7 Social and emotional development – Bowlby — attachment theory

K Arockia Maraichelvi

1. INTRODUCTION

The module on Social and emotional development is formulated with the purpose of providing an interesting tool for early childhood educators to understand the basics of emotions and social patterns that are to exhibited by a child in his early years. Moreover, this module elaborates on the theories associated with the manifestations of early emotions and the social tie referred to as the attachment.

2. OBJECTIVES

The objectives were

• To recognize the pattern of social behaviour from 0-6 years
• To understand how the attachment behaviour serves as a primary social tie for an infant to develop better relationships later in their life
• To realize the concept of emotion and its emergence from infancy through early childhood years
• To apprehend the origin of emotion and its related behaviour by theories namelyJames-Lange Physiological theory, Cannon-Bard Neurological theory, Schechter and Singer theory and cognitive appraisal theory.

3.  SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DURING EARLY YEARS

The term social development refers to the ability to behave as per the social norms and expectations. This process has to develop by three strategies namely

• Learning to act in socially approved ways

Every child becomes aware of what is expected from them socially and try to model themselves in line with the approved behaviours

• Playing accepted social roles

  Every person right from childhood is supposed to exhibit customary social role or roles. These are said to be accepted roles

• Development of social attitudes

Better social attitudes develop when the child likes and trust people around him, which will facilitate him to make better social adjustments and an acceptable member of the group.

This section of the module would brief us on the social development and its related behaviour under two heads namely from 0-2 years and from2-6 years

3.1 SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR – 0-2 YEARS

The foundation of social behaviour is laid by several aspects such as imitation, shyness, dependency, attachment behaviour, acceptance of authority, rivalry, attention seeking, resistant behaviour and social cooperation. But the most important foundation to be dealt in detail is the attachment behaviour.

3.1.1. Development of attachment

The first social tie or attachment between the infant and his mother serves as the foundation for all relationships later. The term attachment is defined as the strong affectional tie that humans feel towards special people in their lives (Berk, 1996). This tie helps anyone from infant to old person to feel pleasure and joy, which gets even more strengthened with close interactions and by the comfort of nearness at stressful situations.

Infants, before their first birthday, become attached to familiar people who look into their physical and stimulation needs. This is the reason why babies cling firmly to the mother patting her face, exploring her hair, kissing and snuggling against her body.

Though the process of attachment seems to be a normal reaction of a human being, it has led to an intensive theoretical debate. However, three theories of attachment are worth to realize. They are

• Behaviourist perspective
•  Psycho-analytic perspective
• Ethological perspective

3.1.1.1 Behaviourist perspective

From behaviourism, the attachment is seen as a learned response. Among the various aspects of behaviourism in the context of attachment , the most important one is ‘Drive reduction account of attachment’ which believes that feeding is the activity which plays a pivotal role in infant mother relationship.

For example, a hungry baby who is crying (Primary drive here is hunger) is lifted by his mother and fed resulting in satisfaction of the hunger. When this happens several times, the baby wanted her presence even when not hungry to get relieved from distress. This desire for existence becomes a secondary drive or learned drive, and the baby now prefers all positive stimuli like the caress of the mother, warm smiles and tender words of comfort. Pitfalls

Though we realize that the mother is the first attachment tie of a baby strengthened by the feeding context, the bondage does not rely only on satisfying his hunger, also this theory does not explain the reason for persistent attachment relationship over a longer period during which the attachment figure is not present. For example, think about your feelings of attachment with your mother, whom you have not seen for a year as you are away from your home for your studies. Are the feelings of attachment the same? May be it would have been strengthened but for sure not decreased. Hence the theory of drive reduction failed to explain certain significant attachment of human beings concerning time and space.

3.1.1.2 Psycho-analytic perspective

Erikson’s and Freud’s perspective of attachment provides a stronger view of the attachment bond compared to that of the behaviourist perspective. The psychoanalytic approach also does emphasize the mother and infant relationship as the first attachment bond but argue that it is the quality of the mother’s interaction with the baby that decides the degree of attachment.

