
Stages of development of
attachment
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) identified 4
stages in the development of attachment:
 0 – 2 months – the indiscriminate
attachment phase – the infant responds
to all objects and people without
discrimination. Towards the end of this
phase, the infant begins to show a
preference for people and drawings of
faces.
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Stages of development of
attachment
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2 – 7 months – the early attachment
phase – the infant shows a preference
for people and generally responds to all
people, although there is the beginning
of a preference for particular people.
However, the infant is not anxious in the
company of strangers and can be easily
comforted by them when distressed.
Stages of development of
attachment
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7 – 24 months – the specific
attachment phase – the infant
experiences separation anxiety when
the primary caregiver puts them down or
is out of sight. When reunited with this
person, the infant is clearly comforted
and displays signs of contentment. This
is the first time the infant shows anxiety
when handled by unfamiliar people.
Stages of development of
attachment
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8 months onwards – the multiple
attachment phase – the infant begins
to show signs of attachment to a number
of significant individuals. Some
psychologists assert that the infant is
always closer to one individual than
others (this is termed ‘monotropy’)
whilst others believe that the infant can
form attachments of equal intensity with
a number of individuals.
Bushnell et al, 1989
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The validity of this research has been questioned
by some psychologists. Bushnell et al (1989)
observed that infants as young as 24 hours look
at their mothers for longer than other people.
Camras et al (1991) found evidence that
contradicted Schaffer and Emerson’s research on
‘the indiscriminate attachment phase’ – infants as
young as 3 months old were able to discriminate
between familiar and unfamiliar people by smiling
at those with whom they were familiar.
Piaget’s object permanence
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Separation anxiety coincides with the infant’s awareness of
object permanence as demonstrated by Piaget (1954).
Before 7 months of age, Piaget demonstrated that infants
do not look for an object that seems to have disappeared.
A ball that rolls under a sofa has no interest for an infant of
this age because the infant does not yet realise that it
continues to exist once it is out of sight. At about 7 months
of age, the infant becomes aware of ‘object permanence’,
that is that things continue to exist even when they are no
longer in sight. This is approximately the time when
separation anxiety occurs. The infant is now aware that the
mother or other caregivers exist even though she/they
have disappeared.
Schaffer and Emerson, 1968
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Schaffer and Emerson (1968) also found that infants
develop strong or weak attachments to their mothers and
that these attachments are correlated to the behaviour of
the mother. Strong attachments appear to be formed to
mothers who are responsive to their babies’ needs whereas
weak attachments are observed when mothers are
unresponsive to their infants. After the primary attachment
is evidenced, the infant becomes attached to other
significant individuals. Infants tend to bond with
responsive, interacting individuals. However, in 39% of the
cases observed, the infant responded to the mother more
than any other person, even when the mother was not the
main person who tended to their needs.
Secure and insecure attachment
Mary Ainsworth and Bell (1970)
The Strange Situation:
 Ainsworth conducted her first study on
individual differences in attachment in
Uganda. She looked particularly at
maternal sensitivity to the infant’s needs.
She classified individual differences in
infants’ responses into 3 categories:
 Securely attached
 Insecurely attached
 Not yet attached
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Ainsworth and Bell’s observational study
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The main purpose of this research was to
test how much the infants were willing to
explore their environment and whether
this was influenced by their mothers’
behaviour towards them. Ainsworth
replicated her observational study in
Baltimore in America to minimise the
effects of culture on the results.
This is how the observational study was
set up in both places:
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An observer takes the mother and baby into a room and
then leaves.
The mother is asked to allow the baby to explore the
room.
After 3 minutes, a stranger enters the room and sits
silently for a minute. In the second minute, the stranger
converses with the mother, and in the third, the stranger
approaches the baby. At this point, the mother leaves the
room.
The stranger spends 3 minutes with the baby.
The mother returns and the stranger leaves. The mother
greets the baby and spends a further 3 minutes with the
infant. After this, the mother leaves the room again,
saying ‘bye bye’ to the baby.
Ainsworth and Bell’s observational study
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The baby is left alone for 3 minutes.
After 3 minutes, the stranger enters the
room and spends a further 3 minutes
with the baby.
The mother re-enters the room for
another 3 minutes. The stranger leaves
as the mother re-enters.
What individual differences were
observed?
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The infants explored the room to a much greater extent
when the mother was present.
