Separation Anxiety and Attachment in Infants and Toddlers Essay

In the earliest stages of development, emotions are diffuse and infants have little control over their behavioral expression, relying instead on the dyadic regulation provided by their caregivers’ responses to behavioral signals. Attachment disorders form in infancy and early childhood as a result of instability in the child-caregiver relationship. Attachment-disordered children typically have experienced abusive or neglectful care, multiple changes between caregivers and environments, or the sudden loss of a parent or parents.

There are numerous debates in regards to developmental psychology. One of the main debates to begin with is nature vs nurture; some individuals believe that we are products of our environment while others regards us while others believe that we are products of our genetics. John Locke believes that when we are born we are a “tabula rasa” a blank slate

He places a strong emphasis on environmental influences and believes that development is continuous and based primarily on learning. (McNamara Sept 12, foundation of development). This theory is based on the premise that one’s nurturing environment can override their genetics. Both boys live with their families but in two different neighborhoods home environments. Both are the middle children of 3, and each a brother and a sister (aside from ADHD, this is about all they have is common). According to the behaviorism theory the environmental influences with which the boys are exposed to, can certainly have an influence on their developmental trajectories. Although both George and Simon may have a genetic bias for ADHD, they have very different nurturing and surrounding environment. Since Simon and George have been exposed to different environmental influences and external stimuli, I believe their developmental paths will differ significantly. Based on a psychoanalytical perspective, later consequences will arise of early experiences (McNamara Sept 12, foundation of development). Georges’ environmental influences such as is his active life style and school activities, his high income family, his involved traditional family setting, and his parent’s exceptionally active support seeking for his ADHD may all result in a more positive developmental path. Simon’s environment on the other hand may result in him having more negative outcomes. Simon’s environment differs from

In 1913 Watson gave a lecture called “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”. It was in this speech that Watson proposed the idea of an objective psychology of behavior called “behaviorism”. John saw psychology as the study of people’s actions and their ability to predict and control their actions. This became known as the behaviorist’s theory. During the next few years, different ideas about behaviorism was studied. (Muskingum.edu) Behaviorism came to be widely accepted among psychologists and the general public, becoming a popular field of study in the 1920’s through the 1960’s. It was a huge contradiction to the views of the eugenics movement, which claimed that heredity was the primary force determining a person’s potential and behavior. Behaviorism, with its promise of the possibility of change, and even improvement. (A science Odyssey, published by

The purpose of this study is to look at the relationship between infant attachment styles and psychological wellbeing, with general anxiety as a measure of psychological wellbeing. This study will use an adult sample that will go through psychological tests to determine what attachment style each individual had when they were infants. After establishing their attachment styles their general anxiety levels will be tested. The results of these tests will help in establishing the relationship between the two variables. This study will have positive outcomes because it will improve existing information on this subject in psychology. This study could provide a better

During the course of my internship, I frequently wondered about the reasons why babies cry. Despite my best efforts to appease everything that I thought might be the problem, sometimes the baby would continue to scream and cry. Harding notes that babies do not cry out of a desire to relay a particular message, but that they merely cry due to distress or discomfort. However, when others respond to the cry as if the baby is trying to communicate a particular message, that it can help the caregiver to differentiate between different types of cries and other signals given by the infant. This can in turn possibly influence the baby’s recognition of the effects his or her vocalizations has on the behavior of others.

they cannot teach him how to be responsive of his own feelings of insufficiency either .

Attachment is an affectional tie that an infant forms with a caregiver—a tie that binds them together in space and endures over time [1]. Though attachment can be formed in different ways. Attachment can be used in a relationship, such as, a women growing extreme feelings for a man and the feeling is mutual, but the women begins to always wanting to be around. Though, this essay will not cover intimate relationships. This essay will be covering attachment among infants and how their stages of attachment with their caregivers.

If any of your colleagues have experienced baby separation anxiety, their suggestions or recommendations will be of great help to you. Listen to them and try to analyze the background they had been in and compare it with yours. If you feel following their opinion can help you better to concentrate on your work and provide good care to your baby, give it a

There may be at least one or two females in your office who have already gone through your situation. Have a talk with them and get some tips on how they had cope with baby separation anxiety. Since they have experienced what you are going through, their tips will be of high value for you.

In addition, the behavioral aspect believes nurture is more influential than nature and thus, people are affected by the environment he or she live in. Dreikurs focused on the stimuli, or lack thereof, in the environment to base his theory on regarding how children will act usually in a classroom. Watson, however, did not focus his research on one specific aspect, but rather human behavior as a whole. Although Dreikurs and Watson fall into this perspective, they had slightly different views and beliefs in terms of how to approach interacting with children. Watson felt as though children should be treated as little adults and believed that using conditioned responses work the best.

THe Behavioral perspective believes that our behavior is the result of the environment we are in. Behaviorists believe that psychologists should rely on the stimuli in the environment and our response to the stimuli. There perspective was that our behaviors are the result of our upbringing and environment. The behavioral perspective works on the molecular level to understand an individual 's behavior. They developed research generated evidence. John Watson was the founder of American behaviorism. Watson advocated that psychology is a science and it should be limited to observable, measurable behaviors. Watson studied babies and how they learned everything from their environment. He advocated that nurture was stronger than nature. Watson was famous for his experiment with Baby Albert and a white rat. Baby Albert did not fear the white at at first but began to fear it once it was associated with a loud sound. Watson proved through his experiments that parents should take

Gesell(1925); his theory stressed the role of genetics on the development and behaviour of children. He believed that children mental and physical development follows a fixed pattern or sequence that show progressively as a result of genetics composition. Although he did not rule out the influence of the enivronmental factors but he felt they were less effective in the biological made of children. "He was a proponent of nature over nuture".

In this essay I am going to show my understanding of a child's early emotional development based on the psychoanalytical view of child development. I will show how emotional skills gained in the early years can be of a significant relevance to later life. I will show my understanding by illustrating it with the clinical material. Although I am focusing on the psychoanalytical approach to child development I believe that it is beneficial to present also some general background knowledge of child development.

Attachment theory is the idea that a child needs to form a close relationship with at least one primary caregiver. The theory proved that attachment is necessary to ensure successful social and emotional development in an infant. It is critical for this to occur in the child’s early infant years. However, failed to prove that this nurturing can only be given by a mother (Birns, 1999, p. 13). Many aspects of this theory grew out of psychoanalyst, John Bowlby’s research. There are several other factors that needed to be taken into account before the social worker reached a conclusion; such as issues surrounding poverty, social class and temperament. These factors, as well as an explanation of insecure attachment will be further explored in