These theories also stress upon its belief that once the infant develops a trust in his mother that she will satisfy his needs, he could explore his environment confidently for a shorter duration of time. Consequently, the child will form an inner image of his mother and rely on that image for support in her absence.

Hence, the psycho-analytic perspective concludes that the attachment is an important aspect in allowing the child to master his emotional and cognitive skills by facilitating his need for exploring the environment.

Pitfalls

Though this perspective is accepted to certain extent, it has got two major criticisms

• Freud’s oral stage, just like behaviourism focuses only on feeding as the critical aspect in the attachment bond.
• Erikson’s perspective talk only about the mother’s contribution to the attachment but never speaks about the infant’s contribution towards the bond

To overcome these weaknesses, ethological perspective of attachment came into existence

3.1.1.3.Ethological perspective

John Bowlby formulated the ethological perspective of the emotional tie of an infant with his mother and had become a widely accepted view. Bowlby based his theory on the assumption that the evolution of human behaviours is based on its promotion of the survival value Human baby, alike other animal species is born with a set of inbuilt behaviours that facilitate the parent to be nearby in such a way that the chances of an infant being protected from danger increases.

Bowlby made us understand that the attachment has got its biological roots with the survival of the species as most critical rather than the feeding aspect as focussed by behaviourists and psychologists.

As already mentioned, Bowlby theory talks about the infants’ contribution to the attachment bond. Hence infant’s relationships to the parent are innate signals that call the adult towards his side. Eventually, with the support of emotional and cognitive skills, warmth and responsive care a strong affectional bond are formed.

The attachment bond develops through four phases as listed below. Each step elaborates the contribution made by the infant as well as the mother and its resultant outcomes.

1. Preattachment phase – Initiated at birth and extends up to 6 weeks

• Infant’s contribution – The built in signals such as smiling, crying, grasping, looking into adult’s eye
• Mother’s contribution – Picking up, stroking, patting, talking softly.
• Outcome – The response of adults and infant reinforce each other

It is also believed that an infant could recognize his mother’s smell and voice at this period. However, during this period the attachment gets only initiated but not developed. Hence the infant does not mind even when the mother is not present.

2.  Attachment in-the-making phase

• Infant’s contribution – He starts to show variations in his response to a familiar care giver (mothers preferably) with that of a stranger. By four months, the infant smiles, laughs, babble more freely with his mother. A crying baby is quieted more quickly when picked up by his mother.
• Mother’s contribution – Providing the infant with a sense of trust by fulfilling his physical and emotional desires.
• Outcome – The infant starts to experience relief from distress when his mother is nearby.

Though they can distinguish between his mother and other people, they still do not protest in the absence of the mother figure.

3. Clear-cut attachment phase – It starts at the 8th month of the infant and proceeds up to 18 months. In this phase, the attachment bond becomes very apparent as the baby starts to express separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety – it is defined by the baby getting upset when the mother whom he relies completely upon leaves the place.

• Toddler’s contribution – Protesting the mother’s departure and deliberately monitoring her presence by following or climbing on her in preference to others.
• Mother’s contribution – Providing emotional and social warmth as before
• Outcome – the infant start using his mother as a secure base in this phase and turn explore the environment for a while and return to the base for emotional warmth.

4. Reciprocal relationship phase – This phase gets initiated by 18 months and extends two years and beyond.

The improvement in cognitive representation and language skills allow the toddler to realize the factors influencing his parent’s presence beside him. Thereby the separation anxiety declines.

• Toddler’s contribution – Negotiating with the mother with requests and persuasion to change her goals, instead of crawling or clinging to her.
• Mother’s response – Accepting the toddlers’ requests and persuasions along with providing emotional and social warmth
• Outcome – The toddler could better understand the reason for his mother’s absence and in turn try to withstand the absence for a brief time.

Overall, by going through these four phases, the child constructs an internal representation of its attachment bond with his mother. This inner representation as an image serves as a model and guide for all other interactions later in their life even as an adult. Hence this bond becomes a very critical aspect towards their personal development.

3.1.2 Attachment caters development. How?

Wondering how this attachment/emotional tie between the mother and the child could help us understand the Teachers’ / Parents’ role in the whole of the early years of children? To understand this better certain research findings that had provided strong evidence for the theoretical view of attachment are presented below.

