Margaret Mahler was a psychiatrist best known for originating the separation-individuation theory of child development. Mahler had studied the relationship between caregivers and their children in a naturalistic setting. There are four sub phases to this theory; differential, practicing, rapprochement, and lastly on the road to object constancy. This theory stresses the importance of attentiveness a mother should have during the first three years of life. Those three years of life are vital because the parents have the responsibilities of making the child feel welcomed into a loving environment. With a positive environment, the child will grow up feeling secure and confident in all stages of life. This theory also touches upon the negative …show more content…
One of the first sub phases is differentiation that occurs within the five to ten month old age block. In this stage the infant is now able to separate themselves from their mother but still rely on them heavily. The concept in this stage is separation. Separation is the process where the child emerges from a symbiotic state with the caregiver. A child in this stage will have separation anxiety and will continue to “look back” if the mother is out of site. In differentiation the child, “checking back to look at a mother is not about sharing the experience, but about safety/anxiety issues, “refueling”. It is a phase in which Mahler sees the mother not as contacting the child’s mind, but giving him a push from the next”, (Benjamin, 1990, pg.6). The presence of a mother is huge because the child needs to know that there is consistent access to their aid and wellbeing. An infant will again rely on their caregiver until object permanence has been achieved. Object permanence is where there is an understanding that objects continue to exist even when they aren’t observed. When babysitting a seven month old named Brady, I had quickly noticed that when his mother left for an appointment and was put into my care for a couple of hours, his anxiety wasn’t good. As I was holding him he kept trying to tilt his head over my shoulder to see where his mother and avid caregiver had gone. Since I was an unfamiliar person, Brady had started to cry worrying if the absence and separation of his mom would be fulfilled. The article and previously discussed concept had assisted me in better understanding differentiation. The experience I had with Brady was him making sure a reliable person would fulfill the same duties his mother had performed and at the adequate speed he was use
The opposition to women's suffrage in the early 20th century stems from a deep rooted social phenomenon in england that took hold in the 19th century. The victorian era gave rise to the system of gender roles and relations that sought to separate the sexes on all fronts of society. This sex class system, also known as the separate sphere ideology, developed from the changing economic scheme, the opinions of great victorian philosophers, and a revival of religious integrity. The separate sphere ideology very popular amongst english society and developed a level of indisputable credibility when publically defended by an emergence of pseudo science discoveries on a woman's capacities. The separate sphere mentality would define the clear roles, duties and responsibilities of men and women in a rigid unforgiving manner. It would shape the english morality, freezing women out of public life and into the cult of domesticity. This perceived gender role and relation system would become the single greatest platform for campaigning anti-suffragists, who lead poplar ‘antis’ movements . The key ‘antis’ arguments discussed developed from a separate sphere ideology outlook, and are as following; biological differences could not allow equal voting rights, changing the gender system would negatively alter woman's life, and women can not physically, socially or mentality navigate the world of politics.
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) challenged some of Bowlby’s claims which believed that babies have some biological need to attach to their mothers, or at least to a permanent carer. Schaffer and Emerson carried out an ethological study in Scotland which consisted of 60 babies from a working-class sector of Glasgow during the first eighteen months of their lives. They interviewed the mothers every 4 weeks and asked them several questions related to their child’s reaction when faced with a separation distress, e.g. who they smile at, who they respond to, who affects the child most when they leave and so on. Schaffer and Emerson used the results of their interviews to measure separation anxiety. They also observed how the children responded to the presence of the researchers noting how close they could get to the child before causing sings of distress (when they begin to look for their mothers, whimpering). They used these findings to measure stranger anxiety. The research showed as well that many of the children were actually attached to several people. According to Schaffer and Emerson this occurs when there is more than one person in the child’s life who took an interest in them and the infants became attached to them.
There are few fields within the child development science. One of them is represented by the psychoanalytical theory, which looks at the child emotional development within the context of social interaction and early attachments. This framework is called psychosocial as it looks on the emotional and social aspects. Running in parallel and influencing each other there are two more main areas, cognitive and physical. Although I am focusing on the aspects of the psychosocial development, it is important to remember that all these areas are being affected one by the other, where the development of the emotional skills plays central role in a regular development of cognitive and physical skills.
Overall both theorists want to establish the influence they believe will help these infants later as they progress over time. Either it is helping children create learned behaviors or instill protective factors through secure attachments with their primary caregivers. Although most general views are conflicting it is important to notice the main motivation is on the infant and their development. Both theorists attempt to compensate through the techniques of daycare they execute to ensure the child is receiving satisfactory care and developing appropriately. The views on how caregivers should react and interact contrast but both theories still look to protect and care for the child.
