CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Child Development

Child Development

Introduction

Care giving relationships lay the groundwork for socio emotional development and guide behaviour. He regarded adult personality as the product of an individual's interactions with key figures during all his years of immaturity, especially of his interactions with attachment figures (Bakermans, 1993, 26-81).

Attachment theory, which grew out of the British Object Relations School, differs from other theories in its emphasis on ethnology. Ethnologists study patterns of species specific behaviour that promote social interaction and survival of a species. In the young of other species, they mature in the early months of life of the human child a complex and nicely balanced equipment of instinctual responses, the function of which is to ensure that he obtains parental care sufficient for his survival. As a child matures, such instinctual responses become organized into complex behavioural patterns which develop out of interactions with primary caregivers.

The Goal of the Attachment System: In Child Development

Initially, it was suggested that the goal of the attachment system was to maintain closeness to the caregiver in order to assure the child protection and care. This idea was later refined so that the goal of the attachment system is now seen as felt security (Bates, 1985). Rather than being the end-goal, nearness to the parent is seen as a potential aid in achieving security feeling. For example, in any situation that elicits a subjective feeling of insecurity, the attachment system may be activated and proximity to the caregiver may be sought in order to obtain a feeling of security. In non-threatening or minimally stressful situations, a child may turn his attention toward the environment and use the caregiver as a base from which to explore (Bates, 2001, 50).

Attachment is generally viewed in qualitative rather than quantitative terms. For example, Ainsworth (1972) views individual differences in attachment not as differences in quantity (e.g., more or less attached), but rather as differences in the quality of the way relationships are organized. Similarly, attachment is an organizational construct and not a trait construct. These authors believe that attachment is not a thing in and of itself, but rather a system that organizes behaviour in order to maintain or achieve the goal of felt security. When attachment is viewed as an organizational construct, individual behaviours are not as important as the way that behaviour is organized. The attachment system, therefore, is seen as a motivational behavioural control system that organizes behaviour, and functions to maintain a feeling of security by regulating a balance between attachment behaviours and proximity to the care giver, and exploration of the environment in a variety of settings and contexts (Cassidy, 2008, 64-110).

A feeling of security is postulated to be based on qualities of parent child interactions. Overall, attachments are classified as secure or insecure. Specifically, it is expected that a child who interacts with a care giver who responds sensitively and consistently to his needs will develop a secure attachment. Conversely, a child who interacts with a care giver who fails to respond sensitively ...