Theoretical view – healthy attachment tie creates a feeling of affection and security, which in turn supports the overall psychological development of a human being Consistent research findings

• Frankel and Bates (1990) – Quality of attachment tie between the mother and the infant is related to cognitive and social development in early childhood.
• Preschool children who had experienced a secure attachment in their infancy stage are found to be enthusiastic and persistent in problem-solving tasks. Also, they are found to have a positive relationship with peers.
• Fagot and Kavanaugh (1990) – An infant who had experienced an insecure attachment showed serious adjustment difficulties in their preschool age.

    Thus these theories of social development with particular reference to emotional ties and its supporting research evidence suggest the need to create a warm, caring and responsive environment for every infant as it influences their overall development in their further stages

To sum up, the drive reduction and psycho-analytic perspective of attachment pays more attention to feeding and treats infants to have a passive role in forming the bond. But Bowlby”s theory has appreciated the active role of the infant in creating the emotional tie.

3.2 Social behaviour during 0-6 years

The social behaviour patterns manifested by a child in preschool years are cooperation, rivalry, and generosity, desire for social approval, sympathy, dependency, friendliness, unselfishness, imitation and attachment behaviour. They also do indulge themselves in unsocial behaviour patterns like negativism, aggression, quarrelling, teasing and bullying, Ascendant behaviour, egocentrism, prejudice, and sex antagonism.

However, opportunities should be provided to every child to involve in interactive play with peers as it is this age they begin to establish peer relationships. Preschoolers view friendship as concrete and activity based relationship.

At the end of the first half of the module, hope it is well understood of how the social development of children in their early years gets initiated and grow with certain behaviour patterns. The second part of the module would explain how emotions work and develop among children.

4. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

To understand the emotions of children, its emergence, development, and behavioural patterns, let us understand the theories put forth on how emotions occur.

4.1 Theories of emotion

Emotional expressions and its related learning gets initiated at a very early age, as children from their infancy period discover a broad range of emotions and its expressions. Hence emotional development is a complex task that begins in infancy and continues into adulthood. This part of the module aims to provide you a better understanding of the concept of emotions and its values, theoretical perspectives underlying it, stages of emotional development during early years and the factors influencing emotional competence.

4.1.1 Concept of Emotions

Emotion is defined as a complex pattern of bodily and mental changes that include physiological arousal, feelings, cognitive process, visible expressions and specified behavioural expressions made in response to a situation perceived as personally significant.

Emotions are mostly conscious phenomena that involve more physical manifestations and vary along some dimensions namely the intensity, type, origin, arousal, value, and self-regulation etc.

4.1.2 Why do emotions matter?

Emotions have certain values as given below

1.  Though emotions are reputed to be ‘antagonists of rationality,’ they have a central place in moral education and moral life through conscience, empathy and certain specific moral emotions such as shame, guilt and remorse.

2. Emotions determine personal viability by preparing us for action

3. Emotions regulate social interaction (both verbal and non-verbal communication).

4. Emotions shape our behaviour and make life worth living by adding value to the experience.

5.  Emotions allow us to respond flexibly to our environment (Approaching good and avoiding bad)

4.1.3 Theoretical perspectives

This part of the module would help us to understand the underlying assumptions and beliefs of the various theories put forth on emotional development. But just before that let us brainstorm ourselves with the following question

‘Does your heart pound because you are afraid?’

Or

‘Are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?’

Here the heart pound is said to be the physiological arousal and feeling afraid is the emotional experience.

In support to the first question comes the physiological theory of emotion proposed by James Lange and Cannon-Bard supports the second question in their Neurological theory. Let us see each in detail.

4.1.3.1 James- Lange Physiological theory of emotion

Assumption – Emotion occurs as a result of physiological reaction to events

Situation – You happen to see a strange animal. Your heart starts pounding, and you interpret this physical response as fear.

‘My heart is pounding. Therefore I am afraid.’

