self-recognition

1)To what extent might early self-recognition be seen as a coping strategy for insecurely attached infants? (300 words)
Guidance
Chapter 2 gives several reasons why children who are securely attached might display
self-recognition at different times from children with insecure attachments. Start your
answer by explaining what self-recognition means in the context of attachment (around
100 words). The rest of the answer (around 200 words) should focus on a critical analysis
of this evidence, looking at the work of Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) described in
Chapter 2, Section 2. Being ‘critical’ means that you should not accept claims at face
value, but rather think about how well justified they are, just as you are doing in this
assignment with the Sutton Trust’s claims.
2)What is the relationship between self-regulation in children and later success in school? (400 words)
Guidance
Chapter 3 discusses children’s abilities to learn about the world around them. It also
discusses the ways children change their behaviour in response to adult actions. Using
the information given in this chapter, start your answer by explaining what inhibition and
self-regulation mean (around 100 words), how they can be tested (around 100 words) and
the relationship between children’s behaviour when they are 4–6 years old and their
behaviour as schoolchildren (around 200 words).
3)What is ‘emotional reciprocity’ between mother and child and why is it important? What do
you think would happen if there is no, or very limited, reciprocity between mother and child? (400 words)
Guidance
Research in attachment is very closely linked to the study of emotion. Start your answer
by considering the development of emotions in infants (around 50 words). Next, go on to
describe what you understand by emotional reciprocity (around 50 words) and its
relationship to theories of attachment (around 100 words). Finally, discuss what function
this reciprocity might have and suggest some consequences that may occur when a child
does not experience, or is not shown, these emotions (around 200 words).
4)What is meant by ‘theory of mind’? Why is it so important in understanding how infants communicate, and how does this relate to the formation of attachments? (400 words)
Guidance
Start by defining theory of mind (around 100 words), and then go on to explain its
importance for psychologists in trying to understand why and how babies and their carers
communicate with each other (around 150 words). You might like to draw on Meltzoff’s
(2005) concept of the ‘like me’ hypothesis here (Chapter 5, Section 5). Next, show how
the ability to reason about others’ mental states is also important in forming attachments
(around 150 words). You might like to refer also to the concept of ‘mind-mindedness’
(Chapter 1, Section 4.3).
5)Why are children in families with multiple problems more likely to have insecure attachment
classifications? Consider the Sutton Trust’s claims and evaluate the evidence presented for
these.(500 words)
Guidance
First, you should consider and write down the impacts that multiple problems in families
might have on children’s opportunities to form secure attachment relationships with their
parents/carers (around 200 words). You might want to return to the scenario you created
in Part 2 of this TMA and think about which external or contextual factors may impact on
how parents/carers interact with their children. Here, you should consider the Sutton
Trust’s claims and evaluate the evidence presented for these claims (around 300 words).
6)Conclusion:This allows you 200 words in which to summarise your considered views on the Sutton
Trust’s claims.
The press release fom the Sutton Trust should be explicitly referred, especially in Parts 1, 5 and 6 aswell as the text book chapters enclosed
Press release
40% of children miss out on the parenting needed to succeed in
life
The Sutton Trust, 21 March 2014
Four in ten babies don’t develop the strong emotional bonds – what psychologists call
“secure attachment” – with their parents that are crucial to success later in life.
Disadvantaged children are more likely to face educational and behavioural problems when
they grow older as a result, new Sutton Trust research finds today.
The review of international studies of attachment, Baby Bonds, by Sophie Moullin
(Princeton University), Professor Jane Waldfogel (Colombia University and the London
School of Economics) and Dr Liz Washbrook (University of Bristol), finds infants aged
under three who do not form strong bonds with their mother or father are more likely to
suffer from aggression, defiance and hyperactivity when they get older.
The Trust is urging the government to do more through health visitors and Children’s
Centres, with their strong focus on improved outcomes for disadvantaged families, to
support parents with babies and toddlers.
About 60 per cent of children develop strong parental bonds. The 40 per cent who lack such
secure attachment are split into 25 per cent who avoid their parents when they are upset,
because they ignore their needs, and 15 per cent who resist their parents because they
cause them distress.
This is an issue for families from all social classes, but where families have multiple
problems up to two-thirds of children have weak parental attachment. The report finds that
boys’ behaviour is more affected than girls’ by early parenting.
The research finds that insecure attachment is associated with poorer language and
behaviour before school. The effect continues into later life, with insecure children more
likely to leave school without further education, employment or training. In one US study of
disadvantaged children, the quality of parent care and attachment in the first years was a
strong predictor of graduating from high school, alone predicting with 77% accuracy
whether children graduated or not. Neither IQ nor test scores improved upon this prediction.
The report also finds that securely attached children are more resilient to poverty, family
instability, parental stress and depression. Boys growing up in poverty are two and a half
times less likely to display behaviour problems at school if they formed secure attachments
with parents in their early years.
