Studies summaries

attachment

Animal research(Harlow)
  • Attachment is driven by comfort rather than satisfying basic needs eg. Food
  • Infants need sense of security from caregiver to want to explore the environment.
Co-sleeping
  • Child sleeping in the same bed as their parents
  • Different attitude towards it- Japan does it, US does not.
  • Those who do co-sleeping from a young age has more independence.
  • Bowlby’s internal working model
  1. Ideas about attachment figures and what can be expected from the
  2. Ideas about the self
  3. Ideas about the self and how others relate – if receive love, then thinks they are worthy of receiving more love.
  • Continues through life – longitudinal research indicates it is relative stable but can be changed.
Ainsworth
  • Strange situation
    • Mother and infant left alone, stranger enter while mother leaves. Next stranger leaves. Then stranger returns. Afterwards mother returns. Finally, stranger leaves. Child is continuously observed throughout usually through one-way glass.
  • Types:
a.  Insecurely attached avoidant
  • child is indifferent when mother leaves and avoids contact when mother is there. Also, not afraid of strangers. Mother is insensitive to child’s behaviour and not interested in play
 
b.  Securely attached
  • child gets upset when mother leaves and is happy when returned. Easily comforted by her. Mother is very interested with child’s play, actively communicates with child during play.
c.   Insecurely attached – ambivalent
  • child gets very upset when mother leaves and her struggles to sooth the child when she returns; seeks her but at the same time rejects the mother. Mother is inconsistent in their reaction to the child.

  • Ganda project in Uganda – 20% of child and mother are A, 70% are B, 10% are C.
  • Van Ijzendoin and Kroonenberg(1988) – US is the same as Uganda. Japan has high C and no A, western Europe has high A and Iseral has high C. The different cultures and their parenting styles need to be studied more eg. In some cultures, the child is taken care by the community and not a single mother and in some cultures, interactions with stranger are more common
  • Fonagy et al(1991) – there is a correlation between parenting style and attachment pattern of the child when they grow up.
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  • +ve:
    • Highly standardized procedure
    • Can be easily replicated and has been.
    • Based on real life situation. Eg. Mother leaves and someone has to watch over the child for a while.
  • -ve:
    • Low cross-cultural validity. Need more research on their parenting styles
    • Does not measure long-term effects
    • Makes child stressed in experimental setting which is different from real life eg. Lab vs home
    • Mother and child are stressed when child cries.
    • Can still be seen as an artificial situation.
    • Type of data gathered in very limited.

GENDER AND SOCIAL ROLES

Cognitive
  • Gender schema theory
    • Can recognize which group they belong to and they will seek information to build their gender schema(gender labelling -> schematic processing)
    • Martin and Halvorison(1983)
    • -ve:
      • No bio support
      • Cannot explain those who do not conform
      • Cannot measure schematic processing
  • Kohlberg’s development theory of gender:
  1. Gender labelling(2 years) – can identify what gender people are but believe gender changes when physical appearance changes
  2. Gender stability (3-4)– gender is stable( girls will become mother) but believe gender can be changed by context. Eg. Mother are female so if I want to become a mother, I need to become female.
  3. Gender consistency – gender is constant and there is cognitive dissonance which is when feel uncomfortable when doing inconsistent behaviour
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Sociocultural
  • SCT (Bandura)
    • Factors:
      • Reward for gender-appropriate behaviour and punishment for non
      • Models behavior done by same sex models
  • Treated differently by parents and peers which treat to gender roles – Sroufe et al(1993) – peer socialization is important for gender development
  • +ve:
    • Empirical studies
    • Takes social and cultural context
    • Can predict development when measuring rewards and punishment
  • -ve:
    • Agues children should be more feminine as most caregivers are female. This shows the importance of peers and other social factors
    • Cannot explain variation in conformity to gender roles and behaviors
    • Suggest gender is passive.
  • Silva et al(1992) – culture may explain how gender role change over time eg. Globalization changes how female teenagers think they should be to be successful.
Bio:
  • Sex determining hormones estrogen - females and testosterone – males
  • Theory of psychosexual differentiation
    • Testosterone is the key to develop the body as well as mind. Establishes a male brain circuitry and inhibits female brain.
    • Imperato-McGinely et al(1974) – strong biological origin of gender identity
    • CC: Money and Inherd(1972) – born gender neutral and socialized into out gender identity.

THEORY OF MIND

  • Understanding another person’s beliefs, intention and perspective
  • After theory of mind is developed then can some empathy. Important for reading compression, narratives, deception and symbolic(pretend) play
  • Stages:
1.Pre-theory of mind(during 1st year)
  • Gaze following – can follow attention
  • Proto-declarative point – point at the same object or interest
  • Seeing leads to knowing – what a person sees, they know
2.Desire (1st to 2nd year) –
  • Ability to detect that some wants something or something to happen - Repocholi and Gopni(1997)
  • Assume other’s behaviour reflects their own desires and belies. - Repocholi and Gopni(1997)
  • Begin to understand deception but not good at it.
  • Can empathize with other children.
3.Belief-desire(3rd year)
  • Begin to understand people have their own beliefs and desires which can be different from their own. - Repocholi and Gopni(1997)
4.Representational(4th year)
  • Can understand a person’s belief can be false
  • Balon-Cohen et al(1985) – under 4 couldn’t understand false belief
    • CC: siege and Beattie say can
Explanations:
  • Theory theory –
    • child observe the world, gather data about how it works; like Piaget’s active scientists
    • development of meta-analysis – able to use symbols to represent something real eg. Banana as a gun
    • learn about other’s representation
  • Simulation theory - 
    • Uses own mind as a model as a comparison for understanding the mind of others
    • Biologically designed- Carr et al(2003) – mirror neurons are active by observing someone carrying out a behaviour eg. When someone else smiles, you smile
Information is mostly complied from:
​​Popov, Alexey. Psychology: for the IB Diploma. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2018.
Crane, John. “IB Psychology.” ThinkIB Student Pages, www.student.thinkib.net/psychology?lg=8007.
Photo: Mascarelli, Amanda Leigh. “Identifying as a Different Gender.” Science News for Students, 7 Aug. 2015, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/identifying-different-gender.