Chapter 2 Theoretical Perspectives on Parenting

If infants are given too much attention, they will learn to want attention all the time.

• Medival times used concoctin called quietness
• Today, behavorial means of ignoring until falls asleeep

A father might perceive his toddler son could not fall asleep because he was scared of the dark and in need of reassurance. Consequently, this father would comfort the child and soothe the toddler until he fell asleep.

The disciplinary practice is harmless and is both necessary and effective.

For Puritans in Colonial America, children were viewed as inherently evil or sinful and the parents’ job was to drive this “evil instinct” away. But today, most parents do not see their children in such a unidimensional way.

• Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages. 
• latency is when sexual energy is repressed and not located in any body part. The rest of the stages focused on a particular region.

hypothesized that children who were breastfed versus bottle fed, those who were fed on demand rather than on a timetable, and those who were gradually weaned (versus abrupt weaning) would be more likely to successfully pass through the oral stage than other children.

Proposed four cognitive stages of parents’ thinking about their children with more advanced levels of thinking reflecting increasing differentiation of the parent and child

• image-making (preparing for parenthood)
• nurturing (birth- 2 years)
• authority(2-5 years)
• interpretive or helping the child understand the world (5 -12 years
• interdependent (adolescence) when parents need to develop anew their relatinships
• departure (late adolescence)

• Ontogenetic: Development of individuals over their life span.
• Phylogenetic: Development of the species over time.

attachment theory and behavioral theory

a theory about development that focuses on the establishment, maintenance, and consequences of affectionate bonds between parents and children.

Attachment theory addresses the establishment, maintenance, and consequences of affectionate bonds between parents and children

The core premise is that the relationship between a parent and infant reflects a behavioral system that has adapted to promote survival and competent functioning of the offspring.

Novelty seeking: According to attachment theory, children will seek new activities and experiences when they feel safe in their environment. Through this behavioral system, children acquire new competences.

Proximity seeking: When children feel threatened or scared, they will retreat to being held by or being near the parent in an effort to regain feelings of being safe, according to attachment theory.

warmth: the expression of parental affection and love.

Caregivers establish their role as a secure base over teh first year of life by showing warmth and love to the infants." In turn, infants learn to trust that the caregiver will take care of their needs. That trust develops into a secure attachment that encourages exploration of the environment, supports the development of social and cognitive competence, establishes feelings of efficacy, and promotes the development of autonomy "

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1

Introduction of Experimenter, Parent, and Child

Lasts only 30 seconds

2

Parent and Child alone

Parent watches Child

3

Stranger enters, talks with Parent, approaches Child. Parent leaves

Stranger silent first minute, then talks to Parent, then in 3rd minute to Child; first separation of Parent

4

Child alone with Stranger

Key question is whether Child gets comfort from Stranger

5

Parent returns, Stranger leaves

Reunion #1 of Parent and Child; Parent leaves at end of episode

6

Child is alone

Episode often lasts less than 3 minutes due to Child’s distress

7

Stranger enters

Key question is whether Child gets comfort from Stranger

8

Parent returns, Stranger leaves

Reunion #2"

Anxious-avoidant: an insecure attachment classification based on an infant’s pattern of behavior, characterized by avoiding or ignoring the parent when he or she returns from a separation.

Anxious-resistant: an insecure attachment classification based on an infant’s pattern of behavior, characterized by little exploration of the environment, wariness of unfamiliar persons, and ambivalence about the parent upon his or her return follow a separation.

Infants upset when mother's leave them and upon return, to eagerly approach and hug them.

According to attachment theory, when a child shows a confused and inconsistent pattern of response to stress, he or she has a disorganized attachment style. These children do not have an organized behavior strategy to deal with stresses.

Sensitive parenting means that parent responds promptly and appropriately as well as is available to help calm a distressed infant and help him or her to self-regulate.  parents are flexible, balanced, and integrated. This parenting results in a secure child in the presence of the parent

Disorganized children are believed to be survivors of abuse or some trauma and thus show peculiar and incoherent response patterns.

Temperament: refers to the biologically based behavioral style of the child.

ideas and expectations about oneself and others derived from previous attachment-related experiences

a pattern of behavior from which it is inferred that infants or young children trust their parents to protect and care for them in times of need.

Developed by Ronald Rohner, the theory was formed around the idea that parental love results in positive outcomes, but rejection negatively affects a child’s psychological adjustment and behavioral functioning.

a type of review of research literature that involves combining and comparing the results of multiple empirical studies using a common measure, called an effect size.

Meta-analyses largely supported the central tenets of the attachment theory and the results held up pan-culturally, that is, across cultures.

Across all cultures

he advocated focusing on actual behavior rather than introspection.  He fathered a link between social learning and child rearing.

Classical conditioning: a form of associative learning that typically involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. It involves learning a new behavior merely by the process of association.