John Bowlby’s attachment theory established that an infant’s earliest relationship with their primary caregiver or mother shaped their later development and characterized their human life, “from the cradle to the grave” (Bowlby, 1979, p. 129). The attachment style that an infant develops with their parent later reflects on their self-esteem, well-being and the romantic relationships that they form. Bowlby’s attachment theory had extensive research done by Mary Ainsworth, who studied the mother-infant interactions specifically regarding the theme of an infant’s exploration of their surrounding and the separation from their mother in an experiment called the strange situation. Ainsworth defined the four attachment styles: secure, insecure/resistant, insecure/avoidant and disorganized/disoriented, later leading to research studies done to observe this behavior and how it affects a child in their adolescence and adulthood.
The identity theory of mind holds that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain thus particular psychological states are identical with particular type of physical state. Many objections have been lay out by philosophers who have evaluated this theory one objection that is particularly strong is the Martian and octopus criticism which state that if identity theory is true, than these species should not feel pain, but if they do feel pain than identity theory is not true.
Hypothesis: “We hypothesize that the performance of individual members in such situations is likely to be highest when the members hold both individualist and collectivist orientations toward their work” (Hollenbeck, Humphrey, Meyer, Wagner, 2012, pg. 947).
As the child matures during the first two years of life, he or she creates a specific internal working model (BOOK). The working model of self is founded on the expectations the child develops based on experiences with the mother (BOOK). According to Bowlby (1979, p. 117), "the conce...
Mahler, M., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant: symbiosis and individuation. New York: Basic Books.
1. The identity theory (reductive materialism) states that mental states are brain states. Basically each mental state/process is the same as the physical state or process(es) within the brain. What they say about the mind is that the mind is just the brain and mental states are brain states.
The foundations for a child’s development begins not only in the child’s first year, but also while they are in utero. A child’s development can also be influenced by how much the parents are contributing to the development of the child. A couple that interacts well with one another as well as with the child can have “positive impacts on a child’s cognitive, language and motor development, this can also positively benefit the couple relationship, and the parent-infant relationship,” (Parfitt, Pike, & Ayers, 2013). A parent’s especially a mother’s mental health can greatly impact a child’s development if a mother is less stressed the will be more comfortable around the child creating a better mother-child attachment which also promotes language development. (Parfitt, Pike, & Ayers, 2013). If a father’s is positively involved in a child’s life early on that the child will have a greater reduction in cognitive delays, this is especially true in boys (Parfitt, Pike, & Ayers, 2013). Another positive key in a child’s development comes from the sibling relationships. Siblings help a child learn social, emotional, cognitive and behavioral
Erik H. Erikson was a significant psychologist that greatly changed the field of child development. In the 1950’s, Erikson advanced a Freudian approach in development. He viewed that social development as a series of eight challenges that people have to overcome. Each challenge has an outcome that’s either favorable or unfavorable. The outcome drastically affects a person’s personality. For example, in a favorable outcome, the result can leave a positive feeling. With a positive outlook, it’s easier for a person to cope with challenges in life. An unfavorable outcome can leave a person at a disadvantaged for the future. During the first couple challenges, Erikson believed that the caregiver has a great impact on a child’s development (Romero).
With time progressing, the infant refines their movement with external stimuli. Also, if anyone has been with an infant, they quickly learn how the baby will gain the knowledge how if they repeat a particular action is rewarded, the more likely the action will be repeated. During this stage, the infant maintains the concept where the object of their attention no longer exists once it leaves the baby’s line of sight or sound. After the infant matures at this stage, they realize the object of attention still exists once it goes beyond the infant’s line-of-sight. They will begin to understand how the object which kept their attention is not only still there, but the infant will be able to be away from the object for a longer period. (DeWolfe, 2015)
Klein believed healthy development occurs as a progression through two developmental positions. As discussed previously, the first position is the paranoid-schizoid position. Klein believed during this time the infant is in a state of extreme mental splitting of the external object (predominantly, the mother’s breast) into “good” and “bad” part-objects. At this developmental stage, experiences can only be perceived as all good or all bad (Mitchell & Black, 1995). Klein believed that after the infant’s ego sufficiently develops, he or she will be able to then integrate the bad with the good. This integration makes it possible for the infant to tolerate conflict. Klein felt that the establishment of a good internal object is a prerequisite for the later working through of the depressive position (Klein, 1975). This good object internalization can be augmented by good parenting, which can help “soothe any persecutory anxieties, thereby diminishing paranoid fears of bad objects and strengthening the relationship to good objects.” (Mitchell & Black, 1995, p. 94).
On chapter 4 on the textbook, the author explains, “culture provides a member of a society with a common bond, a sense that we see certain facets of society in similar ways. We are living together at all depends on the fact that members of a society share a certain amount of cultural knowledge (Ch4, 132). Individualism and collectivism contribute greatly to the dimension of culture. For example, how many members of the culture define themselves apart from their group memberships. In individualist cultures, people are expected to develop and display their individual personalities and to choose their own affiliations. In collectivist cultures, people are defined and act mostly as a member of a long-term group, such as the family, a religious group, an age cohort, a town, or a profession, among others. This dimension was found to move towards the individualist end of the spectrum with increasing