4.1.3.2. Cannon- Bard Neurological theory of emotion

Assumption – Feeling of emotions and experiencing physiological reaction happens simultaneously Belief – emotions result when the thalamus sends a message to the brain in response to a stimulus leading to a physiological reaction For the same situation

Here as the brain sends the message of a strange animal near you the thalamus gets activated wherein the heart pounding and the feeling of emotion happens at the same time.

Is it all about emotions? What about the cognition or thought process that gets involved in the expression of emotions? To understand the involvement of cognition in emotions one another theory called the cognitive theory of emotion proposed by Schechter and Singer comes into being.

4.1.3.3 Schechter and Singer theory of emotion

Assumption – An event causes physiological arousal, but that you must then identify a reason for the arousal before you label the emotion.

Here, though the bodily reaction of pounding heart is same for two different situations– coming across a strange animal and a person you like propose to you. But the difference lies in how your brain labels the bodily reaction cognitively.

Though the cognitive theory of emotion very clearly indicates that the cognitive thinking precedes the emotion, a controversy still exists.

‘Does cognition precede the physiological arousal?’ ‘Also how does this cognition happen?’

  To answer these questions, a theory called Cognitive appraisal theory put forth by Lazarus gains significance.

4.1.3.4 Cognitive Appraisal theory of emotion

Assumption – Emotion provoking stimulus triggers a cognitive appraisal, which is followed by the emotion and then the physiological arousal sets in

Here the stimulus of love proposal is being appraised as a cognitive process of how this situation affects your well-being (consciously/unconsciously) with insights of your goals, beliefs, practices, desires, and intentions with external circumstances. Then the emotion of either love or fear sets in, after which the physiological response occurs.

In sum, the theoretical framework of emotional development is a combination of physiological, neurological and cognitive appraisal of situations that produce emotions. The order of events might change over time as the child matures and as a response to various environmental interactions. Hence emotional should be considered from a bio-ecological framework, wherein a dynamic child is embedded within the cultural and social context. As emotional development reflects the social experience, the next section of the module deals with certain significant milestones of emotional development of children of 0-6 years concerning social interaction.

4.2. Milestones of emotional development (0-6 years)

Emotions do play a prominent role in how effective babies and pre school children express their feelings and recognize those of others. It is the emotions that help them to establish a relationship with their parents, explore their surroundings and discover themselves. However, the establishment of emotions and its development follows a typical pattern in almost all children of various backgrounds. Let us see them in two subheads as emotional development during the first two years and from two to six years.

4.2.1     Emotional development from 0 to 2 years

1.      The development of basic emotions

Few basic emotions like happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust are believed to be present right from birth. These emotions change in intensity and frequency as a change in age occurs. For example Happiness changes to social smile before 10th week and then to Laughter by 3 or 4 months. By 7 months the emotion fear manifests itself as stranger anxiety.

2.  Understanding the emotion of others

At the end of the first year, we can expect a child to understand the emotion of others as social referencing occurs. Social referencing is defined as the way of how a baby seeks emotional information from the parents particularly in a strange situation.

3. Appearance of complex emotions

Certain complex emotions like shame, pride and embarrassment appear when infants start combining basic emotions.

4.2.2     Emotional development from 2 to 6 years

1.   Deeper understanding of emotions

With the improvement in the self-concept and vocabulary development, the preschool child understands his emotions as well as those of others impressively. By the end of 6 years, the children would be able to judge the exact cause of primary emotional reactions.

2. Emotional self-regulation

It is otherwise referred to the ability to control one’s own emotion. With the rapid vocabulary development, they become aware of several strategies that help them in controlling emotions.

5. CONCLUSION

This module on social and emotional development of children in their early years would have given you a clear insight of the pattern of social and emotional behaviour commonly observed in children of 0-6 years with special focus on how the attachment behaviour had served as a basic social tie for an infant to develop better relationships later in their life. Also, this module would have facilitated you in apprehending the origin of emotion and its related behaviour by some basic theories of emotion.

Web links

• https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/mental-health…and-emotional…/emotional-development
• www.gracepointwellness.org/…child-development…early…/12766-early-childhood-e…
• dmh.mo.gov/healthykids/parents/social-emotional-development.html