The infants reacted differently to their mothers’ return
(reunion behaviour) and this difference correlated to the
mothers’ sensitivity to the infants’ needs. The sensitive
mother correctly interprets her baby’s signals and responds
appropriately. She is co-operative and accessible. The
insensitive mother’s behaviour is determined largely by her
own wishes and moods and not by the infant’s needs.
Ainsworth discovered that infants tend to explore more
when they are securely attached and that securely attached
infants have responsive and sensitive mothers whereas
insensitive mothers produce insecure attachment. Insecure
attachment and fear of exploration go hand-in-hand.
What individual differences were
observed?
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Insecure attachment was further sub-divided
into 2 categories: anxious avoidant and anxious
resistant behaviour.
In anxious avoidant behaviour the infant
largely ignores the mother and displays
indifference towards her. Play is unaffected by
her presence, few signs of distress are observed
when she leaves the room, and on her return,
the mother is ignored. Distress is expressed
when the infant is left alone, either by the
stranger or by the mother – both adults are
treated similarly.
What individual differences were
observed?
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Anxious resistant behaviour is characterised
by the infant’s wariness in the presence of the
mother. The infant cries a lot and does not treat
the mother as a safe base. When the mother
leaves, the child becomes very distressed and is
insistent on contact on her return, but
simultaneously avoids contact. For example,
the child reaches out to be picked up but
struggles to be put down again when their wish
is satisfied. This shows an ambivalent (doubleedged) attitude to the mother. This infant does
not want contact with other adults.
What individual differences were
observed?
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Securely attached infants play happily when both the
mother and the stranger are present. When the mother
leaves, the baby shows clear signs of distress and seeks
immediate contact with her on her return, but is calmed
down very quickly. Although the stranger can provide
some comfort, the infant shows clear preference for the
mother.
Secure attachment predicts children’s behaviour in the
future as well. Their nursery school teachers rate them as
more popular, with higher self-esteem, as less aggressive
and ready to lead. Elicker (1992) observed the same
children again at age 11 and rated them as higher in
social competence, self confidence and self esteem.
Insecure-disoriented-disorganised
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Mann (1991) proposed an interesting
fourth category: insecure-disorienteddisorganised attachment, which has
implications for future adult behaviour.
This infant is afraid of the caregiver but,
as a consequence of this, requires more
contact. Fear and the need for contact
create conflict in the infant’s behaviour
and needs. This need may transfer to
adult life, with the person desiring a
feared and distant ‘love relationship’.
Cross-cultural studies
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Bee (1999) points out that secure and insecure
attachment is correlated to the primary caregiver’
behaviour across cultures. Additionally, Sagi
(1990) found that securely attached Israeli
infants were rated as having better social skills
later in life, which supports the proposition that
there is a relationship between secure
attachment and later adjustment. Ijzendoorn
and Kroonenberg (1988) found that securely
attached infants were the most common worldwide.
Cross-cultural studies
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However, of the other two categories, anxious avoidant is
more common in Western Europe and anxious resistant
is more common in Israel and Japan. Why is this? The
answer could be that Japanese children are rarely
separated from their mothers, so that separation from the
mother causes greater distress because of its unusualness.
Children raised in an Israeli kibbutzim are used to close-knit
groups of familiar people, which could account for their
distressed reaction to a stranger.
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg also found more
differences within cultures than between cultures –
generalisations about cultures oversimplifies issues which
are clearly complex.
Multiple Attachments – John Bowlby
(1953, 1988)
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Bowlby argued that infants are genetically programmed to
behave in ways that please the mother in order to ensure
their survival while mothers are also genetically
programmed to attend to the baby’s needs. Bowlby argued
that mothering must happen before 2 ½ to 3 years as this
is a critical period in a child’s development. This is the
period in which the child becomes attached to the mother
and the mother becomes bonded to the baby.
Bowlby believed that infants have an innate tendency to
become attached to one person which he termed
‘monotropy’. In 1951, Bowlby wrote, ‘Mother love in
infancy is as important for mental health as are vitamins
and proteins for physical health.’
Bowlby’s controversial research
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In 1949, the World Health Organisation (WHO)
commissioned Bowlby to look into the behaviour and needs
of children who were either homeless or growing up in
institutions. The conclusions that Bowlby came to were
very controversial and caused arguments from the very
beginning.
Bowlby’s report included findings from studies he had made
himself and from other people’s research. One of the
studies that he included in his report was by Goldfarb. He
looked at the effects on children of growing up in
institutions. He compared 2 groups of children:
A group which lived in an institution until they were 3 years
old and then were fostered.