Operant conditioning: Also known as Skinnerian conditioning, this refers to a form of learning where the consequences of an act modify the likelihood of its recurrence.  Identified by B. F. Skinner

Reinforcement effect: According to operant conditioning principles, a reinforcement is any action that increases the likelihood that a prior behavior will recur.

Punishment effect: From Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning, a punishment is any action in response to a behavior that decreases the likelihood that the behavior will recur.

if a stimulus is removed

the respons involves an action rather than a removal of stimulus

If an unpleasant stimulus or event is removed

• positive
• administering positive stimulus = positive reinforcement
• administering negative stimuus = positive punishment.

Example of positive punishment: administering a spanking

• negative
• withdrawing positive stimulus = negative punishment (or omission training)
• withdrawing negative stimulus = negative reinforcement

withdrawing negative stimulus: withdrawing nagging or yelling

refers to the idea that dyadic behavior is influenced by both individuals.

• A child misbehaves and gets attention which can be reinforcing
• failure to reinforce positive behavior
• overly rely on punishments versus reinforcements

• ineffective becaue parents do not punish correctly
• too weak, postoine or inconsistent
• introduces fear and anxiety and does not promote positive interactions.

Evolution: a theory about the origins of plants and animals as well as processes of change.

Natural selection: the process whereby heritable traits that are better suited for an environment will survive and other traits will become less common.

Genes: blueprints of development, comprised of a segment of DNA and made up of amino acids.

Hunter-gatherer: a society where food is procured primarily by hunting animals and gathering edible foods.

Altricial: an organism requiring care and feeding after birth to survive.

True

a concept in human evolutionary theory referring to the time, energy, and resources parents devote to rearing their children

Filicide is the parent killing of a child.  stepfathers were more likely to kill, abuse or neglect their stepchildren because they did not share genetics

provision of infant care by adults who are not biologically related to the child.

a theory that seeks to understand human behavior and characteristics as a result of adaptive processes over tens of thousands of years.  It does not believe there is no way to go against propensity or bias, just need to be conscious of it and work to compensate for it.

A theory that seeks to understand genetic and environmental contributions to variations in human behavior and characteristics.

English scientist who began this orientation towards genetic determinants.  It was further pursued by American physician Arnold Gesel (1880-1961)

Gesell posed a nativist theory of development. He believed that children’s genetic constitution determined the natural unfolding of their inherited predispositions.

True

an individual’s genetic makeup, comprised of some 20,000 to 25,000 genes.

the physical expression or manifestation of an individual’s genotype

how genetic expression, that is phenotypes, are affected by experience.

the idea that a particular phenotypic expression is due to the interaction between genes and the environment.

• Genes have a passive role in the environment.
• Genes play an active role in directing a child to seek out certain environments
• Genes have an evocative role when parents react to a child's phenotype in a particular way unique to that child.

The environment can be thought of as interacting with a child's genotype as well as phenotype in a dynamic fashion.

aspects of the environment (activities, social interactions, and friendships) experienced by two or more siblings in the same family.

aspects of the environment (e.g., activities, social interactions, and friendships) that are unique to each child in a family.

a theory of development that highlights the role that peers and peer-group processes play, particularly during adolescence.

theory: a theory that focuses on the interrelations of different levels of context and how they relate to child’s behavior and development.

the idea that there is a continuous mutual influence of the person and environment on development. In turn, individuals change and then influence the environment around them.

a term in the ecological systems theory that refers to the contexts where children interact (e.g., the home, school, and playground).

a layer of the ecological systems theory that refers to the system of processes or linkages taking place between two or more microsystems

refers to when children have the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to enable them to succeed in kindergarten.

the layer of context or settings in the ecological systems theory that affects children but does not directly include children (e.g., parents’ workplace).

material, emotional, or instrumental forms of assistance provided by other people.

the outermost level of the ecological systems theory. This level refers to the major, overarching characteristics or structures of a culture or subculture that affect children.

This system refers to how nested systems of interactions can change over time.

What a child learns as they interact with others in the world

a group of behavioral and emotional problems in children involving difficulties in following rules or behaving in socially acceptable ways. Problematic behaviors include aggression, property destruction, lying, stealing, and truancy.

problematic interactions in which two individuals compete with increasing force to see who can gain control.

Emphasis on human agency: Bandura’s theory emphasizes human agency (intentionally producing certain effects) although he recognizes how we act is influenced by a variety of variables, such as personal and environmental determinants

an individual’s beliefs about his or her ability to affect changes in the environment.

Parents who believe they can control their children typically are more competent in their parenting abilities and have children who are better adjusted.

Parent child relationships are shaped both by child effets and parent effetcts

A narrow theroy of parent-child relationships focusing on how both parents and children perceie and respond to the intensity, frequency and situational appropriateness of behavior shown by the other.