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Impact of attachment at developmental stages
Child development theories introduction
Child development theories introduction
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Schaffer's Stages in Infant Development Attachment is the strong emotional bond that develops between infant and caregiver, providing the infant with emotional security. By the second half of the first year, infants have become attached to familiar people who have responded to their need for physical care and stimulation. Maurer and Maurer (1989) suggested that attachments are welded in the heat of interactions. (www.psychology.sunysb.edu) In other words, attachments depend on interaction between two people rather than simply being together. Infants are physically helpless and need adults to feed, care for, and protect them and without such assistance they can not survive. So infants are born with a tendency to form an attachment in order to increase their chances of survival. According to Schaffer (1996) there are certain stages in infant development: · Pre-attachment phase: this stage last until about three month of age. At this stage, infant produce similar responses to all objects. Towards the end of this period, infant are beginning to show a greater preference for social stimuli, such as a smiling face. · Indiscriminate attachment phase: between 2-7 months of age, infant become more social. They prefer human company and can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people. However they are still easily comforted by anyone and do not show anxiety with strangers. · Discriminate attachment phase: around 7- 24 month, infant begin to show a different sort of protest when particular person puts them down. They show especial joy at reunion with that person. They have formed specific attachment. The infant begins to displ... ... middle of paper ... ...an a higher proportion of children are classified as ambivalent and a lower proportion of children are classified as avoidant than in Western European and American cultures. Japanese infants, in fact, are more likely to be very upset during separations from their caregivers and less likely to explore the environment than American infants. Word count: 2080 words Bibliography www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachmen (accessed 02/01/2006) www.sfeu.ac.uk/.../documents/ Psychology (accessed 27/12/2005) www.psychematters.com/bibliographies/bowlby. (accessed 02/01/2006) www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/attachment (accessed 07/01/2006) Gross R (2005) The science of mind and behaviour, Fifth Edition, London Armold Cardwell M. Clark L, Meldrum C (2000) Psycology for AS Level, First Edition London Collins