A group of children who were fostered as soon as they left
their mothers. They did not live in an institution at all.
Research on maternal deprivation
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The ones who had spent their first 3 years in an
institution scored much below the fostered group,
in terms of their ability to keep rules, to make
friends, and on intelligence tests.
Another study that Bowlby included was by Spitz,
who had studied children who had lost a parent.
He found that they often suffered from
depression and some of them were slow
developers.
Bowlby’s main evidence was his own study on
juvenile delinquency. He compared a group of 44
juvenile thieves with another group of young
people who did not steal but who were
emotionally disturbed.
Bowlby’s research on juvenile thieves
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He found that 17 of the thieves had experienced a period of
separation from their mothers at a very early age. Only 2
from the group who did not steal had experienced early
separation from their mothers. Bowlby concluded that
separation from one’s mother in early infancy could lead to
juvenile delinquency.
Bowlby also found that among the 17 maternally-deprived
thieves, there were 2 who were even more delinquent than
the others. He said that these 2 teenagers had no capacity
for personal relationships – they were not fond of anyone,
neither did they dislike anyone. In fact, they had no
attachments to people whatsoever. They were very casual
about crime and didn’t care if other people came to harm
through it. Bowlby called this ‘affectionless psychopathy’.
He found that these children had a history of being
separated from their mothers in their early years.
Bowlby’s conclusions
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Bowlby concluded that maternal deprivation
causes enormous damage to a person’s
psychological well-being. If children were
separated from their mothers during the first few
years of life, then lasting damage could result.
Bowlby also concluded that a mother in full-time
employment could be depriving her children of
their emotional stability and that they could
become juvenile delinquents. They could become
‘affectionless psychopaths’ and their intelligence
could be affected.
As you can imagine, these conclusions caused a
storm in the country. (1951)
Subsequent findings on maternal
deprivation
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One of the most important writers in this area is
M Rutter who published a report on maternal
deprivation in 1971, and again in 1979. His
research findings are as follows:
Juvenile delinquency – He conducted several
studies and came to the conclusion that the main
factor in the home which seemed to be connected
with young people stealing was whether their
home life was stressful. Teenagers from unhappy
home backgrounds, where there are incessant
arguments are more likely to become delinquent
than those whose homes are stable.
Powers et al, 1974
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This idea was supported by Powers et al, 1974.
They looked at why some children only seemed
to appear in court for theft or other such crimes
once, and then did not get into any more trouble,
while other children seemed to be in trouble
again and again – this is known as ‘recidivism’.
He found that the children who were only in court
once seemed to get into trouble at a time when
there were serious problems at home. When it
was all sorted out and things had calmed down,
they didn’t get into trouble again. The children
who were persistent offenders came from homes
where there was permanent stress and lasting
problems.
Affectionless psychopathy
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Rutter pointed out that it was important
not to muddle up ‘privation’ with
‘deprivation’. Deprivation is when
something is taken away from you,
whereas privation is when you have never
had that something in the first place. For
many of the institution children that
Bowlby was talking about, it was really
privation that they were suffering, as they
had never been looked after by their
families in the first place.
Privation
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In 1960, Pringle and Bossio looked at what
happens when children suffer this kind of
privation.
One of the symptoms which the maladjusted
children showed was that they did not seem to
care about anybody else very much. They hadn’t
got any loving relationships and they didn’t hate
anyone either. Bowlby discovered the same
problem, so it would seem that the two studies
are talking about the same thing – these children
did not have a chance to form any close
relationships during the first couple of years of
life.
Freud and Dann’s study, 1951
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A study by Freud and Dann in 1951 also supports this idea.
They studied a group of children who had lived in a Nazi
concentration camp from a very early age. These children
had not made any relationships with adults and they had all
suffered from maternal deprivation. These children,
however, stuck together and developed close attachments
to each other. They showed no signs of being affectionless
and maladjusted. It would seem, therefore, that it is the
inability to form any attachments at all that leads to
problems.
Is this permanent? If a child has never formed an
attachment to anyone, does that mean that they will be
isolated from other people for life?
