NURS2003 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Early Head Start, Life Matters, Infant
CHAPTER 4 – SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Attachment: The Basic Life Bond
Attachment: the powerful bond of love between a caregiver and child (or between
any two individuals)
Basic human need
Toddlerhood: the important transitional stage after babyhood, from roughly 1 year
to 2½ years of age; defined by an intense attachment to caregivers and by an
urgent need to become independent
Primary attachment figure: the closest person in a child’s or adult’s life
The need for a loving primary attachment figure is biologically built in and
satisfying that need is crucial to development
Proximity-seeking behaviour: acting to maintain physical contact or to be close to
an attachment figure
Provoked by threats to survival at any age, especially during toddlerhood
Being physically apart from an attachment figure elicits distress
Pre-attachment phase: the first phase of John Bowlby’s developmental
attachment sequence, during the first three months of life, when infants show no
visible signs of attachment
Characterised by the first social smile
Social smile: the first real smile, occurring at about 2 months of age
Attachment in the making: second phase of Bowlby’s attachment sequence,
when, from 4 to 7 months of age, babies slightly prefer the primary caregiver
Immediate phase
Clear-cut attachment: critical human attachment phase, from 7 months through
toddlerhood, defined by stranger anxiety and needing a primary caregiver close
Signalled by separation and stranger anxiety
During this period spanning toddlerhood, children need their caregiver to be
physically close
Separation anxiety: signal of clear-cut attachment when a baby gets upset as a
primary caregiver departs
Stranger anxiety: beginning at about 7 months of age, when a baby grows wary
of people other than a primary caregiver
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Social referencing: a baby’s checking back and monitoring a caregiver for cues
as to how to behave while exploring; linked to clear-cut attachment
Babies rely on this to monitor their caregiver’s behaviour
Working model: in Bowlby’s theory, the mental representation of a caregiver,
allowing children over age 3 to be physically apart from the caregiver
Children can tolerate separations
Carry into life
Strange Situation: Mary Ainsworth’s procedure to measure attachment at age 1,
involving planned separations and reunions with a caregiver
To explore individual differences in attachment
Test involves planned separations and especially reunions
Secure attachment: ideal attachment responds with joy at being united with a
primary caregiver; or, in adulthood, the genuine intimacy that is ideal in love
relationships
Insecure attachment: deviation from the normally joyful response of being united
with a primary caregiver, signalling problems in the caregiver-child relationship
1-year-olds are either securely or insecurely attached
Securely attached 1-year-olds use their primary attachment figure as a secure
base for exploration and are delighted when she returns
Avoidant attachment: an insecure attachment style characterised by a child’s
indifference to a primary caregiver at being reunited after separation
Anxious-ambivalent attachment: an insecure attachment style characterised by a
child’s intense distress when reunited with a primary caregiver after separation
Children are inconsolable and sometimes angry when their caregiver arrives
Disorganised attachment: an insecure attachment style characterised by
responses such as freezing or fear when a child is reunited with the primary
caregiver in the Strange Situation
Children react in an erratic way and often show fear when their parent re-
enters the room
Synchrony/attachment dance: the reciprocal aspect of the attachment
relationship, with a caregiver and infant responding emotionally to each other in a
sensitive, exquisitely attuned way
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Attachment: the powerful bond of love between a caregiver and child (or between any two individuals) Toddlerhood: the important transitional stage after babyhood, from roughly 1 year to 2 years of age; defined by an intense attachment to caregivers and by an urgent need to become independent. Primary attachment figure: the closest person in a child"s or adult"s life. The need for a loving primary attachment figure is biologically built in and satisfying that need is crucial to development. Proximity-seeking behaviour: acting to maintain physical contact or to be close to an attachment figure. Provoked by threats to survival at any age, especially during toddlerhood. Being physically apart from an attachment figure elicits distress. Pre-attachment phase: the first phase of john bowlby"s developmental attachment sequence, during the first three months of life, when infants show no visible signs of attachment. Social smile: the first real smile, occurring at about 2 months of age.
