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Separation Anxiety and Attachment in Infants and Toddlers Essay

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Introduction

Susie’s mother opened the door to let Molly, Susie’s babysitter, inside. Ten-month old Susie seemed happy to see Molly. Susie then observed her mother put her jacket on and Susie’s face turned from smiling to sad as she realized that her mother was going out. Molly had sat for Susie many times in the past month, and Susie had never reacted like this before. When Susie’s mother returned home, the sitter told her that Susie had cried until she knew that her mother had left and then they had a nice time playing with toys until she heard her mother’s key in the door. Then Susie began crying once again.

At a certain age infants begin to resist the unfamiliar and are very vocal in expressing their feelings (Brazelton, 1992). …show more content…

His study involved several young children who had not had maternal care as infants and seemed unable to connect emotionally with their adoptive parents. He remarked that these children appeared to be suffering from “primary affect hunger,” which Levy defined as not only a hunger for affection, but for all the emotions that come with interacting with a mother every day. He asked the question “Is it possible that there results a deficiency disease of the emotional life, comparable to a deficiency of vital nutritional elements within the developing organism?” (Karen, 1998, 17).

In the early days of child psychology, one of the current thoughts on the development of infants was the eugenics movement where it is believed that genes play the most important role in how a person will turn out. Arnold Gesell believed that a child’s environment has an influence on how he/she expresses him/herself, but that genetics is the main determinant of their behavior. Gesell also believes that human beings develop through many stages. Thus if your child is misbehaving, don’t worry he is “just going through a stage; he’ll outgrow it.” (Schuster, 1980, 19).

John B. Watson’s behaviorism theory states that children are “products of their environment, pieces of clay” and children are shaped by their parents and society. In his 1928 book on raising children,

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