Tizzard and Hodges, 1978
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Tizzard and Hodges, 1978, looked at children
who had spent their whole lives in institutional
care, and who weren’t adopted until late on in
their childhoods. They found that, given time,
even children who had seemed affectionless could
develop deep and loving relationships with the
right adoptive parents. The problem seemed to
be that the early stages in the relationship were
difficult, because the child was trying to believe
that these new people really did care. Since it
was so hard in the beginning, a lot of people
gave up. For those who didn’t, the relationships
eventually became very deep and very close.
Short term deprivation and its effects
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Sometimes children are deprived of their mothers for a few
days or weeks rather than for months or years because the
mother or child has to go into hospital. According to
Bowlby, in these circumstances, a child displays distress
which manifests in three ways:
Protest – The child cries, screams, kicks and tries to stop
the mother from leaving by clinging to her. The child is
clearly exhibiting signs of anger, fear or uncertainty about
what is happening.
Despair – After struggling, the child becomes calmer and
may even appear to be apathetic, but is still inwardly angry
or fearful. They reject comfort from other adults and
withdraw into themselves. They often engage in behaviour
which indicates emotional upset, such as thumb sucking
and incessant rocking.
Short term deprivation and its effects
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Detachment – The child starts to be more responsive to other
adults, but treats everyone alike and does not appear to really
engage with adults, except on a fairly superficial level. Once
reunited with the mother, the child often rejects her advances
and goes through a period of re-learning how to trust her again.
Do all children go through the stages of distress?
Separation is most distressing between 7 and 8 months, when
attachments are just beginning to become evident, and 3 years.
Between 12 and 18 months, the child is most distressed by
separation because a bond with the mother is clearly established
at this time, (Maccoby, 1980). At this stage, a child has not got
the necessary language to understand what is happening and is
incapable of creating a mental image of the absent mother.
Children at this age cannot understand terms like ‘in a few days’
or ‘next week’ and so may be led to believe that the
abandonment is permanent and their fault.
Privation
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Privation occurs when the child does not
form an attachment to any individual.
Harlow has demonstrated that monkeys
who did not have a mother or any adult
female to care for them, grew up avoiding
all sexual contact. They refused sexual
intimacy and when artificially inseminated,
became grossly inadequate mothers.
Can the effects of privation be
reversed?
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The observational studies that Harlow conducted on rhesus
monkeys demonstrated that infant monkeys grow up with
severe emotional and behavioural problems when they are
deprived of maternal care. However, Suomi and Harlow
(1977) also found that the effects of privation can be
moderated if sufficient care is taken of them subsequently.
There are also studies on human privation which point to
the same conclusion. Kulochova, 1991, studies Czech twin
boys who endured extreme early privation. Their mother
died shortly after birth and their father remarried. His new
wife was unremittingly cruel to the twins – she incarcerated
them in the cellar of their family home and frequently
administered beatings.
They were found at the age of 7, with rickets. They were
totally unable to speak and were very short for their age.
Kulochova twins
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Subsequently, two very caring women
adopted them. They became as
academically competent as their peers,
and by the age of 14, they appeared to be
emotionally and intellectually normal. In
early adulthood, they went on to further
education, training in electronics. Both
married and had children. They had warm
and caring relationships with their
adoptive mothers, brothers and sisters,
wives and friends.
Studies of late adoption
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Tizzard and Hodges, 1989, studied children who left care
late and had no close relationships with members of the
staff because of the policy to treat all children equally.
These children were adopted late but formed close
attachments to their adoptive parents who wanted
desperately to have children. The children who went back
to their own families did not all fare so well – only some
formed close attachments. The biological parents probably
had mixed feelings about the return of a child and the other
siblings were vying for attention.
The parents reported emotional security in the children who
had become attached, but the teachers of those children
said they were more attention seeking, disobedient and
formed poor relationships than their peers.
Outside family relationships
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Outside family relationships, the adopted children and the
children who were returned to their biological parents
displayed the following behaviour:
They both needed adult approval and seemed to need more
affection from adults.
2
They had difficulties making relationships with their
peers.
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They were less able to make ‘special’ friends. They did
not seem to want support from their peers.
They were less choosy about whom they selected as
friends.
These results correspond to Bowlby’s views on maternal
deprivation. The findings indicate that in later life, they
may have difficulties forming lasting, caring relationships
and in bonding with their children.
Other studies on the long-term effects
of privation
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Chisolm et al, 1995, studies Romanian orphans brought up
in large, poorly run institutions, in which little or no
affection was shown to the children. When these children
were later adopted by Canadian families, it was reported
that their behaviour was ambivalent – they wanted contact
but rejected it at the same time – and found it hard to
receive comfort when they were distressed. However, they
were able to perform as well in school as their peers.
