Essay On Mother Infant Relationship

When looking at a family as a communion of people working together, the next step would be to somewhat dissect a traditional family and look at the parts of it. The head of the family is the parents or the parental figure; whoever is the authority of the family. In the traditional family, the father and the mother have different jobs but come together as one to love and care for the infant. Through the intimacy of the mother and child during pregnancy, the two form a special relationship. The father forms a special relationship as he protects the child, offering him a sense of safety, and acting as one with the mother in caring for the infant. However, because of this close bond between the parents and the infant, this causes a more engaged

The observers would watch tapes of infants interacting with their mothers and another tape with strangers, and then they would watch the mother with their infant and a stranger with an infant. The observers would take note of the infant’s gazes, smiles, vocalizations, touch, and fussing. This experiment’s results were as follows: “The period of 2-6 months is a crucial time in the development of mother-infant relations, the time that spans infants’ emergence of social responsiveness to the blossoming of the attachment of relationship...Mother-infant interaction becomes increasingly distinguishable from stranger interaction and more characterized by active dyadic engagement.” Therefore we see that the maternal relationship is significant and is set apart from relationships from a stranger. Because this relationship is so strong between the mother and her child, it is necessary for the mother to love and engage with infant, so that the infant has the potential to give this love back. While these studies apply to traditional families and the ways that this communion of persons should flourish, it is important to understand that not all families are composed of mother, father, and child. There are times in life when a family only consists of mother and child, or father and child. Other times, a family may include a grandmother, aunt, or an adoptive parent who

Sometimes a child will come home and explain that their friend acts a certain way and it bothers them. Parents usually console their child by explaining that the friend could be having family problems and could be having trouble at home. A study was done by Dr. Cicchetti who is a leader in the fields of developmental psychology and psychopathology. The study he implemented was done between children who are neglected and abused, and children who are not. Through this study, it was determined that children who are maltreated do not have different standards of behavior in comparison to children who are not maltreated. However, the children who were maltreated have an enhanced social sensitivity because they learn to monitor the behavior of adults and are more exposed to naturally occurring parental anger. Chicchetti confirms through his study that social actions are constructed from social experience. Therefore it is important to take into consideration the family when judging the actions of the child, because the experience of a child’s family can affect the way their cognition is developed and therefore affect the way they respond in social situations. It would be wrong to say that a child who is neglected is not capable of reaching the goal of sainthood. A family should fulfill the material, spiritual, and cognitive needs of an infant. When a child is not given these