Where mothers have weak bonds with their babies, research suggests their children are
also more likely to be obese as they enter adolescence. Parents who were insecurely
attached themselves, are living in poverty or with poor mental health find it hardest to
provide sensitive parenting and bond with their babies.
Today’s report explains how sensitive and responsive parenting in the first years of life is
crucial to attachment. Simple, and often instinctive, actions such as holding a baby lovingly,
and responding to their needs, are key to the development of attachment. Equally important
might be acknowledging a baby’s unhappiness with facial expressions and then reassuring
them with warm, happy smiles and soothing tones.
Conor Ryan, Director of Research at the Sutton Trust said:
“Better bonding between parents and babies could lead to more social mobility, as there is
such a clear link to education, behaviour and future employment. The educational divide
emerges early in life, with a 19 month school readiness gap between the most and least
advantaged children by the age of five.
“This report clearly identifies the fundamental role secure attachment could have in
narrowing that school readiness gap and improving children’s life chances. More support
from health visitors, children’s centres and local authorities in helping parents improve how
they bond with young children could play a role in narrowing the education gap.”
Jane Waldfogel, Professor of Social Work and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a
visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said:
“Parents are an important influence on young children’s development and their chances in
life. Mothers and fathers influence development through the resources they invest in their
children, and the home learning environment they offer. But the emotional bonds they forge
with their children also matter. A secure bond or attachment to the parent helps the child
manage their behaviour and learn.
“Policy can promote secure attachment by reducing the broader risk factors that undermine
parents’ ability to care for their children. Targeted interventions can also be highly effective
in helping parents develop the behaviours that foster secure attachment. Supporting
families who are at risk for poor parenting ideally starts early – at birth or even before.”
The report recommends:
Children’s Centres focus more on parenting, especially for the under-threes.
Health visitors and other health services play a stronger role in supporting
attachment and parenting.
Local authorities and health services enhance home visiting and offer parenting
programmes for higher risk families with babies and toddlers, through the
government’s Early Intervention and Troubled Families agendas. Evidencedbased
programmes can cost as little as £500 per family, and generate savings to
public services later on.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Sutton Trust is a foundation set up in 1997, dedicated to improving social mobility
through education. It has published over 140 research studies and funded and evaluated
programmes that have helped hundreds of thousands of young people of all ages, from
early years through to access to the professions.
2. The report, Baby Bonds, by Sophie Moullin, Professor Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth
Washbrook is available on the Sutton Trust website here.
3. Attachment refers to the impact children’s early parent care has on their social and
emotional development. When a parent responds to a child in a warm, sensitive and
responsive way – such as picking up the child when they cry, and holding and reassuring
them – the child feels secure that their needs will be met. The infant, when distressed,
knows the parent will respond sensitively and so can safely express negative emotion, seek
proximity to the caregiver, and expect to feel better. This is what’s called a secure
attachment. There are two main types of insecure attachment. Avoidant attachment occurs
when parents consistently respond to their child’s distress in insensitive or ‘rejecting’ ways,
such as ignoring or becoming annoyed with them. Infants that regularly experience this
learn to minimise expressions of their negative emotions and needs, and avoid the parent
when distressed. Disorganised attachment results from inconsistent and unpredictable
parenting, responding harshly to a child’s distress or making it worse. Infants that
experience this struggle to manage their feelings, and so often develop behaviour
problems.
4. The statistic that 40% of children are insecurely attached is consistently found across
studies that use reliable measures of attachment, and have nationally representative
samples. Specifically, a major nationally representative US study of children born in 2001,
the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B), found 58% of children are securely
attached. This has a sample-size of 14,000 and could be seen as equivalent to the
Millennium Cohort Study. A review of studies across North America and Europe with a
combined sample size of over 2,000 found 62% of children are securely attached. The 40%
insecurely attached refers to a general population. In the ECLS-B study, 46% percent of
low-income toddlers had an insecure attachment, compared to 32% of higher income
toddlers.
5. A Sutton Trust Social Mobility Report in 2012 found a 19 month gap in school readiness
between the richest and poorest four and five year olds in the UK.
Another recent Sutton Trust report called for improvements in the quality of childcare
available to the poorest 20% of two year olds in order for them to gain developmental benefits.
6. The Parents Early Education Partnership (PEEP) in Oxford offers a ‘Reflective Parenting’
programme which works from pregnancy and focuses explicitly on developing attachment
and a parent’s ability to tune into their baby’s feelings and respond sensitively.
The programme begins in the third trimester of pregnancy with a home visit and group
sessions, which are followed by small group sessions soon after the baby is born. PEEP
has been supported by the Sutton Trust.
The Sutton Trust (2014) ‘40% of children miss out on the parenting needed to succeed in life’, The
Sutton Trust [Online]. Available at http://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive/40-children-miss-parenting-
needed-succeed-life-sutton-trust/ (Accessed 20 January 2015).
The press release fom the Sutton Trust should be explicitly referred, especially in Parts 1, 5 and 6 aswell as the text book chapters enclosed

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