Quinton and Rutter, 1988, looked at adults who had been in
care and studied the way they interacted with their
children. When compared with a control group of mothers
who had had a normal family life in childhood, they found
the mothers who had been in care were less sensitive to
their children’s needs and less warm to them. This could
also be the result of later life experiences, such as
unwanted pregnancies and unsupportive
husbands/partners.
Research into the effects of day care on
children
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Research studies into day care have
shown that the quality of the day care is
significantly more important than whether
or not the child is cared for at home or by
adults in settings outside the home. What
seems to be important is that the people
who care for the child are warm and
affectionate and that the environment is
cognitively stimulating.
Research into the effects of day care on
children
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Research on the effects of day care on
children’s cognitive development has been
contradictory. Ruhm, 2000, found that
children who had been placed in day care
before the age of one had a lower verbal
ability than their peers by the ages of 3 or
4. In addition, if a child’s mother worked
in the first 3 years after the birth of a
child, at the age of 5 or 6, these children
were not as good at maths and reading as
their peers.
Research into the effects of day care on
children
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Ermisch and Francesconi, 2000, found that
mothers who worked when the child was under 5
created cognitive problems for their children
when compared to their peers who had been
cared for by their mothers during these early
years. However, Harvey, 1999, found that
although children of working mothers seemed to
be less able than their peers who had been
continually looked after by their mothers, by the
age of 12, these differences had disappeared.
Research into the effects of day care on
children
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In a longitudinal study in Sweden, conducted by
Andersson, 1992, school performance was higher
in children who entered day care before the age
of 1 and lowest for those who did not have day
care at all. However, this is possibly because day
care in Sweden is of an exceptionally high
standard. Burchinal et al, 2000, found that black
American children from disadvantaged
backgrounds cognitively benefited from day care.
Both these studies demonstrate that cognitive
development is enhanced by good quality care
which provides a mentally stimulating
environment.
Research into the effects of day care on
children
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The headstart project in the USA found a
correlation between day care for
underprivileged children and obtaining
high school certificates. Campbell et al,
2001, found that low-income children who
received high quality day care performed
significantly higher than other low-income
children on reading and maths tests and
were more likely to have jobs.
Research into the effects of day care on
children
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Research into the effects of day care on
children’s social development is similarly
contradictory. Belsky and Rovine, 1988,
found that children who were in day care
under the age of 1 for 20 or more hours a
week were more likely to be insecurely
attached. In 2001, a NICHD report
concluded that children in day care for
more than 10 hours per week were more
aggressive once they started school.
Research into the effects of day care on
children
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However, Clarke-Stewart, 1994, found no difference in
attachment styles, which suggests that day care does not
impede social development. Schweinhart et al, 1993, found
that children from underprivileged backgrounds who
experienced day care had decreased rates of delinquency in
their teens and lower adult criminality in their 20s. Creps
and Vernon-Feagans, 1999, found that children who
attended day care before the age of 6 months, had better
social skills than children who had started attending later.
This research, although contradictory, points to quality day
care as being the most significant aspect in the
development of a child’s social skills.
Statistics on one parent families and
other social trends
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Britons are increasingly likely to live in single-parent
families, stay at home for longer, marry later and
struggle to afford a house, official figures show. The
Office for National Statistics said children in the UK were
three times more likely to live in one-parent households
than they were in 1972.
Last year almost 60% of men and 40% of women aged
between 20 and 24 in England still lived with their parents.
The department's annual Social Trends report studies
patterns in UK society.
Among the findings this year was that wages rose on
average by 92% from 1995 to 2005, but house prices
rocketed by 204%.
Juvenile crime
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The following patterns in juvenile crime have been particularly interesting:
Between 1987 and 1994 most arrest rates increased sharply. Aggravated
assault rates doubled, as did murder rates.
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Since 1994 most arrest rates have been in steady decline. Murder arrest
rates, for example, were 74% lower in 2000 than they were in 1993.
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Males drove the 1987-1994 spike in the murder arrest rate, and the
increases were seen in acts committed with firearms.
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Drug abuse arrest rates rose steadily through the ’90s and have not yet
dropped significantly.
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The arrest rate among females did not experience the sharp rise and fall
that occurred with males during the ’90s. Arrest rates among female
offenders, instead, have continued to rise steadily since the 1980s.
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